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FirstNet Wins Army Task Order to Advance Public Safety Communications; Jill Singer, Kevin Comfort Quoted
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FirstNet Wins Army Task Order to Advance Public Safety Communications; Jill Singer, Kevin Comfort Quoted

The U.S. Army has awarded FirstNet a task order to support firefighters, law enforcement and security personnel at 72 Army installations across the U.S. and Puerto Rico, the company reported on Tuesday. FirstNet will provide support and mission-focused tools to help the Army ensure reliable, secure communications capabilities during national emergencies.

"FirstNet is helping us improve vital communications on our installations, depots and arsenals, including during catastrophic disasters or emergencies when communications capabilities are strained," said Col. Kevin Comfort, Command Provost Marshal at Headquarters, Installation Management Command. 

Under the task order, AT&T will deliver nearly 3,200 lines of FirstNet services, more than 3,000 FirstNet-capable devices and over 700 signal boosters to help improve indoor connectivity. The company will also provide staging and kitting of devices, including preloading multiple FirstNet apps on the devices. 

"We're adopting FirstNet because it is designed for public safety professionals with priority, preemption and highly reliable data communications that will improve our overall response and our interoperability with our civilian partners," Comfort added. 

In addition, the U.S. Army will gain access to more than 76 land-based and airborne portable cell sites stationed across the country to provide connectivity during significant events in support of public safety's mission.

"It's an honor to help the U.S. Army enhance its vital communications with FirstNet capabilities," said Jill Singer, vice president of Defense and National Security, AT&T Public Sector and FirstNet. Singer is also a 2020 Wash100 Award recipient and notable GovCon Expert.

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US, ‘Five Eyes’ Allies Seek Public-Private Sector Commitment to Encryption Policies
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US, ‘Five Eyes’ Allies Seek Public-Private Sector Commitment to Encryption Policies

The U.S. attorney general and four government officials representing Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the U.K. have signed a joint statement seeking renewed commitment on encryption and data security.

William Barr and the allied signatories wrote in the statement dated Oct. 11th that they support strong encryption approaches that help protect privacy, personal data, trade secrets, intellectual property and cybersecurity.

The group said that law enforcement agencies are responsible for prosecuting crime related to data security while tech companies must ensure that end-to-end encryption technology enables user authorities.

Industry must also work with governments and stakeholders to inform system designs and address “serious concerns” on the illegal access of personal content, they wrote. According to the statement, companies should allow law enforcement agencies to access such content “in a readable and usable format” subject to legal approval.

“We are committed to working with industry to develop reasonable proposals that will allow technology companies and governments to protect the public and their privacy, defend cyber security and human rights and support technological innovation," the statement notes.

The signatories include Priti Patel, the U.K. secretary of state for the home department; Peter Dutton, Australian minister for home affairs; Andrew Little, New Zealand minister of justice; and Bill Blair, Canadian minister of public safety and emergency preparedness.

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Booz Allen Launches SnapAttack to Advance Cybersecurity; Garretson Blight Quoted
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Booz Allen Launches SnapAttack to Advance Cybersecurity; Garretson Blight Quoted

Booz Allen Hamilton has launched SnapAttack, a cloud-based software solution that will merge actionable threat intelligence and hacker detection by unifying the security lifecycle into a single solution, the company reported on Tuesday. 

“We built SnapAttack to satisfy a critical need to help our own red and blue teams collaborate more effectively. This approach continually increases our confidence in detecting sophisticated threats through threat hunting and improving our defenses in support of clients worldwide,” said Garretson Blight, Booz Allen’s director of Dark Labs.

Booz Allen’s SnapAttack will mimic attacks from intelligence data, share insights of malicious behavior and develop vendor-agnostic behavioral detection analytics to stop advanced adversaries.

“We’re now offering this product, borne out of Booz Allen’s expertise in commercial and nation-state-level cyber operations to help our clients do the same,” Blight added. 

As a cloud-based software solution, SnapAttack is always up to date. New attack techniques and analytics are regularly pushed to subscribers, but advanced teams can harness the full power of the platform to create their own attack techniques and analytics based on internal threat intelligence.

SnapAttack will offer a centralized offensive tradecraft to capture and organize adversary tradecraft to help security teams gain confidence in their organization's ability to prepare for, prevent, and detect emerging threats. 

Booz Allen’s solution will also improve detection with existing tools, leveraging the company’s advanced analytic builder to create, test and deploy high-quality behavioral analytic. Booz Allen has also followed MITRE ATT&CK framework to validate security controls against true positive attacks. 

“SnapAttack addresses the needs of CISOs and SOC leads to deploy proactive, preventive security measures that continuously test cyber defenses to get ahead of attacks by identifying and addressing potential vulnerabilities and control gaps before the adversary can,” said Brad Medairy, a Booz Allen EVP and leader of the firm’s cybersecurity and engineering business.

