The Army has a plan to no longer “fight the network.”

Through the Unified Network Operations (UNO), initiative, the Army wants to create an agile, software-defined network that is easy to set up and use. This is the opposite of what soldiers currently must deal with then setting up a tactical network that requires on-premise hardware, cables and unique knowledge and skillsets.

The Army is laying the groundwork for this new network set up under UNO in a new draft request for proposals that Lt. Col. Keith Jordan, the product manager for Tactical Cyber and NetOps, in the Army’s Program Executive Office Command Control Communications-Tactical (PEO-C3T) said will bring efficiency, ease of use and, most importantly, meet the needs of commanders more readily.

“There’s a time component of how long it takes to make the network operate. That’s a concern. But also, it’s a manpower issue. It’s specialized training and skills that our signal soldiers are required to have in order to make all these different components of network work, both from a hardware perspective, a cabling, a software interoperability issue perspective and troubleshooting. So there’s a lot of different factors that the soldiers have to go through to make the network work,” Jordan said in an exclusive interview with Federal News Network. “When they are having to do those tasks across multiple items, one-by-one, it does take a lot more time. And depending on a unit, you’re going to always have a degree of soldiers that have the right requisite training and the right requisite experience. So there’s always a little bit of inefficiency built into that model. What we’re looking to do through this is to really improve that inefficiency, and make it much more a much simpler task for those soldiers, especially if we’re not fully manned that at each unit to do that mission.”

PEO-C3T has been leading the UNO effort for the better part of two years and the draft RFP is the second piece of a three-pronged effort to create this new software-defined network.

Jordan said the draft solicitation, for which responses are due by July 17, will help inform its long term plans to bring in commercial technologies and take advantage of cloud services. PEO-C3T expects to issue a final RFP for this multiple award indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contract in early 2025 and make awards in early 2026.

In the meantime, Jordan said the Army will soon award “several” other transaction agreements (OTAs) to examine prototypes of what UNO may look like.

“The Army acquisition executive last year decided that UNO would utilize the software acquisition pathway. This is a new pathway under the adaptive acquisition framework that really is focused on how we manage, contract and deliver software capability to the Army. It’s different than what we might typically see under the some of the older pathways. This really is a revolution of thinking in the Army of how we recognize that software is different than hardware and it needs to be procured differently,” he said on Ask the CIO. “Really, what that does is it allows us to deliver capability incrementally versus like a big bang where the product is done all at once. We recognize that this will not be done right off the bat, you’ll get updates to the capability over time and each time we make an update, the capability will get more and more mature, more and more capable. The whole idea is we’re able to rapidly make these updates versus in the past where it may take a really long time to make an update. We want to update very often based on feedback in whatever theater we might be operating in.”

Army testing prototypes through OTA

Through the OTA process, Jordan said vendors will demonstrate SDN capabilities that can bring together several disparate systems and handle a large number of users over a several month period.

He said the vendors will demonstrate the SDN capabilities in the lab and in the field so soldiers can provide real-time feedback and the contractors can add or change the network as required.

Jordan said “usability” and “simplicity” will be key concepts that the Army wants to see in the prototypes.

“We think by doing that we’re going to really get down to a good vendor, and then following that, we’re going to pursue a FAR-based contract that will allow a lot more vendors to get in the mix and be able to deliver various capabilities,” he said. “We don’t know how many vendors we’re going to end up with so that’s why the window [for timing] is a little bit difficult. But we think between late 2024 and 2025, we’ll be able to complete that [OTA award] process. Then as we go into the prototype phase, the idea would be that’s a little bit of a longer phase because there’ll be a downselect. We’re not going to take the same amount of vendors from the lab to the field. We’re going to take those vendors out to the field and that’ll be a little bit longer because what we do want to do is see their agile development process and we want to be able to see as a soldier provides feedback to a particular company, we want to see him make the changes that we’re looking for. It’s not just about the technology, it’s also going to be about the company’s ability to manage the process.”

Jordan said the network of the future will depend on agile and DevSecOps process, where signal soldiers will not have to have special skillsets.

The future network also will enable commanders to make faster and better decisions as data will be easier to get and use.

“We’ve had to fight the network for a long time. This will help us be able to get the network up and running efficiently, tailored to our mission needs and operationalize it,” Jordan said. “For industry, there’s going to be lots of opportunities inside UNO to deliver unique and value added capabilities to the network. We’re really excited because there is so many opportunities for businesses, both small and large, to deliver capability inside the network, around things that we haven’t even thought of yet that we may want. As long as our vendors are able to operate in a modular open system approach, and that we’re able to integrate capability into that architecture in a rapid and easy to do methodology, we’re really going to be successful.”

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“Ninety percent of the time, don’t do it. It’s the easy button. But using [large language models] like Chat GPT or Gemini — that is boiling the ocean to make yourself a cup of coffee. You don’t have the compute resources to run effective LLMs down at the tactical edge,” Stephen Riley, who is part of the  Army engineering team at Google, said during an Association of the U.S. Army event Tuesday.

The Army generates a vast amount of data due to its large number of personnel and extensive range of operations, making the service one of the largest AI users among the military branches. But having a lot of data does not mean Army leaders can get actionable insights from it.

“I say there’s too much damn data out there. We can’t overload our warfighters and our leaders with too much data,” said Young Bang, the principal deputy assistant secretary of the Army for acquisition, logistics and technology.

Google, for example, improved the quality of search results long before the advent of large language models, and the Army could apply similar methods to how it handles its large swaths of data, said Riley. 

One way the tech giant worked to improve search results was by analyzing which search results were clicked on most often and identifying which results were most useful to the most users.

Additionally, the company developed a knowledge graph that “represents  widely accepted truths and relationships.” This approach helps ground search results in established knowledge, which subsequently requires less computational power than LLMs.

“Now we’ve got two things working in tandem. We’ve got what’s been most useful to the most people and we’ve got what is actually a good result because it conforms with generally accepted truth. All of this doesn’t require LLMs. So how do we do this with the Army? Let’s start building a knowledge graph of things that are true for the Army,” said Riley.

“We don’t need to train a gigantic LLM with all of the ADPs and FMs and say, ‘All right, we’ve got a model.’ You could actually encode all of those ADPs, all the operations stuff, all the intel stuff — we could encode that into a knowledge graph, which requires infinitely less compute power. That’s something you could deploy forward on a pretty small box. I encourage everybody to look first at the old ways of doing things. They tend to be more efficient. I got to think a little harder about how to implement them. But it’s a lot more efficient and it’s very doable.”

Bang said that while LLMs are useful for general purposes, using them in combination with small language models for specific military terms, military jargon, cyber terms or other specific languages would provide better results for soldiers. 

“Do you really need LLMs and SLMs at the edge? No. If you use that and overlay a knowledge graph, I think that’s a much better practical implementation of things. Because we can’t afford all the computing resources that we’re going to need to process all that or do the training on it or even the retraining or the inference at the edge,” said Bang. 

But the concern is that malicious actors can potentially overload existing data sets with misinformation, which would lead to a shift in what’s considered a commonly accepted truth or knowledge. Riley said that’s why it’s important to have humans in the loop. “We cannot abdicate human reasoning to the machines.”

“You could theoretically overload it and start shifting truth in on a given access to some degree. But as we index stuff, the data that we index is also run through the current knowledge graph. But we also have humans in the loop; we are watching what’s going on with the trends, with the shifting of the Overton window there,” said Riley.

Poisoned datasets

When using AI datasets, particularly for training large language models, malicious actors don’t have to poison the whole dataset. Compromising even a small piece of a server will introduce bad data that will contaminate the overall training dataset. That’s why the military services acquiring AI models and data sets from the commercial world should “demand to see where the data came from.”

“Google ain’t going to tell you. Demand it of us anyway. Microsoft ain’t going tell you. Demand it anyway. We have already seen cases where companies building large LLMs have sourced data from other companies that say they have a bunch of data. And it turns out they source from other companies that are given some pretty bad stuff. Maybe not deliberate misinformation, but stuff that absolutely would not comply with our nation or Army values.  In all cases, demand to see where that data came from. And don’t stop until they tell you,” said Riley.

“We’ve talked about this data bill of materials. Famously, after Solar Winds, people are asking for a software bill of materials. We must develop some kind of data bill of materials and make that it’s a standard part of acquisition of these AI systems. We’ve got to do it because we’re already seeing this problem whether you know it or not.”

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Service members are often part of two-income families. But spouses face the continual difficulty of establishing themselves when the service member gets relocated. Now the Army has schootched up its reimbursement policy for those spouses to, in the Army’s words, promote career continuity and military readiness. Joining the Federal Drive with Tom Temin with details, Army program analyst Steve Yearwood.

Interview Transcript:  

Tom Temin  Well, what’s going on here, you are reimbursing spouses. But there’s more to it than simply reimbursement. There’s also other enhancements to help them with licensing and so on, as they move from place to place.

