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Lt. Gen. Nina Armagno: US Military Needs Space Domain Awareness
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Lt. Gen. Nina Armagno: US Military Needs Space Domain Awareness

Lt. Gen. Nina Armagno, director of staff at the U.S. Space Force, emphasized the importance for military services to have the capacity to gain a deep understanding of the space domain, SpaceNews reported Monday.

“For us in the military, this is important toward not only understanding the domain but also being able to capture space superiority when and where we need it in the future,” Armagno said at an American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics conference.

She noted that service branches have used a catalog with location data on approximately 27,000 objects floating in orbits such as satellites and space debris since the 1960s. Armagno believes the military’s primary space tracking data source is now insufficient for space monitoring activity.

Lt. Gen. Nina Armagno: US Military Needs Space Domain Awareness

GovCon Wire, sister site of ExecutiveGov, will host the Space Acquisition Forum on Jan. 19th. Join the event to hear from industry and government representatives about how the business sector can help the Department of Defense in efforts to secure the nation’s future in outer space and beyond.

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Treasury Sanctions 2 Ransomware Actors, Virtual Currency Exchange; Wally Adeyemo Quoted
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Treasury Sanctions 2 Ransomware Actors, Virtual Currency Exchange; Wally Adeyemo Quoted

The Department of the Treasury has sanctioned virtual currency exchange Chatex and its associated network of three companies for facilitating transactions for threat actors involved in ransomware attacks.

The Treasury said Monday the office of foreign assets control also imposed sanctions on a Russian and a Ukrainian for their role in carrying out ransomware attacks against U.S. companies and government agencies.

With the designation, the U.S. would block all designated targets’ property and interests and prohibit all U.S. individuals from engaging in transactions with the two ransomware actors, virtual currency exchange and its network.

“Ransomware groups and criminal organizations have targeted American businesses and public institutions of all sizes and across sectors, seeking to undermine the backbone of our economy,” said Wally Adeyemo, deputy secretary of the Treasury.

The department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network also issued an update to its 2020 ransomware advisory. The updated document includes information on ransomware-related trends and typologies, examples of ransomware incidents and financial red flag indicators of illicit activity related to ransomware to help financial institutions identify and report suspicious transactions in compliance with the Bank Secrecy Act. 

“We will continue to bring to bear all of the authorities at Treasury’s disposal to disrupt, deter, and prevent future threats to the economy of the United States. This is a top priority for the Biden Administration,” added Adeyemo.

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Heidi Shyu on DOD’s Rapid Defense Experimentation Reserve
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Heidi Shyu on DOD’s Rapid Defense Experimentation Reserve

Heidi Shyu, undersecretary for research and engineering at the Department of Defense and a previous Wash100 Award winner, said DOD’s innovation steering group oversees an initiative called the Rapid Defense Experimentation Reserve that seeks feedback from service branches and combatant commands to help address capability gaps in joint warfighting, DOD News reported Monday.

RDER also helps facilitate prototyping and experimentation to support joint fires, information advantage, contested logistics and other joint warfighting concepts.

Shyu said her office received 203 ideas within five weeks through RDER and picked the top 32 ideas for funding that could address joint capability gaps.

Innovation areas that the Pentagon is focusing on include the development of trusted artificial intelligence and trusted autonomy; establishment of an integrated network system of systems; development of quantum computers and sensors; use of biotech to improve situational awareness; and production of high energy lasers that can counter unmanned systems and missiles. 

“We are finally at the cusp of delivering prototypes to the warfighter,” Shyu said of high-energy lasers.

Shyu noted that DOD has a three-pillar strategy to address the challenges facing the U.S. military: harness U.S. technology innovation to address operational challenges, establish the foundation to build a future workforce and depend on industry, academia, partners and allies.

Heidi Shyu on DOD's Rapid Defense Experimentation Reserve

Heidi Shyu will act as a keynote speaker during Potomac Officers Club’s 8th Annual Defense R&D Summit where elite government and industry leaders will come together to discuss the Department of Defense’s current innovation priorities, technology advancements and general strategy to stay ahead of the curve in the evolving defense sector.

