/
DSCA Names Shelby Reissman Its Chief Data Officer
Published on
DSCA Names Shelby Reissman Its Chief Data Officer

Shelby Reissman, a data governance specialist and software technician, has joined the Defense Security Cooperation Agency as chief data officer.

Reissman announced his appointment at DSCA in a LinkedIn post.

According to his profile on the professional networking site, he brings to the position over 15 years of experience architecting, managing and deploying enterprise security platforms for private and military network architectures.

Prior to DSCA, Reissman was a principal software engineer at Advanced Technology Leaders.

His industry career included time holding software engineering and cyber leadership roles at Ad hoc Research and Pluribus International.

Before joining the private sector, he was a cyber technical surveillance countermeasures technician at the Department of Energy.

Reissman also served in the U.S. Army as a counterintelligence agent.

/
Dmitry Poisik Installed as Inaugural TraCSS Program Manager at NOAA’s Office of Space Commerce
Published on
Dmitry Poisik Installed as Inaugural TraCSS Program Manager at NOAA’s Office of Space Commerce

The Office of Space Commerce within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has named Dmitry Poisik as the first program manager for the Traffic Coordination System for Space, a.k.a. TraCSS.

NOAA said Monday Poisik joined the TraCSS program bearing experience in program and project management after serving in the U.S. Navy for more than three decades.

“Dmitry Poisik brings the right mix of technical, management, and leadership skills and federal acquisition experience to lead our growing TraCSS team,” said Richard DalBello, director of the Office of Space Commerce.

Effective July 1, Poisik is responsible for spearheading TrasCSS as the program is being continuously developed to provide a modern, cloud-based information technology system that private and civil space operators could use to obtain basic space situational awareness, or SSA, and space traffic coordination services.

Poisik will build on his experience in previous leadership and engineering management positions in the Navy. He most recently oversaw the development and delivery of advanced capabilities as a missile systems requirements officer at the service branch.

//
Marines Participate in Maintenance Demo for ARV Prototypes From Textron, GDLS
Published on
Marines Participate in Maintenance Demo for ARV Prototypes From Textron, GDLS

Advanced reconnaissance vehicle vendor Field Service Representatives has demonstrated field-level maintenance for ARV prototypes built by Textron and General Dynamics Land Systems.

Marines from the Light Armored Reconnaissance community and logisticians and engineers from other government organizations observed the demo event held at the Detroit Arsenal and gained first-hand experience performing preventive maintenance checks and services, field-level repair parts replacement and diagnostic testing, the U.S. Marine Corps said Monday.

The demonstration followed the awarding of contracts to Textron and GDLS in May to produce and deliver 30 mm autocannon ARV prototypes by September, Inside Defense reported.

The vehicles are expected to provide the Marines with command, control, communications and computer and uncrewed aerial systems capabilities, along with mobile protected firepower.

According to Andrew Przybylak, logistics branch chief for the ARV within the Program Manager Light Armored Vehicles team, the demonstration enabled participants to spot potential maintenance challenges and propose design changes to improve vehicle maintainability.

“ARV is a critical component of the Marine Corps’ transformation of their LAR Battalions into the objective Mobile Reconnaissance Battalions and will act as the hub for the fusion of data to form the overall battlefield picture,” said Steve Myers, program manager of Light Armored Vehicles.

/
DHS Selects 6 Startups to Develop Digital Wallet Tech for Enhanced User Privacy
Published on
DHS Selects 6 Startups to Develop Digital Wallet Tech for Enhanced User Privacy

The Department of Homeland Security’s Science and Technology Directorate has selected six startups to develop technologies capable of ensuring user privacy through digital credentials.

The awardees—namely, Credence ID, Hushmesh, Netis, Procivis, SpruceID and Ubiqu—will identify, develop and implement digital wallet technologies to enhance the privacy and security of U.S. residents, DHS said Monday.

Each of them will receive nearly $200,000 in funding to deliver innovative tech that could potentially provide immediate impact to DHS. Their selection is part of the first phase of DHS S&T’s Silicon Valley Innovation program, according to the department.

Anil John, technical director of S&T’s SVI program, said the selected startups will use globally recognized standards to develop capabilities that can store credentials securely and safeguard the privacy of individuals.

DHS awarded the contracts through its Privacy Preserving Digital Credential Wallets & Verifiers solicitation, which underscores the department’s resolve to improve its services while protecting privacy and increasing ease of use.

