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Unmanned Ship from Leidos Reaches Historic Milestone; Nevin Carr Quoted
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Unmanned Ship from Leidos Reaches Historic Milestone; Nevin Carr Quoted


Jeff Brody

Leidos announced on Thursday that the company’s unmanned ship, Sea Hunter, was recently featured in a major demonstration using an advanced senor less than a year after the ship was transited from San Diego to Hawaii with no personnel on board.

“This exercise offered valuable lessons learned on how to take full advantage of a medium unmanned surface vehicle, with no personnel on board,” said Nevin Carr, Leidos Navy strategic account executive. “Autonomous vessels, especially when combined with artificial intelligence, have the potential to impact naval warfare in ways yet to be discovered.”

The Office of Naval Research project was supported by the Naval Information Warfare Center – Pacific, Naval Undersea Warfare Center-Newport, and Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory to explore how unmanned vehicles can be used as a naval force multiplier, and allow warships to be available for other missions. 

The exercise also showcased the open architecture and flexibility of Sea Hunter, which has previously hosted a variety of mission payloads, including airborne sensors.

About Leidos

Leidos is a Fortune 500® information technology, engineering, and science solutions and services leader working to solve the world’s toughest challenges in the defense, intelligence, homeland security, civil, and health markets. The company’s 33,000 employees support vital missions for government and commercial customers. Headquartered in Reston, Virginia, Leidos reported annual revenues of approximately $10.19 billion for the fiscal year ended Dec. 2018.

DHS Plans Data Center Migration Ahead of 2020 Deadline
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DHS Plans Data Center Migration Ahead of 2020 Deadline


Jeff Brody

The Department of Homeland Security has migrated most of its systems and applications to the cloud and is planning to close its data center in Virginia next year, FCW reported Wednesday. The data center in Mississippi, known as Data Center One, will serve as a consolidated and modernized environment for the department’s 153 systems and 8,000 devices supported by the Virginia-based Data Center Two.

“One of the things that was really key for us is to figure out, of the 153 systems, which ones are ready to be moved to the cloud? And what we found was many of our systems were not really IT modernized to do that,” said Carlene Ileto, executive director of DHS’ infrastructure service division, following an American Council for Technology Industry Advisory Council event.

DHS plans to divide the transition of the non-cloud ready systems to DC 1 and the Mount Weather Emergency Operations Center in Virginia. The department is also considering letting some systems run within DC 2 after the 2020 deadline to serve as backups for disaster recovery operations.

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Sens. Amy Klobuchar, Jack Reed Introduce Bill to Create Info Warfare ‘Response Center’
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Sens. Amy Klobuchar, Jack Reed Introduce Bill to Create Info Warfare ‘Response Center’


Jeff Brody

Sens. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and Jack Reed, D-RI, have introduced a bill directing the establishment of a Malign Foreign Influence Response Center responsible for preventing adversarial interference and threats ahead of the federal elections.

Klobuchar’s office said Wednesday that the Combatting Foreign Influence Act would mandate the Office of the Director of National Intelligence to create the center, and coordinate information sharing and analysis activities across government agencies as well as the intelligence community.

The center will focus on mitigating threats from known adversaries such as Russia, China, North Korea and Iran. In addition, the unit will launch disinformation campaigns and submit an annual report to Congress detailing its activities and impact on privacy matters.

“We know that foreign governments and their agents have executed extensive and sophisticated influence campaigns that are designed to sow division, spread disinformation, and mislead the American people—we need a collaborative, comprehensive approach to protecting our democracy from information warfare,” said Klobuchar.

Congress may opt to re-authorize the center after eight years.

Mark Esper: US Military Needs to Adapt, Implement National Defense Strategy to Fight New Threats
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Mark Esper: US Military Needs to Adapt, Implement National Defense Strategy to Fight New Threats


Jeff Brody
Mark Esper

Defense Secretary and 2019 Wash100 Award winner Mark Esper said the U.S. military should “adapt” to counter cyber attacks and threats in space amid the resurgence of “great power competition,” the Air Force reported Wednesday. He cited the role of the National Defense Strategy in ensuring national security and fighting threats from near-peer competitors.

