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GAO: Navy Should Designate Specific Unit to Oversee Assessments of New Contracting Strategy Implementation
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GAO: Navy Should Designate Specific Unit to Oversee Assessments of New Contracting Strategy Implementation


ContractSigningThe Government Accountability Office has recommended the U.S. Navy assign systematic assessment tasks on the implementation of the service branch’s Multiple Award Contract, Multi Order contracting strategy to a single entity.

A report GAO posted Monday says the Navy does not possess a systematic process to assess overall implementation of MAC-MO that involves the fleet- and shore-based maintenance communities.

Auditors noted that contract holders from the former Multi Ship, Multi-Option contracting strategy have expressed concerns on the continual need to compete for work while small businesses look to compete as prime contractors under MAC-MO.

MAC-MO will look to establish more competition and control costs with the help of lessons learned from its pilot maintenance periods, via firm-fixed price contracts and third-party planner utilization, GAO added.

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NASA Chief Charles Bolden, Russian Counterpart Discuss Continued Space Cooperation
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NASA Chief Charles Bolden, Russian Counterpart Discuss Continued Space Cooperation


Charles Bolden
Charles Bolden

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden and Igor Komarov, head of Russia’s national space organization Roscosmos, have discussed further cooperation on space activities between the U.S. and Russia, Space News reported Monday.

Jeff Foust writes Bolden and Komarov said at a press conference on Saturday crew exchanges between the two countries will start once NASA launches commercial crew vehicles to provide transportation to the International Space Station.

“I believe that it is very important for all participants of the program to have alternative transportation means to the station,” Komarov said.

Komarov added Russian cosmonauts will fly on U.S. commercial vehicles while some NASA astronauts will continue to use Russian Soyuz spacecraft, Foust reported.

Bolden noted the two countries have yet to work out details on crew exchanges, the report stated.

NASA’s Commercial Crew Program aims to develop a commercial crew space transportation platform that could end U.S. reliance on Soyuz vehicles.

Air Force Medical Service Continues EHR Development Work
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Air Force Medical Service Continues EHR Development Work


electronic-health-record-EHRThe Air Force Medical Service is working to develop a new electronic health record that can offer soldiers real-time data to help deliver treatment to wounded personnel deployed in harsh or isolated environments.

The U.S. Air Force said Wednesday the Theater Medical -Information Program – Air Force project management office helps test, update and train the Armed Forces Longitudinal Technology Application – Theater, the latter of which serves as the deployed EHR for the AFMS.

Darrell Mayers, TMIP-AF functional analyst, said the Air Force has pushed more than 500,000 ground-based electronic medical records to the field since 2011.

“From a patient safety standpoint, continuity of care is a major piece. When we transmit their records, the medical staff on the ground can see it before the patient ever gets off the plane,” Mayers said.

TMIP-AF offers a three-day training course for system administrators to learn aspects of the applications based on their location and manage a software’s connectivity, as well as components designed to transmit records.

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Navy Survey Highlights Use of Automated Range Mgmt System; Leonard Garcia Comments
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Navy Survey Highlights Use of Automated Range Mgmt System; Leonard Garcia Comments


U.S. NavyThe Navy Installations Command has highlighted in a new survey what it sees as benefits of an automated range management system to the military branch’s warfighters.

The survey covered criteria such as time and manpower savings, data collection, efficiency and effectiveness and the benefits for continued usage, the Navy said Friday.

Across the entire shore enterprise, the Navy implements the Range Facility Management Support System with funds from NIC to handle warfighter training activities.

“With this system, our training range managers and warfighters have a web-based application that automates range management functions such as scheduling, processing requests and collecting utilization data,” said Leonard Garcia, RFMSS functional administrator with NIC.

The Naval Special Warfare components began to use the RFMSS in 2014 to schedule, collect data and report on the usage of range programs under a directive from the NIC.

The NIC has started to fund the maintenance of the system throughout the shore enterprise with an annual average of $150,000 in 2010.

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NASA Experts Provide Tech Support to GeNO, SeaDek Marine Products via Regional Economic Devt Program
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NASA Experts Provide Tech Support to GeNO, SeaDek Marine Products via Regional Economic Devt Program


nasa-regional-economic-development-program-egovSubject-matter experts at NASA‘s Kennedy Space Center in Florida have provided technical support to SeaDek Marine Products and GeNO as part of the agency’s Regional Economic Development program that seeks to increase partnership between the center and local businesses.

NASA said Tuesday KSC’s Cryogenics Test Laboratory provided test equipment as well as test and evaluation procedures to help SeaDek address material limitation for the closed-cell EVA foam that is used for the company’s padded deck protectors.

Biopharmaceutical company GeNO worked with NASA’s mechanical engineers through the RED Program to correct a malfunctioning reaction vessel, NASA added.

“This effort is about connecting our regional industry with NASA’s technology, capabilities and resources, with the goal of solving technology challenges together and driving economic successes for the region,” said Elizabeth Huy, senior manager of business development at the Economic Development Commission of Florida’s Space Coast.

“The subject-matter experts assisted us in a search for an answer that would have taken us an additional two years to find on our own,” said Ryan Denton, an engineer at GeNO.

KSC and EDC jointly launched a regional economic development pilot program dubbed Technology Docking in January 2015 to facilitate collaborations between the center and companies in the region.

The RED program works to match small companies with subject-matter experts at Kennedy to provide advice, address problems and introduce money-saving methods.

Robert Ashley, project lead for Kennedy Space Center’s RED Program, said NASA seeks to establish an umbrella Space Act Agreement with EDC to further support small companies.

