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‘Army Vision’ for 2028 Calls for Force Modernization Through Robotics, AI Development
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‘Army Vision’ for 2028 Calls for Force Modernization Through Robotics, AI Development

‘Army Vision’ for 2028 Calls for Force Modernization Through Robotics, AI DevelopmentThe U.S. Army has issued a new vision statement for 2028 that details how the service intends to fight against Russia, China and other near-peer competitors in a joint multi-domain conflict.

The Army Vision calls for the use of weapons, sustainment systems, aircraft, manned and unmanned combat vehicles, arms formations and tactics to counter potential adversaries across all domains and cites several measures that should be implemented to achieve that vision.

The service branch should ramp up training efforts among military personnel through the expanded use of simulations systems and synthetic training environments and advance force modernization through acquisition reforms.

“This modernization includes experimenting with and developing autonomous systems, artificial intelligence and robotics to make our soldiers more effective and our units less logistically dependent,” according to the statement.

The Army needs to grow its force to at least 500,000 service personnel with related growth in the Army Reserve and National Guard through recruitment and retention efforts and should have the capability to perform electronic warfare, ground and air intelligence and cyber operations, the document noted.

Gen. Mark Milley, Army chief of staff, co-wrote the vision statement with Army Secretary Mark Esper, a 2018 Wash100 recipient.

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Jim Bridenstine: NASA Needs Industry Support to Address Exploration, Science Goals
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Jim Bridenstine: NASA Needs Industry Support to Address Exploration, Science Goals


Jim Bridenstine: NASA Needs Industry Support to Address Exploration, Science Goals
Jim Bridenstine

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine has said the agency should leverage industry capabilities to achieve its science and exploration goals and an example of that is the Commercial Lunar Payload Services program, SpaceNews reported Wednesday.

“We want to get robots and landers on the surface of the moon — aggressively, 2019… Definitely by 2020,” Bridenstine told reporters during a roundtable Wednesday.

NASA released a draft solicitation for the program in April and Bridenstine said the agency is assessing industry comments before it can issue the final request for proposals.

He said he believes the agency’s four Earth science missions will continue despite the administration’s plan to terminate those programs in the president’s budget request for fiscal 2019.

Those missions include the Orbiting Carbon Observatory 3, CLARREO Pathfinder and PACE.

Bridenstine also cited NASA’s commitment to the James Webb Space Telescope and the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope projects in support of its astrophysics missions.

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GSA Expects Alliant 2 Unrestricted GWAC to Take Effect in July
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GSA Expects Alliant 2 Unrestricted GWAC to Take Effect in July


GSA Expects Alliant 2 Unrestricted GWAC to Take Effect in JulyThe General Services Administration now expects the unrestricted track of a potential 10-year, $50 billion governmentwide acquisition contract for information technology products and services to take effect on July 1 after GSA won in protests that reached the U.S. Court of Federal Claims.

GSA said Tuesday the Alliant 2 unrestricted GWAC has a base term of five years that will now run through June 30, 2023 and a five-year option term that will extend through June 30, 2028.

The agency noted the court’s decisions seek to support the validity of its procurement processes and can be viewed on its website within a day.

GSA in November 2017 awarded 61 companies spots on the unrestricted portion of Alliant 2 that covers cloud, cybersecurity, big data, agile development, software development and other IT support services.

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GSA’s 18F Integrates ‘Agile’ Methods Into IT Security Certification Process
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GSA’s 18F Integrates ‘Agile’ Methods Into IT Security Certification Process


GSA’s 18F Integrates ‘Agile’ Methods Into IT Security Certification ProcessThe General Services Administration’s 18F organization has developed a security certification process for government information technology systems through the use of agile development methods, Nextgov reported Tuesday.

18F’s agile-based authority-to-operate process aims to apply an iterative approach to IT security authorizations and place security work at the start of a project.

“What we try to do is at the very beginning of the project, the first few weeks, we get an ATO,” Michael Torres, director of product at 18F, told Nextgov.

“And then every piece after that, we increment that ATO so it covers more and more of the system,” he added.

