Rear Adm. Bill Houston, director of the undersea warfare requirements office at the U.S. Navy, said the service’s next-generation attack submarine called SSN(X) will be the “ultimate apex predator for the maritime domain,” Breaking Defense reported Wednesday.

Houston said the new boat will feature the acoustics and sensors of the Virginia-class submarine, the Columbia-class submarine's service life and operational availability and the Seawolf-class submarine's speed and payload.

“We’re confident that we’re going to be able to do that because we’ve already built that on those previous platforms, we know how to do that. We just have to mesh it together with one platform,” he added.

Houston said the military branch and industry are close to completing design work on Columbia and intend to tap the same team to work on SSN(X).

“We’re going to time it such that when Columbia is ramping down in production, we’ll be ramping up in SSN(X) because we’ll have the design and the RDT&E done,” he said. 

“It takes a significant amount of time and effort for that RDT&E to develop this apex predator, but that’s what we’re going to do over the next decade as we’re working on the systems for SSN(X),” Houston added.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology has released guidance that outlines a four-pronged strategy to protect the data organizations share with other parties via different channels for information exchange.

NIST said Tuesday that the “Managing the Security of Information Exchanges” guide offers sample agreement templates and recommends several measures to secure shared data.

The four phases described in the Special Publication (SP) 800-47 Revision 1, which aligns with the Office of Management and Budget Circular A-130, encompasses planning, establishing, maintaining and discounting the information exchange. 

“In order to protect the confidentiality, integrity and availability of the information commensurate with risk, the information being exchanged requires protection at the same or similar levels as it moves from one organization to another,” the agency noted.

The document deviated from the technology-based information access and instead focused on imparting a redeveloped scope of information exchange and tackling the potential security risks in conducting data-sharing activity.

Jacobs announced on Wednesday its PlanBeyondSM 2.0, a global sustainability business approach. The plan is a company-wide foundation for sustainability through its operations and it is in accord with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

"As a purpose-led company, we recognize that our biggest opportunity to positively address climate change and societal inequalities comes from the solutions we provide our clients from the world's largest infrastructure projects to mission-critical outcomes and sustainable design," commented Steve Demetriou, Jacobs chair and CEO

"We consider it not only good business, but our obligation to channel our expansive capabilities in resilient infrastructure, regenerative design, clean water, green energy and social value toward benefitting people and the planet, while continuing to outperform and drive superior stakeholder value,” added Demetriou. 

The company recognizes that all 17 SDGs must be worked on together and not one at a time. As such Jacobs identified six core SDGs through stakeholder engagement and a robust materiality assessment. These SDGs have been translated into actionable sustainable business objectives.

The objectives include advancing the health and wellbeing of society, delivering solutions for the global water and sanitation crisis, fostering a culture of technology and innovation important to the advancement of society, creating a fair and inclusive future for all. 

Additionally, the company aims to develop efficient and resilient solutions that deliver net environmental and societal gain and accelerate solutions that address the climate emergency. 

Those objectives lie at the core of the company strategy and define Jacob’s responsibilities for how the organization and its stakeholders in creating sustainable communities.  

Jacobs is also educating its employees across all disciplines with training courses and project tools that promote sustainability plans and targets, as well as climate risk and resilience practices, In an attempt to ensure all client solutions across its global markets are designed to support a sustainable and robust future.

Lisa Porter, who formerly served as the deputy undersecretary of defense for research and engineering, said the U.S. government should contribute to international microelectronics standards rather than solely rely on the limited, domestic supply chain, Nextgov reported Tuesday.

Porter said at a hearing with the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence that the government should not limit its supply chain to onshore resources as this approach creates a false sense of security.

She said relying purely on U.S.-made microelectronics is not feasible and establishes a false notion that onshoring equates to security. The approach would also limit the government's access to the most modern chips, she noted.

The former defense executive suggested that the country should instead apply the zero-trust cybersecurity approach to microelectronics while not barring the supply chain from global suppliers.

Adm. Michael Gilday, chief of naval operations, said he believes the proposed budget for fiscal year 2022 supports the U.S. Navy’s plans for its future fleet design, Defense News reported Tuesday.

The Navy conducted the Future Naval Force Study in 2020 and Gilday said the analysis enabled the service and the U.S. Marine Corps to get a clear view of the assets they should deploy to deter a future fight.

“The analysis really gave us a sense, beyond the numbers, what the composition of the fleet needs to be in order to effectively deter and fight, and that really comes down to joint capabilities that the Navy would contribute to a joint fight,” he said.

Although the law requires the Navy to achieve a fleet of 355 ships, Gilday said the service can afford approximately 300 ships given its current budget.

“So that includes the manning, the training, the equipping, the supply parts, the ammunition, the training days, the flying hours, all of that that yields a fleet that’s ready to go to sea today and deter a China, deter a Russia from any malign activity,” he added.

Gilday noted that the proposed budget compelled him to prioritize readiness and training over increased capacity and modernization to deploy new capabilities.

He said the Navy expects the delivery of Block III and IV Virginia-class attack submarines by 2025. Other fleet improvements Gilday expects to see in the short term are the availability of Flight III Arleigh Burke-class destroyers and a Zumwalt-class destroyer equipped with a hypersonic weapon.

The Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) has released updated resources and conversion tools meant to help vendors and other stakeholders advance the digitization of FedRAMP authorization packages for commercial cloud services using a common machine-readable language. 

The move came a month after FedRAMP and the National Institute of Standards and Technology released Version 1.0.0 of the Open Security Controls Assessment Language (OSCAL) that seeks to expedite the preparation, authorization and reuse of cloud offerings for the government sector, according to a blog post published Tuesday.

The revised resources are available on the FedRAMP Automation GitHub Repository and include updated guides to OSCAL-based system security plans, security assessment reports and plans, and plan of action and milestones.

“OSCAL is not currently a requirement, but we expect the benefits to spur adoption and FedRAMP is ready to start receiving information in OSCAL as a pilot,” the post reads.

FedRAMP is also requesting comments on the machine-readable formats and guidance.

Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., has introduced a bill that would establish an independent agency focused on technology within the executive branch and increase U.S. government funding for tech-related research and development efforts to 1 percent of the country’s gross domestic product, Nextgov reported Tuesday.

The proposed measure would create the Federal Institute of Technology (FIT) and under this independent agency, up to 30 “local boards” would be formed in areas lacking major tech centers, according to a copy of the bill obtained by the publication.

FIT would help distribute funds across federal, local and state agencies to advance research into artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, telecommunications, blockchain, biotechnology and other tech areas.

“Various agencies focus on these topics tangentially but this new agency would have the sole focus on promoting emerging technologies, innovation jobs and research funding,” Khanna told the publication in an email.

Other provisions of the bill are tax incentives for organizations that hire through FIT programs and support for educational programs aimed at advancing science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

Reps. Suzan DelBene, D-Wash., Nanette Diaz Barragan, D-Calif., and Dwight Evans, D-Pa., co-sponsored the proposed legislation.