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CDAO Continues CJADC2 Research With 6th Iteration of Global Information Dominance Experiment; Craig Martell Quoted
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CDAO Continues CJADC2 Research With 6th Iteration of Global Information Dominance Experiment; Craig Martell Quoted

The Department of Defense’s Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office kicked off another Global Information Dominance Experiment last week, marking the second of four such experiments for 2023, and the sixth in the entire GIDE series.

GIDE 6 will involve longer test periods and expanded collaboration among military and civilian personnel from the U.S. Armed Forces, DOD announced Wednesday.

The experiments leverage a unified, vendor-agnostic data layer to evaluate, measure and field combined joint all-domain command and control systems, processes and technologies, including those that incorporate AI and machine learning.

The fifth iteration of GIDE was held in January over a four-day period. GIDE 6 takes place from June 5 to July 26.

“We are excited to enhance globally integrated operations through workflows that allow for faster, more data-informed, human-in-the-loop decisions,” said Craig Martell, chief digital and artificial intelligence officer at DOD.

“Strengthening industry integration and collaboration domestically, and with our allies and partners abroad, we aim to showcase the transformative power of data, analytics, and AI for our warfighters,” the 2023 Wash100 Award honoree added.

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V2X President & CEO Chuck Prow Receives 2023 Wash100 Award From Jim Garrettson
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V2X President & CEO Chuck Prow Receives 2023 Wash100 Award From Jim Garrettson

V2X President and CEO Chuck Prow was recently presented with his 2023 Wash100 Award during a meeting with Jim Garrettson, CEO of Executive Mosaic and creator of the esteemed recognition.

The Wash100 Award, which celebrated its historic 10th anniversary this year, represents the highest honor for executives in the expansive government contracting realm. During the annual competition, nominees are put through a careful selection process that weighs each individual’s influence to determine who will join the ranks of GovCon’s most elite.

Prow’s win marks his ninth year as a Wash100 awardee. In 2022, his impact as a leader continued as he spearheaded the merger of Vectrus and Vertex to create what is now V2X. With Prow at the helm, the new organization has already established a strong growth trajectory. Click here to read his full profile.

While the Wash100 Award looks at past accomplishments, it also considers the anticipated future success of its winners.

Since Prow’s induction into the 2023 Wash100 class, V2X has already secured multiple major awards, including a $265 million contract modification from the U.S. Army to extend its provision of logistics support services at Fort Benning in Georgia.

More recently, the company won a potential $324 million Navy contract for base operations support services at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay in Cuba and held its spot on a $32.5 billion Air Force contract to develop modern training systems.

Executive Mosaic congratulates Prow on his 2023 Wash100 win and looks forward to seeing where he takes V2X next.

Watch: 5 Defense Experts Discuss Near-Peer Competition Focus Areas
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Watch: 5 Defense Experts Discuss Near-Peer Competition Focus Areas

As global tensions rise and the competition for global dominance intensifies, government and industry leaders in the United States are zeroing in on a few key areas they believe will catapult the country into a new era of superiority.

Executive Mosaic spoke with five GovCon leaders — Department of Defense CIO John Sherman, former Acting Director of the Defense Innovation Unit Mike Madsen, SAIC’s defense and civilian sector President Bob Genter, Amentum CEO John Heller and ECS President John Heneghan — to get insight into the priorities shaping the great power competition.

Watch the full video here to find out what these five Wash100 Award winners had to say.

The Honorable John Sherman highlighted the importance of “technologies we can bring to the fight,” including things like proliferated low Earth orbit satellite communications, new types of fiber transport and cloud computing, which has become an area of accelerated focus for the Pentagon in recent years.

Madsen brought attention to the need for more effective communication between government agencies and their industry partners and vendors. Sharing his government perspective, Madsen suggested that federal leaders shouldn’t overcomplicate requirements that the private sector may already be proficient in achieving.

Industry leaders Genter, Heller and Heneghan urged continued investments and faster developments in technology focus areas like autonomous systems, next-generation weapons, critical infrastructure protection, computer vision and satellite imagery.

