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Mac Thornberry: More Defense OCO Funds Needed
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Mac Thornberry: More Defense OCO Funds Needed


Mac Thornberry
Mac Thornberry

House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) has said the Defense Department’s overseas contingency operations fund is in need of more funding, Breaking Defense reported Tuesday.

Colin Clark writes Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said Tuesday that the proposed $582.7 billion defense budget to be released next week as part of President Barack Obama’s fiscal year 2017 budget request would allocate $524 billion for the base budget and approximately $59 billion to OCO.

“To cover that minimum level of funding, $23 billion of the OCO adjustment would support base requirements, and an additional amount of OCO would fund current operations, the precise amount of which would depend on the world security situation and U.S. deployments,” Thornberry wrote in a letter to House Budget Committee Chairman Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.).

Joe Gould also reports for Defense News that Thornberry said at a press conference Monday that the OCO funds needed for 2016 would be based on military operations.

The House committee chair also noted at a National Press Club event last month that he anticipates a reduction in DoD’s base budget once the White House releases its FY 2017 budget request on Feb. 9, Gould reports.

Ashton Carter: $583B DoD Budget Plan Reflects Focus on Global Threats
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Ashton Carter: $583B DoD Budget Plan Reflects Focus on Global Threats


Ashton Carter
Ashton Carter

Defense Secretary Ashton Carter has highlighted the Pentagon’s focus to address land, sea, air, space and cyber challenges during his preview of a $582.7 billion defense budget plan for fiscal 2017, DoD News reported Tuesday.

Cheryl Pellerin writes the new Defense Department spending proposal will be part of President Barack Obama’s 2017 budget request that could be released next week.

“In this budget, we’re taking the long view,” Carter told his audience at a breakfast event held Tuesday at the Economic Club of Washington.

“Even as we fight today’s fights, we must also be prepared for the fights that might come 10, 20 or 30 years down the road.”

The Hill newspaper reported DoD plans to invest $7.5 billion to bolster the military campaign against the Islamic State militant group next fiscal year and use $1.8 billion of the amount to procure laser-guided rockets and GPS-guided bombs.

Carter noted the budget also contains initiatives to reform DoD’s institutional organization, eliminate wasteful spending in the weapons acquisition process and recruit skilled civilian and military personnel, according to the story by Kristina Wong.

Aaron Mehta of Defense News reports the department seeks $71.4 billion to fund technology research and development projects, $8.1 billion to build submarines and another $7 billion to bolster cybersecurity in fiscal 2017.

DoD also plans to defer retirement of the A-10 Warthog fleet until 2022 and quadruple allocation for the European Reassurance Initiative to about $3.4 billion in a move to increase the number of U.S. military operations, infrastructure and training in European partner countries.

Harlin McEwen: FirstNet Forms Local Control, Identity & Access Mgmt Teams
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Harlin McEwen: FirstNet Forms Local Control, Identity & Access Mgmt Teams


FirstNetThe First Responder Network Authority and its public safety advisory committee have created two task forces to help the agency manage governance and data access issues for the future national emergency services network.

Harlin McEwen, chairman of FirstNet’s public safety advisory committee, wrote in a blog entry posted Monday the first team will develop operational requirements for the broadband network’s local control application as well as guidelines for managing quality of service, priority and preemption on the infrastructure.

The second group aims to identify challenges that first responders face due to a lack of an interoperational identity, credential and access management system and establish a framework for emergency response organizations to implement federated identity, according to McEwen.

Barry Fraser and Chris Lombard respectively serves as chair of the local control and ICAM task teams.

FirstNet has asked both groups to submit reports to the agency later this year, McEwen noted.

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Michael Gilmore: DoD Faces Cyber Workforce, Training Shortfall
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Michael Gilmore: DoD Faces Cyber Workforce, Training Shortfall


Michael Gilmore
Michael Gilmore

Michael Gilmore, director of operational test and evaluation at the Defense Department, has said the military continues to face cyber vulnerabilities beyond current efforts to secure its systems, Federal News Radio reported Tuesday.

Jared Serbu writes that Gilmore said in a January report to Congress the service branches do not adequately include realistic and up-to-date cyber threat scenarios in training.

The report indicated that DoD has a shortage of cyber professionals amid increased demand as some members of the cyber opposing forces or “red teams” move to the private sector, while cyber protection teams do not receive the needed training to counter red teams.

“This trend must be reversed if the DoD is to retain the ability to effectively train and assess DoD systems and service members against realistic cyber threats,” Gilmore wrote in the report.

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Dennis Via, James Simpson: Army Contracting Command Continues Support for Force Readiness
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Dennis Via, James Simpson: Army Contracting Command Continues Support for Force Readiness


army stock photoGen. Dennis Via, commander of Army Materiel Command, has noted the role of Army Contracting Command to help build force readiness through the procurement of equipment to support warfighting efforts, the U.S. Army reported Friday.

“ACC is critical to AMC’s ability to provide what the warfighter needs, when it’s needed,” Via told ACC Commander Maj. Gen. James Simpson at a recent briefing, according to the report.

Simpson said he expects ACC to execute approximately 170,000 contract actions worth $53 billion this current fiscal year and achieve steady activity through fiscal 2018.

The general also highlighted the command’s work to engage customers and stakeholders as well as communicate programs across the workforce to help drive morale and performance.

