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GAO: DoD Should Initiate Steps to Better Understand Nature, Scope of Independent R&D Projects
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GAO: DoD Should Initiate Steps to Better Understand Nature, Scope of Independent R&D Projects

The Government Accountability Office has recommended that the Department of Defense perform annual reviews of independent research and development projects and determine whether to require contractors to provide additional data on IR&D projects for inclusion in its database to understand the scope and nature of such initiatives.

GAO analyzed IR&D projects completed in 2018 against DoD’s 10 modernization priorities and found that only 38 percent of the projects are aligned with the Pentagon’s technology goals, according to the report published Thursday. 

Those modernization priorities include artificial intelligence and machine learning, autonomy, cyber, hypersonics and quantum science.

“As a result, DOD risks making decisions about its multi-billion dollar science and tech investments that could duplicate work or miss opportunities to fill in gaps that the contributions of private industry do not cover,” the report reads.

The congressional watchdog also found that DoD’s projects database does not capture enough information on cost and innovation and whether a project is aligned with any of the department’s modernization priorities.

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CISA, EAC Launch Election Risk Profile Tool; Christopher Krebs Quoted
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CISA, EAC Launch Election Risk Profile Tool; Christopher Krebs Quoted

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and the Election Assistance Commission (US EAC) have unveiled a new tool designed to help local and state election officials assess and mitigate election security risks.

The Election Risk Profile Tool can help federal agencies and election officials manage cybersecurity threats to the election infrastructure subsector, identify areas of highest risk and ensure that technical cyber assessments meet critical needs, CISA said Wednesday.

“Together with our partners at the EAC, we are constantly looking for ways to make the process of mapping out these risks easier and widely available for all of our partners. This is yet another tool to help support election officials to protect the 2020 elections and beyond,” said Christopher Krebs, director of CISA and a 2020 Wash100 Award winner.

CISA funds the Election Risk Profile Tool through the National Risk Management Center’s Tech Transfer program.

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Aaron Weis: Navy to Implement Microsoft-Built Enterprise Collaboration Platform in 2021
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Aaron Weis: Navy to Implement Microsoft-Built Enterprise Collaboration Platform in 2021

Aaron Weis, chief information officer of the U.S. Navy and a 2020 Wash100 Award winner, said the service is transitioning away from a Microsoft-built collaboration tool temporarily deployed for telework operations, C4ISRnet reported Wednesday.

Weis told attendees at a Navy Gold Coast webinar that the service plans to implement a Microsoft Office 365 enterprise platform that includes the company’s Teams offering as the Department of Defense (DoD) prepares to discontinue the Teams-based Commercial Virtual Remote (CVR) environment in June 2021.

Office 365, which includes document-sharing and telephony tools, is expected to replace the CVR platform currently supporting around 200,000 DoD users.

“As we move to this new environment which will enable these capabilities, we will obsolete that legacy infrastructure, and there is goodness to be gained there from a cybersecurity perspective, from an operational perspective, from a cost perspective,” said Weis.

In January, the Navy and Marine Corps began a pilot effort to implement the Office 365 platform to support 10,000 users.

Potomac Officers Club will host its 2020 Navy Forum on September 30th. Click here to register for the event. James Geurts, Assistant Secretary for Research, Development, and Acquisition with the U.S. Navy and 2020 Wash100 Award recipient will serve as a keynote speaker during the event.

Geurts will discuss how the U.S. Navy has continually worked to decentralize, differentialize and digitize the service branch’s work as well as develop its talent in the field.

The Navy has also accelerated acquisition channels, modernized emerging technologies and increased research and development to become more effective in warfare. As the Navy continues to evolve to meet the growing demands, challenges still remain.

Join Potomac Officers Club’s 2020 Navy Forum to hear notable industry and federal leaders discuss the initiatives, efficiencies and challenges the service branch faces as well as how to join together to improve the future of warfare.

Click here to register for the 2020 Navy Forum.

