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Senators Agree With DNI Over Need to Prioritize Efforts to Improve Declassification System
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Senators Agree With DNI Over Need to Prioritize Efforts to Improve Declassification System

Sens. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Jerry Moran, R-Kan., said they are encouraged by programs within the Intelligence Community to automate the declassification review process and welcome the move of Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Avril Haines to recognize the risks posed by deficiencies in the current classification system to national security.

“We agree with the DNI that efforts such as these need to be better prioritized and funded, Wyden and Moran said in a joint statement published Thursday.

“There must also be a process by which the most effective modernization processes are identified as best practices and applied across the government,” they added.

Haines, a 2022 Wash100 Award winner, responded to an October 2021 letter by the lawmakers regarding the need to reform the U.S. declassification system. She also provided examples of declassification efforts that are underway within the IC.

The lawmakers also called for reforms of executive orders that govern classification and declassification.

“We have asked the DNI to coordinate with the National Security Council to make needed updates and we intend to reach out to the Administration to address this critically important reform,” Moran and Wyden noted.

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Anne Neuberger Arrives in Brussels to Prepare NATO for Potential Russian Cyberattacks
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Anne Neuberger Arrives in Brussels to Prepare NATO for Potential Russian Cyberattacks

The White House on Tuesday deployed Anne Neuberger, the country’s deputy national security adviser for cyber and emerging technology, to NATO to help allies disrupt potential Russian cyberattacks on Ukraine and prepare for possible retaliatory attacks on the U.S. and Europe once the alliance invokes sanctions on Russia, The New York Times reported.

Neuberger’s visit highlighted intelligence assessments that cyberattacks on Ukraine’s government ministries, electric grid and communications systems would likely come before a Russian invasion of Ukraine.

“We have been warning for weeks and months, both publicly and privately, that cyberattacks could be part of a broad-based Russian effort to destabilize and further invade Ukraine,” the White House said in a statement.

Nueberger, a two-time Wash100 Award winner, was scheduled to speak with the North Atlantic Council in Brussels to inform them of possible disruptive cyberactions during a conflict. She will then travel to Poland to meet with officials in charge of cyberdefense efforts.

Ukraine is set to perform experiments in the next few weeks that include connecting to other power grids in Europe and detaching from Russia’s electric supply network.

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Idaho National Lab Completes Prototype of DOE Electrically Heated Microreactor
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Idaho National Lab Completes Prototype of DOE Electrically Heated Microreactor

Machinists from the Idaho National Laboratory have built a full-scale prototype of a microreactor that uses an external electricity source for heating instead of the traditional nuclear fission process.

INL said Monday the Microreactor Applications Research Validation and Evaluation system will undergo trials to verify the design of an envisioned 100-kilowatt thermal reactor for a planned U.S. nuclear microgrid.

The MARVEL prototype, developed under a Department of Energy project, will be used to test the reactor’s natural circulation for cooling, electricity-generating engines for removing heat decay, four control drums for absorbing and reflecting neutrons in case of an accident and various remote monitoring capabilities.

According to Yasir Arafat, MARVEL technical and project lead, testing a prototype is required because models alone could replicate flow and heat dynamics inside a reactor to a high degree of reliability and confidence.

Once trials are completed, INL plans to develop and install a demonstration microreactor at its Transient Reactor Test facility and achieve criticality with the energy source by 2024 for external research work.

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Space Force Posts RFI for National Security Space Launch Phase 3 Program
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Space Force Posts RFI for National Security Space Launch Phase 3 Program

The U.S. Space Force has released a request for information on the capabilities of commercial launch service providers to send national security payloads to space starting in fiscal 2025.

The USSF’s Space Systems Command Launch Enterprise will accept comments from companies interested to compete for the National Security Space Launch Phase 3 contracts until Feb. 24th, according to the RFI on SAM.gov.

SSC/LE is interested in information such as the availability of launch capabilities, the concept of operations, business case analysis and alternate approaches to inform the Phase 3 acquisition strategy.

The service branch’s ongoing market research follows an industry day held on Aug. 17th. United Launch Alliance and SpaceX currently provide launch services under Phase 2 contracts that are expected to end in fiscal 2027.