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Maxar Enters Contract Extension with Esri to Continue Licensing Data; Dan Jablonsky Quoted
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Maxar Enters Contract Extension with Esri to Continue Licensing Data; Dan Jablonsky Quoted

Maxar Technologies has signed a multi-million dollar contract extension with Esri to continue licensing data for the ArcGIS Living Atlas of the World through 2023, Maxar reported on Tuesday. The agreement will provide access to Maxar imagery and expanded rights for Esri developers focused on commercial location-based applications to integrate Maxar imagery products.

“Maxar is exceptionally proud to continue its longstanding partnership with Esri, one of many organizations whose users demand the unrivaled quality of our imagery products,” said Dan Jablonsky, Maxar CEO. “The investments we’re making in our next-generation WorldView Legion satellites ensure that we will be able to continue delivering these imagery products to our customers for many years to come.”

Maxar has continued to serve as Esri’s foundation imagery provider, supplying high-resolution satellite imagery for the Living Atlas of the World. The offering includes geographic information layers and data sets, such as maps, apps and data layers and population statistics of all types. 

Maxar Vivid and Metro offerings, which are global imagery basemaps made from Maxar satellite imagery available on the market. Under the partnership, Living Altas will also gain access to NaturalVue 2.0, an image mosaic, to create a seamless, virtually cloud-free, 15-meter basemap that reflects the Earth’s true colors. 

Additionally, Maxar will offer National Urban Change Indicator (NUCI), a commercial urban change detection product. 

“Esri is excited to leverage the power of Maxar’s commercial imagery as a key component of our global Living Atlas. Their offerings provide our company with exceptional quality, both in resolution and geometric accuracy,” said Jack Dangermond, Esri founder and president. 

About Maxar

Maxar is a trusted partner and innovator in Earth Intelligence and Space Infrastructure. We deliver disruptive value to government and commercial customers to help them monitor, understand and navigate our changing planet; deliver global broadband communications; and explore and advance the use of space. 

Our unique approach combines decades of deep mission understanding and a proven commercial and defense foundation to deploy solutions and deliver insights with unrivaled speed, scale and cost effectiveness. Maxar’s 4,000 team members in 20 global locations are inspired to harness the potential of space to help our customers create a better world. Maxar trades on the New York Stock Exchange and Toronto Stock Exchange as MAXR.

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Northrop Grumman Successfully Completes System Requirements Review for Aether Spy; William Phillips, Thomas Dalrymple Quoted
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Northrop Grumman Successfully Completes System Requirements Review for Aether Spy; William Phillips, Thomas Dalrymple Quoted

Northrop Grumman has successfully completed the System Requirements Review (SRR) and will now enter into the design phase of the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) Aether Spy next-generation multifunction radar program, the company reported on Tuesday.

“Aether Spy will enable significant improvements in surveillance and battle management missions in the future battlespace. The multifunction aspects are enabled by both software and hardware programmability that will ensure this sensor will have operational impact for years to come,” said Thomas Dalrymple, technical advisor for Sensor Subsystems at the AFRL Sensors Directorate.

Aether Spy will expand multifunction wideband digital Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) technology, leveraging advanced microelectronics created on the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Arrays on Commercial Timescales (ACT) program.

“The advanced integrated circuits, digital AESA architecture and multifunction software developed on Aether Spy will become foundational building blocks for the next generation of multifunction radio frequency (RF) systems supporting the future mission needs of the Department of Defense (DoD),” said William Phillips, director, multifunction systems, Northrop Grumman.

Aether Spy will develop the next generation of integrated circuits, such as additional processing and key design features. The advanced devices will be developed and integrated into an advanced digital AESA to create a multifunction system. The system will be able to simultaneously perform multiple sensing, communication and electronic warfare functions.

“We look forward to demonstrating how the advanced digital AESA technology enables unmatched system agility that will meet the challenging mission requirements of advanced platforms,” Phillips added.

The solution will support the DoD trusted microelectronics strategy.

About Northrop Grumman

Northrop Grumman solves the toughest problems in space, aeronautics, defense and cyberspace to meet the ever evolving needs of our customers worldwide. Our 90,000 employees define possible every day using science, technology and engineering to create and deliver advanced systems, products and services.

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NASA to Fund Battelle Study on Chemical Properties of Tree Canopy Structure; Keith Krause Quoted
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NASA to Fund Battelle Study on Chemical Properties of Tree Canopy Structure; Keith Krause Quoted

Battelle has announced that NASA will fund a three-year collaborative project to investigate how the chemical properties of leaves and tree canopy structures affect remote sensing observations. 

“The goal of the research is to understand the linkages between canopy structure and the leaf traits that influence photosynthetic capacity,” said NEON’s Keith Krause, who is leading the research. “This should allow us to improve our interpretation of remote sensing data and to better map and monitor rates of productivity in forest ecosystems.”

Funded under NASA’s Research Opportunities in Space and Earth Science program, the study will be led by Battelle, the Rochester Institute of Technology and the University of New Hampshire using data from the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) program.

The researchers will leverage multi-modal remote sensing with passive solar-reflected hyperspectral and active discrete/waveform LiDAR data to study structure and trait relationships across a wide range of spatial resolutions. NEON’s data with NASA’s satellite technology will provide a more expanded knowledge of structure and trait relationships.