“If we are to remain the world’s preeminent military power, then we must change course away from the past and face the challenges of the future head on. … Everything we do must be aimed towards achieving the goals and objectives of (the NDS),” he said Wednesday at the Air Force Association’s Air, Space and Cyber conference.

Esper also discussed the need for the establishment of the Space Force as a separate service branch and the importance of developing the military’s competitive edge in multidomain operations, which he said will demand technical advancements and cultural change.

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Christopher Krebs: Gov’t, Industry Should Be More Realistic in Presenting Cyber Risks
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Christopher Krebs: Gov’t, Industry Should Be More Realistic in Presenting Cyber Risks


Jeff Brody
Christopher Krebs

Christopher Krebs, director of the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and a 2019 Wash100 Award winner, said government and industry cyber professionals seeking to encourage more people to participate in efforts to counter digital threats should present such threats in a more realistic way, Nextgov reported Wednesday.

“One of the things we’ve got to do a better job of is [to] stop selling fear,” Krebs said in his keynote speech at CISA Cybersecurity Summit. “Fear sells, but we have far too much to offer to just be looking for the next mark. We’ve got to be more straightforward, more measured, more reasonable in how we talk about [threats].”

He also cited how outreach programs could help agencies and industry address the cyber workforce shortage.

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Barbara Barrett, Ryan McCarthy Nominations Advance to Full Senate
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Barbara Barrett, Ryan McCarthy Nominations Advance to Full Senate


Jeff Brody

The Senate Armed Services Committee has approved Ryan McCarthy and Barbara Barrett for the top civilian positions at the U.S. Army and Air Force, respectively through a voice vote, The Hill reported Wednesday. Their nominations will head to the full Senate for a confirmation vote less than a week after they fielded questions from SASC members.

McCarthy, current undersecretary of the Army and former vice president of the F-35 sustainment program at Lockheed Martin, vowed to continue readiness, modernization and reform efforts at the service branch if confirmed to lead the Army.

Barrett, who most recently chaired the board of directors at Aerospace Corp., said she will prioritize the establishment of a military branch to focus on space warfare missions if the Senate approves her as USAF secretary.

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TCOM Secures $979M Army Tethered Aerostat Support Contract from DoD; Ron Bendlin Quoted
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TCOM Secures $979M Army Tethered Aerostat Support Contract from DoD; Ron Bendlin Quoted


Jeff Brody

TCOM L.P. has been awarded a $979 million hybrid contract to perform engineering, logistics, operations and program management support for the Persistent Surveillance Systems – Tethered (PSS-T) Program from the Department of Defense, TCOM announced on Thursday. 

“While TCOM has been a world leader in aerostat platforms for decades, we are very proud that the US Army has selected Team TCOM to provide operational support and sustaining engineering to these sophisticated surveillance systems,” said Matthew McNiel, VP of Business Development, TCOM, L.P.

TCOM plans for the associated work to occur at its facilities in Columbia, MD and Elizabeth City, NC as well as Aberdeen, MD; Tobyhanna, PA and Yuma, AZ. The work is estimated to be completed in June 2024. 

The objective of this acquisition is to support PD Aerostats’ mission requirements to support Combatant Commanders and joint agency requirements. The PSS-T aerostat fleet consists of a medium and a large size capable of persistent, integrated, networked, and multi-sensor information collection by operating for long periods of time at an altitude to maximize the line of sight and field of regard of on-board systems.

System modernization will incrementally enhance aerostat systems to mitigate obsolescence, to increase effectiveness and to provide survivability improvements.  Common mooring platforms, improved tethers and varied envelope sizes, will decrease the logistical footprint and address obsolescence while creating an adaptive interchangeable platform to support both short- and long-term missions.

According to defense media reports, PSS-T provides combat-proven capability that addresses two of the current intelligence capability gaps in the collection and intelligence enterprise. PSS-T is a highly persistent low-altitude platform that offers inherent cost savings per flight hour as compared to current manned and unmanned airborne Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) assets. 

“We highly value the opportunity to be in partnership with the US Army to support this critical mission.  This win results from continuous investment in our corporate strategy and valued employees, further advancing our position as a global leader in delivering integrated ISR solutions to the Department of Defense. We look forward to building on this opportunity to help serve the needs of the U.S. military as well as allied nations with similar needs,” said Ron Bendlin, President & CEO, TCOM, L.P.

