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Rex Tillerson: Trump Orders Interagency Review of Iran Nuclear Pact
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Rex Tillerson: Trump Orders Interagency Review of Iran Nuclear Pact


Rex Tillerson: Trump Orders Interagency Review of Iran Nuclear PactPresident Donald Trump has instructed the National Security Council to lead an interagency review group tasked to examine whether the lifting of sanctions on Iran aligns with U.S. national security interests.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson informed House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wisconsin) in a letter published Tuesday that Iran has continued to comply with commitments under a 2015 nuclear deal dubbed Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

Tillerson added the Middle Eastern country “remains a leading state sponsor of terror, through many platforms and methods.”

The State Department is required to notify Congress on Iran’s compliance with JCPOA every 90 days and the latest notification is the first under the Trump administration, Reuters reported Wednesday.

Lesley Wroughton writes Iran agreed to reduce its nuclear development in exchange for the suspension of oil and financial sanctions against the country as part of the nuclear deal.

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Reports: House Lawmakers Ask White House to Clear Reaper UAV Sales to Jordan, UAE
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Reports: House Lawmakers Ask White House to Clear Reaper UAV Sales to Jordan, UAE


Reports: House Lawmakers Ask White House to Clear Reaper UAV Sales to Jordan, UAEHouse lawmakers have called on President Donald Trump’s administration to clear the sale of General Atomics-built MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aerial vehicles to the United Arab Emirates and Jordan to help address threats associated with the Islamic State militant organization, The Hill newspaper reported Tuesday.

Ellen Mitchell writes Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-California) led the bipartisan group of 22 policymakers to urge Trump to approve the drone sales through a letter dated Monday.

He said the sale could add $1 billion to the U.S. economy and retain manufacturing jobs in the country, the report added.

Hunter told Defense News in an interview published Tuesday that the Middle Eastern countries might turn to China if the White House fails to approve the Reaper sale.

“They are going to buy their defensive and offensive weapons somewhere, and if they buy from China, that aligns them in some aspect with China,” he added.

Joe Gould writes the Obama administration declined to approve the sale of such drones to UAE and Jordan due to the Missile Technology Control Regime.

MTCR is an agreement signed by 35 countries to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons through the use of UAVs, the report added.

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Air Force Seeks to Boost Crisis Response Capacity With Unit C2 Platform
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Air Force Seeks to Boost Crisis Response Capacity With Unit C2 Platform


Air Force Seeks to Boost Crisis Response Capacity With Unit C2 PlatformU.S. Air Force acquisition personnel have begun to update the service branch’s Unit Command and Control system in an effort to boost soldiers’ crisis response capacity and help commanders gain access to data on assets in military exercises or real-world settings.

The service branch said Tuesday the UC2 system is designed to generate checklists, updated lists and locations of transportation aircraft, assets and fire-fighting units to provide situational awareness data that can help increase accountability for everyday operations.

Capt. Kurt Carlson, UC2 program manager, said three Air Combat Command and two non-ACC bases will receive the platform within the next 90 days in addition to the Shaw, Tinker, Moody and Mountain Home Air Force bases that currently operate the UC2 system.

Carlson’s team partnered with Leidos to integrate feedback from various installations on the UC2 program as well as to manage the security of the application on Non-classified Internet Protocol Router and Secure Internet Protocol Router networks.

Second Lt. Michael Byon, cyber security engineer assigned to the UC2 program, said the service branch scans the system regularly to comply with National Institute of Standards and Technology‘s security protocols.

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Lt. Gen. Arnold Bunch: Air Force May Seek ‘Anomalies’ For Nuclear Modernization Programs Under Full-Year CR
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Lt. Gen. Arnold Bunch: Air Force May Seek ‘Anomalies’ For Nuclear Modernization Programs Under Full-Year CR


Lt. Gen. Arnold Bunch: Air Force May Seek ‘Anomalies’ For Nuclear Modernization Programs Under Full-Year CR
Arnold Bunch

Lt. Gen. Arnold Bunch, military deputy to the Air Force’s assistant secretary for acquisition, has said the service branch may have to ask for “anomalies” or consent from Congress to fund its nuclear modernization programs if lawmakers resort to a full-year continuing resolution, Defense News reported Tuesday.