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Army Launches New Supercomputing Research Center Facilities in Mississippi
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Army Launches New Supercomputing Research Center Facilities in Mississippi

The U.S. Army’s Engineer Research and Development Center has opened a pair of new facilities for the Supercomputing Research Center in Vicksburg, Mississippi.

The facilities provide 10,000 square feet of space for large-scale supercomputers and will house one of the five DOD Supercomputing Resource Centers, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said on Jan. 24th.

ERDC’s Information Technology Lab administered a ribbon cutting ceremony for the new facilities on Jan. 20th. The facilities also feature a technology made by Entergy to provide backup power via natural gas generators.

“The Supercomputing Research Center has long been a source of groundbreaking research and innovative problem solving within ERDC, and I have no doubt this new facility will only amplify that,” said David Horner, director of ITL.

SRC offers high-performance computing resources to address the Department of Defense’s challenges. The government allotted funds for the new facilities in 2018.

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FCC Appoints New Bureau Chiefs, General Counsel; Jessica Rosenworcel Quoted
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FCC Appoints New Bureau Chiefs, General Counsel; Jessica Rosenworcel Quoted

The Federal Communications Commission has made five appointments that determine the leadership of four bureaus and the FCC’s legal functions.

Alejandro Roark, formerly the executive director of HTTP, will serve as chief of FCC’s Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau, the commission said Monday. HTTP is a CEO roundtable of national Latino civil rights organizations working to promote technology access and adoption across U.S. Latino communities.

Debra Jordan, deputy chief of FCC’s Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau, has been promoted to serve as the same bureau’s chief. She has represented the commission in efforts that tackle cybersecurity, national security and supply chain risk management.

Jordan also served with Naval Facilities Engineering Command as command information officer.

Holly Saurer, who has served as the FCC chairwoman’s legal adviser for media, will return to the commission’s media bureau to serve as chief. She held various roles at the bureau including deputy bureau chief and senior legal adviser.

Loyaan Egal, formerly the deputy chief at the foreign investment review section within the Department of Justice’s national security division, will serve as chief of FCC’s Enforcement Bureau on an acting basis. Egal returns to the bureau, where he previously led what is now known as the fraud division.

Lastly, Michele Ellison will become FCC’s full-time general counsel, following her tenure as acting general counsel over the past year. She has advised on policy tackling national security, broadband data and 5G.

“Ensuring modern communications reach every corner of the country isn’t possible without the
leadership of incredible, capable experts throughout the Commission,” said Jessica Rosenworcel, FCC’s chairwoman.

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Navy’s Future USS Fort Lauderdale Now Ready for Delivery Following Acceptance Trials
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Navy’s Future USS Fort Lauderdale Now Ready for Delivery Following Acceptance Trials

A new Huntington Ingalls Industries-built San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock ship demonstrated its construction quality and compliance with U.S. Navy requirements during recently completed acceptance trials.

The milestone now allows the shipbuilding contractor to prepare the future USS Fort Lauderdale for delivery to the service branch in the following weeks, the Naval Sea Systems Command said Monday.

Once in service, LPD 28 will become the Navy’s 12th San Antonio-class vessel and will support amphibious assault, special operations, expeditionary warfare and disaster relief missions by transporting servicemen and military equipment.

“With the completion of both Builder’s and Acceptance trials, we are confident that LPD 28 has proven the operational readiness of the vessel and the capabilities it will soon bring to the fleet,” shared Capt. Cedric McNeal, a program manager within the Navy’s Amphibious Warfare Program Office.

Aside from LPD 28, Huntington Ingalls, through its Ingalls Shipbuilding division, is currently working on the next two Navy transport vessels with a third one to start in spring.

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Lawrence Wong Added as Veritas Technologies SVP and Chief Strategy Officer; CEO Greg Hughes Quoted
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Lawrence Wong Added as Veritas Technologies SVP and Chief Strategy Officer; CEO Greg Hughes Quoted

Lawrence Wong, a former Accenture exec, has been named senior vice president and chief strategy officer of Veritas Technologies.

The role will entail Wong creating and implementing a cloud strategy to build on Veritas’ growth and acquisitions, the Santa Clara, California-based enterprise data management company said Tuesday.

