/
Rep. Mac Thornberry: FY 2019 Defense Policy Bill Wants More Info on DoD’s Cloud Procurement
Published on
Rep. Mac Thornberry: FY 2019 Defense Policy Bill Wants More Info on DoD’s Cloud Procurement


Rep. Mac Thornberry: FY 2019 Defense Policy Bill Wants More Info on DoD’s Cloud Procurement
Mac Thornberry

House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) has said the lower chamber’s fiscal 2019 defense policy bill would prevent the Defense Department from spending 50 percent of the appropriated funds for the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure cloud procurement contract until DoD provides sufficient data on how it will oversee the acquisition process, Federal News Radio reported Monday.

“I really want to know that they have thought through not just this particular contract, but where cloud is going throughout the department,” Thornberry told reporters Thursday during a meeting in Washington.

“We are going to pay close attention to it not just because it’s a lot of money and because it’s a shift in the way they do business, but because cloud computing is going to be really important to the future of the military,” he added.

Thornberry added that he wants the Pentagon to invest in a cloud platform equipped with interoperable databases and that can be easily searched by auditors.

A report accompanying the House bill says the panel is concerned with the lack of data about security requirements, migration costs, customer capability requirements and other details behind the planned JEDI procurement from a single cloud service provider.

/
DHS OKs 1,000th Anti-Terrorism Product Under SAFETY Act
Published on
DHS OKs 1,000th Anti-Terrorism Product Under SAFETY Act


DHS OKs 1,000th Anti-Terrorism Product Under SAFETY ActThe Department of Homeland Security‘s Science and Technology Directorate has approved the 1,000th technology that complies with the Support Anti-Terrorism by Fostering Effective Technologies Act.

The act provides legal liability protection for SAFETY-approved products in the events of terrorist attacks, DHS said Monday.

The government passed the SAFETY Act in 2001 to prevent liabilities from hindering industry’s development and propagation of anti-terrorism technologies.

The DHS S&T evaluates SAFETY technology entries in terms of effectiveness to the government, availability, third-party liability risk, deployment capacities without SAFETY protection, public need, capacity for scientific assessment and anti-terrorism defense.

Public and commercial establishments across the country employ SAFETY-approved technologies to protect the public against potential acts of terrorism.

The full roster of SAFETY-approved products can be found here.

/
Jim Bridenstine: NASA Supports White House’s New Space Policy Directive
Published on
Jim Bridenstine: NASA Supports White House’s New Space Policy Directive


Jim Bridenstine: NASA Supports White House's New Space Policy Directive
Jim Bridenstine

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine has said the agency supports President Donald Trump’s move to enforce a new directive that seeks to increase the security and safety of U.S. space systems.

“[Space Policy Directive-3] builds on our continued progress implementing SPD-1, which is galvanizing American space leadership by returning to the Moon with commercial and international partners, and SPD-2, which will create regulatory certainty for entrepreneurs to raise capital to grow the American economy in space,” Brindenstine said in a statement published Tuesday.

He added the agency will coordinate with the National Space Council, Commerce Department and other government partners to implement SPD-3.

President Trump signed the directive Monday at an NSC meeting, where he also instructed the Defense Department to form a space force that would serve as the sixth military branch.

/
DOE Awards $64M to National Labs, Universities, Industry for Nuclear Energy Tech
Published on
DOE Awards $64M to National Labs, Universities, Industry for Nuclear Energy Tech


DOE Awards $64M to National Labs, Universities, Industry for Nuclear Energy TechThe Energy Department has provided up to $64 million in grants to industry, universities and the department’s national laboratories for advanced nuclear energy technology research and development projects.

The DOE said Monday its Office of Nuclear Energy will fund a total of 89 projects for nuclear energy systems, facility access and infrastructure development, which include programs from 39 universities across 29 states.

Ed McGinnis, principal deputy assistant secretary for nuclear energy, said the investment will help researchers develop advanced nuclear technologies for future generations of Americans.

