Heather Wilson, secretary of the U.S. Air Force and a 2019 Wash100 Award winner, said modernization, growth and streamlining of acquisition processes will be top priorities across the service so new tools and capabilities can be supplied to airmen faster.

Wilson wants to expand the force from 312 squadrons to 386 to meet the requirements of near-peer competition as outlined in initiatives in the National Defense Strategy, the Air Force said Thursday.

“Our Air Force is too small for what the nation is asking of us,” Wilson said at the recent Air Force Association’s Air Warfare Symposium.

She noted that  Russia and China have been increasing their respective military power which may soon threaten U.S. airpower. The Air Force is working on a approach to attract more vendors to do business with the service branch. Wilson announced that the Pentagon budgeted $40M to identify the companies, evaluate their products and approve contracts.

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

Gen. John Hyten, commander of the U.S. Strategic Command, said at a Senate hearing on the fiscal 2020 defense budget that the nation needs nuclear triad modernization, the Department of Defense said Tuesday.

Hyten told senators there should be a focus on updating the triad’s communications system and producing a network of ground and space-based sensors and radars that detect missile launches. He noted that nuclear modernization doesn’t mean creating a new class of missiles and each component of the triad is crucial for nuclear deterrence. 

According to Hyten, the recent Nuclear Posture Review validates the nation’s need for an updated nuclear triad. He added that Russia, which began a nuclear triad modernization initiative in 2006, is around 80 percent finished while China is slated to establish their own triad threat. 

A few lawmakers have launched an effort to revive the congressional office of technology assessment and some congressional staffers believe that such an institution, if reinstated, should operate in a nonpartisan manner and with adequate funding to be effective, Nextgov reported Wednesday.

The OTA, which had a budget of $25M and approximately 140 employees when it ceased operations in 1995, used to educate and advise lawmakers on technology issues ahead of congressional hearings.

Rep. Mark Takano (D-Calif.), a sponsor of the last measure to bring back the OTA, organized a discussion with a group of former Hill staffers and advocates to talk about the factors needed to set up a viable tech advisory office in Congress.

“There’s the Office of Science and Technology Policy, which is part of the executive branch. It makes sense to have an OTA—an office to analyze science and technology policy—for the legislative branch,” said Daniel Schuman, policy director at Demand Progress and a former attorney at the Congressional Research Service.

“Having something that is independent; that is capable of doing this work; that is bipartisan—or better yet, nonpartisan; that has buy-in from the political parties and the factions within the political parties is something that makes the most sense,” Schuman added.

Robert Cook-Deegan, a professor at Arizona State University and former OTA staffer in the 1980s, said the office should be established with sufficient funds.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology released its revised guidelines on federal email security in an effort to provide agencies with updates on cyber security.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology issued the updated SP 800-177 guidance in February to help agencies enhance email security. The agency said enterprise email administrators, information security specialists and network managers can apply the guidelines to federal information technology systems and small or medium sized organizations.

The document helps agencies reduce the risk of email being used as an attack vector and to avoid the risk of content leaks to unauthorized parties. Other changes in the publication include use of third-party email scanning services, third-party email malware scanners and cloud-based email.

“These recommendations cover both the email sender and receiver,” NIST said.

The U.S. Air Force is scheduled to host its first “pitch day” as part of its Small Business Innovation Research program in March, Fedscoop reported Wednesday.

Fifty-nine companies will deliver pitches to Air Force officers in areas such as special forces, digital technology and command, control, communication, intelligence and networks. Successful firms could receive up to $158,000 as an initial payment for a five-month term.

Ryan Helbach, chief intrapreneur at the Air Force Research Laboratory, said the event will highlight the branch’s ability to “move at the speed of relevance”. He added that the Air Force had to make adjustments to launch the pioneering effort, notably by streamlining contract procedures.

“We need to adapt our business practices to the world that’s around us,” Helbach said.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is looking for multidisciplinary teams to support its programs that integrate quantum concepts into classical systems, the agency said Wednseday.

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The Optimization with Noisy Intermediate-Scale Quantum devices program addresses combinatorial optimization issues through the use of both quantum information processing and classical-only systems.

Agency officials want to combine classical systems and medium-sized quantum platforms to solve optimization problems. Interested teams must possess significant experience in applied mathematics, computer science and experimental and theoretical physics.

A Proposer’s Day will be held on March 19 in Arlington, VA, to discuss the initiative.

Chris Krebs, director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and 2019 Wash100 Award winner, said the newly-built agency will continue to work on election security as a top priority through 2020, Politico reported Wednesday.

CISA’s ongoing security efforts focus on future elections and protecting the U.S. supply chains, federal networks, industrial control systems and the education sector from cyber threats, Krebs told Politico. Threats from China also remain a concern, the director said. Krebs said CISA is working with the Government Coordinating Council to extend engagement for local and state governments and understand their cybersecurity requirements.

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The agency needs to determine how to replace legacy election systems and promote cyber hygiene and information sharing across agencies for improved security. The Trump administration established CISA in late 2018 under the Department of Homeland Security to boost national security. However, Krebs noted DHS has yet to determine its sources of funding for the election security efforts.

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