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NASA, GSA Break Ground on Vertical Wind Tunnel at Langley Research Center
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NASA, GSA Break Ground on Vertical Wind Tunnel at Langley Research Center

NASA and the General Services Administration have broken ground on a new facility at the Langley Research Center in Hampton designed to construct a major wind tunnel.

GSA said Wednesday the Flight Dynamics Research Facility will consolidate and replace two aging wind tunnels with a new vertical wind tunnel that will enable NASA researchers conduct research and technology development.

In a separate announcement, NASA said the 25,000-square-foot facility will also support research for future space and lunar exploration missions.

The FDRF will also play a key role in advancing developments in Advanced Air Mobility and experimental aircraft.

In October 2021, GSA awarded BL Harbert International a $43.2 million contract for the design and construction of the facility.

“The FDRF will extend NASA’s 100 year legacy of innovation in aeronautics,” said Joanna Rosato, GSA’s acting assistant commissioner for portfolio management and customer engagement.

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Kathleen Hicks Observes AFRL Technology Projects During Wright-Patterson AFB Visit
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Kathleen Hicks Observes AFRL Technology Projects During Wright-Patterson AFB Visit

Kathleen Hicks, deputy secretary at the Department of Defense and a 2022 Wash100 Award, has visited Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio as part of her four-state tour to observe the advanced technology projects the U.S. military is undertaking to increase warfighting capabilities.

During her visit, Hicks received updates on counter-directed energy weapons development and iniatives of the Air Force Research Laboratory, the Department of Defense reported Wednesday.

She also learned about the Laser-Hardened Materials Evaluation Laboratory’s role as a comprehensive source for high-temperature characterization of existing and future materials.

The official was also briefed on other efforts to create national security capabilities at the installation including the AFRL’s partnerships with universities, large and small businesses, government agencies and venture capitalists.

Hicks also discussed with Air Force Gen. Duke Richardson, commander of Air Force Materiel Command, sustainment challenges and opportunities related to topics such as aircraft fleets, organic industrial base health and supply support.

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Coast Guard, Small & Disadvantaged Business Utilization Office to Host Vendor Outreach Matchmaking Event
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Coast Guard, Small & Disadvantaged Business Utilization Office to Host Vendor Outreach Matchmaking Event

The U.S. Coast Guard and the Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization have teamed up to host an event aimed at informing businesses about how they can participate in government contracting opportunities to support the service branch.

The Department of Homeland Security said Wednesday USCG and OSDBU will conduct the first National Multiple Award Construction Contract Vendor Outreach Matchmaking Event on Aug. 30.

The organizations are inviting providers of construction, architectural, engineering and other construction related services.

Through VOME, USCG and OSDBU look to increase businesses’ awareness of subcontracting opportunities, drive potential joint-venture or teaming partnerships and provide a platform for discussions that may result in mentor-protege agreements.

Visit the SAM.gov website to learn more about event registration.

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Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen Asks IRS to Draft Reform Plan
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Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen Asks IRS to Draft Reform Plan

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has directed the Internal Revenue Service to come up with an operational plan to disburse the funds authorized under the Inflation Reduction Act to help initiate reform initiatives at the IRS, The New York Times reported Wednesday.

The Inflation Reduction Act that was signed by President Biden into law Tuesday will provide the IRS with $80 billion in funds through fiscal year 2031 to support overhaul efforts.

Yellen issued a memo to IRS Commissioner Charles Retting citing her top priorities for the agency, such as enhancing taxpayer services, addressing the unprocessed tax return backlog, hiring new staff and replacing obsolete technology systems.

According to the memo, the IRS should develop the plans within six months. Wally Adeyemo, deputy secretary of the Treasury, will collaborate with Rettig to work on the initiatives and establish the timelines.

The law “provides the I.R.S. what it has needed for years — a stable stream of mandatory funding that will allow the agency to serve American taxpayers the way they deserve and to enforce the tax laws against high-net-worth individuals, large corporations and complex partnerships who today pay far less than they owe,” Yellen wrote in the memo.

