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TSA Requests Feedback on CRM Requirements for Pipeline, Rail Sectors
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TSA Requests Feedback on CRM Requirements for Pipeline, Rail Sectors

The Department of Homeland Security’s Transportation Security Administration is seeking public comments to inform the development of cybersecurity requirements for the pipeline and rail sectors. 

TSA is looking to understand how the pipeline and rail owners and operators are implementing cyber risk management policies and assess the need to develop new regulations or update existing regulations to address CRM, according to an advance notice of proposed rulemaking published Wednesday in the Federal Register. 

Focus areas of interest to the agency in their requests are economic burdens, management, oversight, regulatory barriers, standards, training and education, as they pertain to CRM development and implementation.

TSA is also seeking public input on the use of third-party organizations to help oversee CRM compliance in the pipeline and rail sectors.

The rulemaking also focuses on incentivizing the adoption of cybersecurity and resilience measures and maximizing the ability of owners and operators to meet emerging cybersecurity threats.

In July, TSA revised its cybersecurity requirements for oil and natural gas pipelines to reflect input from industry and federal partners, including the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.

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Report: Congressional Negotiators Agree on $45B Increase to FY23 NDAA Topline
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Report: Congressional Negotiators Agree on $45B Increase to FY23 NDAA Topline

Senate and House negotiators working on a compromise on an annual defense policy bill agreed to add $45 billion to the Biden administration’s defense spending plans, a move that would set the fiscal year 2023 National Defense Authorization Act’s topline for national defense at $847 billion, Politico reported Wednesday.

Sources said leaders of the House and Senate Armed Services Committees have addressed their differences on the NDAA and transitioned the bill to both chambers’ leadership to hash out issues on some language that could be added to the compromise version.

According to the report, legislators aim to have the defense policy measure ready for a House vote next week and move the bill to the upper chamber.

In June, the Senate Armed Services Committee approved its FY 2023 NDAA version that would increase the budget topline by $45 billion, bringing the total to $847 billion.

The White House’s FY 2023 budget requested $802 billion for national defense programs.

In addition to the NDAA, Congress still needs to pass a full-year spending package before the stopgap measure expires on Dec. 16.

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20 Nuclear Energy R&D Proposals to Get NRC Grants
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20 Nuclear Energy R&D Proposals to Get NRC Grants

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission will distribute almost $10 million in total grants to 20 university-led projects focused on exploring nuclear materials and technologies.

NRC said Wednesday the awards are part of the $16 million budget Congress allocated to the University Nuclear Leadership Program for fiscal year 2022 and support workforce development within the sector.

The grantees, which will each receive close to $500,000, were selected out of the 89 proposals that underwent a peer review process.

Selected proposals include safety analysis for reactor designs and fuel cycle technologies, characterization of fresh and spent nuclear fuel for nuclear power plants and advanced materials and manufacturing for nuclear applications.

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DLA Launches Efforts to Improve F-35 Supply Chain Visibility; Rick Teal Quoted
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DLA Launches Efforts to Improve F-35 Supply Chain Visibility; Rick Teal Quoted

The Defense Logistics Agency is working to enhance the Department of Defense’s visibility of the supply chain for the Lockheed Martin-built F-35 fighter aircraft, DOD reported Wednesday.

“The first attempt to making the supply chain more organically visible was to stand up DLA Distribution support, and as the fleet grows with different logistics and sustainment concepts evolving, we’ll continue to grow too,” said Rick Teal, program manager for DLA’s F-35 Supply Chain Integration Program.

According to Teal, DOD has initiated measures to increase its involvement in sustainment by transitioning to an organic management process amid the growth of the F-35 fleet, which is expected to reach approximately 1,400 aircraft by the end of 2025.

DLA, the F-35 joint program office and service branches are in the early planning phase as they work to determine how to shift sustainment management work from the contractor to the U.S. Navy and U.S. Air Force in accordance with Section 142 of the fiscal year 2022 National Defense Authorization Act.

“At this juncture the planning is immature, and even though it shifts sustainment responsibilities from the prime contractors to the services, changes will continue to leverage organic government facilities, capabilities and systems in addition to industrial capabilities — just like our support for other weapons systems,” Teal said.

