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Lawmakers Call on DoD to Provide Ukraine With Unmanned Aerial Platforms
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Lawmakers Call on DoD to Provide Ukraine With Unmanned Aerial Platforms

A bipartisan group of 17 House lawmakers wrote a letter to Lloyd Austin, secretary of the Department of Defense and a 2022 Wash100 Award winner, urging DOD to provide Ukraine with advanced drones to help the country reclaim the territory seized by Russian forces, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.

“Ukraine could better confront Russian threats with advanced [unmanned aerial systems] like the MQ-1C Gray Eagle or the MQ-9A Reaper,” the lawmakers wrote in the Wednesday letter reviewed by WSJ.

The legislators said the Pentagon should complete a security assessment of such UAS, which they think would provide Ukrainian forces with long-range precision tracking and targeting and continuous surveillance capabilities against Russian missiles and rockets.

Reps. Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio; Adam Schiff, D-Calif.; Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich.; Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa.; and Rep. Victoria Spartz, R-Ind., were among the letter’s signatories.

General Atomics-built Gray Eagles could provide warfighters real-time intelligence and enable them to fire Hellfire missiles against adversaries. DoD declined to comment on the letter, according to the report.

General Atomics said it has been in talks for months with officials from the U.S. and Ukraine and is ready to train Ukrainian soldiers on how to use the unmanned platforms.

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Bipartisan Bill Aims to Fortify Open Source Software Security
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Bipartisan Bill Aims to Fortify Open Source Software Security

Sens. Gary Peters, D-Mich., and Rob Portman, R-Ohio, have proposed a bill with the intent to strengthen the U.S. government’s security defenses against open source software vulnerabilities.

The introduction of the Securing Open Source Software Act was prompted by the discovery of vulnerability in the Log4j logging platform, which exposed federal systems and critical infrastructure to remotely executable malicious attacks, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee said Thursday.

The legislation would direct the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency to establish a risk framework that could be voluntarily utilized by government entities and critical infrastructure owners and operators that use open source systems.

Under the bill, CISA would commission a team of IT experts to facilitate a collaborative response between the government and community in cases such as the Log4j vulnerability. 

It will be the first legislation to codify open source software as public infrastructure, said Trey Herr, director of the Atlantic Council’s Cyber Statecraft Initiative under the Digital Forensic Research Laboratory. “If signed into law, it would serve as a historic step for wider federal support for the health and security of open source software,” he added.

Peters is chairman and Portman a ranking member of the committee, which convened a hearing in February on the Log4j incident. It was deemed as one of the most severe and widespread cybersecurity risks to date. 

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GSA Names 28 Members of Federal Buying Advisory Panel; Robin Carnahan Quoted
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GSA Names 28 Members of Federal Buying Advisory Panel; Robin Carnahan Quoted

The General Services Administration announced the 28 inaugural members of its Acquisition Policy Federal Advisory Committee during the panel’s first meeting held Thursday.

Troy Cribb, director of policy at the Partnership for Public Service, will serve as the chairperson and her co-chair will be Cassius Butts, chief strategy officer and managing partner of capital for Global Leader Group, the agency said Thursday.

“GSA plays a leading role, through our Federal Acquisition Service. It’s our responsibility to bring together top experts from around the country with practical, on-the-ground experience to help generate ideas for how we can improve the way government buys things and leverage the government’s buying power to advance important policy goals,” said GSA Administrator Robin Carnahan.

The other members are:

  • Jennie Romer, Environmental Protection Agency
  • Antonio Doss, Small Business Administration
  • Richard Beutel, George Mason University
  • Nigel Stephens, Phoenix Strategies
  • Luke Bassis, Port Authority of New York and New Jersey
  • David Malone, City of St. Petersburg, Fl.
  • Mark Hayden, State of New Mexico
  • Stacy Smedley, Building Transparency
  • David Wagger, Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries
  • Anish Tilak, Rocky Mountain Institute
  • Kimberly Wise White, American Chemistry Council
  • C. Gail Bassette, Bowie State University
  • Nicole Darnall, Arizona State University
  • Steven Schooner, George Washington University
  • Amlan Mukherjee, Michigan Technological University
  • Farad Ali, Asociar LLC
  • Mamie Mallory, Mallory & Associates 
  • Anne Rung, Varis LLC
  • Keith Tillage, Tillage Construction
  • Clyde Thompson, GovStrive
  • Deryl Mckissack, Mckissack & Mckissack
  • Darryl Daniels, Jacobsen Daniels Assoc.
  • Susan Lorenz-Fisher, AmerisourceBergen Corporation
  • Kristin Seaver, General Dynamics Information Technology
  • Leslie Cordes, Ceres
  • Denise Bailey, Milligan Consulting
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Valiant Secures $49.9M Marine Corps Contract for Training, Readiness Technology Services; Tammy Schmidt Quoted
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Valiant Secures $49.9M Marine Corps Contract for Training, Readiness Technology Services; Tammy Schmidt Quoted

Defense contractor Valiant Integrated Services has landed a three-year, $49.9 million contract from the U.S. Marine Corps to provide training and readiness tools and information.

