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Ellen Lord: Pentagon Working on Microelectronics Strategy to Ensure Supply Chain Security
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Ellen Lord: Pentagon Working on Microelectronics Strategy to Ensure Supply Chain Security

Hon. Ellen Lord, undersecretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment and a 2020 Wash100 Award winner, said the Department of Defense (DoD) is developing a “microelectronics strategy” to bring manufacturing and testing operations to the U.S. by relying on public-private partnerships and other initiatives, Breaking Defense reported Tuesday.

Lord said Tuesday at the ComDef conference 98 percent of microelectronics packaging and 75 percent of manufacturing work occurs in Asia and the COVID-19 pandemic has prompted DoD to strengthen efforts to secure the country’s supply chains.

“The pandemic has reinforced the importance of securing and diversifying our supply chains, especially when partnering with allied or partner nations to utilize or develop capabilities overseas."

Ellen Lord: Pentagon Working on Microelectronics Strategy to Ensure Supply Chain Security

Hon. Ellen Lord will be featured as the keynote speaker during Potomac Officers Club's upcoming 5G Summit on October 27th. Don’t miss out on this must see event! Register here for the 5G Summit. 

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USAF Fully Installs B-1B Integrated Battle Station Ahead of Schedule; Rodney Shepard Quoted
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USAF Fully Installs B-1B Integrated Battle Station Ahead of Schedule; Rodney Shepard Quoted

The U.S. Air Force has completed the installation of the B-1B Lancer aircraft fleet's new Integrated Battle Station (IBS), earlier than expected. USAF said Saturday it modified 60 Lancer units from late 2012 to this month for three different parts of the IBS.

The bomber aircraft underwent modifications for a fully integrated data link, a vertical situational display unit and a central integrated test system of the new battle station.

“With all new workload, the start of the modification line was slow, however, with enterprise buy-in and support, the modification line eventually reduced flow days and met ‘Art of the Possible’ goals,” said Rodney Shepard, director of the 567th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron.

The new IBS will boost crew flexibility during missions and improve flight operations with the Lancer fleet. The system's early installation finish added 987 days to aircraft availability.

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DHS Issues First Responder Tech RFI
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DHS Issues First Responder Tech RFI

The Department of Homeland Security has posted a request for information to seek inputs on first responder technologies as part of an operational experimentation effort.

DHS said Friday it aims to evaluate various technologies in operational settings and carry out demonstrations for homeland security operators as part of the OpEx program.

The department is looking for technologies in the areas of crowd count analysis, backup emergency alert systems, remote monitoring for self-contained breathing apparatus and voice assistance systems for command, control, communications and computers.

Submissions are required to reach Technology Readiness Level 7 or above to qualify for the program.

Interested parties from the academe, government agencies, federally funded research and development centers as well as other organizations have until Oct. 12 to submit their responses to the notice.

"To date, the First Responder Portfolio has transitioned 22 technologies to the commercial marketplace for first responders to purchase, based on requirements these front line heroes have provided," said Greg Price, first responder portfolio manager at DHS.

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DOE Launches Effort to Build, Deploy Cybersecurity Tech for Utility Companies
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DOE Launches Effort to Build, Deploy Cybersecurity Tech for Utility Companies

The Department of Energy's Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security, and Emergency Response (CESER) has earmarked $12 million in cooperative agreements to support the development and deployment of cybersecurity technologies for distribution and municipal utility companies.

CESER will team up with the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA) and the American Public Power Association to build technologies that will track adversarial activities through community-led information sharing efforts, DOE said Friday.

The partnership also aims to employ artificial intelligence and advanced analytics to mitigate false positives in threat detection and determine how and when a system was compromised.

CESER seeks to field one technology from the program to utility companies by 2023. NRECA represents over 900 public power districts, electric cooperatives and public utility districts while APPA supports community-owned utilities that serve nearly 50M customers. 

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AFRL Plans to Launch Patrol Satellite Between Lunar, Earth Orbits; Capt. David Buehler Quoted
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AFRL Plans to Launch Patrol Satellite Between Lunar, Earth Orbits; Capt. David Buehler Quoted

The U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) is launching an effort to establish a satellite-based monitoring system for spacecraft traveling in the area between the lunar and Earth orbits.

