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Carlos Del Toro: Navy Seeks Fiscal Year 2025 Funding for MQ-25 Low-Rate Initial Production
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Carlos Del Toro: Navy Seeks Fiscal Year 2025 Funding for MQ-25 Low-Rate Initial Production

The Department of the Navy is seeking $16.2 billion in fiscal year 2025 for aircraft procurement, with a part of the budget intended for low-rate initial production of the MQ-25 Stingray unmanned aircraft, according to Secretary of the Navy and 2024 Wash100 winner Carlos Del Toro.

The MQ-25 will operate from aircraft carriers and work to enhance the lethality and striking range of carrier air wings by providing an unmanned in-air refueling capability, Del Toro told the House Armed Services Committee on Wednesday.

Boeing, the developer of the refueling drone, delivered the first Stingray unit to the Navy for testing in February, The Defense Post reports. Following delivery, the unit would undergo airframe integrity evaluation, Boeing had said on X.

Just recently, the aerospace company conducted a virtual demonstration showcasing the ability of a software it had developed to enable manned-unmanned teaming between an MQ-25 and an F-18 fighter aircraft.

Using the software, the operator of a simulated F-18 instructed an MQ-25, also simulated, to engage in in-air refueling. The MQ-25 was originally designed to receive instructions from operators aboard aircraft carriers.

Although the MQ-25 is envisioned as an aerial refueler, talks are already underway between the Navy and Boeing on the possibility of the aircraft to take on other missions, according to one company official.

Troy Rutherford, a vice president and the MQ-25 program manager at Boeing, told Breaking Defense in an interview in April that the ability “to haul weapons or sensors” is baked into the design of the Stingray because it was originally meant to be an offer for the Navy’s Unmanned Carrier-Launched Strike & Surveillance program, which is now defunct.

To demonstrate possible alternate configurations of the MQ-25, Boeing showcased a variant of the aircraft at the Sea Air Space conference in April bearing Long Range Anti-Surface Missiles made by Lockheed Martin.

Carlos Del Toro: Navy Seeks Fiscal Year 2025 Funding for MQ-25 Low-Rate Initial Production

An elite roster of speakers will gather to discuss maritime security, technological advancements and strategic cooperation among naval forces and industry partners at the Potomac Officers Club’s 2024 Navy Summit, which will take place on Aug. 15. Register now to attend this exclusive event!

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Reliable Robotics Completes USAF-Commissioned KC-135 Stratotanker Automation Study
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Reliable Robotics Completes USAF-Commissioned KC-135 Stratotanker Automation Study

Reliable Robotics has completed its study on the potential of equipping the KC-135 Stratotanker aircraft with the company’s autonomous flight system to enable automated operations.

The company said Thursday the KC-135 Stratotanker automation study it delivered to the U.S. Air Force was performed under a Small Business Innovation Research Phase III contract and provided insights about the possible use of its aircraft-agnostic system to automate KC-135’s taxi, takeoff, cruise and landing.

“Automating the KC-135 for refueling, cargo transport and joint operations with coalition military forces will allow pilots and crew to focus on higher-complexity tasks,” said Col. Lisa Nemeth, Headquarters Air Mobility Command A5/8, Deputy Director Strategy, Plans, Requirements and Programs.

Aside from automating the tanker’s operations, Reliable also envisions that the KC-135 automation tech will reduce crew workload while delivering better operational efficiencies and technological capabilities and will provide safe and efficient automated refueling of military fleets.

Reliable delivered the report to senior Air Mobility Command leadership earlier in 2024.

“The Air Force is continually innovating, and autonomy will be a key enabler for global missions and agile combat employment,” said Nemeth.

Currently, almost 400 Stratotankers are in operation, supporting the Air Force’s refueling and air mobility requirements.

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Ted Kaouk Named CFTC Chief AI Officer; Rostin Behnam Quoted
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Ted Kaouk Named CFTC Chief AI Officer; Rostin Behnam Quoted

Ted Kaouk, chief data officer and director of the Division of Data at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, will assume additional responsibilities as CFTC’s first chief artificial intelligence officer.

In this capacity, Kaouk will lead the development of CFTC’s AI and enterprise data strategy to further advance the agency’s data-driven capabilities, the commission said Wednesday.

“Enhanced data analytics and artificial intelligence have the potential to transform the CFTC’s long-term capabilities for oversight, surveillance, and enforcement in the derivatives markets,” said CFTC Chairman Rostin Behnam. “As one of my top priorities, the CFTC has been deeply engaged in efforts to deploy an enterprise data and artificial intelligence strategy to modernize staff skillsets, instill a data-driven culture, and begin to leverage the efficiencies of AI as an innovative financial markets regulator.”

Behnam noted that Kaouk has the leadership and technical experience to oversee and implement CFTC’s AI and data roadmap.

Kaouk, a U.S. Navy veteran, came to CFTC from the Office of Personnel Management, where he was chief data officer and AI official and led the development of the agency’s inaugural federal human capital data strategy.

