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NAVWAR Creates Program Management Office for C3 Shore Commands
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NAVWAR Creates Program Management Office for C3 Shore Commands

Naval Information Warfare Systems Command has established a new office within the Fleet and Logistics Support Directorate to provide sustainment, modernization and life cycle support for command, control and communications shore commands.

Once fully operational, the C3 Shore Program Management Office will plan, budget and execute support initiatives for on-shore installations and facilities accommodating the U.S. Navy’s C3 systems that provide global connectivity for the fleet, the service branch said Friday.

NAVWAR works to ensure the material readiness and sustainment of the 44 initial C3 shore command sites including the Naval Computer and Telecommunications Master Stations, Naval Computer and Telecommunication Stations with Network Operations Centers and Maritime Operation Centers.

According to the Navy, C3 systems play a key role in delivering critical information necessary to plan, coordinate and control military forces and operations worldwide.

“Sustainment, life cycle support, and modernization of shore sites are critical to provide the Naval Operational Architecture to support enhanced Distributed Maritime Operations, and to provide resilient and robust IW capabilities so the fleet can communicate at any time and from anywhere,” said Marc Schweighofer, deputy C3 shore program manager at NAVWAR.

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DOE Unveils Playbook for Building Risk Management Into AI Use, Development
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DOE Unveils Playbook for Building Risk Management Into AI Use, Development

The Department of Energy’s Artificial Intelligence and Technology Office (AITO) has released a comprehensive reference guide outlining steps and practices that organization leaders can take to develop proactive risk management plans for AI efforts.

The AI Risk Management Playbook gives users access to more than 100 risks and mitigation techniques that they can customize to support their development of AI use cases, DOE said Monday.

The AITO collaborated with internal stakeholders, industry, academia and other agencies to finalize and unveil an external version of the playbook ahead of the previously announced release schedule.

Pamela Isom, director of AITO, said her office worked closely with the National Institute of Standards and Technology and other partners to develop the AI RMP in a manner that complements “existing playbooks and frameworks and not replace them.”

“We are in the planning stages of the next release with additional functionalities and capabilities. In addition, we will conduct town halls to garner feedback from the public and other agencies for future releases,” Isom said.

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CBO: Enacting FY23 NDAA Would Boost Direct Spending by $1.2B Over 10 Years
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CBO: Enacting FY23 NDAA Would Boost Direct Spending by $1.2B Over 10 Years

The Congressional Budget Office estimates the government would see an increase of about $1.2 billion in direct spending between 2023 and 2032 as a result of the enactment of the fiscal year 2023 National Defense Authorization Act.

CBO said Monday the FY 2023 NDAA would authorize $846.7 billion in appropriations for the Department of Defense’s military operations and the Department of Energy’s atomic energy defense initiatives.

According to CBO’s cost estimate, implementation of the bill would have an insignificant effect on revenues between 2023 and 2032 and appropriations of the authorized funds under the measure would lead to $817.4 billion in outlays from 2023 through 2027.

The agency said the legislation would authorize $323.1 billion for operation and maintenance; $159.1 billion for procurement; $179.8 billion for service personnel; $137.7 billion for research and development; $17.3 billion for military construction and family housing; and $29.7 billion for atomic energy initiatives.

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DARPA Launches AI for Critical Mineral Assessment Competition
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DARPA Launches AI for Critical Mineral Assessment Competition

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has teamed up with the U.S. Geological Survey to look at the potential role of artificial intelligence and machine learning in accelerating assessments of critical minerals and launched a competition in support of the effort.

DARPA said Monday it will collaborate with USGS, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Mitre on the AI for Critical Mineral Assessment Competition, which will feature the Map Georeferencing Challenge and Map Feature Extraction Challenge.

“The USGS’s critical mineral resource assessments are at the heart of our domestic supply and production of critical minerals,” said Anne Fischer, deputy director of DARPA’s Defense Sciences Office. 

“We want to have a measurable, immediate impact on the USGS’s ability to reach some of its objectives, especially in ways that are critical to national security,” added Fischer.

