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Solarium Commission Co-Chairs Ask Biden to Retain Cyber Authorities in 2018 Presidential Memo
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Solarium Commission Co-Chairs Ask Biden to Retain Cyber Authorities in 2018 Presidential Memo

The co-chairs of the Cyberspace Solarium Commission called on the White House to maintain the cybersecurity authorities outlined in a 2018 national security presidential memorandum, FCW reported Friday.

Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, and Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., the commission’s co-chairs, wrote a letter to President Joe Biden saying the NSPM-13 memo expanded the Department of Defense’s authority to approve defensive and offensive cyber operations.

The lawmakers said the memo helped “limit Russian cyber-enabled information operations” during the 2018 midterm elections and presidential election in 2020.

They urged the administration not to make any major changes to the memo that provides the government a more agile process to decide on offensive cyber activities that seek to protect the country’s critical infrastructure.

“Any effort to alter and possibly weaken NSPM-13 signals to our adversaries a lack of credible willingness to use offensive cyber capabilities which undermines the credibility of our deterrent,” the letter reads.

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Appeals Court Overturns Nationwide Injunction on Federal Employee Vaccine Mandate
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Appeals Court Overturns Nationwide Injunction on Federal Employee Vaccine Mandate

A federal appeals court in New Orleans on Thursday upheld the White House’s COVID-19 vaccination requirement for federal employees in a 2-1 ruling, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The decision of the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans reversed a ruling by a federal district court judge in Texas against the Biden administration’s vaccine mandate in January.

The appeals court ruled that unvaccinated employees seeking to avoid discipline should file their complaints with the Merit Systems Protection Board instead of the courts since the mandate was an employment action that the Civil Service Reform Act covers.

In mid-January, the Supreme Court blocked the U.S. government’s COVID-19 vaccination and testing requirement for large private businesses but allowed the administration to implement a vaccine mandate for over 10 million health care workers whose facilities take part in Medicare and Medicaid programs.

The White House also ordered a vaccination mandate for federal contractors but faced a legal setback in December after a district court judge in Georgia decided to prohibit the administration from implementing the requirement.

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Air Force’s AWACS Aircraft Completes First Airborne EW Data Transmission, Updates
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Air Force’s AWACS Aircraft Completes First Airborne EW Data Transmission, Updates

An E-3G Airborne Warning and Control System aircraft of the U.S. Air Force conducted in-flight data transmissions and an in-air update for the first time during a recent proof-of-concept test in Florida.

The service branch said Thursday the electronic warfare milestone helped showcase the ability of the E-3G aircraft to adapt to new threats and complete mission data reprogramming in a short period on future battlefields.

During the test, the E-3G operated by the AWACS Combined Test Force used its Internet Protocol Enabled Communications satellite communications system to transmit EW data to the 36th Electronic Warfare Squadron, which sent back analyzed and corrected data to the aircraft within an hour.

The team then used the newly received information to update its electronic support measures database using a mission computing system onboard the aircraft.

“The next step is to build on this concept within the E-3G community and work with other airborne platforms to use IPEC and existing datalinks to provide in-air updates for other platforms,” shared Lt. Col. Dameion Briggs, commander of the 605th Test and Evaluation Squadron, Detachment 1.

Based on the Boeing 707 aircraft, E-3G uses an externally mounted radar to provide airborne early warning, command and control to the Air Force.

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SBA Launches Inaugural America’s Seed Fund Expo Competition
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SBA Launches Inaugural America’s Seed Fund Expo Competition

The Small Business Administration is looking for start-ups with technology developed through the Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer programs to join its inaugural competition.

SBA said Friday it will accept applications from small businesses until April 22 to attend America’s Seed Fund Startup Expo that will take place virtually on May 25.

In the competition guidelines, the SBA Office of Investment and Innovation said it will select up to 12 start-ups supported by America’s Seed Fund to join the competition and connect with the resources they need to compete in the global marketplace.

