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Air Force Expects T-7A Trainer to Achieve IOC in 2027
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Air Force Expects T-7A Trainer to Achieve IOC in 2027

The U.S. Air Force said it now expects the Boeing-built T-7A jet trainer aircraft to reach initial operational capability status by the spring of 2027, citing safety issues with the plane’s escape system and ejection seat, Defense News reported Friday.

The aircraft was originally expected to achieve IOC designation in 2024, but the service branch pushed the Milestone C production decision back to February 2025 due to problems with the escape system.

Air Force acquisition chief Andrew Hunter told the publication the service and Boeing concluded an on-the-ground sled test in February and plan to conduct the plane’s first taxi test in the next few weeks.

“These tests posture the T-7 program to resolve issues with the escape system and move forward to deliver the training capability the Air Force requires,” Hunter said.

Boeing is expected to hand over the trainer aircraft to the service branch by December 2025, according to the report.

T-7A production started in 2021 through a potential $9.2 billion contract awarded in September 2018.

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Pentagon Begins Search for Defense Innovation Board Executive Director
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Pentagon Begins Search for Defense Innovation Board Executive Director

The Department of Defense is seeking an executive director who will provide direction, planning, coordination and management for the Defense Innovation Board.

Upon assuming the position, the new appointee will work with the DIB chairman and DOD sponsor to develop study activities for the board and aid in the creation of reports while conducting all research, technical, administrative and financial support operations for the board, according to a USAJobs notice published Thursday.

Incumbent responsibilities also include establishing engagement plans for the execution of DIB studies, leading civilians, contractors, military personnel and voluntary staff members and overseeing the board’s responses to the Office of the Secretary of Defense and congressional taskings.

The DIB executive director position is located in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering.

Applications are due May 11.

Created in 2016 under the Federal Advisory Committee Act, the DIB offers independent recommendations to the secretary of defense and other senior DOD officials on innovative approaches to tackle challenges within the areas of people and culture, technology and capabilities and practices and operations.

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NGA Posts Solicitation for Project Maven Supply Chain Risk Management Platform
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NGA Posts Solicitation for Project Maven Supply Chain Risk Management Platform

The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency has begun seeking proposals for a potential five-year, firm-fixed-price contract to develop an open-source, unclassified reporting platform to assess artificial intelligence supply chain risks for Project Maven.

According to a notice posted to SAM.gov on Monday, the new system should enable mission reporting and information sharing on high and critical threats within the organization’s supply chain.

The platform is expected to map relationships between AI developers, find potentially problematic links within vendor networks, identify capabilities and practices of each vendor, organize a data-labeling effort and generate reports that can be shared to increase situational awareness.

The contract will consist of a one-year base period with four option years, and is set aside for Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business. Vendors have until May 25 to respond to the solicitation.

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House Bipartisan Bills Seek to Further Build Up DOE’s Research Partnerships With NASA, NSF
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House Bipartisan Bills Seek to Further Build Up DOE’s Research Partnerships With NASA, NSF

Members of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee have proposed two bipartisan measures that seek to strengthen the Department of Energy’s interagency research partnerships with NASA and the National Science Foundation.

Reps. Brandon Williams, R-N.Y., and Eric Sorensen, D-Ill., introduced the DOE and NASA Interagency Research Coordination Act, which seeks to boost collaboration between the two agencies and empower cooperation on multiple efforts, such as constructing a lunar surface infrastructure and advancing manned missions to Mars, the committee said Thursday.

“Together, the DOE and NASA will engage directly with each other on R&D for propulsion systems, fundamental high-energy physics, quantum network infrastructure and more,” said Williams, chairman of the House energy subcommittee.

Also introduced was the DOE and NSF Interagency Research Act, which will advance research collaboration across a variety of areas, including artificial intelligence, quantum information sciences, workforce and education development, advanced manufacturing and physics.

Research and Technology Subcommittee Ranking Member Haley Stevens, D-Mich., sponsored the measure, which was cosponsored by Rep. Jim Baird, R-Ind.

Stevens said the DOE and NSF Interagency Research Act would help promote a cooperative research environment, strengthen education and training and advance initiatives to cultivate a strong STEM workforce.

Missouri Fire Chief Richard Carrizzo Assumes Chairmanship of FirstNet Board; Gina Raimondo Quoted
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Missouri Fire Chief Richard Carrizzo Assumes Chairmanship of FirstNet Board; Gina Raimondo Quoted

Richard Carrizzo, fire chief for the Southern Platte Fire Protection District in Missouri, has been chosen as chairman of the board of the First Responder Network Authority.

He will take over the role for Stephen Benjamin, who resigned on March 31 to serve as director of the White House Office of Public Engagement, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration announced Thursday.

Carrizzo has been the district’s fire chief since 1995. In 2020, he was appointed as president of the International Association of Fire Chiefs. He is a member of the executive policy leadership of the Regional Homeland Security Coordinating Committee within the Mid-America Regional Council.

He was elected to the FirstNet board in 2018, and again in 2021. He became vice chair as well as chair of the advocacy committee.

“Rich Carrizzo has been an outstanding FirstNet Authority Board member who will bring strong leadership to the organization during the next phase of FirstNet implementation,” Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo commented.

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CISA’s Eric Goldstein: Trusted Public-Private Partnerships Key to Boosting Cyber Defenses
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CISA’s Eric Goldstein: Trusted Public-Private Partnerships Key to Boosting Cyber Defenses

Eric Goldstein, executive assistant director for cybersecurity at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, highlighted the importance of building trust with government and industry partners in an interview with the Wall Street Journal published on Thursday.

