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US Army Tests Integration of Cyber Teams With Maneuver Commanders
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US Army Tests Integration of Cyber Teams With Maneuver Commanders


Cyber QuestThe U.S. Army has started to explore the potential role of cyber teams in support of maneuver commanders’ efforts to gain situational data within an information environment.

The 1st Infantry Division’s 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team incorporated cyber effects during a recent rotation at Fort Irwin’s National Training Center in late July and August as part of the Cyber Support to Corps and Below pilot program, the Army said Wednesday.

NTC maintains mock cities and villages across mountains and deserts in an area roughly the size of Rhode Island.

Lt. Col. Jon Burnett Burnett, chief of Army Cyber Command’s CSCB, said the CSCB experiments demonstrated that maneuver commanders could gain an advantage in cyberspace.

Maj. Deonand Singh, operations officer for the 781st Military Intelligence Battalion, added that the cyber team carried out activities against an opposing force during this rotation.

The expeditionary team first surveyed the training scenario’s information environment to view the adversary’s activities and transmitted data to an analytical cell for actionable intelligence.

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US to Expand Defense Cooperation With Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania Via Joint Declaration
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US to Expand Defense Cooperation With Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania Via Joint Declaration


military in trainingThe U.S. has reached an agreement with Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania to increase defense cooperation in order to ensure security in the Baltic region amid the evolving security environment there.

The U.S. and the three Baltic States plan to hold regular meetings to discuss national resilience, border security, maritime, ground and aerial defense, transnational threats and law enforcement issues under the joint declaration, the White House said in a news release published Tuesday.

The Baltic States also agreed to set aside budget for defense spending and align the U.S. European Reassurance Initiative and other U.S.-backed deterrence and security measures in support of NATO’s efforts to build up its defense posture and promote regional and national security.

The four countries also plan to expand their cooperation in the areas of cyber defense, critical infrastructure and energy security under the declaration.

The countries reaffirmed their strategic alliance during U.S. Vice President Joe Biden’s visit to Latvia.

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Army, University of Maryland Scientists Eye Water Electrolyte for Aqueous Lithium Batteries
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Army, University of Maryland Scientists Eye Water Electrolyte for Aqueous Lithium Batteries


research and development RDScientists from the U.S. Army and the University of Maryland have developed a water electrolyte that might lead to the development of a nonflammable, aqueous lithium battery, the Army reported Monday.

Researchers at the Army Research Laboratory and the university conducted experiments on aqueous batteries and found that the use of high concentrations of salt resulted in the development of a new lithium fluoride layer that is similar to the coating of traditional lithium ion batteries.

“The main problem with lithium ion batteries has always been safety,” said Arthur Von Wald Cresce, a materials scientist at ARL.

“What we’re trying to do is to make sure that the battery remains safe, it remains nonflammable, but that we get as much capacity out of the battery as possible.”

Scientists have started to explore the interaction between the aqueous electrolyte and the negative electrode and plan to identify other anode materials that could be used in succeeding experiments, Cresce added.

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NASA to Study Climate Impact of Smoke in Clouds off Namibian Coast
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NASA to Study Climate Impact of Smoke in Clouds off Namibian Coast


CloudNASA has sent a team of scientists and two research aircraft to Namibia as part of a mission to study how the interaction of smoke with clouds affects the climate.

The agency said Wednesday its Observations of Aerosols Above Clouds and their Interactions mission aims to determine if atmosphere cools down or warms up when aerosol particles from smoke mix with clouds.

“Human activities currently are estimated to be responsible for perhaps half of all the aerosol particles in the atmosphere,” said Robert Wood, a cloud scientist at the University of Washington and ORACLES deputy principal investigator.

“Smoke particles both reflect sunlight back to space, thus cooling the Earth, and absorb sunlight, which has the opposite effect of warming the Earth,” Wood added.

