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Steffanie Easter: Army Continues Efforts to Update Acquisition of Tech for Warfighters
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Steffanie Easter: Army Continues Efforts to Update Acquisition of Tech for Warfighters


Steffanie Easter: Army Continues Efforts to Update Acquisition of Tech for WarfightersSteffanie Easter, acting assistant secretary of the U.S. Army for acquisition, logistics and technology, has said that the service branch took steps to update the current process of equipping new technologies to warfighters.

Easter noted that the Army started to issue incremental releases of requests for proposals in a move to speed up the current acquisition process and boost its effectiveness, the service branch said Friday.

She added that the service branch also looks to ensure that new employees have acquired all required certifications and performed all training activities prior to their first day on the job.

The acting assistant secretary also urged the Army to filter 800 current programs of record and prioritize the needs of the service branch to avoid expenses from unnecessary projects and mitigate the ineffectiveness of outdated programs.

Ellen Lord, under secretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics, said that the Defense Department should also evaluate the industrial base to anticipate potential shortages if contracts are terminated.

Lord added the industrial base must also be prepared to ramp up production in case the department needs to address peer adversaries.

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Report: Air Force Gen. Terrence O’Shaughnessy Front-Runner to Lead Pacific Command
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Report: Air Force Gen. Terrence O’Shaughnessy Front-Runner to Lead Pacific Command


Report: Air Force Gen. Terrence O’Shaughnessy Front-Runner to Lead Pacific Command
Terrence O’Shaughnessy

U.S. Air Force Gen. Terrence O’Shaughnessy, commander of the Pacific Air Forces, has emerged as the leading candidate to serve as the next chief of the U.S. Pacific Command, sources told Defense News.

O’Shaughnessy’s potential nomination and confirmation to the post would be the first time U.S. Navy officials would be passed over to lead PACOM, Defense News reported Friday.

He was appointed to serve as head of the Pacific Air Forces, PACOM air component commander and executive director of the Pacific Air Combat Operations Staff in 2016.

The 31-year military veteran previously served as deputy commander of U.S. forces in Korea and head of Air Component Command in the East Asian country for two years.

O’Shaughnessy is former director for operations at PACOM headquarters in Hawaii and former deputy chief for politico-military affairs for Asia on the Joint Staff.

The report noted that Adm. Phil Davidson, Fleet Forces commander, has come out as the Navy’s likely nominee to succeed current PACOM chief Adm. Harry Harris, who is expected to retire in 2018.

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James Mattis Asks Congress to Authorize New BRAC Round
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James Mattis Asks Congress to Authorize New BRAC Round


James Mattis Asks Congress to Authorize New BRAC Round
James Mattis

Defense Secretary James Mattis has called on Congress to authorize another round of base realignment and closures, DoD Buzz reported Friday.

“We have studied shortcomings of previous rounds and are confident the savings generated by a new BRAC in 2021 would save $2 billion or more annually,” Mattis wrote in the letter to heads of the House and Senate Armed Services Committees.

The Defense Department said in a congressional report accompanying Mattis’ letter DoD has failed to receive authorization to conduct a BRAC analysis for more than 14 years and that the military has approximately 20 percent in excess infrastructure.

The report also showed that the U.S. Army and U.S. Air Force have approximately 29 percent and 28 percent in excess buildings and facilities followed by the Defense Logistics Agency at 13 percent and the U.S. Navy at 6 percent, The Hill reported.

“I must be able to eliminate excess infrastructure in order to shift resources to readiness and modernization,” Mattis wrote in the letter.

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FAA Drafts Plan to Regulate Additive Manufacturing of Aerospace Components
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FAA Drafts Plan to Regulate Additive Manufacturing of Aerospace Components


FAA Drafts Plan to Regulate Additive Manufacturing of Aerospace ComponentsThe Federal Aviation Administration has created a roadmap to address a growing use of additive manufacturing processes across the aerospace sector from a regulatory standpoint, Space News reported Friday.

FAA sent a draft version of its Additive Manufacturing Strategic Roadmap to the agency management team for evaluation and the document suggests production, certification, maintenance policies the agency aims to establish over the next seven to eight years.

Michael Gorelik, FAA chief scientific and technical adviser for fatigue and damage tolerance, said at the Additive Aerospace forum held Thursday he believes the rapid adoption of materials and processes with three-dimensional printing technology presents regulatory challenges in the commercial and military aerospace sectors.

The agency also shared the roadmap with the U.S. Air Force, U.S. Army and NASA.

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OPM Nominee Jeff Pon Cites Cybersecurity, Recruitment Priorities at Senate Nomination Hearing
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OPM Nominee Jeff Pon Cites Cybersecurity, Recruitment Priorities at Senate Nomination Hearing


OPM Nominee Jeff Pon Cites Cybersecurity, Recruitment Priorities at Senate Nomination Hearing
Jeff Pon

Jeff Pon, the White House’s nominee for the director post at the Office of Personnel Management, has said he plans to prioritize the recruitment of information technology experts once confirmed to help build up OPM’s cybersecurity posture and response to cyber threats, Federal News Radio reported Wednesday.

“This is my number one priority to make sure that we have security, not only information security but personal security, making sure that we have a safe workplace,” Pon said during his Senate nomination hearing.

“It is unacceptable to me to have people who are not trained in the current ways in which we protect our data,” he added.

Pon said he intends to expedite the federal recruitment process and streamline processes across the agency.

“It’s actually making sure that we execute on putting things together and simplifying things and making sure that the transactional data, not just paper, but transactional data that you need, can actually be transacted in an efficient and effective manner,” he said.

He also answered questions from Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee members about OPM’s role in the Office of Management and Budget’s government reorganization initiative and the upper chamber’s request for documents related to OPM’s Affordable Care Act ruling in 2013.

