Reports: Trump May Wait for Fiscal 2018 Budget Request to Seek Border Wall Funds
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Reports: Trump May Wait for Fiscal 2018 Budget Request to Seek Border Wall Funds


Reports: Trump May Wait for Fiscal 2018 Budget Request to Seek Border Wall FundsThe White House has said President Donald Trump expressed plans to delay his call for funds for the proposed U.S. border wall with Mexico in an effort to facilitate negotiations over a budget deal to avert a possible government shutdown, Reuters reported Monday.

Richard Cowan and Steve Holland write Trump told media outlets in a private meeting that he may wait for lawmakers to start work on the budget request for fiscal 2018 to request funds for the planned border wall.

“Now the bipartisan and bicameral negotiators can continue working on the outstanding issues,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York) said in a statement, the report added.

Schumer and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-California) said Monday Congress could reach a budget deal by Friday if Trump stops demanding to include funds for the border wall in the budget package for the remaining months of fiscal 2017, according to a report by Joe Gould for Defense News.

Schumer told reporters in a joint conference call that Trump’s funding request for the wall “threw a monkey wrench” into negotiations over the spending package with House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wisconsin) and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky).

Pelosi noted that Democratic lawmakers will not back the passage of a short-term continuing resolution unless a deal is in place, the report added.

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DARPA Challenge Seeks to Test Offensive, Defensive Drone Swarm Tactics
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DARPA Challenge Seeks to Test Offensive, Defensive Drone Swarm Tactics


DARPA Challenge Seeks to Test Offensive, Defensive Drone Swarm TacticsThe Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has launched a challenge that seeks to encourage military students to create and demonstrate defensive and offensive strategies for swarms of small unmanned aerial vehicles.

DARPA collaborated with the U.S. Air Force Academy, U.S. Military Academy and the U.S. Naval Academy to begin the three-day live-fly contest Sunday at Camp Roberts in California as part of the Service Academies Swarm Challenge, DARPA said Sunday.

“It’s not just about the platforms or the links or the communications – it’s about behaviors,” said Timothy Chung, DARPA program manager and head of the challenge.

“That’s one of the key takeaways for the Service Academies Swarm Challenge: that we’re really zeroing in on swarm tactics as a battle skill,” Chung added.

At least 40 cadets and midshipmen participated in the live-fly competition that seeks to test each team’s swarm tactics for small drones.

The competition calls for each of the two teams to deploy a mixed fleet of up to 25 quad-rotor and fixed-wing UAVs in order to protect their own flag inside a battle cube with an airspace of up to 78 meters above the ground as well as earn scores in three ways in two battle rounds.

These ways include air-to-air “tags” through the use of a virtual weapon to target a sensor on a rival’s in-flight drone, air-to-ground tags through physical drone landing on the competitor’s ground-based flag as well as swarm logistics performance.

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Navy Implements Biometric ID System for Base Access
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Navy Implements Biometric ID System for Base Access


Navy Implements Biometric ID System for Base AccessThe U.S. Navy has started to transition access for all contractors, service providers, subcontractors, suppliers and vendors who use the Navy Commercial Access Control System to a new base access control system.

The service branch said Friday that NCACS cardholders have until July 15 to obtain a Defense Biometric Identification System credential from the local base Visitor Control Center.

Government contracting partners who do not yet have an NCACS card have up to 180 days to acquire a DBIDS pass, the Navy added.

DBIDS is designed to boost access control security at Navy bases through database updates on credential and personnel status changes, force protection conditions, law enforcement warrants and lost card reports.

The Navy will implement the system at the branch’s facilities in the continental U.S., Guam and Hawaii.

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Trump Signs Bill to Authorize NOAA Purchase of Commercial Satellite Weather Data
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Trump Signs Bill to Authorize NOAA Purchase of Commercial Satellite Weather Data


Trump Signs Bill to Authorize NOAA Purchase of Commercial Satellite Weather DataPresident Donald Trump last week signed a bill authorizing the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to acquire weather data from commercial satellite systems, Space News reported Friday.

