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Carnegie Mellon-Operated FFRDC Offers Software Engineering Roadmap
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Carnegie Mellon-Operated FFRDC Offers Software Engineering Roadmap

A federally funded research and development center at Carnegie Mellon University has released a multiyear roadmap for architecting future software-based systems.

The CMU Software Engineering Institute sought input from an advisory group composed of government, industry and academic representatives to produce the document, titled “Architecting the Future of Software Engineering: A National Agenda for Software Engineering Research & Development.”

Department of Defense-sponsored SEI outlined how future software systems can be developed, analyzed and deployed and what relevant projects can contribute to addressing emerging challenges.

The document is intended to also help engineers ensure the safety, predictability and evolution of software platforms.

“Our hardware has become increasingly programmable, and software has become ubiquitous. Therefore, software engineering is a critical enabler for everything that we do in the DoD,” said Heidi Shyu, undersecretary of defense for research and engineering and a previous Wash100 awardee, wrote in her foreword to the study.

Shyu added that the document will serve as a guide for the department’s research and investment strategy necessary to protect national security.

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NASA Gets Ready to Launch DART Planetary Defense Test in Late November; Lindley Johnson Quoted
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NASA Gets Ready to Launch DART Planetary Defense Test in Late November; Lindley Johnson Quoted

NASA is making final preparations to launch its first planetary defense test mission, which will attempt to kinetically impact the small moonlet asteroid named Dimorphos.

The space agency said Friday that its Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission will launch on Nov. 27 to autonomously target then strike Dimorphos, which orbits the larger Didymos asteroid.

The mission will attempt to slightly change Dimorphos’ orbit, and only serves as a test as neither asteroid poses a threat to planet Earth.

“DART will be the first demonstration of the ‘kinetic impactor’ technique in which a spacecraft deliberately collides with a known asteroid at high speed to change the asteroid’s motion in space,” said Lindley Johnson, planetary defense officer at NASA.

Johnson said the test can help planetary defense experts refine computer models for asteroid kinetic impactors and provide insight into how humans can deflect objects that potentially threaten Earth.

NASA may move the launch by a day later if necessary and attempt subsequent launches through February 2022 if needed.

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M4PS Receives DHS Funds for First Responder Comm Tech Development
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M4PS Receives DHS Funds for First Responder Comm Tech Development

Mobility 4 Public Safety (M4PS) has received a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) grant to further develop a tool designed to help first responders exchange multimedia content with each other in real-time.

M4PS initially released a proof-of-concept version of the Bridge 4 Public Safety platform in 2019 as part of a feasibility research effort funded by DHS’ science and technology directorate, the department said Friday.

The directorate awarded $1.55 million to advance development work on the messaging and collaboration tool, which eligible public safety and support personnel can implement at no cost.

DHS approved the nationwide adoption of Bridge4PS after early adoption initiatives surpassed the department’s expectations. The platform underwent public safety communication tests in Los Angeles and Houston.

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Commerce to Impose Rapid Revisit Restrictions on High-Res Satellite Constellations
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Commerce to Impose Rapid Revisit Restrictions on High-Res Satellite Constellations

The Department of Commerce will impose time limits on the imaging operations of constellations of U.S. commercial remote sensing satellites that have the ability to capture repeat images of a terrestrial location in response to national security concerns raised by the Department of Defense and the Intelligence Community, Breaking Defense reported Friday.

DOD and the IC are concerned that imagery captured by satellite constellations called Rapid Revisit Imaging Systems will disclose changes in activity patterns at key national security facilities.

The Commerce Department plans to implement the new restrictions under the commercial remote sensing licensing process that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration oversees. The new rules will apply to areas on the Persistent Imaging Location List.

NOAA’s commercial remote sensing regulatory affairs office will implement the rules through a three-tiered licensing scheme and Rapid Revisit Imaging Systems will be categorized under Tier 3. Under this tier, CRSRA can impose “temporary” limits on the sale of all cutting-edge commercial capabilities at the request of the Pentagon and intelligence agencies.