He held the position of chief data officer at the U.S. Department of Agriculture and served as the first chair of the Federal Chief Data Officers Council.

DARPA Microsystems Technology Office Opens Doors to Potential Collaborators, Contributors
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DARPA Microsystems Technology Office Opens Doors to Potential Collaborators, Contributors

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s Microsystems Technology Office will host an open house event on June 4 to familiarize government and industry partners with its mission and ongoing efforts to develop a sustainable microsystem manufacturing ecosystem.

DARPA said Wednesday the event will coincide with the release of a new office-wide broad agency announcement from MTO to gather new ideas and perspectives from prospective collaborators, specifically in areas of photonic, quantum and organic circuits.

“We want to be pushing the boundaries of what is possible and disrupting the community to think about things in new and different ways,” said Whitney Mason, director of MTO.

MTO expects the event to serve as a platform to facilitate dialogue with potential collaborators and contributors, seek feedback on its proposal approaches and improve its market research strategies.

Registration for the event is open until May 31.

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NSA & Partners Issue Warning About Pro-Russian Hacktivist Ops Against Operational Technologies
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NSA & Partners Issue Warning About Pro-Russian Hacktivist Ops Against Operational Technologies

U.S. agencies and those from allied countries have released a fact sheet titled “Defending OT Operations Against Ongoing Pro-Russia Hacktivist Activity” to warn critical infrastructure organizations regarding recent cyber operations carried out by pro-Russian hacktivists against operational technologies.

Although malicious activity has been monitored since 2022, according to National Security Agency Director of Cybersecurity Dave Luber, 2024 has seen an expansion to encompass vulnerable industrial control systems in North America and Europe, the NSA reports in a press release issued Wednesday.

Luber called on OT administrators to enhance the cybersecurity posture of their organizations by implementing the mitigations put forward by the fact sheet. These recommendations include the implementation of multifactor authentication for OT networks, the hardening of human-machine interfaces and the limiting of OT system exposure to the internet.

The fact sheet was co-authored by the NSA, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Energy, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center, the U.K. National Cyber Security Centre and the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security.

NSA & Partners Issue Warning About Pro-Russian Hacktivist Ops Against Operational Technologies

Cyber experts, government leaders and industry visionaries will speak about the dynamic and evolving role of cyber in the public sector at the Potomac Officers Club’s 2024 Cyber Summit, which will take place in June. Register now to attend this important event!

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V2X to Support CBRN Threat Detection Tech Development Under $75M in Contract Awards; Corinne Minton-Package Quoted
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V2X to Support CBRN Threat Detection Tech Development Under $75M in Contract Awards; Corinne Minton-Package Quoted

V2X has secured $75 million in contract awards to further develop chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear threat detection and response systems.

Under a potential five-year, $50 million project, V2X said Wednesday it will serve as the lead systems integrator for the CBRN Support to Command and Control program.

CSC2 is a program of record that seeks to facilitate the integration of CBRN and force protection sensors to provide early warning of attacks to improve operational readiness and security at international locations.

The company will modernize predictive hazard propagation tools and a CBRN threat warning and notification application under a $25 million contract.

“These awards not only exemplify our commitment to innovation in national defense but also positions V2X at the forefront of a crucial global security initiative that requires distinct operational expertise and an ability to integrate the right technologies for the right mission,” said Corinne Minton-Package, senior vice president of operational technology and engineering at V2X.

“Our technology-driven and converged security solutions are set to significantly boost the efficacy and responsiveness of CBRN threat detection and mitigation on an international scale,” added Minton-Package.

V2X said the awards further advance the Department of Defense’s Combined Joint All-Domain Command and Control initiative.

POC - 2024 5G Forum

Minton-Package will join a panel discussion at the Potomac Officers Club’s 2024 5G Forum on May 22. Register here to attend this important event.

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DOE Outlines 10 Categories of AI Applications for Critical Energy Infrastructure in New Report; Puesh Kumar Quoted
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DOE Outlines 10 Categories of AI Applications for Critical Energy Infrastructure in New Report; Puesh Kumar Quoted

The Department of Energy has released a report that identifies 10 categories of artificial intelligence applications for critical energy infrastructure and a set of four risk categories.

The 10 categories outlined in the report released by DOE’s Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security and Emergency Response — or CESER — are infrastructure operational awareness, high-complexity modeling and simulation, active controls, predictive maintenance, anomalous event detection and diagnosis, malicious event detection and diagnosis, forecasting, system planning, resource exploration and extraction and scenario generation.

“The assessment we are releasing today is an integral piece of our ongoing engagement with the sector to harness the power of AI to improve our overall security and resilience, while also working to identify and mitigate risk,” said Puesh Kumar, director of CESER.

The four risk categories discussed in the CESER report are unintentional failure modes of AI, adversarial attacks against AI, hostile applications of AI and compromise of the AI software supply chain.

