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Lt. Gen. Robert Skinner: DISA Considers Command and Control a Top Priority
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Lt. Gen. Robert Skinner: DISA Considers Command and Control a Top Priority

U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. Robert Skinner, director of the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA), said DISA’s new strategic plan has five lines of effort and the first one focuses on prioritizing command and control, the agency said Wednesday.

Skinner said prioritizing C2 capabilities and systems will enable DISA to secure a “high ground” advantage over external threats and near-peer competitors.

“The No.1 area in my eyes continues to be command and control. As a combat support agency, we cannot fail in our ability to deliver C2 to our senior leaders to the tactical edge,” he said Wednesday at a conference.

Skinner noted that DISA must facilitate across future battlefields the distribution of via Joint All-Domain Command and Control (JADC2), which will help streamline C2 initiatives by linking sensors from various service branches into a single network.

“DISA is at the heart of C2 and the heart of JADC2. That is why we are prioritizing command and control,” he said. “We have to organize the battlespace to ensure 100% is secured.”

Skinner also discussed at the event the strategic plan’s other lines of effort through fiscal year 2024: driving force readiness through innovation; leveraging data as a center of gravity; harmonizing cybersecurity and user experience and empowering the workforce.

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DOE to Provide $209M for Electric Vehicle Battery Research; Secretary Jennifer Granholm Quoted
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DOE to Provide $209M for Electric Vehicle Battery Research; Secretary Jennifer Granholm Quoted

The Department of Energy (DOE) has committed $209 million in funding to 26 national laboratory projects that are aimed at improving advanced lithium batteries for connected and electric-powered vehicles.

The awardees will research ways to reduce the cost and size of lithium batteries, enable full charging in less than 15 minutes, prevent energy grid impacts on electric vehicles, streamline car-to-car communications and reduce power consumption, DOE said Wednesday.

According to the agency, the projects will help strengthen the domestic battery supply chain of the U.S., which currently relies mostly on advanced components built in other countries.

“By developing smarter vehicle batteries, we can make these technologies cheaper and more accessible, while positioning America to [become] a global leader of EV infrastructure production and clean energy jobs,” explained Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm.

The funding comes at the same time as the launch of Li-Bridge, a public-private partnership by the agency’s Argonne National Laboratory with a goal of bridging gaps in the U.S. supply chain.

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Stephen Gray: New Monitoring Capabilities Help USAF Manage Supply Chain Threats
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Stephen Gray: New Monitoring Capabilities Help USAF Manage Supply Chain Threats

A top U.S. Air Force sustainment official revealed that the service adopted capabilities for tracking defense components suppliers in a bid to manage supply chain risks, Federal News Network reported Wednesday.

According to Stephen Gray, director of the 448th Supply Chain Wing, said the ability to monitor its supply chain will enable the Air Force to find out the type and location of possible disruptions on its distribution network.

Speaking on the Federal Insights: Supply Chain program, Gray pointed out that service leaders can use such insights in deciding which high-risk suppliers and commodities to prioritize whenever the need arises.

Despite the investments, the official noted that the Air Force still faces the threat of inflated prices of products due to pandemic-caused logistics issues, which he conceded would strain the military’s budget.

“We just think from our businesses readiness perspective and being prepared for disruptions, that we need to keep our eye on the ball.” said Gray. “We think the lessons learned that we found in the COVID-19 pandemic will serve us well for the next one.”

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Washington State Secretary Kim Wyman to Lead CISA’s Election Security Efforts
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Washington State Secretary Kim Wyman to Lead CISA’s Election Security Efforts

Kim Wyman, Washington’s secretary of state, has been appointed to serve as the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s senior election security lead. She will work with election officials across the U.S. to protect the country’s election infrastructure, CISA said Tuesday.

“I am honored to be able to share nearly three decades of experience and expertise to support CISA’s efforts to safeguard our election systems from cyber-attacks and enhance the public’s confidence in our elections,” she said.

Wyman became Washington’s 15th secretary of state in 2012 and prior to that, was the elections director of Thurston County. She oversees corporation filings, state libraries and elections on both state and local levels as Washington’s secretary.

