As budgets continue to decline, the Defense Department’s acquisition community is just starting to understand the value of embedded cyber systems, said Northrop Grumman officials during a panel discussion on Tuesday in Washington, D.C. “This is one of those ideas that the acquisition community is just coming to terms with now,” said Mike Papay, chief information security officer at Northrop Grumman Information Systems. He added, “It’s a tough transition of building that capability. . . . A lot of people want to focus on the capabilities of the system and not necessarily on security.” Northrop Grumman is already working with the Air Force on a number of embedded systems, including the AN/APG-81 radar for the F-35 strike fighter, said the officials. “We are working with the US Air Force on next-generation radar, electronic warfare, communications [point-to-point and satellite comms], and secure and open signal processors that have to work in this complex future electromagnetic and cyber environment,” said Pat Antkowiak, general manager of the company’s electronic systems sector. In addition, the company is working with the Air Force Research Lab on software designed for Global Positioning System satellites and their navigation sensors, said Antkowiak.
Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III chaired a China-focused military briefing Oct. 27, part of a biweekly series of briefings with senior military commanders about China’s growing threat in the wake of an orbital hypersonic weapon test that elicited public worries from the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. “What we…