Software company VMware has attained approval for government usage of several cloud-based applications at the high-impact level through the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program.

Thanks to confirmation via FedRAMP High Authorization, the program suite VMware Government Services — including VMware Carbon Black Cloud and VMware SD-WAN on AWS GovCloud — is now cleared to assist federal agencies with secure data migration and management, the Palo Alto, California-headquartered company said Thursday.

Jennifer Chronis, vice president of the public sector department at VMware, explained that the FedRAMP authorization allows the organization’s team to tailor their services to each agency’s individual digital transformation needs as well as configure their efforts to meet mission requirements.

Chronis, who is a two-time consecutive Wash100 Award winner, also said the newly achieved clearances will empower VMware to help agencies “innovate faster and create resiliency while adhering to the highest security and compliance standards.”

The program suite approved by FedRAMP features software-as-a-service, platform-as-a-service, and infrastructure-as-a-service offerings.

VMware Carbon Black Cloud reportedly operates by alerting agencies of cybersecurity threats, with capabilities such as threat notifications, deterrence and response on endpoints and server task agendas. The program is meant to gather intelligence throughout various system locations (such as data centers, the edge and cloud) and its purpose builds on VMware’s membership with the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s Joint Cyber Defense Collaborative.

Meanwhile, VMware SD-WAN is a software-rooted WAN application that aims to provide a unified connection between users at dispersed locations. It’s a coworking platform that the company says has been widely embraced by government agencies for ushering agency networks into an era where work from home strategies have been commonplace. SD-WAN is also a potential element in helping agencies meet newfound zero-trust requirements.

The FedRAMP authorizations for VMware Government Services follow the company’s April achievement of FedRAMP High Authorization and DISA impact level 5 provisional authorization of its VMware Cloud on AWS GovCloud program.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has issued a request for information in search of potential cloud services providers for a data repository that would store space situational awareness data from both government and commercial entities.

A sources sought notice posted Wednesday says the agency is conducting market research into cloud platform management services to support the Department of Commerce’s Open Architecture Data Repository.

The department intends for the system to ingest, archive, process and disseminate data for space environment monitoring and analysis efforts.

NOAA noted the OADR project is part of efforts to transfer the Department of Defense’s commercial SSA mission, which includes the government’s unclassified space object catalog, to Commerce.

The agency is interested in working with a vendor to manage the repository based on the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s Cloud Model.

Responses to the notice are due Aug. 18.

The U.S. Marine Corps and industry partners are working to build and deploy the Live Virtual Constructive-Training Environment, a software-intensive platform designed to connect legacy training systems to support the service branch’s training exercises.

“The LVC-TE program is a key component of TECOM’s modernization efforts for the Marine Corps and conforms to the tenets of the Commandant’s Planning Guidance and Force Design 2030,” Brig. Gen. Matthew Reid, deputy commanding general of Marine Corps Training and Education Command, said in a statement published Wednesday.

“LVC-TE will be the foundational program for the Marine Corps’ future simulation-supported training to improve our ability to fight and win our nation’s battles,” Reid added.

The program manager for training systems, also known as PM TRASYS, within Marine Corps Systems Command oversees LVC-TE as a program of record and uses the Software Acquisition Pathway for the platform.

PM TRASYS received authorization to transition LVC-TE to the execution milestone phase in April and is working to achieve Minimum Viable Capability Release in April 2023.

The new training environment will operate on commercial-off-the-shelf hardware and feature exercise design tools to support exercise and scenario planning.

The government of Czech Republic has authorized its defense ministry to facilitate the procurement of F-35 Lightning II fighter jets from the U.S. government to support the modernization of the country’s armed forces.

“I was authorised to form an inter-ministerial negotiating team and commence negotiations with the United States Government to procure 24 units of the F-35 Lightning II multirole fighters to equip two squadrons,” Jana Cernochova, defense minister of Czech Republic, said in a statement published Wednesday.

Cernochova said the government’s decision to acquire the Lockheed Martin-built fighter aircraft comes amid increasing costs of weapon systems and scarcity of materials and production capacity, resulting in longer lead times.

The government said sharing the same aircraft with the U.S. and other NATO allies will help strengthen cooperation, capability sharing and joint training and improve its defense posture.

Czech Republic also announced plans to buy CV90 combat vehicles from the government of Sweden after it decided to drop the tender for infantry fighting vehicles.

The Department of Defense has announced the establishment of the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office within the office of the undersecretary for intelligence and security and appointment of Sean Kirkpatrick, most recently chief scientist at the Defense Intelligence Agency’s missile and space intelligence center, as director of AARO.

The AARO will synchronize efforts across DOD and with other federal agencies to detect and identify airborne, anomalous, unidentified space, transmedium and submerged objects in and near military bases, training areas, special use airspace and other areas of interest, DOD said Wednesday.

Kirkpatrick brings to the role over 20 years of experience in scientific and technical intelligence, acquisitions, research and development and space policy.

He previously served as deputy director of intelligence for U.S. Strategic Command, director of the National Security Strategy at the National Security Council and deputy director of intelligence and DNI Representative for U.S. Space Command.

Ronald Moultrie, undersecretary of defense for intelligence and security, will lead the AARO Executive Council to provide direction to the newly created office along six lines of effort: surveillance, collection and reporting; system capabilities and design; intelligence operations and analysis; mitigation and defeat; governance; and science and technology.

Moultrie established the AARO in accordance with a July 15 memo that Kathleen Hicks, deputy defense secretary and a 2022 Wash100 Award winner, issued to meet the provision of the fiscal year 2022 National Defense Authorization Act.