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DOC Announces New Chair, Members of FirstNet Authority Board; Secretary Gina Raimondo Quoted
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DOC Announces New Chair, Members of FirstNet Authority Board; Secretary Gina Raimondo Quoted

Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo has appointed Stephen Benjamin, mayor Columbia, South Carolina, as the new chairman of the Board of the First Responder Network Authority.

Benjamin joins 10 other newly appointed and reappointed public safety, technology and finance leaders in sitting on the board and ensuring the development of a nationwide public safety broadband network, the Department of Commerce said Tuesday.

To be developed by FirstNet Authority and AT&T, the proposed network is envisioned by DOC to enable communications between first responders and personnel across the federal government during emergency situations.

The new members serving in their first three-year terms are:

  • Benjamin, also vice chair of the Global Parliament of Mayors
  • Alexandra Fernandez Navarro, commissioner of the Puerto Rico Public Service Advisory Group
  • Kristin Graziano, member of the Major Country Sheriffs of America
  • Peter Koutoujian, resident of the Major County Sheriffs in America
  • Warren Mickens, retired vice president of CenturyLink Communications
  • Sylvia Moir, retired police chief of the Tempe Police Department in Arizona
  • Jocelyn Moore, member of the DraftKings board of directors

Meanwhile, the other leaders reappointed for their second terms are:

  • Richard Carrizzo, chief of the Southern Platte Fire Protection District in Kansas City, Missouri
  • Brian Crawford, executive vice president and chief administrative officer of Willis-Knighton Health System
  • Billy Hewes, mayor of Gulfport, Mississippi
  • Paul Patrick, a division director at the Utah Department of Health

 

“Their backgrounds and experience reflect the diversity of FirstNet network users and will enable the Board to look to the future for investment opportunities and sound financial management to maintain the only public-private nationwide public safety broadband network,” explained Raimondo.

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Gen. Mark Milley on China’s Hypersonic Weapons Test
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Gen. Mark Milley on China’s Hypersonic Weapons Test

Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and a four-time Wash100 Award winner, said China’s test of a hypersonic weapons technology in August is “very concerning,” The Washington Post reported Wednesday.

“I don’t know if it’s quite a Sputnik moment, but I think it’s very close to that,” Milley said in a television interview that aired Wednesday. “It has all of our attention.”

China is advancing the development of nuclear weapons capabilities, ballistic missile submarines and new missile silos. Milley added that the East Asian country is also “expanding rapidly” across land, air, maritime, space and cyberspace domains.

“We’re in one of the most significant changes in what I call the ‘character of war,’” Milley said. “We’re going to have to adjust our military going forward.”

He noted that the U.S. is also pursuing development and experimentation work on hypersonics, robotics and artificial intelligence, among other technologies.

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Amentum Team Awarded $21B Savannah River Site Integrated Mission Completion Contract; CEO John Vollmer Quoted
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Amentum Team Awarded $21B Savannah River Site Integrated Mission Completion Contract; CEO John Vollmer Quoted
John Vollmer
John Vollmer, CEO of Amentum

Amentum, a leading contractor of the Department of Energy (DOE), announced on Thursday that Savannah River Mission Completion (SRMC), a joint venture team comprised of Amentum, BWXT Technical Services Group, Fluor Federal Services, DBD and Wesworks, has been awarded a potential ten-year, $21 billion single-award Master Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract.

“We are pleased to have been awarded this contract. Amentum and our heritage companies have a long history of supporting the DOE’s environmental management programs and have managed numerous projects at the Savannah River Site,” said John Vollmer, CEO of Amentum and a six-time Wash100 Award recipient.

SRMC will be responsible for liquid waste operations, the closure of waste tanks, the operation of the Savannah River Site’s Defense Waste Processing Facility, the Salt Waste Processing Facility and associated production and disposal facilities.

“We look forward to working with our DOE client, partners, regulators, and community stakeholders to further advance the Department of Energy’s mission of safe cleanup of legacy liquid waste at the Savannah River Site,” Vollmer added.

The Savannah River Site is 310 square miles located near Aiken, S.C. on the Savannah River bordering South Carolina and Georgia.

“Amentum and our partners have a tremendous track record treating waste and managing nuclear operations around the DOE complex,” said Mark Whitney, president of Amentum’s Nuclear & Environment Business Unit. “We are honored to be a part of this team and begin operations under this new contract”.

