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Report: Navy to Develop Improvement Process for UUV Platforms
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Report: Navy to Develop Improvement Process for UUV Platforms


Report: Navy to Develop Improvement Process for UUV PlatformsThe U.S. Navy will establish a continual improvement process for unmanned underwater vehicles in a move to develop better sensors and expand the portfolio of UUV systems under the undersea warfare division, USNI News reported Thursday.

Brian Howes, acting director of the Navy N97 division, said the transition of UUVs such as mine warfare systems to the undersea warfare division opens an opportunity to conduct research on larger sets of UUV systems.

Howes noted the service branch currently works to establish a formal mechanism that can discover fleet demands and determine how to best spend available resources to help develop and meet the necessary capability upgrades.

“Instead of having one program office that designs a unique vehicle, we’re going into a common approach that then takes, what is the mission, what do we already have in other vehicles that we can apply to this, and get it out into the fleet faster,” said Howes.

“We have a process where we are continually improving our combat systems on a two-year hardware update and then a two-year software update.”

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Ryan McCarthy: Army Tactical Network Review Would Take 2 Years
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Ryan McCarthy: Army Tactical Network Review Would Take 2 Years


Ryan McCarthy: Army Tactical Network Review Would Take 2 YearsActing U.S. Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy has said that the Army would take at least two years to identify a new battlefield communications network that will replace the service branch’s existing systems, Breaking Defense reported Friday.

McCarthy told reporters Wednesday that the Army has formed a Cross-Functional Team to reboot its network architecture and provide recommendations in 2019 to influence the 2020 budget request.

He advised the network-focused CFT and seven other CFTs addressing various Army priorities to “take every opportunity” to assess and buy commercial off-the-shelf technologies.

As part of a new strategy, the Army plans to immediately stop programs that would not be able to withstand cyber and electronic attacks on a mobile battlefield as well as fix systems that can be updated to survive such conditions.

The Army ultimately aims to migrate to a coherent network architecture, the report said.

The military branch decided to stop the procurement of its current Warfighter Integrated Network – Tactical program in fiscal year 2018 because the battlefield communications system does not meet future warfighting requirements.

HHS Adds 3 Members to Health IT Advisory Committee
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HHS Adds 3 Members to Health IT Advisory Committee


HHS Adds 3 Members to Health IT Advisory CommitteeEric Hargan, acting secretary at the Department of Health and Human Services, has appointed three new members to the Health Information Technology Advisory Committee.

HHS said Friday the appointees are Robert Wah, global chief medical officer at DXC Technology; Leslie Lenert, chief research information officer at Medical University of South Carolina; and Clem McDonald, director at Lister Hill National Center for Biomedical Communications.

HITAC offers advice to the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology regarding policies, standards, specifications and certification criteria for health information technology infrastructure implementation.

The advisory committee was formed as a result of the 21st Century Cures Act.

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Report: Proposed NDAA to Reinstate FAA Drone Registration Rule
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Report: Proposed NDAA to Reinstate FAA Drone Registration Rule


Report: Proposed NDAA to Reinstate FAA Drone Registration RuleThe fiscal 2018 National Defense Authorization Act includes a provision that would restore Federal Aviation Administration rules on the registration of small, model-aircraft-sized drones, FCW reported Friday.

FAA previously implemented an online registration requirement for commercial and recreational drone operators who use unmanned aircraft systems that weigh less than 55 pounds and more than 0.55 pounds in a move to control the increase of UAS usage within the national airspace.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit nullified the agency’s drone registration policy in May, saying the regulation violates the FAA Modernization and Reform Act of 2012.

The 2018 NDAA awaits President Donald Trump’s signature.

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Report: Congress Wants DoD to Increase Ground-Based Interceptors
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Report: Congress Wants DoD to Increase Ground-Based Interceptors


Report: Congress Wants DoD to Increase Ground-Based InterceptorsCongress will authorize the Defense Department secretary to raise the number of ground-based interceptors at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California and Fort Greely in Alaska by up to 28 in an effort to counter missile threats posed by Iran and North Korea, Defense News reported Friday.

The fiscal 2018 defense policy bill’s congressional conference report would also direct the DoD secretary to create a draft plan for future GBI capacity at any location determined in the ballistic missile defense review that is set to be released by the end of the year.

The report noted that existing missile fields could accommodate 104 GBIs and that the Pentagon should carry out construction work to ensure that existing missile fields can support additional interceptors.

DoD should submit within 90 days of the review’s release a report on alternatives to boost the capability of the Ground-Based Midcourse Defense platform and meet infrastructure needs to raise the number of GBIs across the country, the conference report added.

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House Committee OKs Bill to Reinstate State Dept Cyber Diplomat Post
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House Committee OKs Bill to Reinstate State Dept Cyber Diplomat Post


House Committee OKs Bill to Reinstate State Dept Cyber Diplomat PostThe House Foreign Affairs Committee has approved by a voice vote a bill that would reinstate a top cyber diplomat role within the State Department, Nextgov reported Wednesday.

The Cyber Diplomacy Act seeks to restore the DHS cyber coordinator position through the presidential appointment process and revive global cyber norms that Chris Painter pushed for when he held the post.

House Foreign Affairs Chairman Ed Royce (R-California) and Ranking Member Eliot Engel (D-New York) introduced the legislation in September.

“The bipartisan Cyber Diplomacy Act will help counter foreign threats on the internet while promoting human rights and new jobs and economic growth,” Engel said at the time.

