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DHS Issues, Updates Tools to Support GPS Security; Brannan Villee Quoted
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DHS Issues, Updates Tools to Support GPS Security; Brannan Villee Quoted

The Department of Homeland Security's Science and Technology (DHS S&T) Directorate has released two documents to guide the development of secure GPS receivers and prevent the spoofing of PNT systems.

DHS said Thursday its GPS Whitelist Development Guide addresses vulnerabilities and discusses data-related requirements in the directorate's existing Resilient PNT Conformance Framework.

The department also released a new version of the PNT Integrity Library, which features methods to verify the legitimacy of GPS data received by a system.

The library, which was first released in March via GitHub, now includes guidance on how to build a testing toolkit via commercially available hardware. The update also features a compliance check on Interface Control Document IS-GPS-200, a method to formally establish communications between GPS and other systems.

“Application of these tools will provide increased security against GPS disruptions," said Brannan Villee, project manager at S&T.

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NASA Announces Winners of Autonomous Tracking Contest
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NASA Announces Winners of Autonomous Tracking Contest

The Bronco Space Club, Orion Labs and Texas A&M SEAK Lab have won a NASA competition that sought technologies designed autonomously to track small spacecraft and observe events happening on Earth.

The teams will initially each receive $200,000 for winning Autonomous Observation Challenge No. 1 of the TechLeap Prize competition.

The cash prizes will fund the winners' payloads, which will undergo suborbital flight testing later on. Winners will work on their payloads over an eight-month period.

“The ability to select and fly technologies this quickly can help us change the pace of space for everyone,” said Christopher Baker, program executive for NASA’s Flight Opportunities and Small Spacecraft Technology programs.

The teams will compete for $200,000 more in awards and have the chance to receive $100,000 during the payload's construction. NASA tasked a panel to evaluate entries based on key technology requirements.

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Federal Agencies Unveil Climate Adaptation Plans; Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin Quoted
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Federal Agencies Unveil Climate Adaptation Plans; Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin Quoted

More than 20 federal agencies unveiled their climate adaptation and resiliency plans that detail each agency’s approaches in addressing climate change and managing risks to reduce the disruptions in federal operations. 

The plans are in line with the procurements intended to advance innovation, boost the supply chains’ resilience and carry out the administration’s commitment to forward climate and clean energy dollars, the White House said Thursday. 

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and Council on Environmental Quality are requesting public comments on the climate adaptation plans of the agencies until Nov. 6th. 

Among the major themes of the plans include the effective utilization of federal investments using taxpayer money by identifying programs and missions that will most likely be affected by climate change. 

​​The agencies selected senior leaders to ensure that there are accountability measures in place and “adaptation and resilience is led from the top.”

The supply chain policies and operations are also undergoing reconstructions to make a climate-resilient system. NASA, for example, will seek to redesign a tool that the agency uses in screening supplies and services for the identification of those at risk because of weather changes. 

Lloyd Austin, secretary of the Department of Defense and a 2021 Wash100 Award winner, said the climate adaptation plan will be used as the agency’s guide in accommodating warfighting needs under the increasingly changing environmental conditions.  

“This plan will help the Department of Defense integrate climate considerations into our operations, our planning, and our business and decision-making processes,” he said.

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VA Taps Nonprofit Corporation for EHR Program Cost Determination Work
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VA Taps Nonprofit Corporation for EHR Program Cost Determination Work

Paul Brubaker, deputy chief information officer at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), said that VA has enlisted the Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA) to help calculate the potential life cycle cost of VA's program to implement a new electronic health records (EHR) system, FedScoop reported Thursday.

Brubaker informed House Veterans Affairs Committee members about IDA's upcoming work for the department Thursday at a congressional hearing and he expects the process will take 12 months to complete.

The independent review of VA's EHR modernization spending comes after its Office of the Inspector General (OIG) raised concerns over the accuracy of initial cost estimates for information technology infrastructure updates associated with the program.

