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Comcast Government Services Secures Two DISA CEG Contracts; Ken Folderauer Quoted
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Comcast Government Services Secures Two DISA CEG Contracts; Ken Folderauer Quoted

Comcast Business announced on Tuesday that Comcast Government Services has secured two additional multimillion-dollar contracts by the Defense Information Systems Agency. The contracts cover DISA’s commercial ethernet gateway (CEG) Region 4 and Region 5 and are potentially worth $84.2 million and $71.6 million up to ten years, respectively.

The contracts are a part of the DISA’s efforts to replace legacy circuits across the country with ethernet-based services that improve network performance and reduce total telecommunications costs.

“DISA’s commercial ethernet gateway initiative is an important step in improving the Department of Defense’s communication with mission partners while furthering its vision to be the trusted provider to connect and protect the warfighter in cyberspace,” commented Ken Folderauer, Comcast Business vice president of Government Sales.

“We are proud to play our part in helping DISA realize its vision by expanding this partnership across four of its seven regions,” added Folderauer.

The contracts require Comcast Government Services to assist DISA in establishing commercial ethernet gateways by delivering ethernet virtual private line (EVPL) service. The company’s EVPL service helps strengthen application performance across a network with a private, point-to-multipoint network design between multiple locations.

The EVPL offers performance enhancements compared to legacy wide area networks (WAN) technologies such as T1 lines, frame relay, asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) and private lines.

Comcast has now landed four of the seven CEG regions totaling more than $267 million. The Company won Region 1 in March 2020 and CEG Region 3 in June 2021.

DISA is responsible for operating and assuring information-sharing capabilities, command and control solutions and a global enterprise infrastructure supporting the Department of Defense and national-level leadership, such as the president, vice president and secretary of defense.

The Agency is currently working on a multi-phase initiative to replace 17,000 point-to-point public switched telephone (PSTN) circuits with Ethernet-based services across the country that enhance connectivity, improve network performance and reduce total telecommunications costs.

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USAF Squadron Licenses Software Vulnerability Detection Code to 2 Companies; Rebecca Lively Quoted
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USAF Squadron Licenses Software Vulnerability Detection Code to 2 Companies; Rebecca Lively Quoted

The U.S. Air Force's 90th Cyberspace Operations Squadron agreed to license a source code for malicious file detection and form a collaborative research partnership with two unnamed companies to further develop the tool, C4ISRNET reported Tuesday.

Ccooperative research and development agreements signed by the military branch will allow industry partners to update and commercialize Whiddler software, which 90 COS personnel created to determine the probability of a signature-less file being a malicious item.

“Through that cooperative agreement, we are able to reap the benefits of those improvements at no cost to the government or at least to now cost to our unit," Rebecca Lively, deputy director of the 90 COS, was quoted as saying by C4ISRNET.

Eric Rosenberg, chief of cyber intellectual property law at the Air Force's 67th Cyberspace Wing, told the publication that the branch could help the private sector guard businesses and consumers against cyber threats via the technology transfer process.

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Executive Order Calls for Agencies to Implement Pro-Competitive Regulations to Procurement, Spending
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Executive Order Calls for Agencies to Implement Pro-Competitive Regulations to Procurement, Spending

President Joe Biden signed Friday an executive order that directs federal agencies to adopt pro-competitive approaches and regulations to spending and procurement and revoke “regulations that create unnecessary barriers to entry” to address monopolization, overconcentration and unfair competition in the U.S. economy, Government Executive reported Monday.

Under the executive order, the secretary of the Department of Defense should submit to the chair of the newly created White House Competition Council a report on the state of competition in the defense industrial base and propose recommendations on how to improve the solicitation process in accordance with the Competition in Contracting Act of 1984.

The DOD secretary should come up within 180 days a plan to avoid contract terms in procurement agreements that make it difficult for DOD and service personnel to repair their own equipment in the field.

The assistant to the president for economic policy and director of the National Economic Council will lead the White House Competition Council. The secretaries of the departments of the Treasury, Defense, Agriculture, Health and Human Services, Commerce, Agriculture, Labor and Transportation, attorney general and the office of information and regulatory affairs’ administrator will serve as the council’s members.

The order also includes specific policy and regulatory considerations for the heads of the Federal Communications Commission, Federal Trade Commission, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Federal Maritime Commission and the Surface Transportation Board.

