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EDGE Group and Shipbuilding Giant Fincantieri Launch Multi-Billion Euro Joint Venture
Agreement will create a UAE-based naval manufacturing pipeline worth an estimated 30 billion euros.
November 25, 2020 | International, Land, C4ISR
Delay hits production decision for US Army’s critical battle command system
By: Jen Judson
WASHINGTON — A production decision for the U.S. Army's critical battle command system has been delayed, the service confirmed to Defense News.
An Office of the Secretary of Defense-level Defense Acquisition Board review was scheduled for Nov. 17, but due to some administrative issues, the board was unable to make a decision on the way forward for a program that has already experienced years of delays and setbacks.
The Northrop Grumman-developed battle command system was originally meant to serve as the command-and-control system for the Army's future Integrated Air and Missile Defense System against regional ballistic missile threats, but the service has since expanded its planned role to tie together a much broader array of sensors and shooters capable of defeating other complex threats like cruise missiles and unmanned aircraft.
To date, the Army has spent $2.7 billion to develop the system.
“A small number of statutory and regulatory documents supporting the Milestone C [production] decision are in the final stages of approval, but not yet fully approved,” an Army spokesperson wrote in an emailed statement. “The program office and OSD directorates will hold technical briefings to obtain final approval signatures on some of the open documents. Document completion is largely administrative.”
Specifically, final approval is needed for the program protection plan, the life-cycle sustainment plan and an update to the Capabilities Development Document, the spokesperson said.
The principal members of the Defense Acquisition Board “concurred with the program's achievement of all Engineering & Manufacturing Development Phase exit criteria,” the statement noted.
Ellen Lord, the undersecretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment, directed a follow-on meeting within 30 days to review document completion status. That review is anticipated to take place in mid-December.
The delay in reaching a production decision is not expected to affect the Integrated Air and Missile Defense Battle Command System program schedule — at least in terms of operational testing and other major milestones ahead.
The program struggled in 2016 during a limited-user test, but following several soldier checkouts and other test events over the past few years as well as a successful limited-user test this summer, it is expected the battle command system will be approved for production.
Once approved for production, it will move into an initial operational test and evaluation phase in 2021. The Army plans to equip its first unit with the system in the third or fourth quarter of fiscal 2022.
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October 9, 2018 | International, C4ISR
Google Drops Out of Pentagon's $10 Billion Cloud Competition
By Naomi Nix Alphabet Inc.'s Google has decided not to compete for the Pentagon's cloud-computing contract valued at as much as $10 billion, saying the project may conflict with its corporate values. The project, known as the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure cloud, or JEDI, involves transitioning massive amounts of Defense Department data to a commercially operated cloud system. Companies are due to submit bids for the contract, which could last as long as 10 years, on Oct. 12th. Google's announcement on Monday came just months after the company decided not to renew its contract with a Pentagon artificial intelligence program, after extensive protests from employees of the internet giant about working with the military. The company then released a set of principles designed to evaluate what kind of artificial intelligence projects it would pursue. “We are not bidding on the JEDI contract because first, we couldn't be assured that it would align with our AI Principles," a Google spokesman said in a statement. "And second, we determined that there were portions of the contract that were out of scope with our current government certifications.” The spokesman added that Google is “working to support the U.S. government with our cloud in many ways.” The Tech Workers Coalition, which advocates for giving employees a say in technology company decisions, said in a statement that Google's decision to withdraw from the cloud competition stemmed from “sustained” pressure from tech workers who “have significant power, and are increasingly willing to use it.” Read more: Google Won't Renew Pentagon AI Drone Deal After Staff Backlash Google is behind other technology companies such as Amazon.com Inc. and Microsoft Corp. in obtaining government cloud-security authorizations that depend on the sensitivity of data a service is hosting. The JEDI contract attracted widespread interest from technology companies struggling to catch up with Amazon in the burgeoning federal government market for cloud services. Final requirements for the project were released in July after a months-long lobbying campaign in Washington by tech companies including Microsoft, International Business Machines Corp. and Oracle Corp. that opposed the Pentagon's plans to choose just one winner for the project instead of splitting the contract among a number of providers. “Had the JEDI contract been open to multiple vendors, we would have submitted a compelling solution for portions of it,” the Google spokesman said. “Google Cloud believes that a multi-cloud approach is in the best interest of government agencies, because it allows them to choose the right cloud for the right workload.” In a report to Congress, the Defense Department said making multiple awards under current acquisition law would be a slow process that “could prevent DoD from rapidly delivering new capabilities and improved effectiveness to the warfighter that enterprise-level cloud computing can enable.” The department also said it expects “to maintain contracts with numerous cloud providers to access specialized capabilities not available under the JEDI Cloud contract.” — With assistance by Ben Brody, and Josh Eidelson https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-10-08/google-drops-out-of-pentagon-s-10-billion-cloud-competition
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July 23, 2024 | International, C4ISR, Security
Chinese Hackers Target Taiwan and US NGO with MgBot Malware
Chinese hackers target Taiwan and US NGO with advanced malware. Daggerfly group upgrades cyber arsenal for espionage, exploiting vulnerabilities.