NASA Plans to Devise New Plan for Mars Sample Return Program
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NASA Plans to Devise New Plan for Mars Sample Return Program

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson has unveiled the agency’s plans to seek new methods of retrieving Mars samples being collected by the Perseverance rover to support future space exploration missions.

“Safely landing and collecting the samples, launching a rocket with the samples off another planet – which has never been done before – and safely transporting the samples more than 33 million miles back to Earth is no small task,” the 2024 Wash100 awardee said.

“We need to look outside the box to find a way ahead that is both affordable and returns samples in a reasonable timeframe,” he added.

NASA plans to solicit architecture proposals from industry to devise a new plan for the Mars Sample Return program that could retrieve samples by 2030.

A September 2023 report from the Mars Sample Return Independent Review Board recommended that NASA develop an updated mission design that lowers mission complexity and ensure that the mission has an overall budget between $8 billion and $11 billion.

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LANL Installs Venado Supercomputer to Process Large-Scale AI Applications
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LANL Installs Venado Supercomputer to Process Large-Scale AI Applications

The Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory has unveiled its newest supercomputer called Venado, which is powered by Nvidia’s GH200 Grace Hopper Superchips designed to process high-performance computing and large-scale artificial intelligence applications.

Venado features Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s Cray EX supercomputer that can house the computing capacity of 2,560 direct, liquid-cooled Grace Hopper Superchips, LANL said Tuesday.

The supercomputer will use 920 NVIDIA Grace CPU Superchips, each consisting of 144 Arm cores to enable an increased high-performance computing performance.

“With its ability to incorporate artificial intelligence approaches, we are looking forward to seeing how the Venado system at Los Alamos can deliver new and meaningful results for areas of interest,” said David Turk, deputy secretary of DOE.

“Venado adds to our cutting-edge supercomputing that advances national security and basic research, and it will accelerate how we integrate artificial intelligence into meeting those challenges,” said Thom Mason, director of LANL.

The supercomputer is installed at LANL’s Nicholas C. Metropolis Center for Modeling and Simulation.

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Marine Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Training Squadron 2 Transitioning From Blackjack to Reaper Aircraft
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Marine Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Training Squadron 2 Transitioning From Blackjack to Reaper Aircraft

The 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing under Marine Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Training Squadron 2, or VMUT-2, began assembling its first MQ-9A Reaper remotely piloted aircraft on April 10, following the delivery of parts to Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point in March.

According to VMUT-2 commanding officer Lt. Col. Michael Donlin, the assembly of the Reaper aircraft is part of his squadron’s transition to becoming the MQ-9A Fleet Replacement Squadron, which will be responsible for training Marine Corps MQ-9A pilots and sensor operators, the U.S. Marine Corps reported Monday.

The arrival of the MQ-9A aircraft also marks VMUT-2’s move away from the RQ-21A Blackjack platform, which 2nd MAW had used as its primary unmanned aircraft system until July last year.

A medium-altitude, long-endurance Block 5 remotely piloted aircraft, the MQ-9A Extended Range Marine Air-Ground Task Force unmanned expeditionary aircraft will work to provide a variety of capabilities, including intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance.

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DCSA Combines 2 Personnel Vetting Mission Areas to Form Adjudication & Vetting Services
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DCSA Combines 2 Personnel Vetting Mission Areas to Form Adjudication & Vetting Services

The Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency has launched Adjudication and Vetting Services as a new organization formed through the merger of Consolidated Adjudication Services and Vetting Risk Operations — two key mission areas within DCSA’s personnel vetting enterprise.

Mark Livingston, assistant director of personnel security at DCSA, is overseeing the merger, which seeks to align DCSA functions with Trusted Workforce 2.0 and better use limited resources and personnel, DCSA said Monday.

“This merger is a game changer and will make our process of securing a trustworthy government workforce faster, better, and stronger. This merger and other mission transformation efforts reflect our continued progress in the DCSA personnel security directorate,” said Livingston.