Researchers will investigate how trees grow, provide different habitats for various animals and what factors affect the exchange of carbon dioxide with the atmosphere. The researchers will also study the vegetation chemistry and forest health. 

Researchers will use two existing NEON sites for the study: the Harvard Forest in Massachusetts and the Bartlett Experimental Forest in New Hampshire. The study will use field measurements and remote sensing data from the sites to augment with simulations of realistic forests. 

About Battelle

Every day, the people of Battelle apply science and technology to solving what matters most. At major technology centers and national laboratories around the world, Battelle conducts research and development, designs and manufactures products, and delivers critical services for government and commercial customers. Headquartered in Columbus, Ohio since its founding in 1929, Battelle serves the national security, health and life sciences, and energy and environmental industries.

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Bruce Jette on US Army’s Project Convergence
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Bruce Jette on US Army’s Project Convergence

Bruce Jette, the U.S. Army’s acquisition chief and a 2020 Wash100 Award winner, told Defense News in an interview published Monday about Project Convergence and how it allows the service to integrate existing capabilities.

“Project Convergence was, in many ways, a weaving together of existing capabilities that had not been brought together in the manner that they were for that demonstration,” Jette told the publication. “There were changes to DOTMLPF pieces, [or doctrine, organization, training, materiel, leadership and education, personnel, and facilities], that were significant.”

He mentioned the TITAN ground station as a program of record and the Army’s move to an architectural approach and design.

“The optionally manned fighting vehicle is going to be a cornerstone for us driving toward an architected vehicle development,” Jette said. “Our objective is to establish a fundamental architecture for where these are — not just the vehicles but our entire system of systems, which then become a core requirement of any system that gets bid out."

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Two USAF Commands Seek to Advance Collaboration Between Program Offices, Operational Wings; Gen. Arnold Bunch Quoted
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Two USAF Commands Seek to Advance Collaboration Between Program Offices, Operational Wings; Gen. Arnold Bunch Quoted

Air Force Materiel Command (AFMC) and Air Force Global Strike Command (AFGSC) have signed a memorandum of agreement to create a program to provide operators and program managers an opportunity to gain insight into each other’s missions and share information to improve readiness and lethality, the service branch reported Sunday.

The Weapons Systems Lead Wing Collaboration program will involve biannual immersions to help AFMC personnel better understand sortie generation, back-shop maintenance and other operational activities. 

AFGSC personnel will learn more about acquisition, contracting and other lifecycle management activities related to the development and sustainment of weapons systems through those immersions.

“With today’s near-peer competition and the challenges we face in delivering the technology our Air Force needs to achieve our National Defense Strategy, we need to have a common understanding with the operational units to ensure what we deliver meets their current and emerging needs,” said Gen. Arnold Bunch, commander of AFMC. 

“Strong lines of communication and a robust exchange of information between our operators and acquisition professionals is critical to delivering what the Air Force needs to succeed.”

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AI National Security Commission Presents 80 Recommendations in Interim Report
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AI National Security Commission Presents 80 Recommendations in Interim Report

The National Security Commission for Artificial Intelligence (NSCAI) has released an interim report detailing 80 draft recommendations for the federal government to advance AI.

NSCAI grouped the recommendations based on six lines of effort: strengthen the triangular alliance for AI research and development; apply AI for national security missions; train and recruit AI talent; protect and build upon U.S. technology advantages; marshal global AI cooperation; and defend and compete against malign information operations enabled by AI.

For the first line of effort, the commission suggested the creation of AI testbeds to serve the industry and academic research communities, formation of an AI innovator award program to invest in top talent and optimization of the Department of Defense’s (DoD) Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program to develop and field AI platforms to meet the needs of warfighters.

NSCAI also presented several recommendations to apply AI in support of national security missions. The commission called on the intelligence community to come up with a federated and coordinated approach to applying AI-based applications to open source intelligence. 

The undersecretary of defense for research and engineering should also have a fund to prototype and mature AI-based technologies. NSCAI expects to release its final recommendations in March 2021.

AI National Security Commission Presents 80 Recommendations in Interim Report

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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USDA Releases Playbook for Improving Website User Experience
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USDA Releases Playbook for Improving Website User Experience

The Department of Agriculture (USDA) has issued a digital strategy playbook to help USDA components and other agencies implement best practices in developing user-centric websites.

USDA’s playbook builds on the department’s work under the General Services Administration’s (GSA) Centers of Excellence (CoE) program and is meant to serve as a tool for designing agency websites that improve customer experience, FedTech reported Wednesday.

The guide encompasses seven criteria, namely research, analytics, content, accessibility, design and brand, development and social media.

Simchah Suveyke-Bogin, chief customer experience officer at USDA, said at a prior GSA event that the department intended to provide user experience designers with concrete steps to meeting development goals.

“We ended up understanding that there is a place that people need to go and a place that needs to be a little bit more clear of what to do and the direction to take,” she said.

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