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US Air Force Forms New Military Satellite Watch Team
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US Air Force Forms New Military Satellite Watch Team


Surface Water and Ocean Topography spacecraftThe U.S. Air Force has organized a new team at the 50th Space Wing at Schriever Air Force Base in Colorado that has been tasked to watch the U.S. military’s satellites, Defense One reported Monday.

Patrick Tucker writes the Space Mission Force consists of 352 individuals distributed across four squadrons with four crewmembers each.

A mission planning cell that comprises an orbit analysts, intelligence professionals, engineers and mission specialists will support the mission planning cell, according to the report.

The Air Force also plans to set up additional Space Mission Force crews at the 21st Space Wing at Peterson Air Force Base and at the 460th Space Wing at Buckley Air Force Base in Colorado, Tucker reports.

Defense One reports the move is part of the military’s efforts to protect space assets and increase space funds over the next five years.

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NIST Measures Webb Telescope’s Mirror Backplane Structure; John Stoup Comments
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NIST Measures Webb Telescope’s Mirror Backplane Structure; John Stoup Comments


deep_spaceThe National Institute of Standards and Technology has used the M48 Coordinate Measurement Machine to measure the four mounts that work to support the Primary Mirror Backplane Support Structure of the James Webb Space Telescope.

PMBSS is designed to support the telescope’s 21-foot-diameter mirror and 5,300 pounds of optical tools and other instruments, NIST said Monday.

NASA researchers will use the measurement data to position the components within the structure before they conduct vibration tests on the telescope’s mirror.

“When you have something like this and bring it into orbit, you can’t go up to space and reposition it,” said John Stoup, a mechanical engineer at NIST’s physical measurement laboratory in Maryland.

NASA plans to launch the Webb telescope in October 2018 to gain insights on the formation of the first galaxies and stars in space.

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NASA Appoints Todd May as Full-Time Director of Marshall Space Flight Center
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NASA Appoints Todd May as Full-Time Director of Marshall Space Flight Center

 

Todd May
Todd May

Todd May has been named director of NASA‘s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.

The space agency said Tuesday May will be in charge of the $2.5 billion Marshall center and its 6,000 civil service and contractor employees who handle human spaceflight, science and technology missions.

“Todd’s experience and leadership have been invaluable to the agency, especially as we have embarked on designing, building and testing the Space Launch System, a critical part of NASA’s journey to Mars,” said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden.

May has been responsible for the flight center since being appointed as the acting director after the retirement of Patrick Scheuermann in November 2015.

Prior to his current post, May served as the deputy director of Marshall beginning August 2015 and led the Space Launch System since it started in 2011.

May started at NASA in Marshall’s materials and processes laboratory in 1991 and in 1994 became deputy program manager of the Russian integration office in the International Space Station Program of NASA’s Johnson Space Center.

He had his bachelor’s degree in materials engineering from Auburn University in Alabama and had received several honors including NASA’s Exceptional Achievement Medal and the Presidential Rank Award of Meritorious Executive.

 

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Workers Groups Urge Congress to Pass Bill on Paid Parental Leave for Federal Employees
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Workers Groups Urge Congress to Pass Bill on Paid Parental Leave for Federal Employees


OfficeLeaders of the Federally Employed Women and the National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association have called on Congress to pass a bill that would provide all federal personnel paid parental leave.

NARFE said Monday its National President Richard Thissen and FEW National President Michelle Crockett said Congress should follow the Defense Department’s move to increase paid maternity leave.

Defense Secretary Ashton Carter announced Thursday that all servicewomen across all military branches would get 12 weeks of paid maternity leave.

“Providing servicewomen paid time off to care for their newborns shows that DoD understands that if it wants to retain these talented military personnel, it needs to provide benefits that support military families,” Crockett said.

“While that may make sense for the Pentagon, we urge Congress to provide parity when it comes to parents and pass legislation providing paid parental leave for all parents,” added Thissen.

Under the Federal Employees Paid Parental Leave Act, federal workers would get six weeks of paid leave for the birth, foster placement and adoption of a child.

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Andy Ozment: DHS Adds Netflow Analysis Offering to Cyber Info-Sharing Program
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Andy Ozment: DHS Adds Netflow Analysis Offering to Cyber Info-Sharing Program


cybersecurityThe Department of Homeland Security has authorized four companies to offer a network analysis service to their commercial and government clients as part of DHS’ Enhanced Cybersecurity Services voluntary information-sharing program.

The NetFlow Analysis tool will work to help AT&T, CenturyLink, Lockheed Martin and Verizon identify and examine malicious activity in enterprise computer systems, Andy Ozment, DHS assistant secretary for cybersecurity and communications, wrote in a blog article published Jan. 26.

He said DHS-accredited commercial services providers use sensitive or classified threat information from the ECS program to prevent unauthorized access and data transfer to their clients’ networks.

CSPs also offer domain name service sinkholing and email filtering services through the program.

An updated ECS Privacy Impact Assessment document from the department’s privacy office says the network analysis platform is not meant to collect, store or use personally identifiable information, Ozment added.

Nextgov’s Aliya Sternstein reported Monday the DHS may provide anonymized cybersecurity metrics information to the National Institute for Standards and Technology, FBI and National Security Agency for program evaluation purposes.

Some civil liberties advocacy groups said the department’s new privacy impact assessment report contains a loophole for agencies such as NSA to monitor Internet users, Sternstein writes.

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