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Johns Hopkins APL to Enhance Space Security With New Program
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Johns Hopkins APL to Enhance Space Security With New Program

The Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory has unveiled a new digital engineering program meant to enable U.S. space agencies to protect satellites and other systems critical to national security.

Utilizing Digital Twins to Boost Space Security

The APL said Monday its new modeling, simulation and analysis tool utilizes model-based systems engineering and digital engineering that allows users to simulate responses of national security systems to different space events. The simulations enable them to gain insights of the strengths and weaknesses of the system and use them to strengthen the agency’s space security infrastructure.

The knowledge gained from using digital twins can also be leveraged in making critical and action-based decisions to boost the survivability of warfighters in various environments and enhance capabilities to safeguard vital operational assets.

Michaelyn Thomas, program manager at APL, remarked, “We provide a suite of analyses that identifies where functional and technology gaps exist in the nation’s space command and control architecture so that our sponsors can make informed choices on how to maximize their systems.”

Grace Colonell, co-technical lead of the program, added, “Our model tries to identify the functions that an agency needs to consider. When we compare those options to what’s actually available, we can identify potential gaps.”

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Michael Ellis Begins Role as CIA Deputy Director
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Michael Ellis Begins Role as CIA Deputy Director

Michael Ellis, former general counsel of the National Security Agency during the first Trump administration, took oath Monday as CIA deputy director.

“Michael is highly respected in the Intelligence Community and ranks among our nation’s finest national security professionals,” CIA Director John Ratcliffe said in a statement published Monday.

“Having known Michael for many years, I am truly excited to welcome him to Langley,” added Ratcliffe, a 2025 Wash100 awardee.

Michael Ellis’ Career Background

Prior to joining the agency, Ellis was general counsel and corporate secretary at video sharing platform Rumble.

Ellis held other senior national security positions in the U.S. government, including senior director for intelligence programs at the National Security Council and general counsel of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.

Earlier in his career, he clerked for Judge Jeffrey Sutton of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit and for Judge Amul Thapar, then of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky.

The Dartmouth College and Yale Law School graduate served as an intelligence officer in the U.S. Navy Reserve.

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Ryan Riedel Named Energy Department CIO
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Ryan Riedel Named Energy Department CIO

The Department of Energy has appointed IT professional Ryan Riedel as chief information officer, Politico’s E&E News reported.

In this capacity, he will manage the operations and cybersecurity across the national labs, the National Nuclear Security Administration and power marketing administrations.

Ann Dunkin, former CIO at DOE, welcomed the appointment of Riedel in a LinkedIn post.

“Handing the keys over to you, virtually. You’ve got a great team and they’re ready to help you do great things,” Dunkin added.

Riedel’s Career Highlights

According to his profile on the professional networking site, the new CIO most recently served as lead network security engineer at SpaceX.

Prior to SpaceX, he served as a network manager at U.S. Army Cyber Command.

Riedel spent more than seven years at the Corpus Christi Army Depot, where he served as a network engineer, IT project manager and IT service desk lead.

He also served in the Navy as a network administrator and communications security custodian.

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Army CIO Issues Cross Domain Solution as a Service Policy
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Army CIO Issues Cross Domain Solution as a Service Policy

Leonel Garciga, the U.S. Army’s chief information officer and a 2025 Wash100 awardee, has released a memorandum outlining the policy for using Cross Domain Solution as a Service, or CDSaaS, across the military branch.

What Is CDSaaS?

CDSaaS is a cloud computing-based platform that cloud service providers offer as a service to government organizations to facilitate the transfer of information across two or more different classification domains.

The transfer can be done from high-to-low, low-to-high or in any combination needed to meet mission requirements.

Policy Details

According to the memo published Jan. 31, all Army cloud cross domain solution, or CDS, requirements will be approved and managed through the Enterprise Cloud Management Agency Cloud Governance Committee, also known as ECMA CGC.

ECMA tenants will adhere to raise the bar, or RTB, requirements, and CGC will assess requests for specific critical missions or operational workloads for consideration for approval.

The document states that only ECMA will provide CDSaaS services for use by Army organizations and that no enterprise CDS offerings will be paid for or used without approval from the Army CIO. 

Roles & Responsibilities of Army Officials

According to the memo, CGC will serve as the approval and governance committee for ECMA CDSaaS tenant requests to align with Army portfolio management.