Jeff Foust writes the Weather Research and Forecasting Innovation Act of 2017 allows NOAA to spend up to $6 million a year to conduct a pilot procurement program that will study the effectiveness of commercial data to aid weather forecasts from fiscal 2017 to fiscal 2020.

The law also requires NOAA to complete and begin operations of the Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere and Climate 2 or COSMIC-2 mission, which will place 12 satellites into equatorial and polar orbits, Foust reported.

Six COSMIC-2 satellites will be launched on a SpaceX-built Falcon Heavy rocket later this year while a second batch of six satellites will be deployed to polar orbit in 2019, according to the report.

Foust added the law directs NOAA to forge an agreement with the National Academies by the end of FY 2018 to research future weather satellite systems.

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Report: FCC Chairman Ajit Pai Meets With Tech Firms to Seek Feedback on Net Neutrality Rules
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Report: FCC Chairman Ajit Pai Meets With Tech Firms to Seek Feedback on Net Neutrality Rules


Report: FCC Chairman Ajit Pai Meets With Tech Firms to Seek Feedback on Net Neutrality Rules
Ajit Pai

Ajit Pai, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, has said he met with executives at tech companies such as Intel, Oracle, Cisco and Facebook to seek comments on his plan to overturn certain aspects of “net neutrality” rules, The New York Times reported Thursday.

Cecilia Kang writes Pai said Thursday in a news conference that he thinks tech companies aim to find a “common ground” when it comes to net neutrality rules, which require internet service providers to guarantee clients equal access to all online content.

He said he believes the net neutrality rules that FCC created in 2015 pose restrictions on broadband service providers and that he plans to reverse the classification of broadband internet as a utility.

The report noted that Pai, who assumed his post in January, approved Thursday two measures that seek to relax pricing restrictions on telecommunications companies and provide broadcast television firms leeway to grow through mergers.

The meeting with tech companies over net neutrality rules came weeks after Pai urged internet service providers to maintain an open internet through voluntary agreements.

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Army Issues Updated Manual on Cyber, EW Missions
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Army Issues Updated Manual on Cyber, EW Missions


Army Issues Updated Manual on Cyber, EW MissionsThe U.S. Army has introduced an updated manual on cyber warfare and electromagnetic operations, C4ISRNET reported Friday.

Mark Pomerleau writes the FM 3-12 Cyberspace and Electronic Warfare Operations manual seeks to replace the FM 3-38 document initially released in 2014.

The FM 3-12 manual offers procedures on how to integrate and coordinate the Army’s electronic warfare and cyber operations in support of joint operations and unified ground missions.

The document defines three types of EW operations that include electronic attack, electronic warfare support and electronic protection as well as outlines details on cyber missions that are carried out from remote areas for both strategic and tactical campaigns.

The updated manual also classifies the EM spectrum as the “common denominator” for the service branch’s EW and cyber operations, the report added.

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DARPA’s RF Channel Emulator to Support Collaborative Machine-Learning Competition
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DARPA’s RF Channel Emulator to Support Collaborative Machine-Learning Competition


DARPA's RF Channel Emulator to Support Collaborative Machine-Learning CompetitionThe Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has unveiled a radio signal traffic emulator built to simulate electromagnetic communications during DARPA’s collaborative machine-learning competition.

The Colosseum will serve as a testbed for electromagnetic systems in civilian and military domains as part of the three-year, $3.75 million Spectrum Collaboration Challenge, DARPA said Friday.

A team of engineers at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory assembled the Colosseum using 128 National Instruments-built software-based radios and 64 field programmable gate arrays.

The system is housed inside a server room at the APL campus in Laurel, Maryland.

“The Colosseum is the wireless research environment that we hope will catalyze the advent of autonomous, intelligent, and—most importantly, collaborative—radio technology, which will be essential as the population of devices linking wirelessly to each other and to the internet continues to grow exponentially,” said Paul Tilghman, DARPA’s SC2 program manager.

