In a memo issued in late January, Department of Defense chief information officer Cheryl Roby laid out a number of leadership responsibilities and strategic guidance on the development of stronger cybersecurity plans.

The Sprint to Business Continuity “It is DoD policy to establish a comprehensive approach for protecting unclassified DoD information transiting or residing on unclassified [Defense industrial base] systems and networks and create a timely, coordinated, and effective partnership with the [Defense industrial base],” Roby informed.

Hackers have increasingly been targeting and probing the Defense industrial base, sometimes successfully. For example, last year, it was revealed that hackers infiltrated the networks of government contractors and stole sensitive specs on the Pentagon’s F-35 Joint Strike Fighter project. This poses a significant challenge, as a wide variety of military information resides on external systems, and a wide variety of defense IT work is outsourced.

The Department of Defense has in recent years been increasing the amount of work it does to secure its cyber supply chain, including taking such extreme measures as procuring chips for sensitive systems only from a limited number of “trusted foundries” in the United States. This effort may put a bit more DoD-wide rigor into similar exercises.

The memo lays out a number of responsibilities for top staff. For example, the DoD CIO will chair a Defense industrial board cybersecurity executive committee and coordinate oversight of industry cybersecurity activities with the DoD’s inspector general. The directors of the National Security Agency and Defense Intelligence Agency will provide support and cyber intrusion damage assessment analysis in the case of attack.

Other roles include the under secretary of defense for acquisition, technology, and logistics, who’s tasked with developing and injecting new cybersecurity policies into DoD’s acquisition processes; the DoD’s CFO, who will be necessary to monitor budgets related to these activities to make sure they’re adequately resourced; and the director of the DoD’s Cyber Crime Center, who will “serve as the focal point for threat information sharing.”

The Department has established programmes to help find and develop technologies from the private sector for its use.

The move is part of an overhaul of the DoD’s energy use, announced in the Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) Report, published this month.

“The Department will… speed innovative energy and conservation technologies from laboratories to military end users. The Environmental Security and Technology Certification Program uses military installations as a testbed to demonstrate and create a market for innovative energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies coming out of the private sector and DoD and Department of Energy laboratories… The Department is improving small-scale energy efficiency and renewable energy projects at military installations through our Energy Conservation Investment Program,” informed the QDR Report.

Following an executive order from its commander in chief, president Obama, the DoD is to cut greenhouse gas emissions from its non-combat activities by 34 per cent by 2020.

The GHG reduction target exempts the aircraft, ships and land vehicles used in combat, but includes the Department’s 300,000-plus buildings and 160,000 fleet vehicles. Buildings and vehicles account for about a quarter of the DoD’s energy consumption, but nearly 40 per cent of its emissions.

Increased use of renewable energy sources will play a large part in hitting the emissions reduction target.

“Energy security for the Department means having assured access to reliable supplies of energy and the ability to protect and deliver sufficient energy to meet operational needs. Energy efficiency can serve as a force multiplier, because it increases the range and endurance of forces in the field and can reduce the number of combat forces diverted to protect energy supply lines,” informed the QDR.

Motivation is, of course, about ensuring that the DoD can still conduct operations. In 2008, the National Intelligence Council judged that more than 30 US military installations were already facing elevated levels of risk from rising sea levels.

“DoD’s operational readiness hinges on continued access to land, air and sea training and test space. Consequently, the Department must complete a comprehensive assessment of all installations to assess the potential impacts of climate change on its missions and adapt as required,” informed the QDR.

The DoD will coordinate its efforts in the US with the Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency.

The contract comes through the Ability One program, a federal purchasing program that ensures a market for products generated by people who are blind or who have other severe disabilities. Oswego Industries, Inc. has been providing programs and services to adults with disabilities since 1969.

The all-white coveralls will be made to strict safety specifications, since they are often used around volatile materials. There can be no metal zippers, buttons, hooks, snaps, or rivets anywhere in the garment, and the cloth must resist static electricity. The coveralls will be worn by personnel cleaning jet fuel tanks, in the reactor areas of nuclear submarines and in other sensitive jobs.

According to a news release by Kongsberg Gruppen, this contract is the modification of an existing CROWS II frame contract signed in August 2007.

The company has also received a purchase order for systems valued at 163.67 million dollars as part of the extended frame agreement.

CROWS is a joint acquisition programme for weapon stations for the army’s vehicle programmes.

The Protector Weapon Control System, in the CROWS II configuration, protects military troops by allowing the vehicle’s weapons to be operated from a protected position inside the vehicle, as reported in the release.

Kongsberg Gruppen Corporation supplies high-technology systems and solutions to customers engaged in the oil and gas industry, the merchant marine, and the defence and aerospace industries.

The TCS WPPL provides Marines with critical last-mile communications and allows them to extend their Local Area Network (LAN) to forward-deployed locations by extending services over terrestrial microwave radio links. It enables Non-Secure Internet Protocol Router (NIPR), Secret Internet Protocol Router (SIPR), Voice over IP (VoIP), Video and Defense Switched Network transmission of vital information.

This order was awarded by the Army Project Manager for the Warfighter Information Network-Tactical (PM WIN-T) Commercial Satellite Terminal Program (CSTP) and through the U.S. Army’s $5 billion World-Wide Satellite Systems (WWSS) contract vehicle.