Visit PotomacOfficersClub.com to learn more about the upcoming event. Don’t wait until the new year to register. 

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Carnegie Mellon-Operated FFRDC Offers Software Engineering Roadmap
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Carnegie Mellon-Operated FFRDC Offers Software Engineering Roadmap

A federally funded research and development center at Carnegie Mellon University has released a multiyear roadmap for architecting future software-based systems.

The CMU Software Engineering Institute sought input from an advisory group composed of government, industry and academic representatives to produce the document, titled “Architecting the Future of Software Engineering: A National Agenda for Software Engineering Research & Development.”

Department of Defense-sponsored SEI outlined how future software systems can be developed, analyzed and deployed and what relevant projects can contribute to addressing emerging challenges.

The document is intended to also help engineers ensure the safety, predictability and evolution of software platforms.

“Our hardware has become increasingly programmable, and software has become ubiquitous. Therefore, software engineering is a critical enabler for everything that we do in the DoD,” said Heidi Shyu, undersecretary of defense for research and engineering and a previous Wash100 awardee, wrote in her foreword to the study.

Shyu added that the document will serve as a guide for the department’s research and investment strategy necessary to protect national security.

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NASA Gets Ready to Launch DART Planetary Defense Test in Late November; Lindley Johnson Quoted
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NASA Gets Ready to Launch DART Planetary Defense Test in Late November; Lindley Johnson Quoted

NASA is making final preparations to launch its first planetary defense test mission, which will attempt to kinetically impact the small moonlet asteroid named Dimorphos.

The space agency said Friday that its Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission will launch on Nov. 27 to autonomously target then strike Dimorphos, which orbits the larger Didymos asteroid.

The mission will attempt to slightly change Dimorphos’ orbit, and only serves as a test as neither asteroid poses a threat to planet Earth.

“DART will be the first demonstration of the ‘kinetic impactor’ technique in which a spacecraft deliberately collides with a known asteroid at high speed to change the asteroid’s motion in space,” said Lindley Johnson, planetary defense officer at NASA.

Johnson said the test can help planetary defense experts refine computer models for asteroid kinetic impactors and provide insight into how humans can deflect objects that potentially threaten Earth.

NASA may move the launch by a day later if necessary and attempt subsequent launches through February 2022 if needed.

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M4PS Receives DHS Funds for First Responder Comm Tech Development
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M4PS Receives DHS Funds for First Responder Comm Tech Development

Mobility 4 Public Safety (M4PS) has received a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) grant to further develop a tool designed to help first responders exchange multimedia content with each other in real-time.

M4PS initially released a proof-of-concept version of the Bridge 4 Public Safety platform in 2019 as part of a feasibility research effort funded by DHS’ science and technology directorate, the department said Friday.

The directorate awarded $1.55 million to advance development work on the messaging and collaboration tool, which eligible public safety and support personnel can implement at no cost.

DHS approved the nationwide adoption of Bridge4PS after early adoption initiatives surpassed the department’s expectations. The platform underwent public safety communication tests in Los Angeles and Houston.

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Commerce to Impose Rapid Revisit Restrictions on High-Res Satellite Constellations
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Commerce to Impose Rapid Revisit Restrictions on High-Res Satellite Constellations

The Department of Commerce will impose time limits on the imaging operations of constellations of U.S. commercial remote sensing satellites that have the ability to capture repeat images of a terrestrial location in response to national security concerns raised by the Department of Defense and the Intelligence Community, Breaking Defense reported Friday.

DOD and the IC are concerned that imagery captured by satellite constellations called Rapid Revisit Imaging Systems will disclose changes in activity patterns at key national security facilities.

The Commerce Department plans to implement the new restrictions under the commercial remote sensing licensing process that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration oversees. The new rules will apply to areas on the Persistent Imaging Location List.

NOAA’s commercial remote sensing regulatory affairs office will implement the rules through a three-tiered licensing scheme and Rapid Revisit Imaging Systems will be categorized under Tier 3. Under this tier, CRSRA can impose “temporary” limits on the sale of all cutting-edge commercial capabilities at the request of the Pentagon and intelligence agencies.

