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Lloyd Austin: Pentagon Continues to Back Diplomatic Efforts Over Russia-Ukraine Conflict
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Lloyd Austin: Pentagon Continues to Back Diplomatic Efforts Over Russia-Ukraine Conflict

Lloyd Austin, secretary of the Department of Defense and a 2022 Wash100 Award winner, said that although the Russian conflict with Ukraine is not unavoidable, “there is still time and space for diplomacy,” DOD News reported Friday.

“The United States, in lockstep with our allies and partners, has offered Russia a path away from crisis and toward greater security, and the Department of Defense will continue to support those diplomatic efforts,” Austin told reporters Friday.

He said the U.S. military is taking measures to back NATO allies, including strengthening security on the alliance’s eastern flank.

“We placed thousands of U.S. troops on ‘prepare-to-deploy’ orders earlier this week,” Austin said. “If NATO activates its response forces, these troops will be ready to go.”

Army Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and a four-time Wash100 Award recipient, joined Austin during a press conference at the Pentagon.

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DARPA Program Seeks to Develop Low Noise, Compact RF Oscillators; Gordon Keeler Quoted
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DARPA Program Seeks to Develop Low Noise, Compact RF Oscillators; Gordon Keeler Quoted

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has launched a program that seeks to employ advances in integrated optical approaches to drive the development of next-generation radio frequency oscillators.

The Generating RF with Photonic Oscillators for Low Noise program’s first technical area will focus on the development of compact, frequency-agile and low-noise prototypes that can deliver outputs ranging from 1 to 40 gigahertz, DARPA said Thursday.

“Nonlinear integrated photonics provides a path to achieve incredible oscillator performance while reducing system size by orders of magnitude,” said Gordon Keeler, program manager at DARPA’s microsystem technologies office.

“Beyond the cost and size advantages, integrated optical approaches could allow tuning over multiple frequency bands and environmental robustness. There is potential for very broad impact if our teams are successful,” added Keeler.

The research teams selected to work on the program’s first technical area are Honeywell, BAE Systems, Nexus Photonics, hQphotonics and Caltech.

The second technical area of the GRYPHON program seeks to inform future architectures of oscillators by pursuing techniques that provide “even lower phase noise or ultra-wide tunability.” Groups selected for this effort were research teams from the University of Virginia and Columbia University.

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IBM to Double-Down on Partnership with CISA via JCDC to Fight Cybercrime
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IBM to Double-Down on Partnership with CISA via JCDC to Fight Cybercrime

IBM has announced it will perpetuate its relationship with the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) by working as an alliance partner in the Joint Cyber Defense Collaborative (JCDC).

The computer hardware company said Thursday it intends to share information with the CISA and JCDC in hopes of mounting a cohesive strategy against cybercrime. The organizations aim to prevent cybercrimes from happening but respond efficiently and exactingly when they do occur.

IBM reports that through incident responses across industries they have developed protection procedures that include threat monitoring capabilities and open-source data and intelligence about threat groups. They will share these findings via their X-Force Exchange platform.

Over the past several months cybercrime in the U.S. has increased, mostly in the form of financial thefts and state-sponsored attacks. It’s due to this uptick that IBM and CISA, through the JCDC, are motivated to act.

One such example of notable cybercriminal activity was due to the Log4j data breach in late 2021. Executive Gov reported on the breach, as well as published General Dynamics Chief Information Security Officer Michael Baker’s thoughts on the crisis in January 2022.

In a survey polling over 500 information technology leaders in July 2021, IBM found that agencies intended to prioritize cybersecurity funding for the 2022 fiscal year.

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NSWC Crane Announces 4 New Executive Leadership Team Members
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NSWC Crane Announces 4 New Executive Leadership Team Members

The Naval Surface Warfare Center, Crane Division, in Indiana has named Kyle Werner, Dane Speer, Brent Voigtschild and James Ross as new members of its executive leadership team.

