April 24, 2018 | International, Aerospace, C4ISR
By: Valerie Insinna
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Defense Department is creating a new position to help formulate its software strategy and ensure it keeps pace with commercial advancements — and the most important resposiblity will be overseeing the F-35 joint strike fighter's agile software strategy.
During a Friday roundtable with reporters, Ellen Lord, the undersecretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment, announced that she has tapped Jeff Boleng to the newly created position of special assistant for software acquisition.
Boleng, currently the acting chief technology officer at Carnegie Mellon University Software Engineering Institute, will start April 16 as a member of Lord's team.
“Jeff Boleng will spend over 90 percent of his time on F-35. He is going to be the individual who is working amongst all of the groups to enable us to bring the right talent onboard,” Lord said.
“We have a challenge, I think both within the JPO [F-35 joint program office] as well as Lockheed Martin, in terms of getting a critical mass of contemporary software skill sets to begin to move in the direction we want to.”
As the F-35 joint program office embarks on a new strategy called Continuous Capability Development and Delivery, or C2D2, which involves introducing agile software development, Lord wants to ensure that both the JPO and Lockheed have employees with the right training to execute the effort and that they can attract new professionals with additional software expertise.
“This is something that [Lockheed CEO] Marillyn Hewson and I have talked about,” she said. “Lockheed Martin has some excellent software capability throughout the corporation. My expectation is that they're going to leverage that on the F-35. And as we within the Department of Defense really increase our capability for software development focused on C2D2, our expectation is that Lockheed Martin will do the exact same thing.
“So they have the capability. I'm very energized about the leadership focus that I have seen in the last four to eight weeks, so I have great expectations that that will continue and that Lockheed Martin will keep pace or outpace DoD in terms of modernization for F-35 software development.”
Boleng, a former cyberspace operations officer and software engineer who served more than 20 years with the Air Force, last held the position of teaching computer science at the Air Force Academy before moving to the private sector.
At Carnegie Mellon, he is responsible for spearheading the institutes research and development portfolio, which includes software development, data analytics and cyber security activities in support of the Defense Department.
As the special assistant for software acquisition, he will help develop department-wide software development standards and policies and “advise department leadership on latest best practices in commercial software development.”
Boleng will also interface with Pentagon organizations charged with ramping up the department's software prowess such as Defense Digital Services, a small group of former private-sector tech professionals who led the department's “Hack the Pentagon” events and have conducted a few assessments of F-35 software.
That starts with a meeting today between Lord, Boleng and a Defense Innovation Board group centered on software acquisition, which has been embedded both with the joint program office and Lockheed Martin, Lord said.
February 1, 2024 | International, Aerospace
The contract with the Norwegian Defence Material Agency includes new multi-missile canister launchers and new Fire Distribution Centers for NASAMS, replacing equipment previously donated to Ukraine
June 28, 2021 | International, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security
RESPONSES DUE BY JULY 2ND AT 4 PM EASTERN PLEASE NOTE THE SHORT DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS TO THE BELOW The TCS and the Defence Trade Commissioner at the Canadian Embassy in Washington, DC, would like to make you, your clients, and your contacts aware of a broad call by the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for prototype and mature technology related to 10 different topic areas, all aimed at improving the efficacy of first responders (police, fire, emergency medical technicians, etc.) All information can be found in the attachments here: https://sam.gov/opp/ccbc46b2d28241bab3eedea6dc7932d3/view Before making a submission, the TCS encourages firms to speak with DHS to have their questions answered and ensure their submission covers the appropriate information. Once a submission is made, DHS can no longer speak with potential applicants. Companies can contact Trade Commissioner Bobby Tate for an introduction to DHS if needed – Robert.tate@international.gc.ca Applicants will also need to register on the DHS's portal - https://baa2.st.dhs.gov/ DHS is targeting technologies at either TRL 3-4 or TRL 5-6, with the goal of raising them to TRL 7+ through this program. Initial submissions are in the form of a white paper, maximum of 10 single-sided pages. These will be rated within 30 days, and those of interest to DHS will be asked to make a more detailed full proposal. The 10 topic areas are listed here for easy reference, but companies should check the above SAM.gov site for full information: 1. Updated Law Enforcement Duty Uniform 2. Low Profile Riot Protection Gear 3. Riot Protection Helmet 4. Less-Lethal Chemical Irritant (CI) For Crowd Control 5. Less-Lethal Options for Crowd Environments 6. Tracking Criminal Actors in Large Crowds 7. Multi-spectrum Laser Detection 8. Multi-spectrum Laser Eyewear Protection 9. Rapidly Deployed Physical Barriers for Area Denial 10. Threat Characterization and Research and Development Solutions General questions on working with DHS should be referred to Trade Commissioner Bobby Tate at the above email address. TCS colleagues, please link referrals to opportunity # 1-1NL3E1 for tracking. Bobby Tate Trade Commissioner, Defence and Aerospace | Délégué commercial, défense et aérospatiale Robert.Tate@international.gc.ca Telephone | Téléphone (202) 682-7744 Facsimile | Télécopieur (202) 682-7618 Embassy of Canada 501 Pennsylvania Ave NW, Washington, D.C. 20001 Global Affairs Canada | Affaires mondiales Canada Government of Canada | Gouvernement du Canada
April 28, 2024 | International, Security
Cybersecurity researchers have uncovered a targeted cyber attack against Ukraine that leveraged a 7-year-old Microsoft Office flaw to deploy Cobalt St