Officials from the remote sensing industry have raised concerns over the rapid revisit restrictions saying NOAA’s ruling will hamper the ability of U.S. companies to secure an edge in the global real-time imagery market.

“These restrictions would severely hurt commercial companies’ ability to operate high resolution constellations and is counter to the efforts of the past two years to make NOAA regs streamlined and enable US companies to compete internationally,” an industry representative told the publication in an email.

Space Acquisition Forum

GovCon Wire will hold its Space Acquisition Forum on Jan. 19. Click here to register for the virtual forum to hear from defense officials as they share their insights on military acquisition reform and modernization efforts.

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Kenneth Wainstein Nominated DHS Intelligence, Analysis Undersecretary
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Kenneth Wainstein Nominated DHS Intelligence, Analysis Undersecretary

Kenneth Wainstein, a two-decade public service veteran and current litigation partner at Davis Polk & Wardwell, has been nominated as undersecretary for intelligence and analysis at the Department of Homeland Security, the White House said Friday.

In his current role, Wainstein represents Davis Polk & Wardwell’s corporate clients in internal investigations and civil and criminal enforcement proceedings.

His government career includes time as director of the Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys, general counsel of the FBI, U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia and assistant attorney general for national security at the Department of Justice.

He advised former President George W. Bush on homeland security matters and led interagency coordination of federal efforts related to counterterrorism, disaster response and infrastructure protection.

Wainstein also taught national security law for 12 years and served as a commissioner at the Bipartisan Commission on Biodefense.

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Evidence Act Oversight Committee Recommends Creation of National Secure Data Service
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Evidence Act Oversight Committee Recommends Creation of National Secure Data Service

The Department of Commerce’s Advisory Committee on Data for Evidence Building (ACDEB) has recommended the development of a national secure data service (NSDS) to facilitate the use of federal data for evidence building. The NSDS would build on the framework established by the Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act of 2018 to support the management of statistical evidence used to inform decision-making processes, ACDEB said in its first report to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).

ACDEB also laid out seven new recommendations on how to improve the use of data across the federal government, including the designation of a full-time chief statistician of the United States within the OMB. The chief statistician will facilitate the creation of standards for the NSDS and the broader evidence-building ecosystem. 

Other recommendations include the launch of a pilot program to demonstrate the value of data to policymaking and the establishment of a comprehensive communication strategy.

ACDEB was formed as part of the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis to provide recommendations on how to facilitate and enhance data sharing, linkage and protection processes within the federal government.

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Jacobs Makes Strategic Investment in HawkEye 360; Caesar Nieves Quoted
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Jacobs Makes Strategic Investment in HawkEye 360; Caesar Nieves Quoted

HawkEye 360 announced on Monday that the company has generated $145 million in Series D round funding, which brings the company’s total capital to $302 million currently. As a part of that funding, the company has also entered into a distribution arrangement with Jacobs to enhance the latter’s digital intelligence suite of technologies and solutions.

“Hawkeye 360’s satellite constellation and intuitive RF analytics platform is a game-changer for consumers of geospatial intelligence (GEOINT),” said Jacobs Critical Mission Solutions Senior Vice President of Cyber & Intelligence Caesar Nieves.

Hawkeye 360’s RF satellite technology is at the forefront of emerging commercial RF and ISR capabilities changing the landscape of GEOINT. Increased RF sensing is essential to provide a more complete picture of the global threat landscape.

“Increased spectrum awareness is imperative to near-peer competition and achieving the objectives laid out in the National Security Strategy,” Nieves added. “Leveraging Jacobs’ expansive global position in defense, intelligence and civilian markets, we will be working collaboratively with Hawkeye 360 to unlock new insights about threats, targets and assets of interest.”

The two companies will also work together to identify new opportunities for collaboration. Jacobs’ investment in HawkEye 360 signifies its commitment to address critical challenges for national security, civilian infrastructure, maritime and energy clients around the world.

“Hawkeye 360 is delighted to partner with Jacobs, a world-leading innovator in defense, intelligence and civilian capabilities in space,” said Hawkeye 360 CEO John Serafini. “As investors in our company, we will collaborate with Jacobs to deliver our RF geoanalytics technology to address the critical challenges of a broader set of clients.”

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