Mike Griffin, defense undersecretary for research and engineering, has said that the Defense Department should create a new agency to oversee the country’s space programs, Space News reported Sunday.

The suggestion was given in response to a Sept. 10 memo from Deputy Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan that asked both Griffin and U.S. Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson to come up with separate proposals on the establishment of the Space Development Agency.

In his proposal, Griffin recommended the formation of a Washington, D.C.-based organization staffed with 112 personnel that Griffin would oversee. However, in the future, it would be headed by an assistant secretary of defense for space.

“To disrupt our adversaries’ calculus in the space domain and deter aggression, we must first disrupt our own space community’s risk-averse culture – by relearning how to build, deploy, operate and innovate rapidly, at low cost,” Griffin stated in his memo.

He said he would beef up SDA’s tasks in implementing the “DoD Space Vision,” a plan to update military space technologies.

“Resources needed to support development of DoD’s space vision will shift from legacy organizations to SDA as soon as practical,” Griffin added.

Wilson’s plan calls for the new space agency to operate under the existing Space Rabid Capabilities Office. She said it should be a part of “existing structures” to more quickly acquire capabilities, according to the article.

The Defense Department will conduct an audit of the U.S. aerospace and defense sector’s supply chains after DoD released a White House-commissioned study of the defense industrial base, The Wall Street Journal reported Friday.

Ellen Lord, defense undersecretary for acquisition and sustainment, said U.S. intelligence agencies will take part in the review to assess the local defense supply chains’ readiness to support warfighters.

Deputy Defense Secretary Pat Shanahan on Friday presented to President Donald Trump the report that was prepared in accordance with an executive order signed in July that called for a cross-government review of U.S. producers’ capacity to support the defense industrial base.

The report identified challenges to the country’s industrial base and offered recommendations to address such risks.

Those challenges include budget uncertainty; decline of U.S. manufacturing capabilities; loss of critical skills in the domestic workforce; dependence on competitor countries; and procurement issues.

The White House said Friday it plans to implement several measures in response to the report’s recommendations such as the expansion of investments in the industrial base to support suppliers, collaborate with allies and advance science, technology, engineering and mathematics education as part of workforce development efforts.
 

The Department of Transportation has disclosed that it obligated over $65.5B to infrastructure modernization projects in 2018.

The department said Wednesday $1.6B of the investment came from fiscal year 2017 discretionary funds, while $63.9B originated from fiscal year 2018 multi-modal discretionary and formula transportation appropriations.

The major infrastructure projects launched in 2018 are:

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• Better Utilizing Investments to Leverage Development or BUILD
• Infrastructure for Rebuilding America or INFRA 
• Airport Improvement Program
• Buses and Bus Facilities Infrastructure Investment Program
• Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements Grant Program
• Hazardous Materials Emergency Preparedness Grant Program
• Competitive Highway Bridge Program 
• America’s Marine Highway Program

\nDOT solicited responses from Notices of Funding Opportunity that took up the majority of 2018 funding.

Federal Chief Information Officer Suzette Kent has said that federal agencies are performing well on seven cybersecurity key performance indicators outlined under the President’s Management Agenda, MeriTalk reported Wednesday.

Kent, however, did not specify in which cybersecurity KPIs agencies were showing improvement. The PMA lists 10 indicators grouped under three categories.

An analysis by MeriTalk suggests agencies have been doing poorly in the three KPIs grouped under the “Protect Networks and Data,” making it possible to infer where agencies have demonstrated progress.

The White House released the PMA in March this year with the goal of modernizing federal government services.

Through modernization, the PMA aims to “improve the ability of agencies to deliver mission outcomes, provide excellent service, and effectively steward taxpayer dollars on behalf of the American people.”

FBI Director Christopher Wray has warned the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs that vulnerable targets in the U.S. could be attacked with the use of drones, Reuters reported Wednesday.

Wray told legislators during a Senate committee hearing on Oct. 10 that such an attack is possible because drones can be purchased and operated easily.

Wray reminded the lawmakers how his agency had stopped a terror plot in which the attacker, Rezwan Ferdaus, sought to fly explosives into the Pentagon and the Capitol using jet-powered drones that he was able to obtain.

Ferdaus is currently serving a 17-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to charges of terrorism.

The FBI director’s remarks follow the recent signing into law of the 2018 Federal Aviation Administration Reauthorization Act, which contains provisions allowing federal agencies to take action against drones that pose a credible threat against people or facilities.

The law, for example, permits authorities to “[use] reasonable force, if necessary, to disable, damage, or destroy the unmanned aircraft system or unmanned aircraft.”

The Defense Department has released the MH Genesis electronic health records system at a second set of locations, Federal Times reported Saturday.

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MH Genesis was deployed at four new sites: Naval Health Clinic Lemoore, Presidio of Monterey and Travis Air Force Base, all located in California, plus Idaho’s Mountain Home AFB.

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Stacy Cummings, chief of the program executive office at Defense Healthcare Management Systems, said issues that came up during the initial deployment of the records system include lack of user preference and design errors.

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The EHR system is set to be installed at every military medical center during the next five years. The initial sites, also West Coast military facilities, will resolve identified problems, the report said.

Maj. Gen. Patrick Higby, a 29-year U.S. Air Force official, has been named director of information technology acquisition process development at the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition.

The Defense Department said Friday Higby will leave his roles as director of cybersecurity strategy and policy at the Office of Information Dominance and chief information officer at the Office of the Secretary of the Air Force.

As cyberspace operations and support career field functional manager, he oversaw 43,000 officers, enlisted and civilian personnel, as well as the costs and risks of cyberspace initiatives within the Air Force.

He also previously held other roles in the service in the engineering, intelligence, space, communications and cyber career fields, at base, major command and joint agency levels.

Higby entered the Air Force in 1989 as a squadron section executive officer at Fort George G. Meade, after graduating from the Reserve Officer Training Corps.

Deputy Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan has said the U.S. Army has begun to examine each of its programs to prioritize spending and advance modernization, National Defense reported Wednesday.

“As pressing as the threat is, we will not be handed a blank check. Fiscal discipline and performance will determine whether we will be able to execute our strategy,” he said Wednesday during his speech at the Association of the United States Army’s annual conference.

He said the Army has identified and set its top six priorities for modernization in comparison to the U.S. Air Force.

“The Air Force is not that far along in the process,” Shanahan added.

He commended the service for establishing Army Futures Command this year and cited the need to deal with space and cyber as the new warfighting domains.
 

U.S. Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson and Chief of Staff Gen. David Goldfein have said the service is working on restoring and boosting the readiness of airmen using increased appropriations from Congress.

The Air Force said Wednesday it expects 80 percent of its core fighting units to produce well-trained and equipped airmen by late 2020.

The service aims to: prevent any shortages of active duty maintainers and national aircrew by the end of 2018; address issues in the quality of service and life of Air Force personnel; increase financial incentives; and provide freedom over assignments and career choices.

In its readiness priority list, the Air Force also included purchasing modern training ranges and systems, such as simulators and threat emulators, and sustaining weapons.

Goldfein noted that the service is seeking new ways of maintaining legacy planes operated by young airmen.