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CBO: 355-Ship Plan Would Exceed Navy’s Cost Estimates
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CBO: 355-Ship Plan Would Exceed Navy’s Cost Estimates


CBO: 355-Ship Plan Would Exceed Navy's Cost EstimatesThe Congressional Budget Office has estimated that the U.S. Navy‘s plan to increase its fleet size to 355 ships over three decades would cost $60 billion more than originally projected, DoD Buzz reported Wednesday.

Hope Hodge Seck writes CBO’s analysis showed the 30-year shipbuilding plan would cost approximately 30 percent more than the military branch spent to construct vessels in the past three years.

The plan was released last month and called for the addition of one aircraft carrier, four amphibious assault ships, eight auxiliary ships, 16 large surface combatants and 18 attack submarines to the Navy’s current 308-ship requirement.

The report said the Navy could pay much more than expected because CBO found the military service’s shipbuilding cost estimates were not high enough and the branch did not include miscellaneous costs in the budget

Lt. Seth Clarke, a Navy spokesman, told Military.com that the plan was meant to highlight operational requirements rather than the fiscal aspects of the fleet plan.

Profile: Michele Thoren Bond, Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs
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Profile: Michele Thoren Bond, Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs


Profile: Michele Thoren Bond, Assistant Secretary of State for Consular AffairsMichele Thoren Bond serves as an assistant secretary at the State Department and heads the bureau of consular affairs.

Bond, a career member of the Senior Foreign Service, leads a team of approximately 13,000 consular professionals worldwide who are tasked to protect the interests of U.S. citizens overseas and facilitate legitimate international travel.

She was acting assistant secretary of state for consular affairs from April 2014 until her official appointment to the post on Aug. 10, 2015.

She previously served as U.S. consul general in the Netherlands and U.S. ambassador to Lesotho and also held other diplomatic assignments in Guatemala, Serbia, the Czech Republic and Russia.

She has worked as deputy assistant secretary for overseas citizens services at the State Department, director of the bureau of consular affairs’ public outreach office and director of consular training at the National Foreign Affairs Training Center.

Bond holds a bachelor’s degree in American studies from Wellesley College and a master’s degree in international relations from Georgetown University.

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FTC Seeks Tools to Defend Smart Home Devices Against Hackers
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FTC Seeks Tools to Defend Smart Home Devices Against Hackers


FTC Seeks Tools to Defend Smart Home Devices Against HackersThe Federal Trade Commission has offered to award up to $25,000 to potential partners that can provide applications or tools designed to protect smart home devices against hacking, Nextgov reported Tuesday.

Joseph Marks writes FTC seeks a cloud-based application that checks for security updates or a physical device that can assess Internet of Things device security.

“A dashboard or other user interface might inform the consumer about which devices were up-to-date already, those that had unpatched software vulnerabilities and even those that the manufacturer no longer supported,” FTC said in a notice posted Wednesday on the Federal Register.

The responses should look to mitigate the vulnerabilities of out-of-date IoT software and address potential dangers such as forced factory default updates or weak passwords, the report said.

Nextgov noted that interested parties have until May 22 to submit responses.

Winners, including honorable mention winners that will each receive $3,000, will be announced in July.

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Estonia Unveils New Defense Procurement Organization
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Estonia Unveils New Defense Procurement Organization


Estonia Unveils New Defense Procurement OrganizationEstonia has launched a new defense organization that will work to consolidate procurements of the country’s defense ministry and subordinate establishments.

The defense ministry said Monday the Estonian Centre for Defence Investments will also oversee defense construction activity and property management.

Estonian Defense Minister Margus Tsahkna said ECDI will free defense forces from non-military tasks and provide common management for procurement- and infrastructure-related matters.

The country’s defense spending volume for 2017 is $166 million and ECDI aims to carry out 500 procurements and 100 infrastructure projects.

EDIC will begin operations with 120 personnel and Rauno Sirk, former chief of staff of Estonia’s air force headquarters, will serve as director of the new institution.

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Cyber Command Seeks Acquisition Exec to Handle $75M Annual Rapid Procurement Funds
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Cyber Command Seeks Acquisition Exec to Handle $75M Annual Rapid Procurement Funds


Cyber Command Seeks Acquisition Exec to Handle $75M Annual Rapid Procurement FundsThe U.S. Cyber Command looks to hire an acquisition professional to manage spending of the command’s $75 million annual rapid procurement funds through 2021 that Congress authorized under the 2016 defense authorization act, Federal News Radio reported Tuesday.

Scott Maucione writes the command acquisition executive will be responsible for the rapid development and fielding of new cyber systems and equipment using the allocated funds.

The command will set up an acquisition office that consists of up to 10 personnel to manage the budget and also use the money to sustain cyber operations systems, according to the report.

A Senior Executive Service employee will lead the team, report directly to the Cybercom commander, oversee programs and logistics, provide legal guidance and negotiate with other military departments for equipment and services acquisition, Maucione reports.

The report said Cybercom also plans to recruit a contracting lead, contract specialist, a warranted contracting officer and an acquisition oversight and policy officer.

NRL-Developed Ferroelectric Heterostructures Could Aid Future DoD Sensing Missions
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NRL-Developed Ferroelectric Heterostructures Could Aid Future DoD Sensing Missions


NRL-Developed Ferroelectric Heterostructures Could Aid Future DoD Sensing MissionsA team of Naval Research Laboratory scientists has conducted a study on monolayer ferroelectric hybrid structures that may lead to the development of materials that work to support Defense Department information processing and sensing missions.

