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Lt. Gen. Eric Smith: USMC to Focus on Unmanned System Quantity
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Lt. Gen. Eric Smith: USMC to Focus on Unmanned System Quantity


Lt. Gen. Eric Smith: USMC to Focus on Unmanned System Quantity
Lt. Gen. Eric Smith

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.

GSA Official Offers Updates on EIS Telecom Contract Transition
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GSA Official Offers Updates on EIS Telecom Contract Transition


Jeff Brody

Allen Hill, a General Services Administration official, said 54 solicitations have been subjected to public review and four awards have been made under the potential 15-year, $50B Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions contract for telecommunications and information technology services, Nextgov reported Wednesday.

“Of the solicitations that passed the scope of review, there’s a lot of opportunity for the industry and all nine vendors to capitalize on and compete those things and provide the best value back to those agencies,” Hill, director of GSA’s office of telecommunication services, said at an ACT-IAC-hosted event. “And so I would say that I think it’s going to get really exciting here within the next couple of months.”

Those awards are from the Department of Justice, NASA and the Railroad Retirement Board. Although some agencies will not be able to meet the Sept. 30 deadline to award task orders under EIS, Hill said agencies are making strides and that GSA is not planning to extend any future deadlines.

CenturyLink, AT&T and Verizon are the first three contractors to secure an authority to operate on the EIS contract, which was awarded in 2017. GSA moved to extend through May 2023 its legacy telecom services contracts to provide agencies enough time to transition to EIS.

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Navy Develops RF Emission Detection, Localization Tech
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Navy Develops RF Emission Detection, Localization Tech


Jeff Brody

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.

GSA Seeks to Remove IT Schedule SIN for Refurbished Equipment
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GSA Seeks to Remove IT Schedule SIN for Refurbished Equipment


Jeff Brody

The General Services Administration is planning to remove the “grayware” special item number category under the IT Schedule 70 to eliminate government purchases of refurbished or overhauled information technology equipment, FCW reported Wednesday. GSA noted that it would no longer accept new offers for used tools under the SIN until its full retirement in mid-2024 as part of the agency’s efforts to modernize procedures and transition operations to the cloud.

Lawrence Hale, director of the IT security subcategory under GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service, said during a recent cybersecurity conference that the agency intends to be “as proactive as possible” in addressing performance and shelf life issues of refurbished IT products.

GSA expects to implement the changes as part of its schedule consolidation effort slated to take effect by fiscal year 2020.

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Army Team Tests Cold Spray Repair on Bradley Turret Gun
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Army Team Tests Cold Spray Repair on Bradley Turret Gun


Jeff Brody

Engineers and scientists from multiple U.S. Army groups have teamed to develop a cold spray technology for repairs on the M2 Bradley Fighting Vehicle’s turret gun mount. The team consisted of personnel from Army Research Laboratory, Ground Vehicle Systems Center, Armaments Center, Bradley Product Manager and Red River Army Depot, the service branch said Wednesday.

“This project demonstrated the ability to apply new manufacturing technologies to bring components back into service that would otherwise be scrapped during depot maintenance operations,” said Gehn Ferguson, ARL materials engineer at Army Combat Capabilities Development Command.

The cold spray process uses accelerated micron-sized particles to fill gaps on damaged surfaces. A repair using cold spray would cost only $1,000, compared to the $25,000 cost of a gun mount replacement.

ARL chose Bradley’s turret gun as a cold spray subject due to the laboratory’s experience with similar metals. Four to five more gun mounts will undergo cold spray repair over the next six months.  The Army’s Manufacturing Technology Program funded the project.

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Lt. Gen. Stephen Fogarty Eyes New Name for Army Cyber Command
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Lt. Gen. Stephen Fogarty Eyes New Name for Army Cyber Command

 

Lt. Gen. Stephen Fogarty Eyes New Name for Army Cyber Command
Lt. Gen. Stephen Fogarty

Lt. Gen. Stephen Fogarty, head of Army Cyber Command, said he believes the command will adopt a new name to reflect its mission in the information warfare field, C4ISRNET reported Thursday.

“The intent is to provide a proposal that will change us from Army Cyber Command to Army Information Warfare Command because we believe that is a more accurate descriptor of what I’m being asked to do on a daily basis,” Fogarty said Tuesday at TechNet Augusta.

He said Army commanders should have the ability to understand, sense, decide, act and evaluate faster than the adversary by integrating disparate capabilities in the information environment, which includes the cyber domain, operational security, military deception, public affairs, psychological operations and space.

