The National Institute of Standards and Technology plans to increase coordination with agencies and industry on the second round evaluations of a project aiming to develop encryption standards to protect federal systems from threats of quantum computing, FCW reported Wednesday. 

Matthew Scholl, chief of Computer Security Division at NIST, announced the plan during a recent briefing to the Information Security and Privacy Advisory Board. He said NIST is preparing for the next review of algorithms submitted for its Post Quantum Cryptography Standardization project.

The agency selected 26 proposals earlier this year after the first evaluation in 2018 that included 69 algorithms. The PQC standardization aims to provide agencies with the tools to protect their computers and data from the encryption-breaking tools built with quantum computing capabilities.

“This is to ensure that we have some resilience so that when a quantum machine actually comes around having more than one algorithm with some different genetic mathematical foundations will ensure that we have a little more resiliency in that kit going forward,” Scholl said.

He noted NIST did not limit the number of algorithms under PQC standardization since the agency wants to provide agencies multiple options to protect their assets.

Acting Defense Secretary and 2019 Wash100 Award recipient Patrick Shanahan said the Department of Defense’s objective is to accelerate the “margin of dominance” in space to protect the country’s $19 trillion economy and military systems, the DoD website reported Wednesday.

Shanahan said Wednesday at the Center for Strategic and International Studies that DoD’s reorganization efforts to recognize space as a warfighting domain supports the goal and involves the creation of a new Space Force within the Department of the Air Force, development of a new Space Command and formation of a new Space Development Agency.

“The Space Force will operate like other branches of the armed services, organizing, training and equipping the force with Title X authorities. It will have formalized leadership, including a new undersecretary for space, and a chief of staff of the Space Force, to focus on developing space warfighting doctrine and culture,” he said.

Shanahan noted the new service branch will operate with approximately 15,000 to 20,000 personnel and funding similar to the Special Operations Command. He cited the need to leverage commercial space investment to address future warfighting challenges and technology capabilities the Space Development Agency plans to focus on in the future.

The Wash100 award, now in its sixth year, recognizes the most influential executives in the GovCon industry as selected by the Executive Mosaic team in tandem with online nominations from the GovCon community. Representing the best of the private and public sector, the winners demonstrate superior leadership, innovation, reliability, achievement and vision.

Visit the Wash100 site to learn about the other 99 winners of the 2019 Wash100 Award. On the site, you can submit your 10 votes for the GovCon executives of consequence that you believe will have the most significant impact in 2019.

The Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division’s Lakehurst Airborne Weapons Support Equipment branch developed a weapons loader and an adapter to boost the F-35B Lightning II fighter aircraft’s loading capabilities. The GBU-49 loader is designed to assist the F-35B attack moving ground-based targets while an adapter attachment allows the aircraft to carry and deploy smart bombs, the U.S. Navy said Tuesday.

The team also customized an adapter unit to attach the GBU-49 to the Single Hoist Ordnance Loading System which serves as the main munition loading platform for aircraft weapons stations.

“For those airplanes that their missions are to fly ordnance, it’s our equipment that allows those 18-year-olds out there on pitching carrier decks to safely handle thousands of pounds of weapons, bring them up to an aircraft and load them up in a short time, both day and night,” said David Page, program head at NAWCAD’s Lakehurst AWSE branch.

The service branch completed the development, testing and production processes within nine months and delivered the adapters to the U.S. Marine Corps in November 2018.

Steven Walker, director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and 2019 Wash100 Award recipient, discussed some of DARPA programs at the Defense Programs Conference, the Department of Defense website reported Tuesday. Walker said some of the capabilities that DARPA is developing to defend the country from existential threats and near-peer adversaries include cyber deterrence, tactical-boost guide program and hypersonic weapons.

“It’s been widely reported in the press that our adversaries and peer competitors — China and Russia and others — are developing capabilities, so what we’re doing at DARPA is hypersonics weapon programs with the Air Force Research Laboratory to develop a glider that can be air-launched from several different Air Force platforms,” he said at the event hosted by McAleese and Associates and Credit Suisse.

“It has long-range capability. We hope to fly the first one by the end of this calendar year,” he added. Walker also mentioned DARPA’s work on artificial intelligence. “We’re also planning to bring AI into the game and have this constellation be able to focus based on passing data from one satellite to the next on various missions and we’ll see if it works,” he said.

The Wash100 award, now in its sixth year, recognizes the most influential executives in the GovCon industry as selected by the Executive Mosaic team in tandem with online nominations from the GovCon community. Representing the best of the private and public sector, the winners demonstrate superior leadership, innovation, reliability, achievement and vision.

Visit the Wash100 site to learn about the other 99 winners of the 2019 Wash100 Award. On the site, you can submit your 10 votes for the GovCon executives of consequence that you believe will have the most significant impact in 2019.