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Senate Bill to Establish Public Database to Track Voluntary AI Security Incident Reports
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Senate Bill to Establish Public Database to Track Voluntary AI Security Incident Reports

Sens. Mark Warner, D-Va., and Thom Tillis, R-N.C., have introduced a bill that would create a public database to help track voluntary reports of artificial intelligence-related security and safety incidents to help ensure the security of the AI ecosystem.

Warner’s office said Wednesday the proposed Secure Artificial Intelligence Act of 2024 would require the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency to update the National Vulnerability Database and the Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures Program, respectively.

The legislation would also require NIST and CISA to develop a process for tracking voluntary reports of security vulnerabilities associated with AI.

The measure would establish a multistakeholder process to promote the development and adoption of best practices to address supply chain risks related to maintaining and training AI models.

Under the bill, the lawmakers proposed to form a new AI security center within the National Security Agency to provide academic researchers and the private sector with an AI research testbed, foster secure AI adoption and create guidance to mitigate counter-AI techniques.

“As we continue to embrace all the opportunities that AI brings, it is imperative that we continue to safeguard against the threats posed by – and to — this new technology, and information sharing between the federal government and the private sector plays a crucial role,” said Warner, chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.

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DOD Addresses Cyber Standards for Covered Contractor Info Systems in Latest DFARS Class Deviation
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DOD Addresses Cyber Standards for Covered Contractor Info Systems in Latest DFARS Class Deviation

The Department of Defense has released a Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement class deviation concerning cybersecurity standards for covered contractor information platforms.

DOD said Thursday the class deviation seeks to provide more time for industry to transition to the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s revised Special Publication 800-171, which addresses the protection of controlled unclassified data in nonfederal information systems.

According to DOD, the class deviation will also provide the department time to align the necessary supporting mechanisms.

The latest DOD document includes definitions of several terms, including controlled technical information, covered defense information and cyber incident, and establishes information security protections that contractors should implement to provide adequate security on all covered contractor information systems.

The department also details cyber incident reporting requirements and offers measures for handling malicious software and accessing additional information needed to conduct a forensic analysis.

John Tenaglia, principal director of defense pricing and contracting at DOD, on Tuesday signed the class deviation, which was issued by the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment.

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Raytheon-Built Imaging Instruments Launch With Maxar Satellites; Nicholas Yiakas Quoted
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Raytheon-Built Imaging Instruments Launch With Maxar Satellites; Nicholas Yiakas Quoted

Two Raytheon-designed imaging instruments have joined Maxar’s WorldView Legion satellite constellation.

These instruments were included in the first two of six planned satellites in the constellation, which will offer high-resolution satellite imagery with a revisit rate of up to 15 times each day over the world’s most populated areas, RTX, Raytheon’s parent company, announced from Arlington, Virginia on Friday.

“Raytheon’s advanced instrument technology sets a new industry standard, providing 30cm high-resolution satellite imagery that enables WorldView Legion to fulfill today’s customer needs and adapt to the evolving needs of tomorrow,” said Nicholas Yiakas, director of civil, commercial and special programs at Raytheon.

While developing the telescopes, the enterprise secured eight U.S. patents. The final product was brought to life through a 15-year research and development initiative to create an optical material that is lighter yet stronger than earlier versions. With this technology, Maxar was able to shrink spacecraft mass by over two times and lower time to orbit and launch costs.

Once an image is taken, it is focused onto Raytheon’s digital focal plane array, which provides high-resolution multispectral images.

The WorldView Legion constellation is positioned in low Earth orbit and is intended to support various applications within a range of sectors, such as national security, military and commercial mapping and maritime monitoring as well as telecommunications network planning, change detection and feature identification.

It will also contribute to humanitarian aid delivery in the wake of natural disasters and help collect other information on world events.

DON Designates Naval Identity Services as Enterprise IT Service for ICAM; Jane Rathbun Quoted
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DON Designates Naval Identity Services as Enterprise IT Service for ICAM; Jane Rathbun Quoted

Naval Identity Services, or NIS, has been formally designated as the Department of the Navy’s enterprise information technology service for identity, credential and access management.

NIS will initially provide ICAM capabilities to unclassified Navy shore users with plans to extend its support to classified, afloat and tactical use cases, the DON Chief Information Officer said Thursday.

