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Allen Hill Says IT Modernization, Zero Trust Among His Focus Areas at FCC
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Allen Hill Says IT Modernization, Zero Trust Among His Focus Areas at FCC

Allen Hill, the Federal Communications Commission’s chief information officer, said he has focused on information technology modernization, zero trust architecture, full stack observability and operational efficiency in the past two years to modernize mission areas and improve customer service delivery, Federal News Network reported Friday.

“How do we bring in the technologies and optimize them? For example, we have moved out three-fourths of our servers of the data center. We had about 1,200 when I came here and now we are in a multi cloud environment. We’re going to finish the rest by end of year,” Hill said at a recent webinar.

The CIO discussed how performing a gap analysis and taking a portfolio product approach have enabled his office to evaluate its capabilities and determine its next steps.

Hill said the commission has nine active sponsorships under the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program and is using a software-defined network to back its future state.

The former General Services Administration official also discussed FCC’s application rationalization efforts as part of its technology modernization initiative.

“It’s called reengineering, but we want to minimize how we take old technology and put it in some type of container that’s keeping the old technology. We want the technology to be able to be used in native state in the cloud,” Hill said. “We want to get to the modern and operational efficiency aspects of the technologies and take the old technologies and collapse them.”

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Fall 2024 Accelerator Launched for Air Force Digital Modernization
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Fall 2024 Accelerator Launched for Air Force Digital Modernization

Catalyst Accelerator Ogden, a defense and national security industry accelerator, along with the Department of the Air Force and the Digital Transformation Office launched the Fall 2024 Accelerator on Aug. 19.

CAO said Friday the program aims to address the digital modernization of the U.S. Air Force. The Fall 2024 Accelerator will culminate with the Demo Day, held on Nov. 14, 2024, at Weber State University in Ogden, Utah.

The organizers started accepting applications for the Fall 2024 Accelerator back in June. Eleven small businesses from across the nation were selected to join the program this year by a team of CAO officials, government authorities and industry professionals.

The participating companies are as follows:

  • 40 North Labs
  • Acropolis Security
  • FibrX
  • GeoCognition
  • GetChkd
  • GoKnown
  • IQumulus
  • Kinnami Software
  • More Cowbell Unlimited
  • SC Tech
  • Villa-Tech

According to the DTO, the Air Force requires technological innovations to help modernize its operations and strengthen its defense against cyber threats. The DTO identified several key areas that need to be addressed, including, artificial intelligence and machine learning, data infusion and integration, automation and cybersecurity.

Pioneering companies were asked to develop innovations aimed at optimizing predictive maintenance, utilizing data integration to enhance situational awareness, streamlining operations through automation and reinforcing the service’s cybersecurity capabilities.

The participating companies will collaborate with authorities in fields related to their technologies, including mentors from the government and commercial sectors. The companies will also be provided with the tools and connections to aid them in developing their technology and establishing a foothold in the national defense ecosystem.

On October 10, Potomac Officers Club presents the first-ever GovCon International Summit. Listen to government and industry speakers from across the globe, the DOD and the U.S. combatant commands as they discuss the latest on the defense landscape. Register here.

Fall 2024 Accelerator Launched for Air Force Digital Modernization
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DCMA Uses Automation to Handle Voluminous 1797 Requests
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DCMA Uses Automation to Handle Voluminous 1797 Requests

More than 75 Defense Contract Management Agency contract management office, or CMO, locations are now using a system that works to automate the receiving, tracking and notification of 1797 requests, which the agency receives in high volumes.

According to a news article posted Friday on the DCMA website, the automation system, which now forms part of the 1106 Request System Performance Dashboard, is an upgraded version of a tool used at the former Manassas CMO, now known as DCMA Mid-Atlantic.

The tool from Manassas was selected following a screening process that saw participation from multiple CMOs, which demonstrated their systems.

The selected tool was upgraded based on feedback from the 30 participating CMOs in a beta test that took place from December 2022 through March 2023.

Among the proposed upgrades was the option to send a request to a single technician. Regarding the proposal, Equip Team member Angelyn McKeever said, “This was how some of the CMOs were already set up, so we wanted to accommodate them as much as possible.”

The Equip Team handled the selection of and upgrades to the automation system.

The tool was subsequently further improved with the addition of a dashboard that organizes and displays previous requests. The dashboard also benefits requestors and technicians by improving their reporting capabilities and, in the case of the latter, by serving as a source of workload information.

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ODNI Wants to Enhance IC’s Commercial, Public Data Access
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ODNI Wants to Enhance IC’s Commercial, Public Data Access

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence is soliciting white papers on a data cooperative model to enhance the intelligence community’s access to commercially and publicly available information, or CAI and PAI.

