GM Defense, Air Force Demo Electric Ground Power Unit for Flightline Equipment Modernization Effort
Published on
GM Defense, Air Force Demo Electric Ground Power Unit for Flightline Equipment Modernization Effort

An electric ground power unit supplied power to a KC-135 tanker aircraft during a technology demonstration that took place from Aug. 14 through 17 at Edwards Air Force Base in California.

The demonstration is part of an effort by the Department of the Air Force to modernize its flightline equipment from being powered by internal combustion engines to electric or hybrid engines, the Air Force Research Laboratory said Thursday.

The modernization program, which has been running for three years, is a partnership between the Air Force Materiel Command, the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, the AFRL and the defense subsidiary of General Motors, which adapted its commercial electric ground power unit to meet the requirements of the military.

According to GM Defense Product Development and Advanced Engineering Vice President Rick Kewley, the company’s electric ground power unit helps eliminate greenhouse gas emissions while operating with near-zero noise.

“With access to the advanced technologies of our commercial parent, General Motors, GM Defense is transitioning our unique defense and government customers to a more electric future,” Kewley said.

/
DIU Adds Aditi Kumar, Kirstin Riesbeck as Deputy Directors of Strategy, People Management; Doug Beck Quoted
Published on
DIU Adds Aditi Kumar, Kirstin Riesbeck as Deputy Directors of Strategy, People Management; Doug Beck Quoted

The Defense Innovation Unit named Aditi Kumar deputy director of strategy, policy and national security partnerships and Kirstin Riesbeck its deputy director of people, finance and management.

The two senior executive service members will help bolster DIU’s projects and activities to support the National Defense Strategy, the organization said Friday.

Kumar’s role involves coordinating with the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the Joint Chiefs of Staff and other leaders across the Department of Defense over policy, legislation and international and interagency collaborations. Prior to her appointment, Kumar was senior adviser to the DOD undersecretary for acquisition and sustainment.

In her new position, Riesbeck will oversee talent and budget management as well as business strategy and portfolio management. She will also be responsible for DIU’s critical acquisitions capability. She most recently served as DOD functional community manager and director of human capital and resource management at Office of the Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller).

“Their experience driving innovation at scale on a Department-wide level will be central to DIU 3.0,” said Doug Beck, DIU director and senior advisor to the secretary of defense. “Attracting talent that combines fluency in both commercial technology and national security impact is critical to DIU’s mission, and I could not be more excited about the team we are continuing to build to scale these efforts for the nation.”

/
Army Previews AIE Talent Acquisition System to Group of Recruiters
Published on
Army Previews AIE Talent Acquisition System to Group of Recruiters

The U.S. Army has started previewing a cloud-based talent acquisition platform to select recruiters from installations across the country to gather feedback and further improve the tool.

The Accessions Information Environment is a commercial off-the-shelf tool designed to modernize the Army’s accessions and recruitment processes and help the service meet staffing requirements by replacing 11 legacy platforms, including the Army Recruiting Information Support System, the service said Friday.

“We are very excited to preview AIE to a small group of recruiters,” said Rick Ayer, functional lead for AIE at Army Training and Doctrine Command.

“They are now able to log in from their existing computers to move through the first three steps in recruiting an enlisted Soldier. We’re getting valuable feedback from those recruiters who are helping to shape their future system,” added Ayer.

The military branch’s program executive office enterprise information systems adopted the Agile development process for AIE and is working with TRADOC to oversee the AIE program.

The service expects to release the software offering’s Enlisted Soldier recruitment functionality by the fall of 2024.

In 2019, Booz Allen Hamilton received an other transaction agreement to develop the AIE platform for the Army.

Army Acquisition Priorities: Balancing Readiness and Modernization Forum

ExecutiveGov’s sister site ExecutiveBiz will host the Army Acquisition Priorities: Balancing Readiness and Modernization Forum on Nov. 8. Register here to attend this important event.

FAR Council Finalizes Changes to 8(a) Business Development Program
Published on
FAR Council Finalizes Changes to 8(a) Business Development Program

The Federal Acquisition Regulation Council has finalized regulatory changes made by the Small Business Administration to clarify requirements associated with the 8(a) business development program.

