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USSF Eyes Virtual Training Environment for Countering Adversarial Space Activities
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USSF Eyes Virtual Training Environment for Countering Adversarial Space Activities

Gen. B. Chance Saltzman, chief of space operations at the U.S. Space Force and a 2023 Wash100 awardee, said the service branch is building a virtual environment to train guardians on countering adversaries’ attempts to undermine U.S. space missions, Defense One reported Wednesday.

Saltzman said U.S. adversaries like China have been working to jeopardize the U.S. military’s missile warning, satellite communications and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities in space.

“The Space Force has been stood up to protect those capabilities, and also protect the joint force from an emerging set of capabilities that the adversary is putting on orbit to threaten and target our joint forces on air, land, and sea,” Saltzman said.

The official previously announced that the Space Force’s budget proposal for 2024 will include approximately $340 million for creating an operational testing and training infrastructure.

The OTTI will include ranges and simulators, testing equipment and digital engineering efforts.

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Aeyon’s Mark Hogenmiller Suggests Automation Tech Implementation Practices for Federal Agencies
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Aeyon’s Mark Hogenmiller Suggests Automation Tech Implementation Practices for Federal Agencies

Federal agencies should prioritize transparency upon initial deployment of robotic process automation in their operations, according to Aeyon Chief Transformation Officer Mark Hogenmiller.

In a FEDweek guest piece published Wednesday, he laid out six strategies to guide federal agencies in maximizing the potential of RPA and intelligent automation tools.

Hogenmiller said agencies should adopt automation platforms capable of responding to citizen information requests and explore the RPA and IA features that best suit their operations to avoid unnecessary mechanized processes.

He went on to propose facilitating professional development activities to encourage an agency’s workforce to embrace automation and not see it as an impediment to their job growth.

Agencies should also match their RPA platforms to their administrative missions and deploy these tools with the support of employees, creating transparency, smooth transition and trust, the Aeyon executive added.

DOD CIO John Sherman Highlights Developments in Cloud, Zero Trust Adoption During Senate Hearing
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DOD CIO John Sherman Highlights Developments in Cloud, Zero Trust Adoption During Senate Hearing

John Sherman, chief information officer of the Department of Defense, appeared before the Senate Armed Services Committee’s cybersecurity subpanel to report on the agency’s progress in transitioning to a cloud-based, zero-trust computing environment, DOD News reported Wednesday.

In his testimony on Tuesday, Sherman mentioned DOD’s contract awards to support the Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability, as well as the positive influence of its zero trust strategy on other federal agencies.

Sherman highlighted the launch of an enterprise cloud that would serve as a one-stop shop for DOD when acquiring network-based services to advance its digital modernization, cybersecurity, and Joint All Domain Command and Control activities.

“At last, the department has access to enterprise cloud capabilities from four world-class U.S. vendors at all three security classification levels from the continental United States to the tactical edge,” Sherman told the committee, referring to Amazon Web Services, Google, Microsoft and Oracle.

He also provided an updated on the agency’s five-year zero trust strategy, which he said has turned into a “North Star document” guiding DOD and other federal departments since its unveiling in October.

POC - 4th Annual CIO Summit

Sherman, a 2023 Wash100 awardee, will deliver opening keynote remarks at the Potomac Officers Club’s 4th Annual CIO Summit on May 16 in McLean, Virginia. Register here.

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Akima Subsidiary Books $194M US Army Award for Logistics & Engineering Technician Support; Duncan Greene Quoted
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Akima Subsidiary Books $194M US Army Award for Logistics & Engineering Technician Support; Duncan Greene Quoted

Akima’s Truestone subsidiary has secured a potential five-year, $194 million contract from the U.S. Army to support the service branch’s Tobyhanna Army Depot in Pennsylvania’s Pocono Mountains region.

Under the award, Truestone will provide logistics and engineering technician services to Tobyhanna, which represents the largest full-service Department of Defense maintenance facility, Akima announced from its Herndon, Virginia headquarters on Thursday.

“Supporting warfighter readiness has been a long-standing focus for Akima. We are proud to continue our support to the U.S. Army delivering quality services to Tobyhanna in support of the DOD’s mission to empower the soldier with winning C5ISR capabilities,” stated Duncan Greene, president of Akima’s mission systems, engineering and technology unit.

