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Air Force Squadron Undergoes Rescue Training for Commercial Spaceflight Missions
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Air Force Squadron Undergoes Rescue Training for Commercial Spaceflight Missions

The U.S. Air Force conducted a five-day training of 38th Rescue Squadron members to prepare them for potential urgent response operations in support of Boeing and SpaceX missions under NASA's Commercial Crew Program.

The 38th RSQ Blue Team learned how to land in the ocean with water gear and familiarize themselves with different boat packages that will carry materials necessary to perform emergency response work if astronauts need to be extracted from space capsules in the Atlantic or the Pacific Ocean, USAF said Monday.

Crewed space vehicles are designed to separate from rockets if a malfunction transpired after liftoff, and the goal of the squadron is to act as the on-site rescue team for the astronauts in the event of a launch failure.

USAF noted that routinary exercises will help increase the crew men's proficiency level and consequently give security to spacecraft crew members as they perform off-the-coast launches.

SpaceX aims to launch the company's third crewed operational flight of its Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station on Oct. 31st.

Boeing postponed a second uncrewed flight demonstration that was scheduled for Aug. 3rd in order to fix issues with its Starliner spacecraft's propulsion system.

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Johns Hopkins APL Receives Task Order to Support Space Systems Command Program
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Johns Hopkins APL Receives Task Order to Support Space Systems Command Program

The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (JHU APL) will help Space Systems Command understand space, air and surface domain events under a $26.75 million task order.

APL's program technical direction agents will perform work for the command at Los Angeles Air Force Base and explore approaches to safeguard U.S. space systems, the Department of Defense said Monday.

The task order is part of an indefinite-quantity/indefinite-delivery contract the Space and Missile Systems Center awarded in 2018. The original sole-source IDIQ award had a $93 million ceiling and covers systems engineering, specialized research and development and technical support services.

In December 2020, the center raised the potential value of APL's contract to $486 million through the award of a bilateral modification.

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US, South Korea Formalize Space Security Partnership
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US, South Korea Formalize Space Security Partnership

The U.S. Space Force entered into a memorandum of agreement with the South Korean air force to strengthen the two countries’ space security cooperation and create a joint space policy consultative body, SpaceNews reported Monday. 

Gen. Park In-ho, chief of staff for South Korea's air force, and Gen. John “Jay” Raymond, USSF's chief of space operations and a 2021 Wash100 Award recipient, signed the agreement at a bilateral meeting that took place Friday at Peterson AF Base in Colorado.

Under the MOA, the two agencies established a foundation to further improve military cooperation in space policy, space data sharing and technological support.

Park also met with Gen. James Dickinson, commander of the U.S. Space Command, to discuss missile defense and space capabilities and space surveillance data sharing for the expansion of bilateral space domain recognition.

The South Korean defense acquisition program administration released a roadmap on Aug. 19 indicating the country's plan invest $13.6 billion in space defense efforts.

This comes after the United States terminated in May the 42-year-old restriction imposed on South Korea to develop ballistic missiles that can go beyond the reaching targets at the Korean Peninsula.

US, South Korea Formalize Space Security Partnership

GovCon Wire, sister site of ExecutiveGov, will host a virtual event on Sept. 14 about acquisition reform and modernization initiatives in the space domain. Visit the GCW Events page to register for the Space Acquisition Forum.

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John Porcari Named Port Envoy to White House’s Supply Chain Disruptions Task Force
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John Porcari Named Port Envoy to White House’s Supply Chain Disruptions Task Force

John Porcari, former deputy secretary and chief operating officer at the U.S. Department of Transportation, has been appointed as port envoy to a task force formed by the White House to help the government address domestic supply chain challenges to economic recovery.

He will be part of the Supply Chain Disruptions Task Force and will coordinate with stakeholders to tackle shipping backlogs caused by congestion at U.S. ports, DOT said Friday.

Porcari worked at DOT from 2009 to 2013 after his prior role as secretary of Maryland's Transportation Department. His private sector career included leadership roles at WSP USA, Axilion and 3P Enterprises.