AFRL intends to develop a prototype Cislunar Highway Patrol Satellite (CHPS) that will handle space domain awareness operations in the cislunar region, Breaking Defense reported Monday.

The lab is also assessing the feasibility of deploying CHPS in the Lagrange points, which are orbital domains that allow spacecraft to reduce fuel consumption through gravitational forces.

Capt. David Buehler, program manager at AFRL, told the publication in an email that the CHPS effort is in its early stages and the lab is “working to establish the science and technology required for domain awareness” to support missions beyond geosynchronous orbit.

Buehler noted that AFRL is also studying various launch options for CHPS as well as potential partnerships with NASA and industry.

"We are interested in technologies to support wide area search, narrow field tracking, and autonomous space domain awareness," he added. Other technologies of interest include positioning, navigation, and timing systems for flight experiments beyond GEO, said Buehler.

AFRL is looking to host an industry day on the CHPS effort in the coming summer.

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Ellen Lord: DoD Must Consolidate Military Construction Funds to Meet ICBM Modernization Deadlines
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Ellen Lord: DoD Must Consolidate Military Construction Funds to Meet ICBM Modernization Deadlines

Hon. Ellen Lord, the Department of Defense’s (DoD) acquisition head and a 2020 Wash100 Award recipient, said the Pentagon seeks to streamline military construction allocations to support the Ground Based Strategic Deterrent (GBSD) missile modernization program.

Lord, who serves as undersecretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment, told the Senate Armed Services Committee at a recent hearing that Congress should consider allowing flexibility in military construction funding to meet schedules for the GBSD program, Defense News reported Saturday.

The DoD intends to update 450 launch facilities and 45 launch centers comprising the intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) infrastructure to make way for the updated GBSD weapon.

Lord’s office is currently negotiating with Congress on legislation that would allow projects at launch facilities in one location to be consolidated into a single contract.

Jessica Maxwell, a spokesperson for the DoD, told Defense News in a statement that consolidating funding for ICBM infrastructure updates will help speed up the system's transition into GBSD and achieve the 2036 deadline for full operational capability.

“Our job in acquisition and sustainment [is] to not transition programmatic risks over to operational risk, and I’m afraid if we don’t move some of that money out of MILCON, that’s exactly what we would be doing,” Lord noted.

Ellen Lord: DoD Must Consolidate Military Construction Funds to Meet ICBM Modernization Deadlines

Hon. Ellen Lord will be featured as the keynote speaker during Potomac Officers Club's upcoming 5G Summit on October 27th. Don’t miss out on this must see event! Register here for the 5G Summit. 

Join POC to learn about the impact that innovative technologies and 5G integration are having on the private and public sectors, the steps the federal agencies have taken to remain up to speed with the rapid advancement of technology, and the future programs in development. 

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Donald Trump to Nominate Former Airman Brian Davis for Assistant Defense Secretary Role
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Donald Trump to Nominate Former Airman Brian Davis for Assistant Defense Secretary Role

President Trump intends to nominate Brian Davis, director of the Defense Personnel and Family Support Center, for the role of assistant defense secretary for manpower and reserve affairs.

In his current role, Davis oversees efforts to support the Department of Defense's reserve and civilian personnel and their families. His leadership also supports servicemen transitioning into civilian veterans.

Davis brings years of U.S. Air Force experience, having served as an officer with the 77th Air Refueling Squadron, the 459th Operations Group and the 507th Air Refueling Wing, the White House said Monday.

The military veteran held assignments under Operation Desert Storm, Operation Iraqi Freedom and many other defense campaigns.

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US, UK Sign Declaration on Joint AI R&D Initiatives
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US, UK Sign Declaration on Joint AI R&D Initiatives

The U.S. has entered into an agreement with the U.K. to launch a joint effort aimed at driving artificial intelligence-focused research and development, technology adoption and public-private partnerships. 

The declaration was signed by Michael Kratsios, U.S. chief technology officer and a 2020 Wash100 Award winner, and U.K. secretaries of state Alok Sharma and Oliver Dowden during last week’s Special Relationship Economic Working Group inaugural meeting, the State Department said Friday.

Under the agreement, the two countries will work to drive bilateral AI R&D partnerships and build on existing collaborations between the National Science Foundation (NSF) and its U.K. counterpart.

