National Security | The Contracting Education Academy

July 9, 2019 By AMK

Will alternative acquisition methods become the norm?

Recent research from the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) raises some important questions about the direction and focus of Defense Department research and development funding.

According to Andrew Hunter, head of CSIS’s Defense Industrial Initiatives Group, recent data documents a nearly 50 percent drop in spending on systems design and development (SDD) — a critical part of the R&D continuum — amounting to billions of dollars in reductions over the last four or five years. Over the same time, CSIS’s research shows an almost dollar-for-dollar increase in spending on alternative acquisition methods, especially Other Transactions Authority (OTA) contracts and, to a lesser extent, so-called “mid-tier” acquisitions. Hence, the question raised by CSIS: Are we short-circuiting long-term research and development in favor of more immediate opportunities for capability advancement?

The question is an important one and has real ramifications for the nation’s long-term battlefield dominance. And while the data itself certainly does not prove a correlation or the existence of a problem, it offers a good jumping off point for a more intensive examination. It also offers an important opportunity to assess traditional views of systems development against the intersection of commercial technology development as they relate to future war-fighting capabilities.

At its core, the question is really a contemporary version of that which drove many of the acquisition reforms of the 1990s. Those reforms were, in part, an effort to address the fact that while the research and development landscape had fundamentally shifted, the government’s approach to R&D and the marketplace had not. By the mid-1970s, private sector investments in research and development had, for the first time ever, surpassed the government’s; and the gap between the two had consistently widened. Studies also showed that just the 75 largest technology companies were spending more annually on R&D than the entire defense department; and about 75 percent of them would not do business with the government, especially in R&D.

Keep reading article at: https://www.federaltimes.com/opinions/2019/05/22/will-alternative-acquisition-methods-become-the-norm

May 17, 2019 By AMK

All this ‘innovation’ won’t save the Pentagon

The Defense Department, a hierarchy fixated on technology, is unequipped to confront a world of disruptive challenges.

I recently had the privilege of attending a Silicon Valley conference attended by leaders across the national security “innovation ecosystem.” The term reflects today’s veritable freshet of interest in defense innovation, from self-styled “virtuous insurgents” and defense “hackers” to individual agency innovation offices and entirely new outfits with on-the-nose names such as the Defense Innovation Unit and the Defense Innovation Board. All this may suggest that the national security apparatus is at last confronting the need for long-overdue changes to how we do business.

For two days, I listened to senior people from the military services, large defense agencies, and major components of the intelligence community as they described various “mission acceleration” efforts—that is, finding shortcuts that allow us to do what we’ve been doing a bit faster, a bit cheaper, a bit better.

This is a problem.

Innovation—from the Latin innovare—literally means to “make new.” But defense and other national security leaders often confuse it with automation or modernization. Automating an existing process doesn’t change the process itself. Nor does it change the game to incrementally improve the range, speed, or—forgive me—the “lethality” of existing weapons. Such efforts are like a homeowner fixing a broken window, painting a dilapidated wall, or adding a bathroom without considering the decaying foundations of the house itself.

Keep reading article at: https://www.defenseone.com/ideas/2019/04/all-innovation-wont-save-pentagon/156487/

April 27, 2018 By cs

Navy wants a better way to keep China’s nose out of its contracts

The other day, the U.S. Navy was about to issue a contract — nothing remarkable for an organization that awards dozens each week.

Then the contracting office realized that the specific division of the company they wanted to work with was in a joint venture with Chinese smartphone maker Huawei. All of a sudden, the service “turned around and said, ‘Whoa, stop the horses,’” Navy Secretary Richard Spencer told lawmakers Thursday.

In 2014, concerns about espionage led the U.S. to ban Huawei, which was founded by a former People’s Liberation Army engineer, from bidding on government contracts. In February, U.S. intelligence chiefs cautioned even the average American against buying Huawei products.

In this case, the Navy didn’t automatically kill the contract — though they did put a hold on it as they talked with the prime contractor.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.govexec.com/contracting/2018/04/navy-wants-better-way-keep-chinas-nose-out-its-contracts/147603/

October 10, 2017 By cs

Judge denies bail for accused NSA leaker, citing security risk

A woman charged with leaking U.S. secrets must remain jailed until her trial, a federal judge ruled last Thursday, saying her release would pose an “ongoing risk to national security.”

Reality Winner, 25, is a former Air Force linguist who worked as a contractor for the National Security Agency at a facility in Augusta, Georgia, when she was charged in June with copying a classified U.S. report and mailing it to a news organization.

Winner’s defense attorneys asked a judge to reconsider releasing her on bail after her trial date was postponed from October to next March. They argued Winner had no prior criminal history and served admirably in the military. Winner’s mother in Kingsville, Texas, planned to move to Georgia to ensure her daughter obeyed any terms of her bond.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.fifthdomain.com/civilian/fbi-doj/2017/10/05/judge-denies-bail-for-accused-nsa-leaker-citing-security-risk/

April 26, 2016 By cs

Florida woman charged in 18-count indictment for conspiracy to illegally export systems, components and documents to China

An 18-count superseding indictment was unsealed last Thursday (Apr. 21, 2016) charging Amin Yu, 53, of Orlando, Florida, with acting as an illegal agent of a foreign government in the United States without prior notification to the Attorney General, conspiring to defraud the United States and to commit offenses against the United States, committing unlawful export information activities, smuggling goods from the United States, conspiring to and committing international money laundering and making false statements to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

The indictment was announced by Assistant Attorney General for National Security John P. Carlin and U.S. Attorney A. Lee Bentley III of the Middle District of Florida.

According to the superseding indictment, from at least 2002 until approximately February 2014, Yu obtained systems and components for marine submersible vehicles from companies in the United States. She did so at the direction of co-conspirators working for Harbin Engineering University (HEU), which is a state-owned entity in the People’s Republic of China. Yu proceeded to illegally export the systems and components to China for use by her co-conspirators in the development of marine submersible vehicles – unmanned underwater vehicles, remotely operated vehicles and autonomous underwater vehicles – for HEU and other state-controlled entities. It is alleged that Yu illegally exported items by failing to file electronic export information as required by U.S. law and also by filing false electronic export information. In particular, Yu completed and caused the completion of export-related documents in which she significantly undervalued the items that she had exported and also provided false end-user information for those items.

An indictment is merely an allegation and every defendant is presumed innocent unless, and until, proven guilty.

If convicted, Yu faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in federal prison on each of the money laundering counts. She faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison for acting as an illegal agent of a foreign government and faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison on all other counts. The indictment also notifies Yu that the United States intends to forfeit approximately $2,668,648.92, the alleged traceable proceeds of the offenses.

This case was investigated by the FBI, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations, the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel C. Irick of the Middle District of Florida and Trial Attorneys David C. Recker and Thea D. R. Kendler of the National Security Division’s Counterintelligence and Export Control Section.

Source: https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/florida-woman-charged-18-count-indictment-conspiracy-illegally-export-systems-components-and

Recent research from the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) raises some important questions about the direction and focus of Defense Department research and development funding.

The Defense Department, a hierarchy fixated on technology, is unequipped to confront a world of disruptive challenges.

The other day, the U.S. Navy was about to issue a contract — nothing remarkable for an organization that awards dozens each week.

A woman charged with leaking U.S. secrets must remain jailed until her trial, a federal judge ruled last Thursday, saying her release would pose an “ongoing risk to national security.”

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