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Pete Muend: NRO, NGA, SPACECOM Agreement Promotes Commercial Satellite Threat Info Sharing
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Pete Muend: NRO, NGA, SPACECOM Agreement Promotes Commercial Satellite Threat Info Sharing

The National Reconnaissance Office, U.S. Space Command and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency have agreed to coordinate in raising satellite operators’ asset threat awareness as part of a strategic framework, SpaceNews reported Wednesday.

Pete Muend, director of the NRO Commercial Systems Program Office, said at a recent forum that data-sharing initiatives under the Commercial Space Protection Tri-Seal Strategic Framework could help imagery providers “make informed collection operations decisions in their support of U.S. government and non-governmental customers.”

Muend noted the interagency partnership will look to SPACECOM to relay classified and unclassified information about threats affecting the satellite industry.

With the framework, the NRO hopes agency contractors would notify the government about electronic jamming or cybersecurity incidents in systems that support the intelligence community mission.

SPACECOM’s role in the collaboration is to investigate threat reports from industry and offer anomaly response recommendations, while NGA will also receive information about activities that pose a serious risk to space assets.

Pete Muend: NRO, NGA, SPACECOM Agreement Promotes Commercial Satellite Threat Info Sharing

If you want insight into the U.S. Intelligence Community’s partnership with industry to stay ahead of national security threats, attend the Potomac Officers Club’s 9th Annual Intel Summit on Sept. 21 in McLean, Virginia. Register here.

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Spirit, Oak Ridge National Lab Join Forces to Advance Hypersonic Flight Tech
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Spirit, Oak Ridge National Lab Join Forces to Advance Hypersonic Flight Tech

Spirit AeroSystems and Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Manufacturing Demonstration Facility have partnered to develop hypersonic travel and aircraft technologies under a memorandum of understanding.

The team will work to enhance high temperature in-situ process monitoring approaches and predictive modeling capability to evaluate carbon and ceramic composites as well as additively manufactured alloys, Spirit AeroSystems said Tuesday.

Additionally, the partnership will delve into research on material processing techniques capable of withstanding challenging environments.

Sean Black, senior vice president, chief technology officer and chief engineer at Spirit AeroSystems, highlighted the project’s potential to bolster American manufacturing.

He added that the MOU aligns with the Industrial Demonstration Program the Department of Energy launched to advance efficient production of advanced materials while minimizing emissions.

2023 Hypersonics Forum

Join ExecutiveBiz’s 2023 Hypersonics Forum on Aug. 15 to hear industry executives and military leaders share their insights on hypersonics-related priorities, strategies and challenges. Click here to register.

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Doug Bush, Army Acquisition Chief, Accepts Wash100 Award From Executive Mosaic CEO Jim Garrettson
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Doug Bush, Army Acquisition Chief, Accepts Wash100 Award From Executive Mosaic CEO Jim Garrettson

First-time Wash100 honoree Doug Bush, assistant secretary of the U.S. Army for acquisition, logistics and technology, formally received his award from Executive Mosaic CEO Jim Garrettson.

Bush was included in the 2023 roster of outstanding leaders who made an impact on the government contracting industry, particularly for his forward-looking strategies to modernize procurement programs in the branch.

Upon his confirmation in February 2022, he pledged several priorities to improve Army acquisition. These included “placing a laser-like focus on program execution” to expedite the delivery of better equipment to soldiers; paying more attention to software, cybersecurity and supply chain security acquisition; and executing realistic system tests for early detection and resolution of potential issues.

He also vowed to closely collaborate with Congress to implement the branch’s modernization projects.

During his term, the Army closed a number of contracts, including a $1.2 billion award to Raytheon to support the Ukrainian military by providing training, logistical assistance, and six National Advanced Surface to Air Missile System batteries. The branch also granted a $430.9 million project to Lockheed Martin to proceed with full-rate production of High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems M124 launchers.

Speaking in a recent engagement at the Potomac Officers Club’s 8th Annual Army Summit, Bush said that the service is “dramatically increasing production rates of key munitions across the board,” with help from Congress. “We will be able to meet the demand to both support Ukraine and keep the U.S. Army ready. And I believe in doing this well and showing we can do it, create a deterrent value for anyone else who might think about taking on the United States,” he commented.

New Labor Reform to Raise Wage Standards for Federal Construction Workers
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New Labor Reform to Raise Wage Standards for Federal Construction Workers

Vice President Kamala Harris has announced that the Department of Labor is issuing a new rule to boost wages and protections for workers on federally funded or assisted construction projects.

The rule will update the prevailing wage standards issued under the Davis-Bacon and Related Acts to ensure fair wages for over 1 million construction workers, the White House said Tuesday.

The legislation requires payment of locally prevailing wages and any fringe benefits to workers on $200 billion government-funded infrastructure projects.

The administration expects the number of workers covered by the Davis-Bacon prevailing wage regulations to increase with new projects under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the CHIPS and Science Act and the Inflation Reduction Act.

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DOD Releases Schedule of Procurement Management Reviews for FY 2024
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DOD Releases Schedule of Procurement Management Reviews for FY 2024

The Department of Defense’s defense pricing and contracting office has tasked the Defense Contract Management Agency with leading procurement management reviews of each Fourth Estate component agency that performs contracting functions.

A memorandum issued and signed by John Tenaglia, principal director for defense pricing and contracting, outlines the PMRs scheduled for fiscal year 2024 involving several agencies, including the National Security Agency, U.S. Transportation Command and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

According to the memo issued Tuesday, DCMA depends on military departments and Fourth Estate organizations to support reviews by providing personnel to supplement individual teams.

Tenaglia has asked each of the Fourth Estate agencies with contracting personnel of 40 or more to nominate at least two volunteers to take part in one of the reviews scheduled in the upcoming fiscal year.