DCSA is implementing the merger through a phased approach and the foundational phase will include integrating critical operations, improving collaborative knowledge sharing, eliminating redundancies and aligning functions with policies.

Heather Green, DCSA principal deputy assistant director for AVS, said the new organization’s goals include optimizing case management for clients, enhancing response times and delivering improved service offerings.

“We are carefully managing the transition to ensure service continues without interruption through this transformational period. It is essential that we maintain our focus on supporting the mission by ensuring our customers and stakeholders have the necessary products and services to support mission readiness and protect national security,” Green added.

FISA 702 Reauthorization Bill Moves to Senate Sans Warrant Amendment
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FISA 702 Reauthorization Bill Moves to Senate Sans Warrant Amendment

A bill that reauthorizes Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act is now moving from the House of Representatives to the Senate, The Hill reported Monday.

The reauthorization bill contains reforms meant to protect the privacy of American citizens, whose communications may be swept up by U.S. intelligence agencies spying on non-citizens living abroad under the powers given by FISA 702.

The measure had actually already cleared the lower chamber on April 12 by a 273-147 vote, The Hill reported Friday. However, when a subsequent amendment failed to pass due to a tie, a motion to reconsider the vote was made, which was followed by a motion to table that motion to reconsider.

The vote on the second motion took place on April 15, with 259 in favor and 128 against, effectively sending the reauthorization bill to the upper chamber without the amendment, which would have required a warrant in order to access information collected on Americans during foreign surveillance.

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NSA, Partners Release Guidance for Deploying Secure AI Systems
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NSA, Partners Release Guidance for Deploying Secure AI Systems

The National Security Agency’s Artificial Intelligence Security Center, in collaboration with U.S. and international partners, has released new guidance on deploying secure and resilient artificial intelligence systems.

NSA said Monday the document aims to guide organizations in implementing and operating AI technologies designed and developed by another entity and employing mitigations to counter security threats posed by the systems.

“AI brings unprecedented opportunity, but also can present opportunities for malicious activity. NSA is uniquely positioned to provide cybersecurity guidance, AI expertise, and advanced threat analysis,” said Dave Luber, cybersecurity director at NSA.

The guidance builds on the newly released Guidelines for Secure AI System Development and Engaging with Artificial Intelligence documents and outlines best practices that align with cybersecurity performance goals developed by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

AISC developed the cybersecurity information sheet in partnership with CISA, the FBI, the Australian Signals Directorate’s Australian Cyber Security Centre, the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security, the New Zealand National Cyber Security Centre and the U.K. National Cyber Security Centre.

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Proposed Samsung CHIPS and Science Act Investment to Bolster Semiconductor Industry in Texas
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Proposed Samsung CHIPS and Science Act Investment to Bolster Semiconductor Industry in Texas

The U.S. government intends to provide $6.4 billion in funding through the CHIPS and Science Act to help establish a semiconductor ecosystem in central Texas in partnership with Samsung Electronics.

The Department of Commerce said Monday that under a non-binding preliminary memorandum of terms it had signed with Samsung, the electronics company would, in turn, invest more than $40 billion over several years.

The proposed investments would benefit several projects at two locations in Texas.

The city of Taylor would see the construction of two logic foundry fabs, a research and development fab and an advanced packaging facility. The city of Austin would see the expansion of existing facilities that would give them the ability to produce technologies critical to various U.S. industries.

Under the partnership, Samsung has also pledged to collaborate with the Department of Defense.

According to U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo, CHIPS and Science Act investments like the one with Samsung “will be a catalyst for continued private sector investments to help secure the long-term stability we need to put America at the beginning of our semiconductor supply chain and to safeguard a strong resilient ecosystem here at home.”

For his part, Kye Hyun Kyung, the device solutions division president and CEO at Samsung Electronics, said, “We’re not just expanding production facilities; we’re strengthening the local semiconductor ecosystem and positioning the U.S. as a global semiconductor manufacturing destination.”