Steve Yearwood  That’s correct. This policy change means quite a bit to military spouses. It allows military spouses to have their professional licenses and business costs reimbursed, which makes it easier for them to continue work in their chosen field or profession as a result of these frequently move, but more importantly, it promotes career continuity, financial stability, and professional fulfillment.

Tom Temin  When someone moves, what has been the policy, say they have a license for Real Estate license, or it could be a cosmetician type of license. We’re talking generally state licensing fees, that kind of that type of thing.

Steve Yearwood  Yes, we’re talking state licensing fees. So for example, a military spouse, maybe a lawyer or dentist and have to get a license renewed recertified, when they move to another state, whatever fee they’re paid, the Army will reimburse them up to $1,000, for that recertification of that license.

Tom Temin  And was there no reimbursement before this? Or did the reimbursement that was there get raised.

Steve Yearwood  So in the FY 18, National Defense Authorization Act, that’s when the policy what the law should say, came out that reimburse spouses for $500. Then the following year, subsequently, it was increased to $1,000. And that stayed pretty much static until the FY 2003 NDAA when they added business costs to the existing law. So this policy included both those changes for licensure reimbursement, and also business costs.

Tom Temin  So in other words, an individual could get as much as 2000 in a relocation 1000 for the license and up to 1000 for whatever costs are incurred.

Steve Yearwood  That’s correct. That’s correct. And that’s the benefit of this policy to help streamline the process. What are these military spouses, so they understand the benefit that they will receive as a result of these frequent moves?

Tom Temin  Do we have any sense of how often this happens in a year? I mean, relocations are 10s of 1000s. How many people do we know apply each year for reimbursement or relicensing fees?

Steve Yearwood  Right, the data that we do have and we’ve been tracking this initiative since the inception. So going back to 2019, when we published our policy as a result of the NDAA in 18. So since that inception, we have reimbursed military spouses just for licenses. reimbursement, I will say in excess of 750 spouses have filed for claims.

Tom Temin  So it’s not a vast number, but I guess it really matters to those that do file for claims.

Steve Yearwood  Yes, it doesn’t matter because again, this reimbursement is taxable. So it becomes, you know, tax. So for example, if a military spouse file for reimbursement of $500, reimbursement that $500 will be taxed, and the soldier is the one who’s filing on behalf of their military spouse.

Tom Temin  All right, good to know, we’re speaking with Steve Yearwood. He’s an Army program analyst in the Directorate of prevention, resilience and readiness. And just a question on licensing. State license fees probably vary widely. And I imagine within a given number of professions, you mentioned dentists, for example, I imagine that’s a much higher licensing fee than say someone that wants to do manicures, do you have that sense of what each state costs for various things.

Steve Yearwood  I don’t have what each state costs. However, we do have resources that kind of leads spouses through the different resources. So if they’re getting ready to move to a new state, they can actually go and see what those requirements are, because although there’s a reimbursement fee, there may be some other requirements that may preclude them from obtaining that license and affecting the reimbursement fees. But again, those fees can be reimbursed even for a recertification, whatever the cost is, as long as doesn’t exceed the $1000. So to your point, yes. We have several military spouses file in excess of 2000 in some professions, but again, the reimbursement is the max is up to $1,000. And again, that $1,000 being taxed.

Tom Temin  And are you aware of any states for example, that maybe give a little extra boost Maybe if what the person is bringing to the state doesn’t have an exact match with the requirements, they’ll nevertheless grant it because the person is part of the military permanent change of station. Do the states ever give a little bit of leniency to military member spouses?

Steve Yearwood  Yes. And one of the key points I want to make here to this question is that we the army, works with the defense State Liaison Office, whose primary function is to work with state legislators to help military spouses in regards to licenses and recognizing their licenses, expediting the process, limiting the number of paperwork. So that’s what we do within the Army to work with the state liaison office to help guide that effort. And that’s a continuous effort that the Defense State Liaison Office does. But identifying specifically what state requires or what they’re doing. I don’t we don’t have that information readily available. But it’s something that we can definitely, you know, provide at a later time if necessary.

Tom Temin  Yeah, you’ve got the career onestop site that kind of guides them to that information, I guess.

Steve Yearwood  yes, we do have a page on our website, or quality of life webpage, specifically for Spouse Employment. And on that landing page, there spouses can see the resources and information on the process for filing a claim, subsequently, the policy is there. And they can also review the policy. But again, any questions they have, they are directed to go to their installation, employment readiness office, most installations, have one of those offices and those individuals will be able to help and guide those spouses and navigate them through this process, as well.

Tom Temin  And we’ve been talking about an army program, do you have any collaboration or information sharing, say, with the Navy and the Air Force that probably have similar issues?

Steve Yearwood  Yes. So I collaborate quite a bit with my service counterparts. And one of the things we did in regards to the policy, we actually did some collaboration to see how each service is primarily interpreting the law. So what we found is that I’m not going to speak because of the Navy and the Air Force is the ones that we was engaged with quite a bit. Their policy was similar to what our policies were. So we all were consistent in our messaging, and interpretation, where we do collaborate quite often with our services when it comes to the license reimbursement or business costs.

Tom Temin  And before we let you go, I just wanted to ask you to comment on something the Army said in the statement, and that this is not just about income, but also professional fulfillment, talent, retention, and support of military readiness, in the grand sense.

Steve Yearwood  Yes, so army spouses, as we know supports the soldier, which is essential to ensuring their soldier success and continuous service. And in return, you know, the Army is committed to helping these military spouses achieve their goals. And this is a benefit part of the Army’s ongoing effort to improve the quality of life, you know, financial stability and Army families. But last point is that when we talked about retention is also a key factor and a multiplier when we talked about ensuring the spouses continue their job, when they move from one location to another and not creating a financial gap I should state when it comes to PCS move. So in summary, this policy enhances that ability for the continuity of spouses promoting their careers. It also provided, like I mentioned earlier on professional fulfillment.

The post The Army moves to make spouses financial lives more viable first appeared on Federal News Network.

Contractors trying to plan ahead often turn to procurement plans that agencies post on their websites. An annual assessment of the forecasts shows that some are actually excellent, like at Homeland Security. Others are terrible, like the one at the Army. For more on this, the Federal Drive with Tom Temin talked with the President and CEO of the Professional Services Council, David Berteau.

Interview transcript:

David Berteau  This is really a valuable resource, not only for contractors, but of course, it’s vital for the government. Because if the government can do a good job of forecasting, what it thinks its contracts will be, then companies can do a better job of preparing for those opportunities when they come along, and the government will get better, more competitive, more responsive bids than they would otherwise get. So it’s really a benefit to both the government and to industry. PSC has done this now, this is our sixth year and putting out this annual scorecard on business forecasts. And we do this analysis, we really start almost at the end of the cycle, we start for the next year. We do this based on a selection of key attributes. And they’re in our report, and we’ll give you the link to that so you can post it. But let me just highlight a couple of those key attributes. Because this is really why it’s important. Number one is actually to have, and you’d be amazed that not everybody does, a searchable document. A searchable spreadsheet, not something that’s just a PDF that you’d have to print out and go through and circle the items that you’re interested in, etc. So having something that’s searchable is really key. Because if you don’t have something searchable, then it makes it much harder for companies. By the way, this is equally important to both large businesses and smaller businesses, because nobody has an infinite amount of bid money that they can spend, they have to pick and choose what they work on. The second is, we want to know is the data modified? Is it updated? Is it once a year? Is it every six months, some of our top performers update theirs on a monthly basis. And so these are some of the attributes that come into play here.

Tom Temin  And also, it’s worth noting, too, the exhibit 50 threes and some of the other evidence of what they were going to do just don’t exist anymore, correct?

David Berteau  That’s correct. And of course, those were never searchable. Those were just PDF documents, if you were lucky, maybe just only a printed version. I think that’s a good point, the data available actually from the budget side of the house, and from the White House, and OMB and the agencies, as well as from the appropriations committees of what they’re doing. We don’t get nearly as much information, and it’s often way late. When you don’t get your appropriations until March 23, as we did this past year for six of our Cabinet departments. It’s pretty hard to plan what you’re going to be doing when there’s only six months left in the fiscal year to get stuff done.

Tom Temin  All right. And this year, you have given green good ratings to a lot of agencies, starting with the Department of Education, Housing and Urban Development, Labor, the Navy, not so much the Army. What makes a good site besides searchable? Is it the completeness of the data in detail?

David Berteau  It’s the completeness of the data. It’s things like how much money do you have? What’s the anticipated solicitation release date? What’s the anticipated award date? Is it going to be of set aside? Is this a new start? Or is it a re compete with an incumbent? All of these are factors that enter into whether or not a company might decide, Okay, that looks like something that we know a lot about, we have a good relationship with the customer, we’re gonna get our oar in the water early here. And we need all of this information. You might even need the contract vehicle, for instances. There is going to be a blanket purchasing agreement, a multiple award contract is going to be open source, full and open competition. Those are the kinds of things that come into play here. It also allows companies to perhaps have a discussion with the agency. If you expanded the NAICS codes that you would make available for here, you might get more competition, because as you well know, Tom, you’ve had a number of guests on the show over the months, the federal government’s really interested in bringing in non traditional suppliers, new companies, there’s a concern about a decline in the number of prime contractors across the government. So a good forecast not only helps the companies that are already in play here, it helps other companies say yeah, we might have something to bring into bear there. So we rate these agencies, and I’ll come back to the green in a minute here.

