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FCC Certifies Key Bridge Wireless as Spectrum Access System Administrator
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FCC Certifies Key Bridge Wireless as Spectrum Access System Administrator

The Federal Communications Commission has announced Key Bridge Wireless as a certified spectrum access system administrator in the 3.55-3.7 GHz Citizens Broadband Radio Service band.

Key Bridge received the FCC certification after the commission’s wireless telecommunications bureau and the office of engineering and technology reviewed the company’s initial commercial deployment report in consultation with the Department of Defense and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, FCC said Tuesday.

The certification authorizes Key Bridge to make its spectrum access system available for commercial use for a term of five years and operate in the contiguous U.S., Alaska, Hawaii, Guam and Puerto Rico. 

Jessica Rosenworcel, acting chairwoman of FCC, said the new certification brings the number of spectrum access database administrators supporting the CBRS 3.5 GHz band to six.

McLean, Virginia-based Key Bridge supplies spectrum administration and sharing systems and services to government, military and commercial customers.

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Jacqueline Tame: JAIC Focuses on Projects in Logistics, Test and Evaluation Areas
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Jacqueline Tame: JAIC Focuses on Projects in Logistics, Test and Evaluation Areas

Jacqueline Tame, acting deputy director for the Department of Defense’s Joint Artificial Intelligence Center (JAIC), said JAIC is focusing on projects that will have the most potential impact on the military and its readiness and those areas include logistics and test and evaluation, Federal News Network reported Tuesday.

“We have had real interest in the last several months in particular in the joint logistics enterprise,” Tame told FNN.

JAIC is working with the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA), U.S. Transportation Command and other entities that use inventory management, supply chain management and other business practices to facilitate the delivery of people, weapons systems and other needs.

“You can easily see where the intersections of the biggest return on investment are going to be with their work with logistics and moving materiel,” Tame said. 

“The technology is actually pretty mature in these areas where there’s an abundance of data in some of these back office areas. That’s one of the ways in which we’re really mapping the landscape of DoD from a missions and mission needs perspective and targeting those areas where we think AI applications and helping to instantiate AI is going to scale the most quickly or the most robustly,” she added.

JAIC and the Pentagon’s test and evaluation office are working together to build a test framework and further advance AI adoption.

“That test and evaluation framework for AI has actually showed us that there are some sort of gaps right now in the way in which we procure those services, whether they be, data labeling services, or the actual customer evaluation services themselves,” Tame said.

JAIC is also advancing work on the tactical edge and Tame said a solid data infrastructure is needed to facilitate the flow of information.

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The Potomac Officers Club will hold its 3rd Annual Artificial Intelligence Summit on March 30 to foster discussions on how to advance AI technology at speed and how private-public partnerships are key to maintaining the competitive advantage within the tech race. To register for this virtual summit and view other upcoming events, visit the Potomac Officers Club Events page. 

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GSA to Host Bitcoin Share Auction; Kevin Kerns Quoted
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GSA to Host Bitcoin Share Auction; Kevin Kerns Quoted

The General Services Administration (GSA) will accept Bitcoin cryptocurrency bids on the agency's GSA Auctions website for two days. Interested individuals may place bids on a .7501 share of one Bitcoin from March 15th to March 17th, GSA said Monday. 

The share was valued at over $38,000 as of March 5th. The auction's winner must be able to pay his corresponding amount by March 19th through a wire transfer.

“A special thanks to GSA’s Southeast-Great Lakes Personal Property Management team for making our very first cryptocurrency auction a reality," said Kevin Kerns, acting administrator for GSA's Southeast Sunbelt Region.

GSA Auctions hosts biddings for government-owned assets that are marked as excess in the federal inventory. These assets may include vehicles, equipment, collectibles and now, cryptocurrency shares.

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Anduril Industries To Appoint Zachary Mears as New Head of Strategy
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Anduril Industries To Appoint Zachary Mears as New Head of Strategy

Anduril Industries is expected to announce on Tuesday their acquisition of Zachary Mears, a former Pentagon staffer, as head of strategy. Anduril Industries is a southern California company with over 400 employees. It has worked with the Federal government on border surveillance, unmanned aerial systems and cruise missile defense technologies.