Officials from the remote sensing industry have raised concerns over the rapid revisit restrictions saying NOAA’s ruling will hamper the ability of U.S. companies to secure an edge in the global real-time imagery market.

“These restrictions would severely hurt commercial companies’ ability to operate high resolution constellations and is counter to the efforts of the past two years to make NOAA regs streamlined and enable US companies to compete internationally,” an industry representative told the publication in an email.

Space Acquisition Forum

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Kenneth Wainstein Nominated DHS Intelligence, Analysis Undersecretary
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Kenneth Wainstein Nominated DHS Intelligence, Analysis Undersecretary

Kenneth Wainstein, a two-decade public service veteran and current litigation partner at Davis Polk & Wardwell, has been nominated as undersecretary for intelligence and analysis at the Department of Homeland Security, the White House said Friday.

In his current role, Wainstein represents Davis Polk & Wardwell’s corporate clients in internal investigations and civil and criminal enforcement proceedings.

His government career includes time as director of the Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys, general counsel of the FBI, U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia and assistant attorney general for national security at the Department of Justice.

He advised former President George W. Bush on homeland security matters and led interagency coordination of federal efforts related to counterterrorism, disaster response and infrastructure protection.

Wainstein also taught national security law for 12 years and served as a commissioner at the Bipartisan Commission on Biodefense.

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Evidence Act Oversight Committee Recommends Creation of National Secure Data Service
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Evidence Act Oversight Committee Recommends Creation of National Secure Data Service

The Department of Commerce’s Advisory Committee on Data for Evidence Building (ACDEB) has recommended the development of a national secure data service (NSDS) to facilitate the use of federal data for evidence building. The NSDS would build on the framework established by the Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act of 2018 to support the management of statistical evidence used to inform decision-making processes, ACDEB said in its first report to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).

ACDEB also laid out seven new recommendations on how to improve the use of data across the federal government, including the designation of a full-time chief statistician of the United States within the OMB. The chief statistician will facilitate the creation of standards for the NSDS and the broader evidence-building ecosystem.

Other recommendations include the launch of a pilot program to demonstrate the value of data to policymaking and the establishment of a comprehensive communication strategy.

ACDEB was formed as part of the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis to provide recommendations on how to facilitate and enhance data sharing, linkage and protection processes within the federal government.

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Jacobs Makes Strategic Investment in HawkEye 360; Caesar Nieves Quoted
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Jacobs Makes Strategic Investment in HawkEye 360; Caesar Nieves Quoted

HawkEye 360 announced on Monday that the company has generated $145 million in Series D round funding, which brings the company’s total capital to $302 million currently. As a part of that funding, the company has also entered into a distribution arrangement with Jacobs to enhance the latter’s digital intelligence suite of technologies and solutions.

“Hawkeye 360’s satellite constellation and intuitive RF analytics platform is a game-changer for consumers of geospatial intelligence (GEOINT),” said Jacobs Critical Mission Solutions Senior Vice President of Cyber & Intelligence Caesar Nieves.

Hawkeye 360’s RF satellite technology is at the forefront of emerging commercial RF and ISR capabilities changing the landscape of GEOINT. Increased RF sensing is essential to provide a more complete picture of the global threat landscape.

“Increased spectrum awareness is imperative to near-peer competition and achieving the objectives laid out in the National Security Strategy,” Nieves added. “Leveraging Jacobs’ expansive global position in defense, intelligence and civilian markets, we will be working collaboratively with Hawkeye 360 to unlock new insights about threats, targets and assets of interest.”

The two companies will also work together to identify new opportunities for collaboration. Jacobs’ investment in HawkEye 360 signifies its commitment to address critical challenges for national security, civilian infrastructure, maritime and energy clients around the world.

“Hawkeye 360 is delighted to partner with Jacobs, a world-leading innovator in defense, intelligence and civilian capabilities in space,” said Hawkeye 360 CEO John Serafini. “As investors in our company, we will collaborate with Jacobs to deliver our RF geoanalytics technology to address the critical challenges of a broader set of clients.”