Teal also cited DLA’s efforts to catalog the aircraft’s common parts and partnership with U.S. Transportation Command to tap into the latter’s shipping capabilities.

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Sen. Ron Wyden Issues Consumer Protection Inquiries to Crypto Exchanges
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Sen. Ron Wyden Issues Consumer Protection Inquiries to Crypto Exchanges

Sen. Ron Wyden, chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance, has called on major cryptocurrency companies to provide information on their customer protection measures following the bankruptcy of the FTX exchange.

Wyden sent letters to the leaders of Binance, Bitfinex, Coinbase, Gemini, Kraken and KuCoin and asked for information on how they plan to protect customers using their products in the event of financial failures, the senator’s office said Tuesday.

The cryptocurrency exchanges have until Dec. 12 to disclose the policies and practices they have in place to guard against market manipulation and suspicious trading, explain whether they separate assets bought or sold on their platform from their subsidiaries or affiliates and provide information on how they use consumer data.

Wyden also requested details on the companies’ real estate acquisitions financed by customer funds,

“As Congress considers much-needed regulations for the crypto industry, I will focus on the clear need for consumer protections along the lines of the assurances that have long existed for customers of banks, credit unions and securities brokers,” Wyden promised.

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NASA’s Artemis I Space Launch System Rocket Reaches Mission Goals
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NASA’s Artemis I Space Launch System Rocket Reaches Mission Goals

NASA reported on Wednesday that the initial launch of its Space Launch System rocket met expectations in transporting the uncrewed Orion spacecraft around the moon.

SLS is integral to the Artemis I mission, which sets the stage for the agency’s plan to revive manned lunar landing expeditions.

Artemis mission manager Mike Sarafin said that the rocket’s systems “performed as designed and as expected in every case.” Its twin solid booster motors enabled SLS to travel more than 27 miles upon take-off. It achieved its speed targets, reaching approximately 4,000 mph in over two minutes before booster separation.

Built by Lockheed Martin, the Orion capsule exceeded its required travel distance after SLS transported it to within three miles of its targeted orbit altitude. The moon rocket’s core stage, developed by Boeing, met all of its goals, as did the four RS-25 engines supplied by Aerojet Rocketdyne.

Artemis I launched on Nov. 16 at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, and is set to conclude on Dec. 11. Engineers will continue to analyze the travels of SLS in the next several months and apply relevant findings to future Artemis expeditions.

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Air Force Team Develops ‘Spirit Realm’ Software Factory for B-2 Bomber
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Air Force Team Develops ‘Spirit Realm’ Software Factory for B-2 Bomber

An innovation team at the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center tasked with producing technology for the B-2 Spirit Stealth bomber has established a new software factory to bring enhancements to the long-range aircraft fleet.

The Spirit Realm B-2 Software Factory, conceived by the B-2 Software Maintenance and Innovation Team in partnership with Northrop Grumman, aims to reduce flight test risks and timelines, cut back on flight test burdens, increase integrated functional capability quality and enable upgrades to the B-2 Spirit, the Air Force Global Strike Command said Wednesday.

The software factory utilizes the Department of Defense’s DevSecOps reference design to guide the creation and testing of the B-2 software.

“After the development and implementation of the Spirit Realm, B-2 software is now developed, tested and integrated using modern DevSecOps and Scaled Agile principles and a single software baseline,” shared Capt. Joel Graley, the lead for the B-2 Software Maintenance and Innovation Team. 

“This approach enables the fielding of the highest priority capabilities at an unprecedented pace, and ensures the B-2 can rapidly field new capabilities to counter emerging threats,” Graley continued.

Due to the introduction of the new facility, the Air Force reported software upgrade timelines were cut from 24 months to three months and the number of software defects found during regression testing were totally eradicated.

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SAIC Recognized as DOD JADC2 Contributor in Frost & Sullivan Report; Michael LaRouche Quoted
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SAIC Recognized as DOD JADC2 Contributor in Frost & Sullivan Report; Michael LaRouche Quoted

SAIC has been selected as a ‘company to watch’ in the area of supporting the Department of Defense Joint All-Domain Command and Control strategy by Frost & Sullivan.