Tobyhanna, which falls under the Army Communications Electronics Command, is a provider of logistics offerings regarding command, control, communications, computers, cyber, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance systems for the DOD. It holds a number of capabilities, such as full-spectrum support for sustainment, overhaul and repair, fabrication and manufacturing and engineering design and development.

Also included in the facility’s portfolio are systems integration, technology insertion and modification services as well as international field aid for U.S. warfighters.

Contracting activities are intended to progress Tobyhanna’s maintenance mission of all-encompassing sustainment, which comprises fabrication, repair and overhaul of numerous electronic systems and associated equipment.

Truestone was awarded this contract under the Responsive Strategic Sourcing for Services vehicle. 

Last year, Akima booked multiple contracts to enhance various federal installations. In December, Akima Range Readiness Operations, a joint venture between Akima and Amentum, won a $333.9 million Air Force award to provide operations and management services for Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma. The contract was awarded through the USAF’s largest facility operations and management contract.

Earlier, Akima Infrastructure Services received a $63 million contract from Consolidated Nuclear Security to increase staff proficiency in engineering, profession and technical areas at two Department of Energy facilities.

Mark Caylor & William Lietzau Recognized for Selection to 2023 Wash100 List
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Mark Caylor & William Lietzau Recognized for Selection to 2023 Wash100 List

Two key figures within the government contracting ecosystem — Northrop Grumman’s Mark Caylor and the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency’s William Lietzau — were recognized on Thursday for their selection to the 2023 class of Wash100 Award winners.

Executive Mosaic’s Wash100 Award is a forward-looking accolade that honors the movers and shakers of GovCon and serves as a list of executives to watch in the coming year.

Mark Caylor serves as corporate vice president and president of the mission systems sector at Northrop Grumman. Caylor earned his debut Wash100 for demonstrating leadership in Northrop Grumman’s development of cutting-edge sensor technology, multidomain systems and other technologies to support national security missions. Read more about Caylor, his responsibilities at Northrop Grumman and his selection to the 2023 Wash100 Award list here.

William Lietzau is the director of DCSA, and like Caylor, this marks Lietzau’s first year of recognition with GovCon’s highest honor. In his role at DCSA, Lietzau oversees and leads the agency’s personnel vetting and critical technology protection missions while managing more than 12,000 federal employees and contractors around the world. Lietzau earned his first Wash100 for his excellence in reforming vetting processes and maintaining the nation’s trusted workforce. Click here to read more about Lietzau and his work at DCSA.

Don’t forget to vote for Caylor and Lietzau as your favorite Wash100 Award winners as part of Executive Mosaic’s popular vote competition. The winner and the final vote standings will be announced at the end of April, so get your votes in today! Visit Wash100.com to participate.

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White House Forum Provides Government, Industry Leaders Venue to Discuss Space Systems Cybersecurity
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White House Forum Provides Government, Industry Leaders Venue to Discuss Space Systems Cybersecurity

The Office of the National Cyber Director and the National Space Council hosted a forum on Tuesday to enable government and industry executives to discuss ways to improve cybersecurity in the space sector.

Representatives from industry cited the need to field quantum-resistant cryptographic algorithms and ensure the security of open source libraries, while government officials mentioned the importance of having comprehensive guidance that could help developers and operators improve the cybersecurity of space systems, the White House said Tuesday.

Agencies also made commitments to advance space systems cybersecurity.

ONCD will conduct workshops to understand industry views on existing cybersecurity policies for space platforms and identify gaps that require more specific guidance.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology plans to release in fiscal 2023 a final report that seeks to provide commercial satellite operators with a method for implementing the NIST Cybersecurity Framework.

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PNNL Director Steven Ashby Highlights Potential of ML for Nuclear Threat Detection
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PNNL Director Steven Ashby Highlights Potential of ML for Nuclear Threat Detection

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and its collaborators are exploring machine learning techniques to improve the detection of suspicious nuclear presence, PNNL Director Steven Ashby reported Monday.

In an article published on the Tri-City Herald, Ashby discussed the laboratory’s early-stage studies on the use of ML to identify abnormal activity in a nuclear reprocessing facility, and to help law enforcers trace radioactive materials.

In one initiative, PNNL and Sandia National Laboratories collaborated to design a system that can distinguish normal reprocessing patterns from potential diversion to the usual activities at a nuclear plant. The researchers employed a “transformer-based model,” which is used in applications such as language processing.

The study yielded promising results, but the technique needs further refinement before it can be deployed, Ashby noted.