Tom Temin  Okay. And some of them are needs improvement. And it’s pretty consistent that year after year, the same agencies roughly get the same scores. But there’s a few, the Air Force, the Army, well, they’re all DoD agencies that simply don’t have sites.

David Berteau  They don’t have sites or maybe their sites are kind of buried. They’re fine if you know where they are. And you can go to them. And here again, you may have an advantage for incumbents who are already part of the system. Whereas folks who aren’t part of the system might want to have something to offer here and have a harder time getting at it. You do point out, and our scorecard tracks your back I think the graphic goes back to 2020. So you have five years worth of data in there. And we do see that agencies both take our scorecard seriously, and oftentimes will try to improve themselves there and you’ll see in our scorecard a number of agencies have improved dramatically. You mentioned the Navy Marine Corps, for instance, there systems commands there. They were actually not found just a few years ago. If we can’t find them easily. We don’t think companies can find them easily. So that’s part of our criteria.

Tom Temin  We’re speaking with David Berteau, president and CEO of the Professional Services Council. And in looking at these agencies, who is the best source within an agency for this data? Does it generally come from the tech staff, the CIO channel? Or is it some other the financial?

David Berteau  It varies by agency, we interact mostly, in fact, I should step back a minute. The Office of Federal Procurement Policy in the White House has embraced and supported our scorecard every year. And they actually promote participation in this and encourage agencies to improve their score to expand their adherence to the criteria that we put in there. So it actually has support from within the government. Frequently what we deal with here are the heads of contract within the agencies and the components within those agencies. You point out DHS, for instance. Yeah, as you know, DHS is many different entities united under a common cabinet department there. And so sometimes you have to go to multiple sources, that brings you down and your score, if you’ve got a more integrated package across the board, that brings you up in the score. The federal government’s huge Tom. Millions of contract actions a year. So this is a lot to ask agencies to do. But we’ve seen tremendous improvement in the six years we’ve been doing it, and we’ll continue to push for that improvement. Because we think, again, it benefits both the government and the companies.

Tom Temin  And the Professional Services Council itself had a recent conference. What are members cranky about?

David Berteau  Our conference is our annual federal acquisition conference. And of course, that’s where we rolled out the scorecard. There were some very interesting exchanges, it’s mostly government people on the stage. In fact, I think it was almost all government people, except for the moderators of the panels. We had a keynote from the head of procurement in the Treasury Department. This is all on the record for attribution. And we had a wrap up keynote from the Secretary of the Air Force. A couple of interesting takeaways there is we find that the procurement folks, the acquisition folks in the federal government, really are keenly interested in expanding the communications with industry. But it’s been tough Tom, you look at for example, since COVID, a lot of people aren’t in the office anymore, that you used to be able to go see them. Now you can see them, but you’re only gonna see them in a little square on your computer, not in the office. So what have we done to substitute that face to face communications, which by the way, has limits in terms of scope and capacity. Not everybody can meet everybody all the time. So I think we’re seeing some agencies that are really wrestling hard with what is a, I don’t know if it’s post COVID, because I’m not sure when post is, with respect to COVID. But the current situation, what’s the dynamic by which you can have that kind of exchange between government and industry. How do you maximize that? It really focuses a lot on the question of market research. The way that a lot of agencies approach this, now. You do your market research, then you do your solicitation, your evaluation, your award. So your market research is kind of stale by the time you get to the award. So how do you keep that current going long way without discriminating against some bidders or in favor of other bidders. These are kinds of dialogues that was really useful to have between the government and the folks in the room.

Tom Temin  Yeah. And one way to make sure that that all stays fresh is to have a good, getting back to the procurement forecast websites. That way people know what’s going on in the latest bidders and the newest companies and those innovators can know what’s going on in bid.

David Berteau  Absolutely. We also had a very vibrant discussion about what I would call the additional requirements being levied on contractors. Every administration likes to use the federal procurement process as a catalyst to advance its other initiatives, whether it be diversity or greenhouse gas emissions reporting, or compliance with other regulations and requirements. And these are additional burdens, not only on industry, but also on the contractors. And the contracting process inside the government for the contracting officers. One of those is a push for greater use of small businesses. And one of the very interesting discussions we had was, who decides whether or not, for instance, the Rule of Two? If you’ve got two potentially responsible in qualifying the small businesses, then you make it a set aside. Who’s responsible for determining that capability? Ultimately, the procuring contracting officer has to make the present responsibility determination before awarding the contract. But you don’t want the, at least some of the agencies talking to us there, said they don’t want the contracting officer dictating whether or not it should be a small business set aside. That should be determined by the program office based upon the ability to meet the requirements. This was a really important message to be sent out not only to us, but to the government folks as well.

Tom Temin  All right, so you’re keeping their feet to the fire sounds like.

David Berteau  It’s a partnership. And of course, it’s a partnership that always has a little bit of an arm’s length relationship that has to come into play as well. But the more that we can focus on the Partnership for the common goals and objectives and creating the ability and capacity and the capability to achieve those goals, the better off both industry and the government will be.

The post Contractors find some ‘buying forecasts’ better than others first appeared on Federal News Network.

The Army tackled one of its toughest challenges: Creating a common operating picture for all of its allied partners.

The recent Yama Sakura 85 exercise demonstrated how the Army, the Australians and the Japanese could securely share information by using an architecture based on zero trust principles.

Col. Rett Burroughs, the chief information officer & G6 for the Army’s I Corps, said over the course of the 10-to-12 day training event last December, the Army successfully brought their allied leaders onto a single and secured network at the tactical edge.

“What we are looking at is properly being distributed across the entirety of the Pacific. We could have a command and control node anywhere in Australia, Thailand, Philippines, Japan, Korea, Hawaii, Guam or Alaska, and back here at Joint Base Lewis McChord, Washington so that now every node has roles and responsibilities. How do we ensure that conductivity happens across all of those different nodes that are very disparate and spread out? And then how do we leverage the technology of transport to ensure that we’re getting applications all the way to the edge?” Burroughs said on Ask the CIO. “We spent months preparing to ensure we had right safeguards in place. In its simplest form, in the application for the warfighter, which is definitely my area of concern, it brought the Australians and the Japanese together because before it was the Australians and the Americans, and then it was the Americans and the Japanese. The Australians couldn’t be in the same Tactical Operations Center as the Japanese. Now we have the ability for the first Australian division commander to talk directly with senior generals from the Japanese Ground Force Command.”

Burroughs said in previous exercises, the Americans and Australians would talk, and then the Americans and Japanese would talk, with the Army acting as the “go-between” for the Australians and Japanese. And Burroughs readily admits everyone knows what happens when you play the game of telephone.

“Our goal here was to establish one common operating picture and the ability to voice video chat, and share specific information,” he said. “The application of this proved critical in the ability for staff to make informed recommendations, and for commanders to make informed decisions. We weren’t just slinging all this data just because commanders need and want everything.”

Broader application than just the Army

The success of the Yama Sakura 85 exercise proved this shared network and zero trust concept for more than just the Army, but any federal organization can take the basic concepts to create a common operating picture.

John Sahlin, the vice president of cyber solutions for General Dynamics-IT, which supported the Army with integration expertise, said these same approaches could help agencies such as FEMA, which has to create shared networks to help cities or states recover from disasters.

“I’ve been fascinated by this problem set ever since I deployed for the Hurricane Katrina relief efforts back about 15 years ago. We started thinking about a military mission for that humanitarian assistance effort and it turned very quickly into an interagency and even local government support mission,” Sahlin said. “We had good communications. We had a good sight picture. We had good mapping data, which nobody else in the area did. We had to quickly share that data with first responders, the local hospital, the parish sheriff, non-government organizations like the Red Cross. I think that these are lessons of zero trust at the tactical edge for information sharing to inform that on scene commander, are lessons that can be learned, not only for the military at the tactical edge, but for any organization that has field-deployed, forward-deployed organizations that need to share data to execute a mission rapidly and make those changes dynamically with first responders with interagency support, things like that.”

Burroughs added this approach of creating a distributed network supported by zero trust tools isn’t just important for the tactical edge, but for Army commanders in garrison or commands who have to coordinate with the National Guard or local first responder communities or anyone outside of the service.

“Now we don’t have to have these disparate networks that do not talk to each other because of classification and policy, which you clearly went through during the Katrina catastrophe,” he said. “Now what we’re doing is we’re taking need to figure this out on the fly out during a catastrophe. We’re actually getting ahead of it now by addressing it before the next catastrophe. So when something does come in competition or crisis, we’re actually able to deal with it in a methodical way instead of reacting.”

Shift toward data-centricity

In many ways what Burroughs and Sahlin are describing is how the Army, and really every agency, must be more of a data-centric organization.

