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Reps. Frank Pallone, Greg Walden Seek FCC Support for Telecom Equipment Replacement Efforts
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Reps. Frank Pallone, Greg Walden Seek FCC Support for Telecom Equipment Replacement Efforts

Reps. Frank Pallone, Jr., D-N.J., and Greg Walden, R-Ore., have called on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to help small carriers plan equipment replacement efforts to comply with the Secure and Trusted Communications Network Act.

In a Nov. 23rd letter, Pallone and Walden told FCC Chairman Ajit Pai the agency should create a list of systems, software and services that providers may adopt to replace telecom equipment deemed to pose national security risks.

Both House lawmakers emphasized the importance of providing financial support to small and rural communications firms that otherwise could not afford network modernization. 

They said the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program, which awaits appropriations from Congress, has garnered bicameral and bipartisan support.

“We urge you to take these specific, non-controversial actions as quickly as possible so these important efforts to secure our communications networks are not delayed,” the two lawmakers said in their letter to Pai.

Pallone and Walden serve as chairman and ranking member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, respectively.

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Army, Virginia Tech Develop Machine Learning Approach to Manage Radar Performance
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Army, Virginia Tech Develop Machine Learning Approach to Manage Radar Performance

The U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command has worked with the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and the Army Research Laboratory to create an automatic method for military radar systems to function in operational environments that are congested and have limited spectrum.

Researchers applied machine learning to understand interference activity as part of a project to explore spectrum sharing between Department of Defense radars and commercial communications equipment, the military branch said Wednesday.

The research, titled “Deep Reinforcement Learning Control for Radar Detection and Tracking in Congested Spectral Environments,” was published in the IEEE Transactions on Cognitive Communications and Networking journal.

Anthony Martone, an Army researcher, said the approach has the potential to help military personnel use a radar technology to detect targets at an extended range without experiencing interference.

The project is part of a broader DoD initiative to facilitate the autonomous behavior of software-based radars with machine learning and adaptive signal processing algorithms.

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DoD Cybersecurity Program Marketplace Goes Live
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DoD Cybersecurity Program Marketplace Goes Live

The Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) Accreditation Body (AB) has created an online repository of contact details of consultancies and professionals that can offer assistance to contractors who want to meet the Department of Defense's (DoD) cyber readiness assessment process, Inside Defense reported Wednesday.

The CMMC-AB Marketplace currently lists 149 cybersecurity practitioners, 123 registered provider organizations and 74 provisional assessors.

Entries listed as practitioners may provide consulting services but they cannot administer assessments, the report noted. The webpage will also include information about third-party assessment organizations tasked with conducting the audits.

DoD sought public comments on its interim rule to implement an assessment methodology and CMMC framework as part of efforts to increase the security of unclassified defense supply chain data. Nov. 30th is the last day for submitting feedback on the rule.

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Consilient-Intel White Paper Details Federated Learning Model for Financial Crime Risk Mgmt
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Consilient-Intel White Paper Details Federated Learning Model for Financial Crime Risk Mgmt

Intel collaborated with Consilient, a joint venture between K2 Integrity and Giant Oak, to produce a white paper that describes a technological approach to update the current anti-money laundering/counter-terrorist financing system.

The "Federated Learning through Revolutionary Technology" report explains how the combination of Consilient's Dozer behavioral analytics tool and Intel's Software Guard Extensions platform could help industry obtain insights on financial crime risks while maintaining data privacy.

Both companies intend for their technologies to support efforts in both public and private sectors to identify illicit activity across the global financial system as part of the federated learning architecture.

Consilient's proprietary technology is designed to use a machine learning algorithm that would travel between servers at multiple institutions to analyze dataset patterns, while the Intel SGX platform functions as a hardware-based trusted execution environment to help organizations avoid unauthorized code or data modifications.

The report noted that Dozer has the potential to cut the false-positive rate in rule-based screening methods and AML/CFT systems from 95 percent to 12 percent.

Juan Zarate, global co-managing partner and chief strategy officer of K2 Integrity and 2016 Wash100 Award recipient, launched Consilient last month with Giant Oak founder and CEO Gary Shiffman. They authored the financial services security white paper in partnership with Intel professionals Nikhil Deshpande, Raghuram Yeluri and Parviz Peiravi.

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FCC Rejects ZTE’s Petition to not be Declared a National Security Threat
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FCC Rejects ZTE’s Petition to not be Declared a National Security Threat

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has decided to block Chinese company ZTE from contracts under the $8.3 billion Universal Service Fund, due to national security concerns.

FCC said Tuesday its Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau denied ZTE's petition for reconsideration of being branded as a threat.

“At the next Open Meeting on December 10, the Commission will vote on rules to implement the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement program to help carriers remove and replace untrusted equipment from their networks, months before the statutory deadline," said Ajit Pai, FCC chairman

The commission declared Huawei and ZTE threats to national security in late June. ZTE requested reconsideration, and FCC rejected that petition.

This decision prohibits the Universal Service Fund from being used for purchases of ZTE products and services.

"Now it is more vital than ever that Congress appropriate funds so that our communications networks are protected from vendors that threaten our national security," Pai added.

FAA to Host Virtual Meeting for Draft Environmental Review of Shuttle Landing Facility
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FAA to Host Virtual Meeting for Draft Environmental Review of Shuttle Landing Facility

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is scheduled to host a virtual public meeting Dec. 2 to seek inputs on a draft environmental assessment for the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station's shuttle landing facility.

