/
Army Seeks Light Combat All-Terrain Vehicle Fielding in 2019
Published on
Army Seeks Light Combat All-Terrain Vehicle Fielding in 2019


l-atvThe U.S. Army plans to deploy the Light Combat All-Terrain Vehicle in 2019 as a replacement for the Humvee, the Army said Thursday.

Staff Sgt. Corinna Baltos writes the service branch will field a two-seat combat support version and a four-passenger combat variant of L-ATV starting with the 82nd airborne division followed by the 173nd infantry brigade combat.

L-ATV is designed to be transported by helicopter and works to carry up to 15,639 pounds of cargo.

“We wanted to develop a truck with better underbody protection, and load protection, but one that could still put 3,500 pounds of payload in it,” said Col. Shane Fulmer, product manager systems integration for the Joint Program Office.

“This vehicle fits the bill,” Fulmer said of L-ATV.

Paratroopers from the 2nd battalion under the 173rd airborne brigade’s 503rd infantry regiment inspected Tuesday an L-ATV that was en route to Lithuania for testing, the report said.

/
Curt Dukes Outlines NSA Role in Cyber Defense Mitigation Efforts
Published on
Curt Dukes Outlines NSA Role in Cyber Defense Mitigation Efforts


Curtis Dukes
Curtis Dukes

Curt Dukes, the National Security Agency‘s deputy national manager for national security systems, has discussed NSA’s role in the development of cyber defense mitigation efforts and response to intrusions in the public and private sectors, DoD News reported Thursday.

Amaani Lyle writes Dukes discussed NSA’s incident-response work after incidents in computer networks of the Office of Personnel Management, State Department, Defense Department and other commercial companies at the American Enterprise Institute on Tuesday.

Dukes noted  NSA has implemented anti-exploitation features in a Windows environment as well as developed an application whitelist of trusted websites in support of efforts to mitigate an attacker’s cyber intrusion life cycle.

DoD also implements a host-based intrusion prevention system to perform daily antivirus protection through assessments of an adversary’s capacity for attacks.

“As a nation we have to rethink how we’re actually organized when we do cyber defense to protect the whole of the nation — not only government, but also our key industry sectors,” said Dukes.

/
NGA Chooses 16 Orgs for Disparate Data Challenge Phase 2
Published on
NGA Chooses 16 Orgs for Disparate Data Challenge Phase 2


NGA-logoThe National Geospatial-Intelligency Agency has invited 15 entities to join the second phase of NGA’s competition that seeks methods to discover, retrieve and analyze data in disparate formats, schemas, interfaces and locations.

NGA said Wednesday 15 of the awardees received $10,000 cash prizes and one entity secured a non-cash award under the Disparate Data Challenge‘s first phase wherein participants were asked to implement functioning systems that could facilitate access and retrieval processes for representative data sets analysis.

“This challenge is part of a greater strategy to engage with innovators and problem solvers we haven’t typically worked with,” said Mark DiPaolo, chief of the NGA’s mainstreaming innovation branch.

NGA chose these organizations to participate in the second leg of the challenge:

  • App Symphony
  • Blue Zoo
  • CyberGIS
  • Diffeo
  • Enigma
  • Envitia
  • GeoFairy
  • MARI
  • MediaFlux
  • Meta DDC
  • Paxata
  • Pyxis
  • RAMADDA
  • SitScape
  • Sourcerer
  • Voyager

/
Census Bureau Scales Back Some Testing Operations on Budget Uncertainty
Published on
Census Bureau Scales Back Some Testing Operations on Budget Uncertainty


U.S. Census Bureau logoThe Census Bureau will not push through with plans to commence testing operations in Puerto Rico, the Standing Rock Reservation in North and South Dakota and the Colville Reservation and Off-Reservation Trust Land in Washington State.

Bureau Director John Thompson wrote in a blog post published Tuesday the move aims to focus 2017 program resources on operational and systems readiness and the mentioned locations will be considered for inclusion on the 2018 End-to-End Census Test.

