June 15, 2018 | International, C4ISR
By: Mark Pomerleau
The Army is holding what it calls software solariums as a way to improve the business side of the service's multi-billion software efforts during the life of programs.
“Software has become both a critically important element to readiness and a critically under-managed element of our capability portfolio,” Maj. Gen. Randy Taylor, commander of Communications and Electronics Command, said at the event held May 22-23. “Cohesive software management is a necessary enabler to maintaining overmatch in the multi-domain battle.”
Providing software updates to units in austere field locations can be challenging. Prolonging such updates can make the systems they run on vulnerable.
The Army has sought to develop new and innovative ways for automated software updates to these units.
As the Army is also undergoing major IT modernization, both to its tactical and enterprise networks, software becomes a critical enabler in that future end state.
“I believe that we are literally in the midst of the largest modernization of our networks,” Lt. Gen. Bruce Crawford, the Army CIO who began the software solariums as commander of CECOM, said at the recent event. “And that's all of our networks, from the tactical to the enterprise, to the business to the intelligence systems in the last 30 years.”
With these modernization efforts, the Army realizes it must be better stewards of overall software costs.
“We've got to be more holistic on how we approach this, especially when you consider that we, the U.S. taxpayer, spend 55 to 70 percent of a program's lifecycle on that post-acquisition and post-operations sustainment. That's a pretty big bill,” Taylor said.
During a March conference, Crawford noted the service spends about $3 billion over a five year period on enterprise software sustainment.
The previous solariums, officials said, have included new patching solutions and a goal to have no more than two fielded software baselines at any one time for all programs of record.
Army leaders said CECOM will coordinate with stakeholders to finalize recommendations in the coming months. Those goals then will be submitted to the Army level Information Technology Oversight Council for approval and implementation.
May 2, 2022 | International, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR
In its effort to quickly arm Ukraine against Russia, the Pentagon has announced the equivalent of an open casting call for companies to offer weapons and commercial systems that can be rushed to the fight.
September 10, 2020 | International, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security
By: Aaron Mehta WASHINGTON — As the defense department seeks billions in emergency funding to reimburse industry for costs incurred during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Pentagon's top acquisition official pledged not to rush that money out the door. Speaking at the annual Defense News Conference, Ellen Lord, undersecretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment, said it will likely take five to six months before any reimbursements to industry under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) act will take place as the department seeks a “very data driven approach” to that money. Section 3610 of the CARES act allows firms serving the federal government to seek reimbursement for pandemic-related expenses, but Congress hasn't passed corresponding appropriations. Defense officials have said they need roughly $10 billion, and that without added funding from Congress, the Pentagon would have to dip into modernization and readiness funds. “We believe we need that appropriation to maintain readiness because if we do not get that what we are going to find is we are not going to get the number of units delivered, we are not going to maintain warfighter readiness, we're not going to move forward in modernization,” Lord said. “We would like to take the one-time hit and then see where we go from there.” Should Congress appropriate the requested funds, the Pentagon would issue a request for proposal, with the large primes gathering data from up and down their supply chains before returning with their requests to the Pentagon. That process will likely take two to three months, Lord said. “Then we want to look at all of the proposals at once. It isn't going to be a first-in-first-out and we have to rationalize using the rules we've put in place, what would be reimbursable, and what's not,” she added. “So overall, we think five to six months, in terms of a process.” When the COVID pandemic struck in March, hundreds of defense subcontractors had to close up shop. As of now, only 30 remain shuttered, Lord said, although she acknowledged that the department is keeping a wary eye on the situation. “What we are looking for is whether or not we're maintaining warfighter readiness for our production programs, and then relative to modernization, whether we are hitting key milestones relative to development programs,” she said. “We have seen some slowdowns. We are carefully monitoring, using monthly metrics, where we are.” While the most recent round of quarterly earnings reports from public defense companies did not show a major slowdown from COVID, Lord warned that those reports “in large part don't reflect the hits that were taken by business,” warning of a “delayed response” in terms of the diseases' economic impact on the sector. “I would contend that most of the effects of COVID haven't yet been seen, because most companies gave their employees time off, they stretched out production, paid a lot of people for working 100% when perhaps they were only getting 50% of the hours in and so forth,” she said. “So I think the system has absorbed it up to this point in time. Now when we get to the point where we're having payments and incentive fees and award fees earned, and if we haven't done the deliveries, that's where you're going to see the hit.” https://www.defensenews.com/smr/defense-news-conference/2020/09/09/industry-could-wait-months-for-covid-reimbursements-from-pentagon
November 15, 2021 | International, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security
Le ministère de la Défense a envoyé une délégation officielle d’entrepreneurs de défense israéliens au salon aéronautique de Dubaï ce mois-ci, en référence aux liens...