Bunch told Defense News in an interview that a full-year CR would drive the military branch to delay by a year its plans to award contracts for the air-launched Long Range Standoff cruise missile and the Ground Based Strategic Deterrent program designed to replace the Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile.

He said the B-21 Raider bomber program, which concluded its initial design review, would require a “serious” anomaly in order to keep the development phase on schedule, Valerie Insinna wrote.

Bunch testified in a Senate hearing in March and noted that the military branch would need to seek 17 anomalies to advance its nuclear modernization programs and request approval from Congress for 60 new acquisition initiatives, the report added.

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Reuters: Leaked Docs Show Alleged NSA Hacking of SWIFT Money Transfer Network
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Reuters: Leaked Docs Show Alleged NSA Hacking of SWIFT Money Transfer Network


Reuters: Leaked Docs Show Alleged NSA Hacking of SWIFT Money Transfer NetworkThe hacker group called “Shadow Brokers” has released documents that it says describe National Security Agency techniques to exploit commercially available software in order to access the SWIFT money-transfer system, Reuters reported Sunday.

Clare Baldwin and Joseph Menn write that Comae Technologies Founder Matt Suiche indicated in the company’s analysis of the documents that NSA utilized vulnerabilities in Microsoft software and Cisco firewalls to gain entry through Middle Eastern and Latin American transfer service providers.

Suiche told Reuters that the leaked data shows NSA penetrated the Adaptive Security Appliance security firewall with a tool dubbed “BARGLEE” then used exploits to target SWIFT-connected computer servers running old versions of Windows in 2013.

The report said SWIFT transfers are a “natural” target for intelligence agencies in efforts to track the flow of money that funds terrorist and criminal groups.

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GAO: DHS Should Set Time Frame to Identify Non-Major Purchases
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GAO: DHS Should Set Time Frame to Identify Non-Major Purchases


GAO: DHS Should Set Time Frame to Identify Non-Major PurchasesThe Government Accountability Office has recommended that the Department of Homeland Security establish a time frame for DHS component agencies to identify acquisitions that are less than $300 million.

GAO said Thursday it found that DHS components lack information to effectively manage non-major acquisition programs because they cannot “confidently” identify such projects.

DHS agencies recorded more than $6 billion in non-major procurements as of October 2016 but eight of 11 components could not identify all of these acquisitions, GAO added.

Auditors also found that 23 of 38 active non-major acquisitions do not have approved program baselines that establish costs, schedule and performance parameters.

Active acquisitions with authorized baselines are valued at $3.4 million while acquisitions without approved baselines are worth $3 million in total, GAO reported.

Some DHS components did not require approved baselines at the start of fiscal year 2017, but DHS directed agency leadership to review baselines for non-major acquisitions in response to GAO’s preliminary findings in February.

DHS has also required components to identify all non-major acquisitions by Oct. 31.

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Lt. Gen. Arnold Bunch: Air Force May Discard Plans to Qualify 2nd Ejection Seat for F-35A
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Lt. Gen. Arnold Bunch: Air Force May Discard Plans to Qualify 2nd Ejection Seat for F-35A


Lt. Gen. Arnold Bunch: Air Force May Discard Plans to Qualify 2nd Ejection Seat for F-35A
Arnold Bunch

Lt. Gen. Arnold Bunch, military deputy to the Air Force‘s assistant secretary for acquisition, has said the service branch is likely to scrap plans to qualify a second ejection seat for the Lockheed Martin-built F-35A aircraft if the Martin-Baker-made US16E seat meets all requirements, Defense News reported Monday.

Bunch told Defense News in an interview that Lockheed and Martin-Baker concluded the testing phase and submitted new information to the Air Force to decide whether to remove weight restrictions imposed on F-35A pilots in 2015.

Valerie Insinna writes pilots who weigh below 136 pounds were precluded to fly the fighter jet after the Air Force found that lightweight aviators are at risk of fatal neck injuries upon ejection.

“What I am waiting on to see if the issues that we needed to have addressed have been addressed, and if those have been addressed, I will retract my request for that information [about ACES 5],” Bunch said.