Both countries will also work to establish priorities for future research efforts, coordinate regulatory and cultural considerations and protect against the use of AI “in the service of authoritarianism and repression.”

The U.S. and U.K. will additionally work to promote dialogue between industry, the academe and the scientific community through researcher and student collaborations as well as private-sector partnerships.

“We intend to establish a bilateral government-to-government dialogue on the areas identified in this vision and explore an AI R&D ecosystem that promotes the mutual wellbeing, prosperity, and security of present and future generations,” according to the statement.

The new declaration builds on the US-UK Science and Technology Agreement signed in 2017.

US, UK Sign Declaration on Joint AI R&D Initiatives

On October 22nd, ArchIntel Events will host the ArchIntel – AI in Competitive Intelligence Forum as its first virtual event featuring August Jackson, senior director of Marketing and Competitive Intelligence for Deltek, as the keynote speaker.

Register here to attend ArchIntel’s first virtual event: AI in Competitive Intelligence Forum.

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Q&A with Mike Corkery, President and CEO of Deltek, Addresses Virtual Deltek Insight 2020, COVID-19 Impact on Deltek
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Q&A with Mike Corkery, President and CEO of Deltek, Addresses Virtual Deltek Insight 2020, COVID-19 Impact on Deltek

Mike Corkery, president and CEO of Deltek, and two-time Wash100 Award recipient, recently spoke with ExecutiveBiz regarding Deltek’s Insight 2020 Virtual Event, including event platforms and topics, as well as the impact that the COVID-19 pandemic had on Deltek’s workforce throughout the year, such as telework, social distancing and enacting a flexible workforce. 

"Every year, Deltek Insight brings together thousands of project focused professionals to exchange ideas, network and have some fun. This year was no different. And, by pivoting our customer conference to a virtual format, we reached over 15,000 members of Deltek Project Nation around the globe.”

Visit ExecutiveBiz.com to read the full Q&A with Wash100 Winner Mike Corkery of Deltek. To gain further insight into the mindset of the most significant executives of consequence GovCon sector, read the latest interviews from our 'Executive Spotlight' series. 

To read Benjamin Gilad’s full interview, and gain insight into other competitive intelligence and analysis experts’ perspectives, view ArchIntel’s ‘Competitive Intelligence Spotlight Series.’

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Forcepoint Launches Dynamic User Protection to Advance Threat Detection; Nico Popp, Doug Cahill Quoted
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Forcepoint Launches Dynamic User Protection to Advance Threat Detection; Nico Popp, Doug Cahill Quoted

Forcepoint has launched Dynamic User Protection to advance modern user activity monitoring (UAM) and insider threat protection, leveraging a cloud-native solution to deliver out-of-the-box functionality with no policy configuration, providing real-time visibility into true risk behaviors of compromised  users within hybrid cloud environments.

"In this next phase of cybersecurity, managing risk across the cloud, network and endpoint will drive everything. With Dynamic User Protection, Forcepoint is changing the rules of the cybersecurity game by delivering global enterprises the ability to automatically enforce security policy across all control points tailored to a specific end-user based on the risk they represent," said Nico Popp, chief product officer at Forcepoint. 

With the shift to remote work due to COVID-19, user security threats increased with critical data and intellectual property in unmanaged home environments. There has been a 400 percent increase in cyberattacks in 2020, according to an FBI report. 

Forcepoint’s Dynamic User Protection, organizations will be able to monitor user activity monitoring with mainstream enterprise access to continuous risk assessment across security control points. 

Dynamic User Protection's risk scores transform the traditional audit-only mode Data Loss Prevention (DLP) deployment to become intelligent DLP by automating policy response based on level of risk while significantly reducing false positives.

Dynamic User Protection utilizes Indicators of Behavior (IoB) as the real-time analytics engine to determine the overall risk of an entity. These IoBs deliver security teams context around behaviors and by combining multiple behaviors determines true risk scores that assess overall risk of an entity as good or bad.

"Digital transformation initiatives have been accelerated by a surge in remote work…  Leveraging User Activity Monitoring-as-a-Service allows enterprises to take advantage of what could best be called a 'data scientist in the cloud' to proactively manage user risk and protect critical data from being breached," said Doug Cahill, vice president and group director at Enterprise Strategy Group.

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