Lt. Col. Roberto Nunez, the chief of signal services support for Army I Corps, said the implementation of zero trust capabilities forces the end users to shift that data culture because they have to tag and label information much more specifically and consistently.

“You can say ‘all right, here’s all my data that I want to share, all my users that are also tagged and labeled as well as what they’re authorized to use and what they cannot use. Therefore, you can plug in with other mission partners to share that information and you can create that common environment moving forward, whether it’s joint coalition, at least from a DoD point of view,” he said. “If you want third parties to join in, whether it’s corporate America, academics, other organizations or other government agencies, you can do that if everything’s data-centric, labeled and tagged accordingly. This is what is great about zero trust.”

Burroughs said planning for the next Yama Sakura 87 exercise in December already is underway. But he said these capabilities aren’t turned on during the exercise and then turned off. The network is always on and therefore the Army is always iterating how to make secure information sharing better, faster and easier.

Chief Warrant Officer 4 Phil Dieppa, a senior services engineer for Army I Corps, said what the Yama Sakura 87 exercise and other demonstrations have shown the service that the “come as you are” model works because of the zero trust capabilities.

“The great thing about zero trust is that we don’t trust anything until we explicitly have that conversation and say that ‘I trust you.’ Once we do that, then we can start communicating and making those services available one at a time,” he said.

The post How the Army is always testing, training on zero trust first appeared on Federal News Network.

• The Defense Innovation Unit and the Army are joining forces to ramp up the service’s nuclear power capabilities. The Army is looking to develop and test a prototype of a nuclear reactor as part of the service’s push to bring nuclear energy to its installations. The service is heavily dependent on off-site electricity providers to obtain energy and conduct its missions. If successful, these micro-reactor power plants could be operational by 2030. The Army’s effort along with the Air Force’s microreactor pilot are paving the way for deployments of nuclear power technology across military installations.
  (Army seeking to develop nuclear reactor prototype - Defense Innovation Unit)
• Former senior government officials are joining the growing calls against Schedule F. The former officials from the Bush administration said civil service reform is necessary, as is holding federal employees accountable. But they said Schedule F is not the answer. The now-revoked policy from the Trump administration aimed to reclassify feds to make them easier to fire. In a letter to House and Senate leadership this week, the former officials are calling on Congress to pass more protections for government workers in national security and law enforcement. The letter to lawmakers comes in light of former President Trump’s plans to revive a policy akin to Schedule F if he’s reelected.
  (Ensuring the accountability of the federal civil service: An urgent call to action - Former Bush administration officials)
• Nurses at the Department of Veterans Affairs are pointing to staffing shortages that are making it harder to treat veterans. The VA employs 122,000 nurses, which is the largest nursing workforce in the U.S. That is also a record high for the department. But the National Nurses Organizing Committee (NNOC) and National Nurses United (NNU) said the VA is leaving thousands of positions unfilled and spreading nurses thin. Irma Westmoreland is NNU’s vice president and a registered nurse who works at the VA medical center in Augusta, Georgia. She said VA nurses are being assigned more patients, which is contributing to burnout. “We feel that we are chronically understaffed in nursing, and that is erodes the patient care that we’re able to provide for our veterans," Westmoreland said.
  (VA touts its largest nursing workforce, but union says they're 'chronically understaffed' - Federal News Network)
• The Department of Housing and Urban Development has put the help wanted sign out for a new chief information officer. Beth Niblock, who has been CIO since July 2021, transitioned to a new role in May, the senior adviser for disaster management. One reason for the move is Niblock was a political appointee and HUD is moving the CIO's position back to a career job. The CIO job announcement closes June 13. Sairah Ijaz, who has been deputy CIO since March 2023, is the acting CIO until HUD hires a permanent career technology leader.
  (HUD searching for new CIO - USAjobs.gov)
• DoD's chief information officer is stepping down. John Sherman is moving on to a new role at Texas A&M University, where he will serve as dean of the Bush School of Government. Sherman has led the CIO's office since December 2021. Before that, he was the intelligence community's CIO. Defense officials said they still have not decided who will fill the DoD CIO role when Sherman departs at the end of this month.
  (DoD CIO John Sherman to step down at end of June - Federal News Network)
• Starting in August, service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses will no longer be able to self-certify status for set-aside or sole source prime or subcontracts. The Small Business Administration's final rule issued yesterday requires companies to obtain approval through the SBA's Veteran Small Business Certification Program (VetCert). Without this certification, agencies and prime vendors will not receive socio-economic credit for contracting with these firms. Previously, SDVOSBs could self-certify they met the criteria, but Congress changed the requirements in the 2024 Defense authorization bill. The rule becomes effective August 5, but SBA is accepting comments through July 8 and reserves the right to withdraw the rule if it receives enough significant adverse concerns.
  (SBA takes self-certification for service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses mostly off the table - Federal Register)
• Senate Democrats are heightening their push to create better access to in-vitro fertilization (IVF) treatments and medications. New legislation that the lawmakers introduced this week rolls together several previous bills aiming to expand the fertility treatments. Under the bill, there would be increased access to IVF coverage through the Federal Employees Health Benefits program, as well as coverage for veterans. The new bill comes in light of a growing push from federal employees to offer more fertility-related health benefits. The Senate is slated to vote on the Right to IVF Act next week.
  (Right to IVF Act - Sens. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) and Patty Murray (D-Wash.))
• The Defense Department is continuing its push to consolidate its purchasing for wireless services. A new memo from the DoD CIO told all DoD components that they will need to use the Navy’s new “Spiral 4” wireless contract vehicle to buy their mobile services for employees in the continental U.S. The Navy awarded seven separate indefinite, delivery indefinite quantity (IDIQ) contracts last month, including to the big three wireless providers. All together, those IDIQs are worth up to $2.7 billion over the next decade.
  (Memorandum for the Senior Pentagon Leadership - DoD)
• The Postal Service is putting the first of its custom-built, next-generation delivery vehicles to work. USPS received its first Next-Generation Delivery Vehicles from the manufacturer Oshkosh Defense. They are the first of about 60,000 custom vehicles USPS will buy over the coming years. Electric vehicles will make up at least 75% of the next-generation fleet. USPS is sending its first round of vehicles to a large facility in Athens, Georgia.
  (First NGDVs delivered to the Postal Service - National Rural Letter Carriers’ Association )
• The Marine Corps has opened a new center to focus on the future of war. The General Robert B. Neller Center for Wargaming and Analysis, named after the 37th Commandant of the Marine Corps, will help the service develop capabilities through experimentation, doctrine and policy review, and science and technology examination. The center will be maintained by the Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory and will feature next-generation technology, including artificial intelligence and machine learning. The center is located on the Marine Corps University campus near Washington, D.C.
  (Marine Corps opens up advanced wargaming center - DVIDS)

The post Army looks to bring nuclear energy to its installations first appeared on Federal News Network.

Maj. Gen. Jeth Rey ended his three-year tenure as the director of the Army’s Network Cross Functional team last week. When he started in 2021, Rey laid out a four-pronged vision to move the Army toward a data-centric environment.

Rey, who moved to a new job at the Pentagon as the director of architecture, operations, networks and space at the Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff, G-6, said the Army has made tremendous progress to become a data-centric organization over the last three years.

“The problem said that we had in the Army, and across DoD, is we didn’t have a data problem, we had a data management problem,” Rey said in an interview at the Army TEMS conference. “Therefore, we tried to find a way to get to data centric using agnostic transport to move the data as freely as possible to where it needs to go, a cloud-enabled asset to catch and move the data, and then, obviously, you needed a layered security architecture. We wanted a multi-level security architecture where we can move the data from one classification to another seamlessly.”

Brig. Gen. Patrick Ellis, the former deputy chief of staff, G-3 for the Army Europe-Africa took over for Rey in early June.

Under the Network Cross Functional team, Rey’s four pillars were:

• Agnostic transport
• Moving to a data-centric environment from a network-centric environment
• Implementing a multi-level security architecture to include a zero trust architecture
• Ensuring cybersecurity is considered early as part of system development

Rey said he worked closely with Army Program Executive Office Command, Control and Communications Tactical (PEO-C3T) and the Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Cyber, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (C5ISR) Center in the Army Combat Capabilities Development Command to take the vision and make it into a reality.

“My role is setting the vision and then keeping the momentum going forward. I would set a timeframe that I would want to see a part of the project achieved, and then I just continue to drive the momentum going forward,” Rey said. “We are the influencers as the Network Cross Functional team to get to the end state and keep people focusing on track.”

Army’s transport is now multi-threaded

The Army demonstrated its progress in advancing these capabilities over the past few years at Project Convergence and NetModX, which is one of their major exercises that is run by the C5ISR.

Rey said one way the Army is better off than it was three years ago is how it processes data across multiple infrastructure approaches.

At one time, the soldiers could only use one type of approach, or single threaded, such as only using Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES).

He said the C5ISR office created an automate planning for primary, alternate, contingency and emergency (PACE) communications plan to create the multiple threaded approach to transport.

