July 8, 2019 | International, Aerospace, Other Defence
By: Cal Pringle
The Air Force is adding another company to its Enterprise IT as a Service experiment, the service announced June 28.
Accenture Federal Services, a multinational professional services company, received the third contract for Air Force's Enterprise IT as a Service program and will experiment with delivering computing and storage capabilities as a service to eight Air Force bases, according to the release. The new capabilities will allow the Air Force to use edge cloud computing to expedite data-driven base operations and support artificial intelligence efforts, the release said. Microsoft and AT&T had previously won contracts for the program.
The agreement comes as a part of a multi-year modernizing initiative for the Air Force's digital structure, which is meant to improve technologies and delivery models. The Enterprise IT as a Service model allows the Air Force to use commercial companies, which can perform IT services more efficiently than airmen, for day-to-day IT tasks.
The eight bases Accenture will support are Buckley Air Force Base in Colorado, Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama., Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska, Joint Base Elemendorf-Richardson in Alaska, Cannon Air Force Base in New Mexico and Hurlburt Field in Florida.
Accenture is expected to finish work on the project by June 2020.
June 2, 2022 | International, Aerospace
The Chinook pick caps a yearslong saga for Germany to buy a new Schwerer Transporthubschrauber, or STH, as the heavy-lift chopper program is called in German.
September 13, 2018 | International, C4ISR
By: Daniel Cebul WASHINGTON — The Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) has opened a second operations watch floor to help operate and secure global information-sharing and command and control capabilities, according to a Sept. 12 press release from the agency. The organization opened the new floor July 15 at Hill Air Force Base in Utah. The center is now known as DISA Global West. The original operations watch floor, DISA Global Operations Command, headquartered at Scott AFB, Illinois will now be known at DISA Global East. Opening a second watch floor improves the survivability and redundancy of global network operations, the DISA statement said, and allows for what's described as 24/7 “Active-Active” operations. “Active-Active” means that DISA is continuously available to provide operational and security capabilities, even if one of the two operation centers goes down. This added layer of redundancy is viewed as critical in an increasingly hostile cyber environment. “In a world where our cyber adversaries are becoming more and more sophisticated in their abilities to infiltrate networks and interfere with services, Active-Active operations allows DISA Global to reduce continuity risks and make the Defense Information Systems Network and DISA services more agile and responsive,” said Laura Williams, the agency's Active-Active program manager. While dividing the work force between locations introduces new difficulties to operations, the agency is confident the move will improve resiliency without compromising capability. “It's always a challenge when you have a geographically separated work force,” said Army Col. Lisa Whittaker, DISA Global commander said in the release. “But we are a tremendous team coming together for this effort. The teammates that work at DISA Global West are closely integrated with those at DISA Global East. They work in the same divisions, have the same leadership, and use the same tools, techniques, tactics, and procedures on a daily basis.” One reason teammates are able to stay on the same page despite being over 1,300 miles apart is the agency's use of an Enterprise Virtual Watch Desk, which provides organizations across the agency a common picture of the operational network. https://www.c4isrnet.com/disa/2018/09/12/disa-opens-a-new-operations-watch-floor-in-utah-to-boost-resiliency
August 26, 2024 | International, Aerospace
The anechoic hangar is due to open in 2026 and will be one of the biggest in Europe, far bigger than existing facilities in Britain.