3 août 2023 | International, Sécurité

Pentagon CIO pushes defense agencies to tap $9 billion cloud contract

The Pentagon in December 2022 selected Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Oracle for its Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability, or JWCC.

https://www.c4isrnet.com/battlefield-tech/it-networks/2023/08/03/pentagon-cio-pushes-defense-agencies-to-tap-9-billion-cloud-contract/

Sur le même sujet

  • DoD Drafts New Acquisition Strategy For Commercial SATCOM

    12 mars 2020 | International, Aérospatial

    DoD Drafts New Acquisition Strategy For Commercial SATCOM

    Space Force will ask for 2022 money for commercial satcom, but the funds will not be for buying services as industry would like -- rather for R&D. By THERESA HITCHENS SATELLITE 2020: The Space Force is drafting a new Transformative Acquisition Strategy for buying commercial satellite communications capacity, Clare Grason, the chief of the service's Commercial Satellite Communications Office (CSCO), told a panel here today. The new strategy is bouncing off of the new “Vision for Satellite Communications” signed Jan. 23 by Space Command head, and Space Force chief, Gen. Jay Raymond. It's designed to enable the creation of seamless web of communications capabilities to warfighters, even during conflict. David Myers, president of Peraton's Communications sector, told me in an interview that CSCO will likely replace it's current program, known as the Future Commercial SATCOM Acquisition Program, “with something unique to Space Command that better suits this mission of interoperability between between commercial and government.” Indeed, Peraton on March 3 announced they had been granted a $218.6 million contract to provide commercial satellite communications services for Africa Command (AFRICOM). According to the company's March 3 announcement, the “single award, blanket purchase agreement” is a first of its kind, whereby the company “will provide communications services leveraging satellites and emerging technologies from across multiple satellite fleet operators.” At the same time, Grason told me afterwards, the office is in the process of putting together a funding request for 2022 for a newish, congressionally-mandated program of record to buy commercial satcom directly from operators — although she did not reveal the sum. “We are POMing against the commercial satcom program of record,” she said. “We're going through that process right now.” Congress created the independent program element for commercial satcom within the DoD budget in the 2019, putting $49.5 million into the pot. It added $5 million to the program in 2020, although DoD did not ask for funding. There is no money in the 2021 budget request, Grason explained, although she is working on an unfunded requirements request that might be able to fill that gap. The program of record, however, will not be used — at least in the near term — to provide satellite communications services to military users in a manner similar to how terrestrial telecom providers like AT&T sell you a data plan for your phone, as a number of commercial satcom operators have been advocating. Instead, those congressionally appropriated funds would be used “for research and development purposes, to assess capabilities that are emerging,” Grason told me. Once proven, new capabilities might be fed back into the operational program. “Or we could do isolated projects in cooperation with others,” she said. “There's a lot of flexibility and potential for the arrangement.” CSCO is leery of crossing the working capital and congressionally appropriated funding streams, Grason explained. “It's key when it comes down to the program of record that those activities are outside of the scope of our core ... transactions,” she told me. “There are legalities there.” Currently, the CSCO buys commercial satellite bandwidth using a DoD working capital fund — a kind of revolving fund that works a bit like a checking account. CSCO negotiates one-on-one contracts between a satcom provider and a military customer, Grayson said. At any one time, she told the Satellite 2020 audience, the office is negotiating about 30 different deals. “Our office is responsible for connecting a customer to the marketplace,” she explained. Under that system, DoD essentially leases commercial bandwidth for short periods of time — an acquisition model that has been widely disparaged by commercial satcom operators. Indeed, Congress in the 2018 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) shifted Grason's office from its original home within the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) to Air Force Space Command. That, of course, has now been subsumed by the new Space Force. The goal of the new acquisition strategy, Grason said, is to streamline that process via a kind of bundling of current contracts with providers. “We do have a Transformative Acquisition Strategy under development now, that will evolve how we acquire and deliver commercial satcom on an aggregated basis through a smaller number of contracts,” she said, that will “centralize procurement with industry.” CSCO will then turn around and sign so-called ‘service letter agreements' with military customers that, in effect, make them subscribers to commercial services. “So in essence we'd become like a Direct TV with different cable plans,” she told me, and would managing the relationship between the user and the providers. “It's a challenging objective, but we believe the benefit lies in the fact that we're aggregating buying power, we won't have duplication, we'll have [broad] coverage, and the ability to shift resources without having to set up new contracts.” A first draft of which is due at the end of the year, she said. DoD currently contracts for satcom bandwidth with a number of providers, such as Peraton and Intelsat, which has been vocal in pushing the Pentagon to move to a ‘satellite-as-a-service' model. “There's going to be a very significant change required in the mindset,” Rebecca Cowen-Hirsch, senior vice president for government strategy and policy at Inmarsat Government, told the panel. But the bulk of DoD's satcom services and bandwidth comes via the Enhanced Mobile Satellite Services (EMMS) program, for which Iridium Communications was awarded a $738.5 million, seven-year, fixed-price contract in December 2019. The US military is heavily reliant on commercial satcom, given the fact that military comsat networks, such as the Advanced Extremely High Frequency satellites built by Lockheed Martin and the Wideband Global SATCOM satellites built by Boeing, have limited bandwidth to go around. In fact, Grason told me, access to milsatcom bandwidth is granted via a “prioritization scheme that customers generally speaking are highly dissatisfied with.” That said, she admitted that military users of CSCO's services are naturally a bit skeptical about a new approach.They want to know “how are you going to ensure that the capabilities that we're getting today are not degraded?” she said. “The linchpin is that the customer will pay for the capability in the form of a service level agreement with us.” Myer said one model DoD might want to think about is “buying a pool of capacity that gives them portability to move capacity around.” This would it to leverage buying power, he said. https://breakingdefense.com/2020/03/dod-drafts-new-acquisition-strategy-for-commercial-satcom