“Volunteers may request a particular agency they would be interested in reviewing and DCMA will seek to accommodate those requests,” the memo reads.

Agencies have until Sept. 8 to submit the names of their volunteers and their corresponding review preferences and contracting experience.

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NIST Opens Public Comment Period for Cybersecurity Framework Update
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NIST Opens Public Comment Period for Cybersecurity Framework Update

The National Institute of Standards and Technology’s Cybersecurity Framework is being revised nearly 10 years after its initial release.

NIST on Tuesday published a draft of Cybersecurity Framework 2.0 in an effort to adapt to the changing landscape of cyber defense.

The new version incorporates feedback from a request for information issued by the institute in February 2022. It retains key attributes of the framework, while providing additional guidance about evolving ransomware threats and supply chain risks stemming from online vulnerabilities.

Extending its scope beyond critical infrastructure, the latest edition attempts to cater to all types and sizes of organizations. CSF 2.0 now has six main functions: to identify, protect, detect, respond, recover and—the newest addition—govern.

The draft is open to public comment until Nov. 4, with a finalized version to be released in early 2024.

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NASA Prepares ComPair Instrument for Scientific Balloon Campaign
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NASA Prepares ComPair Instrument for Scientific Balloon Campaign

NASA is preparing its ComPair science instrument for a scheduled launch aboard a high-altitude balloon from Fort Sumner, New Mexico to test new technologies for measuring and studying gamma rays.

ComPair is designed to detect gamma-ray emissions with energies between 200,000 and 20 million electron volts, an energy range that current missions have not covered, NASA said Tuesday.

The payload needs to reach above the majority of the Earth’s atmosphere up to 130,000 ft to ensure technical readiness of new gamma-ray technologies.

“Gamma rays are too high-energy for a traditional telescope to detect – the light flies right between the mirror’s atoms,” according to Regina Caputo, ComPair project manager at Goddard Space Flight Center.

“Instead, our instrument uses layers of different kinds of elements and compounds stacked on top of each other. As gamma rays pass through the instrument, they interact with different layers depending on their energies,” Caputo said.

ComPair has four major components: a tracker containing 10 layers of silicon detectors; a high-resolution calorimeter made of cadmium, zinc and telluride; a high-energy calorimeter made of cesium iodide; and an anticoincidence detector.

The instrument was developed in collaboration with Goddard, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Los Alamos National Laboratory and the Naval Research Laboratory.

NASA’s 2023 fall scientific balloon campaign window opens Aug. 10.

DOD Manufacturing Innovation Arm to Launch 1st Domestic Production Line for Electrochemical Separators
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DOD Manufacturing Innovation Arm to Launch 1st Domestic Production Line for Electrochemical Separators

LIFT, the manufacturing innovation institute of the Department of Defense, is slated to develop a pilot line for electrochemical separators in a bid to reduce the cost of energy storage and conversion at its operations.

The Detroit-based project will make LIFT the first U.S.-based producer of such instruments, the organization said Monday.

Electrochemical separators are the main components of energy storage and conversion devices. They have shown promise as a lightweight alternative to corrosion-resistant separators, which are necessary for isolating chemical reactants and waste heat from energy systems.

LIFT’s plan is to make test units from the pilot line, transition to full production after two years and support activities to find a permanent owner and operator of the line.

The program “will secure the supply chain of a critical component of energy systems, it will lower costs, and it will create an enduring research tool for separators in general,” DOD Program Manager Kevin Cronin remarked. “All of these benefits lend to providing the warfighter the best technology we can get them.”

Sponsored by the Manufacturing Science and Technology Program under the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the project is expected to be operational in the third quarter of 2025.

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US Army Reserve Oversees 10 Pilots, Demonstrations to Improve Facilities
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US Army Reserve Oversees 10 Pilots, Demonstrations to Improve Facilities

The U.S. Army Reserve and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory are conducting 10 pilot programs and demonstrations to enhance the efficiency of the service branch’s facilities and infrastructure.

B.T. Collins Army Reserve Center, Arden Hills U.S. Army Reserve Complex in Minnesota, and Fort McCoy in Wisconsin are some of the military installations involved in projects ranging from climate resilience to water conservation, the Army Reserve announced Monday.

B.T. Collins is working with the 63rd Readiness Division to test the potential of a substance called phase change material to boost thermal mass in buildings. The team, which began its study in 2017, has expanded the project into a testbed for heating, ventilation and air conditioning.

The Environmental Security Technology Certification Program funded three of the 10 pilots focused on the use of machine learning to improve the functionality of the branch’s Enterprise Building Control System.

Meanwhile, Fort McCoy’s energy management staff are exploring a rapid deployment hybrid microgrid that combines natural gas and captured waste heat to create a heat and power turn-key system for buildings.

“The results of these demonstrations and pilots are key in addressing the potential challenges we face – whether it be from manmade cyber attacks or the effects of climate change and increasing natural disasters,” said Col. Martin Naranjo, director of the Army Reserve Installation Management Directorate.

Air Force Major Commands Deploy Standard Command and Control Tool
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Air Force Major Commands Deploy Standard Command and Control Tool

Air Combat Command and Air Mobility Command have designated a Kessel Run-managed application as their standard installation command and control tool.

The two U.S. Air Force major commands have each released “concept of employment” directives to standardize the operational use of the Command and Control Incident Management Emergency Response Application across their installations, Kessel Run announced Tuesday.

C2IMERA gives a common operating picture of installation resources and features tools for planning and coordinating base operations and communicating C2 data in real time.

The application has been implemented throughout several Air Force installations and forward operating bases to streamline planning, reporting, emergency management, force generation and C2 monitoring and execution.

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