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Navy Performs Snakehead Large Unmanned Undersea Vehicle Prototype Christening at Rhode Island Facility
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Navy Performs Snakehead Large Unmanned Undersea Vehicle Prototype Christening at Rhode Island Facility

The U.S. Navy has christened the first prototype of its largest submarine-launched large displacement unmanned undersea vehicle at a test facility in Rhode Island.

The Snakehead LDUUV is the service branch’s modular, reconfigurable and multi-mission system that will deliver guidance and control, navigation, situational awareness, propulsion, maneuvering and sensors during underwater operations, the Naval Sea Systems Command said Friday.

Snakehead features a government-owned architecture, vehicle software and various mission autonomy technologies designed to improve the Navy’s endurance, depth capability and payload capacity.

Representatives from the Naval Undersea Warfare Center Division Newport and the Program Executive Office for Unmanned and Small Combatants performed the christening at the Narragansett Bay Test Facility in Rhode Island.

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FAA to Begin Testing UAS Traffic Management in Spring
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FAA to Begin Testing UAS Traffic Management in Spring

The Federal Aviation Administration is preparing to begin field-testing new air traffic management technologies and services designed to support the integration of unmanned aircraft systems into the National Airspace System.

FAA said Friday it plans to commence the UAS Traffic Management field test in spring 2022 with the goal of helping the government refine UTM’s cybersecurity, standards and data exchange capabilities.

UTM consists of services that support but are detached from the air traffic management services used for traditional, manned aircraft.

Tests will simulate realistic scenarios and assess how the newest traffic management technologies can support actual drone traffic management in various environments.

FAA will use the testing’s results to inform policymaking and with the goal of normalizing drone flights beyond the operator’s visual line of sight.

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NOAA Extends Commercial Satellite Weather Data Contract With Spire Global
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NOAA Extends Commercial Satellite Weather Data Contract With Spire Global

Spire Global has secured a contract to continue to deliver commercial radio occultation satellite weather data to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration for use in operational weather forecasts.

The company said Friday it received a fourth delivery order under a previously awarded indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract to provide NOAA with 5,500 radio occultation profiles per day.

The near real-time data provided through the $8 million delivery order will be available to federal government agencies and national and international meteorological organizations to support weather forecasting.

Contract work will commence on March 16, 2022, and end on Jan. 18, 2023.

NOAA selected Spire Global for the Commercial Weather Data Pilot project in 2016 to help demonstrate the impact of commercial space-based data on weather forecast models.

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Air Force Research Lab to Release Solicitation for Cislunar Domain Awareness Solicitation in March
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Air Force Research Lab to Release Solicitation for Cislunar Domain Awareness Solicitation in March

The U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory is planning to solicit offers in March for a satellite experiment that will track space objects between geostationary orbit and the moon, Defense News reported Monday.

Col. Eric Felt, director of AFRL’s Space Vehicles Directorate, said in a recent C4ISRNET interview that an award for the Cislunar Highway Patrol System is expected in summer ahead of a planned launch in 2025.

CHPS is among the various programs that reflect the Department of Defense’s increased interest in the cislunar region amid a rise in what Felt described as adversarial and commercial activities related to the area.

“That pace of activity then causes us to say: ‘Well, we had a plan to get after cislunar space domain awareness, but now we need to accelerate our plan because things are happening much faster than we expected,’” explained the colonel.

In January, Chief of Space Operations and 2022 Wash100 Award recipient Gen. John Raymond revealed during a Mitchell Institute Event that he expects the Space Force to send a space domain awareness capability in the cislunar region within the next decade.

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NIST Finalizes Report on Cyber-Enterprise Risk Management Integration
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NIST Finalizes Report on Cyber-Enterprise Risk Management Integration

The National Institute of Standards and Technology has published a finalized report that highlights the need to consider enterprise risk management when making cybersecurity decisions.

NIST said Thursday its report titled “Prioritizing Cybersecurity Risk for Enterprise Risk Management” details the integration of cybersecurity risk management with ERM to fortify cyber response.

The report also encourages collaboration between CSRM and ERM managers; and lists ways to pursue enterprise objectives, prioritize risks and appropriately select responses.

The finalized publication makes use of previously gathered feedback from the public and features updated graphics, including a sample template for risk detail reports.

NIST now also seeks public feedback on the publication’s companion document titled “Staging Cybersecurity Risks for ERM and Governance Oversight,” which highlights ways to complete enterprise-wide integration cycles of CSRM/ERM. Interested parties may submit feedback through March 11.

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Reps. Frank Pallone, Cathy McMorris Rodgers Discuss New Draft Legislation for Satcom Industry
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Reps. Frank Pallone, Cathy McMorris Rodgers Discuss New Draft Legislation for Satcom Industry

Reps. Frank Pallone, D-N.J., and Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., of the House Energy and Commerce Committee have released a statement that the government must streamline regulatory processes concerning the satellite communications industry.

The statement revolves around bipartisan legislation drafts that seek to modernize Communications Act authorities and update the Federal Communications Commission’s policy on satellite licensing, in support of the industry and national security, the  said Friday.

These drafts are those of the Satellite and Telecommunications Streamlining Act and the Secure Space Act.