DARPA opened the registration for the first challenge on Monday, Aug. 15, with plans to kick off the second challenge on Aug. 29.

The agency will award $10,000 for the top prize, $3,000 for the second and $1,000 for the third prize of each competition in October.

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Air Force Solicits Quotes for On-Ramp Platform One DevSecOps Basic Ordering Agreement
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Air Force Solicits Quotes for On-Ramp Platform One DevSecOps Basic Ordering Agreement

The U.S. Air Force has issued a request for quotes as part of the on-ramp process to the existing basic ordering agreement for software DevSecOps services.

The service’s Platform One at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland in Texas plans to award 10 BOAs to small and large businesses through the on-ramping process and expects the ordering period for all orders awarded through the agreement to not exceed five years, according to a solicitation published Monday.

Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman were among the initial awardees on the software DevSecOps BOA.

Platform One is developing an infrastructure-agnostic platform to support the Department of Defense’s infrastructure options, including government clouds, on-premise and classified environments, with the ability to field a DevSecOps platform.

Some of the technical requirements listed in the statement of objectives are maintaining and supporting the Platform One DevSecOps stack across several security classifications and onboarding product teams across DOD as they use the Platform One tech stack to continuously build and deploy code to multiple security environments.

Questions regarding the solicitation are due Aug. 22. The Air Force will accept quotes through Sept. 7.

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NIWC Pacific Unveils New Lab for Network Testing, Validation Efforts; Tonya Nishio Quoted
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NIWC Pacific Unveils New Lab for Network Testing, Validation Efforts; Tonya Nishio Quoted

The Naval Information Warfare Center Pacific and its collaborators have established the Navy/Marine Corps Intranet Naval Enterprise Networks Baseline Lab to provide rapid end-to-end testing capability in like-live environments.

The NMCI/NEN Baseline Lab is Navy-owned and contractor-operated and has recently achieved full operational capability, the Department of Defense said Monday.

NIWC Pacific engineers would be able to perform tests and validation of NMCI developments before they are fielded to avoid contracting delays and ensure warfighters are equipped with tech more quickly.

NIWC Pacific Naval Enterprise Networks team worked with the Program Executive Office, Digital and Enterprise Services and Next Generation Enterprise Network Service, Management, Integration and Transport contractor team to launch the lab at its Topside facility.

“Establishing a fully integrated NEN lab at a government facility is a critical component of naval network transformation; providing continuity, improved agility, accelerated innovation, enhanced security and significant cost avoidance,” said Tonya Nishio, chief information officer of Naval Information Warfare Systems Command.

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Space Force Assumes Responsibility Over US Military Satcom Functions; Lt. Gen. Stephen Whiting Quoted
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Space Force Assumes Responsibility Over US Military Satcom Functions; Lt. Gen. Stephen Whiting Quoted

The U.S. Space Force formally took over the U.S. Army’s military satellite communications mission, marking the consolidation of all Department of Defense satcom functions under one service branch.

Lt. Gen. Daniel Karbler, head of Army Space and Missile Defense Command, passed 53rd Signal Battalion colors to Space Operations Command chief Lt. Gen. Stephen Whiting at a ceremony that took place Monday at Peterson Space Force Base in Colorado.

Prior to the transfer, the battalion held payload and transmission responsibility over constellations of Defense Satellite Communications System and Wideband Global System satellites.

The 53rd Space Operations Squadron, part of SpOC’s Space Delta 8, will now handle the constellations that were built to offer connectivity for the U.S. president and partners of the country that perform operations across the globe.

USSF added its SATCOM Office will oversee four regional support hubs located in Colorado, Florida, Hawaii and Germany. 

Monday’s ceremony also marked the transfer of 500 military and civilian Department of the Army positions to the Department of the Air Force.

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DISAWERX Launched to Provide DOD Personnel With Collaborative IT Innovation Lab
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DISAWERX Launched to Provide DOD Personnel With Collaborative IT Innovation Lab

The Defense Information Systems Agency has established a new laboratory meant to provide all Department of Defense members with a collaborative environment where they can work to foster information technology innovation.

