FirstNet, an AT&T subsidiary, has announced new capabilities to first responders across the country as coronavirus (COVID-19) has continued to spread throughout the nation, FirstNet reported on Tuesday.

“Now, agencies spanning law enforcement, fire, EMS, healthcare, hospital emergency departments, emergency management and 911 operations can stay up-to-date with smartphones for life at no additional cost and know their responders’ devices are up to the task when the next emergency strikes,” said Jason Porter, senior vice president, FirstNet Program at AT&T.

With FirstNet’s solution, FirstNet Ready, the technology will enable agencies to use free smartphone devices to connect them to critical communications when and where they need it. The COVID-19 health crisis has provided nationwide high-speed broadband communications platforms dedicated to America’s first responders.

Developed from the ground up specifically for and with public safety, FirstNet Push-to-Talk (PTT) is the first-ever nationwide mission-critical standards-based push-to-talk solution to launch in the U.S. We tested the FirstNet PTT solution with public safety agencies across the country, including the Cranford Police Department in New Jersey.

“Reliable communication is critical. It must work. It must be there when we need it. And it must be crystal clear because we don’t have time to repeat ourselves or introduce room for errors in fast-changing situations or when lives are on the line. Our experience with FirstNet Push-to-Talk has been excellent. On more than one occasion, FirstNet PTT allowed us to effectively communicate when our traditional systems failed,” said Captain Guy Patterson of the Cranford Police Department.

For first responders serving rural, remote and tribal communities, HPUE could significantly increase the coverage area. For urban and suburban first responders, this could help address the common challenge of indoor or below ground coverage.

The stronger signal will provide increased availability to meet mission needs for users who are connecting from hard-to-reach places like basements, elevators, stairwells, and parking garages, and helping first responders reliably communicate inside and out.

“First responders deserve a dedicated communications partner that can provide the tools they need, when they need them, and that’s exactly what they’re getting with FirstNet,” added Porter.

Viasat and Visiontec, a Brazilian-based satellite products distribution company, have partnered to provide fast, reliable internet service to residential homes across Brazil, Viasat announced on Tuesday.

“By broadening our relationship with Viasat, we can help more Brazilians get access to a premium internet service that will offer greater capabilities for people to be productive and entertained online. We see this expanded partnership as a win for everyone,” said Antonio Carlos de Moraes, business development director, Visiontec.

The partnership will enable Viasat to integrate its services in its residential service go-to-market strategy from assisting in sales engagements to providing quick in-home installations and on-site technical support.

Under the joint venture, Viasat’s local field services teams will train Visiontec’s vast network of distributors, dealers and installers to quickly meet the demand for high-speed residential internet service in the country.

Bruno Soares Henriques, Viasat’s Brazil commercial director commented, “We have partnered with Visiontec, to help us better understand the market’s needs. We look forward to officially launching high-speed, high-quality residential internet service shortly—and delivering a premium internet service even to the hardest-to-reach locations.”

Upon completion of the launch rollout, Viasat will be able to reach 100 percent of the Brazilian continental territory, through Visiontec’s in-market sales, fulfillment and technical support expertise.

The partnership was first announced in June 2019. Since then, Visiontec has successfully installed Viasat’s satellite broadband equipment in over 11,000 fully operational sites across Brazil, including at remote schools, hospitals and government facilities. Viasat’s ground network and infrastructure has used bandwidth from the Telebras SGDC-1 satellite to deliver satellite internet services.

“Viasat’s advanced technology and service capabilities will help Brazilians, located coast-to-coast, join the digital ecosystem—which is critically important in today’s world,” concluded De Moraes.

About Viasat 

Viasat is a global communications company that believes everyone and everything in the world can be connected. For more than 30 years, Viasat has helped shape how consumers, businesses, governments and militaries around the world communicate. Today, the Company is developing the ultimate global communications network to power high-quality, secure, affordable, fast connections to impact people’s lives anywhere they are—on the ground, in the air or at sea.

NASA is likely to postpone the start of its Earth System Explorer program, which is one of the recommended lines of missions in the 2018 Earth science decadal survey, due to budget constraints, SpaceNews reported Monday.

Sandra Cauffman, acting director of NASA’s Earth science division, said the agency hopes to issue the first solicitation for the Earth System Explorer program this year.

“But given the appropriations we got in ’20 and the look out that we have for ’21, it doesn’t look promising that we can do it next year or even ’22,” she said. “We’ll just have to keep a watch on the budget developments.”

Earth System Explorer is a line of medium-class missions that would be competed and focus on studies in seven Earth science areas. Under the program, NASA will pick the first set of proposals before selecting one from the initial set to transition to full-scale development.

The U.S. Air Force is increasing its use of ethical hackers to simulate cyber attacks on its information technology networks and Lauren Knausenberger, chief transformation officer at the service, said a $75 million blanket purchase agreement the service signed with cybersecurity firm Dark Wolf in February 2020 is an example of that, FedScoop reported Monday.

Airmen and other Air Force personnel can ask Dark Wolf to perform penetration testing on their networks under the BPA.

“For the past three years now we have really been embracing the hacker community,” Knausenberger said of the Air Force’s bug bounty programs. “I do expect our demand will continue for some time.”

The Air Force is leveraging authorization to operate and other new authorities to sign deals with cybersecurity companies to expand “white hat” hacking and penetration testing efforts.

Personnel from Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division have received a patent for a technology designed to help unmanned aircraft systems collect data in chemical, biological and radiological operations.

The Senses CBR Agents Pre-Engagement and Goes Over All Terrain or SCAPEGOAT platform uses three dedicated detection modules, Naval Sea Systems Command said Friday.

SCAPEGOAT, equipped on a UAS, switches modules depending on whether the aircraft is operating in a chemical, biological or radiological environment.

“In this case, we have an ideal scenario, where our junior scientists and engineers, through a workforce development program sponsored by internal Naval Innovative Science and Engineering funds, have developed cutting-edge technology and generated a patent,” said Kate Jones, chief technology officer at NSWCDD.

She said that patents tangibly represent the innovative work of the division’s engineers and scientists. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office granted NSWCDD the SCAPEGOAT patent.

The U.S. Space Force has attained the initial operational capability of a radar system designed to help the service branch identify and track objects in orbit.

The Space Fence radar is designed to boost space situational awareness across satellites, debris, depleted boosters and other orbiting objects, USSF said Friday. The radar system is situated in the Marshall Islands, specifically Kwajalein Island.

The Alabama-based Space Fence Operations Center operates the radar. The 18th Space Control Squadron uses the radar’s data to monitor the country’s objects in space.

“Space Fence is revolutionizing the way we view space by providing timely, precise orbital data on objects that threaten both manned and unmanned military and commercial space assets,” said Gen. Jay Raymond, USSF’s chief of space operations and leader of U.S. Space Command and 2020 Wash100 Award recipient.

Lockheed Martin built Space Fence under a $914.7 million contract originally awarded by the U.S. Air Force.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology is looking for potential sources of cybersecurity technologies that can identify whether a system’s components have been altered during the manufacturing process.

NIST said in a Federal Register notice posted Thursday that the National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence intends to partner with industry entities to address challenges under the Validating the Integrity of Computing Devices initiative.

Interested parties must demonstrate their technologies’ capacity to analyze the internal parts of configuration management software, computing devices, asset inventory software and security information and event management tools.

According to the notice, NIST seeks to establish new ways of inspecting system components and help organizations “decrease the risk of a compromise to products in a specific stage of their supply chain, which may result in risks to the end user.”

The agency will accept proposals through April 27.