How are public and private sector leaders gearing up for the future fight? Join the Potomac Officers Club’s Preparing for the Contested Logistics Era Forum on Sep. 14 to find out! Register here to hear insights from military leaders in person.

Watch: 5 Defense Experts Discuss Near-Peer Competition Focus Areas
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DISA Opens Orion Cyber Operations Center-Hill in Utah; Lt. Gen. Robert Skinner Quoted
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DISA Opens Orion Cyber Operations Center-Hill in Utah; Lt. Gen. Robert Skinner Quoted

The Defense Information Systems Agency has unveiled an active-active site located on Hill Air Force Base in Davis County, Utah, that will provide security capabilities for the Department of Defense Information Network.

DISA said the Orion Cyber Operations Center-Hill is part of the agency’s broader command and control modernization efforts and will work to enable improved data resilience during emergencies.

“The Orion Cyber Operations Center’s active-active capability is another indicator that DISA is postured and prepared for any crisis, conflict or competition,” said Air Force Lt. Gen. Robert Skinner, director of DISA and a 2023 Wash100 awardee.

The facility is located within the Ogden Data Center, which houses other DISA offices and is intended to foster a shared environment and stronger team collaboration.

“The Orion Cyber Operations Center-Hill is a first within DISA where the agency’s two largest Operational Service Managers are collocated with the Global Service Desk and our Cybersecurity Service Providers,” said Army Col. Michael Reeder, commander of DISA Global Field Command.

Reeder’s office is responsible for defending the DODIN area of operations to enable continuous operational capabilities for the U.S. military and its mission partners.

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GSA’s Laura Stanton: 2022 Federal Spending Through Health IT Services SIN Hit $750M
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GSA’s Laura Stanton: 2022 Federal Spending Through Health IT Services SIN Hit $750M

Laura Stanton, a General Services Administration official, said federal agencies spent more than $750 million on health information technology platforms and support services through the Health IT Services SIN on the Multiple Award Schedule in 2022.

The departments of the Health and Human Services, Veterans Affairs, Agriculture, the Air Force and the Interior were among the SIN’s top federal agency users, Stanton, assistant commissioner for the office of IT category at GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service, wrote in a blog post published Tuesday.

She noted that agencies seeking to improve health care delivery and patient outcomes, accelerate the procurement of health information technology services and enhance security should consider using the Health IT Services SIN on MAS.

Stanton talked about how an agency used the special item number to help 10 pilot hospitals in the southeastern part of the U.S. advance modernization efforts, such as sharing electronic health records and delivering connected services between hospitals.

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ARPA-I Instigates Initiatives to Help Modernize US Transportation Infrastructure
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ARPA-I Instigates Initiatives to Help Modernize US Transportation Infrastructure

The newly established Advanced Research Projects Agency-Infrastructure within the Department of Transportation announced several efforts to advance U.S. transportation infrastructure modernization, including a plan to work with DOT program offices to create a research agenda that complements investment areas in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

ARPA-I issued a request for information on Tuesday to solicit insights and ideas on potential research and development areas and will begin a listening tour with companies, researchers and entrepreneurs in the Pacific Northwest to reflect the priorities of R&D stakeholders within the transportation sector, the White House said Tuesday.

The agency also held its first summit on Tuesday to discuss its potential role in strengthening the resilience and sustainability of infrastructure and improving safety.

These include identifying challenges and opportunities in advancing the adoption of novel technologies in the infrastructure sector and developing ways for ARPA-I to help DOT improve accessibility for all and meet its safety mission.

ARPA-I collaborated with the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy to host the inaugural event.

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DARPA Requests Proposals for Quantum-Augmented Network Program
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DARPA Requests Proposals for Quantum-Augmented Network Program

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has released a broad agency announcement seeking proposals on the development of a hybrid quantum-classical communication network architecture with enhanced security capabilities.

DARPA said Tuesday the Quantum-Augmented Network program aims to integrate current and near-future quantum communications networks with classical infrastructure to facilitate quantum-based security enhancements.

Researchers expect the hybrid network infrastructure to use quantum properties to mitigate vulnerabilities on non-quantum networks.

“QuANET will develop the hardware, protocols and software tools required for missions and critical infrastructure, enabling the first viable transition strategy to operationalize quantum communications,” according to the BAA.

