Senators expressed concerns that Huawei’s plan to offer 5G network equipment to U.S. allies could put international government and military communications at risk of disruptions, Fifth Domain reported Tuesday. Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee said during a recent hearing that allowing the China-backed company to provide and manage the technology internationally may affect global communications, intelligence sharing and military operations.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., cited China can easily influence Huawei once it secured a lead role to manage 5G networks in other countries. Christopher Krebs, director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and 2019 Wash100 Award recipient, backed the claim saying if Huawei controls the network, “They control whether or not we communicate.” He added the company could use a “bug door” to shut down any military mission overseas that rely on the company’s network.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said aircraft carriers may become “sitting ducks” if communication systems are vulnerable. There is “strong bipartisan alarm about the threat by posed by Huawei, which is really a threat posed by China,” he said. “We are literally putting our national security at risk and ultimately it’s theirs [our allies] as well.”

Vice Adm. Nancy Norton, commander of the Defense Information Systems Agency, told attendees at an AFCEA conference in Maryland that the Department of Defense must prepare for cyberwarfare and a multidomain battle, DISA said Tuesday.

Norton, also the head of the Joint Force Headquarters – DoD Information Network, said the Pentagon needs to implement a “competitive mindset” in optimizing cyberspace to support national security efforts. DISA seeks “trusted partnerships” with firms with the capacity to implement cybersecurity throughout the development lifecycle and mitigate supply chain risks, she noted. 

“Through persistent engagement, government and industry can partner our research and expertise to develop innovative technology, services, and capabilities to pace the threat of our cyberspace adversaries,” said Norton.

DISA is working to launch recruitment initiatives and other efforts to expand its cyber workforce in the coming months.

The Department of Defense plans to award contracts for its Defense Enterprise Office Solutions program in a bid to utilize commercial cloud to improve operations and secure military networks this summer. The multi-award DEOS contract will help DoD standardize, centralize and cut costs in operating and maintaining servers, AFCEA International said Tuesday. 

“With each command having its own boxes to maintain, you greatly increase the attack surface that the opposition has,” said Karl Kurz, chief engineer for the unified capabilities portfolio at Defense Information Systems Agency. “Industry is moving away from installed applications and application keys in favor of a subscription service where you pay on a set rate or pay a premium for extra services.” 

DEOS will provide DoD a cloud-based platform for a productivity suite, messaging, content management and collaboration. The Pentagon also aims to use the enterprise to offer software-as-a-service on the Non-classified Internet Protocol Router Network and Secret Internet Protocol Router Network inside and outside the continental U.S. 

DEOS is the first of three capabilities under DoD’s Enterprise Collaboration and Productivity Service strategy. The agency plans to start transition to DEOS in 2020. 

Margaret Weichert, acting director of the Office of Personnel Management, said the White House is introducing a measure to authorize the move of OPM to the General Services Administration on Friday, FCW reported Tuesday. OPM will run as a third service division within GSA under the proposed reorganization, which comes as OPM faces a budget deficit of $70 million as a result of the National Background Investigations Bureau’s transfer to the Pentagon as well as issues concerning legacy information technology systems. 

“We have to structurally change and look at an entirely new architecture for the future,” Weichert said Tuesday at a press briefing. “And it’s not just technology architecture. It’s a business operating model that has more of a shared services orientation that is not looking at serving feds as a retiree or a health care beneficiary or an employee, but really looking at a much more integrated view.” 

Weichert said she expects to generate $11 million to $37 million in annual cost savings as part of the planned reorganization.

The House Appropriations Committee introduced a draft spending bill that would authorize $690.2 billion in fiscal 2020 discretionary funds for the Department of Defense, reflecting an increase of $15.8 billion from the enacted discretionary budget for the current fiscal year. The committee said Tuesday the bill includes a base budget of $622.1 billion and $68.1 billion in overseas contingency operations funds – an increase of $15.6 billion and $165 million from current levels, respectively. 

The proposed measure would allot a budget of $153.9 billion to back the proposed 3.1 percent increase in military pay and fund end strength of 1.3 million troops. The panel proposed to allocate $142 billion for the procurement of aircraft, ships, vehicles and other defense equipment. The bill would also set aside $256.5B for operation and maintenance, $101.5 billion for research, development and test and evaluation, $33.8 billion for other DoD programs and $1.45 billion for revolving and management funds. 

The Department of Veterans Affairs is teaming with Virta Health, a San Francisco-based healthcare company, to manage the condition of patients and offer non-invasive treatments with type 2 diabetes. The partnership will allow 400 veterans to join the Virta Treatment program, to assist patients in maintaining glycemic control without the need for medicines, VA said Monday. The agency added that the treatment will be provided for free at a span of 12 months.

“Many Veterans have type 2 diabetes, and it is strongly linked to obesity, so we are excited to explore Virta Health’s approach to tackling this debilitating and costly condition,” said Robert Wilkie, secretary at VA and 2019 Wash100 Award recipient.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration anticipates obtaining data from various government satellites and commercial sensors as it plans for its future satellite observing architecture, SpaceNews reported Monday. Karen St. Germain, director of NOAA’s office of systems architecture and advanced planning for satellite and information service, said the Joint Polar Satellite System in low-Earth orbit could feed data to the agency in the mid-2030s.

Germain noted that NOAA can look for approaches to leverage new acquisition measures and commercial technology platforms to build up data derived from JPSS and that the agency’s near-term focus is to have imagers in geostationary orbit by 2030. She said the agency started collecting data from “a half dozen” satellites operated by foreign partners in the last year, including India’s Scatterometer Satellite and Japan’s Himawari 8 weather satellite.

NOAA’s Satellite Observing System Architecture study underscored the value of imagery collection in Tundra orbits to enhance high-latitude regional observations.

“Particularly in the high latitudes, we believe we’re going to be seeing more drilling, more fishing, more tourism, more shipping,” St. Germain said. “That’s going to mean we need more situational awareness when it comes to the risks associated with weather and environmental phenomenon. That’s a capability we’re looking at in the future architecture.”

The Cyberspace Solarium Commission is working to establish an organizational structure and determine resource allocations to support the newly created unit’s three main cyber defense strategies, FCW reported Monday. 

The 14-member interagency commission was established under the fiscal 2019 National Defense Authorization Act and seeks to create working teams to handle offensive strategy, deterrence-focused defensive strategy and international threat regulation efforts. Issues covered by the three strategies may span electoral interference, 5G implementation, espionage and threats to critical infrastructure including financial institutions and the electric grid.

“There’s no central leadership and there’s no policy that our adversaries - or our allies for that matter - can discern about what we’re going to do in a particular situation, and my belief is that until we clarify that, we’re going to keep getting hit,” said Sen. Angus King, co-chair of the commission.