The Department of Defense, General Services Administration and NASA issued a final rule amending FAR to implement the changes that will take effect starting Nov. 6, according to a Federal Register notice published Thursday.

In October 2020, SBA ruled to merge the 8(a) business development mentor-protege program and the all small mentor-protege program to eliminate confusion and remove duplication of functions.

The final rule also requires contracting officers to submit an offering letter for blanket purchase agreements and BPA orders to SBA for acceptance.

/
MITRE Execs Charles Clancy & Jay Schnitzer Appointed to New Roles
Published on
MITRE Execs Charles Clancy & Jay Schnitzer Appointed to New Roles

MITRE has elevated two internal executives, Charles Clancy and Jay Schnitzer, to new positions.

Clancy, who currently serves as senior vice president and general manager of MITRE Labs, will additionally take on the role of chief technology officer while Schnitzer, senior vice president and chief medical officer at the company, will assume the role of corporate chief engineer, MITRE announced from its McLean, Virginia headquarters on Monday.

Jason Providakes, president and CEO of MITRE and a three-time Wash100 Award winner, emphasized the importance of science and technology in shaping the future of the United States in this period of global strategic competition.

Providakes said that Clancy will “leverage MITRE’s research activities to drive whole-of-nation impacts” for sponsors and collaborators spanning industry, academia and other nonprofit organizations in his new role.

Clancy’s responsibilities will include overseeing the MITRE independent research and development initiative as well as leading the science, technology and engineering workforce and extramural research functions.

He assumed his first position with MITRE, vice president for intelligence programs, in 2019 and took the helm of MITRE Labs the next year. He also co-founded SecureG, a MITRE company centering Internet of Things and 5G work, and currently serves as chairman of its board. Before joining MITRE, he was a Bradley Distinguished Professor of cybersecurity in Virginia Tech’s department of electrical and computer engineering. Earlier in his career, he spent a decade working within the National Security Agency.

Prior to this leadership transition, Schnitzer held the chief technology officer role for eight years. He joined the company in 2013 as director of MITRE’s Department of Health and Human Services portfolio. He previously headed the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s defense sciences office and spent more than 15 years as an attending pediatric surgeon and associate professor of surgery at multiple hospitals and Harvard Medical School.

Schnitzer will continue to serve as chief medical officer while monitoring technical quality and mission impact as well as encouraging technical staff development.

“Jay will ensure our work meets the high bar of technical excellence needed to help our federal sponsors succeed in their missions and will continue to advance our cancer and quantum computing R&D programs,” said Providakes.

Transportation Department Launches Research Funding Initiative to Address Climate Challenges
Published on
Transportation Department Launches Research Funding Initiative to Address Climate Challenges

The Department of Transportation plans to fund a new center to research and develop technologies to support the administration’s clean energy goals.

DOT said Tuesday it will partner with a university or other eligible organizations to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the transportation sector and strengthen the resilience of the U.S. transportation infrastructure.

“As we face the profound and urgent threat of the climate crisis, we need cleaner transportation systems, and this investment will help deliver that by harnessing research and technology to find new solutions,” said Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.

The department will invest up to $12.5 million in the new Climate and Transportation Research Center over five years.

/
Atlantic Council Report Recommends Ways for Effective Implementation of Private-Sector Activities in Warfare
Published on
Atlantic Council Report Recommends Ways for Effective Implementation of Private-Sector Activities in Warfare

The Atlantic Council released a report on Wednesday outlining 10 recommendations to advance the development of a framework to operationalize the “sixth domain” or the “sphere of activities” of the private sector in warfare.

One of the recommendations in the report calls for the Department of Defense to further expand the use of commercial space capabilities, including the creation of contractual arrangements to ensure the availability of commercial space assets in the event of armed conflict.

According to the report, the U.S. Space Force is building up the Commercial Augmentation Space Reserve program, which will work to support the military through “voluntary pre-negotiated contractual arrangements.”

Such arrangements would ensure that satellite communications, remote sensing and other services are provided during wartime.

