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Space Systems Command Calling for Proposals for 2024 Fight Tonight Competition
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Space Systems Command Calling for Proposals for 2024 Fight Tonight Competition

Space Systems Command is calling on its personnel to participate in the third annual Fight Tonight competition, which seeks innovations that will help the U.S. Space Force achieve its mission of securing the space domain.

SSC said Wednesday that of particular interest to this year’s competition are innovations that enhance space situational awareness systems and the space common operating picture for ops centers; assist operations in denied areas; reduce operator workloads; and ensure tracking, telemetry and command resiliency.

Interested parties have until Sept. 6 to submit proposals, which must have a Space Operations Command sponsor to ensure operational relevance. Proposals must also be scalable and doable within a one-year timeframe.

Coaches from AtlasX will be made available to provide guidance regarding the submission processes or to consult regarding proposals. AtlasX is a business innovation office within SSC that works to facilitate Fight Tonight.

Commenting on the competition, SSC commander Lt. Gen. Philip Garrant said it is a means by which his organization ensures the readiness of the Space Force “for the Great Power Competition and the 2026 fight.”

“Our people are some of the smartest, most innovative minds in the space industry today and we want to harness their best ideas and put them to work to help protect the Nation,” Garrant added.

Up to $12 million in funding will be made available to the winning proposals.

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DOD Eyes Streamlined Contracting for JWCC Next Cloud Contract
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DOD Eyes Streamlined Contracting for JWCC Next Cloud Contract

The Department of Defense plans to streamline the contracting process and add more cloud service providers as it prepares for the next iteration of the Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability contract, Federal News Network reported Wednesday.

Under the current JWCC contract, DOD has awarded over 65 task orders valued at more than $1 billion.

“$1 billion worth of task orders — it’s pretty powerful when a year and a half ago, people said we wouldn’t be able to even do the contract because of the issues that we had with [Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure ] and some other contracting means, but now we’re looking at JWCC Next,” said Lt. Gen. Robert Skinner, director of DISA.

“What it’s going to bring is even faster commercial cloud capability, greater diversity where we can hope that we can have even more cloud service providers and potentially have an option of not having task orders competed, that we can have an [indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity] as well as task order competition,” added Skinner, a 2024 Wash100 awardee.

In December 2022, the Pentagon awarded four companies positions on the potential $9 billion JWCC contract.

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VA OIG Flags Veterans Benefits Administration for Delayed Digital GI Bill Platform Implementation
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VA OIG Flags Veterans Benefits Administration for Delayed Digital GI Bill Platform Implementation

Unclear contract requirements and unrealistic expectations have contributed to delays in efforts by the Veterans Benefits Administration to implement and transition to a Digital GI Bill platform, which is meant to improve the delivery of education benefits, according to a report by the Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General.

The report, which the VA OIG released on Aug. 28, details the results of an audit that the office had conducted to assess the progress VBA was making in implementing the platform, which originally involved a 10-year, $453 million deal with a contractor.

According to the OIG, the VBA has so far only delivered one of three test environments that, under the original contract, should have already been available as of October 2022. The OIG attributed the backlog to limited resources and infrastructure.

The VA watchdog also noted that the deployment of the Digital GI Bill platform depends upon the decommissioning of older systems like the Benefits Delivery Network. The BDN was originally scheduled to be decommissioned in September 2023 but the target date has now been pushed back as far as spring 2025.

The inspector general also called out the VBA for its failure to effectively communicate critical information to the contractor, including the project’s integrated master schedule, which plots the scope of the effort. The VBA had not even formulated the master schedule until February 2023.

The same communication issues also resulted failures in the critical path, a schedule’s sequence of activities.

The VBA has since renegotiated the contract, which is now worth $932 million. The renegotiation is also expected to further delay the platform’s implementation.

To address these issues, the VA OIG recommended the establishment of a mechanism to monitor the project’s progress, better communication with the contractor and the formulation of strategies to address critical path failures.

