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GAO Requests Comments on Agile Assessment Guide
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GAO Requests Comments on Agile Assessment Guide

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has asked interested stakeholders to comment on a draft guide that presents best practices to assess the use of Agile approach to software development across the federal government.

GAO said in a report published Monday the Agile Assessment Guide seeks to serve federal auditors, organizations and programs that have come up with protocols and policies for Agile adoption and seek to assess their Agile approach to software development. 

The guide groups the best practices into several categories, including team dynamics and activities; requirements development; Agile and the federal contracting process; Agile and program monitoring and control; and Agile metrics.

For Agile and contracting, best practices include tailoring contract structure and inputs to align with Agile practices, integrating the program office and developers and incorporating Agile tools, metrics and lessons learned from retrospectives during the contract oversight process.

Comments on the exposure draft are due Sept. 27, 2021.

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DoD Seeks Feedback on Interim Rule for CMMC Implementation
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DoD Seeks Feedback on Interim Rule for CMMC Implementation

The Department of Defense (DoD) is seeking comments on an interim rule to implement the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification framework and an assessment methodology as part of efforts to better protect unclassified data within the DoD supply chain and evaluate vendors’ implementation of cyber requirements.

DoD introduced the interim rule as an amendment to the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement, according to a notice posted Tuesday on Federal Register.

The proposed regulation amends a subpart in DFARS to implement the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Special Publication 800-171 DoD Assessment Methodology. Under this amendment, contracting officers should verify in the Supplier Performance Risk System that a vendor has a current assessment on record under NIST SP 800-171 before a contract award.

The rule also directs contracting officers to validate in SPRS if the contractor’s certification under CMMC is current and meets the required cyber maturity level prior to making the award.

“A new DFARS clause 252.204-7021, Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification Requirements, is prescribed for use in all solicitations and contracts or task orders or delivery orders, excluding those exclusively for the acquisition of COTS items,” the rule reads.

Comments on the interim rule are due Nov. 30.

DoD Seeks Feedback on Interim Rule for CMMC Implementation

Katherine Arrington, chief information security officer (CISO) for the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition (OUSDA) for the Department of Defense (DoD) and 2020 Wash100 Award recipient, will be featured as the keynote speaker for the Fall 2020 CMMC Forum. Click here to register for the Fall 2020 CMMC Forum.

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ODNI Names Lora Shiao COO; John Ratcliffe Quoted
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ODNI Names Lora Shiao COO; John Ratcliffe Quoted

Lora Shiao, deputy director at the National Counterterrorism Center has been appointed to serve as chief operating officer in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, effective Oct. 12.

The two-decade intelligence community veteran led the NCTC as executive director before she assumed her current role in April and previously served as the center’s deputy director of intelligence for three years, ODNI said Friday.

“Lora has a strong track record of leading collaboratively across the IC on high-profile topics and fostering a corporate culture of workforce engagement and professional development,” said DNI John Ratcliffe.

“She has a deep commitment to taking care of and mentoring IC professionals.”

Shiao, who became a Senior National Intelligence Service member in May 2014, also worked for the FBI and the Department of Defense. Her government career has included work with IC, law enforcement, homeland security and military organizations via joint-duty assignments.

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Navy Commissions USS Delbert D. Black Destroyer
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Navy Commissions USS Delbert D. Black Destroyer

The U.S. Navy held a limited-attendance commissioning ceremony for USS Delbert D. Black, the 68th delivered Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer. 

The service branch said Saturday that it live-streamed the event for mass viewing. James Guerts, assistant secretary of the Navy and 2020 Wash100 Award winner, represented Navy Secretary Kenneth J. Braithwaite at the ceremony.

USS Delbert D. Black's name honors the very first master chief petty officer of the Navy. Black joined the Navy in 1941 and was appointed to become the Navy's first MCPON in 1967. His naval career includes assignments aboard USS Barnes, USS Boxer and USS Maryland, with deployments at Pearl Harbor.

“This is the first ship to honor a senior enlisted leader in such a way for their contributions in this realm, and represents a significant milestone achievement that recognizes both the responsibility of the position to the Navy, as well the tremendous accountability to those enlisted Sailors we primarily provide advocacy for,” said Russell Smith, the current MCPON.

Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers bring modern capabilities to support a wide variety of naval operations, such as carrier strikes and surface battles. Huntington Ingalls Industries built USS Delbert D. Black, also known as DDG 119.

Navy Commissions USS Delbert D. Black Destroyer

Don’t miss Potomac Officer Club’s 2020 Navy Forum on Wednesday, September. 30th. You can learn more at PotomacOfficersClub.com.

