December 9, 2022 | International, Aerospace
Defense bill underlines need for tactically responsive space program
The language continues a three-year push from lawmakers for the service to prioritize the capability.
March 25, 2020 | International, C4ISR
Amazon Denounces DoD JEDI ‘Do-Over’
The Pentagon's request to reconsider narrow technical aspects of the award to Microsoft, Amazon argues, ignores a wide range of fundamental flaws.
By SYDNEY J. FREEDBERG JR.
WASHINGTON: Amazon Web Services has publicly denounced the Defense Department's latest legal maneuver in the months-long public battle over the JEDI cloud computing contract, awarded to Microsoft last year. No, Amazon said in a statement this morning, the Pentagon should not get to redo a particular piece of the award process the judge found flawed, because that was just one flaw among many and fixing it is a distraction from the larger issues.
“We're pleased to see the DoD recognize the need to take corrective action,” the Amazon statement began, “but we're concerned that the proposed approach is not designed to provide a complete, fair, and effective re-evaluation.”
“Both earlier in the adjudication process when we submitted 265 questions to the DoD that they refused to answer, and in our protest where we outlined numerous significant flaws in the evaluation, it's been clear that there were many problems with the DoD's initial decision,” the statement continues. “Instead of addressing the breadth of problems in its proposed corrective action, the DoD's proposal focuses only on providing Microsoft a ‘do-over' on its fatally flawed bid while preventing AWS from adjusting its own pricing in response to the DoD's new storage criteria.”
“This attempt to gerrymander the corrective action without fixing all of the serious flaws pointed out in our complaint raises significant questions,” the statement concludes.
The Pentagon's plan to consolidate many — but not all — of its 500-plus cloud contracts into a single Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI). Note the suggestion that the single “pathfinder” contract for JEDI might evolve into multiple JEDI contracts.
An email circulated by Amazon went further: “DoD's proposed corrective action seeks to resurrect Microsoft's award eligibility and directly and unreasonably benefits Microsoft's deficient approach. DoD's proposed corrective action does not meaningfully address the numerous errors identified in AWS's protest. These errors were pervasive, impacting all six of the technical evaluation factors” — that is, not just the one the Pentagon is asking to redo.
“From the President's order to ‘screw' Amazon out of the contract, to the Secretary halting the award for an 85-day ‘examination,' to the Secretary's bizarre recusal after an award decision had been made, to the numerous inexplicable evaluation errors, to the refusal to substantively address AWS's 265 post-award debriefing questions, to the blatant political interference which impacted the award decision – the history of this procurement casts serious doubt on the rationality and fairness of DoD's proposed correction action,” the email said bluntly.
Some backstory might help in parsing all this. (Click here for more detail). On Feb. 13, the court had granted Amazon a preliminary injunction, saying the company would “likely” be able to prove the Department of Defense had erred in one particular portion of its process – an evaluation of the two companies called Price Scenario 6 – when it awarded the potentially $10 billion contract to Microsoft Azure. On March 12th, DoD responded by asking the judge to “remand” the case back to DoD so it could correct and redo Price Scenario 6, giving Microsoft and Amazon the opportunity to submit updated bids – albeit with very strict limits on those updates.
“During the proposed remand,” DoD's motion said, “the agency potentially could make decisions that would moot this action, in whole or in part, and may obviate the need for further litigation in this Court.”
In other words, the Pentagon is asking the judge: let us fix this one thing, and then there might be nothing left for Amazon to object to, and you can dismiss the case. Today, Amazon replied: We have plenty more to object to – and we think the judge will side with us.
https://breakingdefense.com/2020/03/amazon-denounces-dod-jedi-do-over
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November 2, 2024 | International, C4ISR, Security
Massive Git Config Breach Exposes 15,000 Credentials; 10,000 Private Repos Cloned
EMERALDWHALE campaign exploits Git configurations, compromising 10,000+ repos and 15,000 credentials for phishing.
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July 29, 2019 | International, Naval
CSCSU Great Lakes Opens New VMS Lab
By Brian Walsh, Training Support Center Public Affairs GREAT LAKES, Ill. (NNS) -- Center for Surface Combat Systems Unit (CSCSU) Great Lakes held a ribbon cutting ceremony unveiling a new Voyage Management System (VMS) lab for operations specialist (OS) A School July 26. CSCSU staff overhauled a space that was previously used for chart plotting and converted it into the new VMS lab. Eight instructors were dedicated to the process working a total 320 man-hours creating the lab that will be used in the training of students to meet fleet VMS requirements. “The dedication of the staff was highly important in this process,” said Chief Operations Specialist James Rodney, leading chief petty officer of CSCSU Great Lakes' operations specialist A School. “Without their hard work and determination to finish the lab, it would not have been ready for the implementation of OS Ready Relevant Learning (RRL).” The benefits of opening the new VMS lab allows us to alleviate lab bottleneck concerns, which can result in lost training time when another class is already in the lab. CSCSU can also raise their annual throughput of students because of the additional VMS lab. VMS is a computer-based system for navigation planning and monitoring. Its primary purpose is to contribute to safe navigation. The system is designed to increase the situational awareness of watch standers on the bridge and at other shipboard locations where the system is made available. The VMS user interface consists of one or more computer workstations that are linked via the ship's network or a Local Area Network (LAN). Multiple workstations and/or remote monitors may be provided, to place a VMS display at any required shipboard location. The lab is critical to OS “A” students because they are learning about safety of navigation. The addition of 80 hours of classroom and lab time will ensure VMS certified operations specialist report to their follow on commands better prepared to assist the bridge and combat information center watch teams with safe navigation soon after reporting onboard. “This lab is a benefit to students because they are provided access to the most up to date VMS lab Great Lakes has to offer with the most current version of VMS,” Rodney said. “It benefits CSCSU because it a tool the instructors can use to better provide training to the students and it alleviates potential bottle necks with classes. It benefits the Navy because every OS “A” student is leaving the schoolhouse with a VMS certification and this helps take pressure off the ships because it will lower the number of personnel they will need to send to VMS school in the Fleet.” On hand to praise the staff was CSCSU Commanding Officer Cmdr. Richie Enriquez. “Today's ribbon-cutting is a significant accomplishment to better prepare our students and support the fleet," Enriquez said. "The new VMS lab allows us to have a dedicated space for the training of our operations specialist and it is vital to implementing OS RRL curriculum. The time put in to ensure our students receive the highest caliber of training shows the professionalism, excellence and pride CSCSU takes in supporting our mission to develop and deliver surface ship combat systems training to achieve surface warfare superiority.” https://www.navy.mil/submit/display.asp?story_id=110365