“We want to make the networking and optical communications community more quantum-aware – where the capabilities are now and where they’re going – and we want the quantum networking community to understand better all of the complexities and issues facing classical networks,” said Allyson O’Brien, DARPA’s QuANET program manager in the Information Innovation Office.

Responses are due July 7.

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NASA to Integrate Orion With Laser Communications Terminal for Artemis II Mission
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NASA to Integrate Orion With Laser Communications Terminal for Artemis II Mission

NASA is set to equip the Lockheed Martin-built Orion spacecraft with a laser communications terminal in preparation for the first scheduled crewed test flight of the Artemis space exploration mission.

The Orion Artemis II Optical Communications System arrived at Kennedy Space Center in Florida for integration with NASA’s exploration vehicle to enable faster transmission of high-definition pictures and videos from the moon, the agency said Tuesday.

“In addition to video and pictures, O2O will transmit and receive procedures, pictures, flight plans, and be a link between Orion and mission control on Earth,” said Steve Horowitz, O2O project manager.

O2O uses laser signals to send images and videos to one of two ground stations in Las Cruces, New Mexico, or Table Mountain, California.

Video and image quality will partly depend on cloud coverage at the ground stations.

NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center developed the laser communication terminal in partnership with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Lincoln Laboratory.

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Trade Groups Urge White House to Address Digital Identity in Cyber Strategy Implementation
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Trade Groups Urge White House to Address Digital Identity in Cyber Strategy Implementation

A group of 10 trade associations called on the Biden administration to consider three priorities to help address U.S. digital identity challenges as it crafts the implementation plan for the National Cybersecurity Strategy.

The first priority is launching a White House task force to accelerate the availability of tools that can protect against identity-related cybercrimes, the trade groups wrote in a Monday letter addressed to Kemba Walden, acting head of the Office of the National Cyber Director and Anne Neuberger, deputy national security adviser for cyber and emerging technology and a two-time Wash100 awardee.

The task force should create an action plan for federal, state and local agencies to develop digital versions of existing physical identity credentials to help address the gap between digital and physical identity credentials and determine whether there are restrictions with regard to the abilities of agencies to offer new digital identity platforms, among other key duties.

“We believe that a new White House task force which brings in key stakeholders from Federal, state, and local agencies, as well as industry and civil society, can craft an approach to close the gap between physical and digital credentials over a one-year period,” the associations wrote in the letter.

The other two priorities are initiating an effort to document the ways that investments in digital identity infrastructure can generate budget savings and prioritizing work at the National Institute of Standards and Technology on identity and attribute validation services with a focus on creating a digital identity framework of best practices and standards.

The letter was signed by the American Bankers Association, Better Identity Coalition, College of Healthcare Information Management Executives, Cybersecurity Coalition, Electronic Transactions Association, Identity Theft Resource Center, National Association for Public Health Statistics and Information Systems, Software & Information Industry Association, TechNet and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Technology Engagement Center.

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DOD, Indiana National Guard Test Resilient Communication Tools at TREX23-1
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DOD, Indiana National Guard Test Resilient Communication Tools at TREX23-1

The Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering and the Indiana National Guard have tested technologies designed to establish resilient communications among warfighters during the inaugural joint Technology Readiness Experimentation 2023.

During TREX23-1, the OUSD(R&E)’s Mission Capabilities Office used signal devices, cyber protection tools, counterintelligence systems and surveillance and reconnaissance equipment in a mock disaster scenario where resilient communications had to be re-established for non-combatant evacuation operations, the Department of Defense said Tuesday.

Lessons learned from the scenario will inform future technology development and transition initiatives.

“TREX is a new and enduring campaign of experimentation developed to support the Rapid Defense Experimentation Reserve initiative,” said Thomas Browning, deputy chief technology officer for mission capabilities at OUSD(R&E).

“A key attribute of RDER is the focus on a campaign of experimentation that enables the collection of a body of evidence to accelerate technology transition to the field,” Browning added.

TREX23-1was held at Camp Atterbury in Indiana and saw the participation of more than 300 attendees, including representatives from the U.K. and Australia.

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