The government and industry should establish a critical infrastructure wartime planning and operations council to help plan and coordinate activities between public and private sectors in support of national defense, the council suggested.

The report, authored by Franklin Kramer, a distinguished fellow and board director at the Atlantic Council, recommends that Congress and the White House work together to broaden the national framework and facilitate coordination between the federal government and the private sector during wartime.

Other recommendations in the document include establishing private-sector systemic risk analysis and response centers for critical infrastructure; creating an integrated corps of cybersecurity providers; expanding Cyber Command’s “Hunt Forward” model of operations; and establishing international undersea infrastructure protection corps to improve the resilience of undersea cables and pipelines.

/
Joint NSA-CISA Advisory Recommends Solutions to Top 10 Cybersecurity Misconfigurations; Eric Goldstein Quoted
Published on
Joint NSA-CISA Advisory Recommends Solutions to Top 10 Cybersecurity Misconfigurations; Eric Goldstein Quoted

A joint advisory released by the National Security Agency and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency listed 10 of the most common misconfigurations in enterprise IT defense and how to mitigate risks arising from such cases.

The list includes default software and application configurations, improper user and administrator privilege separation and insufficient monitoring of internal networks, according to the advisory released Thursday.

NSA and CISA found that some organizations lack network segmentation, effective patch management and access control lists on shared networks and services. In other cases, system access controls are bypassed, multifactor authentication tools and user credentials are weak and code executions lack restrictions.

The agencies urged network defenders to strengthen configurations, implement access controls, prioritize patching of commonly exploited vulnerabilities and monitor and reduce administrative privileges.

For software manufacturers, the NSA and CISA Red and Blue Teams pushed for the adoption of secure-by-design and -default principles to reduce cyber threats and their burden on network defenders.

Eric Goldstein, CISA’s executive assistant director for cybersecurity, echoed the call for practicing secure-by-design tactics. “While enterprises can and must take steps to identify and address these misconfigurations, we know that scalable progress requires urgent action by software manufacturers, particularly by adopting Secure by Design practices where software is designed securely from inception to end-of-life and by taking ownership to improve security outcomes of their customers,” Goldstein wrote in a blog post.

On Nov. 15, the Potomoc Officers Club will gather homeland and national security officials and experts for the 2023 Homeland Security Summit in Virginia. Register now to participate in the event.

POC - 2023 Homeland Security Summit
NASA Posts Draft Solicitation for Goddard Logistics Services Contract
Published on
NASA Posts Draft Solicitation for Goddard Logistics Services Contract

NASA is requesting industry feedback on a draft solicitation for a potential five-year follow-on contract to provide logistics support services to the agency’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland.

The Goddard Logistics Services Contract will address Goddard’s logistics management requirements to achieve Earth science, space science and exploration mission objectives, according to a notice posted Tuesday on SAM.gov.

NASA anticipates awarding the contract on Aug. 28, 2024, with work commencing on Oct. 01, 2024.

Work will occur at Goddard Space Flight Center, Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia and the NASA Headquarters.

The contract has a one-year base period with four option years.

Responses are due Oct. 30.

/
Interim Rule to Align FAR With Supply Chain Security Law on Risk Data Sharing
Published on
Interim Rule to Align FAR With Supply Chain Security Law on Risk Data Sharing

NASA, the Department of Defense and the General Services Administration are implementing an interim rule aligning the Federal Acquisition Regulation with the Federal Acquisition Supply Chain Security Act of 2018.

The new policy focuses on supply risk data sharing based on due diligence and recommendations by the Federal Acquisition Security Council for removal or exclusion orders, according to a notice posted Wednesday on Federal Register.

FASC is tasked to review and recommend whether a covered article removal or exclusion order is needed for executive agency information systems or procurement actions. The council’s evaluation will begin with sources or covered articles that could be susceptible to intellectual property theft or lead to damage to federal data systems or critical infrastructure.

The interim rule provides contracting officers with standard rules for sharing potential supply risk information relevant to existing and new federal contracts.

The agencies are encouraging public feedback on the interim rule, which takes effect Dec. 4.

1 … 463 464 465 466 467 … 2,631