The US Navy’s top acquisition priority stumbles out of the gate

Sur le même sujet

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  10 mars 2020 | International, C4ISR, Sécurité

  The Pentagon’s first class of cybersecurity auditors is almost here

  Mark Pomerleau The Pentagon hopes to have the first class of auditors to evaluate contractors' cybersecurity ready by April, a top Department of Defense official said March 5. The auditors will be responsible for certifying companies under the new Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC), which is a tiered cybersecurity framework that grades companies on a scale of one to five. A score of one designates basic hygiene and a five represents advanced hygiene. Currently, there are no auditors — known as Certified Third-Party Assessment Organizations (C3PAO) — as the accreditation board came about officially in January. “Our goal is to have, in late April, our pilot pathfinder on the training for the C3PAOs,” Katie Arrington, chief information security officer for the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, said at an event hosted by DreamPort in Columbia, Maryland. The accreditation board is working on training the auditors and the accompanying training materials Arrington said just because there aren't any auditors already working doesn't mean companies shouldn't be getting ready. “You've got to get prepared for the audit,” she said. “You should be able to say ‘I think I've done my self assessment, I think I'm at this CMMC level.' Waiting for the audit to come in and then decide to get good or to get on track is not the way I would position my business.” If all goes according to plan, all new contracts in 2025 will feature the security requirements. Arrington also suggested that the framework has received interest outside the DoD. “Do I think that other federal agencies are getting on board? Yes they are. They're waiting for me to get through my pathfinder,” she said. She also referred to comments made by Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment Ellen Lord, who explained nearly a dozen nations and international organizations are interested in adopting CMMC. https://www.fifthdomain.com/dod/2020/03/09/the-pentagons-first-class-of-cybersecurity-auditors-is-almost-here/

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  3 août 2018 | International, Aérospatial

  Planes could give heads-up when part is about to break

  By: Charlsy Panzino What if an aircraft could tell you a part needs maintenance before it actually breaks? That's the kind of technology that the head of Air Mobility Command is hoping to install on the command's aircraft as one way to deal with its older fleet. The goal is to outfit the planes with instruments that will monitor specific equipment and relay information back to the maintainers, giving them a heads up if a part is worn out and needs to be repaired or replaced. “As the airplane is beeping and squeaking ... as it's passing its zeros and ones, we can do an algorithm on the data that is received and we can say, predictability means this is going to fail at that time, go check that part,” Gen. Carlton Everhart told Air Force Times at the Pentagon on Thursday. Everhart said instruments have been installed on one of AMC's C-5M Super Galaxy transport aircraft to begin testing the idea of predictive maintenance. Full article: https://www.airforcetimes.com/news/your-air-force/2018/08/02/planes-could-give-heads-up-when-part-is-about-to-break

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  6 avril 2021 | International, Aérospatial, Naval, Terrestre, C4ISR, Sécurité

  Commercial Interest Grows in Defense Innovation Unit

  The Defense Innovation Unit received nearly 1,000 proposals in response to its solicitations last year, another sign that the Pentagon's outreach to commercial industry is bearing fruit. DIU was launched in 2015 by then-Secretary of Defense Ash Carter to bridge the gap between the military and the nation's tech hubs. It is headquartered in Mountain View, California, in Silicon Valley, with additional outposts in Austin, Texas, Boston and the Pentagon. “DIU's mission to strengthen U.S. national security by increasing the military's adoption of commercial technology and to grow the national security innovation base is critical not only to maintaining a strategic advantage over our adversaries but also to the strength of our economy,” the organization said in its recently released 2020 annual report. Over the past five years, the unit has leveraged more than $11 billion in private investment, the document noted. “The startups, established companies, venture capital firms, investors and traditional defense contractors that DIU works with to deliver the best commercial technology to the Department of Defense are ... fundamental sources of dual-use technologies,” it said. In 2020, DIU initiated 23 new projects, a 35 percent year-over-year increase. It received a total of 944 commercial proposals and increased the average number of proposals per solicitation by 52 percent compared with 2019. Fifty-six other transaction agreements for prototyping were awarded to companies, the majority of which were small businesses or nontraditional firms. A total of $108 million in prototype funding was obligated. Between June 2016 and December 2020, DIU facilitated more than $640 million in prototype funding, according to the report. Notably, the unit in 2020 facilitated the transition of 11 successful commercial prototypes to its Defense Department partners for large-volume procurement, an increase of 22 percent over the previous year. About 43 percent of DIU's projects to date have yielded at least one prototype that has transitioned to production, according to the report. Fifty-one ongoing projects have prototypes that will be eligible for transition to production if successfully completed. “What began in 2015 as an experiment to lead Department of Defense outreach to commercial innovators has become a gateway for business between leading-edge companies and the U.S. military,” the report said. DIU's main technology focus areas have been artificial intelligence, autonomy, cyber, human systems and space. In October, it added advanced energy and materials to its portfolio. “We look forward to providing even more high-impact solutions that will bolster our military's strategic, operational and tactical advantage,” the organization said.