“While there’s still work to do, I think Anduril offers a platform and approach that is at the core of what a defense contractor will look like in 10 to 15 years, the way it organizes, the way it marries software and hardware to deliver strategic and operational outcomes,” said Mears.

Mears most recently led Covington & Burling’s public policy practice, but previously he served as chief of staff to former Deputy Defense Secretary Bob Work and as director of strategic planning for the National Security Council. While working under Work, Mears advised the Defense Innovation Unit Experimental (DIUx), which attempted to foster start-up companies that could deliver effective results for federal military contracts.

Mears stated Anduril and similar companies are in part the result of his work with the DIUx.“It’s very much on the path of the type of company we hoped we would incentivize the development of in 2014 and 2015. To join it at this moment of growth is very exciting.”

Anduril chief strategy officer Christian Brose, who previously worked with Mears in the government, said, “He’s a disruptive thinker, he’s a creative thinker. He’s not bound to the ways that we have always done things and the things we have used to do them, and that’s what I appreciated when I first got to know him.”

Mears will join an executive team with members from companies such as Tesla, SpaceX, Uber, Apple and Google. Alongside many Washington insiders similar to Brose and himself.

“Part of my theory of change management is it’s helpful to understand the organization and culture of the very thing you’re seeking to change, and then to be able to leverage the capability development and technology development of those that are experienced developing and deploying technology in markets that move more quickly than the U.S. government,” added Mears.

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DHS Earmarks Funding for Mobile Network Security R&D Projects
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DHS Earmarks Funding for Mobile Network Security R&D Projects

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has earmarked $2.1 million to support two mobile security research and development projects led by private sector entities.

DHS said Monday that its Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) partnered with the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) for the Secure and Resilient Mobile Network Infrastructure (SRMNI) program aimed at improving mobile network traffic visibility.

The initiative falls under the directorate’s Mobile Security and Emergency Communications R&D Program and seeks to address supply-chain security issues in the information and communications technology sector as well as 5G networks.

The program allocates $1.2 million for El Cerrito, California-based AppCensus to develop an application programming interface for traffic intelligence. 

GuidePoint Security, a cybersecurity company based in Herndon, Virginia, received $915,000 to develop an architecture that implements a Trusted Internet Connections (TIC) framework based on a Zscaler-built Security-as-a-Service tool called Internet Access Platform.

Matthew Hartman, deputy executive assistant director of cybersecurity at CISA, said the projects will help establish a TIC3.0-based overlay that will fortify federal mobile security networks.

William N. Bryan, acting undersecretary for S&T, said the two proposals will help improve the analysis of network traffic in enterprise environments. S&T previously selected seven industry-led R&D efforts for the SRMNI program.

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CISA to Begin Managing Federal Web Domain in April; Eric Goldstein Quoted
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CISA to Begin Managing Federal Web Domain in April; Eric Goldstein Quoted

The General Services Administration (GSA) is transferring oversight responsibilities for the “.gov” domain to the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) in a move that will take effect in April 2021.

CISA said Monday it will manage the top-level domain (TLD) which covers all branches of the federal government including states, counties, cities, tribes and territories. The move comes as part of efforts to comply with the DOTGOV Act of 2020 which directs oversight of the TLD to fall under CISA’s purview.

Eric Goldstein, executive assistant director for the cybersecurity division at CISA, said that using a .gov domain provides security benefits such as two-factor authentication and notifications on changes to DNS activity.

“We’ll endeavor to make the TLD more secure for the American public and harder for malicious actors to impersonate,” he said.

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USSOCOM to Explore Viability of Emerging Tech in Ground Vehicle Fleet; Col. Joel Babbitt Quoted
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USSOCOM to Explore Viability of Emerging Tech in Ground Vehicle Fleet; Col. Joel Babbitt Quoted

U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) will further invest in new technologies expected to modernize the USSOCOM fleet of ground vehicles, National Defense Magazine reported Tuesday. 

USSOCOM is exploring how autonomy, advanced situational awareness, hybrid-electric power and lightweight armor can augment a vehicle family of 3,000 platforms.

General Dynamics delivered the Ground Mobility Vehicle (GMV) 1.1 that the military uses for special operations last year. The command is interested in equipping the vehicle with updated payloads, lightweight armor and tires that can be interchanged based on terrain.

