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Top DoD scientist sets up task forces to look at industrial base, infrastructure

The Defense Department’s top scientist is concerned about the state of defense businesses, critical infrastructure and security of microelectronics in the military, and he’s asking some of the Pentagon’s top minds to look into the issues.

In three Oct. 30 memos to the Defense Science Board — a group of military, civilian, science and academic experts sponsored by DoD — Defense Undersecretary for Research and Engineering Michael Griffin asks that task forces be set up to assess the businesses the Pentagon needs to create weapons and how to protect the military’s resiliency. He also asks a task force to look at how to ensure trustworthy microelectronics are used in military systems.

The 21st Century Industrial Base for National Defense Task Force is tasked with taking proactive steps to increase the depth, breadth and security of the defense industrial base.

The memo gives the task force up to 12 months to study how the industrial base can respond to the need for the military to surge and mobilize. It will also look at how industry can adapt modernization practices to continuously adapt to threats.

Keep reading this article at: https://federalnewsnetwork.com/defense-main/2019/11/top-dod-scientist-sets-up-task-forces-to-look-at-industrial-base-infrastructure/

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Army bets big on service contracts to fix aging IT

The Army’s information technology is too old, and modernization is too slow.

So the service needs a “fundamentally different” strategy that relies heavily on the private sector, Lt. Gen. Bruce Crawford said the Army has to start relying on contractors to own and operate IT on the Army’s behalf — what he calls “enterprise IT as a service” — and start moving on-base IT to Defense Department clouds.

“Around 70 percent overall of that [IT] infrastructure — in the case of voice, it’s probably as high as 90 percent — is at or near end of life,” Crawford told the Association of the US Army.  “[It] would take beyond the year 2030 — if we stayed on the current path — to modernize. We ran into one brick wall after another [asking], ‘how do we get speed,’” Crawford continued. So, about six months ago, he and Lt. Gen. Steve Fogarty, head of Army Cyber Command, realized “we needed to do something fundamentally different.”

This effort’s urgent because the aging IT on Army bases can’t protect data from high-end hackers, provide the bandwidth for new augmented-reality training systems or support combat units waging high-intensity warfare against great powers (i.e., Russia and China), Crawford said. “This reform and modernization initiative,” he said, “is less about saving money than it is about increasing operational effectiveness throughout the force.”

Keep reading this article at: https://breakingdefense.com/2019/03/army-bets-big-on-service-contracts-to-fix-aging-it/

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Supply chain task force looks to keep ‘lemons’ out of the federal IT ecosystem

The Department of Homeland Security announced the roll out of its supply chain security task force on Information and Communications Technology.

At a Nov. 1 meeting of the Information Security and Privacy Advisory Board, a DHS official provided more details on the group’s composition and mission.

The task force will consist of approximately 60 members — drawn equally from the federal government, the tech sector and the communications sector, according to Emile Monette, a cybersecurity strategist at DHS and co-chair. Monette told FCW after the meeting that “most” of the group’s membership has been solidified, but that DHS is planning to provide more specifics in the next few weeks.

An executive committee, roughly half the full task force’s size, will meet in mid-November to begin laying out priorities and setting up work streams, such as tweaking to Federal Acquisition Regulation rules requiring the government to purchase certain IT and communications products from the original manufacturer or authorized resellers.

Keep reading this article at: https://fcw.com/articles/2018/11/01/supply-chain-dhs-lemons.aspx 

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How do state and local programs fare in the FY 2017 federal spending deal?

Legislation has emerged to keep the federal government running through September. But tougher negotiations could be on the horizon for the upcoming budget cycle.

Funding levels for many of the federal programs state and local governments rely on are largely unchanged from the previous fiscal year in the roughly $1 trillion spending deal congressional lawmakers have reached.

The 1,665-page bill marks a rare compromise between Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill. If passed by Congress and signed by President Trump, the legislation would keep the federal government running for the rest of the 2017 fiscal year, which ends on Sept. 30.

White House budget director Mick Mulvaney during a briefing described the fiscal 2017 bill as “really solid” for the Trump administration and said it “lines up perfectly with the president’s priorities.”

But debates about fiscal year 2018 spending are on the horizon. And those negotiations could get tough. In the “skinny budget” proposal Trump sent to Congress earlier this year he proposed cuts that were steep and sweeping.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.routefifty.com/finance/2017/05/2017-federal-spending-deal-state-local-programs/137478/

Also see related article, “Trump’s Proposed Budget Cuts Would Be Hard Hits for State and Local Governments,” at: http://www.routefifty.com/finance/2017/03/trump-budget-state-local-government-impacts/136200/

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Federal procurement: The road ahead under Trump

what-to-expect-for-federal-procurement-in-2017President-elect Trump is about to be sworn in as the 45th President of the United States. 

Between now and then (and continuing into the first few months of his presidency), he and federal agencies will select new leadership and establish their policy priorities.

Though the Trump administration has spoken little about its acquisition policy, the transition and campaign websites provide some insight about the acquisition agenda that the new administration will pursue, as well as other policies that may impact government contractors and federal acquisition personnel.

Keep reading this article at: https://washingtontechnology.com/articles/2016/12/16/insights-burton-trump-transition-acquisition.aspx

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