NASA said study results can facilitate efforts to update regional and global computer models that work to predict the future effects of climate change as well as reveal the impact of aerosols on regional coastal fisheries.

ORACLES will be based in Walvis Bay, Namibia, where NASA’s scientific team will collaborate with faculty and students from the Namibia University of Science and Technology, the space agency added.

The Namib Desert-based Gobabeb Research and Training Centre will provide ground-based remote sensing of the atmosphere for the mission, the agency added.

NASA’s P-3 and ER-2 aircraft will fly up to 20,000 and 65,000 feet, respectively, to collect cloud and aerosol samples that scientists will use to examine the behavior of aerosols in clouds.

ORACLES is a multi-year NASA Earth Venture suborbital investigation that involves more than 100 scientists from five NASA centers, two national laboratories, 10 U.S. universities and five African research institutions.

Earth Venture investigations work to study Earth system processes under NASA’s Earth System Science Pathfinder program.

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FCC Seeks to Authorize Mobile, Fixed Radio Services to Operate in Spectrum Bands Above 24 GHz
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FCC Seeks to Authorize Mobile, Fixed Radio Services to Operate in Spectrum Bands Above 24 GHz


FCCSealThe Federal Communications Commission has proposed new rules that would provide licenses for mobile and fixed radio services to use frequencies above 24 gigahertz.

FCC said in a Federal Register notice posted Wednesday its proposed regulations cover flexible use rules for services that operate in the 24 Ghz, 32 Ghz, 42 Ghz, 47 Ghz, 50 Ghz, 70 Ghz and 80 Ghz bands.

FCC plans to adopt the geographic area licensing framework with partial economic area for services that operate between 24 Ghz and 50 Ghz and use a licensing system that is based on the Citizens Broadband Radio Service framework for the 71-76 GHz and 81-86 GHz bands.

The agency also proposed to hold spectrum auction for licenses on Upper Microwave Flexible Use Service bands, open the 3.85 GHz of millimeter wave spectrum for licensed use by mobile services as well as increase the unlicensed spectrum in the 57-71 GHz band to 14 Ghz.

“The commission believes these bands might be able to support expanded sharing, including two-way shared use between federal and non-federal users in these bands and sharing among different types of service platforms,” FCC said in the notice.

The agency said it will continue to collaborate with the satellite industry, wireless providers, National Telecommunications and Information Administration and other federal agencies to address allocation and operation issues in the cited spectrum bands.

Comments to the proposed rule are due Sept. 30, according to the notice.

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FCC Reopens Online Filing System for 911 Service Reliability Certifications
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FCC Reopens Online Filing System for 911 Service Reliability Certifications


FCCSealThe Federal Communications Commission has reopened an electronic process for service providers to file annual 911 reliability certifications on FCC’s web-based portal.

The Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau said Friday that covered 911 service providers can submit certification information online through Oct. 15.

FCC’s rules mandate that providers of emergency communications services comply with requirements for 911 circuit diversity, central office backup power and diverse network monitoring.

The FCC required 911 service providers to file initial reliability certifications by Oct. 15, 2015 to confirm the progress they made to fulfill the three substantive certification requirements and 220 companies have undergone the 2015 certification process, PSHSB noted.

FCC now wants the service providers to show their full compliance with each of the three certification requirements through the 2016 certification process.

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China Unveils Photos of Mars Rover for 2020 Launch
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China Unveils Photos of Mars Rover for 2020 Launch


Mars PlanetChina has unveiled photos of its Mars rover that is scheduled for a July or August 2020 launch to carry out a three-month mission on the planet’s surface, Chinese state news agency Xinhua reported Tueday.

The rover would weigh 441 pounds and carry 13 payloads such as a remote sensing camera and a ground penetrating radar, according to the report.

China expects the rover to land in a low-latitude area in Mars’ northern hemisphere after a seventh-month journey, Xinhua stated.

Mars’ equator features better solar power utilization than the northern hemisphere but the latter has more suitable geographic conditions, the report.

