/
Ellen Lord: NDAAs Help Pentagon Accelerate Procurement, Modernization Efforts
Published on
Ellen Lord: NDAAs Help Pentagon Accelerate Procurement, Modernization Efforts


Ellen Lord: NDAAs Help Pentagon Accelerate Procurement, Modernization EffortsDefense Department acquisition chief Ellen Lord has said defense policy bills enacted over the past two fiscal years have helped DoD to cut through the “red tape” that affected its acquisition and modernization efforts.

The U.S. Air Force reported Thursday she told Senate Armed Services Committee members that NDAAs have “provided the direction and the tools for the department to advance the capabilities required to restore our overmatch, speed the rate in which we field these advanced capabilities and improve the overall affordability of our fighting forces weapons systems.”

Lord added new authorities under the fiscal 2016 NDAA brought acquisition powers back to the military branches and worked to streamline the contracting system, according to Lord.

Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson also testified before SASC and told the committee that the new authorizations gave the Air Force decision authority over 76 percent of its program, up from 39 percent.

Wilson added that Lord has assigned eight more programs for Air Force management, which cut acquisition time by three months through the delegation of authority.

/
David Norquist: DoD Financial Audit Now Underway
Published on
David Norquist: DoD Financial Audit Now Underway


David Norquist: DoD Financial Audit Now Underway
David Norquist

David Norquist, Defense Department comptroller, has said he received a notice from the Pentagon’s office of the inspector general about the start of the first agencywide financial audit this month, DoD News reported Thursday.

“Beginning in 2018, our audits will occur annually, with reports issued Nov. 15,” Norquist said Thursday during the Pentagon news conference.

“Annual audits also ensure visibility over the quantity and quality of the equipment and supplies our troops use,” he added.

The departmentwide audit will involve approximately 2,400 auditors from independent public accounting companies and will examine weapons systems, supplies, real property and personnel across the service branches and agencies.

Norquist also discussed DoD’s contingency plan in the event of a government shutdown and how continuing resolutions impact military readiness.

His statement came before Congress passed Thursday another stopgap measure that would fund the government at current spending levels through Dec. 22.

/
Navy Integrates AI Capabilities Into Shipboard Combat Networks
Published on
Navy Integrates AI Capabilities Into Shipboard Combat Networks


Navy Integrates AI Capabilities Into Shipboard Combat NetworksThe U.S. Navy has begun efforts to integrate artificial intelligence capabilities into shipboard warfare networks that work to facilitate communications between littoral combat ships, destroyers, submarines, tactical nodes and shore locations, Scout Warrior reported Wednesday.

The service has started to upgrade the Consolidated Afloat Networks and Enterprise Services system aboard carriers, LCS, destroyers and other combat ships with AI technologies in order to facilitate automation and carry out analytical functions.

“We want to use it not only for defensive sensing of our networks but also for suggesting countermeasures,” Rear Adm. Danelle Barrett, Navy cybersecurity director, said of AI.

“We want to trust a machine and also look at AI in terms of how we use it against adversaries,” Barrett added.

CANES is designed to collect and transmit data from several domains and has nodes that use an automated digital networking platform to establish connection with satellite communication assets through the use of multiband terminals.

The service branch has completed work on more than 50 CANES systems and started to install the platforms aboard carriers, submarines and other combat vessels, the report added.

The Navy awarded five contractors a potential eight-year, $2.5 billion contract in 2014 to build and install CANES systems aboard the service’s fleet of combat ships.

Trump, Congressional Leaders Reach Provisional Deal on Defense Spending; Congress OKs 2-Week Stopgap Bill
Published on
Trump, Congressional Leaders Reach Provisional Deal on Defense Spending; Congress OKs 2-Week Stopgap Bill


Trump, Congressional Leaders Reach Provisional Deal on Defense Spending; Congress OKs 2-Week Stopgap BillCongressional leaders and President Donald Trump on Thursday came to a “tentative agreement” to increase defense spending as part of a budget package, The Hill reported Thursday.

A White House official said Trump and congressional leaders were also in talks to reach an agreement on nondefense spending.

A source familiar with the meeting told the publication Democrats would allow defense programs to be funded at $54 billion for fiscal 2018 provided that nondefense initiatives would be backed with the same level of funding.