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Rob Brown Selected as SVP of Alpha Omega’s National Security Sector
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Rob Brown Selected as SVP of Alpha Omega’s National Security Sector

Rob Brown has been appointed as senior vice president of national security solutions at Alpha Omega Integration.

He was chosen for his extensive experience in the technology and national security fields, a background that complements Alpha Omega’s focus on these sectors, the Vienna, Virginia-based company announced on Tuesday.

Chris Cole, executive vice president of national security at Alpha Omega, emphasized the necessity of delivering “innovative solutions that propel customer missions forward” for long-term success. Brown, he said, “is one of the best in the industry for aligning customer needs with industry-leading solutions.”

“We’re thrilled to have Rob joining our team as we continue to drive impact and reinforce our commitment to safeguarding our nation’s security interests,” he added.

Brown previously served as chief technology officer and executive vice president of Systalex, a small business focused on cloud, systems architecture, data management and more. Prior to Systalex, he spent seven years at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, where he held multiple roles, including the chief technology officer post.

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DOD CIO Office Issues Guidance on DevSecOps Continuous Authorization to Operate
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DOD CIO Office Issues Guidance on DevSecOps Continuous Authorization to Operate

The Department of Defense’s Office of the Chief Information Officer has released a document meant to serve as guidance for defense agencies seeking to achieve continuous authorization, or cATO, to operate for DevSecOps platforms and other applications produced by a software factory as part of efforts to counter cyberthreats.

The DevSecOps Continuous Authorization Implementation Guide states that the authorizing official should demonstrate three competencies to reach cATO: continuous monitoring of risk management framework controls, active cyber defense and use of an approved DevSecOps reference design for a software factory with a secure software supply chain.

A cATO assessment ensures the software factory includes a holistic set of information to enable continuous risk analysis against agreed-to risk tolerances, feedback from cyber operations on unexpected changes in incident analysis, security configurations and other factors and continuous security posture and risk reporting, according to the document that was cleared for publication Thursday.

The guidance has classified key practices into three categories: DevSecOps platform, cATO process and DevSecOps team or people.

For instance, several cATO practices apply with regard to the DevSecOps platform, including the use of a cybersecurity service provider for monitoring the system single authorization boundary for malicious threat actor actions, development of a continuous monitoring strategy and use of security automation for tracking the application security posture within the production system.

In February 2022, the Pentagon issued a memorandum providing guidance on the necessary steps to do to allow systems to operate under a cATO state.

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USCYBERCOM Turn to Flexible Buying Strategies to Speed Up Cyber Procurement; Courtney Maggiulli Quoted
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USCYBERCOM Turn to Flexible Buying Strategies to Speed Up Cyber Procurement; Courtney Maggiulli Quoted

U.S. Cyber Command is growing its acquisition team and advancing the use of flexible procurement strategies as it plays an increasing role in the Department of Defense’s cyber procurement efforts, Federal News Network reported Monday.

“So we’s expanding our ability to acquire cyber goods, cyber services for the DoD in an integrated and holistic way,” Courtney Maggiulli, program executive officer for cyber, J9 acquisition and technology at CYBERCOM, said at a conference.

Maggiulli noted that her PEO intends to add 50 billets in 2024 as part of efforts to expand its workforce and that the command is advancing the adoption of non-traditional approaches to acquire and integrate cyber capabilities, including its use of DOD’s Adaptive Acquisition Framework.

She pointed to the framework’s software acquisition pathway and the middle tier of acquisition pathway, which she considers as “allowable ways to pursue acquisition that have strategies that are more responsive and tailored to the types of acquisitions we’re doing.”

The software pathway uses DevSecOps and Agile development practices, while the middle-tier acquisition seeks to facilitate rapid prototyping and fielding efforts.

“We’re being given flexibilities and tools by Congress that allow us to be faster and more responsive for the type of acquisition we’re doing with cyber,” Maggiulli said.

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