The four new directors will oversee various departments and lead the strategic vision of the U.S. Navy federal laboratory, the Naval Sea Systems Command said Thursday.

Werner will serve as NSWC Crane’s deputy technical director, bringing to his new position eight years as a former member of the executive leadership team.

Speer will work as business director with responsibility for the organization’s planning, assessment, budgeting and workforce development efforts.

Voigtschild will occupy the corporate operations director and lead a department working on various organization competencies such as human resources, corporate communications, infrastructure, security and information technology.

Meanwhile, Ross will bring his over-a-decade experience as NSWC Crane nuclear deterrence, hypersonics and missile defense official to his new role of director fo the global deterrence and defense department.

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DOE Releases RFI on Pathways for Industrial Sector’s Decarbonization
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DOE Releases RFI on Pathways for Industrial Sector’s Decarbonization

The Department of Energy’s Advanced Manufacturing Office is looking for public feedback on four technology pathways aimed at helping the industrial sector reduce emissions while remaining competitive in the global scene.

A request for information details energy efficiency; electrification; low-carbon fuels and feedstocks; and carbon capture, utilization and storage as ways to achieve the Biden administration’s decarbonization goals, the department’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy said Thursday.

AMO wants to learn more about emerging technologies for industrial decarbonization, opportunities for demonstration-scale projects, barriers facing carbon emission reduction, government resources that can support climate initiatives and strategies to benefit the industrial workforce.

AMO is also interested in technologies that can be used to achieve similar environmental goals in different sectors.

Interested stakeholders can submit their comments on the RFI until Feb. 28.

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DHS Officials Share Efforts, Challenges in Agency’s Data Use
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DHS Officials Share Efforts, Challenges in Agency’s Data Use

Two leading Department of Homeland Security officials discussed ongoing efforts to enhance data use within the agency during a recent Advanced Technology Academic Research Center webcast, Nextgov reported Thursday.

Kathleen Kaplan and Elizabeth Puchek, chief data officers of the Federal Emergency Management Agency and U.S. Customs and Immigration Services, respectively, said their organizations already improved how they handle information since a 2019 law that created their roles.

Kaplan shared that FEMA is currently ongoing a data refresh to sort data entering her agency based on source and quality and Puchek noted that USCIS is also preparing for a similar initiative to maintain the integrity of its database.

Despite progress, the two officials noted several challenges to their data goals such as competition for time and funding with other offices and poor technologies for information sharing between different agencies.

In 2019, the Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act became law, mandating 24 Chief Financial Officers Act federal civilian agencies to establish chief data offices.

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DOI Interior Business Center Modernizes FRTIB’s Financial System
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DOI Interior Business Center Modernizes FRTIB’s Financial System

A business-focused organization within the Department of the Interior has completed an effort to modernize and standardize the financial, procurement and travel systems for the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board.

The Interior Business Center said Monday it used the PRISM software-as-a-service to streamline procurement activities as part of FRTIB’s Financial Systems Modernization Project.

PRISM’s procurement cycle integrates information across the initiation, solicitation and awarding phases of procurement programs.

The board will also use E2 Solutions’ web-based travel management system to organize, authorize and process trips of federal officials.

DOI expects the SaaS implementation to centralize financial, procurement, travel and investment management into one integrated source.

Expanding FRTIB’s financial management services also involves pre-built integrations with IBC’s existing capabilities including business analytics, reporting and decision making support.

IBC also helped FRTIB decommission legacy systems.

FRTIB is tasked to oversee the Thrift Savings Plan, a retirement savings plan for members of the federal workforce and military branches.

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Army’s Paul Puckett: Borrowed Cloud Strategies Won’t Fully Support Mission Needs
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Army’s Paul Puckett: Borrowed Cloud Strategies Won’t Fully Support Mission Needs

Paul Puckett, director of the U.S. Army’s Enterprise Cloud Management Agency, said adopting generalized cloud implementation approaches may result in unnecessary expenses.