The White House formed the task force group in June to address demand-supply mismatch in different sectors such as construction, semiconductor, transportation and agricultural industries.

DOT leaders and trade organizations have engaged in discussions to identify possible strategies for addressing cargo movement challenges and bolstering data-sharing efforts.

The Federal Railroad Administration pledged $362 million for congestion reduction projects via the Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements Grant Program.

Additionally, the Biden administration aims to raise as much as $17 billion for port infrastructure modernization work.

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Federal Acquisition Security Council Issues Final Rule on Supply Chain Risk Info Sharing
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Federal Acquisition Security Council Issues Final Rule on Supply Chain Risk Info Sharing

The Federal Acquisition Security Council (FASC) has released a final rule to facilitate the sharing of information on supply chain risks and exercise its authority to recommend issuance of orders requiring the removal of IT products and services from executive agency information systems or exclusion of covered articles from future procurements.

FASC in an interagency council that was formed in compliance with the Federal Acquisition Supply Chain Security Act of 2018 to help address vulnerabilities in information and communications technology and services supply chains, according to a Federal Register notice posted Thursday.

The council is chaired by a senior-level Office of Management and Budget (OMB) official and consists of representatives from the General Services Administration, Office of the Director of National Intelligence and departments of Homeland Security, Justice, Defense and Commerce.

DHS, acting through the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), will serve as the council’s information-sharing agency, which will standardize processes for submitting and distributing supply chain data and facilitate the operations of a supply chain risk management task force.

The rule also outlines processes how federal and nonfederal entities can submit supply chain risk data to the FASC and how the ISA can facilitate information sharing in support of supply chain risk analyses.

The final rule is set to take effect Sept. 27th.

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Noblis MSD Awarded $72M IDIQ Navy Contract to Enhance the Operability of Naval Surface Ships; Glenn Hickok Quoted
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Noblis MSD Awarded $72M IDIQ Navy Contract to Enhance the Operability of Naval Surface Ships; Glenn Hickok Quoted

Noblis MSD, a subsidiary of Noblis, has been awarded a potential five-year, $72 million indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity (IDIQ), multi-award contract from the Naval Surface Warfare Center Philadelphia Division to enhance the operability of naval surface ships through system modernization and sustainment.

"The Noblis MSD team has a long-standing relationship with the Navy and unique experience with this program," said Glenn Hickok, president of Noblis MSD. "We look forward to building on this experience to help the Navy achieve critical modernization and security goals."

Under the NSWC IDIQ contract, Noblis MSD will compete for task orders to deliver engineering, logistics, cyber security and waterfront training to help enhance ship operability. This work will be performed in Philadelphia and at various Naval ports.

As a system developer through lifecycle maintenance, Noblis MSD provides engineering, enterprise transformation and program management, to help clients design solutions for operations and maintenance.

"I'm especially excited about this contract," said Eric Schneider, director, Navy Strategy, Noblis MSD. "It's an opportunity to fully combine Noblis MSD's deep mission and system knowledge with Noblis' world-class Cyber, Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence solutions to further advance this mission."

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PAE Receives Counterdrug Surveillance Systems Task Order on DOD Counternarcotics and Global Threats Contract; PAE Interim CEO Charlie Peiffer Quoted
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PAE Receives Counterdrug Surveillance Systems Task Order on DOD Counternarcotics and Global Threats Contract; PAE Interim CEO Charlie Peiffer Quoted

PAE announced on Monday that the company has been awarded a four-year, $28 million Counterdrug Surveillance Systems task order for the Department of Defense (DOD) on its Counternarcotics and Global Threats contract.

“We look forward to expanding our support for Department of Defense national security initiatives as we apply our wide-ranging capabilities to technologies combating drug trafficking operations,” said Charlie Peiffer, interim president and CEO of PAE. 

PAE’s Infrastructure and Logistics team will maintain radar systems throughout South and Central America, supporting DOD in its role as the lead agency for disrupting illicit drug trafficking activity threatening U.S. national security.

Peiffer commented that PAE has the specialized expertise needed to support these systems to meet the program’s mission objectives with this new work.

