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

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

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DOE Eyes 2021 Deployment for Natl Lab Exascale Computer
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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.

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Trump Aims to Ensure National Security Via Conditions-Based Strategy for South Asia
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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.”

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AI, Robotic Tech Firms Ask UN to Help Prevent Autonomous Weapon Misuse
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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.

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Navy Adm. John Richardson Orders ‘Operational Pause’ for All US Fleets
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Navy Adm. John Richardson Orders ‘Operational Pause’ for All US Fleets

 

Navy Adm. John Richardson Orders ‘Operational Pause’ for All US Fleets
John Richardson

Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson has said he directed the U.S. Navy to implement an operational pause for all the service branch’s fleets worldwide after an Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer collided with a merchant vessel off the coast of Singapore early Monday, DoD News reported Monday.

The collision between the USS John S. McCain destroyer and the Alnic MC tanker that occurred east of the Strait of Malacca and Singapore caused flooding to the communication rooms, berthing, machinery and other compartments due to the damage to warship’s hull.

The operational pause could last for up to two days and seeks to allow fleet commanders to evaluate safety measures in maritime operations, Richardson told reporters at the Pentagon.

Richardson, an inductee into Executive Mosaic’s Wash100 for 2017, said he was “devastated” over the collision and asked Adm. Phil Davidson, commander of the U.S. Fleet Forces Command, to lead a comprehensive review of the incident.

The U.S. 7th fleet reported five injuries and 10 missing Navy sailors as a result of the collision.

The incident came two months after the Navy launched an investigation into the USS Fitzgerald guided missile destroyer’s collision with a Philippine-flagged container ship off the coast of Japan.

 

Profile: Judith Zawatsky, FAS Chief of Staff
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Profile: Judith Zawatsky, FAS Chief of Staff


Profile: Judith Zawatsky, FAS Chief of Staff
Judith Zawatsky

Judith Zawatsky serves as chief of staff at the General Services Administration‘s Federal Acquisition Service.

In this capacity, Zawatsky is responsible for executive operations within the Office of the FAS Commissioner that works to deliver more than $50 billion in products and services to customer agencies each year.

She previously was director of FAS’ Multiple Award Schedules Transformation Program Management Office and led all MAS initiatives.

Before that, she held the roles of acting deputy assistant commissioner and director for outreach and stakeholder management in the GSA-managed Integrated Award Environment.

She also served as senior adviser at the agency’s Office of Acquisition Management, where she established the independent Acquisition Systems Group with the goal to increase accountability, integrity and visibility across the government procurement process.

Zawatsky also led the development and implementation of acquisition transformation efforts as chief of special programs branch within the MAS Program Office.

Prior to GSA, she spent 18 years as a commercial consultant focused on business and government contracting processes.

She studied business administration at University of Maryland and received a diploma from Georgetown University’s Institute of Comparative Political and Economic Systems.

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Trump to Appoint CIA Vet John Sherman as Intell Community CIO
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Trump to Appoint CIA Vet John Sherman as Intell Community CIO


Trump to Appoint CIA Vet John Sherman as Intell Community CIO
John Sherman

President Donald Trump will appoint John Sherman, formerly deputy director of the Open Source Enterprise at CIA, as chief information officer of the intelligence community, the White House announced Friday.

Sherman will replace acting CIO Jennifer Kron and oversee the IC Information Technology Enterprise, a program that seeks to standardize the IT infrastructure across 17 intelligence agencies in an effort to facilitate data sharing and cybersecurity.

The 20-year IC veteran will work at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence in his new position.

His career in IC includes time as principal deputy national intelligence officer for military issues at the National Intelligence Council and duty officer at the White House situation room.

He also held senior leadership positions at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency.

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FedRAMP Adds New Requirements for ‘In Process’ Cloud Platform Designation
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FedRAMP Adds New Requirements for ‘In Process’ Cloud Platform Designation


FedRAMP Adds New Requirements for 'In Process' Cloud Platform DesignationThe Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program has introduced new requirements for cloud service providers that aim to obtain FedRAMP “In Process” designation in cooperation with an authorizing government agency.

Cloud vendors that receive In Process designation are actively pursuing FedRAMP authorization and are added to the FedRAMP Marketplace website, which provides information on the authorization status of cloud offerings, FedRAMP said Thursday.

The new requirements will help certify that information on the Marketplace are accurate and updated.

To achieve In Process status, an agency authorizing official or a FedRAMP-approved designee must announce to the FedRAMP program management office via e-mail that they are actively working with a cloud vendor to grant an Authority to Operate within a year.

The authorizing official or designee must also show one of the following to the FedRAMP PMO: proof of a contract award to procure the cloud platform; agency usage of the cloud offering; a FedRAMP Ready certification from the PMO; and the completion of a formal meeting on the launch of the authorization process.

The FedRAMP PMO will communicate with the cloud service provider and authorizing agency every four months from the issuance of the In Process designation to evaluate the company’s commitment to maintain such status.

The cloud vendor must also update the PMO on FedRAMP deliverables, projected timeline for final authorization and employee changes within the involved parties.

The FedRAMP PMO may revoke the In Process designation if it determines that a vendor is not actively working to achieve authorization.

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Report: FCC’s David Bray Cancels Plans to Join NGA as Chief Ventures Officer
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Report: FCC’s David Bray Cancels Plans to Join NGA as Chief Ventures Officer


Report: FCC's David Bray Cancels Plans to Join NGA as Chief Ventures Officer
David Bray

David Bray, chief information officer of the Federal Communications Commission, has not accepted the position of chief ventures officer at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, Federal News Radio reported Friday.

NGA said in June that Bray would join the agency next month to lead internal and commercial innovation efforts there.

The report said Bray changed his mind and decided to leave the government to rejoin the People-Centered Internet organization as an executive director.

“I also will be a Marshall Memorial Fellow traveling to Europe in early 2018 to meet with leaders on shared Europe and U.S. concerns,” Bray told staff in an email obtained by the station.

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