Torres noted about 18F’s efforts to further develop the iterative ATO process with security personnel at federal agencies.

“What we’re advocating is to help them and help the program team just focus on this small piece that we’re releasing so that we can make sure that that’s secure and also put in processes and maybe some infrastructure to make sure the next time we release there’s a process for an iterative ATO that doesn’t take as much time and is not as daunting,” he added.

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US Navy Launches Inspection Program for Cyber Operations Preparedness
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US Navy Launches Inspection Program for Cyber Operations Preparedness


US Navy Launches Inspection Program for Cyber Operations PreparednessThe U.S. Navy debuted early this year a program that allows the service branch to conduct and direct for the first time mission-based and threat-focused inspections of cyber operations.

The Office of Compliance and Assessment of the U.S. Fleet Cyber Command introduced the Command Cyber Operational Readiness Inspections program for the evaluation of threats and vulnerabilities in applications, data, networks and information systems for organizational missions, the Navy said Tuesday.

Capt. Kristian Kearton, director of OCA, said the office will form cyber inspection teams to mature the inspection process.

FCC OCA has relieved the Joint Forces Headquarters-Department of Defense Information Networks on the comprehensive performance and CCORIs and Command Cyber Readiness Inspections for the Navy as a component of the U.S. Cyber Command and U.S. Strategic Command.

Cmdr. James Brown, OCA mission support and inspection team officer in charge, said CCORIs provide assessment of mission and DODIN risks from network cybersecurity states to unit commanders, USCYBERCOM heads and the JFHQ-DODIN.

The CCORI group of three teams of eight includes agents from OCA inspection, support commands and partner sites and conducts mission, vulnerability and threat element assessments for the identification of technical and non-technical risks of external and insider attacks to critical systems.

FCC/C10F consists of over 16,000 reserve and active sailors and civilians across 40 Cyber Mission Force units and 26 active and 26 reserve commands all over the world.

The FCC also serves as the commander of the Navy’s Service Cryptologic Component for the National Security Agency/Central Security Service.

The C10F supports the cyber/networks, cryptologic/signals intelligence and space operations of the Navy and joint forces and employs a task force structure for the implementation of FCC’s missions.

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NIST Adds Drone Forensics Resources on Website
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NIST Adds Drone Forensics Resources on Website


NIST Adds Drone Forensics Resources on WebsiteThe National Institute of Standards and Technology has added new images for drone investigation uses in Computer Forensic Reference Datasets.

The agency said Tuesday it added a new drone-dedicated CFReDS section that contains visual evidence and guides on a number of popular drone models that may be used for criminal activity.

“The drone images will allow investigators to do a dry run before working on high-profile cases,” said Barbara Guttman, manager of digital forensic research at NIST.

Colorado-based digital forensics firm VTO Labs developed the images under a contract with the Department of Homeland Security.

“The forensic images contain all the ones and zeroes we recovered from each model,” said Steve Watson, chief technology officer at VTO.

The company constructed the images based on industry standard data formats and included step-by-step photo-illustrated teardown instructions with each visual.

Watson uncovered serial numbers, flight paths, launch and landing locations, photos, videos and even credit card information during tests.

The images function to help forensics practitioners in recovering data, university laboratories in training and testing efforts and software developers in evaluating applications.

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SEC Modernizes Delivery of Fund Shareholder Reports to Investors; Jay Clayton Comments
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SEC Modernizes Delivery of Fund Shareholder Reports to Investors; Jay Clayton Comments


SEC Modernizes Delivery of Fund Shareholder Reports to Investors; Jay Clayton CommentsThe Securities and Exchange Commission has adopted a new rule to enhance the process of delivering fund shareholder reports to investors.

The commission said Tuesday the new process under Statement on Investment Company Rule 30e-3 aims to guide investors who invest in mutual funds, exchange-traded and other investment funds.

The new rule enables fund investors to choose a “notice and access” method for delivering their shareholder reports online for free, as well as mailing investors a physical notice of each report’s availability.