CESER said it will expand its engagement with energy sector partners on AI through virtual listening sessions in the summer of 2024, assess potential AI risks to critical energy infrastructure, evaluate the public availability of energy sector data and support the research and development of innovative technologies that leverage AI to strengthen the U.S. energy system’s security and resilience.

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Chris Bates to Take on Newly Created CISO Role at SandboxAQ
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Chris Bates to Take on Newly Created CISO Role at SandboxAQ

Chris Bates has been selected as the first chief information security officer of SandboxAQ.

In his new role, Bates will work to ensure that SandboxAQ’s data, communications and intellectual property are secure while supporting the development of the company’s AQtive Guard cryptography management platform, SandboxAQ announced from its Palo Alto, California headquarters on Wednesday.

“Chris brings a unique mix of experience in cybersecurity, governance, operations, engineering, DevSecOps, product development and more to SandboxAQ,” said CEO Jack Hidary.

Marc Manzano, general manager of SandboxAQ’s cybersecurity group, said Bates’ “expert knowledge of the security challenges faced by global corporations and government agencies” will be an asset to improving AQtive Guard.

Bates previously served as chief trust and security officer at SentinelOne, where he drove strong company growth over a period of seven years. He oversaw a number of business and technical functions associated with cybersecurity, go-to-market, product, software-as-a-service operations and more.

Before joining SentinelOne, Bates served in leadership positions at a wide range of commercial organizations, including Nike, Fidelis Cybersecurity and Nuscale Power, among others.

Bates said he is “incredibly excited” to join SandboxAQ, which has created tools that “are already having such an impact in cybersecurity and other fields.”

“SandboxAQ’s AQtive Guard software platform is redefining how leading banks and other large enterprises defend themselves in the face of increasingly sophisticated AI-driven attacks. I look forward to helping SandboxAQ and our customers succeed,” he said.

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DISA to Address Cyber Challenges With New Long-Term Strategy; Lt. Gen. Robert Skinner Quoted
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DISA to Address Cyber Challenges With New Long-Term Strategy; Lt. Gen. Robert Skinner Quoted

The Defense Information Systems Agency has revealed a new strategic plan identifying the agency’s priorities for fiscal years 2025-2029.

The strategy, titled DISA Next, includes a wide range of objectives for maintaining cyber superiority that fall under four strategic imperatives, six operational imperatives and eight goals, DISA announced on Wednesday.

In the strategy’s forward, Lt. Gen. Robert Skinner, director of DISA and a 2024 Wash100 Award winner, said while the agency will continue to provide its information technology services, it is also focused on change.

“We are re-organizing, optimizing and transforming to deliver resilient, survivable and secure capabilities to enable department success and warfighter lethality,” he elaborated.

He highlighted great power competition as a major factor influencing DISA’s transformation goals.

DISA to Address Cyber Challenges With New Long-Term Strategy; Lt. Gen. Robert Skinner Quoted

Skinner discussed DISA Next at the Potomac Officers Club’s 5th Annual CIO Summit last month, where he shared the strategy’s four strategic imperatives: secure, operational and available capabilities; strategic command, control and communications; modernizing for effectiveness; and data.

On June 6, the Potomac Officers Club will host its 2024 Cyber Summit, which will feature speakers like Skinner who will share their insights on the cyber domain. To learn more and register to attend the 2024 Cyber Summit, head over to the Potomac Officers Club website.

DISA Next’s six operational imperatives are providing relevant, modern, enterprise and business tools; providing a resilient and redundant Defense Information System Network backbone; managing the agency; operationalizing the cloud; unifying the network; and divesting technical debt.

The eight goals of the strategy target the Defense Information Systems Network, the hybrid cloud environment, national leadership command capabilities and joint and coalition warfighting tools as well as a consolidated network, zero trust tools, data management and workforce.

“The purpose of this strategy is to drive this combat support agency’s priorities and initiatives to deliver capacity and capability to our warfighters,” Skinner explained.

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Marines Corps Establishes Fusion Center to Focus on Rapid Technology Development
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Marines Corps Establishes Fusion Center to Focus on Rapid Technology Development

The U.S. Marine Corps has established a new center at its headquarters in Quantico, Virginia, that will first prioritize the rapid development of counter-unmanned aerial system technologies, Breaking Defense reported Tuesday.

The Fusion Center aims to restart the maturation of new capabilities developed by the Rapid Capabilities Office to bridge the “valley of death,” or the transition of technologies from development to full-scale production.

With the new center, the Marine Corps’ acquisition and requirements directorate can more effectively match the service branch’s mission requirements with the technologies it develops.

“Instead of really focusing on building new things and adding to the pile, we recognized. … We need to build an organization in the middle that allowed us to transition capabilities out of this incredible [research and development community] that’s out there with billions of dollars every year and we weren’t leveraging it to the maximum extent we possibly could,” said Kevin Murray, chief technology officer under the Marines Corps’ capabilities development directorate.

Brig. Gen. Stephen Lightfoot, director of the capabilities development directorate, said the goal is to get all Marines to be “able to go into the Fusion Center and to be able to talk through what are those issues that exist.”

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