The work is an extension of Valiant’s ongoing efforts under the Trackless Mobile Infantry Targets task order and will find the Valiant team developing and implementing semi-autonomous technologies as well as delivering data to training evaluators, the Herndon, Virginia-headquartered company said Thursday.

“This award allows us to continue to meet our customer’s live training needs with a set of innovative solutions that will result in the refined development of enhanced combat skills, previously only attainable in force-on-force training,” remarked Valiant Vice President of Global Training and Readiness Tammy Schmidt.

Schmidt additionally noted that the award is the latest in a history of collaborations with the Marine Corps that stretches back decades.

Through the latest contract, Valiant will prototype and deploy semi-autonomous, human-type TMITs that are able to navigate a live-fire training range and mimic the movements and threats presented by real-life adversaries for up-and-coming warfighters to engage with. Valiant is expected to furnish the TMITs to Marine facilities in North Carolina, California, Hawaii and Japan.

Furthermore, the company is expected to perform system operations and supply data for after-action review purposes, as well as maintain operational preparedness and design and update TMIT training situations and concepts.

Valiant will team with Marathon Targets to execute the work, which is the third task order they have received via the Marine Air-Ground Task Force Training Support Services indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract. The company has been a part of the MTSS IDIQ contracts since the program’s 2003 inception.

Earlier this month, it was announced that Valiant will compete for task orders in the Defense Threat Reduction Agency’s 10-year, $850 million contract vehicle. These will include modeling and simulation, exercises and assessment support, not unlike what they will be carrying out for the Marine Corps.

In August, the company won a five-year, $77 million contract from the U.S. Navy to run and sustain waterbound training mechanisms at naval air stations in Florida and Washington.

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DOE Announces Pledges to Increase Semiconductor Energy Efficiency; Alejandro Moreno Quoted
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DOE Announces Pledges to Increase Semiconductor Energy Efficiency; Alejandro Moreno Quoted

The Department of Energy has revealed the inaugural set of companies and organizations that committed to double the energy efficiency of semiconductors every two years over the next two decades.

DOE said Wednesday the Energy Efficiency Scaling for 2 Decades initiative aims to establish a roadmap designed to guide domestic semiconductor research, design, development and demonstration efforts.

The Advanced Manufacturing Office, which leads the EES2 initiative, will build on the recommendations from DOE’s deep dive assessments of the U.S. semiconductor industry and gather information from stakeholders through a series of workshops to build the roadmap.

Microsoft, Intel, Micron, Synopsys, SRC and AMD are among the 21 inaugural signing partners of the EES2 initiative pledge.

“DOE is excited to work closely with industry to build the next generation of energy efficient semiconductors right here at home, bolstering domestic manufacturing and creating good-paying jobs for American workers,” said Alejandro Moreno, acting assistant secretary for energy efficiency and renewable energy.

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Texas A&M University Opens Application for NIST-Funded AI Prize Competition
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Texas A&M University Opens Application for NIST-Funded AI Prize Competition

Texas A&M University is inviting the public to apply for a prize competition aimed at developing artificial intelligence systems designed to help first responders and smart communities interpret data from internet of things devices.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology-funded Smart Communities, Smart Responder AI for IoT Prize Challenge seeks to use the emerging technology to aggregate and present actionable environmental data to public safety professionals in real-time.

The goal is to create AI systems that work to ingest unknown data from various sources and evaluate and categorize the data based on metadata and other contextual information.

NIST’s Public Safety Communications Research Division awarded Texas A&M University approximately $1.2 million for the competition scheduled to open on Nov. 20. Interested parties have until Jan. 10, 2023, to submit concept papers for the challenge’s first phase.

During phase 2, a team of subject matter experts will judge the participants’ fully functional systems and select entries for a live demonstration event at the Disaster City in fall 2023. 

The first-place winner will receive a $100,000 cash prize.

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DIU Showcases Energy Portfolio Projects at 2022 Pentagon Energy Expo
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DIU Showcases Energy Portfolio Projects at 2022 Pentagon Energy Expo

The Defense Innovation Unit is showcasing at the inaugural Pentagon Energy Expo several prototype projects designed to enhance operational energy capabilities across the U.S. military.

