Northrop, AT&T partner to build 5G digital battle network

Sur le même sujet

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  5 octobre 2020 | International, Aérospatial, Naval, Terrestre, C4ISR

  US Space Force to establish new acquisitions command in 2021

  Nathan Strout WASHINGTON — The U.S Space Force plans to stand up a new command to oversee all of the service's acquisitions in 2021, although that timeline is dependent on identifying the space-related parts of the other military branches that will be transferred into the nation's newest service. The Space Force announced in June that it will be made up of three field commands — Space Operations Command; Space Training and Readiness Command; and Space Systems Command — with the latter charged with developing, acquiring and sustaining systems for the Space Force. Space Systems Command will oversee both the Space and Missile Systems Center, which currently procures most of the service's space-related platforms, and the Space Rapid Capabilities Office. “We anticipate standing that up in 2021, probably sooner rather than later. We're working on those final details,” Space Force Vice Commander Lt. Gen. David Thompson said during a Defense One event Oct. 1. Notably, Space Systems Command is set to become the new home of the Space Development Agency in October 2022, bringing the ambitious organization under the Space Force's purview. The agency was launched in 2019 and has quickly moved forward with plans to establish a mega-constellation of satellites operating in low Earth orbit. The agency's planned transport layer — a space-based mesh network comprised of satellites connected by optical intersatellite crosslinks — is set to play a major part in the Pentagon's Joint All-Domain Command and Control concept. The new command will act as a unifying force, said Thompson, removing unnecessary duplication between organizations while encouraging healthy competition in some areas. “We're not going to duplicate, but we're certainly interested in the energy that comes from competing ideas and competing designs and competing approaches to a problem,” he explained. Unifying space acquisitions and activities under a single service was a major justification for the establishment of the Space Force. However, details on which organizations, functions and platforms will be absorbed has been scant, as talks continue between the services and Department of Defense leadership. “The absolute final decision hasn't been made,” Thompson said. “We have been engaged in this process for several months now. We're getting close to the decisions that need to be made in terms of transfer of some of those functions and capabilities.” “There is a tremendous amount that the Space Force and the Air Force and the Army and the Navy working together with [the Office of the Secretary of Defense] have already agreed on,” Thompson added. “One is the capabilities and forces that will stay in place where they are to continue to do the activities that are space-related, the set of activities that are prepared to move over; and then there's a couple, there's a few, units and functions left that we haven't reached full agreement on, and we're in the process of finalizing the data and the information that will allow the decision-makers to decide the final disposition — whether they'll stay or whether they'll move to the Space Force.” The Space Force largely completed this process with the Air Force in the spring, said Thompson, with 23 units or functions selected for transition into the new service. Much of the planning and execution of that transfer has already been completed, and the Space Force has gone on to identify other organizations and capabilities that should be brought into their fold, including two Air Force units and two more from the intelligence community. Plans are expected to be finalized for the other services in the near future, with Thompson teasing that an announcement was likely before the end of the year. “The target that the leadership in the DoD has given us is we want to be able to make decisions so that we can execute planning in FY2021 and begin facilitating moves in 2022,” he explained. https://www.c4isrnet.com/battlefield-tech/space/2020/10/01/the-space-force-to-establish-new-acquisitions-command-in-2021/

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  15 juin 2021 | International, Aérospatial, Naval, Terrestre, C4ISR, Sécurité

  Contracts for June 14, 2021

  Today

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  27 juillet 2018 | International, C4ISR

  The Pentagon just got one step closer to awarding its $10 billion cloud contract

  Amanda Macias The Pentagon released its final request for proposal for the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure, or JEDI, contract. The lucrative winner-take-all deal may be valued at as much as $10 billion. Amazon is considered the front-runner for the contract since the tech giant already services the cloud system used by U.S. intelligence agencies. The Defense Department took a large step forward Thursday in its march toward procuring a secure cloud software, an acquisition potentially worth up to $10 billion. After a nearly two-month delay, the Pentagon released its final request for proposal for the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure, or JEDI, contract. The long-awaited final request for proposal simply outlines what companies will have to deliver in order to get the lucrative deal. The Pentagon's cloud project will transition massive amounts of data to a commercially operated secure cloud system. The deal is a "single-source" award, meaning that only one company will win the entirety of the contract. Amazon is considered the front-runner for the contract since the tech giant already services the cloud system used by U.S. intelligence agencies. Amazon's cloud boasts the highest possible security level, while many of its competitors' clouds do not. However, other cloud providers — such as IBM, Microsoft and Oracle — have worked with government agencies for many decades. That could help their chances of winning the decade-long JEDI contract. The DoD "has an incredibly unique and complex technology estate and finite set of talent and resources," Pentagon Chief Information Officer Dana Deasy said in a statement. "We need help learning how to put in place an enterprise cloud and the JEDI Cloud is a pathfinder effort that will help Department of Defense do that." Experts think the deal could be a seismic development in the defense-tech world. "This award could be market-shaping," Andrew Hunter, director of the Defense-Industrial Initiatives Group at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said in an interview. "I think industry's concern is that this will be the premier cloud contract, the flagship one, and that other parts of DoD will gravitate to it," he added. "So, I think whoever wins the contract is likely to have a real advantage in the marketplace going forward but not necessarily a decisive one." The desire to award a multibillion-dollar, two-year cloud contract was largely set into motion after Secretary of Defense James Mattis visited Silicon Valley last year. Federal defense agencies widely use Microsoft's server software, which integrates easily with the company's Azure public cloud, and among employees, Windows is the most popular operating system, Leigh Madden, Microsoft's general manager of defense, told CNBC in a prior interview. "I think it certainly should make a difference," he said. Similarly, IBM has worked alongside the military for decades. "We look forward to submitting a thoughtful, comprehensive proposal for a JEDI cloud that will serve the long-term needs of America's men and women in uniform," Sam Gordy, IBM's Federal general manager, said in a statement. In the midst of all this, President Donald Trump has attacked Amazon on Twitter, particularly as he rails against The Washington Post, which is owned by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, for the newspaper's coverage of his administration. A Vanity Fair report said the Trump administration might try to "cancel Amazon's pending contract" with the Pentagon, but the department maintains that there has been no political pressure from the White House on who should win the multibillion-dollar deal. U.S. Navy Commander Patrick Evans, a Department of Defense spokesperson, reiterated that the Pentagon's process is "transparent" and will remain "a full and open competition." "No companies were pre-selected. We have no favorites, and we want the best solution for the department," Evans said. Similarly, chief Pentagon spokesperson Dana White also addressed speculation Thursday that Amazon was in the lead to take the lucrative defense contract. "The secretary has been very clear that we need to be good stewards of the American people's money," White said. "So, nothing is taken for granted and nothing is presumed. We will get a full, open and transparent competition, and this is the first of many competitions with respect to the cloud." The Pentagon is scheduled to award the contract in September. — CNBC's Jordan Novet contributed to this report. https://www.cnbc.com/2018/07/26/pentagon-takes-step-closer-to-awarding-10-billion-cloud-contract.html