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Sgt. Maj. Sheryl Lyon Assumes Role as USCYBERCOM Senior Enlisted Leader; Gen. Paul Nakasone Quoted
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Sgt. Maj. Sheryl Lyon Assumes Role as USCYBERCOM Senior Enlisted Leader; Gen. Paul Nakasone Quoted

Sgt. Maj. Sheryl Lyon, formerly with Army Cyber Command, has taken up her new role as command senior enlisted leader of U.S. Cyber Command and the National Security Agency (NSA).

She will oversee military advocacy efforts and help officials address military workforce issues in her new role,  succeeding Master Gunnery Sgt. Scott Stalker, who is now U.S. Space Command's senior enlisted leader, NSA said Friday.

Her assumption of the role took place at a limited-attendance ceremony due to COVID-19 restrictions, but was virtually streamed across USCYBERCOM.

“She represents what makes the senior enlisted leaders so critical to our military, and as the first woman to hold this position here, I know she is a role model for everyone to look up to,” said Gen. Paul Nakasone, USCYBERCOM commander and NSA director and four-time Wash100 Award recipient.

Lyon holds almost three decades of signals intelligence experience with the Army, having held a variety of leadership roles within the service, such as senior enlisted leader of U.S. Army Europe.

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Ryan McCarthy: Army Seeks ‘Transformational Change’ With Project Convergence Network Experiment
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Ryan McCarthy: Army Seeks ‘Transformational Change’ With Project Convergence Network Experiment

Ryan McCarthy, secretary of the U.S. Army and a 2020 Wash100 Award recipient, said he hopes the results of the service branch’s recent “Project Convergence” experiment will inform future network modernization efforts.

The Army included artificial intelligence technologies such as the “Firestorm” reconnaissance system during a follow-up Project Convergence test that took place last week, the Army News Service reported Friday.

Brig. Gen. Ross Coffman, director of the Army's cross-functional team for next-generation combat vehicles, said the Army utilized F-35 Lightning II fighter jets during the experiment to transmit data to ground units at Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona.

Gen. James McConville, chief of staff at the Army, said the project serves as “a major step forward” in establishing the service's combat capabilities over the next four decades.

“We're looking for transformational change in the Army, not incremental improvements,” noted McCarthy.

"This may not only be the most important thing Army Futures Command works on, this may be the most important thing the Army is doing,” added Gen. John Murray, commander of the AFC and fellow 2020 Wash100 Award winner.

The Project Convergence exercises, which began last month, sought to test current joint all-domain combat technologies and an integrated tactical network including land, air and space sensors.

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Rep. Jennifer Wexton, Sen. Mazie Hirono Introduce Bill Mandating Research Into COVID-19 Disinformation
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Rep. Jennifer Wexton, Sen. Mazie Hirono Introduce Bill Mandating Research Into COVID-19 Disinformation

Rep. Jennifer Wexton, D-Va., and Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, have introduced legislation authorizing the National Science Foundation (NSF) and National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) to conduct research into disinformation during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The COVID-19 Disinformation Research and Reporting Act earmarks $1 million for NSF and NASEM to study the use of social media in spreading false information and manipulating public response to the global health crisis, Wexton’s office said Thursday. 

According to Hirono, the bill is meant to identify “where coronavirus disinformation came from, how it spread, and how to mitigate the impact of COVID-related misinformation and disinformation going forward".

“With this legislation, Senator Hirono and I are tasking the brightest scientific minds to examine this threat and provide lawmakers with the objective analysis we need to confront it,” said Wexton.

Research work will also cover financial incentives resulting from the spread of misinformation and potential strategies to mitigating such tactics. Wexton and Hironi will hold a virtual roundtable on Tuesday to discuss the legislation.

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ST Engineering Names Dianne Howells President, CEO of Miltope Corporation; Tom Vecchiolla Quoted
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ST Engineering Names Dianne Howells President, CEO of Miltope Corporation; Tom Vecchiolla Quoted

ST Engineering North America has appointed Dianne Howells as president and chief executive officer of Miltope Corporation, effective Sept. 28, 2020, the company reported on Monday. Howells will succeed Jack Haley, who has led Miltope Corporation since 2017.

“We welcome Dianne as she assumes the leadership role at Miltope,” said Wash100 Award recipient, Tom Vecchiolla, chairman and CEO of ST Engineering North America. “Dianne’s experience and proven track record as a business leader makes her the right choice for Miltope.”

