Defense News: Air Force to Decide on B-52 Engine Replacement Program Soon
Published on
Defense News: Air Force to Decide on B-52 Engine Replacement Program Soon


Defense News: Air Force to Decide on B-52 Engine Replacement Program SoonU.S. Air Force officials have said the service branch is close to a decision on whether to replace the engines of Boeing-built B-52 Stratofortress bomber aircraft, Defense News reported Monday.

Valerie Insinna writes the Air Force Global Strike Command conducted a business case evaluation with engine makers and financial organizations and found that a possible engine replacement would result in long-term fuel and maintenance cost savings.

James Noetzel, deputy chief of the B-52 weapon system team, said the service branch’s acquisition arm has started to look for options on how to fund the engine replacement effort.

Noetzel noted the Air Force plans to buy eight new propulsion systems that resemble the size, thrust and weight of Pratt & Whitney-made TF33 engines.

The military branch also has released two requests for information to seek technical and performance data from engine manufacturers, the report added.

/
Richard Ledgett to Retire as NSA Deputy Director
Published on
Richard Ledgett to Retire as NSA Deputy Director


Richard Ledgett to Retire as NSA Deputy Director
Richard Ledgett

Richard Ledgett, deputy director at the National Security Agency since 2014, will retire this spring after nearly 40 years of government service, Reuters reported Friday.

NSA spokesman Michael Halbig confirmed Ledgett’s planned departure from the agency in an email to Reuters.

Ledgett led the agency’s Media Leaks Task Force and response to leaks of classified information by former contractor Edward Snowden, according to the report by Warren Strobel and Mark Hosenball.

The nearly 29-year NSA veteran held various operational, management and technical leadership roles at the branch, division, office and group levels.

Ledgett previously served as director of the NSA/CSS Threat Operations Center; national intelligence manager for cyber; deputy director for analysis and production; deputy director for data acquisition; assistant deputy director for data acquisition; and chief of NSA/CSS Pacific.

He also supported signals intelligence gathering at the U.S. Army for nearly 11 years.

/
Adobe’s John Landwehr: MGT Act, FedRAMP’s Integration With Acquisition Process Key to Digital Govt
Published on
Adobe’s John Landwehr: MGT Act, FedRAMP’s Integration With Acquisition Process Key to Digital Govt


Adobe’s John Landwehr: MGT Act, FedRAMP’s Integration With Acquisition Process Key to Digital GovtJohn Landwehr, vice president and public sector chief technology officer at Adobe, has said he believes the new administration should adopt five strategies to help establish a digital government and one of those is to prioritize the passage and enforcement of the Modernizing Government Technology Act.

Landwehr wrote in an FCW commentary piece published Monday the MGT Act seeks to support the modernization of legacy information technology systems through the creation of two working capital funds.

He also called on government agencies to implement electronic signature platforms and other digital technologies to help streamline processes and change the way agencies deliver services to citizens.

Landwehr said the U.S. government should work to incorporate the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program into the acquisition process in order to facilitate the adoption of cloud platforms by agencies.

The new administration should accelerate the fiscal 2017 budget request for the fourth phase of the Department of Homeland Security’s Continuous Diagnostics & Mitigation program in order to provide data-centric security platforms and capabilities to all federal civilian agencies, he noted.

“Agencies should consider the total cost of ownership and commercially proven technology as the first choice when making procurement decisions,” Landwehr added.

/
DARPA Seeks to Address Viral Disease Outbreaks Via Nucleic Acid-Based Platform Devt Program
Published on
DARPA Seeks to Address Viral Disease Outbreaks Via Nucleic Acid-Based Platform Devt Program


DARPA Seeks to Address Viral Disease Outbreaks Via Nucleic Acid-Based Platform Devt ProgramThe Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has introduced a new program that seeks to develop a platform designed to stop the spread of viral infections in less than two months through the use of nucleic acid sequences.

The Pandemic Prevention Platform seeks to “create a technology platform that can place a protective treatment into health providers’ hands within 60 days of a pathogen being identified, and have that treatment induce protection in patients within three days of administration,” Matt Hepburn, P3 program manager at DARPA, said in a statement published Monday.

