Huntington Ingalls Industries’ (HII) Board of Directors has elected Kari Wilkinson, Ingalls’ vice president, program management, to serve as executive vice president of HII and president of the Shipbuilding division, effective April 1st. She will succeed Brian Cuccias, who will retire in April. Wilkinson will report to HII executive vice president and chief operating officer Chris Kastner. 

Thomas Wingfield, former deputy assistant secretary of defense for cyber policy in the Trump administration, said that the Department of Defense (DoD) should work to align cyberspace and emerging operations within the larger information environment. “If cyber as a domain is in its adolescence, then information is surely in its infancy,” Wingfield said. 

Colin Kahl, the Biden administration’s nominee to serve as the Department of Defense’s (DoD) undersecretary for policy, said that he would drive network resiliency to combat the increase in cyberattacks during his confirmation hearing. Kahl added that DoD has to be able to quickly repair and harden vulnerabilities in its networks. 

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) System-of-systems Technology Integration Tool Chain for Heterogeneous Electronic Systems (STITCHES) program has been developed to create networks via self-writing software to deliver broad support to the military services. “We are getting tremendous pull and demand for it,” Tim Grayson, director of the Strategic Technology Office at DARPA said. 

The McCain Institute for International Leadership at Arizona State University has named Dr. Mark Esper, former Secretary of Defense and three-time Wash100 Award recipient, as its inaugural John S. McCain Distinguished Fellow to lead a bipartisan team to assess, discuss and promote policy solutions to the challenges facing U.S. national security decision-makers in the Executive Branch and Congress.

AECOM-Graham Construction joint venture (JV) has completed the design-build work on the first wastewater treatment plant in Victoria, British Columbia, AECOM reported on Thursday. The McLoughlin Point Wastewater Treatment Plant will deliver tertiary treatment for wastewater from the core area municipalities. “We’re honored to support the Capital Regional District,” said Marc Devlin.

The U.S. Air Force’s Space Command has issued a request for information (RFI) for space 5G to improve data transportation for ground and space-based communications. With the space-based transport layers of the next-generation network, the military has the potential to expand its ability to move data, communicate and support enterprise networks with more bandwidth. 

The United States Geospatial Intelligence Foundation (USGIF) has elected Robert Cardillo, president of The Cardillo Group and four-time Wash100 Award recipient, to serve as chair of the USGIF Board of Directors. The Cardillo Group delivers strategic and operational expertise to drive awareness and enable improved decision-making. Earlier this year, Cardillo, as well as Deborah Lee James, was also appointed to Firefly Aerospace’s Board of Directors.

AVIAN has appointed Pete Sarrat, the company’s vice president for Federal Solutions, as chief growth officer. " It brings me great joy to transfer the growth strategy hat to Pete, who I know will take AVIAN to the next level and beyond,” said Kevin Switick, chief executive officer at AVIAN. "The opportunities available for AVIAN's growth are limitless," Sarrat said. 

Lt. Gen. Dennis Crall, chief information officer (CIO) of the Joint Staff and 2021 Wash100 Award recipient, recently addressed how the military’s future network-of-networks operational construct, Joint All Domain Command and Control (JADC2), can increase innovation and agility by leveraging big data. “Everything we do from this point forward, it really is all about the data,” he said.