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New CISA Report Reveals Improved Cybersecurity Across CI Sector
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New CISA Report Reveals Improved Cybersecurity Across CI Sector

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has reported significant progress in improving critical infrastructure cybersecurity and resilience since the implementation of its cross-sector Cybersecurity Performance Goals. The agency on Friday published the results of its analysis of 7,791 critical infrastructure organizations enrolled in its vulnerability scanning service from 2022 through 2024.

The CPG, issued in October 2022, is a set of voluntary practices designed to empower critical infrastructure operators to defend their networks against cyberthreats. The CPG offers guidance for organizations that may lack the knowledge and resources to adopt tools or roll out programs that could strengthen their network resilience. 

CISA Shares Cyber Hygiene Enrollment Rate

CISA’s Cyber Hygiene service enrollment rate over the past two years increased by 201 percent. The communications sector saw the largest enrollment jump at 300 percent, with enrollments across emergency services, critical manufacturing, and water and wastewater system sectors also seeing over 200 percent growth. 

Improved Cybersecurity Across US Critical Infrastructure Sector

One of the progress points the agency shared in the report is the decline in known exploited vulnerabilities, or KEVs, among entities enrolled in the government’s vulnerability scanning service. Since 2022, the average number of KEVs in assets accessible to the internet among critical infrastructure organizations declined. The trend shows that companies are prioritizing the remediation of network flaws based on CISA’s KEV catalog. 

The agency also saw improvements in Secure Sockets Layer misconfigurations, which decreased on average from 3.8 in the first 11 months of the CPG implementation to 2.5 in the past 12 months. 

Also highlighted in the report the persistence of operational technology protocols exposed to the internet. The government, according to the agency, accounts for the highest OT/Industrial Control System protocols exposed to the public internet at 63 percent. IT, energy, healthcare and public health, and financial services make up the top five of the sectors with the highest occurrences.

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NRO Launches NROL-153 Mission
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NRO Launches NROL-153 Mission

The National Reconnaissance Office launched the NROL-153 mission from Space Launch Complex-4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on Jan. 9.

The agency said Thursday it collaborated with Space Force Space Launch Delta 30 and SpaceX for the launch of the NROL-153 mission aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

NROL Missions

NRO is reportedly working to enhance its intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, or ISR, capabilities. It is scheduled to launch 12 missions in 2025 with the goal of advancing the agency’s proliferated architecture by adding additional proliferated launches until 2028 that will ensure sustained growth and innovation.

The latest launch is the seventh mission in support of NRO’s proliferated architecture. It is also the first of the 12 planned 2025 missions. The NROL-153 follows the recent launch of the NROL-149 on Dec. 17 last year, one of almost 100 satellites deployed in orbit.

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HHS Publishes AI Strategy Roadmap Focused on Innovation, Safe Use
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HHS Publishes AI Strategy Roadmap Focused on Innovation, Safe Use

The Department of Health and Human Services has announced four objectives guiding its new artificial intelligence strategy’s implementation, with a push on innovation as one of the initiatives lined up. The AI Strategic Plan supports the department’s goal of protecting and enhancing Americans’ health, while also pursuing the responsible use of emerging technologies, HHS said Friday.

The plan’s drive toward AI innovation aims at expanding the technology’s use across value chains and infrastructure modernization and public-private partnerships to support AI adoption. To advance the roadmap’s work on AI safety and responsible use, the initiatives include the development of HHS standards on the utilization of federal resources for trustworthy AI use.

Information-Sharing and Partnerships

In addition, the strategic plan is geared to support information-sharing methods on standards, best practices and potential partnerships. The roadmap’s objectives also include the development of open-source AI tools with user-friendly and customizable features to democratize access to the technology.

As its fourth objective, the HHS plan will pursue measures to grow AI-empowered workforces and organizations to enable staff to make the best use of the technology.

Deputy HHS Secretary Andrea Palm expressed optimism for AI’s transformational potential to support U.S. health services delivery.

“These technologies hold unparalleled ability to drive innovation through accelerating scientific breakthroughs, improving medical product safety and effectiveness, improving health outcomes through care delivery, increasing access to human services, and optimizing public health,” she said.

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US, Italy Seek to Provide Lunar PNT Capabilities via GNSS
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US, Italy Seek to Provide Lunar PNT Capabilities via GNSS

NASA and the Italian Space Agency are collaborating on the Lunar GNSS Receiver Experiment, or LuGRE, which seeks to demonstrate the viability of providing positioning, navigation and timing capabilities on the moon using U.S. GPS and European Union Galileo Global Navigation Satellite System signals.

Lunar GNSS Receiver Experiment

NASA said Friday that near-Earth missions already take advantage of GPS and GNSS, but LuGRE will work to acquire these signals on the way to the moon, while in lunar orbit and on the moon’s surface. The success of the experiment will show the possibility of spacecraft using existing GNSS satellites for navigation even at lunar distances rather than relying on stations on the Earth’s surface.