VA OIG Flags Veterans Benefits Administration for Delayed Digital GI Bill Platform Implementation

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Sara Siegle Named NSA Strategic Communications Lead
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Sara Siegle Named NSA Strategic Communications Lead

Sara Siegle, most recently reauthorization lead for the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act’s Section 702 at the National Security Agency, has been appointed NSA’s chief of strategic communications and senior adviser to the board of directors.

NSA said Tuesday Siegle will oversee the agency’s communications strategy and lead a global workforce of communications professionals.

“Sara’s 20 years of experience in the Agency is evident in her passion for the people, the partnerships and the mission,” said Gen. Timothy Haugh, director of NSA and commander of U.S. Cyber Command.

“As Chief of the Authorities Integration Group, Sara played an integral role in working with our partners in Congress to ensure the continuation of authorities that are crucial to NSA’s mission,” added Haugh, a 2024 Wash100 awardee who also serves as chief of the Central Security Service. 

In 2004, Siegle joined NSA as an intelligence analyst.

Since starting her career at NSA two decades ago, the newly appointed head of strategic communications has held various roles within the agency’s operations and cybersecurity directorates, including deputy chief of the Cybersecurity Collaboration Center.

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DOE Announces Funding for 16 Data Development Projects Focused on High-Assay Low-Enriched Uranium
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DOE Announces Funding for 16 Data Development Projects Focused on High-Assay Low-Enriched Uranium

The U.S. Department of Energy has selected 16 experiment and analysis projects to receive $17 million in funding to support the development of criticality benchmark data, which the Nuclear Regulatory Commission will use in licensing and regulating high-assay low-enriched uranium, or HALEU.

The projects, which won funding through a criticality benchmarking solicitation, involve six national laboratories and include partnerships with six universities and multiple industry partners, the DOE said Friday.

The teams will perform research and development covering five topic areas: UF6 transportation with moderator exclusion, 10 percent to 20 percent enrichment gap, non-fissile material validation, fissile salts and advanced moderator nuclear data.

According to Michael Goff, acting assistant secretary for nuclear energy, the data collected from the projects will help ensure HALEU infrastructure is licensed and regulated in a timely manner for reactor demonstrations and deployments.

“Many advanced reactor developers require HALEU to achieve smaller designs, longer operating cycles, and increased efficiencies over existing technologies,” he explained.

The DOE plans to issue two more proposal calls for criticality benchmark data development, with the next solicitation expected in early 2025.

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CIA Appoints Andrew Scott to China Specialist Role
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CIA Appoints Andrew Scott to China Specialist Role

Andrew Scott, a cybersecurity veteran with over 20 years of experience working for the U.S. government, has joined the Central Intelligence Agency as its top China specialist, The Record reported Friday.

Scott previously served as associate director for China operations at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. Entrusted with managing CISA’s China initiatives, Scott oversaw the interdisciplinary team tasked with enhancing cybersecurity efforts against hybrid threats from nation-states.

CISA Director and Wash100 Award recipient Jen Easterly, noting Scott’s pivotal role at the agency, said, “Andrew was instrumental in working across the agency to develop a comprehensive multi-year plan to address the threat posed by PRC cyber actors to U.S. critical infrastructure.”

Before joining CISA, Scott was with the National Security Council as senior director for cyber policy. He served as the special assistant to the president at the same time. In addition, Scott held various positions for the State Department including deputy director for information technology of the executive secretariat.

Scott’s appointment comes on the heels of the hacking perpetrated by the Volt Typhoon, a group of Chinese government-linked hackers that managed to break into U.S. internet service providers.

At a recent summit, Scott emphasized the need for the U.S. to prepare for China’s evolving digital threats in the event of a conflict between the two nations.

Register here and join the Potomac Officers Club as they present the 2024 Intel Summit, where top IC officials, government decision-makers and industry executives will discuss the future of American intelligence.

CIA Appoints Andrew Scott to China Specialist Role
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ONCD Issues Guideposts to Bolster Internet Routing Security
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ONCD Issues Guideposts to Bolster Internet Routing Security

The White House Office of the National Cyber Director is seeking to mitigate the internet security weaknesses of the Border Gateway Protocol through the guideposts of its report titled ”Roadmap to Enhancing Internet Routing Security”. 