The four-year program will focus on three technology areas that include the growth of virus to facilitate evaluation of treatments in laboratory tests, evolution of antibodies outside of the body to build up potency and development of delivery methods for nucleic acid-based therapies.

Program participants will demonstrate their platforms in five simulations through the use of their preferred and DARPA-selected pathogens and will be required to test their technologies through a phase I clinical study.

DARPA will host Proposers Days on Feb. 22 in McLean, Virginia, and on March 2 in San Diego.

The agency will accept proposal abstracts for the program through March 13 and full proposals through May 1, according to a FedBizOpps notice posted Monday.

/
Rep. Mac Thornberry: Trump Should Consider $18B in Omitted Funds From 2017 NDAA for Supplemental Budget Request
Published on
Rep. Mac Thornberry: Trump Should Consider $18B in Omitted Funds From 2017 NDAA for Supplemental Budget Request


Rep. Mac Thornberry: Trump Should Consider $18B in Omitted Funds From 2017 NDAA for Supplemental Budget Request
Mac Thornberry

House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) has said President Donald Trump should file a supplemental budget request for fiscal 2017 by taking into consideration the $18 billion in House-approved defense expenditures that were dropped from the final 2017 National Defense Authorization Act, Washington Examiner reported Monday.

Nicole Duran writes Thornberry told reporters Monday the Trump administration said it will submit in the next few days a supplemental request that would focus on national security and may include provisions on border security.

The omitted $18 billion budget was intended to help DoD fund new equipment, more troops, maintenance, training and facilities, Thornberry said.

He noted that his committee has begun work on the fiscal 2018 budget that would propose $640 billion in funds for military rebuilding efforts, according to Duran’s report.

Thornberry said he believes Congress can put an end to sequestration in the Budget Control Act and increase defense spending under the new administration, according to a report by Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. for Breaking Defense.

“I think we have a tremendous opportunity to do the right thing,” Thornberry said.

“Unlike previous years, you have a Congress and administration who are looking at the big budget picture,” he added.

/
Janice Haith: Navy Saved $450M Through Software Consolidation Initiative
Published on
Janice Haith: Navy Saved $450M Through Software Consolidation Initiative


Janice Haith: Navy Saved $450M Through Software Consolidation InitiativeJanice Haith, former deputy chief information officer at the Department of the Navy, has said that DoN saved approximately $450 million in the last three years through a software consolidation initiative that began in 2011, Federal News Radio reported Friday.

Haith told Jason Miller in an interview that the department switched to enterprise software licenses and bought licenses from more than one vendor as part of efforts to address visibility issues.

The former CIO added the department worked to standardize product choices to lessen customization and use more commercial off-the-shelf products without modification.

Haith said the Navy aims to further optimize its efficiency through cloud and data centers and that the department expects to issue a new cloud-first strategy this month, Miller wrote.

The Navy could reduce its planned data centers from 10 to three in a push to migrate all applications to the cloud, Haith told Miller.

/
GAO: NNSA Should Consistently Monitor and Document R&D Projects
Published on
GAO: NNSA Should Consistently Monitor and Document R&D Projects


GAO: NNSA Should Consistently Monitor and Document R&D ProjectsThe Government Accountability Office has recommended that the National Nuclear Security Administration create a strategy to consistently track and document outcomes of research-and-development projects aimed at thwarting the proliferation of nuclear weapons.

GAO said in a report published Friday NNSA’s Office of Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation should record data that compares final project results with baseline performance targets.

Auditors found that the NNSA was not able to track the advanced, transitioned or deployed status of DNN Research and Development- and Nonproliferation and Arms Control projects.

The audit agency also discovered that 88 out of 91 sampled projects were able to develop instrument hardware or models for data analysis and 33 of the 88 projects created technologies that passed to the “transitioned” phase that includes software for nuclear detonation analysis.

GAO added that 17 projects also resulted in deployed technologies such as an enrichment monitoring tool which was utilized in Iran and space-based nuclear detonation sensors.

