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PEO Digital’s Louis Koplin Discusses Flank Speed Enablement
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PEO Digital’s Louis Koplin Discusses Flank Speed Enablement

Louis Koplin, the acting program executive officer for the U.S. Navy PEO Digital and Enterprise Services, spoke at the recent West 2025 conference, where he discussed his organization’s progress with Flank Speed and how those achievements is enabling the pursuit of other goals, Federal News Network reported Tuesday.

Flank Speed & Zero Trust

Flank Speed is a Department of the Navy Impact Level 5 unclassified Microsoft Azure and Microsoft 365 cloud implementation, which last year achieved 151 out of the 152 requirements for zero trust. According to Koplin, this accomplishment potentially allows for more advanced cyber capabilities as well as other data and workloads.

Naval Deployment

Plans are now also in motion to deploy Flank Speed onto Navy ships, an effort dubbed as Flank Speed wireless. The aim is to use a hyper-converged infrastructure through Azure hubs to bring Flank Speed to naval vessels as a kind of software package. Koplin said the pilot effort has been successful.

Possible Use Cases

“It can satisfy a lot of different use cases. Obviously, it can offer hosting, but even in a cloud-enabled environment, it still provides a certain amount of resiliency and local caching for high intensity hubs and sites like that. And afloat what we’ve been able to do is take that and pair it with a wireless connectivity solution that rolled out a sailor edge afloat and ashore. Flank Speed Wireless is a wireless extension of that,” the PEO Digital leader said.

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Navy Vet Douglas Collins Confirmed as VA Secretary
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Navy Vet Douglas Collins Confirmed as VA Secretary

The Senate on Tuesday voted 77–23 to confirm Douglas Collins as secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs.

The Hill reported that Collins will be responsible for the VA, which has more than 400,000 employees.

During his confirmation hearing, the U.S. Navy veteran touched on the issue of an expanded healthcare delivery system for former service members.

“At the end of the day, the veteran is getting taken care of. VA care is going to happen. . . [but] there’s different expressions of how we make it better. We don’t do the same things 40 years ago that we still do today,” Collins said during a Senate panel hearing in January. “Our newer veterans deserve every access to finding care where they can.”

Collins’ Career History

Collins previously served as a U.S. representative for Georgia’s 9th congressional district between 2013 and 2021.

During the 116th Congress, the Air Force Reserve chaplain, lawyer and former pastor served as a ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee.

The Georgia native and former lawmaker formed his own legal practice after earning his juris doctorate degree from Atlanta’s John Marshall Law School.

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Army Releases Information Systems Software Assurance Policy
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Army Releases Information Systems Software Assurance Policy

Leonel Garciga, chief information officer of the U.S. Army and a two-time Wash100 awardee, has signed and issued a memorandum detailing the Army’s software assurance policy for the military branch’s information systems in support of Army and Department of Defense DevSecOps initiatives and DOD’s Risk Management Framework, or RMF, process. 

Software Assurance Requirements

The memo published on Friday requires all Army systems to have software assurance requirements validated against the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s Special Publication 800-53 and reported through the RMF process when securing authorizations under the Assess and Authorize or assess only process.

All information system owners should a use certified DevSecOps platform to perform software assurance in accordance with the policy outlined in the memo.

Roles & Responsibilities of Army Officials

The Army chief information security officer should collaborate with the deputy chief of staff, G-6, to develop guidelines, procedures and baseline requirements acceptable for software assurance, the memo said.

The DCS, G-6, will advise the CIO in developing a software assurance policy; update and maintain applicable software assurance procedures; and develop and implement an Army-approved product list.

The document directs authorizing officials to consider software assurance risks into the overall authorization determination and approve baseline requirements for tailoring security controls during software assurance.

According to the memo, information system owners should create or update the security plan as part of the system’s RMF package and use existing third-party assessment results to prevent unnecessary software reassessment.

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NSA Issues Cyber Guidance to Protect Edge Device Systems
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NSA Issues Cyber Guidance to Protect Edge Device Systems

The National Security Agency has published three cybersecurity information sheets outlining critical mitigation strategies to safeguard organizations’ edge device systems, including firewalls, routers and virtual private network gateways.

The publication provides guidance to secure edge devices and recommendations for tactical, operational and strategic personnel to enhance network security and bolster resilience against cyberthreats, NSA said Tuesday. The documents were released in collaboration with participating agencies from Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, Japan and South Korea.

Prioritizing Edge Device Security

The documents highlight the importance of prioritizing edge device security so organizations can better protect their endpoints, critical services and sensitive data, according to Eric Chudow, a cybersecurity vulnerability expert at NSA. “Edge devices act as boundaries between organizations’ internal enterprise networks and the Internet. If left unsecured, even unskilled malicious cyber actors have an easier time finding and exploiting vulnerabilities in their software or configurations,” he noted.

Guidance for Securing Edge Devices

The “Mitigation Strategies for Edge Devices: Executive Guidance” report is designed to guide executives responsible for the deployment, security and maintenance of enterprise networks. It provides mitigation strategies for managing and securing edge devices, such as knowing the edge, procuring secure-by-design devices, applying hardening updates, implementing strong authentication, disabling unnecessary features and ports, securing management interfaces and centralizing monitoring for threat detection.

