Peter Ranks, deputy chief information officer for information enterprise at the Department of Defense, said DoD should “decouple” hardware and software development to speed up updates of systems’ capabilities, FedScoop reported Wednesday.

Ranks said Wednesday at FedScoop’s IT Modernization summit that improved use of software plays a key role in the Pentagon’s “Joint All Domain Operations” approach aimed at linking military operations across ground, air, maritime, space and cyber domains. “We are going to need software to glue those things together,” he added.

He also discussed the need to address outdated software acquisition policies, the cloud and the Joint All Domain Command and Control effort.

The U.S. Army is looking to use small satellite constellations instead to reduce vulnerability and accelerate communications speeds.

Mark Lewis, who leads the Defense Research and Engineering for Modernization Office, chaired a discussion on this topic at a forum with the Association of the U.S. Army, the service branch said Tuesday.

"More is better for the purpose of confounding a prospective adversary," the office director said.

Lewis said that larger geosynchronous satellites present both higher costs and vulnerabilities compared to small, low Earth orbit satellites. Smaller satellites move faster and would be harder to target, he added.

Col. Jason Joose, chief of staff at the Army's cross-functional team for assured positioning, navigation and timing, said industry investments in LEO satellites present a wide range of opportunities.

"When you look at the sheer number of satellites that go up and the reduced cost to do it, it gives us an array of opportunities on how to solve the problems," the colonel said.

The Space and Missile Systems Center's Launch Enterprise Mission Manifest Office has handed over to Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida a multi-manifest small satellite vehicle designed to work with the sixth Advanced Extremely High-Frequency satellite.

Built by the Georgia Institute of Technology, the TDO-2 vehicle will work to utilize satellite laser ranging and optical calibration capabilities to equip warfighters with space domain awareness, the U.S. Air Force said Tuesday.

TDO-2 will take off along with AEHF-6 aboard a United Launch Alliance-built Atlas V 551 rocket. The platform will carry government payloads, which will be incorporated into the aft-end of the Centaur upper stage.

The rocket is expected to field TDO-2 after the second main engine cut off and prior to AEHF-6 during the launch. AEHF-6 will also demonstrate a "swap-out" capability, a feature that will enable two multi-manifest satellites to be replaced if required.

The Missile Defense Agency expects Lockheed Martin to fully deliver the Long Range Discrimination Radar this year, with the achievement of recent milestones.

The program already reached delivery milestones for the radar's first 10 antenna panels, Lockheed said Tuesday. The delivered panels make up half of the radar's antenna arrays. Each array measures 27 feet in height.

Lockheed prepared temporary structures to perform assemblies on schedule amid any weather conditions. The company's Solid State Radar Integration Site has already verified more than 66 percent of LRDR's technical requirements.

"We have successfully reduced a large amount of risk to ensure fielding of this critical capability on schedule in 2020,” said Chandra Marshall, who leads Lockheed’s missile defense and space surveillance radar programs.

LRDR is designed to help the military detect and track enemy ballistic missiles.

Ron Ross, a fellow at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, said that both the commercial and government sectors need transition into DevOps and DevSecOps-based approaches to strengthen national security, Fifth Domain reported Tuesday.

Ross told attendees at an Advanced Technology Academic Research Center-hosted event that industry should be a key partner in deploying new software development methods and ensuring that security controls are safe for implementation in U.S. systems.

“Give us some evidence that those security features are actually in place and doing what they’re supposed to do,” he said.

According to Ross, the private sector must be able to produce at the pace of the industry while integrating appropriate security capabilities into the agile development process.

He added that agencies must deploy a “holistic view” in cybersecurity to include methods like zero-trust concepts and other cyber resiliency approaches.

The Department of Energy is investing about $111 million in fiscal year 2020 phase II projects under small business innovation research and technology transfer programs The new funding opportunity announcement supports projects across multiple DOE offices such as those focused on cybersecurity, electricity, nuclear energy and environmental management, the department said Tuesday.

Qualifying small businesses from the programs' first phase will carry on to second phase for up to $1.1 million in awards over two years. The same arrangement applies to recipients of previous phase II awards. Participants may apply for a second or third phase II grant.

The CMMC Academy, an initiative of Celerium Inc., announced on Wednesday that the CMMC 1.0 Reference Guide has been released to help defense suppliers more easily understand the new U.S. Department of Defense cybersecurity compliance program.

“Although large defense contractors are experienced with security control frameworks such as NIST 800-53 and 171, CMMC extends compliance programs to smaller subcontractors,” said Tommy McDowell, General Manager of Celerium.

The CMMC Academy provides CMMC information for all defense contractors and subcontractors. The Academy’s Reference Guide makes the requirements easier to explore and allows contractors to easily select the specific levels and domains to explore and see the practices available

• Easily select the specific levels and domains to explore and see the practices available.
• Choose to see only the practices for a selected level or see the aggregated practices (organized by domain).
• View a summary of the practices in a given level, and then navigate to learn more about a specific practice.

“CMMC is composed of five levels in an effort to reach 300,000 or more defense suppliers. Our new CMMC 1.0 Reference Guide is targeted to companies that need to comply with levels 1, 2, and 3, which are less complex than levels 4 and 5,” he added.

The CMMC Academy will continue to augment its Reference Guide and informational solutions as new material and insights about CMMC evolve.

Beyond helping defense suppliers learning about CMMC through online videos and the Reference Guide, the Academy also is exploring the creation of a free CMMC planning tool for defense contractors. The CMMC Academy is a free initiative of Celerium Inc.

Potomac Officers Club will host its CMMC Forum 2020 on April 2. Click here to register for the event.

Katie Arrington, chief information security officer at the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and a 2020 Wash100 Award recipient, will serve as a keynote speaker at the CMMC Forum 2020. She will address the CMMC’s timeline, how the certification process could change and will provide a memorandum of understanding with a newly established CMMC accrediting body.

A full expert panel will include Ty Schieber, senior director of executive education and CMMC-AB chairman of the University of Virginia and Richard Naylor of the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency (DCSA) among other members of the federal sector and industry.

Register here to join Potomac Officers Club for its CMMC Forum 2020 on April 2nd to learn about the impact DoD’s CMMC will have on cybersecurity practices, supply chain security and other aspects of the federal market.