About PAE 

For more than 65 years, PAE has tackled the world’s toughest challenges to deliver agile and steadfast solutions to the U.S. government and host government partners. 

With a global workforce of about 20,000 on all seven continents and in approximately 60 countries, PAE delivers a broad range of operational support services to meet the critical needs of our clients.

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Peraton, AFRL Launch X-ARBITOR Cross-Domain Platform
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Peraton, AFRL Launch X-ARBITOR Cross-Domain Platform

A cross-domain platform developed by Peraton and the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) has been added to a baseline list by a National Security Agency (NSA) office following its completion of the lab based security assessment.

The company said Wednesday the X-domain Agile Rules-Based Information Transfer OrchestratoR is on NSA's National Cross Domain Strategy and Management Office (NCDSMO) Baseline List for Top Secret/SCI and Below Information and Secret and Below Information.

X-ARBITOR is designed to help deploy cross domain data inspection, sanitization and transfer capabilities that are NSA Raise-the-Bar compliant. It is capable of transferring both structured and unstructured data between different domains simultaneously.

Dave Gray, Cross Domain Solutions program manager at Peraton, said X-ARBITOR is meant to support various data types and several deployment scenarios.

Peraton and AFRL are working together to advance cross domain technologies.

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Gen. Anthony Cotton Assumes Air Force Global Strike Command Leadership
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Gen. Anthony Cotton Assumes Air Force Global Strike Command Leadership

Gen. Anthony Cotton has assumed leadership of Air Force Global Strike Command, becoming the sixth commander and first African American to lead the major command responsible for providing strike, combat and strategic deterrence support to U.S. geographic combatant commands.

He officially succeeded Gen. Timothy Ray as commander of AFGSC  at a ceremony held at Barksdale AF Base in Louisiana, the command said Friday.

In his new capacity, Cotton will oversee the intercontinental ballistic missiles and strategic bombers force that includes the nuclear triad’s land-based component, Minuteman III ICBMs, being maintained by three missile wings and one Numbered Air Force daily. 

He will also manage the nuclear-capable B-52H Stratofortress and B-2 Spirit, and the conventional-only B-1B Lancer, which altogether makes up the triad’s air-based leg. 

In his first address as the commander, Cotton underscored the need to modernize the AFGSC nuclear portfolio, adopt new technologies and ensure the force’s sustainability. 

“We need to innovate and collaborate. Not just with military industry and government but also with community partners to discuss quality of life, safety, education and social issues,” he said. 

Cotton most recently served as deputy commander of both the AFGSC and Air Forces Strategic-Air at U.S. Strategic Command.

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OMB Creates Maturity Framework for Event Log Management
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OMB Creates Maturity Framework for Event Log Management

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has released a memorandum that establishes a maturity model for event log management as part of efforts to improve the federal government’s capabilities to remediate and investigate cyber incidents in accordance with the cybersecurity executive order issued in May.

The maturity level is composed of four Event Logging tiers meant to help agencies prioritize resources and efforts in order to “achieve full compliance with requirements for implementation, log categories, and centralized access,” OMB said in the Friday memo.

Agencies should evaluate their maturity against the model and identify implementation gaps within 60 days, achieve Event Logging tier 1 maturity within a year, reach EL2 maturity within 18 months and EL3 maturity within two years of the memo’s release date.

The memo also requires agencies to share relevant logs to the FBI, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and other federal agencies to address cyberthreats.

The document outlines the specialized responsibilities of the CISA and Department of Commerce as part of efforts to enhance the use and management of logging practices.

CISA, for instance, will oversee the deployment of teams to advise agencies when it comes to assessing logging capabilities and development of tools to facilitate review of logging maturity across the organization.

Supply Chain Cybersecurity: Revelations and Innovations

ExecutiveBiz, sister site of GovConDaily and part of the Executive Mosaic digital media umbrella, will host a virtual event about securing the supply chain on Oct. 26. Visit ExecutiveBiz.com to sign up for the “Supply Chain Cybersecurity: Revelations and Innovations” event.

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