Col. Joel Babbitt, program executive officer for Special Operations Forces Warrior, said his team anticipates to conduct related tests and collect feedback this summer.

“The results will help inform future decisions on whether to invest in outfitting the existing GMV 1.1 fleet with the technology," he said.

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DOE to Award $53M for University-Based Energy Efficiency Assessments; Jennifer Granholm Quoted
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DOE to Award $53M for University-Based Energy Efficiency Assessments; Jennifer Granholm Quoted

The Department of Energy will invest $52.5 million in university-based efforts that help wastewater treatment facilities and manufacturers reduce carbon footprint and boost energy efficiency. These centers also train and prepare students for potential careers related to clean energy.

DOE said Monday that its Industrial Assessment Centers will conduct studies and produce recommendations in the areas of waste reduction, cybersecurity, water savings and productivity, with the goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

"This new funding is an investment in both the infrastructure and next-generation clean energy workforce we need to tackle the climate emergency and meet President Biden’s goal of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050," said Jennifer Granholm, secretary of Energy.

Interested parties may submit letters of intent through April 1st. DOE expects to select up to 35 universities, which would each receive between $1.5 and $2.25 million in five-year awards.

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Lt. Col. Tim Trimailo: Space & Missile Systems Center Eyes Further SDA Partnerships
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Lt. Col. Tim Trimailo: Space & Missile Systems Center Eyes Further SDA Partnerships

Lt. Col. Tim Trimailo, a materiel head at the Space and Missile Systems Center (SMC), said his office is working to develop recommendations on streamlining the Space Development Agency’s (SDA) contracting process, SpaceNews reported Monday.

Trimailo, who serves as materiel head for SMC’s Commercially Augmented Space Inter-networked Operations (CASINO) program, told attendees at a virtual Potomac Officers Club event that his team ran through proposals to help speed up the issuance of contracts and launch a constellation by 2022.

He noted that CASINO serves as the focal point for SMC’s activities in low-Earth orbit and has “a natural tie” to SDA’s initiatives. The CASINO team is actively looking into additional opportunities for collaboration with SDA, Trimailo noted.

CASINO is meant to support efforts under the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (DARPA) Blackjack satellite communications program, according to SpaceNews.

“SDA is developing this stable of satellites that are going up very frequently, and there’s an opportunity to test some advanced capabilities on orbit to inform future investments and form the future architecture,” said Trimailo.

SDA is slated to operate under the U.S. Space Force by 2022.

Lt. Col. Tim Trimailo: Space & Missile Systems Center Eyes Further SDA Partnerships

If you missed the 2021 SDA Forum, you can still register to watch the OnDemand Version by visiting Potomac Officers Club’s Event Archive.

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Akima Subsidiary Appraised at CMMI V2.0 Level 3; Juvy McCarthy Quoted
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Akima Subsidiary Appraised at CMMI V2.0 Level 3; Juvy McCarthy Quoted

Akima announced on Monday that its subsidiary company Tuvli was appraised at maturity level 3 on the CMMI Institute’s Capability Maturity Model Integration Version 2.0 (CMMI V2.0) for information technology (IT) services.

“Helping our federal customers achieve success is our mission, and this rating demonstrates our commitment to delivering high-quality results,” commented Juvy McCarthy, president of Akima’s technology solutions and products group.

CMMI V2.0 is a multi-level improvement and appraisal program used to analyze companies’ internal processes and service quality. A CMMI appraisal aims to provide a company with the essential elements of effective techniques to improve performance over time.  There are five CMMI maturity levels, with the fifth as the most prestigious. They are in first to fifth order ‘initial’, ‘managed’, ‘defined’, ‘quantitatively managed’ and ‘optimizing.’

Tuvli’s appraisal at maturity level 3 or ‘defined’ demonstrated that its processes were well characterized and understood and are described in standards, procedures, tools, and methods. The ‘defined’ designation also illustrated that Tuvli’s standard processes are established and approved over time.

The appraisal was performed by Integrated Quality Corporation (IQ) and used its experience in IT infrastructure implementation to decide on the level 3 CMMI designation. “Obtaining this appraisal is a significant milestone for Tuvli. I am extremely proud of our team and their dedication to continuous improvement,” concluded McCarthy.

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