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Navy’s Aaron Weis on Use of Automated Red-Teaming in Addressing Cyber Vulnerabilities
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Navy’s Aaron Weis on Use of Automated Red-Teaming in Addressing Cyber Vulnerabilities

Aaron Weis, chief information of the Department of the Navy and a 2022 Wash100 Award winner, said conducting regular automated red-teaming is far more effective than adopting a “checklist” approach when it comes to detecting and addressing cyber vulnerabilities, Defense One reported Tuesday.

“It’s a very compliance-driven mentality, like an audit… and it’s wrong,” Weis told the publication of the checklist approach. “Cybersecurity is not a compliance problem.”

The Navy conducted an experiment using a tool called Nova from software startup Rebellion to perform automated red-teaming on networks and found that the process revealed which cyber vulnerabilities allow threat actors to gain wider access to networks and those that were the easiest to exploit.

“It can identify the system, understand its patch level, catalog its vulnerabilities according to what’s generally available, and then try to run an automated exploit against it, based on what it knows,” Weis said of the tool.

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Reps. Jerrold Nadler, Bennie Thompson Inquire About Government Acquisition of Personal Data
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Reps. Jerrold Nadler, Bennie Thompson Inquire About Government Acquisition of Personal Data

House Judiciary Committee Chair Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., and House Homeland Security Committee Chair Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., have asked several government officials through a letter to provide information on their agencies’ procurement of U.S. citizens’ personal data from companies.

The House Judiciary Committee held a hearing on July 19 on the government’s purchase and use of private information of U.S. citizens and found that agencies often bypass warrant requirements by buying datasets from social media companies, app developers and data brokers, Nadler’s office said Wednesday.

“While law enforcement investigations necessitate some searches, improper government acquisition of this data can thwart statutory and constitutional protections designed to protect Americans’ due process rights,” the Aug. 16 letter reads.

The letter was addressed to Attorney General Merrick Garland of the Department of Justice; Alejandro Mayorkas, secretary of the Department of Homeland Security and a previous Wash100 Award winner; FBI Director Christopher Wray; Chris Magnus, commissioner of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection; Tae Johnson, acting director of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement; Anne Milgram, head of the Drug Enforcement Administration; and Steven Dettelbach, director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

The chairs of the two House panels urged agency officials to submit by Aug. 30 communications and documents related to contracts with companies that provide personal data on U.S. citizens and those associated with any legal analysis of the purchase and use of brokered data in prosecutions, investigations and agency work, among others.

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Marines Expect to Receive New Targeting System in Fiscal 2023
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Marines Expect to Receive New Targeting System in Fiscal 2023

The U.S. Marine Corps expects to begin testing a new man-portable target detection and acquisition device in fiscal year 2023.

USMC awarded Northrop Grumman an eight-year, $252 million contract in February to manufacture and support the military branch’s Next-Generation Handheld Targeting System.

The service said Wednesday it intends for the NGHTS to include features of four predecessor devices, interoperate with a target handoff system and increase the ability of users to pinpoint a target farther than the distance their previous platforms could reach.

NGHTS, currently in the low-rate initial production phase, will have a lightweight design for service personnel to carry the unit in their field packs.

Maj. Patrick Heiny, lead for USMC’s fire support coordination team, said NGHTS will be the branch’s first target locator that weighs below 10 pounds and takes up 60 percent less volume than legacy platforms.

Marines aim to deploy their new targeting system sometime in fiscal 2024.

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Federal Civilian Exec Alex Forti Joins Amyx as Director of Business Development; CEO William Schaefer Quoted
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Federal Civilian Exec Alex Forti Joins Amyx as Director of Business Development; CEO William Schaefer Quoted

Experienced federal civilian executive Alex Forti has been named director of business development at management and technical services company Amyx.

In his new role, Forti will draw from his time working for federal organizations such as the U.S. Department of Treasury and the General Services Administration, as well as various notable private sector government contractors, the Reston, Virginia-headquartered company said Wednesday.