USMC Rolls Out Network Activity in NCR; Col. Edward Debish Quoted
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USMC Rolls Out Network Activity in NCR; Col. Edward Debish Quoted

The U.S. Marine Corps has launched a new network activity that will work to connect computers, warfighters and other communications devices within the National Capital Region (NCR).

The Network Activity – NCR is designed to update the Marine Corps' capacity to mitigate network outages and counter cyberattacks, the service branch said Wednesday.

The network activity is USMC's second network-focused unit and is established to manage and control the Marine Corps Enterprise Network's components in NCR.

“This will realign the workforce and all of its resources; I’m talking about people and money,” said Col. Edward Debish, a commanding officer at Marine Corps Cyberspace Operations Group.

USMC noted it plans to roll out three network activities and three network battalions. The Marine Corps aims to deliver secure end‐to‐end communications to support units and forward-deployed forces through MCEN.

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AFRL to Pursue New Studies on Ionosphere, Cislunar Space
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AFRL to Pursue New Studies on Ionosphere, Cislunar Space

Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) has unveiled plans for two new space projects administered by AFRL’s space vehicles directorate, Space News reported Wednesday.

The first project will experiment on low orbit satellite instruments, and the second one will test sensors designed to monitor the space between Earth and the moon.

The first experiment, titled Precise, will use satellite instruments to assess the ionosphere’s changes that stem from various ion source gas compositions. This study seeks to further understand the ionosphere and the effects of these gases on satellite communications.

The other one, called CHPS, will aim to demonstrate situational awareness in cislunar space that extends from geosynchronous Earth orbit to the moon. AFRL selected the two from entries submitted by 27 teams.

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NSF Supports Institutes for Data Science Research, Education
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NSF Supports Institutes for Data Science Research, Education

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has launched a five-year effort to produce and gather research on data science, with regard to the areas of algorithm development, cyberinfrastructure and education.

NSF said Tusday that its institutes under the Transdisciplinary Research in Principles of Data Science (TRIPODS) program will work to foster data science innovation and host educational programs that engage with students for workforce development in the field.

The Foundations of Data Science Institute and the Institute for Foundations of Data Science, both NSF-supported entities, will tackle multiple topics under TRIPODS. The former will study computational efficiency, societal impacts, modeling and other aspects of data science, and the latter will develop ways to boost the efficiency and resiliency of computing.

Participants of these TRIPODS institutes include the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of California-Berkeley and the University of Washington.

Rance Cleaveland, division director for computing and communication foundations at NSF, said the program addresses data science challenges in alignment with the existing Harnessing the Data Revolution effort.
 

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NNSA Makes New Communications Network for Emergency Responders
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NNSA Makes New Communications Network for Emergency Responders

The Department of Energy's (DOE) National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) has adopted a new network designed to facilitate communications for emergency response personnel. DOE said Wednesday that it stood up the Emergency Communications Network (ECN) to help responders communicate in an encrypted network and coordinate with partners.

ECN is made to support information-heavy workloads related to radiological detection, geographic information system maps, data telemetry and other similar applications. NNSA hosts the network from a Las Vegas-based facility. The agency completed ECN under budget with an estimated migration cost of $7.8 million.

“Our emergency responders deserve the fastest and most reliable communications available to effectively respond to nuclear or radiological incidents or accidents,” said Lisa Gordon-Hagerty, NNSA Administrator, who also attended the ECN facility's ribbon-cutting ceremony.

NASA, GPO Officials Talk Agency Efforts to Address Telework Needs
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NASA, GPO Officials Talk Agency Efforts to Address Telework Needs

Sam Musa and Emma Antunes, the respective chief information officers of the Government Publishing Office (GPO) and NASA, said their agencies are working on approaches to telework following the COVID-19 pandemic., Federal News Network repoted Wednesday. 

Musa told attendees at a FedInsider-sponsored virtual event that GPO deployed laptops and printers in addition to virtual desktops to address operational disruptions amid the global health crisis. GPO also implemented a virtual private network and security tokens to minimize the need for physical presence, he added.