This announcement comes only a day after the company announced that United Cleanup Oak Ridge (UCOR), a joint venture among Amentum, Jacobs and Honeywell, was awarded a ten-year, $8.3 billion IDIQ Oak Ridge Reservation Cleanup contract.

About Amentum

Amentum is a premier global technical and engineering services partner supporting critical programs of national significance across defense, security, intelligence, energy, and environment. We draw from a century-old heritage of operational excellence, mission focus, and successful execution underpinned by a strong culture of safety and ethics.

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Army Team to Gather, Analyze Tech Experiment Data From Project Convergence
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Army Team to Gather, Analyze Tech Experiment Data From Project Convergence

The U.S. Army has assembled a team that will gather and analyze data from the next iteration of the branch’s annual experiment campaign to assess modern defense technologies. 

The Data Collection and Analysis Team for Project Convergence 21 aims to generate information for military leaders to plan future technology development and modernization efforts, the Army said Tuesday. 

DC&A members, which come from Army Futures Command and other service components, consider their work as key to determining whether systems that are part of PC21 demonstrations worked as intended or not. 

In preparation for the event, the group’s experiment evaluators completed virtual, on-site and on-the-job observer-analyst training to familiarize themselves with the procedures and objectives of their data-related responsibilities. 

The nearly 300 DC&A staff members are based at Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona and White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.

Gen. John “Mike” Murray, head of Army Futures Command and two-time Wash100 Award winner, said at the Potomac Officers Club’s Aug. 16 virtual forum that PC21 data could help military personnel explore ways to manage the future Joint All-Domain Command and Control process.

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INSA Report Offers Recommendations for Controlled Unclassified Information Program
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INSA Report Offers Recommendations for Controlled Unclassified Information Program

The Intelligence and National Security Alliance (INSA) has issued a new report that outlines the areas of concern when it comes to implementing the Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) and lists eight recommendations to improve and achieve the CUI program’s goals. 

INSA said Monday the report found that CUI requirements, adoption and implementation rules differ across agencies and that CUI rules do not clearly address ownership of proprietary information and do not effectively safeguard legacy CUI data.

The paper also uncovered issues with the program’s central management process to address inconsistent requirements and implementation across government.

“At the same time, onerous and inconsistent requirements burden government contractors with the need to establish multiple information management and security practices – all while imposing consequences for failing to adhere to unclear guidance or to protect information whose status can change without warning,” the report’s conclusion reads.

Some of the report’s recommendations are simplifying the CUI program; clarifying the impact of CUI designation on proprietary information; assessing the effectiveness of CUI controls amid current cyber threats; codifying how CUI implementation costs will be calculated for industry bidding and compensation; and revising CUI rules to clarify handling of legacy-marked materials.

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DARPA-NGA-Air Force Partnership Moves Forward With Optical Tech Transition; Rohith Chandrasekar Quoted
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DARPA-NGA-Air Force Partnership Moves Forward With Optical Tech Transition; Rohith Chandrasekar Quoted

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) have begun transitioning metamaterials-based optical technology to multiple projects under the Air Force Research Laboratory’s (AFRL) Seedlings for Disruptive Capabilities Program.

AFRL will implement components developed through DARPA’s Extreme Optics and Imaging program in efforts to develop an unmanned combat aerial vehicle, an electro-optic/infrared sensor and a tube-launched unmanned air system, the agency said Tuesday.

The program commenced in 2016 and sought new engineered optical materials that could manipulate light beyond the laws of reflection and refraction.

DARPA then enlisted NGA’s research directorate in 2018 to incorporate metaoptics concepts into optical UAS hardware as part of NGA-backed projects at AFRL, the Naval Research Laboratory and Sandia National Laboratories.

“Through the NGA effort, AFRL developed unique capabilities using EXTREME technologies to characterize the optical performance of novel meta-optics and developed new insights into how they could be integrated into a full imaging system,” said Rohith Chandrasekar, program manager in DARPA’s Defense Sciences Office.

The laboratory will use the novel optical system to update EO/IR systems on the experimental XQ-58 Valkyrie UCAS and the Air Launched Off-Board Operations platform.

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