NNSA officials also did not document assessments of performance against baseline targets and no common template for final projects reports have been established, according to GAO.

/
Report: Vincent Viola Drops Out of Consideration for Army Secretary Post
Published on
Report: Vincent Viola Drops Out of Consideration for Army Secretary Post


Report: Vincent Viola Drops Out of Consideration for Army Secretary PostVincent Viola, President Donald Trump’s pick as U.S. Army secretary, has decided not to push through with the confirmation process due to the Defense Department‘s rules on business ownership, Military Times reported Friday.

Leo Shane writes that Viola aimed to turn over ownership of his businesses to family members but the plan failed to meet DoD requirements.

Viola is the founder of digital stock trading firm Virtu Financial and owner of the National Hockey League’s Florida Panthers team.

“I offer my continued support for President Trump and his administration, and look forward to redoubling my efforts to support the Army and its veterans as private citizens,” he said in a statement.

Robert Speer, former assistant secretary for financial management at the Army, was appointed to serve as acting secretary of the service branch until Congress can confirm a permanent successor.

/
4 Senior Staff Join White House’s National Security Council
Published on
4 Senior Staff Join White House’s National Security Council


4 Senior Staff Join White House's National Security CouncilNational Security Adviser Michael Flynn has announced the appointment of David Cattler, John Eisenberg, Kevin Harrington and Kenneth Juster to the National Security Council.

The White House said Thursday that Cattler will serve as deputy assistant to the president for regional affairs; Eisenberg was named deputy counsel for national security affairs; and Harrington will work as deputy assistant for strategic planning.

Juster was appointed deputy assistant to the president for international economic affairs.

“I’m incredibly excited about working with this talented group,” Flynn said.

“With their diverse backgrounds in in business, law, technology, government, the military and the intelligence community, they bring a wealth of experience and fresh ideas to the table,” he added.

Cattler brings to NSC more than 20 years of intelligence community and Defense Department leadership experience that include roles as national intelligence manager for the Near East and principal deputy national intelligence officer for military issues at the National Intelligence Council.

Eisenberg, a former senior national security official at the Justice Department, will also serve as NSC legal adviser.

He previously worked as deputy assistant attorney general in the office of legal counsel and associate deputy attorney general at DoJ.

Harrington previously served as managing director and head of research at San Francisco-based macro hedge fund Thiel Macro.

Juster will manage the White House’s international economic policy and serve as President Donald Trump’s representative and lead U.S. negotiator for the annual G-7, G-20 and APEC summits under his new role.

His government career includes time as under secretary of commerce, acting counselor of the State Department and deputy and senior adviser to the deputy secretary of state.

/
House Approves US-Israel Cyber Collaboration Bill; Rep. John Ratcliffe Comments
Published on
House Approves US-Israel Cyber Collaboration Bill; Rep. John Ratcliffe Comments


House Approves US-Israel Cyber Collaboration Bill; Rep. John Ratcliffe CommentsThe House on Tuesday passed a bill that seeks to increase cooperation between the U.S. and Israel on cybersecurity initiatives.

Reps. John Ratcliffe and Jim Langevin (D-Rhode Island) introduced the U.S.-Israel Cybersecurity Cooperation Enhancement Act in a push to establish a cybersecurity grant program for joint research-and-development ventures between U.S. and Israeli organizations, Ratcliffe’s office said Tuesday.

The introduction of the bill came after the two lawmakers took a congressional delegation trip in May 2016.

“After Jim and I traveled to Israel last year to discuss this important aspect of our national security with top officials, we defined key areas where we could boost our collaboration to strengthen our countries’ cybersecurity posture,” Ratcliffe said.

The bill would require the secretary of Homeland Security to determine research requirements for the proposed cybersecurity grant program with the help of an advisory board comprised of members from the the U.S.-Israel Binational Science Foundation and the U.S.-Israel Binational Industrial Research and Development Foundation.

1 … 2,360 2,361 2,362 2,363 2,364 … 2,704