Meanwhile, the “Mitigation Strategies for Edge Devices: Practitioners Guidance” guide is for operational, cybersecurity and procurement staff. It gives an overview of the risks and threats faced by edge devices. On the other hand, the “Security Considerations for Edge Devices” guidance details the common malicious techniques used against edge devices, offers mitigation recommendations to help organizations minimize the risk of compromise and helps edge device manufacturers to improve the built-in and default security of their products.

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FCC Names Adam Candeub, Jay Schwarz to Key Positions
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FCC Names Adam Candeub, Jay Schwarz to Key Positions

The Federal Communications Commission, through the Office of Chairman Brendan Carr, has announced the appointments of Adam Candeub and Jay Schwarz to key leadership positions.

In a statement released Tuesday, the FCC chairman said Candeub will serve as general counsel of the FCC while Schwarz will be the new chief of the Space Bureau.

Adam Candeub Named General Counsel

Candeub was most recently a professor at the Michigan State University College of Law and a Fellow with MSU’s Institute of Public Utilities. Before joining the MSU Law faculty in 2004, Candeub served as an attorney advisor at the FCC in both the “Common Carrier” and Media bureaus. He also worked for private law firms including serving as litigation associate with Jones, Day, Reavis & Pogue and corporate associate with Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton. The FCC general counsel was a clerk to Chief Judge J. Clifford Wallace, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Candeub was appointed in 2019 as deputy assistant secretary of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration. He additionally served as assistant secretary and deputy associate attorney general at the Department of Justice.

Jay Schwarz to Lead Space Bureau

Schwarz rejoins the FCC after working in the private sector for years. He was vice president of public policy at Comcast, where he worked for over six years. Before that, Schwarz was the wireline advisor of former FCC Chairman Ajit Pai. He previously held leadership positions at the Office of Strategic Planning and the Telecommunications Access Policy Division of the Wireline Bureau. The new Space Bureau Chief also served as an economist for the Wireless Bureau and Wireline Competition Bureau.

Other FCC Appointments

Adam Jackman and Dana Howell were also appointed as director of strategic communications of the Office of Media Relations and executive assistant for the Office of Chairman Brendan Carr, respectively.

“I am honored that this talented team of professionals have agreed to join the FCC and will help ensure that we deliver great results for the American people,” said Carr. “They bring a broad range of legal and policy expertise to their jobs and will enable the FCC to promote free speech and increase economic opportunity. I look forward to drawing on their counsel and advice.”

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Space Systems Command, Japan Launch 1st Bilateral Space Effort
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Space Systems Command, Japan Launch 1st Bilateral Space Effort

The U.S. Space Force’s Space Systems Command and Japan have launched their first bilateral space endeavor aimed at strengthening national security. 

The Space Systems Command said Tuesday Japan’s Quasi-Zenith Satellite 6, or QZS-6, carried a U.S. space domain awareness payload as it was launched on Feb. 2 from the Yoshinobu Launch Complex at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s Tanegashima Space Center.

Boosting Indo-Pacific Awareness

The Space Operation Command’s Mission Delta 2, or MD 2, will operate the QZS-6, which will transmit real-time data to the Space Surveillance Network enabling the DOD to boost its understanding of the Geosynchronous Orbit regime above the Indo-Pacific region. The MD 2 conducts space domain awareness operations aimed at detecting, evaluating and capitalizing on opportunities while mitigating risks in the national security space.

Details of the Collaboration

The QZSS-HP program involves two U.S. payloads integrated into Japanese satellites. The USSF and Massachusetts Institute of Technology Lincoln Laboratory collaborated with Japan’s National Space Policy Secretariat and Mitsubishi Electric Corporation to incorporate and assess the first payload on the QZS-6 satellite. MIT/LL designed the two payloads while MELCO designed and built the satellites. 

“In an increasingly contested space domain, Japan’s contribution to the U.S. DOD’s deterrence strategy has been, and will continue to be, key to INDOPACOM awareness and operations,” said Col. Bryon McClain, program executive officer for Space Domain Awareness.

Col. Raj Agrawal, commander of Mission Delta 2, added, “These sensors will support the fusion of space- and ground-based Space Domain Awareness to further reinforce all-domain collective defense with allies and partners in the Indo-Pacific.”

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Navy to Adopt New Sensor System for Super Hornet Jets
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Navy to Adopt New Sensor System for Super Hornet Jets

This spring, the U.S. Navy has announced that it will decide the full rate production for the Infrared Search and Track, or IRST, Block II system for the service branch’s carrier-based F/A-18E/F Super Hornet squadrons. The system production follows the Navy’s November declaration of initial operational capability, or IOC, for the system designed to enhance the Super Hornets’ capability to search, detect and track long-range targets.

Rear Adm. John Lemmon, program executive officer for the Navy’s Tactical Aircraft Programs, called the IRST IOC “an important milestone” in the service’s efforts to provide an advanced integrated warfighting asset to the Super Hornet fleet. 