“I wanted to see if there was a way to automate pace that we could go from 5G to low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite to GOES to medium Earth orbit (MEO) satellites. I think, three years later, we are almost there as an accomplishment when it comes to that part of our pillar,” Rey said.

A second pillar where Rey believes the Army has made significant progress in is moving to a data-centric environment. He said the advancements in the network architecture is a big part of this change.

“I believe that the way data is being approached today is a little different. I think what we need to think about is the way we create data because today data is stored on your laptop or it’s stored on your phone or it is stored in a data center or it stored in the cloud. It’s still really siloed, and from my perspective, we need more of a in a large data fabric where we can catch and make sense of data by using artificial intelligence and machine learning,” he said. “We need open application programming interfaces (APIs) in order for us to be able to share data. If we get to a point where I’d like down to the attribute base level of data sharing. Until we actually get there, we will continue to have data siloed the way we are today.”

The Army took a big step in this direction in January, starting to implement its unified data reference architecture (UDRA). The service recently completed version 1.0 of the UDRA while also building out an implementation plan of the framework in partnership with the Army Combat Capabilities Development Command (DEVCOM).

Keep the momentum going

The Army expects UDRA to bring together principles and efforts for data mesh and data fabric. While data mesh involves a decentralized approach where data product ownership is distributed across teams and domains, the data platform will facilitate seamless access and integration of data products from different formats and locations.

Rey said the concepts that make the data mesh and data fabric work go back to creating a unified network, especially in the tactical environment.

“There are two separate areas that we’re trying to unify together. In the tactical space is where we believe the data fabric is more important for us today because of all the sensors that are on the battlefield and in order to make sense of the information that’s out there,” he said. “That is the catcher’s mitt that needs to ingest the data, use analytics and then egress of data for the commander to make an informed decision across the board. I think we’re we have a lot of momentum right now. We’ve talked about the next generation of command and control systems that’s coming, and that’s going to be an ecosystem that allows us to really have a more robust type of data environment that will move data and echelon.”

Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George on May 28 signed off on the Next Generation Command and Control (NGC2) Capability Characteristics (C2 Next).

Rey said creating data in a way that also foresees wanting to share it remains one of the biggest challenges for the Army.

“The only way you can share it is if we decide what those attributes are going to look like, whether I’m with a partner or whether I’m just dealing with a US entity,” he said. “So, attributes are going to be key with how we tag label the data, and then be an in are able to share it at the end of the onset.”

As for the new director of the Network Cross Functional team Rey said his advice to Ellis was simple: “Don’t allow the momentum to slow down.”

The post Gen. Rey reflects on leading Network Cross Functional team first appeared on Federal News Network.

Over the last year, the service conducted multiple studies examining its cyber and electronic warfare resources and capabilities, including the 120-day study conducted by the Cyber Center of Excellence team, followed by a series of classified studies conducted by Georgia Tech Research Institute.

Last month, the service held an EW tabletop exercise at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, where participants, including I Corps, III Corps, XVIII Airborne Corps and Multi-Domain Task Force, among others, examined over 70 different EW capabilities across the service. The goal was to understand how those capabilities fit into current operational scenarios, identify gaps and develop potential approaches to operational challenges.

“Some of the gaps — it was more of a scenario-based. But fundamentally, just understanding what you look like in the electromagnetic spectrum, what your adversaries look like and how you can be influenced is really one of the the main areas that we walked away from,”  Brig. Gen. Ed Barker, program executive officer for intelligence, electronic warfare and sensors, said during a C4ISRnet event Wednesday.

“It really validated that you got to have that kind of layered approach to address those gaps. I think the takeaway was we have to treat the EMS as terrain — you have to be able to hold terrain, you have to be able to maneuver inside of it and you also have to be able to affect the enemy. That was probably the biggest takeaway.”

Due to the unique nature of different operational environments, the U.S. forces can’t rely on a single solution. For example, given particular characteristics of the Pacific theater, air-launched effects, or the ability to deploy EW capabilities from a distance, are needed. 

At closer ranges, EW capabilities are needed to protect specific platforms, such as tanks or Bradley Fighting Vehicles, against threats like inbound drones.

“If you want to non-kinetically effect inbound drone to ensure that it misses a tank, that’s similar physics, but the ranges and the outcomes are somewhat different. So you’re doing something in a very long range. And then you’re also, you know, making sure that you can protect those close-in assets,” Baker said.

“From a technical standpoint, it’s definitely a significantly different problem — protecting something within 500 kilometers versus protecting something within the last 500 meters.”

Data challenges 

Despite units having to rely on different systems and capabilities depending on their geographical location, they need to be connected to share real-time data and intelligence.

The Army Cyber Center of Excellence is currently conducting an EW pilot to develop a unified EW data architecture that will allow seamless data integration from different sources and regions.

“We have to just be comfortable with the fact that they’re going to be geographically dispersed and have to operate independently, but then also be interconnected. The data conversation is absolutely real – you have to understand the fundamentals underlying data challenges associated with the EW space,” said Baker. 

Sharing data with partners

The Army and Marine Corps are conducting a pilot to develop common data standards and capabilities.

The Army recently decided to shift from the Electronic Warfare Planning and Management Tool’s electromagnetic warfare and spectrum management capabilities to the Tactical Assault Kit (TAK) framework, where applications for situational awareness data and geospatial visualizations can be built. The effort is being led by the Electronic Warfare Integration product management office.

“It aligns ourselves with the rest of the fires in the maneuver communities to achieve a commonality across software development, user interfaces, common experiences, underlying data and it’s part of that overall TAK architecture,” said Baker.

The post Army develops its approach to electronic warfare first appeared on Federal News Network.

As a proposal to create a separate Army drone branch advances in the House, Army leaders continue to push back against the idea.

Gen. James Rainey, who leads the Army Futures Command, said it is “too early” for the service to establish a drone corps.

“I think unmanned aerial systems are going to come to bear at echelon. I think individual soldiers [need to be able] to employ them just like they employ their weapon.  So 11 Bravos, I think, the tanks should be able to have a robot sitting next to him that can launch UAS. I think every maneuver person is going to need them. They have huge sustainment implications,” Rainey said during the Center for Strategic and International Studies event on Monday.

Given the existing occupational specialties for enlisted soldiers and warrant officers that focus on UAS and various drone-related programs and training, the service should prioritize integrating the technology into “every formation, at every echelon,” said Rainey.

“I don’t know that it’s going to warrant its own branch. And certainly, I’d say it’s too soon for that. The bigger thing is getting UAVs into our formation at echelon right now. We [need to] have good requirements and good acquisition approaches for UAVs at echelon. We need to stop buying a thing and buy a capability,” said Rainey.

Gen. James Rainey is the latest Army official to push back against the House Armed Services Committee’s proposal to create a drone corps.

The committee wants the new branch to serve as a command center for all drone-related activities. It would help integrate drone systems across the service, conduct research, development and testing of those systems and provide personnel with specialized training in such aircraft.

Rep. Rob Wittman (R-Virginia), chair of the HASC Subcommittee on Tactical Air and Land Forces, has long advocated for better counter-UAS capabilities. During a hearing in March, he further pushed the idea, saying that “it is time to give serious consideration” to setting up a drone corps within the Army.

“Unlocking the full potential of unmanned platforms for the Army will require soldiers to develop specialized skills and a deep understanding of various associated technologies. A drone corps may better lend itself to allowing the broad array of expertise required to mature within the Army and for these systems’ unique capabilities to grow beyond their role primarily as enablers to the current combat arms branches,” said Wittman.

Army Undersecretary Gabe Camarillo, however, said creating a new institutional structure would distract from the service’s current efforts to bring the technology to soldiers and adopt it at scale.

“I think the institutional implications of it, to me, are secondary at this point as opposed to figuring out how we’re going to employ the technology and what technology works the best. It’s important, in my view, to get after giving units these [commercial off-the-shelf] UAS capabilities to let them experiment. I want to better understand the [tactics, techniques and procedures] about how they’re going to employ them at different echelons and to be able to understand how that affects the way that our formations will fight,” Camarillo said last month.

Retired Army Maj. Gen. John Ferrari, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, argues that drone warfare is moving fast and the service needs to be able to organize around those weapon systems to keep pace with the technology.

“Giving drones to the old branches that are going to worry about whether they’re now competing for resources may not be the best idea. What you want to do is you want to innovate not just the hardware, but the tactics. So having somebody that’s got resources so it’s not competing for resources from the people it’s trying to displace. If it was its own branch with its own funding to do procurement and acquisition and operations, then it can show up to the formations and go,  ‘Look, here’s what we got,’ as opposed to, ‘We need to take money from the helicopter program in order to do it,’” Ferrari told Federal News Network.

“What I would say is the Army is not at risk of moving too fast. It’s at risk of moving too slowly on this.”

The House Armed Services Committee adopted the measure last month but it will need to pass the rest of the House and Senate to make it into the final defense bill.

The post It is ‘too early’ for an Army drone branch, Rainey says first appeared on Federal News Network.

For the Army, the command post of the future will need to be agile, resilient and intuitive.

It will be a big lift not only for the Army, but for the contractors who are building the technology to support it.