The competition will showcase research and development projects focused on areas including agriculture technology, climate and energy, supply chain resiliency and national security.

“With the launch of SBA’s first America’s Seed Fund Expo, we will showcase exceptional entrepreneurs who have leveraged federal R&D funding in key industries and highlight the resources to advance these game-changing innovations right here in America,” said SBA Administrator Isabella Casillas Guzman.

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Tony Barrett Promoted to President of Cyber and Engineering at BigBear.ai
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Tony Barrett Promoted to President of Cyber and Engineering at BigBear.ai

Intelligence executive Tony Barrett has been elevated to the position of president of cyber and engineering at data and digital services company BigBear.ai.

In his new role, Barrett will build upon his work in BigBear’s integrated defense solutions division while leading both security efforts and the innovation-minded creation of new strategies, he announced in a LinkedIn post on April 1.

“I am humbled as well as energized by the opportunity and look forward to many more great things at BigBear.ai,” Barrett shared.

The executive’s experience combines business operations, software and enterprise-level computer system operations and military combat service. For over two decades, Barrett was an officer, commanding officer, major and deputy director in the U.S. Marine Corps.

After this time, he began a career in the private sector spearheading intelligence-surveillance-reconaissance data and technology integration throughout various data origin points, domains and security levels at software company Modus Operandi.

Subsequently, Barrett was Hanscom site lead and and director of Department of Defense operations for technology and management consulting firm PCI, which was eventually acquired by BigBear.ai in February 2021.

Barrett’s core capabilities lie in intelligence operations, investigations, enterprise architecture and counterinsurgency operations. He also specializes in counterterrorism operations, internal and personal security and intel systems.

He attended Boston University and graduated cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in history in three years’ time while on active duty in a Marine-enlisted commissioning program.

The promotion of Barrett follows BigBear.ai’s February addition of two new senior vice presidents: Todd Hughes assumed the position of SVP of technology and research and Dan Jones came aboard as SVP of products.

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Riverside Research Receives Contracts Totaling $53.9 Million in Q1 2022; Jeff Druessel Quoted
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Riverside Research Receives Contracts Totaling $53.9 Million in Q1 2022; Jeff Druessel Quoted

Riverside Research has netted over $53.9 million in contract awards during the first quarter of 2022, the Arlington, Virginia-headquartered scientific research firm said Thursday.

“These new research programs expand our capabilities with current customers and extend our reach to support new missions,” commented Jeff Druessel, vice president of Riverside business development.

The contracts are a mix of new projects and follow-up assignments primarily from U.S. Department of Defense and intelligence sector clientele. They involve research and development efforts in software engineering and systems engineering, as well as commercial intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance.

The wins are a part of the institute’s push to further deepen its presence in the national security, military and intelligence communities. Riverside’s R&D open innovation concept is specifically designed to meet the needs of the national security market via technology modernization strategies.

Alka Bhave, chief operations officer at Riverside, remarked that the organization is “working diligently” to realign the company’s approach and staff activity with the series of new task orders and heightened profile.

In January, Riverside became a member of the National Science Foundation’s Center for Hardware and Embedded Systems Security and Trust consortium. This opportunity gives the institute direct access to new work with the Air Force Research Laboratory.

Prior to its 2022 successes, in November 2021 Riverside announced a partnership with T-REX to tackle research and development endeavors surrounding geospatial intelligence, measurement and signature intelligence, in addition to multiple intelligence.

Like their newly received contracts, this collaboration will have impacts for Department of Defense and intelligence sector customers.

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Argonne, NASA Research Applies AI to Hypersonic Engine Simulations
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Argonne, NASA Research Applies AI to Hypersonic Engine Simulations

Argonne National Laboratory and NASA researchers have published a paper on the use of artificial intelligence to speed up simulations of air behavior surrounding supersonic and hypersonic aircraft propulsion systems.

The partners trained a neural network to find shortcuts to answers about fuel combustion at environments faster than sound, reducing the memory and cost required to conduct computational fluid dynamics simulations, Argonne said Wednesday.