ODNI is interested in learning about proposed co-op models that could enable quality data management and support the legal requirements of CAI and PAI acquisition, according to a Thursday notice posted on SAM.gov.

The new model is also envisioned to reduce the aggregate cost of data acquisition and help the IC resolve the technical limitations found in its existing model.

The effort will help the office establish a data co-op that will serve as a clearinghouse for IC data requirements and will be used to integrate information from commercial datasets and publicly available information, the notice said.

ODNI said it requires potential project partners with existing data management infrastructure and experience working with defense and IC customers.

The office noted that the upcoming responses will help the government to identify qualified sources for the potential awarding of a prototype other transaction agreement.

Submission of proposals will be accepted until Sept. 12.

ODNI Wants to Enhance IC's Commercial, Public Data Access
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White House Issues Guidance on Federal AI Use Reporting Requirements
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White House Issues Guidance on Federal AI Use Reporting Requirements

The White House has released new guidance outlining the criteria, format and mechanisms for federal agencies to complete the required artificial intelligence reporting activities for calendar year 2024 in accordance with the AI executive order.

According to the Aug. 14 document, each federal agency must submit an inventory of its AI use cases to the Office of Management and Budget by completing an online OMB form by Dec. 16.

Agencies should subsequently post a consolidated, machine-readable CSV of all publicly releasable AI use cases on their websites.

The document states that agencies should use plain language to ensure the transparency and readability of use case inventories to the public and coordinate sharing of use cases through the Chief AI Officers Council and other interagency bodies.

According to the guidance, an OMB memorandum requires agencies to assess each of their existing and planned uses of AI to determine whether the use matches the definition of “rights-impacting” or “safety-impacting” and report such determinations in their inventory.

Agency chief AI officers, or CAIOs, must recertify and report the full list of active determinations to OMB by Dec. 1.

For a specific AI use that cannot meet the minimum risk management practices in the OMB memo by Dec. 1, an agency may seek an extension of that deadline by up to a year.

Extension requests should be submitted by Oct. 15. The document states that OMB will not issue renewals beyond the initial extension of one year.

CAIOs at agencies may waive one or more of the minimum risk management practices for a specific AI use case.

According to the document, the full list of active waivers must be recertified and reported by agency CAIOs to OMB by Dec. 1.

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PEO Digital Brings Flank Speed Data Protection to Navy Nuclear Propulsion Information Community
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PEO Digital Brings Flank Speed Data Protection to Navy Nuclear Propulsion Information Community

The Department of the Navy’s Program Executive Office for Digital and Enterprise Services has deployed Flank Speed’s Microsoft Purview Information Protection to secure U.S. Navy community of interest data and enable the transition of such information from legacy systems to a collaborative, cloud-based environment.

The MPIP offers security features that enable users to add sensitivity labels to their data to control who can access their files, PEO Digital said Friday.

Flank Speed is a permanent, single Navy enterprise solution for daily work, offering a secure environment for collaboration, cloud storage for files and documents, and Microsoft Office 365 productivity tools.

PEO Digital begins the MPIP implementation within the Navy Nuclear Propulsion Information—or NNPI—community, which has more data protection requirements compared to other COIs.

The NNPI community is now working to migrate its data from on-prem Navy Marine Corps Intranet servers to Flank Speed, with the first step focused on modernizing legacy capabilities to protect files and emails.

With MPIP, the NNPI security group can prevent people not connected to a Navy network port or through a virtual private network from accessing unclassified NNPI data from the internet to securely share information within the Flank Speed tenant and with external partners in the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program.

The MPIP will also enable the development of an automated workflow to notify stakeholders when they need to provide input or a signature on a document, rather than relying on legacy processes.

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Dawn Messer Named Interim Chief of Defense Acquisition Regulations System
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Dawn Messer Named Interim Chief of Defense Acquisition Regulations System

Dawn Messer, chair of the Defense Acquisition Regulations Council, has been appointed acting director of the Defense Acquisition Regulations System.

In this capacity, Messer will oversee all operations and activities of the Defense Pricing, Contracting and Acquisition Policy/DARS office for 180 days.

John Tenaglia, principal director of the Defense Pricing, Contracting and Acquisition Policy—or DPCAP—at the Department of Defense, announced Messer’s appointment in a memo he digitally signed on Aug. 16.

Tenaglia noted that Kimberly Ziegler, who has served as acting director in the past six months, will transition to the role of deputy director of DARS.

Messer most recently served as deputy director of DARS and as a senior procurement analyst within the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment/DPCAP Contract Policy.

