/
GAO: DoD Needs to Assess FMS Performance Metric Data to Determine Unmet Goals
Published on
GAO: DoD Needs to Assess FMS Performance Metric Data to Determine Unmet Goals


GAO: DoD Needs to Assess FMS Performance Metric Data to Determine Unmet GoalsThe Government Accountability Office has called on the Defense Department to analyze its performance metric data on foreign military sales programs in order to determine the causes of unmet objectives.

GAO made the recommendation after it found that DoD still falls short of meeting the 85 percent goal for timeliness when it comes to sending a letter of offer and acceptance to the partner country for clearance, the office said in a report published Tuesday.

The report also showed that DoD takes more time to assess and approve FMS requests and does not collect data with regard to the delivery of FMS items or services to country recipients.

GAO also offered recommendations for the Defense Security Cooperation Agency that oversees FMS programs on behalf of DoD and these include the development of a workforce plan and workload measures as well as the need to facilitate data collection on the delivery of goods and services to partner countries.

/
Air Force Wants ‘Modular’ Architecture for Next ICBM Weapon System
Published on
Air Force Wants ‘Modular’ Architecture for Next ICBM Weapon System


Air Force Wants 'Modular' Architecture for Next ICBM Weapon SystemThe U.S. Air Force seeks an architecture that would allow the military branch’s future Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent intercontinental ballistic missile to adapt to technological changes and emerging threats.

The service branch awarded Boeing and Northrop Grumman separate contracts worth up to $677.7 million combined to conduct technology maturation and risk reduction activities over a three-year period as part of the Minuteman III ICBM replacement program.

Both companies will aim to develop a “modular” systems architecture to help facilitate competition throughout the program’s life cycle, the Air Force said Tuesday.

The branch’s Nuclear Weapons Center aims to build and deliver an “integrated” GBSD system that will include command-and-control and launch segments through the missile acquisition effort.

/
James Mattis: DoD to Determine Total Number of Ground Troops in Afghanistan
Published on
James Mattis: DoD to Determine Total Number of Ground Troops in Afghanistan


James Mattis: DoD to Determine Total Number of Ground Troops in Afghanistan
James Mattis

Defense Secretary James Mattis has said he wants the Defense Department to provide an account of the total number of U.S. ground troops in Afghanistan before the agency fields additional service personnel to the South Asian country, Defense News reported Tuesday.

“The first thing I have to do is ‘level the bubble,’ and account for everybody that is on the ground there now, the idea being that we’re not going to have different pockets that we are accounting for,” said Mattis, an inductee into Executive Mosaic‘s Wash100 for 2017.

“I’ll tell you what the total number is, and there is a number that I am authorized to go up to.”

The White House authorized Mattis in June to establish troop levels for Afghanistan but capped the total number of additional ground forces to be deployed at 3,900.

His remarks came a day after President Donald Trump unveiled a conditions-based strategy for South Asia that aims to advance use of military power, economic capability and diplomacy to ensure U.S. security and safety of allies.

Mattis told reporters Tuesday in Iraq that he has asked Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to draft a plan on how to carry out the president’s South Asian strategy, the report added.

/
White House NIAC Calls for Separate Comms Systems for Critical Cyber Networks
Published on
White House NIAC Calls for Separate Comms Systems for Critical Cyber Networks


White House NIAC Calls for Separate Comms Systems for Critical Cyber NetworksThe White House National Infrastructure Advisory Council has called on the federal government to develop separate communications systems for critical cyber networks.

NIAC said in an August report such systems may include “dark fiber” networks and a reserved electromagnetic spectrum that will work to allow electric utilities and other critical infrastructure to communicate in case of emergencies.

NIAC made the recommendations after it assessed a dataset of at least 140 federal authorities and capabilities that seek to protect high-risk assets from cyber attacks.

The council also called on federal agencies such as the departments of Energy and Homeland Security to launch a pilot program led by the private sector to test systems designed to facilitate sharing of data on cyber threats as well as advance the capabilities of cyber workforce through sponsorship of a public-private exchange program for cyber professionals.