“The enterprise is looking for guidance on how to navigate today’s digitally complex world, and the need for a trusted partner to help them on their journey to the cloud is more important than ever,” said Greg Hughes, chief executive officer at Veritas.

Wong’s position is a new creation and expects him to work in collaboration with the company’s leadership. He will report to Hughes.

At Accenture, Wong helmed the U.S. west cloud first business as managing director and member of the global leadership council. He specialized in helping customers migrate data and business plans to the cloud.

Additionally, Wong has leadership experience at McKinsey & Company, Hewlett Packard and a number of startup software companies. The appointment of Wong follows Veritas’ installment of four public sector advisory board members in October 2021.

Wong believes he is well suited to help Veritas and its customers address some of the most pressing problems facing tech-adjacent businesses, such as “operating in increasingly fragmented and complex multi-cloud environments with unprecedented data growth.”

The new board members are intended to assist the company in ensuring they’re meeting cybersecurity and data protection needs, guidance that Wong will no doubt take into account in his new role.

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Vectrus Converged Environment Expands to Support DoD Readiness, Modernization Efforts; Corinne Minton-Package Quoted
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Vectrus Converged Environment Expands to Support DoD Readiness, Modernization Efforts; Corinne Minton-Package Quoted

Vectrus announced on Tuesday that the company has expanded its Converged Environment service offering in order to address the most significant installation management challenges with the Department of Defense (DoD).

“Our Converged Environment offering meets the demands of the military while promoting cost savings, increased security, and more strategic use of resources — and rapidly enabling critical data-driven decision-making for our customers,” said Corinne Minton-Package, senior vice president of Systems and Technology at Vectrus.

Vectrus’ Converged Environment expands the company’s existing Converged Infrastructure offering to create and implement technology solutions and operational efficiencies by integrating all aspects of physical and digital infrastructure.

As a result, the Converged Environment improves performance and reduces costs across communications, assets, logistics, supply chains, acquisition, cyber as well as physical security, facilities and operational processes.

“Unlike traditional solutions, the Vectrus approach exists at the intersection of technology, security, and assets, making us uniquely positioned to unlock the benefits that come with integration,” Minton-Package explained.

The Converged Environment approach has been integrated for the Naval Base Coronado in San Diego. Vectrus has implemented technology solutions and applications for a “warehouse of the future” as the prime contractor for the base. The smart warehouse will improve efficiency, security, and safety of material across supply handling, management, storage and distribution.

“We are proud of this investment and are committed to developing tailored solutions to meet the DoD’s modernization objectives through the deployment of Vectrus Converged Environments,” Minton-Package added.

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Cubic’s Scott Rosebush Talks Acquisition Agility, Accelerating Innovation With Potomac Officers Club
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Cubic’s Scott Rosebush Talks Acquisition Agility, Accelerating Innovation With Potomac Officers Club

Scott Rosebush, senior program director for Cubic Mission and Performance Solutions, was featured recently in an Executive Spotlight interview with the Potomac Officers Club to share his goals in the federal landscape, his notable career achievements and his strategies for transforming government acquisitions to foster agility and speed. 

Rosebush is an aerospace and defense industry veteran with experience across systems engineering, communications and signals intelligence and cybersecurity for companies including Northrop Grumman, SAIC and TASC. 

In this excerpt from his interview, Rosebush speaks on one of the most urgent challenges facing federal innovation today as adversarial capabilities continue to advance:

“From my perspective, one of the biggest challenges of embracing emerging technology in the federal government space is adjusting from traditional acquisition practices to something more agile and rapid. When you look at recent technological advances like shrinking satellite build-and-deploy lifecycles from decades to months and eliminating the lengthy accreditation approvals for technical refreshes for software using techniques like Continuous Approval to Operate (cATO), our acquisition processes simply weren’t designed to accommodate those changes. Exacerbating the problem is the fact that our adversaries have become increasingly nimble. So in some cases, we don’t just need to speed up acquisition by 10 or 20 percent, we need to multiply our acquisition velocity by 10 or 20 times.” 

To read the full Executive Spotlight Interview with Cubic’s Scott Rosebush, visit PotomacOfficersClub.com, where you can read more interviews with notable GovCon executives and learn more about the platform’s membership benefits and options.

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