This decision makes SAIC one of only three companies who received this recognition, the Reston, Virginia-based organization announced on Thursday.

“For JADC2 to succeed, the Department of Defense needs experts in advanced capabilities in network virtualization, optimized delivery, software integration, cloud operations and cyber defense. That, and an unparalleled understanding of the challenge, is exactly what we bring to the table,” emphasized Michael LaRouche, president of SAIC’s national security and space sector and a two-time Wash100 Award winner.

Expertise in IT modernization, space, digital engineering and Cloud One has made it possible for the company to support JADC2’s core mission areas while collaborating with the federal government to modernize legacy command and control systems, which enables faster decision making and higher rates of mission success.

“SAIC received recognition as best in class around Artificial Intelligence and digital engineering innovations, its deep DoD mission understanding and its commercial technology integration capabilities, all of which are required for leading a multi-domain program like JADC2,” said Brad Curran, aerospace and defense principal analyst at Frost & Sullivan.

SAIC is currently providing services that satisfy four areas within the JADC2 strategy. These are cloud migrations and modernizations, tactical edge services, data transport through ultra-high-bandwidth, ultra-high-speed transmission and data collection and management, per the company’s website.

The enterprise has become a notable partner of the cross-departmental endeavor. In 2022 alone, SAIC received over $500 million in contract awards related to the command and was included in numerous multi-organization contracts including the Advanced Battle Management System Digital Infrastructure Consortium and as the prime contractor for the Falconer Air Operations Center Weapon System Sustainment project.

As part of the consortium, SAIC is working alongside four additional contractors to develop and implement secure processing, data management, connectivity and open architecture. Under the Falconer Air Operations Weapon System Sustainment award, the company is tasked with providing weapon systems maintenance services for air operations centers.

CBO Report: Economic Growth to Slow Down in 2023, Pick Up in 2024
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CBO Report: Economic Growth to Slow Down in 2023, Pick Up in 2024

The Congressional Budget Office adjusted its economic growth outlook for 2023 on account of inflation, higher interest rates and an uptick in unemployment that occurred in the second half of 2022.

In a report released Wednesday, CBO stated that compared to its assessment in May, rates of interest, unemployment and inflation will be greater in the next two years.

Based on data available through Nov. 16, economic growth will be slower in 2023 than previously expected, but it will recover in 2024. The agency had a more positive outlook using information it obtained through March 2, 2022.

CBO’s current assessment projects real gross domestic product growth to be lower than 2.2 percent in 2023, but higher than 1.5 percent in 2024. The national unemployment rate in 2023 and 2024 could be greater than 3.6 percent and 3.8 percent, respectively. Interest rates on Treasury bills for a three-month period are expected to range from 3.4 percent to 5.6 percent next year, and 1.7 percent to 4.8 percent the following year.

The agency is refining the preliminary results in preparation for the publication of its annual Budget and Economic Outlook.

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Robert Storch Confirmed as DOD Inspector General
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Robert Storch Confirmed as DOD Inspector General

The Senate voted 92-3 Wednesday to confirm Robert Storch, inspector general at the National Security Agency, as IG of the Department of Defense.

President Joe Biden nominated Storch to the IG role at DOD in November 2021.

Storch assumed responsibilities as IG at NSA in January 2018 and has helped advance efforts to improve the transparency of the IG office’s work, such as establishing a public website and public release of unclassified versions of semiannual reports to Congress.

He was deputy IG at the Department of Justice and served as the first whistleblower ombudsperson at DOJ’s IG office.

He served for more than two decades as a federal prosecutor at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of New York. He also worked at law firms Covington and Burling and Bond, Schoeneck and King.

Defense News reported Storch’s confirmation marks the end of a nearly seven-year vacancy for a full-time IG at the Pentagon.

Sean O’Donnell, the Environmental Protection Agency’s current IG, has been serving as acting inspector general at DOD since April 2020.

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