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GigCapital4 Sets Stockholders Meeting Ahead of Merger With BigBear.ai; GovCon Expert Reggie Brothers Quoted
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GigCapital4 Sets Stockholders Meeting Ahead of Merger With BigBear.ai; GovCon Expert Reggie Brothers Quoted

GigCapital4 has filed its definitive proxy statement and set a date of Dec. 3, 2021 for its stockholder meeting in regards to the company’s pending business combination with BigBear.ai.

Upon stockholder approval, BigBear.ai, a leading artificial intelligence and cloud-based analytics provider based in Columbia, Maryland, will become a publicly-traded company, and its shares of common stock and warrants will be traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbols “BBAI” and “BBAIW,” the company said Monday.

The merger was originally announced in June 2021 and is expected to close following the stakeholders meeting.

Dr. Reggie Brothers, CEO of BigBear.ai and a 2021 Wash100 Award winner said, “With over 20 years of experience using data analytics to help our customers improve their competitive positioning by making better and faster decisions, we are excited to expand our capabilities and bring our expertise to more customers across the public and commercial markets.”

Additionally, in an Executive Spotlight interview with ExecutiveBiz, GovCon Expert Dr. Brothers said the merger “fuels our commercial growth, expands our sales and marketing, funds our research and development efforts that accelerate the product offerings, and enables us to continue pursuing corporate growth opportunities.”

Dr. Raluca Dinu, CEO of GigCapital4 and founding managing partner of GigCapital Global, also said BigBear.ai’s “strong financial position, deep network of relationships and talented management team” will allow the business combination to capitalize on opportunities in defense and commercial sectors during a critical period of rapid growth in the artificial intelligence/machine learning market.

Recently, BigBear.ai’s financial results from the first half of 2021 showed $72 million in year-to-date revenue as well as $150 million in contract awards.

The transaction gives BigBear.ai a pro forma enterprise value of approximately $1.57 billion, and the company is expected to have $330 million in cash upon closing, which will support organic and inorganic growth.

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Senators Introduce Amendment to FY 2022 NDAA to Advance Cyber Incident Reporting
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Senators Introduce Amendment to FY 2022 NDAA to Advance Cyber Incident Reporting

Sens. Gary Peters, D-Mich., Rob Portman, R-Ohio, Mark Warner, D-Va., and Susan Collins, R-Maine, have proposed an amendment to the annual defense authorization bill that would require owners and operators of critical infrastructure and federal civilian agencies to report cyberattacks to the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) within 72 hours.

The bipartisan provision would direct state and local governments, businesses and other organizations to inform the federal government within 24 hours if they pay a ransom following a cyber incident, update existing federal cybersecurity laws to enhance coordination between agencies and impel the government to implement a risk-based security approach, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee said Thursday.

The proposed language in the fiscal year 2022 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) would update the Federal Information Security Modernization Act (FISMA) and provide CISA additional authorities to lead efforts when it comes to overseeing the response to cyber incidents involving networks of federal civilian agencies.

“This bipartisan amendment to significantly update FISMA will provide the accountability necessary to resolve longstanding weaknesses in federal cybersecurity by clarifying roles and responsibilities and requiring the government to quickly inform the American people if their information is compromised,” said Portman.

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Intell Veteran Tonya Wilkerson Named as NGA’s Next Deputy Director
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Intell Veteran Tonya Wilkerson Named as NGA’s Next Deputy Director

Tonya Wilkerson, a three-decade veteran of the U.S. Intelligence Community, has been appointed to serve as deputy director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA).

NGA said Friday that Wilkerson will join the agency from the CIA, where she serves as associate director for science and technology and strategy.

She previously worked at the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) in various roles associated with research, development, operations and acquisition functions.

Wilkerson is set to succeed 2021 Wash100 Award recipient Stacey Dixon, who was NGA’s eighth deputy director for two years before she transitioned to a new role as principal deputy director of national intelligence in August.

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