The Defense Acquisition Corps member has over 23 years of experience in contractor logistics support, contracting for major weapons systems sustainment and engineering services and base level support.

DARS is responsible for the development and maintenance of acquisition guidance and rules to facilitate the acquisition workforce as they purchase the goods and services DOD needs to support U.S. warfighters.

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AETC to Establish New Learning CoE With Eye Toward Great Power Competition
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AETC to Establish New Learning CoE With Eye Toward Great Power Competition

The Air Education and Training Command is working to establish the Enterprise Learning Engineering Center of Excellence, whose overall aim will be to develop airmen and guardians possessing the competencies required by great power competition.

The ELE CoE will be led by a director who will oversee a 24-member cross-functional team comprising learning professionals, researchers, analysts and military leaders, according to an article posted Wednesday on the AETC website.

The center of excellence will be structured to feature interdisciplinary standing teams, which will be focused enduring missions and requirements, and task teams, which will remain established only for a fixed duration to address an emerging mission or task.

The center will employ learning engineering, which AETC Chief Learning Officer Wendy Walsh described as an interdisciplinary approach that seeks to optimize learning experiences and outcomes by applying principles from various domains, including education, engineering, technology, data analytics and cognitive science.

The center will also collaborate with centers of excellence in the Second Air Force and the Nineteenth Air Force as well as other partners, including private industry, to not only ensure learning outcomes but also integrate new technologies and inform potential acquisitions.

The ELE CoE’s core functions include experimenting with and field-testing learning technologies and methods; developing and integrating cross-functional and interdisciplinary learning and training tactics, techniques and procedures; determining capability gaps and science and technology interoperability; and handling learning data management, analysis and integration.

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Gulfstream Aerospace, Fives Machining Join NASA Composite Aircraft Manufacturing Project
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Gulfstream Aerospace, Fives Machining Join NASA Composite Aircraft Manufacturing Project

Gulfstream Aerospace and Fives Machining Systems are the newest members of the Advanced Composites Consortium, which supports NASA’s Hi-Rate Composite Aircraft Manufacturing, or HiCAM, project.

HiCAM partners with the private sector, academia and regulators to address an aviation industry need for more rapid production of composite aircraft that delivers improved performance to meet increasing global demand for lightweight air transport vehicles and secure U.S. competitiveness in the commercial aircraft industry, NASA said Thursday.

Lightweight composite airframes are also expected to contribute to NASA’s Sustainable Flight National Partnership by reducing fuel consumption and carbon emissions to improve air quality.

With the addition of Gulfstream and Fives, the consortium now has over 20 members with significant and unique expertise in aircraft design, manufacturing, certification, testing and tool development.

Competition among the organizations is ongoing to determine what composite aircraft concepts have the greatest impact on manufacturing rates.

Selected proposals will be demonstrated at full scale.

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CISA’s Clayton Romans Touts Accomplishments of JCDC, Looks Forward to Future Contributions to Cybersecurity
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CISA’s Clayton Romans Touts Accomplishments of JCDC, Looks Forward to Future Contributions to Cybersecurity

Clayton Romans, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency‘s associate director for the Joint Cyber Defense Collaborative, marked the anniversary of JCDC in a recent article where he touted the organization’s accomplishments through its three-year existence.

Established by CISA in 2021, JCDC is a public-private cybersecurity collaborative that aims to work with various stakeholders, including those from industry, to share cyber defense-related insights, implement defensive cyber operations, bolster those operations by supporting exercises and design and implement cyber defense plans.

The collaborative’s initial partners included Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, Microsoft and Verizon but their ranks have since expanded to over 340, Romans said in an article posted Wednesday on the CISA website. Those partners have contributed actionable insights and expertise to inform most of the cybersecurity advisories, guides, white papers and fact sheets issued by CISA in the past three years.

JCDC has also helped coordinate cyber defense plans for three ongoing geopolitical conflicts and collaboratively executed multiple other cyber defense plans like the Pipelines Cyber Defense Planning Effort and the Remote Monitoring and Management Cyber Defense Plan.

JCDC’s other cybersecurity contributions include a rapid response to the Log4Shell vulnerability, efforts against the Daxin malware and, more recently, a tabletop exercise that sought to develop responses to security incidents involving artificial intelligence.

Romans went on to express gratefulness for the contributions of all the parts of JCDC and said he was excited about JCDC’s potential to promote collective cyber defense.

“We’re not homogenous, and it’s not always harmonious, but it is the collective willingness to unify and operate with clarity of purpose that empowers JCDC to tackle today’s sophisticated cyber threat challenges,” Romans said.

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