“The new rule modernizes delivery options for fund information while preserving the right of fund investors to receive information in paper form as they do today,” SEC Chairman Jay Clayton said in a statement published Tuesday.

The earliest the SEC said the modified process will be adopted is Jan. 1, 2021.

The commission added it seeks feedback on how it can further modernize the design and delivery of fund information, as well as public comment on the framework for specific processing fees for sending shareholder reports and other data to investors.

SEC will accept responses until Oct. 31.

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NASA Selects 3 Museums for STEM Promotion Projects
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NASA Selects 3 Museums for STEM Promotion Projects


NASA Selects 3 Museums for STEM Promotion ProjectsNASA‘s Teams Engaging Affiliated Museums and Informal Institutions has awarded science, technology, engineering and math funds cumulatively valued at $2 million to projects of three educational museums.

The space agency said Wednesday the projects will go on for the next two to three years and are individually valued between $650,000 and $750,000.

Arizona Science Center will administer The Moon and Beyond: An Immersive Game for STEM Learning in Museums and Planetariums. This project seeks to provide a STEM experience based on the physical adventure game Escape Room.

Second, Florida-based museum Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden will implement the Growing Beyond Earth Innovation Studio. This project seeks to provide a collaborative, botanic garden makerspace in support of NASA’s food production challenges.

Lastly, Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center will conduct Apollo Redux: Inspiring Next Generations of Engineers and Scientists through use of Historic Mission Operation Control Room Consoles and Simfault Interactive Programs. This project seeks to provide interactive mission simulations and exhibitions with actual consoles used in the Apollo spacecraft’s mission control room.

NASA selected these projects from 43 entries via peer review.

The selected organizations will collaborate with other museums and educational institutions to administer exhibits, learning programs, multimedia and other interactive activities.

The space agency will involve its Museum Alliance, a network of informal education professionals, to work with the organizations.

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Agency at OPM Gets ‘A+’ on FY 2017 Small Business Contracting Scorecard
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Agency at OPM Gets ‘A+’ on FY 2017 Small Business Contracting Scorecard


Agency at OPM Gets ‘A+’ on FY 2017 Small Business Contracting ScorecardThe Office of Personnel Management’s office of small and disadvantage business utilization got a grade of “A+” on the Small Business Administration’s fiscal 2017 scorecard that evaluates federal agencies’ efforts to meet their small business prime and subcontracting targets on an annual basis.

SBA also uses the Small Business Procurement Scorecard to provide contracting data and report progress of agencies, OPM said Tuesday.

“The OSDBU worked to inform the small business community of the prime and subcontracting opportunities available with OPM by engaging the small business communities around the country,” said Desmond Brown, OSDBU director of OSDBU at OPM.

“These efforts allowed OPM to exceed our agreed upon FY 2017 goals by 20.7 percentage points in providing contracts to various segments of the small business community,” Brown added.

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GAO: DoD Should Address F-35 Deficiencies Prior to Full-Rate Production
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GAO: DoD Should Address F-35 Deficiencies Prior to Full-Rate Production


GAO: DoD Should Address F-35 Deficiencies Prior to Full-Rate ProductionThe Government Accountability Office has found that the Defense Department is close to completing the baseline development for the F-35 aircraft program but plans to enter into full-rate production in October 2019 before addressing key deficiencies discovered during testing.

GAO called on Congress to consider withholding appropriations for the Block 4 modernization effort for the Lockheed Martin-built fighter jet until DoD provides a technology evaluation and schedule and cost estimates, according to a report published Tuesday.

The report noted that the Pentagon has requested $278 million in funds to kick off the Block 4 process before it can provide a “sound business case” for that effort.

GAO recommended the DoD secretary should ask the F-35 program office to determine measures that could be taken to ensure that the aircraft meets maintainability and reliability requirements prior to reaching maturity for each variant and address deficiencies before moving to full-rate production.

DoD has asked $9.8 billion in fiscal 2019 funds and plans to request an additional annual budget of $10.4 billion for the F-35 program in the next 20 years, according to the report.

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