VA awarded health technology maker Cerner a 10-year, $10 billion contract in May 2018 to help implement a new commercial platform for processing and sharing medical records.

The department projected total program cost would reach $16.1 billion, but the OIG audit found that it did not meet estimate reliability standards for the IT-related upgrade work.

Brubaker told lawmakers that the VA will establish processes to better manage IT investments and increase accountability and transparency.

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GSA Unveils Containerization Readiness Guide for Agencies
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GSA Unveils Containerization Readiness Guide for Agencies

The General Services Administration (GSA) has developed a guide to provide information on container technologies and help agencies facilitate container adoption.

The Containerization Readiness Guide developed by GSA’s data center and cloud optimization initiative program management office provides tools to guide agencies as they consider containerizing applications, the agency said Thursday.

These tools include a decision flow chart to help agencies assess their viability and readiness, a journey map showing the stages of container adoption maturity and a matrix of recommended models for container delivery.

Containers consist of applications, software libraries, configuration files and all required dependencies operating in a runtime environment.

GSA said containers could help agencies speed up application development, rapidly scale applications and optimize compute resources.

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Army Conducts AI-Enabled Target Identification Exercise Under Scarlet Dragon Program; Lt. Gen. Erik Kurilla Quoted
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Army Conducts AI-Enabled Target Identification Exercise Under Scarlet Dragon Program; Lt. Gen. Erik Kurilla Quoted

The U.S. Army used artificial intelligence to identify and destroy targets as part of the fourth test fire for a program that uses existing platforms and networks for machine-to-machine learning, Army Times reported Thursday.

The Army’s XVIII Airborne Corp worked with the U.S. Air Force, U.S. Navy and the U.S. Marine Corps for the Scarlet Dragon program, which used nearly 20 units and platforms and scanned 7,000 kilometers of satellite imagery across four states on the mid-Atlantic seaboard using software derived from the Department of Defense’s Project Maven.

“The Scarlet Dragon series is designed to increase our joint warfighting capability and how AI-augmented decision making significantly increases the scale, speed and accuracy of our targeting process,” Lt. Gen. Erik Kurilla, XVIII Airborne Corps commander, told the publication.

The recent live-fire exercise involved the use of large volumes of data from an intelligence agency and enabled the Corp to work through joint all-domain operations.

“It’s about seeking ways to achieve decision advantage in large-scale combat operations,” Kurilla said. “It’s about learning, as an organization, how to employ data as a strategic asset in the joint fight.”

The Scarlet Dragon program’s first exercise occurred in December 2020, while the second exercise held in March focused on tasks related to multidomain operations. The Corp tested the Combined Joint All Domain Command and Control (JADC2) interoperability in June for the program’s third exercise.

The Army is expected to integrate Scarlet Dragon-related work into its Project Convergence initiative that will link all sensors, shooters and joint systems for an integrated battlefield management platform.

Army officials said Scarlet Dragon’s next live fire will focus on data-centric warfare and is set to occur in early 2022.

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Senate OKs Bill to Raise U.S. Borrowing Limit
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Senate OKs Bill to Raise U.S. Borrowing Limit

The Senate on Thursday voted 50-48 to pass a bill that would increase the U.S. debt limit by $480 billion, which the Department of the Treasury said could help the country pay its bills through Dec. 3rd, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The measure is now headed to the lower chamber. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said lawmakers are expected to vote on the bill on Oct. 12th.

The White House said President Biden would sign the measure. It also called on Congress to address the borrowing limit beyond December. The U.S. government currently operates under a continuing resolution, which is also set to expire on Dec. 3. 

Defense Secretary and 2021 Wash100 Award winner Lloyd Austin issued a statement Wednesday citing the potential impacts on federal contractors and benefits of veterans and survivors, among others, if the country defaults on its obligations.

“If the United States defaults, it would undermine the economic strength on which our national security rests,” Austin noted.