Kevin Coggins, deputy associate administrator at NASA and manager of the agency’s Space Communications and Navigation Program, said, “GPS makes our lives safer and more viable here on Earth. As we seek to extend humanity beyond our home planet, LuGRE should confirm that this extraordinary technology can do the same for us on the moon.”

For his part, Joel Parker, PNT policy lead at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, said, “This mission is more than a technological milestone. We want to enable more and better missions to the Moon for the benefit of everyone, and we want to do it together with our international partners.”

Data to be collected by the effort will subsequently be made available to improve access to lunar GNSS research information.

Blue Ghost 1 Mission

The LuGRE payload will be transported to the moon along with nine other instruments aboard the Blue Ghost 1 mission as part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative. Firefly Aerospace is providing the lunar lander while SpaceX is providing the launch vehicle.

The target launch date is Jan. 15.

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DAF Issues RFI for Wideband Global Satellite Communications
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DAF Issues RFI for Wideband Global Satellite Communications

The Department of the Air Force has started seeking industry input for the design modification of the Wideband Global Satellite Communications, or WGS, Joint Hub for commercial Medium Earth Orbit and Geostationary Earth Orbit applications.

According to the notice posted on SAM.gov Friday, the DAF is conducting market research to determine the potential cost, schedule and effort for the project.

Protected Tactical Enterprise Service

The Protected Tactical Enterprise Service, or PTES, constitutes the ground system of the system delivering an anti-jam wideband SATCOM capability. It includes components for the Joint Hub, Mission Management System, Key Management System, Key Loading and Initialization Facility, and Network Management System. 

The PTES aims to support warfighters utilizing the WGS satellites while later phases will support other suitable satellites that can serve as a transponder for the Protected Tactical Waveform. PTES JHs are being developed for WGS support and utilized with user terminals to aid PTW operations. A Joint Hub Variant, or JHV, will also be developed with MMS upgrades to provide support to MEO and other satellite systems.

The request for information also focuses on Phase 3 of the PTW over Commercial, or PTWoC, MEO effort, where PTW services will be added to Phase 2 teleport terminals.

Interested contractors, particularly small and small disadvantaged businesses, may send their responses by March 12. Federally Funded Research and Development Center and Advisory and Assistance Services contractors such as the Aerospace Corporation, MITRE, Linquest Systems Engineering & Integration and Booz Allen Hamilton may assist in reviewing the RFI responses.

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NTIA Awards $117M for Wireless Innovation
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NTIA Awards $117M for Wireless Innovation

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration has awarded over $117.4 million in grants to nine organizations for the development of open and interoperable wireless networks.

NTIA said Friday the awards belong to the second batch of grants from the $1.5 billion Public Wireless Supply Chain Innovation Fund. The innovation fund is intended for the development of open and interoperable wireless innovations to drive competition, enhance supply chain resilience and reduce network operator and consumer expenses.

NTIA Grant Recipients

The selected projects, which aim to advance open radio unit innovation and commercialization, are:

  • Airspan Networks was awarded $42.7 million for Highly Efficient 4G/5G O-RU Extensible Platform.
  • Analog Devices received $10 million for Rakino Direct RF radio platform.
  • DeepSig secured $10 million for artificial-intelligence-enabled O-RU Spectrum Awareness.
  • EpiSys Science was awarded $8.2 million for its Sidelink + ULPI: Unlocking O-RAN for 6G project.
  • New York University also received $10 million for its Spectrally Agile and Scalable Open Radio Units for the Upper Mid-Band project.
  • Otava landed a $10 million grant for its project called Advancing RF Component Design for New FR3 Spectrum.
  • Rampart Communications secured $10 million for Advanced Signal Processing Enhancement for Next-Generation, or ASPEN, open radio units. The company will work with Virginia Tech to develop a novel 6G physical layer technology.
  • SecureG was awarded $6.5 million for Unlocking O-RU Adoption and Growth with Supply Chain Traceability Registry Platform.
  • Skylark Wireless received $10.1 million for its Architecture for Massive-MIMO Open RAN Energy-efficient Devices, or ArMORED, project.

Join the Potomac Officers Club’s 2025 5G Summit on Feb. 27 to learn more about how 5G and FutureG will enhance national security and public safety. Register here.

NTIA Awards $117M for Wireless Innovation
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Space Force Awards BlackSky Contracts for TacSRT Missions
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Space Force Awards BlackSky Contracts for TacSRT Missions

BlackSky Technology has won multiple rapid procurement contracts for analytics services supporting the U.S. Space Force’s tactical surveillance, reconnaissance and tracking, or TacSRT, missions.

The Space Force’s online global data marketplace, or GDM, helps to enable the delivery of BlackSky’s artificial intelligence analytical services to U.S. military combatant commands who seek insights into critical global space capabilities, the Herndon, Virginia-based company announced Friday.