The bill would establish a U.S. international cyber policy designed to accelerate democratic principles and mitigate potential attempts from foreign countries to extort control and censorship over the internet.

The Cyber Diplomacy Act also seeks to increase cyberspace partnership between U.S. and foreign governments as well as establish a congressional notification process.

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Congress Backs DoD’s Ongoing Ballistic Missile Defense Review
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Congress Backs DoD’s Ongoing Ballistic Missile Defense Review


Congress Backs DoD's Ongoing Ballistic Missile Defense ReviewCongress has called on the Defense Department secretary to use the ballistic missile defense review to assess ways on how to advance the development of technology platforms designed to increase the capability of the ballistic missile defense system’s ground-based midcourse element, Defense News reported Thursday.

Lawmakers made the call through the fiscal 2018 defense spending bill’s conference report.

DoD is set to release by the end of the year the findings of the review that aims to shed light on the state of the U.S. ballistic missile defense against threats posed by Iran and North Korea.

The congressional conference report for the FY 2018 National Defense Authorization Act also directs the Missile Defense Agency to build a space-based ballistic missile intercept layer and a space-based sensor architecture as well as speed up the development and deployment of defense capabilities as prioritized in the review.

Those capabilities include the multi-object and redesigned kill vehicles, space-based sensor layer, ground-based interceptors, boost phase sensor and the C3 booster.

The BMD review is likely to include plans related to space-based missile defense capability, the report added.

The House on Wednesday passed a conferenced version of the NDAA that would authorize $692 billion in defense spending for fiscal 2018.

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Army Researchers Develop Acoustic Emission Sensors for Black Hawk
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Army Researchers Develop Acoustic Emission Sensors for Black Hawk


Army Researchers Develop Acoustic Emission Sensors for Black HawkThe U.S. Army has developed networked acoustic emission sensors designed to scan an H-60 Black Hawk for airframe damage.

The Army said Thursday, Researchers from the U.S. Army Research Laboratory and the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Research, Development and Engineering Center have developed a technology that can instantly notify flight crew on structural damage upon occurrence.

The effort began around 2015 with the ARL’s studies on rotorcraft airframe health monitoring.

“Future Army airframe structures are required to be lighter, safer and ultra-reliable,” said Mulugeta Haile, research aerospace engineer at the ARL.

“To achieve these the Army must adopt a combined strategy of implementing advanced structural design methods, improved structural materials and integrated damage sensing and risk prediction capabilities,” he added.

Haile also stated that they chose acoustic emission because other methods including ultrasonic and radiography still require an external energy source which may affect other systems within the aircraft.

Haile, along with a team consisting of Jaret Riddick, Nathaniel Bordick and other ARL partners, worked together to clarify the the mechanisms of the full-scale damage detection system that employs signal distortion control parameters, acquisition timing control and 3-D printed sensor capsules.

The Army currently makes use of the phase maintenance paradigm method for aircraft sustainment.

The phase maintenance paradigm requires scheduled inspection and maintenance, making the method costly and inefficient.

The Army’s new damage detection technology may cut maintenance costs and enable repairs to commence upon demand.

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NASA Picks Science Instrument for Japan-Led Mission to Mars’ Moons
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NASA Picks Science Instrument for Japan-Led Mission to Mars’ Moons


NASA Picks Science Instrument for Japan-Led Mission to Mars' MoonsNASA has chosen a science instrument that will support a Japan-led sample return mission to Mars’ two moons, Phobos and Deimos.

The Mars Moons eXploration mission will be launched in 2024 to visit the Martian moons, collect a surface sample from Phobos, then return the sample to Earth in 2019, NASA said Friday.

NASA has selected a neutron and gamma-ray spectrograph dubbed MEGANE to serve as one of the MMX spacecraft’s seven science instruments.

MEGANE will help scientists discover how and when the two moons formed by providing a capacity to see the elemental composition of Phobos.

“Solving the riddle of how Mars’ moons came to be will help us better understand how planets formed around our Sun and, in turn, around other stars,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA’s science mission directorate.

The instrument will be developed under NASA’s Discovery Program, which offers low-cost access to space through principal investigator-led space science studies relevant to NASA SMD’s planetary science program.

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White House Cyber Chief Rob Joyce Calls for Transparency of Vulnerabilities Equities Process
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White House Cyber Chief Rob Joyce Calls for Transparency of Vulnerabilities Equities Process


White House Cyber Chief Rob Joyce Calls for Transparency of Vulnerabilities Equities Process
Rob Joyce

Rob Joyce, White House cybersecurity coordinator, has said the federal government should work to ensure the transparency of the Vulnerabilities Equities Process in order for U.S. citizens to have confidence in VEP’s integrity.

Joyce wrote in a blog post posted Wednesday VEP is an interagency process that seeks to determine whether to divulge cyber vulnerability data to vendors to facilitate patches or temporarily restrict that data in support of law enforcement and national security operations.

The newly released VEP Charter covers four groups of equity considerations designed to help decision makers assess the potential advantages and risks to national security of limiting or disclosing vulnerability data.

Those equity considerations include defensive equities; commercial equities; international partnership equities; and intelligence, law enforcement and operational equities.

Joyce noted that the public release of the VEP Charter aims to provide information on participants in the Equities Review Board, vulnerability categories that go through the process and federal agencies and departments that take part in VEP discussions.

The charter would also require the release of an annual report to offer information on VEP metrics and notify the public about the process and related outcomes.

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