The government should also determine scanning platforms and assessment practices, streamline the security clearance process and establish a set of outcome-based market incentives in an effort to encourage critical infrastructure operators to update their cyber capabilities.

Other recommendations from NIAC include the declassification of cyber threat data; formation of a task force of government and industry experts to facilitate the decision-making process on the country’s cyber requirements; and implementation of the national-level GridEx IV exercise to assess the execution of federal capabilities and authorities in the event of a cyber attack.

Profile: Scott Kaplan, NGA Chief of Cloud Security
Published on
Profile: Scott Kaplan, NGA Chief of Cloud Security


Profile: Scott Kaplan, NGA Chief of Cloud Security
Scott Kaplan

Scott Kaplan serves as chief of cloud security at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency  and works in the cloud security division of NGA’s Office of the Chief Information Officer and IT Services directorate, or CIO-T.

He brings years of information technology, security, operations and business experience to his current position and aims to help NGA secure cloud operations at the agency with DevSecOps methodology.

Kaplan previously served as deputy chief of the agency’s cloud security division and before that held the roles of business operations manager and IT and security officer for the intelligence community’s Advanced Campaign Cell.

He also led NGA’s Certification and Accreditation Branch where he managed the process for accrediting enterprise, industrial and international programs.

Before he became a federal civilian, Kaplan was the lead certification engineer for NGA Industrial and International Programs at Science Applications International Corp.

He also worked in aviation, security and intelligence roles at the U.S. Navy and Navy Reserve during his 10-year military career.

Kaplan earned his bachelor’s degree in aeronautical science from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and a master’s degree in systems engineering from George Washington University.

He also holds a Defense Acquisition Workforce Improvement Act Level III certification in IT.

Profile: Frank Kelley, Navy Deputy Assistant Secretary for Unmanned Systems
Published on
Profile: Frank Kelley, Navy Deputy Assistant Secretary for Unmanned Systems


Profile: Frank Kelley, Navy Deputy Assistant Secretary for Unmanned Systems
Frank Kelley

Frank Kelley Jr., a retired U.S. Marine Corps brigadier general, has served as deputy assistant secretary for unmanned systems at the U.S. Navy since October 2015.

He is the principal adviser to the Navy’s assistant secretary for research, development and acquisition on matters related to air-, land- and sea-based unmanned platforms.

The Marine Corps commissioned Kelley as a second lieutenant after he completed the Officer Candidate School program and later underwent flight training in Pensacola, Florida, as well as electronic warfare training at Mather Air Force Base in California.

His military assignments have included time as contingency plans and tactics officer for Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm; electronic warfare branch head at the Air Test and Evaluation Squadron 5; and avionics systems project officer for EA-6B.

He also held the positions of operations officer for VMAQ-1 and assistant operations officer for Marine Aircraft Group 49 before he was assigned to the Pentagon as an action officer to the Navy’s deputy assistant secretary for Expeditionary Forces Program.

Kelley then moved to the Marine Corps Systems Command as program manager for unmanned systems as well as served as military assistant to the assistant secretary for Navy RDA.

He assumed the role of program manager for training systems at MCSC in August 2007 and was reassigned as the command’s chief of staff two years later.

The service branch promoted him to the rank of brigadier general and as commander of MCSC, which he led from 2010 to 2014.

He then worked as vice commander of the Naval Air Systems Command and as director for prototyping, experimentation and transition in the Navy’s research, development, test and evaluation office.

/
Report: Gen. Mark Milley Orders Army to Review EW Capability Gap
Published on
Report: Gen. Mark Milley Orders Army to Review EW Capability Gap


Report: Gen. Mark Milley Orders Army to Review EW Capability GapArmy Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley has directed the U.S. Army to study gaps in the military branch’s electronic warfare capacity, Breaking Defense reported Monday.

The review commenced in April and explores active measures to detect, deceive and disrupt adversaries’ radio and radar platforms.