“Enterprise information technology services are a huge force multiplier: these services allow our entire enterprise the ability to do more for less with greater security, quality and speed,” said DON CIO Jane Rathbun, a 2024 Wash100 awardee.

According to Rathbun, the designation of NIS as the enterprise service for ICAM will advance her office’s Capstone Design Concept for Information Superiority, which aims to help DON achieve a favorable financial audit opinion and comply with requirements to deliver a zero trust implementation plan by 2024.

ICAM is critical to driving the implementation of zero trust architecture across DON by providing a resilient cybersecurity approach to authenticating and authorizing users’ access to certain digital resources. It will also enable DON to resolve key financial audit deficiencies in IT general controls.

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Tonya Wilkerson Nominated as Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence & Security
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Tonya Wilkerson Nominated as Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence & Security

President Joe Biden has nominated Tonya Wilkerson, deputy director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and a previous Wash100 awardee, to serve as the Department of Defense’s undersecretary for intelligence and security.

The White House said Thursday Wilkerson will bring to the DOD position her over 30 years of leadership experience in the intelligence community and the space sector once confirmed.

Milancy Harris, former deputy assistant secretary of defense for irregular warfare and counterterrorism, currently serves as acting undersecretary of defense for intelligence and security. In this capacity, she serves as a principal staff assistant and adviser to the secretary of defense and deputy DOD secretary on intelligence, counterintelligence and security matters.

Wilkerson previously served as associate deputy director for science and technology and strategy at the CIA.

She was a change management leader at the National Reconnaissance Office, where she also held leadership positions in the areas of acquisitions, research and development and operations.

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KBR Secures NRL Recompete Contract for Facility Operations, Maintenance & Security Services; Byron Bright Quoted
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KBR Secures NRL Recompete Contract for Facility Operations, Maintenance & Security Services; Byron Bright Quoted

KBR has received a contract from the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory to provide facility operations, maintenance and security services in Washington, D.C.

The $34 million recompete award will extend the range of KBR’s partnership with the agency to include staffing its visitor center and supporting cybersecurity needs at multiple campuses, KBR announced from Houston, Texas on Thursday.

“We are excited to remain a key player in maintaining secure facility operations and cybersecurity services for the NRL in the face of increased threats,” said Byron Bright, president of KBR’s federal arm and a 2024 Wash100 Award recipient.

KBR has held this contract for 35 years, a timeframe Bright said demonstrates the organization’s “expertise within the physical security and cybersecurity realms.”

The recompete will also cover maintenance and sustainment services at two controlled areas in the city, with retrofitting space for incoming tenants to support research being one major responsibility.

This award comes less than a month after KBR announced it had won contracts valued at over $450 million combined from various government customers to assist with space-focused projects. Work under these awards is expected to support applied research, data science, acquisition and many other areas.

In March, KBR secured a $60.7 million Defense Health Agency task order for cybersecurity services. The award includes three option years that could bring the contract’s total value to $245.6 million if exercised.

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GSA Advances OASIS+ Contract Program With New Website, Draft Ordering Guide
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GSA Advances OASIS+ Contract Program With New Website, Draft Ordering Guide

The General Services Administration’s Office of Professional Services and Human Capital Categories, also known as PSHC, has unveiled the first phase of its new website and draft ordering guide for the One Acquisition Solution for Integrated Services Plus contract program, or OASIS+.

The new website is designed to provide information for procurers and sellers to facilitate their use of OASIS+, GSA said Thursday.

The site offers details about the scope, contract families and domain structure of the OASIS+ contract, guides on the acquisition process and links to resources, systems information, training and events. Additional content and improvements will be rolled out in the coming months to align with awards and post-award activities.

OASIS+ is a suite of multiple-award, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contracts with a five-year base period and a five-year option term and is designed to help federal agencies meet their procurement requirements for services-based solutions. 

The OASIS+ contract scope is organized by domains, including management and advisory, research and development, technical and engineering, intelligence services and logistics.

The ordering guide offers details on how the OASIS+ contracts can be used to meet a wide variety of services requirements and provides an overview of task order issuance, including delegation of procurement authority, acquisition planning considerations and solicitation considerations.

PSHC said it will host a live virtual training on May 8 to provide an overview of the OASIS+ contract program and the first Delegation of Procurement Authority virtual training on May 29.