  • Plan de relance : les industriels de la défense ont des idées... beaucoup d'idées

    25 mai 2020 | International, Aérospatial, Naval, Terrestre, C4ISR, Sécurité

    Plan de relance : les industriels de la défense ont des idées... beaucoup d'idées

    « La défense occupe un rôle particulier pour la relance de l'économie et la soutenir permet de relancer efficacement l'économie française » ont plaidé d'une même voix lors d'une audition devant la commission des affaires étrangères et de la défense du Sénat, le président du GIFAS et PDG de Dassault Aviation Eric Trappier ainsi que les président du CIDEF et du GICAT et du GICAN. « Pourquoi ne pas anticiper certains programmes pour appuyer notre industrie selon les priorités, en coordination avec la DGA (Direction générale de l'armement) ? » déclare Eric Trappier qui a aussi rappelé que « le Rafale est très important pour nos armées et l'export ». Environ 500 entreprises sont effectivement associées au programme Rafale, piloté par Dassault Aviation, rappelle La Tribune. Par Michel Cabirol Aéronefs, drones, navires de guerres, véhicules blindés... Les industriels de l'armement français plaident pour un plan de relance industriel, qui doit passer entre autre par la défense. "La défense occupe un rôle particulier pour la relance de l'économie et la soutenir permet de relancer efficacement l'économie française", a résumé le 14 mai le président du CIDEF et du GICAT Stéphane Mayer, qui est aussi PDG de Nexter lors de son audition le 14 mai devant la commission des affaires étrangères et de la défense du Sénat. La relance économique par la défense permettrait ainsi aux entreprises de ce secteur, la plupart du temps duales, de s'appuyer sur la commande publique pour passer le cap en attendant un futur rebond du marché civil. D'autant que cette filière crée des emplois et des technologies "Made in France" : entre 80 % et 90% des programmes sont réalisés en France. Pour soutenir la supply chain aéronautique, maritime et de l'armement terrestre, le gouvernement n'a en fait que l'embarras du choix, notamment en anticipant des commandes d'hélicoptères, de Rafale, de véhicules blindés, de navires de guerre, de satellites... "La défense est un amortisseur, il faut améliorer la LPM (Loi de programmation militaire) qui sera révisée en 2021", a confirmé lors de cette même audition le président du GIFAS et PDG de Dassault Aviation Eric Trappier. "Pourquoi pas anticiper certains programmes pour appuyer notre industrie selon les priorités, en coordination avec la DGA (Direction générale de l'armement)", a-t-il expliqué. Et le patron de Dassault Aviation a rappelé que "l'aéronautique, c'est avant tout le Rafale qui est très important pour nos armées et l'export". Environ 500 entreprises sont effectivement associées au programme Rafale, piloté par Dassault Aviation. Des idées dans le domaine aéroterrestre Dans le domaine terrestre, le patron du GICAT a également des idées sur des programmes à "accélérer" pour soutenir l'industrie de défense, notamment les PME, qui cherchent des financements. "Il faudrait accélérer dans l'idéal, a-t-il estimé, toutes les commandes, qui devraient l'être, dans des tranches additionnels d'ici à 2025". Pour Stéphane Mayer, ce serait "autant de signaux positifs et attendus par tous, plus encore par les PME". Il compte plus particulièrement sur l'affermissement anticipé de tranches conditionnelles des véhicules du programme Scorpion, dont Nexter est l'un des principaux architectes. Soit les Griffon, Jaguar et Serval. Le PDG de Nexter souhaite également que soient confirmées de nouvelles commandes prévues. https://www.latribune.fr/entreprises-finance/industrie/aeronautique-defense/plan-de-relance-les-industriels-de-la-defense-ont-des-idees-beaucoup-d-idees-848385.html