“With respect to COVID-19, one of the challenges we faced recently was the increased telework capacity,” said Musa. “As a matter of fact our telework force almost doubled as a result of this pandemic.”

Antunes noted at the same event that 20 percent of the staff at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center have returned to on-site operations to manage launch windows and space communications.

Goddard staff have also implemented Jabber and Microsoft’s Teams collaboration tools to address telework needs, she added.

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Radiance Technologies Promotes Tim Tinsley as EVP of Defense
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Radiance Technologies Promotes Tim Tinsley as EVP of Defense

Radiance Technologies has promoted Tim Tinsley as executive vice president for the company’s Defense Sector, Radiance reported on Thursday. Prior to his promotion, Tinsley served as senior vice president of the Integration and Prototyping Group.

In his new role, Tinsley will provide executive leadership across the characterization and weaponization of directed energy, development and fielding of hypersonic technologies, the proliferation of military, civilian and commercial space, evaluation of weapon systems and the development of prototype advanced technology solutions.

Tinsley joined Radiance in 2004, and he has held a variety of senior leadership roles across program management, technology development, business development, operations and management. Since joining the company, he has significantly grown and diversified aerospace and defense technology areas for Radiance.

He has focused specifically in aviation, weapon systems, sensor systems, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance, and test and evaluation markets. Prior to joining Radiance, Tinsley worked in commercial manufacturing and missile defense industries, and has held positions with Booz Allen Hamilton, Schafer Corporation and International Paper.

Tinsley is a Distinguished Fellow of the Mechanical Engineering Department at the University of Alabama.

About Radiance Technologies, Inc.

Radiance Technologies is an employee-owned small business prime contractor founded in 1999. Radiance has over 800 employee-owners across the United States serving the Department of Defense, national intelligence community and other government agencies.

From concepts to capabilities, Radiance leads the way in developing customer-focused solutions in the areas of cyber security, systems engineering, prototyping and integration as well as operational and strategic intelligence including scientific and technical intelligence.

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General Dynamics Mission Systems-Dedrone Team to Advance Drone Technology; Chris Brady Quoted
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General Dynamics Mission Systems-Dedrone Team to Advance Drone Technology; Chris Brady Quoted

General Dynamics Missions Systems (GDMS) has made a strategic counter-drone partnership with Dedrone, providing General Dynamics’ global network with access to Dedrone’s complete drone detection and defeat technology.

“The intrusion of private and restricted airspace by unmanned aerial systems is one of the fastest-growing threats facing our customers, and Dedrone’s counter UAS technology platform is the market-leading solution to defeat those threats,” said Chris Brady, president of GDMS and 2020 Wash100 Award recipient.

Under strategic agreement, GDMS will become a value-added reseller for Dedrone’s counter-unmanned aerial system (C-UAS) capabilities, after an equity investment in Dedrone. General Dynamics will exclusively supply Dedrone’s counter-drone technology to their global defense, civil government, intelligence and critical infrastructure customers.

Dedrone has exclusively focused on C-UAS detection, making the company the industry leader, having production systems fielded and in operational use worldwide. The Dedrone C-UAS technology portfolio has migrated machine-learning (ML) software with best-in-class hardware sensors, electronic attack methods such as smart jamming and defeat weapons.

The company’s integrated systems will provide early warning, classification of and mitigation against drone threats. Dedrone’s capabilities have been leveraged by the U.S. military, allied and coalition forces, correctional facilities, airports, utilities and corporations.

“We’re excited to partner with Dedrone to provide counter-drone capabilities to our global customer base,” Brady concluded.

About General Dynamics Mission Systems

General Dynamics Mission Systems, a business unit of General Dynamics (NYSE: GD), provides mission critical solutions to those who lead, serve and protect the world we live in. We are a technology integrator and original equipment manufacturer with deep domain expertise in ground, sea, air, space and cyberspace. Headquartered in Fairfax, Virginia, General Dynamics Mission Systems employs more than 12,000 people worldwide.

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