Space Florida will discuss its intent to apply for a reentry site operator license for the installation's SLF during the virtual event, FAA said Tuesday. FAA will also deliver an overview of the draft review and the licensing process.

The agency will receive comments for the draft until Dec. 7.Applicants are required to undergo environmental reviews to receive reentry site operator licenses in line with the National Environmental Protection Act.

Space Florida currently manages Cape Canaveral's SLF through a launch site operator license. The company plans to support up to 17 reentry landings from 2021 to 2025 once they receive approval for the RSOL.

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New Army PEO Directorate Focuses on Program Integration
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New Army PEO Directorate Focuses on Program Integration

The U.S. Army has established a new directorate that will focus on program integration standards, future threat analysis and technology collaboration across the service branch, C4ISRnet reported Tuesday.

The service's Program Executive Office for Intelligence, Electronic Warfare and Sensors now has a new integration-focused directorate with three sub-offices.

The first one, labeled “Futures,” will tackle threat analysis, technology transitions and the integration of testing activities into multidomain operations and other programs.

The second one, “Architectures," will work on standards that guide integration between different programs. The last office will work to foster collaboration between PEO IEW&S and other Army organizations.

Christian Keller, who has spearheaded Army projects on aerial intelligence sensors, will lead the directorate.

“We have [a] very complex system-of-systems environment we’re dealing with,” Keller said. “We have various sensor capabilities out there, which have to interface to ground stations and may have to interface to various users, both maneuver wise and fires wise and everything like that.”

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USAF Demonstrates B-1B Aircraft’s Expanded Weapons Carriage
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USAF Demonstrates B-1B Aircraft’s Expanded Weapons Carriage

A B-1B Lancer aircraft carried a joint air-to-surface standoff missile with an external pylon at Edwards Air Force Base to demonstrate expanded carriage.

The aircraft demonstrated performance that may serve as stepping stones to carrying hypersonic weapons in the future, U.S. Strategic Command said Tuesday.

“Adapting a small number of our healthiest B-1s to carry hypersonic weapons is vital to bridge between the bomber force we have today, to the force of tomorrow,” said Gen. Tim Ray, who leads Air Force Global Strike Command.

The flight demonstration followed multiple ground tests including one that featured a modified internal bomb bay. The U.S. Air Force will use the demonstration's input to determine B-1B's future technical and weapons integration requirements as a multi-mission aircraft.

"This is a major step forward in our global precision fires capability and it is important we pursue these technologies to remain ahead of our competitors. My goal is to have a limited number of B-1s modified to become the roving linebacker of the western Pacific and the North Atlantic," Ray added. 

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US Army, Howard University Introduce AI Research Hub
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US Army, Howard University Introduce AI Research Hub

The U.S. Army partnered with Howard University to launch a facility that will study and develop artificial intelligence-based technologies for multidomain military operations and civilian applications.

The Howard University Center of Excellence in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning will introduce scholarships for science, technology, engineering and mathematics as part of the Army corporate laboratory's efforts to grow its workforce, the service branch said Monday.

The facility will explore the fundamentals of trustworthy approaches, infrastructure for AI research and development efforts as well as AI applications for the Department of Defense (DoD). The center will be led by Howard’s Prof. Danda B. Rawat, professor of computer science and director of Howard’s Data Science & Cybersecurity Center.

"Diversity of science and diversity of the future S&T talent base go hand-in-hand in this new and exciting partnership," said Brian Sadler, senior research scientist for intelligent systems at the Army.

DoD invested $7.5 million for the research center.

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KBR Raises Over $532K to Support COVID-19 Frontline Workers; Stuart Bradie Quoted
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KBR Raises Over $532K to Support COVID-19 Frontline Workers; Stuart Bradie Quoted

KBR has raised more than $532 thousand for nine local and national charities at its 14th annual charity golf tournament, the company reported on Monday. The tournament has raised over $6.5 million for nonprofit organizations that support health, education and safety, since its launch in 2007.

“In these times, it’s especially important that we give back to our communities,” said Stuart Bradie, KBR president and CEO. “KBR is contributing $250,000 directly to front line workers that have sacrificed so much for our communities this year, and we’re honored to stand shoulder to shoulder with these men and women.”

KBR’s 2020 charity has focused on health care workers and first responders that have helped combat the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, the tournament supported other organizations whose missions are focused on keeping communities safe, preserving the environment and supporting veterans.

This year’s charitable recipients include: St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital; Houston Fire Department; Houston Police Department; Buffalo Bayou Partnership; Galveston Bay Foundation; Impact a Hero; The Chester Pitts Charitable Foundation; Houston Methodist Hospital Foundation; and Memorial Hermann Foundation.

“KBR’s young professionals always make the Charity Golf Tournament a tremendous success and this year is no different. 2020 has been challenging in so many ways, so it means a great deal to me, and to KBR, that we were able to move forward with this event and I am especially proud of the work our team put in to ensuring the safety of each participant,” Bradie concluded.

About KBR

KBR is a global provider of differentiated professional services and solutions across the asset and program life cycle within the government and technology sectors. KBR employs approximately 28,000 people worldwide with customers in more than 80 countries and operations in 40 countries.

KBR is proud to work with its customers across the globe to provide technology, value-added services, and long- term operations and maintenance services to ensure consistent delivery with predictable results. At KBR, We Deliver.

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