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MDA Seeks to Demonstrate Enemy Missile Tracking Capabilities via 2 CubeSats; Walt Chai Quoted
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MDA Seeks to Demonstrate Enemy Missile Tracking Capabilities via 2 CubeSats; Walt Chai Quoted

The Missile Defense Agency launched two nanosatellites aboard Virgin Orbit’s LauncherOne rocket in late June as part of its CubeSat Networked Communications Experiment Block 1 mission, DOD News reported Monday.

MDA will perform a 90-day demonstration with an option to extend that to up to a year as part of the Nanosat Testbed Initiative aimed at ensuring that the two CubeSats can transmit and receive signals to networks and radios.

"These satellites will test key technologies that mitigate risk for systems, such as the Hypersonic and Ballistic Tracking Space Sensor," said Walt Chai, director for space sensors at MDA. 

“The CNCE Block 1 mission will demonstrate the viability of advanced communications technologies using reduced size, weight and power in support of missile defense communications architectures,” Chai added.

MDA is building the Hypersonic and Ballistic Tracking Space Sensor payload that could help warfighters detect and track ballistic and hypersonic missile threats once fielded on satellites in low-Earth orbit. 

"The missile defense architecture will require communications between interceptors, sensors and command and control systems to quickly identify, track and destroy incoming enemy missiles before they reach their targets. The CubeSats will allow the agency to demonstrate the capabilities quickly and affordably," Chai said.

Space Acquisition Forum

If you’re interested in the U.S. military’s space technology procurement efforts, then check out the GovCon Wire’s Space Acquisition Forum coming up on Sept. 14. To register for this virtual forum and view other upcoming events, visit the GCW Events page.

NASA Appoints Stephen Koerner as Johnson Space Center’s Deputy Director
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NASA Appoints Stephen Koerner as Johnson Space Center’s Deputy Director

Stephen Koerner, former director of Flight Operations Directorate at NASA's Johnson Space Center, was tapped to serve as the research institute's deputy director and help oversee human spaceflight activities at the space agency's Houston, Texas installation.

NASA said Monday Koerner will be responsible for assisting JSC Director Vanessa Wyche in managing the center, which houses the U.S. astronaut corps, Mission Control Center, International Space Station, Orion and Gateway programs and over 10,000 civil service and contractor employees.

"Steve's fingerprints on human spaceflight go back almost three decades, and his experience and knowledge base make him a natural choice for the position," Wyche noted.

Koerner joined the center in 1992. Since then, he has held several senior executive roles at JSC, including as deputy director of flight and mission operations, chief financial officer and associate director.

In his most recent role, Koerner led efforts in planning, training and launching human space flight and aviation missions. As Flight Operations Directorate lead, he also supervised the Astronaut Office, the Flight Director Office, the Mission Control Center, human spaceflight training facilities and JSC’s Aviation Operations Division.

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Senate Unanimously Approves Jen Easterly as CISA Director; DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas Quoted
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Senate Unanimously Approves Jen Easterly as CISA Director; DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas Quoted

Jen Easterly, President Joe Biden's nominee for the director position at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), was confirmed in a unanimous Senate vote Monday.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, a 2021 Wash100 Award winner, described Easterly as a cybersecurity professional with military, civil service and industry experience and noted that they will work together in efforts to address urgent cyber and physical threats to critical U.S. infrastructure.

Easterly, the second Senate-confirmed director of CISA since the agency was formed in 2018, has led Morgan Stanley's Fusion Resilience Center since January 2020 and established the financial services company's Cybersecurity Fusion Center when she came to the firm in 2017.

She held a two-decade career at the U.S. Army, where she stood up the military branch's first cyber battalion, and served at the National Security Agency (NSA) as deputy for counterterrorism.

CNN reports Easterly will take the helm at CISA amid the series of growing cybersecurity and ransomware attacks plaguing national security and targeting vital industries such as food, gas and transportation.

In December 2020, federal agencies, including the Departments of Commerce, Energy and Homeland Security, experienced data breaches after a cyberattack on the SolarWinds’ Orion Network Management products. 

On May 7th, a ransomware incident affected the refined gas delivery operations of Colonial Pipeline and led to fuel shortages at airports and gas stations on the East Coast.

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CISA Rolls Out Three Mobile Security Tools; Vincent Sritapan Quoted
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CISA Rolls Out Three Mobile Security Tools; Vincent Sritapan Quoted

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency‘s (CISA) shared services program is launching three tools designed to bolster the security of government-issued smartphones and other mobile devices, Federal News Network reported Monday.