DIU said Wednesday its exhibit features four Energy Portfolio efforts that aim to equip tactical vehicles with hybrid energy-capture systems, develop high-performance microgrids with energy storage capabilities for extreme cold weather, prototype a multi-mission electric small watercraft and build 3D-printed expeditionary structures.

The Energy Portfolio program was unveiled in 2020 and has since launched 21 projects to build the resilience of military installations worldwide.

The Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment announced the expo to demonstrate energy technologies designed to improve warfighting capabilities.

The event exhibits more than 100 technologies in the areas of general energy; vehicle electrification; contingency basing and installation energy resilience; energy storage, distribution and generation; alternative energy sources; and software and cybersecurity.

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GovCon Expert David Egts Joins MuleSoft as First Public Sector Field CTO
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GovCon Expert David Egts Joins MuleSoft as First Public Sector Field CTO

David Egts, a key member of Executive Mosaic’s GovCon Expert program, announced on Monday via LinkedIn that the more than 30-year technical and digital government veteran has joined MuleSoft as the company’s first-ever Field CTO for its Public Sector business.

In his new position with the company, GovCon Expert David Egts will act as the executive-level connective tissue between MuleSoft and the top public sector decision makers and influencers across the globe.

Most recently, Egts concluded his nearly 16-year tenure with Red Hat and most recently was the company’s chief technologist as well as the senior director of its Public Sector business in North America.  With MuleSoft, he’ll continue to draw from his extensive experience assisting federal agencies to accelerate their digital government efforts and improve service delivery.

In addition, David Egts will be responsible for communicating the corporate direction and product roadmap to public sector business and technology leaders. He will also have great influence over the company’s corporate and product strategy through industry expertise and synthesized field input.

GovCon Expert David Egts spoke with GovCon Wire for an Executive Spotlight interview back in June regarding the ways that federal agencies can improve their development processes to deliver better citizen experiences faster, including a greater focus on automation and reducing the amount of “sludge” that both IT professionals have to go through for government services.

“Sludge is all those little things that add up and impede the user experience and organizational efficiency…All that sludge mucks up the works internally,” Egts explained during the Executive Spotlight interview.

“Teams spend considerable amounts of time manually managing and keeping track of all the processes and tools, which prevents them from focusing on the users and improving their experience. And users suffer because they have to go through all these unnecessary steps on the front end,” he continued.

Visit GovCon Wire.com to read the full Executive Spotlight with GovCon Expert David Egts.

About MuleSoft

MuleSoft, a Salesforce company, is the top provider of the world’s #1 trusted integration and API platform, empowers any company to quickly unlock and integrate their apps and data to create seamless experiences, faster.

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FCC Adds PacNet/ComNet, China Unicom to Security Threat List; Jessica Rosenworcel Quoted
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FCC Adds PacNet/ComNet, China Unicom to Security Threat List; Jessica Rosenworcel Quoted

The Federal Communications Commission has identified China Unicom Americas Operation, Pacific Network Corp. and its subsidiary ComNet USA as foreign national security threats.

FCC’s Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau added the companies to its “covered list” after they were found to be under the Chinese government’s control, influence and exploitation.

The decision is in response to findings by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, the Department of Justice and the Department of Defense, which showed how China Unicom and PacNet/ComNet pose an “unacceptable risk” to U.S. national security.

“Earlier this year the FCC revoked China Unicom America’s and PacNet/ComNet’s authorities to provide service in the United States because of the national security risks they posed to communications in the United States,” FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said.

The commission released its list of communications equipment and services that could compromise national network security and privacy in March 2021 to comply with the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Act.

Mitre Report: ODNI Should Establish Priority Intelligence Need Process
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Mitre Report: ODNI Should Establish Priority Intelligence Need Process

Mitre has released a report recommending that the Office of the Director of National Intelligence develop a priority intelligence need process across the Intelligence Community to facilitate integration and coordination.

Mitre said Wednesday its report found that the IC does not have processes to come up with a “unified set of prioritized needs” that could guide senior leaders in filling capability gaps.

“Developing a system to identify a unified set of prioritized gaps, or prioritized critical intelligence needs, would help senior leaders make informed decisions to better address the Community’s most pressing needs. It could also be used to help shape other key processes, such as developing future strategic guidance, future year fiscal planning, and mission value frameworks,” the report reads.

According to the report, establishing a process to prioritize requirements would enable the community to shift resources to reduce programmatic risks and prevent the loss of key programs, resource investments and capabilities.

Mitre said priority intelligence needs would help ODNI balance acquisition initiatives against the IC’s future and current prioritized needs and pursue a mission-based approach to advance future capability development initiatives, among others.

The report, which presents a notional prioritized intelligence needs process for the community, was authored by William Gray and Mihai Lungulescu, principal systems engineers at Mitre’s collection and tasking division.

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