ECMA will serve as the lead organization for all cloud Department of Defense Information Network-Army, or DoDIN-A, operations. It will have the sole responsibility of establishing all governance, maintenance, and approval for unit utilization of CDSaaS.

ECMA will also be responsible for providing guidance and support to CGC and the sole Army organization that can use reciprocity for CDSaaS operations.

The document tasks Army Cyber Command with providing cybersecurity service provider integration and monitoring efforts.

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New NASA Aircraft Guidance System to Help Trim Research Cost
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New NASA Aircraft Guidance System to Help Trim Research Cost

NASA recently flew its Gulfstream-IV, or G-IV,  aircraft for the first flight test of a new aircraft guidance system designed to lessen Earth science studies’ operating costs. Called Soxnav, the system is geared to help pilots maintain precise aircraft course at flight speeds of up to 500 miles per hour, NASA said.  

Soxnav’s design provides pilots with 3D automated steering used for a precise landing approach in poor visibility. The system’s technical baseline as a compact, automated guidance was drawn from previous aircraft navigation models.

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California and the Bay Area Environmental Research Institute in California’s Silicon Valley collaborated on Soxnav’s development.

Precise Altitude for Radar Efficiency

Joe Piotrowski, G-IV operations engineer, said Soxnav will enable pilots to maintain the exact flight altitude for the data collection missions of the aircraft through its Next Generation Airborne Synthetic Aperture Radar, or AirSAR-NG. 

“With the data that can be collected from science flights equipped with the Soxnav instrument, NASA can provide the general public with better support for natural disasters, tracking of food and water supplies, as well as general Earth data about how the environment is changing,” the agency’s engineer said.

Soxnav Use Eyed in Other NASA Aircraft

According to NASA, Soxnav can provide G-IV the capability for collecting broader, more accurate and less costly scientific information, with the optimized AirSAR-NG observations. The agency plans to expand the system’s use to its other aircraft types to support missions for their current and future sensors.

NASA’s Gulfstream aircraft-based studies include a partnership with the U.S. Geological Survey initiated in October 2022 for a five-year, $16 million research project that will use airborne hyperspectral imaging technology to map critical minerals and study their impact on climate change.

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DOD Calls for Review of SDA’s Acquisition Approach, Independent Status
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DOD Calls for Review of SDA’s Acquisition Approach, Independent Status

Breaking Defense reported that the Department of Defense’s acquisition office has issued a memo calling for a review of whether the Space Development Agency should remain an independent entity within the U.S. Space Force.

Independent Review Team’s Tasks

According to the Jan. 31 memo obtained by the publication, Steven Morani, who is performing the duties of under secretary for acquisition and sustainment at DOD, asks the Department of the Air Force to establish an independent review team, or IRT, to assess whether SDA’s acquisition approach and organizational performance meet the needs of warfighters.

The team should evaluate “the current state of health” of all programs associated with the agency’s Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture.

If significant risks related to contracting strategy, performance or capability delivery, schedule or funding are identified, the IRT should provide a characterization of impact from such risks and offer recommendations for corrective action.

GAO Offers Dire Federal Debt Projections, Calls for Immediate Action
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GAO Offers Dire Federal Debt Projections, Calls for Immediate Action

The Government Accountability Office has issued a report warning Congress and the administration anew that the country is on an unsustainable fiscal path that, if not corrected, would pose serious economic, security and social challenges.

Debt Projections

GAO said that as of Dec. 31, 2024, federal debt was at $28.7 trillion and that at its current rate of growth, it will reach 106 percent of gross domestic product by 2027, one year sooner than previously projected. That percentage is the highest in U.S. history, last seen in 1946.

The government watchdog further warned that over the next three decades, federal debt is projected to grow more than twice as fast as the economy, and that at that rate, federal debt is expected to reach 200 percent of GDP by 2047, three years sooner than previously forecasted.

Drivers of Debt

According to GAO’s analysis, the growing federal debt is being driven by annual budget deficits, which has two components. The first is the deficit between government revenue and program spending as prescribed by policy. This deficit is expected to grow in part due to slower revenue growth relative to spending growth in Medicare, other federal healthcare and Social Security programs.

The second component is the interest from the money that has to be borrowed to pay for the first component. GAO said that since 2017, annual spending on net interest has more than tripled and is expected to continue growing.

Between the two, the government has more control over the primary component because it is based on policy decisions.