Bunch asked the F-35 joint program office to analyze the potential cost of qualifying the United Technologies Corp.-built ACES 5 ejection seat in 2016 following the weight restriction order, the report added.

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Federal News Radio: NASA CISO Jeanette Hanna-Ruiz to Step Down
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Federal News Radio: NASA CISO Jeanette Hanna-Ruiz to Step Down


Federal News Radio: NASA CISO Jeanette Hanna-Ruiz to Step Down
Jeanette Hanna-Ruiz

Jeanette Hanna-Ruiz will leave step down as NASA’s chief information security officer with April 28 as her last day on the job, Federal News Radio reported Monday.

Jason Miller writes Mike Witt, who joined NASA in February as deputy CISO, will serve as acting CISO to replace Hanna-Ruiz, who also holds the roles of senior agency information security official and associate chief information officer for information technology at the space agency.

“I have greatly appreciated [Hanna-Ruiz’s] leadership and all-encompassing insight into cybersecurity,” NASA CIO Renee Wynn said in an email to staff obtained by the station.

Hanna-Ruiz joined NASA in August 2016 after she previously served as director and manager of Microsoft‘s consulting services business for nearly four years.

She also served as director of cyber forensics and information assurance at Computer Sciences Corp.

Hanna-Ruiz served as one of the authors of the Cyberspace Policy Review during her tenure as a member of the national security staff at the White House and worked as part of the joint coordination group of the National Security Agency and Department of Homeland Security.

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Army Tests 2 Transport Vehicles Designed to Support Multi-Domain Applications
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Army Tests 2 Transport Vehicles Designed to Support Multi-Domain Applications


Army Tests 2 Transport Vehicles Designed to Support Multi-Domain ApplicationsThe U.S. Army has tested two vehicle platforms designed to provide transportation capacity in various types of terrain as well as help soldiers detect aircraft and conduct three-dimensional fires targeting missions.

The service branch said Thursday it tested the Hunter and Killer platforms during the 2017 Maneuver Fires Integrated Experiment at Fort Sill in a push to develop new methods for the systems to operate with minimal human instruction.

Hunter is built to help ground troops call for automated precision fires as well as help air forces communicate with other airmen for support.

The Killer platform offers a capacity to fight in the cyber and space domains through features that disrupt communication between UAV threats and its operators.

Scott Patton, science and technology strategist at the Army’s Aviation and Missile Research Development and Engineering Center, said feedback from the last MFIX event revolved around anti-unmanned aircraft vehicle mobile integrated capacities and its potential for transportation.

Patton added the AMRDEC team seeks to develop a capacity for units such as the 82nd and 101st Airborne divisions to airdrop the vehicles from helicopters to help gather intelligence, perform precision fires and intercept UAVs on the battlefield.

Motherboard: Trump’s Transition Team Sought Info From NASA on Space Resource Commercialization
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Motherboard: Trump’s Transition Team Sought Info From NASA on Space Resource Commercialization


Motherboard: Trump's Transition Team Sought Info From NASA on Space Resource CommercializationPresident Donald Trump’s transition team inquired about the profitability and potential commercialization of space resources and technologies in a series of internal communications with NASA obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request, Motherboard reported Thursday.

David Axe writes the publication gained access to emails, briefings, budget spreadsheets and other documents that indicate the Trump administration’s interest in possible industry benefits from areas such as low Earth orbit operations and mining of raw materials on the moon.

The report said the communications between NASA and Trump’s agency review team could also serve to reflect the White House’s decision to preserve a majority of the space agency’s budget for fiscal year 2018 amid large cuts to other science agencies.

ART sought information on NASA’s technology development and transfer process with the commercial sector as well as updates on survey efforts on the moon using resource-prospector drones, Axe adds.

NASA noted in the documents that it has several procurement and commercialization programs that work to engage industry and expand economic and societal benefits from innovative technologies.

The space agency also said it is working to bring back material samples from the moon’s southern pole as part of scientific research, and Motherboard stressed extraction for commercial purposes will go against international agreements such as the 1967 Outer Space Treaty.

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