The AI technology is expected to enhance the current process of running massive tables of combustion data through NASA’s VULCAN-CFD hypersonic code and accelerate the development of barrier-breaking engines for supersonic and hypersonic aircraft.

“Working with NASA gave us the opportunity to integrate our novel developments in a state-of-the-art CFD code, and also to further improve the developments for more efficient design and optimization of hypersonic jets,” explained Sinan Demir, an Argonne computational scientist.

The research paper was previously presented at the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics SciTech Forum in January.

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GAO: Navy Should Manage Uncrewed Maritime Systems as a Portfolio
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GAO: Navy Should Manage Uncrewed Maritime Systems as a Portfolio

The Government Accountability Office has recommended that the U.S. Navy develop a cost estimate that includes the full costs to build and operate unmanned maritime systems and come up with a portfolio of uncrewed systems to enable the service branch to balance resources and focus on the digital infrastructure and other common elements.

The Navy plans to spend approximately $4.3 billion on the procurement of 21 uncrewed vehicles in the next five years to help counter existing and future maritime threats, acccording to a GAO report published Thursday.

The congressional watchdog also called on the Navy, which is conducting prototyping work on six types of unmanned systems, to set evaluation criteria for assessing the readiness of each vehicle prototype to transition to an acquisition program and establish a master planning schedule for prototype efforts.

“With detailed planning, prototyping has the potential to further technology development and reduce acquisition risk before the Navy makes significant investments,” the GAO report reads.

GAO added that optimizing the prototyphing phase for uncrewed systems will enable the military branch to generate information needed to support future decisions.

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Brig. Gen. Jason Cothern: Space Force Eyes About $400M in FY23 Funding for MEO Satellite Constellation
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Brig. Gen. Jason Cothern: Space Force Eyes About $400M in FY23 Funding for MEO Satellite Constellation

Brig. Gen. Jason Cothern, deputy commander of Space Systems Command, said the $1 billion in new funding for hypersonic missile tracking in the U.S. Space Force’s budget request for fiscal year 2023 will be divided into several efforts, including approximately $400 million for the procurement of a new satellite constellation in medium Earth orbit, Breaking Defense reported Thursday.

Cothern told the publication the MEO satellite network would be used to help track hypersonic missiles. The proposed constellation is undergoing the Missile Track Custody Prototype program, which seeks to develop a digital design for future satellites to help accelerate procurement activities.

The service will use the rest of the new funding to pursue the development of the Space Development Agency’s Tracking Layer and a ground systems architecture to support that layer of satellites in low Earth orbit and the MEO constellation.

Cothern said the Department of Defense is forming a “combined program office” to coordinate the integration of the two constellations into the “hybrid” architecture for missile warning and tracking efforts and oversee the implementation of that architecture.

The proposed office would involve SDA, SSC and the Missile Defense Agency, according to Cothern.

Hypersonics Forum

Join ExecutiveBiz Events for the Hypersonics Forum this spring to hear from federal and industry leaders as they discuss the role of public-private partnerships in hypersonics development in relation to national security, military capabilities and strategic competition in today’s evolving threat landscape.

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House Panel OKs Federal Contracting for Peace and Security Act
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House Panel OKs Federal Contracting for Peace and Security Act

The House Oversight and Reform Committee has passed a bill that would prohibit the federal government from doing business with companies that continue to operate in Russia during the country’s invasion of Ukraine.

Rep. Carolyn Maloney, chairwoman of the House panel, proposed the Federal Contracting for Peace and Security Act, which would require agencies to terminate existing contracts with such companies and make exceptions for contracts or operations that meet basic human needs, the House panel said Thursday.

The measure would also make exceptions for information exchange, journalistic activities and for companies pursuing efforts to stop business operations in Russia.

Maloney said she is proud that the House committee approved the bill that was introduced in response to Ukrainian President Zelenskyy’s plea to help put an end to the Russian invasion.

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