“It’s more frequent that we will have task to conduct a cyberspace effects operation to generate an [information operation] effect,” Fogarty told the publication. “Or we’re going to deliver [information operations] content. We’re bowing to the reality that offensively, this is what commanders in many cases want us to do for them.”

 

NASA Seeks Lunar Payload Ideas Through University Student Challenge
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NASA Seeks Lunar Payload Ideas Through University Student Challenge


Jeff Brody

NASA has unveiled a new competition to encourage university student teams to propose technology concepts, systems or demonstrations to help the space agency explore the moon’s permanently shadowed areas.

Students and faculty advisers can submit proposals for sample payloads to support exploration of dark lunar regions through the 2020 Breakthrough, Innovative and Game-changing Idea Challenge, NASA said Thursday. The BIG Idea Challenge also calls for technological ideas to utilize materials found in lunar polar regions.

According to NASA, it will select as many as 10 teams to receive funds ranging from $50,000 to $180,000. Universities affiliated with an agency-backed Space Grant Consortium may form groups with as many as 20 members to join the competition. Finalists will conduct tests and demonstrate working proof of concepts.

“This year’s challenge is a unique opportunity for NASA to strengthen relationships with space grant universities and develop a future workforce with experience developing new and exciting concepts that align directly with current space technology focus areas and capability needs,” said Erica Alston, deputy director at NASA’s National Space Grant Consortium.

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Jim Bridenstine: NASA to Downselect Candidates for Human Exploration & Operations Head
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Jim Bridenstine: NASA to Downselect Candidates for Human Exploration & Operations Head


Jim Bridenstine: NASA to Downselect Candidates for Human Exploration & Operations Head
Jim Bridenstine

NASA is still looking for someone to replace Bill Gerstenmaier as associate administrator for the Human Exploration and Operations directorate, Space News reported Wednesday. NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine, a 2019 Wash100 Award recipient, told reporters that there are “very few people” with the appropriate program management and human spaceflight experience to fill the role during a press conference in Cleveland.

“At this point we have not even begun to narrow the field,” he said. “We’re going to start narrowing it down in the coming weeks, and we’ll be ready to announce a name, I would imagine, in the not-too-distant future.”

Bridenstine announced Gerstenmaier’s reassignment as special advisor to NASA Deputy Administrator Jim Morhard in July. Ken Bowersox replaced Gerstenmaier on an acting basis as part of the reorganization effort supporting of the Trump administration’s goal to commence the moon mission by 2024.

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Raytheon Expanding $5B Contributions to Texas with New Factory; Roy Azevedo Quotes
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Raytheon Expanding $5B Contributions to Texas with New Factory; Roy Azevedo Quotes


Jeff Brody

Raytheon announced on Thursday that the company will begin building a 200,000-square-foot facility supporting 500 new high-tech jobs at its Space and Airborne Systems headquarters in McKinney, Texas.

“This is an investment in the talented McKinney workforce,” said Roy Azevedo, president of Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems. “It shows we are serious about our presence in Texas and that we are here to stay,” he added.

The University of North Texas Economic Research Group, which found Raytheon’s business operations in North Texas contribute $4.8 billion to the Texas economy. In 2018, Raytheon directly employed more than 8,000 Texans. Supply chain activity and employee spending supported an additional 10,000 jobs throughout the state.

Local and state officials joined Raytheon for the announcement, where they learned about the construction project and the economic impact study results. Construction of the facility will be completed in late 2020.

“McKinney has always been proud to have the prominent presence of Raytheon as our largest employer and we are excited at the opportunity for new corporate expansion in McKinney,” said McKinney Mayor George Fuller. “We have worked hard to build strong business relationships and create an environment that not only allows these businesses to grow but provides their employees with an incredible place to call home.”

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, C5I  products and services, sensing, effects and mission support for customers in more than 80 countries. Raytheon is headquartered in Waltham, Mass.

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Benjamin Huebner to Oversee Civil Liberties, Privacy and Transparency at ODNI
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Benjamin Huebner to Oversee Civil Liberties, Privacy and Transparency at ODNI


Jeff Brody

Benjamin Huebner, a former privacy and civil liberties officer at the CIA, has been named the chief within the Office of Civil Liberties, Privacy and Transparency. He functions as civil liberties protection officer and chief transparency officer at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence in his new role, ODNI said Wednesday.

Before working with the CIA, the law graduate functioned as intelligence counsel for the Department of Justice’s assistant attorney general for national security. Kristi Scott succeeds Huebner as the latter transitions from the CIA to CLPT.

The CLPT office works to incorporate civil liberties and privacy security into policies and activities within the intelligence community. This work intends to ensure the protection of civil liberties, privacy and transparency across IC operations.

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