In line with the Biden administration’s push for public-private partnerships, Goldstein said CISA is working to promote persistent collaboration and foster trusted alliances with industry organizations through the Joint Cyber Defense Collaborative.

Launched in 2021, JCDC is dedicated to enhancing the exchange of cyberthreat intelligence between the government, critical infrastructure operators and the cybersecurity community.

“We’re developing collective-defense platforms, where there is sharing going on persistently between companies and multiple government agencies. It might be the case that CISA has enrichment analysis to bring to bear, or the National Security Agency does, or companies that are in there might as well. We think that’s the right model,” Goldstein said.

According to Goldstein, CISA is also working on outlining the technical details of the Cyber Incident Reporting for Critical Infrastructure Act, which mandates that critical infrastructure operators report breaches and ransomware payments to the federal government.

“We’re working urgently on a notice of proposed rule making, and we’re looking forward to getting that out in advance of the deadline in the statute, which is next year,” he said.

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Xage’s Roman Arutyunov Recommends 10 Actions to Meet CISA’s Cross-Sector Cybersecurity Performance Goals
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Xage’s Roman Arutyunov Recommends 10 Actions to Meet CISA’s Cross-Sector Cybersecurity Performance Goals

Critical infrastructure operators and related organizations looking to achieve the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s cross-sector performance goals should consider a variety of actions to protect their systems from threats, according to Roman Arutyunov, co-founder and senior vice president of products at Xage Security.

In a blog post published earlier this month, Arutyunov highlighted the importance of tracking assets, managing credentials and authentication, segmentation and vulnerability mitigation with a 10-step checklist.

“Keeping sensitive data encrypted, and behind multiple layers of defense, and requiring extra layers of authentication in order to access sensitive data, are increasingly urgent for critical infrastructure organizations,” he wrote.

To organize identities and credentials, Arutyunov recommended changing default passwords, separating user and privileged accounts and rotating credentials.

Arutyunov said organizations should implement compensating and commensurate controls for assets lacking credentials, use multifactor authentication, adopt strong encryption and secure sensitive data.

Other actions he listed are limiting connections of OT assets to the public internet, collecting and storing logs, segmenting networks at the most granular level and handling known vulnerabilities.

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IBM Executive Dan Chenok Outlines Recommendations to Use Cloud for Digital Modernization
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IBM Executive Dan Chenok Outlines Recommendations to Use Cloud for Digital Modernization

Dan Chenok, executive director of the IBM Center for The Business of Government, has provided a list of recommendations for agencies to advance the adoption of cloud to accelerate digital modernization efforts across the federal government.

“It is important to have a diverse ecosystem of partners to help government effectively address these challenges as no single IT provider can solve today’s government challenges alone. Government should evaluate collaborative teams from a full spectrum of industry players from global cloud service providers to small businesses,” Chenok wrote in a blog post published Wednesday.

Chenok said that federal modernization efforts should not be geared toward a single cloud service provider, as a hybrid multi-cloud environment offers greater flexibility to support a variety of programs.

Agencies must also implement edge computing to enable devices in remote locations to process data in place or where a mission happens.

Chenok also recommended that agencies reorient incentives to modernize business processes, establish interoperability among multiple cloud and infrastructure vendors and streamline the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program certification process.

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Department of the Air Force Justifies Budget Request in Fiscal Year 2024 Posture Statement
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Department of the Air Force Justifies Budget Request in Fiscal Year 2024 Posture Statement

Top Department of the Air Force leaders recently delivered a posture statement to the House Armed Services Committee to make a case for the department’s $215.1 billion budget for fiscal year 2024.

In the joint statement, Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall, AF Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Brown and Space Force Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman said that the department’s new spending plan reflects key investment efforts vital to addressing priorities under the National Defense Strategy.

They noted the Space Force’s plans to enhance the resilience of systems in positioning, navigation and timing, battle management and nuclear command, control and communications through modernization.

DAF intends to prioritize the implementation of the Air Force Force Generation model to strengthen military readiness throughout the branch and aims to improve operations through its Agile Combat Employment, Flying Hour and Weapon System Sustainment programs.

The department underscored the need to modernize its resources and retire legacy systems in order to defeat growing threats, which are driven primarily by technological advancements.

POC - 2023 Annual Air Force Summit

AF officials Kendall and Saltzman are inductees into Executive Mosaic’s 2023 Wash100. Kendall is one of the speakers at the Potomac Officers Club’s 2023 Air Force Summit, which will be held on July 18. Register to take part in the event.

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NASA Tests Pivot Capabilities of Aerojet Rocketdyne’s RS-25 Engine for SLS Missions
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NASA Tests Pivot Capabilities of Aerojet Rocketdyne’s RS-25 Engine for SLS Missions

NASA completed a hot fire test to study the pivoting capabilities of the Aerojet Rocketdyne’s redesigned RS-25 engine, which will be used for future flights of the Space Launch System.

The agency said Thursday that it performed 12 minutes of gimbaling, or pivoting, on the engine to simulate launch and flight maneuvers of the SLS rocket.

NASA and Aerojet redesigned 12 RS-25 units from the Space Shuttle program as a basis for new versions to be manufactured for the Artemis V lunar mission and beyond.

SLS uses four RS-25 engines, which have a combined thrust of over 2 million pounds during launch. The engine met the 111 percent thrust level and withstood up to 113 percent of power during the test.

The tests took place on April 26 at Stennis Space Center in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi.

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