A separate project used an autoencoder model, which scanned, compressed and decompressed microscopic images of radioactive materials to come up with their unique fingerprint. The technology is being developed to help law enforcement agencies build a database to help them find the origin of nuclear particles discovered in the field.

While ML has not surpassed human intelligence in detecting nuclear threats, it may be useful in the near-term to expedite and facilitate investigations to prevent nuclear proliferation, Ashby wrote.

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Army, Carnegie Mellon Train Leaders on Building Data-Centric Organizations
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Army, Carnegie Mellon Train Leaders on Building Data-Centric Organizations

The U.S. Army has partnered with Carnegie Mellon University’s Heinz College to conduct a week-long collaborative executive training course aimed at preparing Army leaders to build and manage data-centric organizations.

Senior leaders from Program Executive Office Intelligence, Electronic Warfare and Sensors participated in recent cohorts Army Data Driven Leadership Certificate Program held in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, that focused on topics including data engineering, data visualization, applied data science and artificial intelligence, PEO IEW&S said Tuesday.

“It provided the right amount of information at the appropriate depths so that [Army] leaders can understand how a data-centric organization can help them achieve their strategic goals,” said Col. Michael Williams, chief of the PEO IEW&S Integration Directorate.

Greg Hartman, deputy project manager for Project Manager for Intelligence Systems and Analytics, said the training course will improve data literacy across the Army and underscore the importance of data in achieving the service branch’s mission objectives.

“There is a great opportunity here for the Army to take advantage of data-centric concepts that could make our enterprise more efficient and effective,” Hartman said.

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Commerce’s Proposed Guardrails Under CHIPS Act Pose Question to Semiconductor Firms; Gina Raimondo Quoted
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Commerce’s Proposed Guardrails Under CHIPS Act Pose Question to Semiconductor Firms; Gina Raimondo Quoted

The U.S. Department of Commerce has proposed rules that would bar recipients of incentives under the CHIPS and Science Act from investing in semiconductor production in foreign countries of concern and some experts say such restrictions could prompt chip makers to consider whether to take the funding or keep their plans to expand in China, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.

The department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology recently issued a notice of proposed rulemaking outlining guardrails to prevent the improper use of CHIPS incentives under the law, which seeks to protect U.S. technologies and innovation from foreign adversaries.

Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo cited the administration’s stance when it comes to doing business with China.

“We want American businesses to continue to do business in and with China. And vice versa,” Raimondo told WSJ in an interview.

“But we do have to be eyes wide open about the risks presented to the United States,” she added.

A group of Senate lawmakers wrote a letter to Raimondo expressing their concerns with the grant criteria in the department’s notice of funding opportunity related to its implementation of a $39 billion program to support the construction and modernization of semiconductor fabrication facilities under the CHIPS Act.

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Jen Easterly Breaks Down White House’s FY24 Proposed Budget for CISA Before House Panel
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Jen Easterly Breaks Down White House’s FY24 Proposed Budget for CISA Before House Panel

Jen Easterly, director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, said the president’s fiscal 2024 budget request of $3.1 billion for CISA includes $493.1 million for mission support and $408.3 million for the Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation program.

Easterly, a 2023 Wash100 awardee, told House Appropriations homeland security subcommittee members during a budget hearing Tuesday the president’s request also includes $97.7 million for the implementation of the Cyber Incident Reporting for Critical Infrastructure Act.

She noted that the proposed FY 2024 funding for CIRCIA “was really about putting the technical infrastructure in place to allow us to be able to receive this massive amount of new reporting, to analyze it, to correlate it, to enrich it and then to use it to respond,” according to a report by Nextgov.

She told lawmakers that her agency is still in the rulemaking phase with CIRCIA and has initiated a “consultative process” to gather feedback from private sector entities with regard to the law’s implementation.

Easterly stated that the administration’s budget proposal earmarks $48.2 million for CyberSentry, $67.4 million for the National Cybersecurity Protection System and approximately $425 million for the Cyber Analytics Data System.

“In FY 2024, portions of the NCPS will transition to the new CADS program with intrusion detection and intrusion prevention capabilities remaining under the legacy program,” she said in her prepared remarks.

POC - Enhancing Cybersecurity for Critical Civilian Infrastructure Forum

Join the Potomac Officers Club’s Enhancing Cybersecurity for Critical Civilian Infrastructure Forum on March 30 to hear government and industry speakers talk about technological and policy-related aspects of improving cybersecurity for federal civilian agencies. Click here to register for the upcoming event.

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