“The president had a constructive meeting with congressional leadership and Defense Secretary [James] Mattis, and the parties agreed on the need for eliminating the defense sequester to deal with the grave national security threats we face,” Sarah Huckabee Sanders, White House press secretary, said in a statement.

Sanders added that negotiations on a long-term budget package would resume Friday.

Nextgov also reported that Congress passed Thursday another continuing resolution that would fund the government at current spending levels through Dec. 22.

The House voted 235-193 and the upper chamber voted 81-14 to approve a stopgap funding measure in an effort to avert a government shutdown and provide lawmakers more time to finalize the fiscal 2018 appropriations bill and raise the budget caps.

The Senate’s measure would authorize the Children’s Health Insurance Program through the end of 2017, the report added.

//
NASA to Review Progress of James Webb Space Telescope
Published on
NASA to Review Progress of James Webb Space Telescope


NASA to Review Progress of James Webb Space TelescopeNASA will conduct an independent review on the status of the James Webb Space Telescope program ahead of a planned launch in the first half of 2019, Space News reported Thursday.

The space agency will release an updated launch date for the future space telescope following the independent review despite potential challenges that could delay the spacecraft’s lift off.

Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA associate administrator for science, said at a hearing of the House Science Committee’s space subcommittee he directed the JWST team to begin the review in January following the completion of tests involving the space telescope’s sunshade technology.

Cristina Chaplain, director of the Government Accountability Office, said the space telescope’s launch may experience future delays given its current assembly and testing phase and the risks associated with future tasks and schedules.

The House Science Committee hearing also discussed the status of other NASA projects including the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope and the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite.

/
Ellen Lord: DoD Eyes Incentives, Electronic Tools Adoption to Accelerate Contract Awards
Published on
Ellen Lord: DoD Eyes Incentives, Electronic Tools Adoption to Accelerate Contract Awards


Ellen Lord: DoD Eyes Incentives, Electronic Tools Adoption to Accelerate Contract Awards
Ellen Lord

Ellen Lord, defense undersecretary for acquisition, technology and logistics, has said the Defense Department needs to expedite contract awards by up to 50 percent, DoD News reported Thursday.

“Some of the ways we intend to do this is to incentivizing contractors to submit responsive proposals in 60 days or less and implementing electronic departmentwide streamlining tools,” Lord said at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing Thursday.

She said the Pentagon awards approximately 1,800 contracts and 36,000 task and delivery orders on an average daily basis.

DoD has used authorities to accelerate the recruitment of professionals across several areas such as artificial intelligence, engineering, lasers, contracting and robotics, she told lawmakers.

Lord cited AT&L’s efforts to transition the majority of work back to service branches and the need for DoD to advance experimentation and prototyping initiatives.

She also discussed how the National Defense Authorization Acts in the last two years provided DoD new tools and authorities to accelerate the deployment of new capabilities to warfighters and introduce changes to the acquisition system, the report added.

/
Air Force to Review Programs, Budget Accounts to Prepare for Future Defense Plan
Published on
Air Force to Review Programs, Budget Accounts to Prepare for Future Defense Plan


Air Force to Review Programs, Budget Accounts to Prepare for Future Defense PlanThe U.S. Air Force will conduct a zero-based review on all of the service branch’s budget accounts, programs and associated manpower authorizations in a move to prepare for the Fiscal Year 2020 Program Objective Memorandum and Future Years Defense Plan.

The service branch said Wednesday the review will determine if the right services are delivered correctly throughout the Air Force as well as maximize limited Air Force resources.

Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson and Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Goldfein said in a memo sent Dec. 4 the service branch should synchronize its operations with the new National Defense Strategy and back Defense Secretary James Mattis’ Defense Department efforts.

The leaders’ memo also discussed the continuous Air Force combat operations in the last 25 years along with the annually declining defense budgets and peaceful global environment expectations.

The Zero-based review will commence on January 2018 and a report on results and recommendations from the review will be issued in March 2018.

//
Army, Foreign Researchers Initiate Cyberspace Disinformation Research Effort
Published on
Army, Foreign Researchers Initiate Cyberspace Disinformation Research Effort


Army, Foreign Researchers Initiate Cyberspace Disinformation Research EffortU.S. Army researchers, along with Ukrainian and Bulgarian scientists have joined to commence a global research effort to study disinformation attacks occurring in cyberspace.