Howells has more than two decades of experience in the aerospace and defense industry. She also has demonstrated leadership in program management, product development, manufacturing and sales growth.

Most recently, Howells served as vice president of Line of Business with Leonardo DRS. She has also held a variety of senior leadership positions with Raytheon and Electronic Data Systems. Howells began her career as a software engineer for General Dynamics.

Howells holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Texas A&M University, as well as certifications in Program Management, Lean Six Sigma, Earned Value Management and Integrated Product Team Leadership.

About ST Engineering

ST Engineering North America is the U.S. headquarters of ST Engineering, a global technology and engineering group, providing integrated solutions to the commercial and government markets in the aerospace, electronics, land systems, and marine sectors.

Within the US, we have major operations in 17 cities across 13 states and more than 5,500 employees, providing innovative products and services across these diverse market segments.

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USAF Signs $67M in Contracts to Advance Virtual Training; Maj. Mark Budgeon Quoted
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USAF Signs $67M in Contracts to Advance Virtual Training; Maj. Mark Budgeon Quoted

The U.S. Air Force has allocated $67 million in contracts to develop the service branch’s virtual training, FedScoop reported on Monday. The work under the contract will provide airmen with new training platforms that educate on aircraft and other systems, as the military continues to social distance during the ongoing pandemic.

“The system simulates real workspaces for occupational safety and health, educational and training purposes. It will be used to provide aircraft maintainers with a virtual environment where they can develop and improve their skills on various aircraft platforms,” the contract release states.

The U.S. Air Force has awarded Mass Virtual two firm-fixed-price contracts, one for $60 million and one for $7 million, that will extend the company's efforts, leveraging its virtual reality training services. The service branch began working with Mass Virtual last fall, awarding the firm a small prototype contract at a pitch event focused on virtual reality training systems.

The contracts with Mass Virtual will promote aircraft familiarization and real-time task manual instruction. The U.S. Air Force has recently increased reliance on virtual reality training and augmented reality simulators as a means to give pilots hands-on, simulated virtual training. 

Integrating virtual and augmented reality systems has relied on large data sets of flight simulations and artificial intelligence (AI) to provide pilots with realistic training environments. The U.S. Air Force has started on a new virtual training system, Pilot Training Next, which is being incorporated into undergraduate pilot training. 

In July, the U.S. Air Force announced a new virtual reality trainer is one step closer to potentially transforming the way B-52 Stratofortress student-pilots train for combat, the Virtual Reality Procedures Trainer (VRPT).

The VRPT, developed by Maj. Mark Budgeon with the Air Force Global Strike Command, Maj. Brandon Wolf with the 307th Operations Support Squadron and Maj. Justin Stephenson with the 11th Bomb Squadron chief pilot and chief of innovations.

“Our adversaries are getting much better, much faster,” Budgeon said. “This system has the potential to revolutionize the entire training process and make our student graduates better.”

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Northrop Grumman to Launch NG-14 Resupply to ISS
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Northrop Grumman to Launch NG-14 Resupply to ISS

Northrop Grumman Corporation has planned to launch the company’s 14th resupply mission (NG-14) to the International Space Station under NASA’s Commercial Resupply Services-2 contract, the company reported on Monday. Liftoff of the Antares rocket is scheduled for Oct. 1 at 9:38 p.m. EDT from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport Pad 0A on Wallops Island, at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility. 

Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus spacecraft will launch on the Antares rocket, carrying scientific research, supplies and hardware for the ISS astronauts. Cygnus hosts the Northrop Grumman-built SharkSat payload and will perform the Saffire–V experiment. The company has also initiated a  secondary mission for Cygnus after leaving the ISS. 

The NG-14 mission commemorates Kalpana Chawla, a NASA astronaut and the first woman of Indian descent to fly in space. The S.S. Kalpana Chawla will remain attached to the ISS for approximately three months before departing with up to 8,200 pounds (approximately 3,720 kilograms) of disposal cargo.   

Northrop Grumman’s announcement adds to the company’s deep rooted partnership with NASA. Recently, the company announced that it worked with NASA to complete a static fire test for the rocket motor element of the Space Launch System in Promontory, Utah, ahead of the agency’s subsequent Artemis deep-space missions.

The NASA-Northrop team tested the SLS heavy-lift vehicle’s flight support booster and saw the rocket component generate over 3.6M pounds of thrust within two minutes. The five-segment FSB-1 spans 154 feet and will operate as part of a twin-booster component designed to handle 75 percent of the SLS rocket’s initial thrust during launch.

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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