Leidos to develop autonomous uncrewed aerial resupply system for U.S. Marine Corps

Sur le même sujet

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  23 novembre 2018 | International, Aérospatial, Naval, Terrestre, C4ISR

  Killing of Khashoggi tests U.S. defense industry as backlash builds on Capitol Hill

  By Beth Reinhard ,Tom Hamburger and Emma Brown The powerful U.S. defense industry is facing a rare challenge to its influence on Capitol Hill as support for arms sales to Saudi Arabia has rapidly eroded following the killing last month of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the hands of Saudi government operatives. The defense industry's typically aggressive lobby has gone quiet as gruesome details of Khashoggi's death have leaked and American intelligence officials have laid blame at the feet of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Even as President Trump has reiterated his support for continued sales of U.S. weapons to the kingdom, congressional opposition to those sales and to U.S. support for the Saudi-led war in Yemen has mounted in recent weeks — testing the power of an industry that has sold tens of billions of dollars' worth of weapons systems to the kingdom since the 1950s. Growing bipartisan support for Senate legislation to cut off the arms sales marks a historic disruption in a seemingly inviolable arms-for-oil trade relationship that stretches back decades and is an unusual setback for one of the most influential lobbies in Washington. In the coming weeks, key senators are expected to push for a vote on a measure that would impose sanctions on Saudi officials responsible for Khashoggi's death and suspend many weapons sales to Saudi Arabia until it ceases airstrikes in Yemen that have killed tens of thousands of civilians. The bill represents one of the first major breaks between congressional Republicans and the White House, which has embraced Saudi Arabia as a key Middle Eastern ally — a strategy driven by Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser, who forged a strong personal relationship with the crown prince. Full article: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/killing-of-khashoggi-tests-us-defense-industry-as-backlash-builds-on-capitol-hill/2018/11/21/15a1df52-dc7d-11e8-aa33-53bad9a881e8_story.html

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  30 octobre 2020 | International, C4ISR, Sécurité

  US Air Force components partner on low code, no code pilot programs

  Andrew Eversden WASHINGTON — The 16th Air Force and an Air Force cyber software development unit are partnering together on a “low-code, no-code” pilot program that will allow airmen with minimal training to develop software applications they need. Right now, the DoD is working on developing personnel into expert level coders, but that's not an easily scalable solution, according to Col. William Waynick, director of the Air Force's CyberWorx program, an Air Force office that works with industry and academia to deliver new tools to meet user needs. Hence, the pilot program, called the “Other Airmen,” which aims to get airmen just the basic skills they need to get a job done. “So we're looking at technology out there that will allow anybody with minimal training to develop applications that they need,” Waynick said at C4ISRNET's CyberCon virtual event. “Now, they probably want to go into the complex applications like they would have software houses. But we do believe that a majority of applications out there that the users need can actually be taken care of by low-code, no-code.” Waynick said the team currently has 20 people from across the Air Force and Army working with five vendors on the project. The teams are currently working on applications for equipment tracking, and readiness and training trackers. Another team is working on a contracting pilot to make it easier for industry to submit pitches to acquisition professionals. “They're interested in making an application for pitch decks from industry,” Waynick said. “So industry can, instead of just sending a white paper to an acquisition office, they can actually send the entire pitch. And so that way, they have video, and they can do maybe some Q and A's maybe live, but they're making an application to to provide a capability for industry to provide pitches as well.” The airmen and soldiers working on the project participate on the side of their normal jobs, including piloting, logistics or finance. In March, Waynick said that the team will brief Lt. Gen. Timothy Haugh, commander of the 16th Air Force, on the results of the pilot. CyberWorx is centered on delivering tool the user can actually us, not focusing on the technology for technology's sake, Waynick said. Airmen have an abundance of tools to choose from, he said, but the tools don't always do what the airmen need them to do. “The issue that I've seen, and I'm seeing still, is that there are too many tools. And I would just say, you know, each has a specific function,” Waynick said. “But not everything that the user needs so they have to go to another tool. And a lot of the times these tools aren't exactly what the user needs.” https://www.c4isrnet.com/show-reporter/cybercon/2020/10/29/us-air-force-components-partner-on-low-code-no-code-pilot-programs/

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  25 mars 2020 | International, C4ISR

  Amazon Denounces DoD JEDI ‘Do-Over’

  The Pentagon's request to reconsider narrow technical aspects of the award to Microsoft, Amazon argues, ignores a wide range of fundamental flaws. By SYDNEY J. FREEDBERG JR. WASHINGTON: Amazon Web Services has publicly denounced the Defense Department's latest legal maneuver in the months-long public battle over the JEDI cloud computing contract, awarded to Microsoft last year. No, Amazon said in a statement this morning, the Pentagon should not get to redo a particular piece of the award process the judge found flawed, because that was just one flaw among many and fixing it is a distraction from the larger issues. “We're pleased to see the DoD recognize the need to take corrective action,” the Amazon statement began, “but we're concerned that the proposed approach is not designed to provide a complete, fair, and effective re-evaluation.” “Both earlier in the adjudication process when we submitted 265 questions to the DoD that they refused to answer, and in our protest where we outlined numerous significant flaws in the evaluation, it's been clear that there were many problems with the DoD's initial decision,” the statement continues. “Instead of addressing the breadth of problems in its proposed corrective action, the DoD's proposal focuses only on providing Microsoft a ‘do-over' on its fatally flawed bid while preventing AWS from adjusting its own pricing in response to the DoD's new storage criteria.” “This attempt to gerrymander the corrective action without fixing all of the serious flaws pointed out in our complaint raises significant questions,” the statement concludes. The Pentagon's plan to consolidate many — but not all — of its 500-plus cloud contracts into a single Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI). Note the suggestion that the single “pathfinder” contract for JEDI might evolve into multiple JEDI contracts. An email circulated by Amazon went further: “DoD's proposed corrective action seeks to resurrect Microsoft's award eligibility and directly and unreasonably benefits Microsoft's deficient approach. DoD's proposed corrective action does not meaningfully address the numerous errors identified in AWS's protest. These errors were pervasive, impacting all six of the technical evaluation factors” — that is, not just the one the Pentagon is asking to redo. “From the President's order to ‘screw' Amazon out of the contract, to the Secretary halting the award for an 85-day ‘examination,' to the Secretary's bizarre recusal after an award decision had been made, to the numerous inexplicable evaluation errors, to the refusal to substantively address AWS's 265 post-award debriefing questions, to the blatant political interference which impacted the award decision – the history of this procurement casts serious doubt on the rationality and fairness of DoD's proposed correction action,” the email said bluntly. Some backstory might help in parsing all this. (Click here for more detail). On Feb. 13, the court had granted Amazon a preliminary injunction, saying the company would “likely” be able to prove the Department of Defense had erred in one particular portion of its process – an evaluation of the two companies called Price Scenario 6 – when it awarded the potentially $10 billion contract to Microsoft Azure. On March 12th, DoD responded by asking the judge to “remand” the case back to DoD so it could correct and redo Price Scenario 6, giving Microsoft and Amazon the opportunity to submit updated bids – albeit with very strict limits on those updates. “During the proposed remand,” DoD's motion said, “the agency potentially could make decisions that would moot this action, in whole or in part, and may obviate the need for further litigation in this Court.” In other words, the Pentagon is asking the judge: let us fix this one thing, and then there might be nothing left for Amazon to object to, and you can dismiss the case. Today, Amazon replied: We have plenty more to object to – and we think the judge will side with us. https://breakingdefense.com/2020/03/amazon-denounces-dod-jedi-do-over