Thompson noted the Census Bureau will not expend any resources to prepare for the 2017 field tests because of the uncertainties in current fiscal year funding, while operations at the sites mentioned earlier will cost $5 billion and might risk the agency’s readiness for the 2018 test.

He added the Census Bureau must re-plan the 2017 Census Test to include only necessary activities that will help prepare for the 2018 End-to-End census test which will cover real-time non ID operation, Census Questionnaire Assistance utilization and internet collection with the use of cloud technology.

A memorandum issued Tuesday by Lisa Blumerman, associate director of Census Bureau decennial census programs, said the 2020 Census program has decided to stop two field test operations in FY 2017 to address program risks from funding uncertainty.

/
Nick Szechenyi: Japan Requests $51B Defense Budget for Fiscal 2017
Published on
Nick Szechenyi: Japan Requests $51B Defense Budget for Fiscal 2017


MissileDefenseNick Szechenyi, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, has said Japan has requested $51 billion in defense budget for fiscal year 2017 in response to regional security threats, the National Defense magazine reports.

Vivienne Machi writes Szechenyi said those regional threats include disputes over the East China Sea with China as well as missile and nuclear weapon development in North Korea.

Szechenyi told the magazine that Japan’s FY 2017 budget request for defense represents a 2 percent rise over the previous fiscal year and includes the procurement of the Lockheed Martin-built F-35A fighter aircraft, as well as plans to update the country’s Standard Missile 3 Block 2A platform and PAC-3 missile launcher systems.

Japan also plans to modernize its maritime surveillance aircraft, acquire a new submarine, invest in intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance tools and advance joint defense training cooperation with the U.S. and other countries, Szechenyi said.

Details on Japan’s defense budget request come after the country expressed plans to expedite a $1 billion investment to facilitate upgrades to ballistic missile defense systems in response to North Korea’s rocket tests.

/
Army to Evaluate New Software and Systems at Warfighter Assessment Exercise
Published on
Army to Evaluate New Software and Systems at Warfighter Assessment Exercise


military in trainingA U.S. Army Air Defense Airspace Management team will test a new software for the air missile defense workstation and forward area air defense system during a two-week warfighter assessment exercise.

Participants of the Army Warfighter Assessment 17.1 will work to gather input from soldiers on the performance of new warfighting capacities such as the “Leader Effects Tool Suite and Localized Warn to the Edge Capability” software, the service branch said Thursday.

ADAM will use the LETs Warn system during the event to sent air strike warnings to soldiers via the Joint Battlefield Command Platform/Joint Capabilities Release systems or the Nett Warrior system.

Jonathan Janiszewski, an ADAM officer, said the systems will look to inform an exact individual that will be impacted by a threat to help troops take cover, get inside shelters and react accordingly.

AWA 17.1 will also tackle the use of the Rapid Fabrication mobile container that carrier an array of 3-D printers to fabricate plastic parts on-demand as well as the Leader/Follower system that will program a vehicle to automatically follow a lead unit on convoy operations.

https://youtu.be/dFzgnxMwadk

/
CNAS Report Recommends Energy Security Strategy for Next US President
Published on
CNAS Report Recommends Energy Security Strategy for Next US President


power gridThe Center for a New American Security has published a new report that includes energy policy recommendations for the next U.S. president.

CNAS said Monday its “Increasing Prosperity, Resource Stewardship, and National Security: An Energy Policy Strategy for the Next President” report is part of the organization’s Papers for the Next President Series.

CNAS has called on the next administration to prioritize energy infrastructure modernization; counter Congress’ decision to reduce emergency oil reserves; and establish an assistant secretary of state role under the Bureau of Energy Resources.

CNAS also recommended for the 45th president to form a White House-led interagency program to address energy policy issues; increase federal investment in energy technologies; support the use of natural gas; and prioritize global energy market data collection and dissemination.

Future federal leaders should also establish an approach to national energy system issues concerning the national electricity grid, oil and gas, domestic energy production, instability in oil producing regions, local energy transportation system, climate change and others, CNAS added.