About TCOM L.P.

TCOM, L.P. is a global leader of Intelligence, Surveillance & Reconnaissance (ISR) solutions of Lighter-than-Air Persistent Surveillance Tethered Aerostat platforms for Air, Maritime, and Land. Since 1971, the company’s pioneering innovations have defined the persistent surveillance and Lighter-than-Air industries. By blending leading-edge technology, manufacturing and field operation capabilities, TCOM has provided ISR systems for the United States and foreign governments with complete persistent surveillance capabilities. 

TCOM’s headquarters are based in Columbia, MD, and the Manufacturing & Flight Test Facility is located near Elizabeth City, NC. TCOM is the only company in the world devoted to cost-effective LTA surveillance solutions with in-house aerostat and airship manufacturing, assembly, flight test, and training capabilities.

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DLT Solutions Partners with A Cloud Guru to Provide Cloud Technology Training for Public Sector
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DLT Solutions Partners with A Cloud Guru to Provide Cloud Technology Training for Public Sector
Jeff Brody

DLT Solutions has partnered with A Cloud Guru (ACG) to deliver cloud training services to the public sector. The partnership enables DLT's public sector customers to access ACG's state-of-the-art learning platform at preferred pricing rates through the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Marketplace, DLT Solutions reported on Wednesday. 

"Investments in cloud training are critical to overcoming workforce cloud adoption issues and ensuring the public sector continues to modernize in the Cloud Smart era," said DLT Vice President of Enterprise Platforms, Danny Climo. "By partnering with A Cloud Guru, we expect to accelerate growth and speed of cloud adoption for our public sector customers and cement DLT's position as the premier public sector cloud distributor."

The strategic partnership between DLT and ACG includes special pricing offered through the AWS Consulting Partner Private Offer (CPPO) program which allows federal government agencies to invest in employee acceleration and cloud training without a sizable capital investment. This CPPO preferred pricing is available to purchase exclusively through DLT on the AWS Marketplace.

Treasury Dept Releases Strategy for Streamlining Cloud Acquisition
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Treasury Dept Releases Strategy for Streamlining Cloud Acquisition


Jeff Brody

The Treasury Department has created an “acquisition roadmap” in an effort to standardize and streamline enterprise-wide procurement and deployment of cloud services. A FedBizOpps notice posted Sunday states that the roadmap builds on the department’s cloud strategy and seeks to mitigate duplicative contract actions that result from the procurement of proprietary cloud services from varying providers.

“This scattered approach, while offering varying degrees of agility for individual customers, ignores opportunities for cost reduction through service deduplication and consolidated procurement actions,” according to the notice.

The department intends to implement a multitiered approach for long-term and short-term procurement in line with the acquisition strategy. Plans are currently in place to expand the department’s Workplace Community Cloud, which includes Amazon Web Services capabilities, to include various cloud services including Microsoft’s Azure.

“Enabling transparency across business operations is key to a successful cloud program,” the department said. “Treasury will provide centralized visibility into business operations, enabling a view into how Treasury is consuming cloud products and services.”

Interested parties may submit feedback through Feb. 3, 2020.

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NASA Ahead of Schedule to Build Lunar Gateway Modules
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NASA Ahead of Schedule to Build Lunar Gateway Modules


Jeff Brody

NASA has said it is ahead of schedule towards the completion of Gateway, a space outpost that would support manned lunar explorations under the Artemis effort, Space News reported Tuesday.

Officials from the space agency talked about progress on Gateway’s first two elements during the American Astronautical Society’s Wernher von Braun Memorial Symposium that took place Sept. 11 in Huntsville, Ala. Maxar Technologies is working to develop Gateway’s power and propulsion element that is scheduled for launch in 2022.

Dan Hartman, Gateway program manager at NASA’s Johnson Space Center, said the agency and Maxar are working to integrate NASA hardware into the PPE. The second element, known as the Habitation and Logistics Outpost or HALO, would help astronauts land on the Moon by 2024.

NASA plans to award a contract to Northrop Grumman for HALO’s completion. He company has already begun the module’s construction, according to Hartman.

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