“We are asking SC2 competitors to devise fundamentally new radio systems that can learn from each other in real-time, making the need for arduous radio specifications obsolete,” Tilghman added.

DARPA said Colosseum works to emulate tens of thousands of potential interactions among hundreds of wireless communication devices such as cell phones, internet-of-things devices and military radios.

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NGA Releases GEOINT App for Govt Users on Apple App Store, Google Play
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NGA Releases GEOINT App for Govt Users on Apple App Store, Google Play


NGA Releases GEOINT App for Govt Users on Apple App Store, Google PlayThe National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency has launched its latest application on the Apple‘s App Store and the Google Play Store in an effort to help authorized government user access unclassified geospatial intelligence through mobile devices.

NGA said Friday its Tearline app is accessible to the intelligence community, Defense Department, allies and academic and private sector partners.

“As GEOINT shifts toward a more unclassified data future, NGA has an opportunity to tell more stories at the protected yet unclassified level,” said Chris Rasmussen, NGA’s public software development lead.

Rasmussen added Tearline is designed to address the commercialization of GEOINT and provide original content to senior agency officials.

He noted that users would need credentials to access the app.

Tearline was developed under NGA’s GEOINT Pathfinder project, which the agency said works to answer intelligence questions using commercially-available tools, data, information technology and services.

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DoD IG: Plan Needed to Facilitate Equipment Release to Support Iraqi Counterterrorism Service Training
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DoD IG: Plan Needed to Facilitate Equipment Release to Support Iraqi Counterterrorism Service Training


DoD IG: Plan Needed to Facilitate Equipment Release to Support Iraqi Counterterrorism Service TrainingThe Defense Department‘s inspector general has called on the chief of the Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force-Iraq to assist and offer advice to the Iraqi Counterterrorism Service commander to create a plan that would authorize the release of supplies and equipment in support of CTS training.

DoD IG said in a report published Wednesday it made the recommendation after it evaluated the efforts of U.S. and coalition forces to equip and train the Iraqi CTS and special operations forces against the Islamic State militant organization.

The IG also found that U.S. forces complied with the title 10 of the U.S. Code and the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal 2015 through the use of the Iraq Train and Equip Fund acquisition process to provide arms to CTS in support of their warfighting operations.

The commander of the Special Operations Training Command-Iraq should work with the leaders of the CTS training command to develop and integrate training evaluation standards and criteria for all tasks under the academia’s training courses, according to the report.

The IG also recommended that the chief of the Special Operations Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve should develop a resource plan on how to provide ammunition, weapons and range facilities in support of CTS trainees’ live-fire training operations on SPG‑9, M-72 and AT-4 weapon systems.

Sen. Chuck Schumer: Congress Close to Budget Agreement Sans ‘Poison-Pill’ Amendments
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Sen. Chuck Schumer: Congress Close to Budget Agreement Sans ‘Poison-Pill’ Amendments


Sen. Chuck Schumer: Congress Close to Budget Agreement Sans ‘Poison-Pill’ AmendmentsSenate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York) has said he believes House and Senate leaders from Republican and Democratic parties are close to reaching a budget deal before the April 28 deadline to prevent a possible government shutdown and a continuing resolution, Defense News reported Sunday.

“If the president doesn’t interfere and insist on poison-pill amendments to be shoved down the throat of the Congress, we can come up with an agreement,” Schumer told reporters in a conference call Tuesday.

“We want to make sure it’s a good budget that meets our principles, but so far, so good,” he added.

Joe Gould writes Schumer noted that Democrats would refuse to fund President Donald Trump’s proposed U.S. border wall with Mexico and that the immigration issue should be tackled in the fiscal 2018 budget.

Trump said in a Twitter post Sunday that Obamacare would not get funds to continue if Democrats fail to fund the proposed border wall, according to a report by David Morgan and Doina Chiacu for Reuters.

“The Dems need big money to keep [Obamacare] going – otherwise it dies far sooner than anyone would have thought,” Trump added.

The White House announced last week that it will provide federal agencies guidance that outlines contingency plans in the event of a government shutdown.

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