Amyx CEO and President William Schaefer attested that Forti’s career expertise are in-step with Amyx’s expansion objectives. Schaefer added that the company’s corporate processes, partner dynamics and various contract work will be boosted by the newly hired executive’s proficiency in operations, information technology management and various achievements.

Forti cut his teeth working as an IT project manager for Lockheed Martin, Calibre and Honeywell, participating in projects spanning IT, logistics and medicine. Additionally, the executive spent time in the office of the chief information officer of the Department of Defense as a contract program manager.

In his last position before joining Amyx, Forti administered enterprise IT platforms at the Department of Treasury that impacted the various departmental offices and the remaining nine bureaus. Specifically, he optimized taxpayer online portals to the Internal Revenue Service as a function of the GSA.

Forti’s work with the government extended to his time as a federal program manager facilitating a $1.2 billion logical access and CDM II portfolio. In this role, he maintained network access for around 110,000 federal personnel, as well as many corporate business entities and more than 144 million citizens.

The executive is also a veteran of the U.S. Air Force and was reportedly instrumental in executing the Child Tax Credit aspect of the American Rescue Plan Act.

The appointment of Forti comes on the heels of Amyx’s June addition of Christy Mee as vice president of federal civilian programs and Todd Reynolds as director of strategy.

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GovCon Expert Chuck Brooks: Proactive Cybersecurity Is a Must in Today’s Threat Environment
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GovCon Expert Chuck Brooks: Proactive Cybersecurity Is a Must in Today’s Threat Environment

Chuck Brooks, a highly esteemed cybersecurity leader as well as an influential member of Executive Mosaic’s GovCon Expert program, recently published a feature detailing the reactive mindset that both industry and the federal government have developed that has created even more challenges to address because cyber-defenders are always at least one step behind.

In a feature article with HS Today.us, GovCon Expert Chuck Brooks explored the current challenges of implementing emerging technologies as well as the need for continuous simulation validation testing, cyber resilience,  risk management and the impact proactive cybersecurity.

Here’s an excerpt from the feature from GovCon Expert Chuck Brooks:

“With the growing realization of just how important IT is to our business and as a result of the dramatic increase in breaches, there is a growing recognition that protection against them should be considered more than a business expense,” Chuck Brooks explained. “Proactive cybersecurity has been a posture that’s been adopted increasingly by industry and government,” he added. 

GovCon Expert Chuck Brooks also discussed the impact and role that technologies such as IoT, 5G, artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies like quantum computing, virtual and augmented realities will have in the cybersecurity space as the emphasis on threat detection and real-time analysis continues to grow and change how our industry does business.

“In today’s sophisticated threat environment, cybersecurity can no longer be viewed as an afterthought if businesses are going to survive and thrive,” Chuck Brooks emphasized. “There are a variety of established paths to follow in cyber risk management to fill gaps and bolster defenses. Complacency in the face of growing threats is not one of them.”

You can read all the content from GovCon Expert Chuck Brooks through Executive Mosaic on GovCon Wire.com. 

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Space Systems Command Posts RFI for New Ground-Based Command and Control Platform
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Space Systems Command Posts RFI for New Ground-Based Command and Control Platform

Space Systems Command’s Space Sensing Directorate is seeking information on a planned migration of existing Space-Based Infrared System assets from a legacy ground command and control system to a modern platform.

According to a request for information posted on SAM.gov, the Future Operationally Resilient Ground Evolution C2 system will store data from existing satellite assets including SBIRS Geosynchronous Equatorial Orbit space vehicles and SBIRS Highly Elliptical Orbit hosted payloads.

FORGE will also house information gathered from the Next Generation Overhead Persistent Infrared system to be deployed to geosynchronous Earth and polar orbit.

Legacy SBIRS and Next-Gen GEO transition to the new platform is expected to begin in 2026. Space Systems Command is looking for industry comments to inform the government’s acquisition approach to commence the project.

Responses are due Aug. 31st.

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