Vincent Sritapan, who leads new services innovation in CISA’s Cybersecurity Quality Services Management Office (QSMO), said their latest tools include shared services for mobile application vetting (MAV).

The MAV service would support security assessments on government-made mobile applications. CISA selected Kryptowire to develop the MAV service under a phase III Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contract.

The Cyber QSMO’s latest offerings also include a mobile traffic-focused protective domain name system capability and shared services for device security. Sritapan has been with the Department of Homeland Security for about a decade.

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Maxar’s Lunar Gateway PPE Passes First Design Review; Chris Johnson Quoted
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Maxar’s Lunar Gateway PPE Passes First Design Review; Chris Johnson Quoted

Maxar Technologies announced on Monday that the company's Power and Propulsion Element (PPE) it is developing for NASA’s Lunar Gateway has passed its first Preliminary Design Review (PDR) and remains on track for launch in 2024.

“Clearing this development milestone for PPE is a significant accomplishment,” commented Chris Johnson, Maxar’s senior vice president of Space Program Delivery.

“PPE is one of several NASA programs built on Maxar’s trusted 1300-class spacecraft platform, which leverages decades of our commercial design, manufacturing and operations expertise. At Maxar, our team is agile, and our spacecraft are versatile. The progress we have made on PPE is further evidence that we are prepared to meet a broad range of civil, commercial and national security mission needs,” added Johnson. 

Maxar’s PPE passing PDR-1 means the company plans to finalize the PPE system-level design over the next year, culminating in the Critical Design Review in May 2022. The next review, which will occur during the Fall, will verify that the evolved PPE design meets mission requirements and is cleared for final design review and fabrication. 

During the review period, Maxar will continue to take deliveries of flight hardware units based on the company’s 1300-class spacecraft platform.

The PPE is the foundational element of the Lunar Gateway as it provides power, maneuvering, attitude control and communications systems for the lunar orbiting outpost. The Gateway itself is the cornerstone of NASA’s Artemis program, which intends to land the first woman and person of color on the Moon and support future Mars missions. 

NASA introduced new requirements in 2020, including integrating the PPE with Northrop Grumman’s Habitation and Logistics Outpost (HALO) on the ground to facilitate the launch of both modules together on a single SpaceX Falcon Heavy launch vehicle.

The new requirements reduced Gateway’s risk profile and increased its cost-effectiveness, necessitating the need for a second PDR that reflects the evolved program design.

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NNSA Explores Use of Non-Conventional AI for Nuclear Nonproliferation; Angela Sheffield Quoted
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NNSA Explores Use of Non-Conventional AI for Nuclear Nonproliferation; Angela Sheffield Quoted

The Department of Energy's (DOE) National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) is applying domain-aware artificial intelligence to prevent the spread of dangerous nuclear weapons. 

NNSA's office dedicated to research and development is investing in efforts that incorporate non-conventional AI into nuclear detection, DOE said Friday.

“The U.S. government recognizes the potential of AI to impact security, welfare and even global leadership," said Angela Sheffield, a senior program manager at NNSA.

The office sponsored a workshop earlier this year to tackle domain-aware methods, which augment AI models with domain-related information. The workshop is the second entry in a series known as “Next-Generation AI for Proliferation Detection."

Sheffield said domain-aware methods use multiple sources of data and address the limitations of conventional AI models.

“Domain-aware methods combine modeled predictions and data from multiple sources to make clever use of everything we know and what data we have," she said.

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NGA Adopts Bailment Agreements, Plans to Use More This Fiscal Year; Dave Gauthier Quoted
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NGA Adopts Bailment Agreements, Plans to Use More This Fiscal Year; Dave Gauthier Quoted

The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) has adopted the use of bailment agreements to legally reduce the costs of satellite technology testing. Bailment agreements provide NGA temporary possession of commercial technology, allowing the agency to conduct tests on satellite systems without additional costs.

NGA began using bailment agreements in fiscal year 2019 with three entries, then issued five agreements in fiscal 2020. This led to one of the involved companies winning a prime contract for a service NGA has been using for two years.

“More companies are approaching us and asking to be part of this program, and we’re trying to scale up as we go," said Dave Gauthier, NGA's director of commercial and business operations, who also chairs the intelligence community’s Commercial Space Council.

Gauthier said the NGA wants to issue up to 20 bailment agreements in fiscal year 2021.

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