  • Funding for small launch providers still in question after withdrawal of $116M in contracts

    15 juillet 2020 | International, Aérospatial

    Funding for small launch providers still in question after withdrawal of $116M in contracts

    Valerie Insinna WASHINGTON — The U.S. Air Force's top acquisition official hopes money will materialize for small launch providers whose Defense Production Act contracts were withdrawn earlier this month due to a lack of funding. In mid-June, the Space and Missile Systems Center announced that it would award ride-share contracts to six firms by using funding meant to bolster companies made financially vulnerable by the coronavirus pandemic. However, the government in early July reversed course, recalling the $116 million designated for small launch providers because of “additional small business needs that were generated,” such as other government loan programs, said Will Roper, the Air Force's assistant secretary for acquisition, technology and logistics “My hope is that whenever there's new [Defense Production Act] Title 3 funding or when resource frees up due to other efforts not executing as planned, that those [contracts] are the first to go back into the hopper,” Roper told reporters Tuesday. “If I were asked today to put in one new Title 3 initiative, it's small launch because I think it's going to be an amazing industry base for this country, and if properly influenced, my military mission can be highly disruptive in future war fighting, especially if satellites can be put up in a very responsive way that changes the calculus for holding space assets at risk.” In the June announcement, SMC stated that Aevum, Astra, X-BOW, Rocket Lab USA, Space Vector and VOX Space would each receive sole-source contracts for two ride-share missions to be conducted over the next 24 months. But it may no longer be possible for the companies to get all $116 million originally set aside for those contracts, Roper acknowledged. “I don't know if that much will free up,” he said. “We have had quite a few come in lower than initially estimated. So it's possible that a resource will be freed, and whatever it is, we can scale some effort in small launch.” With venture capital drying up due to worldwide economic instability caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, Pentagon leaders have been vocal about the impact on the emerging small launch industry, which they see as a critical capability that could allow the Space Force to launch small satellites more cheaply and rapidly. In April, Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment Ellen Lord labeled it — along with shipbuilding and aviation — as one of the three sectors the Defense Department was most concerned could be permanently impacted. “Much of the industry have limited flight capability or are in the critical transition from development to flight, and this funding restriction may prevent or delay these systems,” Col. Rob Bongiovi, director of SMC Launch Enterprise Systems Directorate, told C4ISRNET in April. “The Space and Missile Systems Center is evaluating the impacts to the small launch industrial base to consider actions to enable a robust U.S. launch industrial base.” https://www.c4isrnet.com/battlefield-tech/space/2020/07/14/funding-for-small-launch-providers-still-in-question-after-withdrawal-of-116m-in-contracts/

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