DISAWERX is a virtual and physical lab for DOD personnel to get together and work on IT advancements to help meet the increasing demand for technologies with added functionality, the agency said Friday.

The unclassified environment does not follow the Security Technical Implementation Guide and is accessible via internet for rapid development and prototyping efforts, according to Jeanelle Holder, program manager of DISAWERX.

“With the creation of DISAWERX, employees can bring commercial and open-source technologies into their own ‘sandbox,’ a safe environment to test, develop and prototype solutions that can solve some of DISA’s biggest technical challenges,” she added.

The lab is based out of the Joint All Domain Warfighting Lab of KBR in Maryland while its online component is accessible from virtual private network, with users being provided their own machines.

“The objective of DISAWERX is to make it easier and faster to bring in, integrate and explore new technologies, IT tools and services while allowing DISA employees to collaborate with uncleared individuals from industry and academia,” said Holder.

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Terran Orbital CAPSTONE Spacecraft Recognized by Voting Body; Marc Bell Quoted
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Terran Orbital CAPSTONE Spacecraft Recognized by Voting Body; Marc Bell Quoted

Satellite producer Terran Orbital has been distinguished by a voting body for its lunar-orbiting CAPSTONE spacecraft.

The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Small Spacecraft Technical Committee recognized the CAPSTONE endeavor as Mission of the Year for its achievement in structural design modification, instrument development and communications facilitation, the Boca Raton, Florida-based company said Monday.

Marc Bell, CEO, chairman and co-founder of Terran Orbital, expressed the company’s honor in receiving the award, and thanked NASA, with whom the satellite manufacturers have worked closely on the CAPSTONE project under the auspices of the Artemis initiative.

Bell also credited the engineers who have labored over the spacecraft and who are now directing the ship to the Moon.

The mission of the Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment, or CAPSTONE, is to evaluate and confirm the calculated orbital stability needed for the Lunar Gateway space station. The 55-pound craft is scheduled to arrive in a 1,000 mile vicinity of one lunar pole on its near pass and come within 43,500 miles of the other pole at each one-week peak. Its final lunar arrival date is November 13.

Among CAPSTONE’s achievements is its status as the first spacecraft to chart a near rectilinear halo orbit, which intends to strike an exact balance point in the gravitational zones of Earth and the Moon. By completing this experimental test run, CAPSTONE is poised to ensure that future crafts traveling this orbit will not run into any surprises.

In July, Terran Orbital completed the first statistical maneuvers, in the form of a TCM burn, to enable a stable course for the CAPSTONE’s mission.

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Cherokee Federal Division Secures Spot on $850M DTRA Contract; Karl Gaskins Quoted
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Cherokee Federal Division Secures Spot on $850M DTRA Contract; Karl Gaskins Quoted

A federal contracting company under the Cherokee Federal banner has landed a spot on a potential $850 million contract from the Defense Threat Reduction Agency for security support.

Under the indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity award, Cherokee Nation Strategic Programs will conduct evaluations, practices and modeling and simulations to help national and international chemical, biological, radiological nuclear and high explosives security, the Tulsa, Oklahoma-based organization said Thursday.

“It is an honor to continue supporting the Defense Threat Reduction Agency to protect Americans here at home and our international partners abroad,” commented Karl Gaskins, operations general manager for CNSP.

Gaskins also shared that the specialists on staff at CNSP have been collaborating with the DTRA to perform vulnerability threat assessments for six years. The new contract is a continuation and expansion of this work.

Four other organizations in addition to CNSP earned spots on the DTRA contract. It is aimed to contribute to the efforts of the Department of Defense, the U.S. federal government broadly as well as its international allies, to mitigate and rebuff domestic and international threats.

To complete the assignment, CNSP will leverage its team’s proven track record of partnering with government clients to address challenges in military operational management, overseas diplomatic infrastructure, forensics intelligence analysis, vulnerability/suitability assessments, as well as security force operations and management.

The DTRA contract follows the Defense Health Agency’s multiple award contract to Cherokee Nation Operational Solutions, another Cherokee Federal division, in June. Under this ID/IQ award, CNOS will offer research and development services and translational science and support services.

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