26 octobre 2018 | International, C4ISR
By: Jessie Bur
The Pentagon and General Services Administration released a request for information Oct. 25 for a new unified collaborative cloud solution that will unite the entire defense apparatus under one enterprise contract.
The Defense Enterprise Office Solution is the first capability set of three that the Department of Defense plans to use to capture its enterprise collaboration and productivity needs.
The DEOS capability set needs include a productivity suite, messaging capabilities, content management systems and collaboration tools.
“We operate pretty much in a disparate environment right now, and predominantly on-[premises] for these capabilities. So DEOS will give us an opportunity to tear down some of those barriers, posture us for increased interoperability while taking advantage of what the commercial community has to offer,” said Essye Miller, principal deputy to the DoD chief information officer, at a press roundtable.
“From a benefit perspective, for us: real-time upgrades, real-time refresh, real-time access to innovation as our industry partners make them available to us.”
The contract will be offered through GSA's IT Schedule 70, which Miller said has matured to the level that was needed to support Non-Classified Internet Protocol Router, Secret Internet Protocol Router and tactical environment needs.
“In fact, IT Schedule 70 is the vehicle GSA itself used to procure its own cloud-based email, collaboration and productivity solution,” said GSA Administrator Emily Murphy, adding that GSA is committed to working with vendors who would want to propose through the expedited Schedule 70 FASt Lane program.
“Using IT Schedule 70 to help DoD procure an enterprisewide solution for email, productivity and collaboration tools could establish a baseline for GSA to scale up this type of solution across the federal government in the future.”
In fact, according to Federal CIO Suzette Kent, the DoD solution moves the federal government forward on initiatives to use and procure scalable cloud solutions across agencies.
“When we look at where we were with the report to the president across the federal government, and the intent to leverage as many common solutions for purposes of interoperability, cybersecurity ... and the overall efficiency of how we go after those solutions and the ability to keep those current, this is a really positive collaboration, and something that we're incredibly supportive of,” said Kent.
Industry has just over two weeks to respond to the RFI, which closes Nov. 9, and the subsequent request for quotes will likely be released in early 2019, according to officials.
The DoD and General Services Administration also plan to hold industry days in early December 2018 to facilitate communication between government and industry on the best way to approach the contract.
The award for the eventual contract is planned for sometime in the third quarter of 2019, and would likely be set for approximately 10 years and $8 billion, according to Murphy, though that number could change depending on industry input.
The appropriate solution would likely have to be certified at FedRAMP Moderate, said Miller.
According to Murphy, GSA and DoD have yet to determine whether a single-award or multi-award contract will best suit the DoD's needs — a debate that proved highly contentious for the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure cloud contract that opened for proposals July 26 — and the RFI asks respondents to provide pros and cons for each option.
But DoD CIO Dana Deasy said that the DEOS program is part of a Pentagon initiative to bring defense operations into a multi-cloud and multi-vendor environment.
“Our intentions are to have a cloud that can serve general purpose computing needs, as well as what I have coined a term as ‘fit-for-purpose' clouds, which could consist of internal clouds or commercial clouds that have a unique fit for purpose,” said Deasy, adding that DEOS would be one such cloud.
Because DEOS is one of three collaboration capability sets the agency is looking to fulfill, DoD could end up offering a total of three contracts in that space, according to Miller.
15 novembre 2023 | International, Terrestre
Today, Marie-France Lalonde, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of National Defence, on behalf of the Honourable Bill Blair, highlighted the construction of a new Air Force Expeditionary Capability facility at Canadian Forces Base Bagotville.