Brian O’Toole, CEO of BlackSky, spoke on how the marketplace has accelerated the company’s contract success.  

“One year in operation, this novel marketplace increases speed and accessibility to BlackSky’s reliable high-cadence, low-latency dynamic monitoring capabilities,” O’Toole said. “BlackSky’s momentum with these quick-turn contracts represents a significant structural demand signal from a key customer for operationally relevant space-based products.”

BlackSky’s Work Under the Contracts

Through the TacSRT contracts, BlackSky and other commercial data providers will answer requests for real-time operational planning services that offer access to insights surrounding global trends and events, including humanitarian and disaster response, extremism and discovering potential threats.

“BlackSky has demonstrated repeated success in delivering tailored products featuring our automated AI-driven analytics to meet a diverse set of complex, time-sensitive civil and military tactical SRT missions around the world,” noted O’Toole.

“The fast-paced, short period of performance aligns with our strengths: rapidly delivering actionable insights from our core product offerings that require minimal integration, lowering customer acquisition costs and accelerating development of new technology,” he added.

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Air Force Authorizes EPAWSS for Full-Rate Production
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Air Force Authorizes EPAWSS for Full-Rate Production

The U.S. Air Force has authorized the F-15 Eagle Passive Active Warning Survivability System, or EPAWSS, for full-rate production under a $615.8 million contract. 

Contract recipient Boeing will develop 45 sets of EPAWSS production kits for the F-15E Strike Eagle fleet, Defense News reported Friday. The system is manufactured by BAE Systems and is designed to allow F-15 fighters to locate threats in highly contested environments.

In March 2021, Boeing awarded BAE Systems a contract for EPAWSS’ low-rate initial production.

Kevin Fournier, BAE Systems’ EPAWSS program director, said, “BAE Systems is currently on schedule in support of Boeing’s F-15 EPAWSS LRIP production activities and is looking forward to supporting Boeing in the [full rate production] phase of the program.”

The EPAWSS kits will be constructed in St. Louis, Missouri and Nashua, New Hampshire. Boeing also plans to continue installing EPAWSS on operational F-15’s in San Antonio, Texas.

EPAWSS Services 

EPAWSS aims to provide services to help an F-15 fight adversarial air defense systems. These services include geolocation, situational awareness, radar warning and self-defense capabilities.

The electronic warfare system is currently being flown on F-15 jets at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida, Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada and Portland Air National Guard Base in Oregon. 

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Daniel Holtzman Named CDAO Deputy Executive Director
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Daniel Holtzman Named CDAO Deputy Executive Director

The Department of Defense’s Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office, or CDAO, has appointed Daniel Holtzman, a veteran technology leader, as deputy executive director.

Holtzman announced his new position in a LinkedIn post published Thursday.

Daniel Holtzman’s Career Background

According to his profile on the professional networking site, he most recently served as CDAO’s chief information officer and authorizing officer.

Before CDAO, Holtzman spent six years at the U.S. Air Force, where he served as director for cyberspace innovation.

In 2016, he was named the first Air Force Highly Qualified Expert for Cyber and was responsible for program protection planning, cybersecurity, supply chain risk management, security engineering, mission and system assurance and resiliency. 

The CDAO executive previously served as a portfolio manager at MITRE, chief information officer at Vanguard Research and software engineer at Draper.

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Army Holds Industry Day for $1B AI & Software at Pace Contract Vehicle
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Army Holds Industry Day for $1B AI & Software at Pace Contract Vehicle

The U.S. Army’s Program Executive Office Intelligence, Electronic Warfare and Sensors, or PEO IEW&S, held an industry day on Tuesday to inform industry stakeholders of a potential 10-year, $1 billion multiple-award task order contract to meet the service branch’s artificial intelligence and software development requirements for intelligence, jammers and sensors, Breaking Defense reported Thursday.

Through the Artificial Intelligence and Software at Pace, or AIS@P, contract vehicle, the Army plans to rapidly award at least 40 individual task orders worth approximately $25 million or less each over a decade.

Under the procurement vehicle, the Army will give vendors 14 days to submit offers once the request for proposals is released. Upon receipt of the offers, the service will assess and make awards within 16 days.

“We’re trying … to really open the aperture for government to access innovative solutions … lower barriers to entry [and] keep pace in our space of AI and EW,” said Brig. Gen. Ed Barker, program executive officer for IEW&S.

Proposed 7 Pools for AIS@P

To bid on the vehicle’s task orders, offerors must qualify for at least one of seven pools: AI onboarding support; data management and labeling; model development and training; test and evaluation; software and systems engineering support; electromagnetic spectrum techniques support; and infrastructure as a service.

Kyle Perkins, the brigadier general’s chief of staff, said a final request for information could be released by Jan. 13, followed by an updated draft RFP in February and a final solicitation in March. 

Perkins added that initial contract awards could be issued in the final quarter of fiscal year 2025.

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