The department will provide $47 million for 63 civil nuclear energy studies and $5 million for 18 infrastructure enhancement projects for university research reactors under the Nuclear Energy University Program.

The Nuclear Energy Enabling Technologies program will provide $5 million for five projects developing next-generation sensors, instrumentation, materials and manufacturing approaches for nuclear reactor plants and fuels.

Under the Nuclear Science User Facilities program, an industry initiative and two university-led projects will receive a total of $6.6 million for research and technical assistance on experimental neutron and ion irradiation tests, post-irradiation examination facilities and synchrotron beamline services.

/
Senate OKs $716B Defense Policy Bill for Fiscal 2019
Published on
Senate OKs $716B Defense Policy Bill for Fiscal 2019


Senate OKs $716B Defense Policy Bill for Fiscal 2019The Senate on Monday voted 85-10 to pass a bill that would authorize $716 billion in defense budget for fiscal 2019, Reuters reported Tuesday.

The fiscal 2019 National Defense Authorization Act seeks to allocate $639 billion in base budget and $69 billion in additional war spending.

The report said the measure would authorize the acquisition of materials to support the development of Virginia-class nuclear submarines, a provision that could bode well for shipbuilding firms Huntington Ingalls Industries and General Dynamics.

The Senate added an amendment to the defense policy bill that would preclude sales of Lockheed Martin-built F-35 fighter jets to Turkey provided the Trump administration proves that the country does not buy defense systems from Russia, threaten NATO or detain U.S. citizens.

The Senate’s NDAA would expand the review authority of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. over land purchases and other transactions.

CNBC reported that the Senate’s version of the defense bill includes a provision that would reinstate a ban that prohibits Chinese telecommunications firm ZTE from purchasing components from U.S. companies for breaching a settlement over illegal shipments to North Korea and Iran.

The upper chamber’s measure needs to be reconciled through a conference committee with the House’s NDAA version that passed in May.

The report said the White House could advance efforts to overturn the ZTE ban as both chambers hash out differences between the two versions of the legislation.

/
Report: Trump Announces Plan to Establish ‘Space Force,’ Inks New Directive for Space Traffic Mgmt
Published on
Report: Trump Announces Plan to Establish ‘Space Force,’ Inks New Directive for Space Traffic Mgmt


Report: Trump Announces Plan to Establish ‘Space Force,’ Inks New Directive for Space Traffic MgmtPresident Donald Trump announced Monday that he would order the Defense Department to form a new “space force” as the sixth military branch in order to maintain U.S. dominance in space, The Washington Post reported Monday.

Trump said Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, would lead the establishment of the space force, which would be equal but separate from the U.S. Air Force.

Dunford’s staff issued a statement saying the general’s office will collaborate with Defense Secretary James Mattis, other DoD officials and Congress to carry out the president’s guidance.

Dunford and Mattis are both 2018 Wash100 recipients.

Trump announced the new service branch during the third meeting of the National Space Council and signing of a new directive that would direct federal agencies to work with industry to introduce a new space traffic management framework.

The Space Policy Directive-3 provides new guidelines for space debris monitoring in the Earth’s orbit and for satellite development and operation, the report added.

The new policy came nearly a month after Trump signed the Space Policy Directive-2 that aims to introduce reforms to commercial space regulations.

/
USDA’s Gary Washington: IT Modernization Through Centers of Excellence a ‘Change Management Effort’
Published on
USDA’s Gary Washington: IT Modernization Through Centers of Excellence a ‘Change Management Effort’


USDA’s Gary Washington: IT Modernization Through Centers of Excellence a ‘Change Management Effort’
Gary Washington

Gary Washington, chief information officer at the Agriculture Department, has said he considers as a “change management effort” the information technology modernization initiative being carried out at USDA through the White House’s centers of excellence, Federal News Radio reported Friday.

“At the end of our engagement the ideas that we will have implemented across our department in every mission area will basically change the way the Department of Agriculture does business moving forward,” he said at the ACT-IAC Igniting Innovation awards event in Washington, D.C.

