December 20, 2023 | International, Aerospace
US Army to trim Black Hawk helicopter fleet
The Army will pare down its fleet of Black Hawk helicopters as end strength falls and the service prepares to field its replacement.
January 31, 2019 | International, C4ISR
For DoD cyber, 2019 is the year of doing
By: Mark Pomerleau
Following a year of cyberspace strategizing, 2019 will be all about implementing rules and tools, according to the Department of Defense's top uniformed cyber policy adviser.
Appearing Jan. 29 before the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Brig. Gen. Dennis Crall said the department knows where it needs to head following last year's DoD cyber strategy (the first in three years) and now is the time to show results.
“This is the year of outcomes and that's what we're focused on — delivering the capabilities and improvements that we've discussed for some time,” he told the committee, adding that the strategy process allowed them to take a look at some departmental gaps and get after them.
The strategy actually has actionable lines of effort and there are things they can do to measure progress, he said.
The document lays out five objectives and five areas of interest under its strategic approach. The five objectives include:
- Ensuring the joint force can achieve its missions in a contested cyberspace environment;
- Strengthening the joint force by conducting cyberspace operations that enhance U.S. military advantages;
- Defending U.S. critical infrastructure from malicious cyber activity that alone, or as part of a campaign, could cause a significant cyber incident;
- Securing DoD information and systems against malicious cyber activity, including DoD information on non-DoD-owned networks; and
- Expanding DoD cyber cooperation with interagency, industry, and international partners.
The five areas of interest under the guise of its strategic approach include building a more lethal joint force; competing and deterring in cyberspace; strengthening alliances and attracting new partners; reforming the department; and cultivating talent.
The strategy also notes DoD must take action in cyberspace during day-to-day competition to preserve U.S. military advantages and defend U.S. interests. The focus will be on nation states that can pose strategic threats to the United States, namely China and Russia.
“We will conduct cyberspace operations to collect intelligence and prepare military cyber capabilities to be used in the event of crisis or conflict,” the document says.
Dana Deasy, the department's chief information officer, told the same committee that the threat from Russia and China is so acute he is briefed weekly from U.S. Cyber Command and the National Security Agency on them. This allows him to understand their offensive and defensive posture relative to the DoD.
“Suffice to say that these are very strong, capable adversaries, but at the same time we have some strong, capable abilities ourselves,” he said.
Cyber Command has now assembled a full force of cyberwarriors and received limited acquisition authority to start equipping them. However, there is much more work to be done.
In fact, aside from individual tools, the force is still in need of a training range where cyberwarriors can do individual and collective training, as well as mission rehearsal, similar to rifle ranges or national training centers in the physical world.
The Persistent Cyber Training Environment, being run by the Army for the joint force, will get after this; however, it is still in the prototype phase with a limited capability delivered to users.
Additionally, the force needs a large-scale command-and-control platform that will house tools, provide commanders global situational awareness of forces and enable forces to plug into operations from remote locations.
This is the goal of Unified Platform, which is also still in the prototype phase, though officials have said a limited product could be delivered as early as the spring.
https://www.fifthdomain.com/dod/2019/01/30/for-dod-cyber-2019-is-the-year-of-doing
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June 5, 2020 | International, C4ISR, Security
Major Pentagon IT programs are reducing costs, but development challenges remain
Andrew Eversden A federal watchdog's review of 15 major information technology investments at the Department of Defense found that many programs were below cost estimates, though several had delays in their original timelines, shortfalls in cybersecurity testing and software development workforce challenges. The Government Accountability Office's 18th annual “Defense Acquisitions Annual Report," released June 3, evaluated 15 major business and non-business information technology programs, the first time the GAO evaluated IT programs as part of the review. The IT projects the GAO examined totaled $15.1 billion in spending. The report found that 11 of the 15 systems saw decreases in their in their life-cycle cost estimates. The biggest cost saver was the Army Contract Writing System, which decreased its cost estimate by $229 million. That system will replace several legacy platforms and serve as the Army's enterprise-wide contract management platform. Officials working on the systems with lower price tags said that the drops were due to contract cost revisions, program management efficiencies and lower costs than expected. Two of the remaining four programs that had higher costs experienced increases of over 20 percent, though the report doesn't note which programs. One program, not named in the report, experienced an increase of $315 million, or 151 percent. Officials from the unexpectedly expensive projects cited developmental challenges as a reason for the increases. Two-thirds of the projects experienced schedule delays, ranging from one month for the Marine Corps' Air Command and Control System Increment One, to five years for the Air Force's Defense Enterprise Accounting and Management System-Increment One. Officials for delayed programs told the GAO that slowdowns occurred because of cybersecurity gaps, performance issues and longer-than expected maintenance periods. The GAO also evaluated the use of software development by the systems, finding that 14 of the 15 programs were using various types of iterative software development, such as agile, incremental and waterfall, among others. Among the other findings: - All eight major business IT systems it evaluated were using commercial-off-the-shelf software, consistent with DoD guidance from 2017. COTS software is supposed to reduce cost, development time and increase delivery. - Six of the 15 systems were conducting cybersecurity testing during the developmental stages of the program, which allows the services to fix vulnerabilities early in the software life cycle before the program is used, saving money and reduce delays before systems are fully implemented. - Eleven of the 15 programs conducted operational cybersecurity testing, during which vulnerabilities and their effects are identified in a mission context, the GAO said. While Pentagon leaders push faster delivery times on software, many programs reported workforce challenges associated with rapid development. According to the GAO, nine of the 15 programs said it was “difficult to find staff with the requisite expertise.” Seven struggled to hire staff fast enough to complete development, while six reported not meeting software engineering staff plans to be a challenge. The watchdog evaluated five programs from the Air Force, four Navy projects, two Army investments and four programs from the office of the secretary of defense. The GAO report said that a companion report on other major Pentagon IT systems would be released later this year. https://www.c4isrnet.com/it-networks/2020/06/03/major-pentagon-it-programs-are-reducing-costs-but-development-challenges-remain/
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March 24, 2021 | International, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security
Contracts for March 23, 2021
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