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UK Implements Climate Commitment Policy for Government Contract Bidding
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UK Implements Climate Commitment Policy for Government Contract Bidding

The U.K. has implemented a requirement for companies pursuing domestic government contracts to develop carbon reduction plans as the country seeks to attain net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. 

Vendors that bid for at least $6.8 million in annual contracts with Britain's central departments, executive agencies and non-departmental public entities must demonstrate their environmental commitments, the British cabinet office said.

The government is requiring potential suppliers to report some activities that contribute to a company's carbon footprint, such as employee commuting and business travel.

This policy took effect ahead of the COP26 global climate conference that is scheduled to kick off later this month in Glasgow, Scotland.

Some of the global aerospace and defense industry's government suppliers are headquartered in the U.K. including BAE Systems, Cobham and QinetiQ.

Boeing and Lockheed Martin are among the U.S.-based contractors with a presence in the British public sector.

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Stacey Dixon: Government Should Pursue Regulatory Reform in Commercial Remote Sensing Arena
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Stacey Dixon: Government Should Pursue Regulatory Reform in Commercial Remote Sensing Arena

Stacey Dixon, principal deputy director of national intelligence and a two-time Wash100 Award winner, said the Biden administration and the Intelligence Community are advancing efforts to promote competition and minimize regulatory burdens in the market for commercial remote sensing satellites, Breaking Defense reported Wednesday.

“It is important to realize and recognize that there’s a growing consensus, not only in the IC but also among policy-makers, that the kind of change that we’ve seen in launch services is the right way to go in other areas,” Dixon said at a conference Wednesday.

She noted that the U.S. government should pursue that change by advancing regulatory reform in the remote sensing area to help address the threats posed by foreign competitors.

“If we don’t adapt, others will set the rules and challenge our new leadership. We should set the rules. We should influence the standards, and do so in a way that is consistent with our democratic values,” Dixon said.

She said the IC is working to increasingly incorporate industry input into its deliberations to better understand the needs of commercial enterprises.

“We want to pare down the constraints you face to only those that are absolutely necessary, particularly when it comes to competing on capabilities that are commercially available from others,” Dixon noted.

“While lifting some restrictions will not be possible, because custom and classified GEOINT capabilities are still critical to helping us understand and confront core national security challenges, it should be possible to provide a unified clear response that will allow you to make the investments you need and want to make more quickly,” she added.

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Verizon Extends Internet Access to Eligible Families Through LA Unified School District Partnership; Jennifer Chronis Quoted
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Verizon Extends Internet Access to Eligible Families Through LA Unified School District Partnership; Jennifer Chronis Quoted

Verizon has expanded its partnership with the Los Angeles Unified School District to extend its affordable, reliable internet access to eligible families in California and address the approximate 1.25 million households in the state that do not have internet access.

Through the partnership, Verizon plans to provide mobile broadband and voice service plans to eligible families through a range of state, local and non-profit organizations across California in an effort to “narrow the digital divide,” the company said Thursday.

2021 Wash100 Award winner Jennifer Chronis, senior vice president of Verizon’s public sector business said, “This new phase of our landmark partnership with Los Angeles Unified extends our remote learning program to include other populations in California that need internet access to continue their education, retrain for a job or complete other critical tasks online.” 

Through the partnership’s amendment, Verizon’s existing distance learning program will be expanded to California public libraries, which will have the same benefits and contract terms as K-12 schools in the state.

Chronis added that this amendment to the company’s partnership with the school district is the next step in Verizon’s new national digital inclusion program, which aims to provide affordable internet access to low-income families and individuals through support from state and local government agencies.

Other partners in the digital inclusion program include the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the Georgia Department of Education.

Verizon first partnered with Los Angeles Unified in response to the March 2020 COVID-19-related school closures, enabling the school district to provide internet access to its students and families who would not otherwise have distance learning capabilities.

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