22 juin 2020 | International, Aérospatial, Naval, Terrestre
By: Christina Mackenzie PARIS — France's Army needs to toughen up, according to its chief of staff, and he has the strategic plan to do it by 2030. Gen. Thierry Burkhard, a paratrooper in the Foreign Legion and former commander of its 13th Demi-Brigade and later of the Combined Operations Center, unveiled the 20-page document on Wednesday. The document was prepared by a tight-knit group of senior officers, who worked on it from August to October last year. It was then discussed by senior Army cadres, and by January it was ready. However, the coronavirus pandemic delayed its publication. Burkhard said implementing the plan is critical because a “recurrence of a major conflict is now a credible hypothesis.” He added that the cycle of asymmetrical warfare is coming to a close and that a return to symmetrical, state-on-state conflict is likely. But the document also warns that “there are new means of using force, unforeseeable and more insidious, based on intimidation and manipulation, in a new type of warfare, undetectable and disclaimed, to obtain undeniable strategic gains by imposing a fait accompli.” One of France's concerns is that China's expansion in the Pacific will endanger the European country's territories there, such as New Caledonia and French Polynesia. French armed forces in the area must be able to riposte vigorously if necessary, Burkhard said. To “acquire operational superiority,” the French Army must improve its capabilities in the electromagnetic environment, space, cyberspace and information technology, the report said. It also stressed the importance of “strategic industrial partnerships within Europe,” specifically mentioning the CaMo (Capacité Motorisé, or motorized capacity) program, which will see Belgium receive 382 multirole Griffon armored vehicles as well as 60 reconnaissance and combat Jaguar armored vehicles identical and thus compatible with the French ones. The report also highlighted the importance of the Franco-German Main Ground Combat System — a joint effort to develop a main battle tank that will replace Germany's Leopard 2 and France's Leclerc by 2035. There are 12 major projects meant to make the 114,000 French soldiers (of whom 77,000 are ground troops) better prepared for the future of war as described in the report. These include setting up a new technical school to give noncommissioned officers the stronger technical education they'll need to use the materiel being delivered under the $12 billion Scorpion modernization program. Burkhard also wants to reorganize the management of military vehicles, handing responsibility back to the regiments so they can independently prepare for operations. He also wants training to be more realistic and to involve new technology. Other projects involve improving joint and allied interoperability as well as making better use of the reserve force, which currently stands at 24,000 men and women. According to Burkhard, these reservists should be given more autonomy and be better spread out over the territory, and their contracts should be better adapted to their very different life styles based on full-time profession, academic status and geographic location. He also said the Army should have a role in educating French youth on the importance of defense and in developing the universal national service, which will become obligatory from 2024 for French individuals born in 2008. Burkhard also wants to plan a division-level exercise to prepare for air, ground and sea maneuvers. And lastly, he wants to get the job done without having to cut through a mound of red tape. Things in the Army should be simpler, the report read, “so that at local level things are clear and pragmatic.” https://www.defensenews.com/global/europe/2020/06/19/the-french-army-wants-to-toughen-up-and-heres-its-plan-to-get-there/
17 décembre 2020 | International, Terrestre
BERLIN (Reuters) - Le gouvernement allemand a acté, mercredi lors de sa réunion hebdomadaire, l'acquisition par l'Etat d'une participation de 25,1% dans l'équipementier de défense Hensoldt, a déclaré à Reuters une source informée du dossier. Reuters, citant plusieurs sources, avait rapporté samedi que Berlin avait l'intention de racheter cette participation au fonds de capital investissement KKR pour 464 millions d'euros. Cette acquisition vise à empêcher un acheteur étranger de prendre le contrôle de cet équipementier, dont les capteurs haute définition équipent notamment les avions de chasse Tornado, ont dit ces sources. Hensoldt, ancienne filiale d'Airbus, s'est introduit en Bourse en septembre. Il fournit aussi des systèmes de radar pour les chasseurs Eurofighter et des périscopes pour les chars Leopard et Puma. KKR, qui a acheté l'équipementier allemand en 2016, contrôle toujours plus de 60% du capital après l'IPO. (Sabine Siebold; version française Bertrand Boucey, Claude Chendjou, édité par Jean-Stéphane Brosse) https://www.usinenouvelle.com/article/l-allemagne-a-decide-de-prendre-25-de-l-equipementier-de-defense-hensoldt.N1040944