This is one of many reasons why the Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George on May 28 signed off on the Next Generation Command and Control (NGC2) Capability Characteristics (C2 Next).

The Army released a notice on SAM.gov to say the characteristics of needs are available, but vendors have to “apply” to see them as they are not public.

George and other Army senior leaders, speaking at the Army TEMS conference in Philadelphia last week, offered a preview of the characteristics, outlining key concepts and insight into what command and control of the future needs to encompass.

George said with the network being the Army’s top priority, these new characteristics are a key building block.

“I was out at the National Training Center I think it was March for Project Convergence. One of the things that I challenged everybody a year ago, and especially Army Future Command, was I want to be able to be on the network and I want us to be able to operate with tablets, phones, software-defined radios in a very simple architecture. What I saw when I was out there in March is that the technology exists now to do those kinds of things,” George said. “We had a platoon leader talking to a company commander or talking to a battalion commander talking to a brigade commander, and they were talking on tablets. All those big systems that we used to have, the Advanced Field Artillery Tactical Data System (AFATDS) is one of them, can be an app. It can be on that tablet. So rather than having a truck or two trucks and 10 people, you have an application. That’s where we have to go.”

George said the commanders were excited about these capabilities because it speeds the decision process and makes them more lethal.

Army details C2 Next

The Army developed this initial set of C2Next characteristics to support the concepts George talked about: Speed to decision, the lethality of the units, the ability to adapt and be agile based on real-time threats, challenges and needs.

Joe Welch, the director of Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Cyber, Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance Center (C5ISR) for the Army Combat Capabilities Development Command, said what’s in the characteristics are not just capabilities to build or have, but they give you the ability to tailor and adapt C2 for the commander and their staff based on their needs and information requirements. He said these characteristics aren’t even necessarily the nuts and bolts of the capabilities of systems.

Welch outlined several focus areas for C2 Next, starting with a key ingredient agnostic transport, meaning the data gets to the users no matter the infrastructure such as cloud or satellite or on-premise data center.

“[It has to be] robust and resilient. We’ve been making lots of progress in terms of that, not just in the variety of transport paths that we have for our networks to be able to support data transmission, but to do it in an automated way and a highly secure way,” Welch said. “I see this as a continued evolution. In the characteristics of need, we talk specifically about being threat informed in this area. We started from a perspective of, we just need to be able to communicate; we need to be able to get the data where it needs to go in order to accomplish the mission.”

A second area that will be critical, Welch said, is a robust services architecture that is cloud native and based on open systems standards that let commanders easily iterate new capabilities.

“A consistent theme here recently is as-a-service. We’re seeing that in more and more areas. What’s really meant by that is that we don’t want to be fixed on any particular thing. We want to be able to experiment, prototype, move very quickly into deployment, and use something as long as it’s working, and be able to challenge it when there’s something that’s better out there when the need changes or the technology changes,” he said. “That gets into a lot more mechanics than the concepts or the capabilities that we’re describing. But it’s a very fundamental underpinning of where we’re looking to go.”

Testing C2 characteristics

Welch added C2 Next is part of a necessary and complete revamp of the way that the Army will generate, produce, consume and discover data, and it’s necessary in order to apply machine learning on to it at all.

He said if the Army wants to be able to do informed and enabled decision making much faster than the adversary, then the characteristics of need will play a huge role.

The Army has been testing many of these concepts over the last 12-18 months and improving them as it went along. Most recently at Project Convergence, an annual technology and capability demonstration, Dr. Jean Vettel, Next Generation C2 chief scientist for experimentation at Army Capabilities Command for C5ISR, said they measured some of the benefits of the C2Next characteristics.

“In the characteristics of need, you’ll see that we’ll talk a lot about modularity or…this really focus we have on composability. What does that actually mean?” Vettel said.

As an example, Vettel said commanders developing a plan to set up a command post in minutes versus hours using commercial technology called Raspberry Pis.

“Within that they had 16 Raspberry Pi’s that they put out, where they emulated the electromagnetic signature of the command post as decoys. Whenever we think about adaptability, what is the metric of adaptability that would be successful for Next C2?” she said.

The idea was to protect the command and control technologies from jamming or other cyber attacks. Vettel said this is an example of how the C2 Next characteristics emphasize adaptability.

“If it’s adaptable, that means that in the fight, whenever a pure adversary now has identified that we’re creating our decoys with electromagnetic signatures, then our warfighters need to have access to data that they couldn’t tell us they would need beforehand,” she said. “They have to have the ability to know what data they have available and how do they try to spoof or create a different decoy because they have access to the data because it’s adaptable to what they need to fight the peer adversary.”

She added this example also shows building capabilities in modules that can be plugged into, removed and changed as necessary is another key piece in the C2 Next characteristics.

A living document to be updated

C2Next characteristics are out for review and comment for industry and other folks in the Army.

Welch said the intent is to make C2 Next characteristics of need a living document that will be updated every six months or so.

Additionally, the Army Futures Command is in the early stages of planning a new contract vehicle to help bring these C2 Next characteristics into technology capabilities. While it’s still early, the Army may use an Other Transaction Authority type of approach as a way to bring multiple companies into the mix and experiment with different parts of the characteristics.

“I think what you’ll see is the characteristics of need, which may sound very principled and very large overarching statements, I’m expecting that they’re going to get iterated into some greater and greater levels of detail as we continue through Next Generation C2 experimentation,” Welch said. “We’re certainly moving fast and in alignment with the chief’s objective to be moving with speed and urgency. We’re going to be moving in conjunction with our partners at Acquisition, Logistics and Technology (ASA(ALT) as we look beyond experimentation and prototyping and into delivery of Next Generation C2 capability.”

The post Agile, adaptable, modular: The future of Army C2 first appeared on Federal News Network.

PHILADELPHIA — The Army is making a major change to how soldiers and civilians access data through their email and other applications in early June.

Starting on June 11, the Army is shutting down the network port that lets users pull data through commercial internet providers onto their laptops or cell phones.

Maj. Gen. Chris Eubank, commander of the Network Enterprise Technology Command (NETCOM), said the decision to turn off what is commonly known as “Flow 3” came down to two factors. One is basic cybersecurity and protecting data and networks. The second, however, was the maturity of the Army’s virtual desktop initiative (VDI) and overall network architecture.

“What we’re really going to shut down is the ability to go into the Army’s network and pull the information through the internet to your device, whether it’s a government furnished device or a personal device. What we’re doing is we’re going to cut off that access so you’ll still be able to get to those services, via your personal device using a Common Access Card (CAC) or from a government furnished piece of equipment using a CAC using the commercial internet, but it’s all going to be through virtual means,” said Eubank during an interview with Federal News Network at the Army TEMS conference last week. “Using technologies in our bring-your-own-device, remote capable workforce portfolio like Azure virtual desktop, individuals will still be able to plug in via the commercial internet CAC enabled get to that information, but they will not be able to pull the information out of that environment. It will stay resident in in the cloud. When they disconnect their session, there’s nothing left behind [on the device]. It’s really about protecting both the network and our workforce.”

The Army has provided this type of access through the commercial internet for years, specifically for members of the guard and reserves. This capability became even more critical during the pandemic when more soldiers and civilians worked remotely.

Army needs to increase data protections

Eubank said because the threat landscape has changed so dramatically in the last three or four years, the Army made the decision to shut off the ability to download data through commercial internet providers. Eubank signed a strategic communications message in the beginning of May to initiate this change.

He said NETCOM is trying to make this transition easier for soldiers and civilians by providing them with a QR code to download the VDI application.

“They can click on a link and it’ll sign them up for Azure virtual desktop. They can do the same thing on Hypori. That enables them to get that account setup and then if you have any questions all you have to do is reach out to NETCOM,” he said.

Jared Shepard, CEO and President of Hypori, said in an email to Federal News Network that these steps will make a big difference for how the Army provides secure access unclassified network resources, while also reducing the attack surface and potential loss of controlled unclassified information (CUI) data.

Jeff Duran,  an Army Reservist who also serves as a contractor to Hypori as their Army evangelist, said in an email to Federal News Network that getting his email through is phone makes his reserve job easier.

“As a senior noncommissioned officer, there’s a lot of coordination I have to do and being able to do that without being on an Army computer makes my day a lot easier. If I’m not on my personal computer, a whole day could go by without knowing I had an important email,” he said. “Now, I’m no longer causing delays and people aren’t waiting on me.”

Transitioning from JRSS to SD-WAN

Eubanks said the Army is able to shut down this type of access because of the success of its VDI roll out over the past year or more.

He said the number of users are increasing and the number technology is proving itself out.

“We are still testing a mobile access management solution for mobile use as well,” Eubanks said.

Along with the VDI roll out, Eubanks said he also focused on the move away from the Joint Regional Security Stacks (JRSS) and to a software-defined wide-area network. The Defense Information Systems Agency told the services it will shut down JRSS in 2027 so Eubanks said the Army is in the middle of planning to transition to the new capabilities over the next few years.