Washington said such an effort calls for USDA to prepare its workforce and position the agency to oversee, maintain and operate the new environment.

He noted that IT and process modernization efforts will extend to other mission areas in addition to the updated Farmers.gov portal.

“In our market and regulatory program areas, [the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service] will be automating their whole permitting process,” he said.

“We are having conversations with the Food Safety and Inspection Service about their import-export certificates and digitizing that, and the loan process at Rural Development is a big one on the slate,” Washington added.

USDA and the General Services Administration will host on June 27 a planning session to discuss their procurement strategies with contractors as part of the CoE program’s second phase, the report noted.

/
GAO Prompts OPM Agencies to Fully Implement Workforce Cybersecurity Assessment, Coding Requirements
Published on
GAO Prompts OPM Agencies to Fully Implement Workforce Cybersecurity Assessment, Coding Requirements


GAO Prompts OPM Agencies to Fully Implement Workforce Cybersecurity Assessment, Coding RequirementsThe Government Accountability Office has recommended that agencies under the Office of Personnel Management fully implement the requirements for baseline cybersecurity assessments and coding procedures for federal finance personnel.

The GAO, in a report issued Thursday, said that 13 of the Chief Financial Officers Act’s 24 agencies provided limited assessment accuracy and operations assurance for the Federal Cybersecurity Workforce Assessment Act of 2015.

The OPM was required under the 2015 act to code a cybersecurity structure and develop a process for the assignment of codes to civilian roles pursuant to the National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education.

The GAO reported that three CFO Act agencies did not perform the assessment and four discarded some reportable information after assessment reports from 21 agencies were submitted to Congress in March.

The agency also said that six CFO Act agencies only addressed partially the activities for the OPM procedures.

/
FedRAMP Updates JAB Prioritization Guidance, Seeks New Business Cases for Connect Program
Published on
FedRAMP Updates JAB Prioritization Guidance, Seeks New Business Cases for Connect Program


FedRAMP Updates JAB Prioritization Guidance, Seeks New Business Cases for Connect ProgramA Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program office has launched the next round of an initiative to evaluate potential government cloud service providers based on a set of criteria and on demand.

FedRAMP said Thursday its program management office will select three cloud service providers each quarter to receive prioritization status in obtaining a provisional authority to operate from the Joint Authorization Board through the Connect program.

CSPs are required to achieve a FedRAMP Ready designation within 60 days after they obtain prioritization status. Providers then can coordinate with JAB within 90 days of being prioritized.

For the latest round, interested vendors will have until July 13 to submit their business cases to info@fedramp.gov.

Teletrac Navman’s Fleet Management Solutions subsidiary, Infor, ManTech International, Monster Government Solutions and Xerox received priority status in February to work with JAB.

/
U.S. Air Force, Norway Complete Tests for F-35 Missile System Integration
Published on
U.S. Air Force, Norway Complete Tests for F-35 Missile System Integration


U.S. Air Force, Norway Complete Tests for F-35 Missile System IntegrationThe U.S. Air Force and Norway have completed several weapons development tests for the fifth-generation Joint Strike Fighter‘s anti-surface warfare missile system.

Norway will proceed with the integration and evaluation of the Joint Strike Missile after it has matured through ground, captive carriage and live-drop tests at Edwards Air Force Base, the service branch said Friday.

Raytheon partnered with Norway-based defense company Kongsberg Gruppen to develop the JSM for the internal weapons bay of the F-35A Lightning II aircraft.

Test activities at Edwards AFB involved inert JSM variants loaded onto the F-16 Fighting Falcons prior to the final flight test, which included target neutralization using full-mission guidance and software systems.

Testing began at Edwards AFB in 2015 with the first JSM variant including an active autopilot and a glide-only weapon. Flight tests of different versions of the JSM helped determine the independent power and navigation of the missile at extended operations.

The JSM features an infrared imaging seeker enabling autonomous target recognition for long standoff and distance anti-ship operations.

1 … 2,003 2,004 2,005 2,006 2,007 … 2,593