He said that “copy-pasted” cloud approaches may just end up making an agency spend for unneeded resources that won’t be used in the future, Federal News Network reported Thursday.

Puckett said he recommends cloud designs that make use of all included capabilities in a way that supports the mission.

“We need to start designing systems and services that are intended as a distributed architecture that are intended to leverage elastic scalability,” he stated.

The agency director noted that defining parameters and mission objects can lay the ground for the intended technical design.

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Laurie Leshin Returns to NASA as Director of Jet Propulsion Laboratory
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Laurie Leshin Returns to NASA as Director of Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Laurie Leshin, the president of Worcester Polytechnic Institute, will serve as the new director of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and vice president of the California Institute of Technology, effective May 16.

She will succeed retired U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. Larry James, who serves as JPL’s interim director and will retain his role as deputy director upon succession, JPL said Thursday. James has been filling in for Michael Watkins, who retired in August.

Leshin brings over two decades of leadership experience, having held roles at NASA and the White House.

The established geochemist and space scientist was the director of science and exploration at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. She received a promotion to become the center’s deputy director for science and technology in 2008.

The space science professional transitioned out of NASA in 2011 to serve as the dean of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s school of science.

Leshin helped President George W. Bush implement U.S. policy on space exploration in 2004 and became part of President Barack Obama’s advisory board on the National Air and Space Museum in 2013.

She is also the recipient of multiple awards including the Meteoritical Society’s Nier Prize and NASA’s Outstanding Leadership Medal.

Caltech manages the JPL federally funded research and development center for the space agency.

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GovCon Expert Jerry McGinn: Commission on PPBE Presents Opportunity for DoD to Match Commercial Industry’s Innovations
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GovCon Expert Jerry McGinn: Commission on PPBE Presents Opportunity for DoD to Match Commercial Industry’s Innovations

GovCon Expert Jerry McGinn, executive director of the Center for Government Contracting at George Mason University, has shared his thoughts on how the defense acquisition system might strategize within the newly established Commission on Planning, Programming, Budgeting and Education (PPBE) Reform.

McGinn, who is a former senior U.S. Defense Department acquisition official and a 2022 Wash100 Award winner, wrote in a Jan. 20, 2022 article for DefenseNews.com that he believes innovations and initiatives for gaining new business into the defense-industrial base have been stymied by old rules and methodologies.

Visit Wash100.com to cast a vote for GovCon Expert Jerry McGinn as one of your TEN votes to advocate for your favorite leaders in the federal and government sectors.

In the article, he argues that commercial industry operates based on portfolio management and allows for a greater flexibility than the “top-down process” of the Department of Defense’s current budgetary system, which he says “relies heavily on advance planning and detailed cost estimates of projects and technologies spanning years into the future.”

According to McGinn, who co-wrote the article with Eric Lofgren, a senior fellow at the Center for Government Contracting, the Department of Defense is less primed to respond to evolving technologies or new threats that may develop due to its current PPBE processes.

New systems such as Joint All-Domain Command and Control require a budgeting approach that will be responsive to “modularity, iteration and speed,” McGinn writes.

McGinn provides three tenets through which he feels the new PPBE Reform commissioners might make progress:

“Be bold in vision.” With this directive, he suggests the DoD model their budgeting practices after the commercial maneuvers and strategies that he feels are driving innovation.

“Be focused in approach.” McGinn cautions the committee to not bite off more than it can chew and hone its efforts into three focus areas: “(1) portfolio management; (2) reporting and transparency; and (3) budget build process.”

Finally, “be pragmatic in implementation.” Under this suggestion, McGinn recommends the instigation of pilot portfolios throughout the DoD to workshop new ideas and strategies, beginning first with “software-intensive program offices.”

McGinn believes these steps to be crucial in evolving the U.S.’s resource allocation process in order to meet possible threats head-on and keep pace with technological advances.

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