CNAS noted the next president must build on local and international energy policies by addressing conventional production, trade, efficiency, renewables, new technology, cybersecurity, resiliency and emergency preparedness.

Report authors include:

  • David Goldwyn, chairman of the Atlantic Council’s energy advisory group
  • Robert McNally, nonresident senior fellow at Columbia University’s center on global energy policy
  • Elizabeth Rosenberg, director of CNAS’ energy, economics and security program

/
EPA Taps NAAEE to Provide Environmental Education Training Support Under Cooperative Agreement
Published on
EPA Taps NAAEE to Provide Environmental Education Training Support Under Cooperative Agreement


green earth, environmentThe Environmental Protection Agency has selected the North American Association for Environmental Education to lead a program that seeks to provide EE training and support to environmental educators in the U.S. under a five-year cooperative agreement.

NAAEE said Thursday it will begin work on the ee360 program in 2017 in collaboration with Antioch University, Stanford University, University of Oregon, Center for Diversity and the Environment, Project Learning Tree, Earth Force and NAAEE’s affiliate network.

The agreement awarded by the EPA’s office of environmental education also calls for NAAEE to work with five federal agencies that include the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, U.S. National Park Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

“Together with EPA and our partners, we look forward to helping bring more innovation to our work, with a focus on professional development and long-term support to strengthen the entire field of environmental education,” said Pepe Marcos-Iga, board chair and chief operating officer at NAAEE.

The ee360 program will feature a new podcast to be hosted by NAAEE Deputy Director Christiane Maertens and interviews with EE professionals.

/
Scott Smith to Serve as FBI Cyber Division Asst Director
Published on
Scott Smith to Serve as FBI Cyber Division Asst Director


FBIScott Smith, a 20-year FBI veteran and former deputy assistant director for the human resources division at the bureau’s headquarters in Washington, has been named assistant director of the cyber division.

He joined FBI in 1996 as a special agent focused on violent crime and general criminal investigations at the Cleveland division and as a member of the Safe Streets Task Force that targeted drug trafficking groups, the bureau said Wednesday.

Smith became a supervisory special agent in charge of the international terrorism operations section at the FBI HQ’s counterterrorism division in 2004 and a year later he was deployed in Iraq to manage a contingent of special agents, analysts and language specialists who supported the bureau’s counterterrorism efforts.

His previous roles also include work as deputy on-scene commander in Iraq, assistant special agent in the Dallas division, special agent in charge of the Pittsburgh division, supervisory senior resident agent for the Cleveland division’s Toledo, Sandusky and Lima Resident agencies and chief of the employee services section of the bureau’s HR division.

He worked as a deputy sheriff at Ohio’s Lake County Narcotics Agency for seven years before he moved to the FBI.

/
DARPA Hands Over Space Surveillance Telescope to Air Force; Lindsay Millard Comments
Published on
DARPA Hands Over Space Surveillance Telescope to Air Force; Lindsay Millard Comments


darpa-space-surveillance-telescopeThe U.S. Air Force assumed ownership of the Space Surveillance Telescope from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency during a transition ceremony held Tuesday in New Mexico.

DARPA said Wednesday SST is designed to perform space situational awareness functions and detect potential satellite collisions in deep space.

An article published Tuesday on ExecutiveGov says the Air Force Space Command will jointly operate the optical telescope with the Australian government through the Harold E. Holt Naval Communication Station in Western Australia.

SST is built to detect and track “debris and satellites about 36,000 kilometers above the Earth,” Lindsay Millard, program manager for SST at DARPA, said at the event.

“Before SST, no single telescope could handle both of these challenges: seeing things that are very small, very faint, and very far away, simultaneously over an enormously vast area,” Millard added.

Other speakers at the ceremony include Steven Walker, deputy director at DARPA; Eric Evans, director of MIT Lincoln Laboratory; Air Force Maj. Gen. Nina Armagno, director of strategic plans, programs, requirements and analysis at the Air Force Space Command headquarters; and Air Commodore Sally Pearson, director of general surveillance and control at the Royal Australian Air Force.

1 … 2,360 2,361 2,362 2,363 2,364 … 2,619