According to the 19-page report issued on Tuesday, the main technology routing internet traffic across independent networks provides inadequate security to current threats. 

The ONCD report recommends that internet service providers and entities operating enterprise networks or internet protocol address resources adopt a Resource Public Key Infrastructure to mitigate BGP vulnerabilities.

The roadmap builds upon ONCD’s Implementation Plan of the National Cybersecurity Strategy that includes a requirement for registration service agreements for federal agencies’ IP space, which will lead onward to federal networks’ establishment of route origin authorizations, or ROAs.

In line with one of the roadmap’s key guideposts, ONCD is establishing an Internet Routing Security Working Group in partnership with the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and the Communications and Information Technology Sector Coordinating Councils.

The working group’s tasks include providing network operators with a risk assessment framework for prioritizing IP address resources and route originations to apply routing security measures, such as ROAs and route origin validation.

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FedRAMP Seeks Input on Automation Platform Configuration
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FedRAMP Seeks Input on Automation Platform Configuration

The Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program plans to hold small focus groups to gain input from agencies, cloud service providers and independent assessors regarding the configuration of a platform it had acquired to advance its modernization efforts.

FedRAMP said Tuesday that the platform will work to automate the authorization process, expand continuous monitoring capabilities, facilitate collaboration and communication and deliver better FedRAMP Marketplace metrics.

The modernization push is expected to result in improved FedRAMP trustworthiness and superior security outcomes.

Concerning feedback about the platform, of particular significance to the program is input from individuals with visual or hearing impairments or those with upper-motor disabilities. Input from such individuals will help test and refine FedRAMP’s ability to comply with the requirements of Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act.

Interested parties have until Sept. 15 to indicate their desire to participate.

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DOD Establishes Policy to Manage Access to IT Systems
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DOD Establishes Policy to Manage Access to IT Systems

The Department of Defense’s Office of the Chief Information Officer has released a document establishing policy to manage access to DOD’s information technology resources hosted by systems and system components as part of efforts to ensure security of the department’s information systems.

The latest DOD Instruction, which took effect Tuesday, Sept. 3, outlines the responsibilities of the DOD CIO, director of the Defense Information Systems Agency and the chief data and artificial intelligence officer, among other officials, to facilitate access management for the department’s IT systems.

The document, for instance, directs the CIO to provide guidance to facilitate the implementation of access management procedures; coordinate with heads of other DOD components to build and maintain requirements for identity, credential and access management platforms; and work with CDAO and other component heads to track migration to dynamic access to meet mission requirements.

The new policy also covers IT resource and system protocols, enterprise authoritative services approval processes and implementation procedures for access requirements, authoritative attribute service requirements and non-person entity access, among others.

Leslie Beavers, acting CIO at DOD and a 2024 Wash100 awardee, approved the latest instruction.

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NGA Will Begin Solicitations for $700M Data Labeling Contract in Sept.
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NGA Will Begin Solicitations for $700M Data Labeling Contract in Sept.

The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency is expected to open a $700 million opportunity for industry to provide artificial intelligence and data labeling capabilities, SpaceNews reported Tuesday.

Under the multi-vendor indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract, the agency will look to improve machine learning systems designed to examine satellite imagery and other geospatial data.

Vice Adm. Frank Whitworth, director of NGA and a multiple Wash100 Award winner, said, “This represents a significant investment in computer vision, machine learning and AI.”

“NGA will engage with commercial partners to navigate the challenges posed by increasing levels of geoint data,” Whitworth added.

The IDIQ contract will prioritize deciphering raw data, including images and videos, to make findings comprehensible for machine learning models. The NGA also aims to manufacture computer vision programs to classify these objects in new unlabeled images. In terms of satellite imagery, specific objects like buildings, roads and vegetation will be labeled.

Whitworth told reporters that a request for industry bids should be released by the end of September. The IDIQ contract represents the NGA’s most ambitious data labeling initiative to date.

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