Col. Mark Dotson, EW capability manager at the Army Training and Doctrine Command, told Breaking Defense the service branch aims to determine shortfalls “in the integration of cyber, electronic warfare and intelligence.”

The Army’s Cyber Center at Fort Gordon, Georgia, and Intelligence Center at Fort Huachuca, Arizona, lead the review and will submit a timeline this week.

Dotson added the team aims to provide final recommendations to Milley in late 2017 or early 2018.

/
DOE Eyes 2021 Deployment for Natl Lab Exascale Computer
Published on
DOE Eyes 2021 Deployment for Natl Lab Exascale Computer


DOE Eyes 2021 Deployment for Natl Lab Exascale ComputerThe Energy Department aims to deploy the first exascale computer at a national laboratory by 2021 and eventually promote the system to other labs, agencies and industry, Federal News Radio reported Monday.

DOE awarded $258 million in contracts to Hewlett Packard Enterprise, IBM, Intel, Advanced Micro Devices, Cray and Nvidia in June to help address challenges that prevent the development of exascale computers.

“The goal of the Path Forward program is for the six companies who got contracts to develop technologies that are likely to lead to exascale computers that will be installed at DoE national laboratories as well as other sites,” Paul Messina, senior strategic adviser and director of the exascale computer project at DOE’s Argonne National Laboratory, told the station.

Messina added the contractors will aim to build software and applications in areas such as power consumption, parallelism and memory technology.

/
Trump Aims to Ensure National Security Via Conditions-Based Strategy for South Asia
Published on
Trump Aims to Ensure National Security Via Conditions-Based Strategy for South Asia


Trump Aims to Ensure National Security Via Conditions-Based Strategy for South AsiaPresident Donald Trump has unveiled his administration’s new strategy for South Asia that seeks to advance use of military power, diplomacy, economic capability and intelligence to ensure U.S. security and safety of the country’s allies, DoD News reported Monday.

Trump told service personnel at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall in Virginia Monday the conditions-based strategy covers South Asian countries that include Afghanistan, India and Pakistan as well as nations in Central and Southeast Asia.

The president said the strategy is based on three precepts and those include a “plan for victory” for U.S. troops; opposition to a hasty exit from Afghanistan; and the need to address threats that emanate from the South Asian region.

Trump noted that the U.S. will collaborate with allies to prevent the re-emergence of “safe havens” for terrorists in Pakistan and Afghanistan and the use of nuclear weapons against the U.S. and partner nations.

The strategy will also steer away from nation-building policy and will not be based on a timetable, he added.

“We will not talk about numbers of troops or our plans for further military activities,” Trump said.

“Conditions on the ground, not arbitrary timetables, will guide our strategy from now on.”

/
AI, Robotic Tech Firms Ask UN to Help Prevent Autonomous Weapon Misuse
Published on
AI, Robotic Tech Firms Ask UN to Help Prevent Autonomous Weapon Misuse


AI, Robotic Tech Firms Ask UN to Help Prevent Autonomous Weapon MisuseExecutives from several robotics and artificial intelligence companies in 26 countries have signed an open letter to the United Nations warning against the potential destabilizing effects of lethal autonomous weapons.

Signatories told UN’s Conference of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons in the letter published Monday that terrorists and despots may use repurposed autonomous weapons to harm innocent populations or hack the devices to behave in harmful ways.

The industry executives urged the UN-formed Group of Governmental Experts on Lethal Autonomous Weapon Systems to help identify strategies to prevent an autonomous weapons arms race and safeguard civilians from misuse of the systems.

“Lethal autonomous weapons threaten to become the third revolution in warfare,” the letter states.

“Once developed, they will permit armed conflict to be fought at a scale greater than ever, and at timescales faster than humans can comprehend.”

The letter’s signatories include Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX and Tesla Motor; Antoine Biondeau, CEO of Sentient Technologies; and Brian Gerkey, CEO of Open Source Robotics.

1 … 2,155 2,156 2,157 2,158 2,159 … 2,597