Senate OKs Fiscal 2018 Budget Resolution
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Senate OKs Fiscal 2018 Budget Resolution


Senate OKs Fiscal 2018 Budget ResolutionThe Senate voted 51-49 Thursday to approve its fiscal 2018 budget resolution that would authorize a tax reform plan, The Hill reported Thursday.

The budget measure proposes to increase defense spending levels at current rates to reach $684 billion by 2027 and reduce nondefense spending in succeeding years that would result in a $105 billion cut by the end of the decade.

The proposed legislation would reduce baseline spending on Medicare by $473 billion over 10 years and authorize $1 trillion in cuts to Medicaid spending over a decade.

The tax plan under the Senate-approved bill would add up to $1.5 trillion to the budget deficit over 10 years.

Politico also reported that the budget resolution includes an amendment that would increase the Defense Department’s fiscal 2018 spending to up to $640 billion without offsets if lawmakers agree to increase spending caps.

Senate and House legislators also reached a compromise Thursday that would allow the budget measure to skip a conference committee between the two congressional chambers, the report added.

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Army Soldiers Test New Laser Targeting System in Alaska
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Army Soldiers Test New Laser Targeting System in Alaska


Army Soldiers Test New Laser Targeting System in AlaskaU.S. Army soldiers from the 8th Field Artillery Regiment have tested a new laser targeting system at the Cold Regions Test Center in Alaska.

The service branch said Thursday the Joint Effects Targeting System Target Laser Designation System helped forward observation teams detect, identify and recognize targets within a tactical environment.

JETS-TLDS consists of a hand-held target location module, precision azimuth, vertical angle module and a laser marker module.

The Army noted that the JETS-TLDS platform will also offer 24/7 all-weather precision targeting and target-acquisition services in support of the service branch’s dismounted operations.

Lt. Col. Michael Frank, project manager at the service branch’s Soldier Sensors and Lasers unit, said that the operational tests help Army leaders collect input from soldiers to aid decision making activities for the technology’s full rate production.

Staff Sgt. Timothy Phillips, a research, development, test and evaluation non-commissioned officer from the Army Operational Test Command’s fires test directorate, said that the JETS-TLDS test also helped ensure the platform’s capacity to support soldier training and operations.

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DoD, HHS Leaders: Information Sharing With Industry is Key to Mitigate Ransomware
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DoD, HHS Leaders: Information Sharing With Industry is Key to Mitigate Ransomware


DoD, HHS Leaders: Information Sharing With Industry is Key to Mitigate RansomwareMitchell Komaroff, principal adviser for cybersecurity strategy, planning and oversight at the Defense Department, has said DoD collaborates with industry partners to help mitigate threats such as ransomware, FedTech reported Thursday.

Komaroff told the audience at the CyberScoop CyberTalks event in Washington, D.C. that DoD works to outline clear cybersecurity requirements in contracts and share threat information with industry to prevent attacks on the department’s supply chain and on the intellectual property of defense companies.

He noted that the WannaCry ransomware attack in May did not affect DoD’s systems but posed a “mission risk” to the department since commercial partners’ networks were disrupted.

Christopher Wlaschin, chief information security officer of the Department of the Health and Human Services, said HHS collaborates with healthcare information sharing organizations such as the National Health Information Sharing and Analysis Center and the HITRUST Alliance to notify the healthcare sector about cybersecurity threats.

Wlaschin added that HHS uses its Health Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center to contextualize threat information and make them understandable for doctors, nurses and office managers without advanced information technology knowledge.

HHS also works with information sharing organizations to deliver comprehensible cybersecurity threat information to small doctors’ offices across U.S., Wlaschin noted.

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Rose Gottemoeller: Cyber Attacks Could Hamper NATO Missions, Collective Defense Efforts
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Rose Gottemoeller: Cyber Attacks Could Hamper NATO Missions, Collective Defense Efforts


Rose Gottemoeller: Cyber Attacks Could Hamper NATO Missions, Collective Defense EffortsRose Gottemoeller, deputy secretary general of NATO, has said she believes cybersecurity attacks could undermine the international alliance’s missions and hamper collective defense initiatives with its allies.

Gottemoeller offered her insights on the importance of cybersecurity efforts at the NATO Information Assurance Symposium that took place in Mons, Belgium, the organization said Thursday.

“We have to be just as effective in the cyber domain as we are in the physical world,” she told event audience.

She also delivered remarks during a workshop about gender gap in the cybersecurity field.

The alliance estimates that women currently account for 10 percent of the global cyber workforce.

NATO’s Communications and Information Agency hosts a cyber symposium annually as part of efforts to generate discussions of emerging cyber trends and threats.

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GAO: NASA Faces Human Spaceflight Program Oversight Challenges
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GAO: NASA Faces Human Spaceflight Program Oversight Challenges


GAO: NASA Faces Human Spaceflight Program Oversight ChallengesThe Government Accountability Office has recommended that Congress consider instructing  NASA to implement strategies to address challenges related to oversight of three human spaceflight programs.

GAO said in a report published Thursday that although NASA’s current approach to integrate its Space Launch System, Orion spacecraft and supporting ground systems offer some advantages, the integration approach poses management challenges.

The government audit agency found that the process involves dual-hatted positions and makes it hard for the space agency to evaluate progress in accordance with cost and schedule objectives.

GAO urged NASA’s Exploration Systems Development group to defer from assigning both programmatic responsibilities and technical authority to individual officials involved in the missions’ engineering and safety areas.

NASA should also develop baseline objectives the beyond the first test flight of SLS and EGS missions, GAO added.

The space agency partially concurred with the watchdog agency’s recommendation but did not address concerns over the dual-hat responsibilities.

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