/
Army Seeks to Digitize Enlistment Process With AIE 2.0 Platform Implementation; Col. Matthew Paul Quoted
Published on
Army Seeks to Digitize Enlistment Process With AIE 2.0 Platform Implementation; Col. Matthew Paul Quoted

The U.S. Army plans to deploy a cloud-based recruitment platform under the second iteration of the Accessions Information Environment as part of a push to help the military branch’s recruiters generate leads in a mobile application, streamline the enlistment process and implement electronic check-ins for military trainees.

Col. Matthew Paul, project manager for Integrated Personnel and Pay System-Army, or IPPS-A, said in a statement published Wednesday the AIE 2.0 initiative includes implementing Agile best practices, adopting a new contracting strategy, advancing Salesforce out-of-the-box capabilities and promoting competition.

“We are maximizing commercial out-of-the-box solutions to the extent practical and trying to avoid one-off customizations wherever we can,” Paul said. “And when we do need to customize, we are going to do so smartly, deliberately and responsibly.”

According to Paul, the service branch has a direct contractual relationship with Salesforce and is transitioning to a multivendor environment and to an “Agile, continuous integration, continuous deployment methodology.”

Multiple-Award IDIQ Contract

In May, the Army Program Executive Office Enterprise Information Systems released a draft solicitation for a potential 10-year, $267 million multiple-award indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract to develop and sustain the cloud-based AIE platform.

“We are going to onboard multiple vendors that can meet our requirements, and those industry partners are going to compete at the task-order level,” Paul said.

According to the draft performance work statement, task areas include agile program management; Salesforce solution design, configuration, development and test; DevSecOps; architecture; training material development; and production operations transition.

The IPPS-A project manager noted that the service branch will act as a release train engineer to establish priorities and monitor the performance of vendors.

“We are not buying specific products,” Paul said. “We are buying capacity that is capable of going fast in a Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe 6.0) model.”

The service expects the AIE platform to support more than 25,000 users at Army Cadet Command, Army National Guard and other components.

BAE Systems Supplies USAF With Radar Warning Receivers to Face Potential Threats
Published on
BAE Systems Supplies USAF With Radar Warning Receivers to Face Potential Threats

BAE Systems is supplying the U.S. Air Force with the AN/ALR-56M, a radar warning receiver that aids survivability and improves situational awareness on aircraft.

The system will be deployed on C-103J Super Hercules missions under contracts worth $133 million with the Defense Logistics Agency, the Falls Church, Virginia-based company said Tuesday.

BAE Systems’ Tactical Aircraft Electronic Warfare Systems Director Lindsay Gallagher said she is pleased with the AN/ALR-56M’s performance in battle-tested environments.

“The AN/ALR-56M has shown what it can bring to the fight, and it is keeping these critical aircraft relevant against evolving threats in contested battlespaces,” said Gallagher.

56M uses modernized digital processing and detailed algorithms to face future threats in electromagnetic warfare. The receiver architecture includes antennas, controls, jammers, countermeasure dispensers, radars and other avionics.

“56M is a critical part of the fleet’s electromagnetic warfare capabilities,” Gallagher stated. “As a global leader in defense electronics, we are working hard to keep the F-16 and C-130J survivable and relevant for decades to come.”

For over three decades, BAE Systems has supplied more than 1,700 radar warnings for F-16 Fighting Falcons and C-130Js. The system aims to seclude and eliminate battle threats in weak signal environments by leveraging broad-5G, long-range threat detection and adaptive filtering.

The AN/ALR-56M achieved operational capability in November 2021 when the receiver successfully collaborated with the F-16’s Actively Electronically Scanned Array, or AESA, Radar.

Attend the Potomac Officers Club’s 2024 Air Defense Summit on July 23 to hear updates on the service branch’s technology adoption and modernization initiatives. Register here to save your seat at the highly anticipated event.

BAE Systems Supplies USAF With Radar Warning Receivers to Face Potential Threats
/
New MITRE Document Proposes AI Regulatory Framework for Next US Administration
Published on
New MITRE Document Proposes AI Regulatory Framework for Next US Administration

MITRE has released a document that seeks to provide the administration that will be elected this November with guidance on the establishment of a regulatory framework for artificial intelligence security and safety.

MITRE said Wednesday that the development of the guidance — entitled Assuring AI Security and Safety through AI Regulation — was prompted by the regulatory challenges posed by rapid advances in AI as well as the technology’s various potential applications.