KBR is one of 23 companies that received contract award notification from AFCEE in the Full & Open competition.

The total contract value to be dispersed among participating contractors is $3 billion and has a base contract period of five years. Under the contract and upon award of future task order(s), KBR will provide a full range of engineering and construction activities necessary to meet Air Force and other customer requirements.

ViaSat, of Carlsbad, Calif., is preparing its first satellite – ViaSat-1 – for launch in 2011 over the United States to provide high-speed Internet service to underserved areas. ViaSat-1 will transmit at 100 gigabits/sec, which is 10 times faster than the service provided by its competitors, company officials said. ViaSat is pitching the service to DOD.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates proposed canceling the TSAT program — and a number of other long-term, big-ticket items — in May in favor of technologies that will have an immediate impact on U.S. forces in southwestern Asia.

In the wake of that announcement, the Air Force moved swiftly last month to cancel the program’s ground portion by issuing a termination of convenience to Lockheed Martin Corp. on June 8, reported Amy Butler of Aviation Week. The TSAT Mission Operations System contract was valued at $2 billion. The competitive risk-reduction contracts that Lockheed Martin and Boeing Co. held for the satellite segment expired this month.

The Air Force initially planned to spend upwards of $26 billion for a five-satellite constellation, and it had already invested $2.5 billion in the program in a three-year period. At the time of cancellation, the date of the first launch had been pushed back from 2015 to 2019.

DOD is exploring the possibility of leasing commercial satellite services as an interim option to meet some of its battlefield communications needs.

However, what commercial satellites like ViaSat-1 lack is the kind of survivable, jam-resistant, secure communications that TSAT would have delivered for the president and senior military leaders to use in the event of a nuclear attack or other major national emergencies.

TSAT would have introduced a number of revolutionary capabilities. For starters, it would have dramatically enhanced communications on the move for mobile tactical forces and airborne intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, reported Brian Robinson in Defense Systems. What’s more, it would have fielded technical innovations, such as packet-based routing in space.
ViaSat-1 is able to deliver 10 times the throughput of other Ka-band satellites through hardware improvements and better use of frequency by satellite and ground equipment, ViaSat officials said.

Meanwhile, the Air Force plans to buy three Advanced Extremely High Frequency satellites to meet its survivability and security requirements. The first one is scheduled to launch next year.

It will be interesting to see if the Air Force takes advantage of the enormous throughput that commercial satellite providers such as ViaSat can offer.

The HAWK is a surface-to-air guided, medium-range missile that provides air defence coverage against low-to-medium-altitude aircraft.

The system is currently in use by 20 allied countries around the world.

Aerojet has manufactured about 44,000 HAWK rocket motors for the US Army and its allies.

Deliveries to AMCOM are scheduled to begin in 2010.

Pfc. Bowe R. Bergdahl, 23, of Ketchum, Idaho, was declared Duty Status Whereabouts Unknown on July 1. His status was changed to missing/captured July 3.

Bergdahl is a member of 1st Battalion, 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, of Fort Richardson, Alaska.

The DoD announcement came one day after The Associated Press reported that the Taliban had posted a video of the soldier. In the video, the man, who two defense officials confirmed to AP was the missing soldier, said he’s “scared I won’t be able to go home.”

In the 28-minute video, the soldier is shown with his head shaved and the start of a beard. He is sitting and dressed in a nondescript, gray outfit, according to AP.

Early in the video, one of his captors holds the soldier’s dog tag up to the camera. He is shown eating at one point and sitting cross-legged.

The soldier is interviewed in English by his captors, and he is asked his views on the war, his desire to learn more about Islam and the morale of American soldiers, AP reported.

Asked how he was doing, the soldier said: “Well, I’m scared, scared I won’t be able to go home. It is very unnerving to be a prisoner.”

He later chokes up when discussing his family and his hope to marry his girlfriend.

“I have a very, very good family that I love back home in America. And I miss them every day when I’m gone,” he said, according to AP.

On July 2, the U.S. military said an American soldier had disappeared after walking off his base in eastern Afghanistan with three Afghan counterparts and was believed to have been taken prisoner, according to AP.

RTI will develop software and other technology that will allow soldiers to practice making repairs to the tanks. Soldiers will be able to go through the training while working on desktop computers.

The simulation technology developed by RTI will be integrated into a suite of devices known as the Abrams Maintenance Training System. RTI’s contract is with the U.S. Army Program Executive Office for Simulation, Training, and Instrumentation in Orlando, Fla.

“RTI’s approach to this requirement reflects the latest advances in desktop simulations using serious games technology as well as an unprecedented degree of integration with other members of the Abrams community,” said Sam Field, vice president of RTI’s training business. “For years, RTI has pioneered the application of virtual reality on low-cost desktops as a means of providing learning-by-doing in a cost-effective and safe environment. These new Abrams products will feature new technologies and everything we know about learning methods.”

RTI will use subcontractors for much of the work on the Abrams project. Anniston Army Depot in Alabama will work with RTI in using demilitarized tank parts to make the simulations as realistic as possible. Other subcontractors on the project include DEI Services Corp. and TJ Inc. of Orlando and DRS Test and Energy Management of Huntsville, Ala.

With more than 2,800 employees worldwide, RTI International is one of the world’s largest research organizations.