“As leaders of the Energy and Commerce Committee, we must streamline our regulatory processes to usher in a new era of American innovation and investment in this growing sector, particularly as our economic competitors like China race to dominate this industry, and must ensure our laws and regulations fully protect the public,” the lawmakers said in the statement.

Pallone and McMorris Rodgers serve in the House Energy and Commerce Committee as chairman and ranking member, respectively.

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Commerce Department Launches New Cloud-Based Orbiting Satellite, Debris Catalog
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Commerce Department Launches New Cloud-Based Orbiting Satellite, Debris Catalog

The Department of Commerce has released a prototype cloud-based system that catalogs satellite and debris location data in space to predict collisions in an increasingly busy orbit, SpaceNews reported Saturday.

The newly unveiled open architecture data repository combines information from government and commercial sources to perform satellite collision notifications, launch monitoring, space object reentry, space debris awareness and other space traffic management services.

Scott Leonard, a special adviser within the DoC’s Office of Space Commerce, said OADR was built through the partnership between NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the University of Texas and three federally funded research and development centers, with input from the private sector.

Steve Volz, an assistant administrator with NOAA, added that the prototype was tested against over 20,000 Earth-orbiting objects before it was released.

OADR is expected to replace the existing catalog managed by the U.S. military ahead of a planned transition of space situational awareness responsibilities to OSC from U.S. Space Command.

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Noblis Wins Prime Position on BPA to Provide T&E for JAIC Software; VP Glenn Hickok Quoted
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Noblis Wins Prime Position on BPA to Provide T&E for JAIC Software; VP Glenn Hickok Quoted

Information technology services company Noblis has secured a prime position on the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center test and evaluation blanket purchase agreement.

The five-year BPA mandates that Noblis will test and evaluate software to make sure it adheres with DoD ethical principle rulings, the Reston, Virginia-based company announced on Monday.

Glenn Hickok, Noblis defense mission vice president, emphasized the company’s commitment to providing high-level science, technology and strategy services.

“We’re looking forward to combining this pedigree with our collective team’s extensive AI and T&E experience to ensure that AI will be a force multiplier for the DoD for many years to come,” Hickok continued.

Noblis will lead the team, including CalypsoAI and i3, in the work under the BPA. The companies’ combined efforts bring experience in the design, development and implementation of AI software to the project.

The work will be conducted with JAIC clientele and aims to enable the JAIC to cut costs and redirect the funds to other AI procedures.

Noblis and its affiliates have been serving U.S. federal government customers like the Department of Defense, the intelligence community, Department of Homeland Security and law enforcement for over three decades.

The company is currently working under a $263 million prime contract to accelerate the usage of the Cooperative Threat Reduction program for the DoD’s Defense Threat Reduction Agency. The contract was announced in September 2021.

That same month, Glenn Hickok spoke with ExecutiveBiz in an interview detailing the establishment of Noblis MSD, challenges in technology innovation and what he sees as the future of the company.

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David McKeown: More Vendors May Need 3rd Party Assessments Under CMMC 2.0
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David McKeown: More Vendors May Need 3rd Party Assessments Under CMMC 2.0

David McKeown, deputy chief information officer for cybersecurity at the Department of Defense, said approximately 80,000 contractors might have to undergo third-party assessments under the second iteration of DOD’s Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification program, Federal News Network reported Thursday.

“Unfortunately, it looks like pretty much everybody falls into the category of either being a clear defense contractor or having some critical industry tie, that pretty much all of those are going to end up being very important [controlled unclassified information],” McKeown said Thursday at a town hall meeting.

When DOD unveiled the CMMC 2.0 program in late 2021, officials initially anticipated that half of those 80,000 vendors handling less risky data would only need to self-attest to their cybersecurity practices. However, further studies have revealed that all of those companies will need to undergo third-party assessments.

McKeown noted that the Pentagon is working with the CMMC Accreditation Body to build up the “assessment ecosystem” and hinted that the department is not tied to a previous goal of integrating CMMC requirements into all defense contracts by 2025.

“We want to phase this in over a perhaps a longer period of time than the three years,” McKeown said. “We haven’t nailed that down yet. That’s also part of the rulemaking and negotiating with the AB, what we think the capacity is going to be to get through that group of 80,000 companies out there.”

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White House Unveils U.S. Strategy for Indo-Pacific Region
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White House Unveils U.S. Strategy for Indo-Pacific Region

The White House has released a new strategy to strengthen the U.S. role in the Indo-Pacific region while reinforcing the region in collaboration with allies, partners and regional institutions.

The Indo-Pacific Strategy of the United States has five objectives and these are advancing a free and open Indo-Pacific; building connections within and beyond the region; driving regional prosperity; bolstering Indo-Pacific security; and building regional resilience to transnational threats, the White House said Friday.

To meet the first objective, the U.S. will invest in democratic institutions, a free press and a vibrant civil society; improve fiscal transparency to drive reform and expose corruption; and advance common approaches to critical and emerging technologies, the internet and cyberspace, among other efforts. 

The U.S. will also pursue integrated deterrence, deepen cooperation and enhance interoperability with allies and partners and maintain peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, among other initiatives, to reinforce Indo-Pacific security.

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