The guidance offers multiple regulatory recommendations, including enhancing communications between policymakers and agencies tasked with implementing AI strategies; developing guidelines that would make AI governance across agencies sufficiently flexible to meet unique needs and contexts; and understanding how adversaries are using the same technology.

The guidance also offers a timeline and milestones for the rollout of its recommendations, stretching from the administration’s first 100 days, through its first year and beyond.

“With each new presidential term comes the opportunity to reassess and enhance our approach to rapidly advancing technologies,” the guidance notes, adding, “While current policy and legislative activities have begun to address the need for AI regulation, more progress is needed to ensure the proper application and use of this technology, balancing security, ethical considerations, and public trust.”

/
Aerojet Rocketdyne Modernizes NASA’s Space Vehicle Engine
Published on
Aerojet Rocketdyne Modernizes NASA’s Space Vehicle Engine

Aerojet Rocketdyne has completed manufacturing the modernized version of the super-heavy-lift rocket engines that power NASA’s Space Launch System, also known as SLS.

The L3Harris Technologies subsidiary said Monday it has enhanced four RS-25 engines with modern flight computers, enabling them to endure higher temperatures due to their proximity to the SLS solid rocket motors.

The enhanced Block 1B configuration of the SLS, which features the new engines, will be used for NASA’s Artemis IV mission scheduled for 2028. The new engines will also be used to power the space vehicles for subsequent Artemis missions.

Aerojet noted that the crewed version of the SLS Block 1B is capable of delivering 38 metric tons to cislunar space per mission, while the cargo-only version can deliver 42 metric tons.

//
William LaPlante: Sentinel ICBM Program Meets Established Criteria to Continue
Published on
William LaPlante: Sentinel ICBM Program Meets Established Criteria to Continue

William LaPlante, under secretary for acquisition and sustainment at the Department of Defense and a 2024 Wash100 awardee, led a comprehensive review of the Sentinel program and certified that the intercontinental ballistic missile program met the statutory criteria to continue.

The Sentinel program seeks to modernize the ground-based leg of the U.S. nuclear triad by replacing the aging Minuteman III ICBM system.

DOD said Monday the review was prompted by a critical breach under the Nunn-McCurdy statute.

According to the department, the breach occurred when the program acquisition unit cost or the average unit procurement cost exceeded the current program baseline by more than 25 percent.

Based on the Director of Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation’s estimates, the program’s total acquisition costs are now projected at $140.9 billion, up 81 percent from the previous estimates in September 2020.

The review pointed to the program’s command and launch segment as the key driver of the cost growth. The segment includes the launch centers, launch facilities and the process of transitioning from Minuteman III to Sentinel.

“We are fully aware of the costs, but we are also aware of the risks of not modernizing our nuclear forces and not addressing the very real threats we confront,” LaPlante said. “There are reasons for the cost growth, but there are no excuses. We are already working to address the root causes, and more importantly, we believe we are on the right path to defend our nation while protecting the sacred responsibility the American taxpayer has entrusted us with.”

The department’s acquisition chief moved to rescind the Sentinel program’s Milestone B approval and directed the U.S. Air Force to restructure the program to address the breach’s root causes and ensure that an appropriate framework is in place to better manage future costs.

“Having completed a comprehensive and objective assessment of the program, it is clear that the Sentinel program remains essential to U.S. national security and is the best option to meet the needs of our warfighters,” LaPlante stated.

/
GovCon Index Maintained Downward Trend Last Week
Published on
GovCon Index Maintained Downward Trend Last Week

Executive Mosaic’s GovCon Index fell by 1.33% last week, closing with an average of $4,879.92.

GovCon Index is an aggregate index that gathers data on the stock market performance of 30 top government contracting companies. This information is presented in real time, enabling users to gain an understanding of the evolving trends currently shaping the GovCon market and the current position of each tracked organization.

Defying overall losses, Mercury Systems grew by 7.47% last week, claiming the top spot in the ranks. With gains of 6.98%, Palantir took second place, and Kratos (+2.96%), came in third. Fluor Corporation was next with a 1.74% increase, and CGI (+1.58%) followed.

The current downward trend began in early June. Since then, GovCon Index has only experienced one week of overall growth.

To access additional information on daily GovCon Index performance, check out last week’s market reports. Click here to view the complete list of tracked companies.

1 … 242 243 244 245 246 … 2,603