A U.S. Space Force delta will assume the responsibility for operations of 11 narrowband communications satellites currently managed by the Navy and satcom payloads being operated by the Army, SpaceNews reported Wednesday.

Space Delta 8, headquartered at Schriever AF Base in Colorado, is scheduled to commence the transition process in October as USSF aims to establish an integrated satcom enterprise that would connect military users.

Col. Matthew Holston, commander of Space Delta 8, said the move is part of the branch’s roadmap for utilizing Department of Defense (DOD) and commercial space-based communications.

Holston added that his team is working with both the Navy and the Army to facilitate the possible voluntary transfer of satellite operators that will be affected by the changes.

The Navy manages the Mobile User Objective System, Fleet Satellite Communications System and Ultra High-Frequency Follow-on networks.

Delta 8 will also absorb from the Army’s 53rd Signal Battalion, which oversees Wideband Global Satcom and Defense Satellite Communications System payloads, and the branch’s directorate that operates four regional satcom support centers.

Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff and a four-time Wash100 Award winner, said the proposed fiscal year 2022 budget of $715 billion for the Department of Defense (DOD) seeks to strike a balance between future modernization and readiness, DOD News reported Wednesday.

"It's a down payment on investments of the future, with a bias toward the future operating environment," Milley said of the DOD budget request during his testimony before the House Armed Services Committee Wednesday.

"It is now that we must set ourselves on a path to modernize the Joint Force, and this budget contributes to doing that,” he added.

The proposed FY 2022 budget prioritizes investments in hypersonics, nuclear modernization, artificial intelligence, long-range fires, 5G, space, cyber, shipbuilding and microelectronics. Milley said investments in such technologies are aligned with the Pentagon’s joint warfighting concept.

"In alignment with the Interim National Security Strategic Guidance, this budget makes hard choices and delivers a ready, agile and capable Joint Force that will compete, deter and win across all domains, and [it] is postured for continued overmatch in the future," Milley said during the hearing.

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The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has called on the Department of Defense (DOD) to revisit its chief information officer risk ratings, improve data collection initiatives and develop data strategies for its business systems and software acquisition pathways to help enhance acquisition monitoring.

GAO made the recommendations after it found that DOD lacked data strategies and had not yet completed metrics for two acquisition pathways as of this February, according to a report published Wednesday.

“Without important data from acquisition pathways and systems, DOD risks not having timely quantitative insight into program performance, including its acquisition reform efforts,” the GAO report reads.

The congressional watchdog found that the Pentagon has initiated measures to improve the transparency and sharing of data it uses for acquisition monitoring and has made policy and organizational changes to enhance its information technology acquisition management. Some of these changes are improving data transparency and implementing Agile software development.

“As of December 2020, program officials for the 22 major DOD business IT programs that were actively developing software reported using approaches that may help to limit cost and schedule risks,” the report states.

These approaches include implementing continuous iterative software development, developing a cybersecurity strategy and conducting developmental cybersecurity testing.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) plans to consider at its July 13th open meeting an order that would amend rules for a program that seeks to reimburse telecommunications carriers for removing and replacing equipment and services that pose risks to national security.

FCC established rules for the reimbursement program in compliance with the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Act of 2019 and FCC said Tuesday that the latest order would raise the customer eligibility cap for participation in the program.

The amended rules would allow communications services providers with 10 million or fewer customers to take part in the reimbursement program.

The document seeks to modify eligibility rules for communications equipment and services manufactured or provided by Huawei or ZTE and allow telecommunications providers to use reimbursement funds for equipment and services purchased, leased or obtained on or before June 30, 2020.

The order would implement the prioritization scheme stipulated in the Consolidated Appropriations Act if the demand for reimbursement funding exceeds the congressional appropriations of $1.89 billion.

The commission adds a definition of “provider of advanced communications services” to existing reimbursement program rules and offers some clarifications to some requirements of the reimbursement program through the document.

Eric Goldstein, executive assistant director for cybersecurity at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), said in an interview published Tuesday that the new executive order provides CISA with new authorities to counter cyberattacks, including the development of a common playbook for cyber incident response.

He said the standard playbook requirement will help CISA better codify and implement joint incident responses.

“This really builds upon authorities that CISA received last year from the National Defense Authorization Act, where we were directed to stand up a Joint Cyber Planning Office (JCPO). This JCPO is essential to the maturation of CISA’s incident coordination and planning role,” Goldstein said.

In accordance with the new executive order, Goldstein said CISA is working with the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) on a cloud security strategy to help agencies protect cloud environments as they continue to implement the telework arrangement for their workforce.

“The EO further accelerates existing work to mature our regime around securing cloud environments and making sure that all federal cloud environments are adopting the right practices and the right security controls to reasonably protect the use of those environments for sensitive federal work,” he noted.

Goldstein shared his insights on zero-trust frameworks, ransomware payments and cyberattacks on critical infrastructure and discussed how CISA works to get third-party suppliers involved in safeguarding the software supply chain.

“The executive order calls out the need to make progress in initiatives like a software bill of materials, which is an essential step forward in understanding the components and the lineage of the critical software utilized across federal networks. None of these solutions is a complete answer in itself, but collectively, they really move us forward in understanding and managing risk posed by third-party vendors,” he said.