“All the planning now is the goal and then [implementation] will really, really start in earnest probably in the fall. Behind the scenes what we’re doing is we’re asking all of our theater signal commands, all of our signal brigades and the network enterprise centers, as DISA looks down to shut down the JRSS, here’s the services it gives us, what it means to you and what your timeline looks like to move off of it,” he said.

The post Army turning up cyber protections of network, data access first appeared on Federal News Network.

The Army has seen enough from its six pathfinders using digital engineering tools and techniques that it’s ready to go all in on.

A new memo, which Gabe Camarillo, the undersecretary of the Army, signed Tuesday, sets the stage for broader adoption of digital engineering capabilities and practices.

“We are looking to benefit from that utilization of digital engineering tools to be able to help establish the right processes in the Army, the right training and really how do we adopt adapt our institutional approach to be able to accommodate more digital engineering,” Camarillo said in a speech during the AFCEA NoVa Enterprise IT day. “The commercial automotive industry does this already. The commercial aircraft industry obviously has been doing this for a really long time. And we’ve actually taken some significant steps in this area….We’ve got a toehold, if you will, in the Army in those areas. We want to expand on it and really accelerate some of the efforts in those three areas, and then the goal is we would expand it out.”

Camarillo said the Army has been using digital engineering tools and capabilities in three areas, ground vehicles, aviation and sensors, which the policy also calls out.

The policy outlines four lines of effort. The first is to create digital engineering focus areas as centers of gravity to be able to begin to accelerate the adoption of digital engineering tools.

“The reason why we’re taking this approach on this first LOE is we recognize that you know, the way DE is employed varies or its varied based on the commodity area that you’re talking about. It’s very mature in a lot of these domains,” he said.

Army taking commodity-focused approach

The Army has applied DE tools and capabilities to the XM 30 Bradley Infantry Combat Vehicle replacement program, the Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft effort and the M113 Armored Personnel Carrier. All three of these pathfinders are in sustainment funding mode.

The second line of effort is around shaping interoperability and standards for implementation. Camarillo said the Army doesn’t want to just pick one or two tools, but use a more commodity-focused approach.

Camarillo added the Army needs to understand the standards around interoperability or cybersecurity, for example, and then be more consumers of the market versus dependent on one tool or a set of tools.

“If we’re going to be consumers in this market, we have to articulate what we need to industry. I think over time, the software will evolve to accommodate us,” he said. “We’re already seeing a lot of great dialogue with multiple vendors along this side. I think part of it is also standardizing our contracts approach so that we know what we’re asking for and that we do so in a in a rational, consistent way.”

Third line of effort is to continue to test out these concepts through Pathfinder programs.

“These programs range the lifecycle of a weapon system from early design, like I mentioned with the XM 30, all the way to some programs that are well under sustainment as legacy programs to be able to identify how we can utilize them. The goal here is to just think about how do you change our processes? So if you’re doing a preliminary design review of a system in development, or if you’re doing the need to identify cost driving parts for a legacy system? How do you get after that by looking at some of these Pathfinder programs?” he said. “The fourth [LOE] is workforce, developing our workforce, ensuring that they have the right training. And then of course, looking at opportunities to train with industry, particularly with those partners that have really evolved digital engineering capabilities and practices, and doing the right kinds of talent exchanges with industry to be able to permeate some of the best practices over to the Army.”

Looking for workforce training

As with any new policy or new initiative, the workforce tends to be the biggest challenge. While digital engineering isn’t necessarily a brand new concept for the Army, it will need to find some of those champions and experts and then start to spread the knowledge.

Camarillo said the opportunities to learn from industry experts who have been using digital engineering for some time and have Army employees bring back some the best practices from these vendors.

“We have some pretty robust training with industry programs and private party talent exchanges. We’re looking to expand those to include some of these digital engineering companies that have pretty robust practices in place,” he said.

The policy also calls on the Army to develop recipes and guidelines as well as creating standard contract language and contract data requirements lists to ensure consistency in the products vendors deliver to the Army.

The private sector has been using digital engineering for many years. Simply put, digital engineering relies on data, advanced technologies such as simulation and modeling and traditional systems engineering practices to create digital models instead of the more traditional paper based models. These virtual representations can change over time as the needs of the organization or technology changes and they make it easier for the developers to understand a host of challenges ranging from cost to sustainment to how this system will work with other systems.

Digital engineering isn’t new

Digital engineering is not a new concept for DoD. The Pentagon issued a digital engineering strategy in 2018. That strategy outlines five elements necessary for the digital engineering ecosystem including, formalizing the development and use of models, providing an authoritative source of truth, incorporating technological innovation, establishing a supporting infrastructure and environment, and transforming the culture and workforce to adopt and support digital engineering.

The Army’s policy is building on the work done by DoD as well as other services over the last few years.

Camarillo said the policy will help the Army in its race to catch up with the private sector.

He said the entire effort is about accelerating the adoption of these tools, after the Army’s six pathfinders showed the potential and value of digital engineering.

“The benefits to us is it’s going to be the way that we do business in terms of developing warfighting capabilities in the future,” he said. “It enables our ability to identify requirements tradeoffs earlier in the process, to plan more adequately for sustainment of both hardware and software. It identifies cost drivers in the operation of weapon systems in the future. And it helps us to identify and mitigate technical risks through more robust modeling and simulation and the development of digital twins.”

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The Army relies on its civilian workforce for a myriad of crucial tasks to support readiness and operations. Now it has launched a first-ever campaign to recruit civilians into the Army. For more on the Find Your Next Level program, the Federal Drive with Tom Temin talked with the Army’s chief marketing officer, Brig. Gen. Antoinette Gant.

Interview Transcript: 

Antoinette Gant A lot of this is about awareness, you know, as we think about the U.S. Army, most people think about those that are serving in uniform. But what they don’t know is that we have over 260,000 civilians that are actually working alongside those soldiers in regard to ensuring that we can continue to be successful in our mission.

Tom Temin Give us some more numbers. I mean, you mentioned a big number of civilians. What do they generally do and how does the workforce break down in broad terms?

Antoinette Gant Yeah. So, you have civilians that are doing a number of different jobs. We have what’s called a government system, a GPS system. So, you can go from a GS of five or even a two, which is a student intern, all the way to a GS 15. So, there are different levels. There are different types of jobs. More importantly for this campaign, we are really highlighting some of our STEM, our science, technology, engineering and math, positions that we actually have. We found that that as well as Logisticians are kind of the top jobs that we’re looking for right now, across the Army in a variety of different locations of which they can serve.

Tom Temin So science and technology and math, this would be mostly in the research function.

Antoinette Gant It’s a little bit of everything. I’ll give you a really good example. So, prior to this job, I was with the Army Corps of Engineers and internal to the Army Corps of Engineers. We actually have engineers of all types, electrical engineers, civil engineers. We also have scientists, biologists. Some people don’t even realize that we have interior designers. So that’s still within, form of a, you know, a technical field of which we, support. But it is a variety of, of jobs in those positions. So not necessarily just on research, but research is very important to us as well.

Tom Temin By the way, what interiors do they design out of curiosity?

Antoinette Gant That is, you know, any real estate, or design of a building that we’re doing. They are responsible for actually doing the layout for those buildings. Another good example would be our DoDea schools. They’re not designing just here in the United States, but also in areas of Japan. And, then the islands, wherever there’s a DoDea school they’re designing what that school actually looks like. The economics of the actual, the chairs and things of that nature that the, the students will be in, in those particular locations. How do you actually look at in designing a location where it can serve dual purposes, a lunchroom as well as an auditorium? So, there are just so many different things that they bring to the table that to have your own internal interior design is a pretty, pretty neat.

Tom Temin And just a brief question on the logistics side, because, of course, you know, the professionals in the Army talk about logistics. That’s the old saying and not about battle strategy. What do Logisticians do? That’s a lot of functions that need logistics.

Antoinette Gant Absolutely. If it’s getting, supplies from one location to another, if it’s actually making sure that, we have the right supplies in the right locations. I mean, logisticians, from a data analysis standpoint, they’re looking to make sure we have the right amount of what we actually need. So, there are just a number of different things that our logisticians actually bring to bear, especially in the transportation standpoint.

Tom Temin Therefore, agencies like the Army Materiel Command could be a place where they would go.

Antoinette Gant This is our transportation hub at it’s got Air Force Base and that’s another location. Installation, command. Those are various locations DEFCOM I mean, I can go on and on in naming the various agencies internal to the Army or commands that utilize Logisticians as well as some of our STEM careers.

Tom Temin We’re speaking with Brigadier General Antoinette Gant. She’s chief marketing officer of the army. Let’s get to this program you have for recruitment here for civilians. Again, it’s called the Find Your Next Level program. What form does it take and how are you going about getting the message out to people that might want to work for the Army?

Antoinette Gant The fact that this is the first campaign for Army civilians that the Army is actually have, I think, is an enormous step of actually identifying that how important our army civilians are and what we actually do. And so, we’re getting the word out in a number of ways. On Netflix is a one of the locations of which you will see some of our Army ads. Mainly this is in the streaming area. You won’t see it on linear television just yet, but in various different forms from a streaming standpoint.