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NASA Urged to Incorporate Cybersecurity Best Practices Into Spacecraft Acquisition Policies
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NASA Urged to Incorporate Cybersecurity Best Practices Into Spacecraft Acquisition Policies

The Government Accountability Office has recommended that NASA develop a plan to incorporate cybersecurity principles and best practices into its spacecraft acquisition policies and standards to ensure that its space vehicles can defend against advanced cybersecurity threats.

GAO found that while NASA has established cybersecurity requirements for its programs, it has yet to implement mandatory cyber rules for the acquisition of spacecraft and other systems.

In 2023, NASA issued a best practices guide on cybersecurity principles and controls and potential cyberthreat mitigation strategies but its implementation is optional for spacecraft programs.

GAO warned that without consistent implementation of cybersecurity controls, NASA lacks assurance that its spacecraft programs “have a layered and comprehensive defense against attacks.”

To address this concern, GAO recommended that NASA create an implementation plan with time frames to incorporate essential security controls into its spacecraft acquisition policies.

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Carlos Del Toro: Navy Seeks Fiscal Year 2025 Funding for MQ-25 Low-Rate Initial Production
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Carlos Del Toro: Navy Seeks Fiscal Year 2025 Funding for MQ-25 Low-Rate Initial Production

The Department of the Navy is seeking $16.2 billion in fiscal year 2025 for aircraft procurement, with a part of the budget intended for low-rate initial production of the MQ-25 Stingray unmanned aircraft, according to Secretary of the Navy and 2024 Wash100 winner Carlos Del Toro.

The MQ-25 will operate from aircraft carriers and work to enhance the lethality and striking range of carrier air wings by providing an unmanned in-air refueling capability, Del Toro told the House Armed Services Committee on Wednesday.

Boeing, the developer of the refueling drone, delivered the first Stingray unit to the Navy for testing in February, The Defense Post reports. Following delivery, the unit would undergo airframe integrity evaluation, Boeing had said on X.

Just recently, the aerospace company conducted a virtual demonstration showcasing the ability of a software it had developed to enable manned-unmanned teaming between an MQ-25 and an F-18 fighter aircraft.

Using the software, the operator of a simulated F-18 instructed an MQ-25, also simulated, to engage in in-air refueling. The MQ-25 was originally designed to receive instructions from operators aboard aircraft carriers.

Although the MQ-25 is envisioned as an aerial refueler, talks are already underway between the Navy and Boeing on the possibility of the aircraft to take on other missions, according to one company official.

Troy Rutherford, a vice president and the MQ-25 program manager at Boeing, told Breaking Defense in an interview in April that the ability “to haul weapons or sensors” is baked into the design of the Stingray because it was originally meant to be an offer for the Navy’s Unmanned Carrier-Launched Strike & Surveillance program, which is now defunct.

To demonstrate possible alternate configurations of the MQ-25, Boeing showcased a variant of the aircraft at the Sea Air Space conference in April bearing Long Range Anti-Surface Missiles made by Lockheed Martin.

Carlos Del Toro: Navy Seeks Fiscal Year 2025 Funding for MQ-25 Low-Rate Initial Production

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Reliable Robotics Completes USAF-Commissioned KC-135 Stratotanker Automation Study
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Reliable Robotics Completes USAF-Commissioned KC-135 Stratotanker Automation Study

Reliable Robotics has completed its study on the potential of equipping the KC-135 Stratotanker aircraft with the company’s autonomous flight system to enable automated operations.

The company said Thursday the KC-135 Stratotanker automation study it delivered to the U.S. Air Force was performed under a Small Business Innovation Research Phase III contract and provided insights about the possible use of its aircraft-agnostic system to automate KC-135’s taxi, takeoff, cruise and landing.

“Automating the KC-135 for refueling, cargo transport and joint operations with coalition military forces will allow pilots and crew to focus on higher-complexity tasks,” said Col. Lisa Nemeth, Headquarters Air Mobility Command A5/8, Deputy Director Strategy, Plans, Requirements and Programs.

Aside from automating the tanker’s operations, Reliable also envisions that the KC-135 automation tech will reduce crew workload while delivering better operational efficiencies and technological capabilities and will provide safe and efficient automated refueling of military fleets.

Reliable delivered the report to senior Air Mobility Command leadership earlier in 2024.

“The Air Force is continually innovating, and autonomy will be a key enabler for global missions and agile combat employment,” said Nemeth.

Currently, almost 400 Stratotankers are in operation, supporting the Air Force’s refueling and air mobility requirements.

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