Ellen Lord, chair of the Nuclear Weapons Council, said during a tour of the Energy Department’s Savannah River Site that the efforts to refurbish SRS facilities and drive plutonium pit production is “the best path forward.”

DOE said Wednesday that the SRS nuclear reservation in Aiken, S.C. and the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico handle efforts to meet the 2018 Nuclear Posture Review’s goal of producing at least 80 plutonium pits by 2030.

Lord, undersecretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment and three-time Wash100 Award recipient, said she supports the repurposing of the SRS mixed oxide fuel fabrication facility while ensuring that LANL remains a center of excellence for plutonium research and development.

Lisa Gordon-Hagerty, DOE’s undersecretary for nuclear security and administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration, said that DOE seeks to “ensure a more responsive and flexible infrastructure to maintain the nuclear deterrent for future threats.”

John Hyten, commander of the U.S. Strategic Command, added that efforts to ramp up plutonium production will help the nuclear security enterprise “be more responsive and resilient in order to meet our future military requirements.”

The SRS and LANL tours took place on Aug. 14 and 15, respectively.

Jean Schaffer, chief of cyber and enterprise operations at the Defense Intelligence Agency, said DIA should consider cybersecurity as it modernizes the intelligence community’s intranet used for transmitting top-secret data, Fifth Domain reported Wednesday.

The Joint Worldwide Intelligence Communications System “is already hardened because primarily it is a top-secret SCI network, so it is hardened that way to start. But we really need to raise the security posture,” Schaffer said Tuesday at the annual DoDIIS conference in Tampa, Fla.

“What we’re doing here at DIA is just trying to make cybersecurity part of our normal business rhythm,” Schaffer added. Schaffer also noted that the agency is focusing on migrating from a network protection model to a data protection model. “Focusing on that data means that we really are going to have to understand and clearly define on and off ramps for JWICS,” she continued.

During the U.S. Air Force’s launch of the GPS III satellite, Raytheon’s GPS Next-Generation Operational Control System, known as GPS OCX, supported the launch. The ground system will spend the next 10 days maneuvering the satellite into its final orbit, demonstrating GPS OCX’s ability to simultaneously support multiple GPS III spacecraft on-orbit throughout the checkout and calibration process.

“GPS OCX performed extremely well during the first launch and has exceeded performance requirements in the months since,” said Dave Wajsgras, president of Raytheon Intelligence, Information and Services and 2019 Wash100 Award recipient. “The team was well-prepared for this launch, and we’re confident the system’s performance will continue to be positive.”

GPS OCX, the enhanced ground control segment of America’s GPS system, has achieved the highest level of cybersecurity protections of any Department of Defense space system. Its open architecture design allows it to integrate advanced protections as they become available, and the system’s industry-leading cyber protections are why it will be used to support all future GPS III launches and GPS constellation operations upon operational acceptance.

In addition to GPS OCX’s role, RGNext, a joint venture between Raytheon and General Dynamics Information Technology, provided operational launch support to ensure the safe launch of the United Launch Alliance’s Delta-IV rocket that was carrying the GPS III satellite.

RGNext operates the launch range on behalf of the U.S. Air Force, providing maintenance, range safety, weather monitoring, communication and surveillance support for all launches conducted by defense, civil and commercial companies at the range.

About Raytheon

Raytheon Company, with 2018 sales of $27 billion and 67,000 employees, is a technology and innovation leader specializing in defense, civil government and cybersecurity solutions. With a history of innovation spanning 97 years, Raytheon provides state-of-the-art electronics, mission systems integration, C5Iâ„¢ products and services, sensing, effects and mission support for customers in more than 80 countries. Raytheon is headquartered in Waltham, Massachusetts.

A United Launch Alliance (ULA) Delta IV rocket carrying the second Global Positioning System III (GPS III) satellite for the U.S. Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center lifted off from Space Launch Complex-37 on August 22 at 9:06 a.m. EDT, ULA announced on Thursday.

The GPS III system, built by Lockheed Martin, represents the next step in modernization of the worldwide navigation network with a new generation of advanced satellites offering improved accuracy, better anti-jam resiliency and a new signal for civil users. This mission marked the 29th and final flight of the Delta IV Medium rocket and the 73rd GPS launch by a ULA or heritage vehicle.

“Thank you to the team and our mission partners for the tremendous teamwork as we processed and launched this critical asset, providing advanced capabilities for warfighters, civil users, and humankind across the globe,” said Gary Wentz, ULA vice president of Government and Commercial Programs. “We are proud of the strong legacy of the Delta IV Medium program, and look forward to the future with our purpose-built Vulcan Centaur,” Wentz added.

ULA’s next launch is Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner, Orbital Flight Test, aboard an Atlas V rocket from Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla. ULA maintains a track record of 100% mission success with 135 successful launches.

About United Launch Alliance

With more than a century of combined heritage, ULA is the world’s most experienced and reliable launch service provider. ULA has successfully delivered more than 130 satellites to orbit that provide Earth observation capabilities, enable global communications, unlock the mysteries of our solar system, and support life-saving technology.

Lt. Gen. Eric Smith, who leads the U.S. Marine Corps’ Combat Development Command, said the service branch seeks more unmanned systems for surface, underwater and air operations, National Defense Magazine reported Wednesday.

USMC will work to boost the quantity of its new unmanned systems, seeking functions such as reconnaissance, radio communications and lethality, Smith said at the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International’s Defense-Protection-Security Conference in Washington, D.C.

The commanding general noted that USMC needs smaller, lower-cost unmanned systems so that the service branch can focus on quantity. However, he also said the marines will need large, long-endurance drones for a portion of the service’s inventory.

The U.S. Navy’s Naval Information Warfare Center in Charleston, S.C., has created an augmented reality-based prototype technology to help warfighters detect and locate radio frequency emissions. NIWC Atlantic designed the Spectrum Hunter system with an AR display for military users to view information about RF waves and interact with the device through a hand gesture or a verbal command, the service branch said Wednesday.

A holographic user interface works by guiding device users toward the source of emission. Active-duty service members and some representatives from the government, academic and private sectors tested the exploratory platform in different scenarios as part of a naval technology exercise at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune in North Carolina last month.

“Our team is initially focusing on detecting handheld radios and will expand the scope later to detect cell phones and other devices,” Sinclair continued. “In the future, we plan to modify it to identify RF waves emitting from enemy forces,” said Jessica Sinclair, an information technology specialist at NIWC Atlantic.

Sinclair and her teammembers intend to share the concept outside their organization after they received a provisional patent.