The Department of Defense‘s inspector general released the audit results to determine how the U.S. Navy, U.S. Marine Corps and U.S. Air Force rationalize software and manage obsolete and duplicate applications. The audit found the three service branches did not consistently handle software rationalization. However, the USMC and Navy observed processes to prevent software duplication, the inspector general said Dec. 13th in a report.

His report also noted the U.S. Fleet Forces Command was the only reviewed component with an implemented procedure to remove obsolete and duplicate software from its inventory. The lack of implemented processes increases the cybersecurity risks surrounding the DoD’s information network.

The inspector general recommends the DoD’s chief information officer implement an enterprise-wide process for software rationalization, guide and periodically conduct assessments across components.

The Federal Aviation Administration is investing $205M in grants to support infrastructure projects at small airports across 34 states, with a focus on rural areas. Initial funds would support runway reconstruction and facility maintenance efforts at 37 airports, the Department of Transportation said Wednesday.

“This $205M in Airport Improvement Program grants directly addresses the need for improved aviation infrastructure – especially in rural communities,” said Elaine Chao, U.S. secretary of transportation.

These new funds add to the $3.31B obligated under AIP for fiscal year 2018, with a remainder of $1B to follow in fiscal years 2019 and 2020. The Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2018 provides for these supplemental funds, and directs the FAA to oversee corresponding efforts through fiscal 2020. The agency would prioritize smaller and rural airports with regard to the funds.

The full list of AIP grants can be found here.

The DOT also looks to invest $10B to develop new transportation infrastructure across the nation during the current fiscal year.

NASA discovered a potential compromise of servers storing personally identifiable information of current and former employees. The agency said it initially found that one of the servers containing Social Security numbers and other PII data of its workers was potentially affected by the cyber incident in October, according to an internal memo obtained by SpaceRef.

NASA noted the compromised information may include those from employees who entered or left the agency between July 2006 and October 2018. Bob Gibbs, assistant administrator of NASA’s Office of the Chief Human Capital Officer, said the investigation is ongoing to find other affected servers. 

“NASA and its federal cybersecurity partners continue to examine the servers to determine the scope of the potential data exfiltration and identify potentially affected individuals,” he said in the memo. 

However, Gibbs noted the process “will take time” and the investigation is a top agency priority. NASA intends to provide identity protection services to those affected by the incident.

The U.S. Marine Corps is seeking advanced analytics, visualization, models and simulation technologies to build a new virtual environment where the service can conduct large and complex wargames, Marine Corps Times reported Tuesday.

The service wants to develop a platform that will enable senior leaders and forces to test operational plans, develop concepts of operations and collect information to prioritize resources.

To further discuss the program, the Marine Corps will hold an industry day on Dec. 20, where the service will also seek industry input to identify technical concepts and requirements, according to a FedBizOpps noticed posted Monday.  

In 2017, the service branch announced a three- to five-year plan to establish a wargaming simulation center at Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia. 

The service hopes to use the facility to conduct 20 wargames a year, including two large-scale, 250-participant exercises. 

Interested parties can submit white papers for the new program through July 2019.

A newly-established U.S. Army unit started deploying commercial-off-the-shelf equipment providing tactical network communications supporting both small and large units even in contested environments. The new Expeditionary Signal Battalion-Enhanced unit employed the communications tool for the first time at a recent live training mission at Fort Bragg in North Carolina, the Army said Monday.  

The equipment is designed to be scalable and fully interoperable with other systems to enable troops of any size to coordinate from initial entry to full scale operations.

“The ESB-E’s new equipment allows us to be a lot more flexible and expeditionary in nature,” said Lt. Col. David Short, commander of the 1st Battalion, 7th Regiment, 108th ADA Brigade. “We can tailor defense design, and our network nodes can go wherever we need to go.” 

The ESB-E equipment includes tactical network transport technologies providing signal pathway diversity and expanded data exchange, including: 

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• Small, medium and large triband satellite dishes and network baseband equipment packages
• The transit case-based Terrestrial Line of Sight Radio
• Wi-Fi
• A Network Operations package
• The Army’s Global Agile Integrated Transport network architecture