The Army said Tuesday it has partnered with researchers from the Bulgarian Defense Institute; Chernihiv National University of Technology; and the National Technical University of Ukraine to administer the Cyber Rapid Analysis for Defense Awareness of Real-time Situation or CyRADARS project.

Dr. Alexander Kott, chief scientist at the Army Research Lab, stated that the research team will be entailed to study and develop theoretical foundations, methods and approaches to detect fake information and deliver fast notifications of disinformation.

“Information attacks have emerged as a major concern of societies worldwide,” Kott said.

“They come under different names and in different flavors: fake news, disinformation, political astroturfing, influence operations,” he added.

The study will build on observed real life disinformation instances such as those that have occurred against Ukraine.

The ARL will contribute published research results and predictive theories and algorithms that aim to explain the movement of opinions and integrity through a network.

CyRADARS will also employ an open campus model that allows outsiders to contribute their findings and insights to the research effort.

“Within the context of CyRADARS, students and faculty from Ukraine and Bulgaria will be able to come to ARL and use ARL’s Open Campus facilities and test beds while working on joint projects with ARL scientists,” Kott said.

The research will be conducted in a virtual networked laboratory connecting the four institutions involved.

The NATO-funded effort was launched Nov. 14 to 15 and supports the organization’s Science for Peace and Security Program that aims to promote science and technology collaborations between NATO nations and non-NATO partners.

//
DHS Cyber Assessment Team to Expand Risk Evaluation Role to Operational Tech
Published on
DHS Cyber Assessment Team to Expand Risk Evaluation Role to Operational Tech


DHS Cyber Assessment Team to Expand Risk Evaluation Role to Operational TechThe Department of Homeland Security‘s cyber assessment team will extend its cyber risk assessment activities beyond information technology systems to include national critical infrastructure and operational technology, Federal News Radio reported Wednesday.

The National Cybersecurity Assessments and Technical Services team will get an expanded role as part of an ongoing reorganization effort of DHS’ National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center.

“If there were three different groups doing [operational technology] assessments, now they are realigned under NCATS,” NCATS Director Rob Karas told Federal News Radio in an interview.

“We are getting the industrial control systems, which do the design and architecture reviews, the Network Architecture Verification and Validation review and Industrial Control Systems-Computer Emergency Readiness Team Cyber Security Evaluation Tool assessments,” Karas added.

Don Benack, cybersecurity assurance program manager for NCATS, noted that the team can also expand its other functions such as risk and vulnerability assessments, remote penetration testing and cyber hygiene scanning to cover more networks and systems.

NCATS conducts 38 million scans of internet addresses daily and provides reports on critical, high, medium and low vulnerabilities facing 615 government and industry customers, according to Karas.

/
Report: DoD Sees Decline in Troop Levels for Warfighters Stationed in Iraq, Syria
Published on
Report: DoD Sees Decline in Troop Levels for Warfighters Stationed in Iraq, Syria


Report: DoD Sees Decline in Troop Levels for Warfighters Stationed in Iraq, SyriaThe Defense Department has said the number of warfighters stationed in Iraq and Syria continues to trend down from current troop levels at 7,000 units, DoD News reported Wednesday.

U.S. Army Col. Robert Manning, spokesman for the Pentagon, said the numbers comply with Defense Secretary James Mattis’ push to provide American people with an understanding of U.S. forces’ commitment to supporting the region.

“We seek to inform the American public with the imperative of operational security and denying the enemy any advantage … The secretary has been clear about improving our public reporting while increasing commanders’ ability to adapt to changing battlefield conditions to counter emerging threats,” said Manning.

The colonel noted coalition forces in the two countries will begin to advise, assist and train personnel in the region and work to prevent the potential regeneration of Islamic State militant groups or the formation of similar terror organizations.

U.S. forces will also aid local forces on the stabilization of liberated territories in Syria through the restoration of services, disposal of improvised explosive devices and the delivery of humanitarian aid.

1 … 2,122 2,123 2,124 2,125 2,126 … 2,619