Adm. Karl Schultz, commander of U.S. Coast Guard‘s Atlantic area, has said the service will extend the service life of its aging MH-65 Dolphin aircraft fleet due to budget constraints, USNI News reported Monday.

Schultz explained at the 2019 Military Reporters and Editors conference that the Coast Guard will continue operating the Dolphins until 2030.

He added that the service will also continue using its legacy MH-60 Jayhawks to sustain its inventory of short-range search and rescue helicopters while it awaits more funding.

The Coast Guard is still waiting for an approved budget, which will be included in the Department of Homeland Security’s appropriations bill.

The U.S. armed forces branch requested $11.65B in funding for procurement, operations and personnel, among other things.

Schultz said he expects the Coast Guard to receive $2B to purchase new systems or maintain existing assets.

Lt. Gen. John Thompson, commander of the Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center, recently said that U.S. assets in space are now more vulnerable than at any other time in the past, National Defense Magazine reported Monday.

Speaking at the MILCOM conference held in Los Angeles on Oct. 29, Thompson described the space domain as congested and contested.

He went on to say that the U.S. must deploy space architecture that is more secure, agile and resilient to protect critical space-based infrastructure.

During the conference, Thompson also talked about the need for the military to collaborate with industry, government and academic partners to acquire new space technologies.

Thompson noted the military’s interest in doing business with traditional and non-traditional companies to achieve this very goal.

Defense Department Comptroller David Norquist recently emphasized the significance of the on-going $1B DoD-wide audit, describing the effort as a service to taxpayers, Government Executive reported Monday.

Speaking at the Professional Services Council’s 54th annual Vision Federal Market Forecast conference, Norquist said he was less concerned by the bad publicity that the audit might bring on and was concerned more about the possibility that people might misinterpret the audit’s results.

Norquist also defended the DoD-wide audit, saying that to refrain from carrying it out is “a dangerous way to look at the world.” The comptroller said that the audit will, among other things, produce a “laundry list” of Pentagon weaknesses as well as determine compliance with federal cybersecurity standards.

In August, Norquist said during a radio interview that the audit would encompass DoD personnel, equipment and property.

Norquist also said he expected the results of the audit to be available by fall.

The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that a Senate bill that would allow cybersecurity personnel in one federal civilian agency to work at another agency on a rotational and temporary basis would cost less than $500K annually to implement from fiscal 2019 through fiscal 2023.

CBO said Friday the  Federal Rotational Cyber Workforce Program Act of 2018 would mandate the Office of Personnel Management to establish civilian personnel rotation procedures and policies for federal cybersecurity professionals.

The projected implementation cost would cover new regulations, additional staff training and administrative expenses.

According to CBO, enacting the bill could affect the direct spending at the Tennessee Valley Authority and other agencies that are authorized to cover operating costs through the use of receipts from various sales or other collections.

The office noted it does not expect the legislation to affect government revenue if enacted.

Implementation of the bill would not have a significant impact on net direct spending or budget deficit within the four consecutive 10-year periods starting in 2029, CBO added.

Alan Chvotkin, an executive vice president and counsel at the Professional Services Council, has said information technology modernization, cybersecurity and the cross-agency goals in the President’s Management Agenda will help drive federal acquisition in the coming year, Federal News Network reported Monday.

“There is no doubt increased focus on IT. Cybersecurity is clearly a high risk and high spend area so we think there will be a lot of business opportunities,” Chvotkin said.

The council’s team of industry volunteers shared other technology and procurement trends for 2019 at PSC’s 54th annual Vision Forecast conference, according to the report.

Kirste Webb, Vision civilian chairwoman, said agencies have started to increase spending on services in support of their mission priorities.

“One of the biggest messages we are hearing across the board is that all of the agencies are now shifting to everything is about their mission, and if procurement or acquisition is not directly supporting that mission they are taking a second look at how it’s being procured and what’s being done with it,” Webb said.

Another trend is the federal government’s desire to build up its collaboration with contractors.

“I think what we are seeing is agencies are trying to get industry involved earlier to avoid what’s been happening which are a lot of protests during the acquisition process,” Webb noted.
 

Mary Miller, assistant secretary for research and engineering at the Defense Department, has said the department continues to face various technical challenges in developing directed energy weapons for combat, National Defense Magazine reported Friday.

She explained at the National Defense Industrial Association’s Army Science and Technology Conference that getting laser weapons to generate more power for certain missions prevents the DoD from pushing through with the technology.

Other challenges that disrupt the development of directed energy systems include balancing size, weight and power, addressing thermal management and modernizing a test infrastructure.

However, Miller noted that the Office of the Secretary of Defense intends to launch a laser scaling program that will help streamline the procurement technologies that can boost the power of weapons for the U.S. armed forces.

She added that the DoD is working on resolving the directed energy technical issues before focusing on a program of record.

Private aviation companies expect the Federal Aviation Administration to use its upcoming events to provide updates on its revisions to commercial launch rules, Space News reported Sunday.

The regulatory revisions are in compliance with President Trump’s Space Policy Directive-2, which requires the FAA to review and modify existing regulations on space flight efforts and expandable and reusable launch vehicles.

Caryn Schenewerk, senior counsel and senior director for space flight policy at SpaceX, noted during the International Symposium for Personal and Commercial Spaceflight that the Commercial Space Transportation Advisory Committee’s meeting from Oct. 31 to Nov. 1 would allow the FAA to inform industry about its rulemaking effort.

She added that the commercial sector seeks to know how far the FAA has gone into its revisions before it meets its initial deadline on February.

The FAA will also possibly use a two-day conference at the end of October to address the increase of launch and re-entry operations in the national airspace system, which caused flights to reroute due to airspace closures.