“IRST provides data for our aircrew to improve reaction time and survivability while remaining unaffected by radio frequency jamming,” the Navy official noted.

Complementary Sensor in Compromised Environments

To boost situational awareness, the system serves as a sensor complementing the Super Hornet’s AN/APG-79 fire control radar in radar-compromised environments or during heavy electronic attack. It reportedly boosts aircrew situational awareness through its supplementary air-to-air detection and tracking capabilities. 

The Navy followed a two-phased approach for the IRST, with Block I integrated onto an existing system in the F/A-18 fuel tank in 2011 that lead eventually to an early deployment in 2019. Upgraded sensor and processor, plus additional software, were programmed for Block II—planned for first deployment this year. 

Lockheed Martin secured a $108 million contract from Boeing in November 2018 to complete the development of an IRST sensor technology for installation in the Super Hornet jets. 

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Trump’s Buyout Offer Attracts 20,000 Federal Employees
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Trump’s Buyout Offer Attracts 20,000 Federal Employees

The Hill reported Tuesday that at least 20,000 federal employees have accepted the Trump administration’s offer to resign and receive payment through September. The deadline for accepting the government buyout offer is on Feb. 6.

The 20,000 employees represent approximately 1 percent of the national workforce, but sources told the publication that the number of people accepting the buyout offer is expected to surge ahead of the deadline.

Workforce Downsizing

The offer was presented to 2 million federal employees in January ahead of return-to-office requirements as part of an initiative to reduce the workforce.

The memo, which was sent via email by the Office of Personnel Management on Jan. 28, also indicated that all workers will be subject to “enhanced standards of suitability and conduct,” according to an AP News report.

However, the offer’s vague language has caused skepticism and sparked questions about the government’s legal authority to make it. A union representing federal employees warned against it, while Washington, D.C. legislators representing federal workers opposed the deal.

Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla Motors and a 2025 Wash100 awardee, said the offer would allow employees to take their desired vacation or just relax.

President Donald Trump nominated Musk in November to lead the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency.

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NASA Flight Test Prepares Critical Payloads for Moon Mission
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NASA Flight Test Prepares Critical Payloads for Moon Mission

NASA has included critical payloads in a flight test that simulated lunar gravity to prepare them for the Moon and other space exploration missions.

During the test, Blue Origin’s New Shepard reusable rocket was launched in Texas to replicate the Moon’s gravity during a suborbital flight, NASA said Tuesday. The experiments include technologies and instruments, which experienced around two minutes of lunar gravity forces without going to the Moon.

The New Shepard capsule used its reaction control system to spin up to 11 revolutions per minute and simulate one-sixth of Earth’s gravity.

Preparing Tech for Lunar Explorations

The flight test was provided with sufficient support to expand the available vehicle capabilities and ensure technologies are ready for lunar exploration, according to Danielle McCulloch, program executive at NASA’s Flight Opportunities program. She added that the experiment was designed to achieve a test environment that is similar to a mission’s operating environment.

Greg Peters, acting program manager for Flight Opportunities, noted that an extended period of simulated lunar gravity is a critical test regime for NASA. “It’s crucial to reducing risk for innovations that might one day go to the lunar surface,” he explained.

Among the payloads tested in Blue Origin flight is the Lunar-g Combustion Investigation, which seeks to understand material flammability on the Moon. Such knowledge is an important component of astronaut safety on the Moon and would inform the design of potential combustion devices there.

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Audit Flags DHS for Insufficient Governance of AI Use
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Audit Flags DHS for Insufficient Governance of AI Use

The Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General released on Jan. 30 the results of an audit it carried out concerning DHS’ use of artificial intelligence.

Purpose of the Audit

The audit sought to determine whether and to what extent the agency had developed and put into effect policies governing the use of AI, whose adoption by the agency increased from 2022 to 2023, DHS OIG said.

More Action Required

The audit found that DHS took multiple steps to ensure the responsible and ethical use of AI. These steps include the issuance of guidance specific to AI, the appointment of a chief AI officer and the establishment of an AI Task Force and working groups, whose function would be to guide the agency’s efforts in AI. The OIG nevertheless deemed these measures insufficient, noting that “more action is needed to ensure DHS has appropriate governance for responsible and secure use of AI.”

The agency was also found to have established an AI strategy but not a plan to implement it. The agency also lacked the resources to ensure that its AI was being used in compliance with privacy, civil rights and civil liberties requirements.

Additional issues include the insufficiency of the data being collected by the agency to track and report its use of AI, and the insufficiency of the evidence the agency and its components have managed to collect to demonstrate that their use of AI align with the requirements of the federal government.

‘Appropriate, Ongoing Governance’ of AI

“Without appropriate, ongoing governance of its AI, DHS faces an increased risk that its AI efforts will infringe upon the safety and rights of the American people,” DHS OIG said.

Twenty recommendations were offered to correct the issues. DHS concurred with all of them.

Audit Flags DHS for Insufficient Governance of AI Use

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