Defense Secretary James Mattis has said the Defense Department has initiated steps to establish a space-focused military command as part of a reorganization plan, SpaceNews reported Tuesday.

He said Tuesday at the Pentagon that DoD will use existing resources and personnel to fund and operate the proposed space command, which will be led by a four-star general.

Mattis added that DoD and Congress are “on the way ahead” when it comes to drafting a measure to facilitate the establishment of a new “space force” as the country’s sixth service branch.

Mattis made the remarks during a joint news conference with Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
 

U.S. Army officials have said the Logistics Civil Augmentation Program helped the Army Corps of Engineers respond to Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico in 2017, DVIDSHUB reported Tuesday.

Staff Stg. John Butts, contracting officer for USACE and administrator of LOGCAP in Puerto Rico, explained that the contracting process quickly helped get organizational resources to the area for the service’s disaster response operation.

“Because the mission needs could change at a moment’s notice, the fact that LOGCAP is a cost contract has been vital for the environment that we are working in,” he added.

LOGCAP Forward Planner Gill Ponce also explained that the contract provides various pre-awarded options, which helped streamline the contracting process and allowed emergency responders to act more quickly.

Ponce noted that USACE, Army Sustainment Command and DynCorp are collaborating to understand how LOGCAP was used in Puerto Rico, participating in emergency response exercises and applying lessons learned to future disaster recovery plans.

The LOGCAP contract also helped USACE support three other disaster response and recovery operations in 2017.

The U.S. Navy plans to purchase its first Future Surface Combatant ship in 2023 in support of its Arleigh Burke Flight III warship program, USNI News reported Tuesday.

The combatant ship will integrate design elements from Zumwalt-class (DDG-1000) and Arleigh Burke-class (DDG-51) destroyer vessels, according to the report.

The service’s Future Surface Combatant family of warships will be composed of a large combatant vessel, a small combatant and two unmanned surface vessels that will be available in small and large sizes.

Navy Rear Adm. Ron Boxall, surface warfare director, said the service will initially address the acquisition of the large combatant.

“Not many people make large surface combatants of the size and capability that we need,” Boxall told USNI News.

“So we’ve got to kind of look to our portfolio of blueprints that we have as a starting point, and we’ll edit and modify the hull and design things as we go forward,” he added.

Boxall noted the planned large combatant would require space to accommodate unmanned platforms and helicopters, long-range missiles and command-and-control systems to support offensive surface and aerial defense missions as well as integrate DDG-1000’s power system and signature controls.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee has called on the Department of Homeland Security and Mitre to conduct biennial reviews to ensure the stability and effectiveness of a program that aims to facilitate the identification of cybersecurity vulnerabilities and sharing of such data among organizations.

The House panel said Monday DHS should provide a stable funding stream for the Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures program by transitioning from a contract-based funding framework to a “dedicated program, project or activity line item” in its annual budget requests.

The committee made the recommendations after it assessed issues facing the CVE program based on the evaluation of documents requested from DHS and Mitre, according to letters addressed to Mitre and the department.

Those sets of documents include contracts linked to the CVE program; timelines of measures carried out by DHS and Mitre to oversee the CVE contract from Jan. 1, 2011 to March 31, 2017; and copies of analyses carried out related to the initiative.

The panel has asked Mitre and DHS to conduct a briefing about the recommendations stated in the letters by Sept. 10.

The Senate wants the Government Accountability Office to review the Defense Department‘s efforts to deploy a new military electronic health record system and challenges related to the implementation and performance of the EHR platform, Federal News Radio reported Tuesday.

The upper chamber voted 95-0 to mandate a GAO study of MHS Genesis through an amendment to the $854B minibus appropriations bill senators approved Thursday.

Lawmakers specifically want the congressional watchdog to determine measures that DoD has undertaken to update Genesis after the Pentagon’s Office of Operational Test and Evaluation found earlier this year that the system was “neither operationally effective nor operationally suitable.”

They also seek to determine if the platform works to meet health care requirements at the four Pacific Northwest sites and if the department has a capacity to accomplish its global deployment goals by 2022, the report noted.

Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., introduced the amendment that must have a counterpart version in the House before it can move up the legislative ladder. If the measure becomes law, GAO would be given six months to complete the review.

Mick Mulvaney, director of the Office of Management and Budget, has outlined new agency initiatives meant to reduce the amount of repetitive administrative tasks needed for procurement activities.

Mulvaney said in an August 27 memorandum that the OMB plans to use artificial intelligence and automation tools to handle routine procedures, thereby reducing the likelihood of errors and enhancing “compliance with contracting protocols and financial analysis and reporting.”

The OMB director added that his agency developed, in partnership with the General Services Administration, a centralized service that government contractors can use when filing post-award data in compliance with the Federal Acquisition Regulation.

The OMB’s efforts are a response to the President’s Management Agenda, which criticized the amount of resources “spent complying with outdated, redundant and unnecessary requirements.”

The PMA challenged federal agencies to divert “time, effort and funding… toward accomplishing mission outcomes” and bring about a shift from “low-value to high-value work.”