Structural Imbalance

For GAO, the time to put in place a sound fiscal strategy to address what the office described as the “structural imbalance between spending and revenue” is now. The office called on Congress to put into effect “a strategy to inform the difficult policy choices that are needed to put the government on a more sustainable fiscal path.”

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DARPA Seeks Stable Quantum Sensors for Defense Platforms
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DARPA Seeks Stable Quantum Sensors for Defense Platforms

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is soliciting abstracts on developing quantum sensors resistant to environmental disturbances for their reliability outside a laboratory. The solicitation launches the Robust Quantum Sensors, or RoQS, program, which aims to grow stable quantum sensing technology for Department of Defense platforms, DARPA said Tuesday.

It added that RoQS will foster early partnerships between sensor developers and platform makers for a smooth and efficient transition of quantum technology from research to deployment in the defense sector. Through the speedy partnerships, technologies suited for real-world needs can be developed for a seamless integration into current systems to minimize time and resources for hardening and deploying quantum sensors, DARPA explained.

Resilient, Precise Sensors Sought

According to Jonathan Hoffman, program manager at DARPA’s Microsystems Technology Office, the fragility of quantum sensors is a major barrier to achieving their potential in gathering critical defense information.  

“With RoQS, we’re taking a bold step toward creating sensors that are not only extremely precise but also resilient in the face of real-world challenges,” the agency’s program executive noted.

The RoQS program is seeking new sensor design and architecture that do not rely on bulky shields or isolation methods. Instead, it is searching potential engineering sensor approaches suppressing environmental disruptions and using compact arrays differentiating noise from meaningful signals. The program is also looking for advanced atomic systems providing greater sensor stability in dynamic scenarios.

The deadline for submission of abstracts is on Feb. 20, while full proposals are due on March 31.

In another program, DARPA set a Proposers Day in September to share the vision and goals of its Quantum Benchmarking Initiative and explain the effort’s milestones and mechanics.

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Rodney Hood Named Acting Comptroller of the Currency at OCC
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Rodney Hood Named Acting Comptroller of the Currency at OCC

The Department of the Treasury has appointed Rodney Hood as acting comptroller of the currency and first deputy comptroller of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.

Hood, who assumes office immediately, replaces Michael Hsu, who served in the role since May 2021, OCC said Friday. The new appointee is responsible for managing the federal banking system and overseeing OCC operations.

Effective Regulatory Environment

In a statement, Hood vowed to work for an effective regulatory environment, adding he he is committed to establishing a framework that “fosters innovation, expands financial inclusion, and ensures that all Americans have fair access to the financial services they need to thrive.”

Commenting on the appointment, Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent noted that Hood’s strong leadership and career experience “will strengthen the OCC’s efforts to ensure the safety and soundness of the banking system while also enhancing economic growth.”

Hood’s Career Highlights

Hood previously served under the first Trump administration as chairman of the National Credit Union Administration Board. While at the NCUA, Hood was a voting member of the Financial Stability Oversight Council, chairman of the NeighborWorks America Board and vice chairman of the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council.

Before serving in the government, Hood worked in retail finance, commercial banking, affordable housing and community development. He earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

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University of Florida Wins $49M USAF Contract for REEF Services
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University of Florida Wins $49M USAF Contract for REEF Services

The University of Florida has been awarded a $49 million contract by the U.S. Air Force to deliver services for its Research and Engineering Education Facility, or REEF.

Enhancing Education & Research Capability

The Department of Defense said Friday the indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract covers the academic core of a regional innovation, education and workforce development competency. In addition, the Gainesville, Florida university will provide open and applied research capability that supports Air Force Research Laboratory and Eglin Air Force Base missions. 

Under the sole source acquisition contract, UF will perform work at Shalimar, Florida. It is anticipated to be completed by Feb. 7, 2030. The contracting activity is the AFRL in Eglin AFB, which is located adjacent to the university. It will not allocate funds at the time of the award.

The University of Florida REEF, an extension of the Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering, was established in 1969 to foster and sustain partnerships with the private, academic and public sectors in Northwest Florida. It aims to drive the growth of the region’s innovation economy by offering courses and curricula in mechanical engineering, aerospace engineering, electrical and computer engineering and industrial systems engineering.

The REEF works with the Air Force on its research requirements while students gain experience working with UF and USAF researchers on a variety of complex subjects, particularly autonomy, data science and solid mechanics.

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