Contract Awards by US Department of Defense - January 29, 2019

Sur le même sujet

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  18 mars 2020 | International, C4ISR, Sécurité

  The Pentagon is handling cyber vulnerabilities inconsistently

  Mark Pomerleau The Department of Defense has not consistently mitigated cyber vulnerabilities identified in a 2012 report, according to the department's inspector general. The DoD IG issued a follow-on report to its 2012 report, issued March 13 and made public March 17, that determined cyber red teams didn't report the results of assessments to organizations and components didn't effectively correct or mitigate the identified vulnerabilities. The new report discovered that components didn't consistently mitigate or include unmitigated vulnerabilities identified in the prior audit and during this audit by red teams during combatant command exercises, operational testing assessments and agency-specific assessments in plans of action and milestones. “Ensuring DoD Components mitigate vulnerabilities is essential to achieve a better return on investment,” the report stated. “In addition, we determined that the DoD did not establish a unified approach to support and prioritize DoD Cyber Red Team missions. Instead, the DoD Components implemented Component-specific approaches to staff, train and develop tools for DoD Cyber Red Teams, and prioritize DoD Cyber Red Team missions.” The report found that DoD didn't establish a unified approach because it didn't assign an organization with responsibility to oversee and synchronize red team activity based on priorities, it didn't assess the resources needed for each red team and identify requirements to train them to meet priorities and it didn't develop baseline tools to perform assessments. “Without an enterprisewide solution to staff, train and develop tools for DoD Cyber Red Teams and prioritize their missions, DoD Cyber Red Teams have not met current mission requests and will not meet future requests because of the increased demands for DoD Cyber Red Team services,” the report said. “Until the DoD assigns an organization to assess DoD Cyber Red Team resources, it will be unable to determine the number of DoD Cyber Red Teams and staffing of each team to support mission needs, which will impact the Do D's ability to identify vulnerabilities and take corrective actions that limit malicious actors from compromising DoD operations.” The DoD IG issued seven recommendations the secretary of defense assign an organization responsibility for. They include: Review and assess red team reports for systemic vulnerabilities and coordinate the development and implementation of enterprise solutions to mitigate them; Ensure components develop and implement a risk-based process to assess the impact of identified vulnerabilities and prioritize funding for corrective actions for high-risk vulnerabilities; Ensure components develop and implement processes for providing reports with red team findings and recommendations to organizations with responsibility for corrective actions; Develop processes and procedures to oversee red team activities, including synchronizing and prioritizing red team missions, to ensure activities align with priorities; Perform a joint DoD-wide mission-impact analysis to determine the number of red teams, minimum staffing levels of each team, the composition of the staffing levels needed to meet current and future mission requests; Assess and identify a baseline of core and specialized training standards, based on the three red team roles that team staff must meet for the team to be certified and accredited; and Identify and develop baseline tools needed by red teams to perform missions. https://www.fifthdomain.com/dod/2020/03/17/the-pentagon-is-handling-cyber-vulnerabilities-inconsistently/

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  17 juin 2020 | International, Naval, C4ISR

  A new leader for naval intelligence

  Mark Pomerleau The Navy announced new leaders for its various information warfare entities June 6, including a new officer to lead the service's information warfare efforts. Rear Adm. Jeffrey Trussler has been selected as the Navy's next deputy chief of naval operations for information warfare, N2/N6 and director of naval intelligence, according to a Department of Defense release. Trussler, who will also get his third star, replaces Vice Adm. Matthew Kohler, who retired June 5 Under a new reorganization within the Department of the Navy, this position also serves as the co-deputy chief information officer in conjunction with the Marine Corps deputy commandant for information. Trussler recently served as the director of future plans, N55, in the office of the Chief of Naval Operations. During his tenure, Kohler helped develop new concepts to modernize the Navy for the information environment, including overseeing the creation of the Naval Information Warfighting Development Center. That center trains warfare tactics instructors (WTIs), which is what the Navy describes as its information warfare “top guns.” Rear Adm. (lower half) Michael Vernazza, who is currently serving as the deputy commander of 10th Fleet/Fleet Cyber Command, has been selected to leader the IWDC, according to a second June 6 announcement. https://www.c4isrnet.com/information-warfare/2020/06/16/a-new-leader-for-naval-intelligence/

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  24 novembre 2020 | International, Aérospatial

  Pentagon expected to increase Space Force funding in coming years

  Nathan Strout WASHINGTON — U.S. Space Force leadership is confident the new service's budget will increase in the coming years as the Pentagon continues to prioritize spending on space systems, according to the head of the Space Force's main acquisitions body. “If you thought space was going to be a priority in a kind of one-and-done way, that's not clearly what's been happening, right?” Lt. Gen. John Thompson, commander of the Space and Missile Systems Center, said during the virtual 6th annual Schriever Space Futures Forum. “So three years in a row budgets have gone to the Hill with foundational changes to the space budget.” That's despite the fact that space systems and their supporting equipment are very expensive. “ Everybody knows the space enterprise is a really expensive one, even with the reductions in cost that we've seen over the past couple decades. Launch services, space vehicles, ground segments — everybody knows they ain't cheap, right?” Thompson said. The real shift in prioritizing spending on space came with the fiscal 2019 budget request, with the Pentagon declaring space a war-fighting domain. “I think we made some real progress. As we acknowledged space as a war-fighting domain, we had some really strong shifts in the budget,” Thompson said. For fiscal 2021, the Department of the Air Force requested $15.4 billion for the new Space Force. That's $800 million more than the $14.6 billion the department requested for that same enterprise in fiscal 2020, according to the Air Force's own calculations. “The '21 [Program Objective Memorandum] was another landmark event. It was not only the first POM approved by the Chief of Space Operations ... but during the cycle the Deputy's Management Action Group, [or DMAG] ... the folks that advise the secretary of defense on investment, continued to label space as one of the big strategic areas that DoD needs to address,” Thompson explained. And while the fiscal 2022 request has not been finalized or released yet, Thompson said it will include a marked increase in spending on space. “We plused up the space portfolio significantly to address users' needs,” he explained. “I can't give you the exact dollars and obviously it's all pre-decisional. But the DMAG and many other DoD leaders are clearly sending a message that across the [Future Years Defense Program], the importance of the space enterprise is growing and needs to grow further.” Even further out, Thompson noted the fiscal 2023 request will continue the military's trend of prioritizing space in the budget. “For the '23 POM, which many of you know we're already working, we're trying to take an unprecedented enterprise approach to where we take the force design that we need along with the operational requirements associated with it, and we pair that up with the acquisition programs that are required to deliver the war-fighting capability that Gen. [John] Raymond and our combatant command, Gen. [John] Dickinson, are absolutely demanding,” Thompson said. He added that the Space Force's funding strategy will balance innovation, international and commercial partnerships, and the need to rapidly provide capabilities to troops. Thompson pointed to the Space Force's recently released planning guidance as shaping that strategy. Thompson credited the Space Force's flexibility to maneuver within budget discussions to the service's lean staff, something that's been one of Raymond's top priorities in establishing the new branch of the armed services. “That collaboration, as many of you know, within the Department of the Air Force or in any large service, is really, really hard because so much of the budget is set,” he explained. “We as a service, though, have a little bit more trade space. The chief of space operations has a smaller, more nimble team. There's not as many spoons banging on highchairs demanding something that they've always been given. And so determining where to spend the next space dollar is really, really exciting, and it's a team effort between operators, acquirers and the entire small, nimble team that is Space Force.” https://www.c4isrnet.com/battlefield-tech/space/2020/11/20/pentagon-expected-to-increase-space-force-funding-in-coming-years/