The U.S. Navy named a new class of towing, salvage and rescue ships to honor Native Americans for their contributions to the military. The new Navajo class will consist of ships designed to perform towing activities, aid in submarine rescue missions and support salvage efforts with the Military Sealift Command, the service branch said Tuesday.

The class will build on commercial towing ships and succeed the Navy’s current Powhatan and Safeguard classes of salvage vessels. The future USNS Navajo or T-ATS 6 will serve as the name of the ship. Construction will occur in Houma, La., through March 2021.

Gulf Island Shipyards will design and build the new ship under a $63.5M contract and potentially work on seven more vessels under inclusive options.

The Defense Information Systems Agency increased its involvement in preparing the U.S. military for modern warfare by emphasizing emerging technologies and tracking advancements made by foreign adversaries. 

The agency launched a comprehensive initiative to evaluate how it can help service members operate in an all-domain, trans-regional fight, Army Lt. Col. Blair Sawyer, chief of plans at DISA, said in statement Tuesday.

“Continuously advancing technologies have signaled a paradigm shift in how battles and future wars are fought and won,” he said. “We have to shift with them.”

The agency is also working on four major planning efforts for two combatant commands, Sawyer said. He noted that the planning process at DISA uses a global approach instead of focusing on a specific theater so as to better address challenges posed by potential threats from  China, Russia, North Korea, Iran and extremist groups.

“DISA has largely provided analysis and products to support the new globally integrated campaign and contingency planning concept directed by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff,” he said.

Such plans are aligned with the joint force readiness requirements outlined in the 2018 National Defense Strategy and the Pentagon’s Cyber Strategy, according to Navy Vice Adm. Nancy Norton, director of DISA and commander of the Joint Force Headquarters – DoD Information Network.

 

The Government Accountability Office released a report Tuesday stating that 22 out of the 24 agencies it reviewed did not properly identify information technology roles within the Office of Personnel Management’s GS-2210 occupational series.

GAO reviewed 24 federal agencies that assigned IT, cybersecurity and cyber-related roles in compliance with the 2015 Federal Cybersecurity Workforce Assessment Act, which requires these agencies to identify critical IT positions by 2019 and submit a preliminary report to OPM by August 2018. The agencies under review cited information systems security manager, IT project manager and systems security analyst as the top three roles of critical importance.

The government watchdog found that 22 of those agencies assigned a non-IT work code to 15,779 or around 19 percent of their IT roles under the OPM 2210 series. Six of the 24 agencies reported that some of their vacant positions still do not have work role codes despite the OPM’s August 2018 deadline.

“By assigning work roles that are inconsistent with the IT, cybersecurity, and cyber-related positions, the agencies are diminishing the reliability of the information they need to improve workforce planning,” the report stated.

The U.S. Air Force’s 20th Intelligence Squadron has started efforts to establish a network that will help address warfighter concerns.

The unit has begun to gather individuals of different expertise from various USAF commands and teams to develop ideas and projects at the Spark Hub facility in Offutt Air Force Base as part of the Soaring Buffalo network, the service branch said Tuesday.

Additionally, members from the Air Force Global Strike Command, 595th Strategic Communications Squadron and 20th IS targeteers have developed a dashboard that assists warfighters in decision-making functions.

The network has teamed up with academic institutions and firms to secure training in the areas of analytics and data visualization.

The Spark Hub facility leverages intelligence, warfighter systems and commercial internet connectivity to create services and platforms at a rapid pace through the use of DevOps methods. 

Senior Navy officials said the service is making changes to take advantage of previous updates in authorities by Congress for rapid acquisitions across the military, National Defense Magazine reported Monday. Congress allowed the U.S. Navy to accelerate how it develops, buys and fields new technologies through the fiscal year 2016 National Defense Authorization Act. 

Rear Adm. James Kilby, director of warfare integration at the office of the chief of naval operations, said the Navy created two paths to leverage its new rapid acquisition authorities. The service is working on faster prototyping, experimentation and demonstration projects and the maritime accelerated capability office as part of its high priority initiatives.

Commander Todd Philips, of the Navy appropriations matters office, said the Navy faced “a lot of initial bumps and bruises” implementing the accelerated acquisition process. However, he noted the service is “at a much better place” following the 2018 update on the process, which sets initiatives that are designated as “accelerated” to receive immediate funding.

Rear Adm. Douglas Small, program executive officer for integrated warfare systems, said the Navy is assigning program managers and executive officers to speed up the process to manage acquisition authorities and speed up processes.

“Just removing entire layers of oversight and really empowering people to be able to go off and deliver is going to… speed up a lot throughout the system,” he said.

Amid the efforts to buy and field technologies faster, Kilby called on industry to reach out to the Navy to help in the changes. He added the Navy is shifting millions of dollars in research and development funding towards fast-tracking acquisition priorities.

The U.S. Marine Corps wants to make a decision on testing and fielding its anti-drone Marine Air Defense Integrated System by the end of the year, USNI News reported Monday.

MADIS is a platform designed to detect and neutralize drones from adversaries by integrating radars, optics, jammers and passive detection sensors. The system is set to have a “kinetic kill option” potentially through the installation of a small drone intended to combat other small drones. The Marine Corps is considering a version of MADIS capable of integrating with joint light tactical vehicles to provide mobile anti-drone defense.

Don Kelley, a program manager working under USMC’s program executive office for land systems, said the service’s “systems-of-systems” approach for MADIS will accelerate testing operations by incorporating the previous evaluation of its components. The strategy will let the PEO develop multiple MADIS variants to handle threats that will emerge over time.

The program office is working with the Marine Corps and the Department of Defense testing community to accelerate assessment activities for MADIS.