NRL said Tuesday the researchers demonstrated the capacity of polarization domains from ferroelectric material lead zirconium titanate to spatially control the intensity and spectral composition of the photoluminescence from a single monolayer of tungsten disulphide.

The lab added the results from the study can help DoD develop low-power electronics, non-volatile optical memory and quantum computational technologies.

“Fabricating these hybrid 2D/3D ferroelectric heterostructures enables one to purposefully design and modulate adjacent populations of trions and neutral excitons, creating lateral domains in any geometry of choice,” said Berend Jonker, an NRL senior scientist and principal investigator of the study.

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GAO: NIST Should Lead Govt-Wide Effort to Deliver Climate Information to Standards Organizations
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GAO: NIST Should Lead Govt-Wide Effort to Deliver Climate Information to Standards Organizations


GAO: NIST Should Lead Govt-Wide Effort to Deliver Climate Information to Standards OrganizationsThe Government Accountability Office has recommended the National Institute of Standards and Technology to lead an ongoing government-wide effort alongside the Mitigation Framework Leadership Group and U.S. Global Change Research Program to deliver forward-looking climate information to standards organizations.

GAO said in a report published Tuesday institutional and technical challenges affected a number of standards-developing organizations’ usage of forward-looking climate information on the development of codes, design standards and voluntary certifications.

The congressional watchdog found that some SDOs have taken preliminary steps towards the potential use of forward-looking climate information and some groups periodically update climate information in certifications, codes and standards.

Agencies such as the MitFLG, NIST and USGCRP have implemented measures to help SDOs mitigate challenges on the use of such climate information, according to GAO.

GAO added that federal agencies should boost interagency coordination to identify the best available forward-looking climate information.

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David Bretz Named Commander of Navy’s Destroyer Squadron 31
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David Bretz Named Commander of Navy’s Destroyer Squadron 31


David Bretz Named Commander of Navy's Destroyer Squadron 31Capt. David Bretz, previously deputy commodore of the U.S. Navy‘s Destroyer Squadron 31, has officially succeeded Capt. Charles Johnson as DESRON-31 commander during a change-of-command ceremony at Joint Base Pearl-Harbor Hickam.

Johnson, who will move on to report to the commander of U.S. 6th Fleet in Naples, Italy, was awarded the Legion of Merit at the ceremony, the Navy said Friday.

“Capt. Bretz is ready to lead the DESRON-31 team in the face of a rapidly changing maritime security environment,” said Rear Adm. John Fuller, Naval Surface Group Middle Pacific commander.

Bretz has been assigned to USS Arleigh Burke and USS Thorn and served as an engineering officer in USS Mahan, executive officer in USS James E. Williams and commanding officer of USS Whirlwind and USS Jason Dunham.

He was a congressional liaison for the director of surface warfare at the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations and director of the White House liaison office at the Department of the Navy.

Bretz is the recipient of military awards such as the Defense Meritorious Service Medal, Meritorious Service Medal, Joint Service Commendation Medal, Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal and Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal.

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Report: 31% of Federal Agency Websites Missed HTTPS Migration Deadline
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Report: 31% of Federal Agency Websites Missed HTTPS Migration Deadline


Report: 31% of Federal Agency Websites Missed HTTPS Migration DeadlineThe General Services Administration‘s Pulse dashboard shows that 31 percent of federal agency websites did not meet the Office of Management and Budget‘s Dec. 31, 2016 deadline to migrate to the HTTPS communications protocol, FCW reported Tuesday.

Chase Gunter writes a GSA spokesperson said most executive branch .gov domains have adopted HTTPS.

OMB released a memorandum in June 2015 that directed federal agencies to migrate publicly-accessible websites and web services from the unencrypted HTTP to HTTPS in an effort to provide a secure connection.

The Pulse dashboard, which works to measure HTTPS migration progress, showed that “smaller agencies” have yet to convert any domain while the U.S. Postal Service and the Department of Veterans Affairs migrated one domain each, Gunter reported.

GSA launched a website to provide technical assistance to transitioning agencies, the report stated.

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Ben Harvey Named Deputy Director for DLA’s Virginia Distribution Hub
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Ben Harvey Named Deputy Director for DLA’s Virginia Distribution Hub


Ben Harvey Named Deputy Director for DLA's Virginia Distribution Hub
Ben Harvey

The Defense Logistics Agency has appointed Ben Harvey, former logistics planner at the Army Materiel Command, as deputy director for DLA’s distribution unit in Richmond, Virginia.

Harvey held a variety of positions in the U.S. Army, such as tank company executive officer for the 24th Infantry Division, tank company commander in the 3rd Infantry Division, J5 future plans officer and J9 Director for DLA Distribution headquarters, DLA said Tuesday.

He is a former range safety officer at the Wildflecken Training Area, cavalry headquarters troop commander in 2d Armored Cavalry Regiment and J3 planner in Joint Task Force Civil Support.

He was assigned to several local and international U.S. camps and took part in the Desert Shield, Desert Storm and Iraqi Freedom operations.

Harvey was awarded the Meritorious Service Medal, Joint Service Commendation Medal, Joint Service Achievement Medal, Army Commendation Medal with “V” Device, National Defense Service Medal, Overseas Ribbon, Kuwaiti Liberation Medal, Southwest Asia Service Medal, Global War on Terrorism and the Korean Defense Medal.

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