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Marines, Sailors Join Cyber Defense Training Program at I MEF Large Scale Exercise 2016
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Marines, Sailors Join Cyber Defense Training Program at I MEF Large Scale Exercise 2016


Marines, Sailors Join Cyber Defense Training Program at I MEF Large Scale Exercise 2016U.S. Marine Corps and Navy service members have engaged in cyber defense training programs as part of the I Marine Expeditionary Force Large Scale Exercise 2016 that occurred from Aug. 10 to Aug. 22 22 in Southern California.

The Marine Corps said Tuesday the exercise aimed to rehearse the deployment of approximately 50,000 military personnel to a partner nation as well as simulate live-fire and combat scenarios against a near-peer enemy force.

“What we are working on in the joint force across the national-defense establishment is finding our way into this new domain of warfare that we call the cyber domain,” said Maj. Gen. David Coffman, I MEF deputy commanding general.

“The ones and zeroes in the computers can go around the world, up into space, et cetera, this is a problem we are attacking in this exercise,” Coffman added.

Curtis Miller, I MEF cyber network operations planner, said the exercise involved a scenario where participants could train against a force with advanced cyber capacity.

I MEF Marines codified new techniques, tactics and procedures that worked to secure classified and unclassified computer systems through the support of the Fleet Cyber Command’s 553 Cyber Protection Team, the Marine Corps added.

553-CPT works to help Marines conduct defensive cyber operations and identify gaps in cyber defenses, according to Marco Fernandez, 553-CPT cryptologic technician for networks.

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Ash Carter Issues Proposals to Establish Diverse Recruitment Pool for Military Services
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Ash Carter Issues Proposals to Establish Diverse Recruitment Pool for Military Services


army stock photoDefense Secretary Ash Carter has introduced a national discussion that works to establish a diverse recruitment pool through proposals designed to help attract recruits aged 17 to 24 from across the country, DoD News reported Wednesday.

Jim Garamone writes most of the military recruits come from southeastern states such as Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Mississippi and Georgia to represent the U.S. region with the country’s highest recruit-to-population ratio.

“It’s certainly important to reflect the nation we serve, to have a force that’s representative of all the states and all the various different populations across the country,” said Stephanie Miller, Defense Department director of accession policy.

“We also need to ensure that from a recruiting perspective we are tapping into all the various populations throughout the U.S.”

Carter’s “Force of the Future” proposals also look to encourage the propensity to serve and cater to 70 percent of the surveyed youth that according to Miller listed “making a contribution to society” as a life goal.

The report added officials aim to update the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery of tests and develop algorithms for social media content to reach target audiences and expand the recruiting bases.

Garamone noted the military force size has shrunk to approximately 1.3 million members which poses a challenge of fewer veterans entering the civilian population and veteran-influencers to recommend military service to prospective enlistees.

ONC Opens Comment Period on Draft 2017 Health IT Interoperability Standards
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ONC Opens Comment Period on Draft 2017 Health IT Interoperability Standards


health infosecThe Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology seeks public comments on a draft set of standards and implementation specifications meant to help the healthcare sector address interoperability issues between clinical IT systems.

Steven Posnack, director of ONC’s Office of Standards and Technology and Chris Muir, director of the HIT Infrastructure and Innovation Division, wrote in a joint blog entry posted Monday the comment period on the 2017 Interoperability Standards Advisory draft runs through Oct. 24.

Posnack and Muir said the ISA is part of the agency’s efforts toward implementing the Nationwide Interoperability Roadmap and supports the Interoperability Commitments made by various health IT developers, providers and trade groups to meet federally recognized electronic health data exchange policies and guidelines.

They added ONC launched an effort to transition its interoperability standards to a web-based interactive resource.

“Our goal is to shift the ISA experience from a static, PDF to an interactive, wiki style product that stakeholders can more fully engage with and shape,” Posnack and Muir noted.

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