Sixty-nine companies have engaged in initial discussions with NASA experts under the RED program over the past two years and 14 of those companies received additional assistance from the agency through the Technology Docking program.

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Reports: Donald Trump to Nominate Rep. Mike Pompeo as CIA Chief
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Reports: Donald Trump to Nominate Rep. Mike Pompeo as CIA Chief


Mike Pompeo
Mike Pompeo

President-elect Donald Trump has announced plans to nominate Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-Kansas), a member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, as CIA director, the Washington Post reported Friday.

David Nakamura and Elise Viebeck write Pompeo is a Harvard Law School and U.S. Military Academy graduate who was elected to the lower chamber of Congress in 2010.

He previously served as a cavalry officer in the U.S. Army, an attorney at the Washington-based law firm Williams & Connolly and president of an oil-field equipment manufacturing company, Nakamura and Viebeck report.

Prior to his political career, Pompeo founded Thayer Aerospace in Wichita, Kansas, according to a report by Elana Schor, Kyle Cheney, Alex Isenstadt and Louis Nelson for Politico.

Former House Speaker John Boehner also appointed Pompeo to serve in a House committee in charge of the investigation into the 2012 Benghazi attack in Libya, the report said.

Pompeo “will be a brilliant and unrelenting leader for our intelligence community to ensure the safety of Americans and our allies,” Trump said in a statement, according to Politico.

The announcement comes a day after Trump named Michael Flynn, a retired Army lieutenant general and former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, as national security adviser.

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Pentagon Unveils Website Vulnerability Disclosure Rule, Army’s Cyber Bug Hunting Challenge
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Pentagon Unveils Website Vulnerability Disclosure Rule, Army’s Cyber Bug Hunting Challenge


cybersecurityThe Defense Department has introduced a new policy that seeks to help computer security researchers detect and disclose cyber vulnerabilities in DoD websites and a “bug bounty” challenge that aims to authorize hackers to perform vulnerability identification in the U.S. Army’s networks.

“The Vulnerability Disclosure Policy is a ‘see something, say something’ policy for the digital domain,” Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said in a statement released Monday.

“This policy gives [computer security researchers] a legal pathway to bolster the department’s cybersecurity and ultimately the nation’s security,” he added.

DoD consulted the Justice Department’s criminal division to develop the policy.

The Pentagon also opened the registration for the “Hack the Army” bug bounty competition, which is based on the defense digital service’s “Hack the Pentagon” initiative.

The department said it expects approximately 500 participants to take part in the competition and that it will provide cash incentives to security researchers who will identify cyber threats in the Army’s and DoD’s information systems and networks.

DoD will close the registration on Nov. 28 for the Hack the Army competition that is scheduled to run from Nov. 30 to Dec. 21, according to HackerOne’s website.

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GAO Reviews FAA’s NextGen Modernization Program
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GAO Reviews FAA’s NextGen Modernization Program


AirplaneA new government audit says the Federal Aviation Administration has received an estimated $7.4 billion for activities to implement a program designed to transform current radar-based air transportation systems into one product that will utilize automated aircraft position reporting, digital communications and satellite navigation.

FAA has received funds for the Next Generation Air Transportation System program from fiscal years 2004 through FY 2016 as well as other air traffic control modernization programs, the Government Accountability Office said Thursday.

GAO noted FAA officials have also identified six NextGen activities previously slated for completion in 2025 which have been deferred until beyond 2030 because of a change in operational needs or infeasibility of the activity.

The auditor added FAA’s 2016 business case estimate projected costs of NextGen activities to reach $20.6 billion with $15.1 billion as the current projection of costs for the aviation industry.

Congress has asked GAO to examine FAA’s cost estimates, expenditures and time frames for NextGen completion and the report worked to discover how much the aviation agency has invested in the program since FY 2004 and when projects will be accomplished.

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Eric Fanning Plans to Discuss Army Modernization Efforts With Donald Trump’s Transition Team
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Eric Fanning Plans to Discuss Army Modernization Efforts With Donald Trump’s Transition Team


Eric Fanning
Eric Fanning

U.S. Army Secretary Eric Fanning has said at the Defense One Summit in Washington, D.C. that he wants to discuss the Army’s modernization efforts with President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team.

The Army said Friday Fanning’s priorities include “further defining what the Army of the future needs to win” as well as efforts to restructure the service branch to address current technology deployment challenges.

“As is the case in every transition, the main message is, ‘We are here, and we will do whatever is necessary to make this [transition] as smooth as possible,” Fanning said.

Fanning also seeks to work with the next administration to integrate behavioral health services into the Army’s post-deployment transition programs.

He added the Army should be prepared to do business with all industry sectors and be more open to commercial off-the-shelf technology.

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Air Force Seeks New Cyber & Acquisition Talent for Civilian Workforce
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Air Force Seeks New Cyber & Acquisition Talent for Civilian Workforce


PeopleThe U.S. Air Force looks to hire new employees with skills on technical aspects by the end of 2017 that include 1,400 cyber and 2,200 acquisition workers for the service branch’s civilian service.

The service branch said Thursday it currently employs 27,000 acquisition and 9,500 cyber civilian employees around the world stationed at more than 80 Air Force installations with a majority based in the U.S.

“Our efforts have intensified on these two career fields to increase the pool of talented candidates,” said Mike Brosnan, the Air Force Personnel Center’s workforce planning and talent acquisitions chief.

The Air Force has used hiring events in a push to recruit new talent such as a Nov. 16 event at Los Angeles Air Force Base, where the branch sought to fill more than 350 acquisition vacancies.

The Air Force has also authorized the use of incentives for recruitment, relocation, retention and student loan repayment in support of its recruitment mission in the acquisition career field.

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