Tom Temin So Netflix and other media where you think people might be watching.

Antoinette Gant And most folks now these days are actually doing a lot of streaming versus watching linear television. So, we’re trying to be in those spaces. As a matter of fact, LinkedIn, you can actually if you go to our go army.com website or even our Army civilian career.com website, you can be able to talk to you about the various career, opportunities. I think right now we have about 3800 job openings listed. And this just continues to it’s very fluid. It doesn’t stay. It might be 3800 today and tomorrow it might be 3820. So, it just depends on what the what we’re actually looking for.

Tom Temin And do you have means that you can use to target people say through LinkedIn, there’s millions of people on some of these platforms and get an ad in that will go to people that might be ripe for this, depending on their characteristics, in their profile.

Antoinette Gant And most influential way to be able to do that is on our army civilian career.com because there would give you a link where you can actually it’ll explain to you what you need to do as far as inputting your resume. USAjobs.com is the other area of which you can go to. I wanted to bring up a point of the fact that we have just also launched what’s called the Total Army Career Fair, and we did our first one in Arlington, Texas, and it just happened in a couple of weeks ago in April. And we’ll be doing another one the 13th and 14th of September. And this is an opportunity to be at and this will be in Houston. But it’s an opportunity to be at a large location where we know there are a number of people, entry level, as well as middle management that are looking for either a career change or just a new, entry level position. And there they can be able to talk to individuals on the spot about career opportunities that the Army actually has. I think this is this is the second time we will be doing this and what a great opportunity it is, especially in some of our large metropolitan areas.

Tom Temin And he plans to do campus recruitment.

Antoinette Gant Campus recruitment goes on all the time. And a lot of that is actually done with various organizations. I mentioned the Army Corps of Engineers, but they are Army Materiel Command also is another one where they look at the career fairs that are happening on the college campuses, and they are, attending those, to ensure that they are getting the best and the brightest, especially looking at a army with, I mean, a career with someone like the Army, where I always say you can do things that you never thought were possible.

Tom Temin And are. Is the Army able to speed up the civilian hiring process so that you’re faster than the average federal job.

Antoinette Gant And on average, it takes about 90 days? It depends. If there’s something that has to do with security clearances and things of that nature. But we have this thing that’s called direct hiring authority, which allows our, the, the various organizations that are at these job fairs to be able to hire individuals or give them a tentative job offer on the spot. So, with that, that definitely is a win for us. And being able to know that, hey, we are wanting you to come and join our team.

Tom Temin And what about the veterans preference? Because that is in place for every federal agency, particularly military and veterans affairs, where there’s a large percentage of the workforce that is veterans.

Antoinette Gant Absolutely. And we do have the Veterans Preference Program. Of course, there are policy and laws that apply with that, and we utilize them, in all that we do.

Tom Temin All right. And just a final question. I wanted to get at that social media outreach idea because people receive ads on social media platforms based on their profiles and the algorithms. I see, the ads I get, and they know me pretty well. Are you able to tap into that ecosystem? Can the government fairly do that?

Antoinette Gant The ads that I get, I know I’m getting them because of the things that I’m looking at. So, we are definitely looking at it from, a I guess it’s an algorithm that actually happens, depending on what it is that they’re looking at, to make that determination of, hey, this could be a potential place for you to.

Tom Temin Be because that’s where marketing is going nowadays. Right? As opposed.

Antoinette Gant To. Absolutely. You know, you don’t want to know how many ads we I mean, I’m sure you think about something and all of a sudden an ad actually shows up, right?

Tom Temin Yes. It’s a little spooky sometimes, but, you know, the Army used to have a spot, you know, with a song, you know, on the Carol Burnett Show or something. Those days are long gone.

Antoinette Gant This is about, again, looking to ensure that we find the best and the brightest. And again, as I said, so those individuals, whether they are just newly forming, coming out of college, looking for a job or those that are just looking. What? Career change? The Army is a place that we have a diverse population of individuals. To be able to come and actually work as a civilian with us.

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“Having a branch, or a [Center of Excellence], or anything like that — it’s not going to help us buy anything faster or get us more resources against this problem set,” Army Undersecretary Gabe Camarillo said during the Center for a New American Security event Friday.

The service currently has 22 branches, each focusing on specific aspects of Army operations.  The Corps of Engineers branch, for example, provides engineering support and the Army Finance Corps manages financial operations for the service.

The new branch would oversee programs and projects related to small and medium-sized unmanned aircrafts that weigh less than 1350 pounds and UAS and counter-UAS systems. 

The corps would serve as a command center for all drone-related activities. It would help integrate drone systems across the service, conduct research, development, and testing of those systems, and provide personnel with specialized training in such aircraft.

The House Armed Services Committee is scheduled to mark up the defense policy bill next week, and while the provision might be discarded — there is a chance it will be included in the bill. 

Camarillo said creating a new institutional structure will distract from the service’s current efforts to bring in those capabilities to soldiers and adopt them more widely across the service.

“I did see the language in the initial draft of the House bill. I would say that it’s animated, I think, by a recognition that this is a very real threat. It is a problem that the department and the Army, in particular, have to confront. We definitely share that focus,” said Camarillo.

“How do you go about it? My view is that creating a corps or other institutional kind of structure to get after it, in some ways, could take away some focus from some of the things that we’re actually doing. It’s important, in my view, to get after giving units these [commercial off-the-shelf] UAS capabilities to let them experiment. I want to better understand the [tactics, techniques and procedures] about how they’re going to employ them at different echelons and to be able to understand how that affects the way that our formations will fight.”

For the past year, Army senior officials have been thinking about ways to reorganize the service’s units and what equipment those units would need.

Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George recently introduced a concept dubbed “transforming in contact,” which uses unit rotations to figure out what technologies and capabilities soldiers will need in the future.

Camarillo said efforts such as “transforming in contact” are more likely to help the service better understand what technology they need out in the field and speed up their acquisition processes.

“Things that we’re doing, like transformation in contact, or some of the experiments that we’re performing today, are critically important. I think the institutional implications of, it to me, are secondary at this point, as opposed to figuring out how we’re going to employ the technology and what technology works the best. And most importantly, do we have our buying processes in place in order to be able to get there?” said Camarillo. 

When it comes UAS effort, the service recently stood up the joint counter-small unmanned aircraft systems office to provide counter-UAS capabilities to the service. And the Joint Counter Small Unmanned Aerial Systems University trains drone operators.

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“What we learned is there are some advantages and some disadvantages,” Mark Kitz,  chief of the Army’s program executive office for command, control and communications-tactical, said during the AFCEA Belvoir Industry Days event Wednesday.

In this scenario, commanders need to understand the operational risks when deploying different network options and the trade-offs associated with those choices. That includes potential exposure to location data or voice data and identifying which data is more perishable and which is less vulnerable.

The Army, Kitz said, needs to create a flexible network environment for those commanders to meet their operational needs instead of providing a one-size-fits-all solution.

“I firmly believe that the way we enable that commander is by providing options for that commander. If the commander wants to employ SIPRNet, he should have the opportunity to do that. If the commander wants to go unclassified across his whole formation, we should be able to provide him an opportunity to do that. And we should be doing that in a way that he understands trades,” said Kitz.

“I think that’s one of the real lessons of Ukraine. Everybody thought it was going to be one type of fight, then it wasn’t, then it evolved to another type of fight. GPS got jammed like crazy. Then everybody learned where those jammers are — now I can target GPS jamming. And that spectral environment has evolved over the last two years just in that one specific domain — really important domain.”

To provide this flexibility where commanders don’t have to make these rigid decisions, the Army needs to build flexibility into its programs, said Kitz.

Kitz, who leads the Army’s program executive office for command, control, communications-tactical (PEO C3T), was charged with modernizing the service’s enterprise and tactical networks and bringing modernized network communications gear to its soldiers.

The service’s program executive offices in charge of modernizing its networks recently went through some organizational changes. PEO C3T absorbed PEO enterprise information systems’ integrated enterprise network (IEN) portfolio, tasked with providing tactical and emergency communications worldwide. 

The office will undergo more organizational changes over the summer, according to Kitz. But there are some changes happening right now — Brig. Gen. Camilla White, who currently serves as the deputy, will depart from her role in two weeks. Col. Kevin Chaney is stepping in to take over her position. 

“We have 14 different command changes across the organization. It’s quite a bit. Over the next few months, we’ll be engaging with industry on who’s who at PEO C3T,” said Kitz.

One of the main goals for Kitz since taking over the office has been delivering a network to soldiers that is adaptable and flexible, which means that the office’s portfolios need to adjust in order to deliver those capabilities.

“This is important because the network of today is not going to work, it’s not going to be the network of three years from now. But I’m going to  engage with industry on a five-year contract because that’s how we do things,” said Kitz.

“How do I engage with industry on a contract that can be more dynamic  and more flexible so as my commanders are going into a fight, they can go with a network that they need, that can be on demand, rather than the network I gave them three years ago.”

The service has adjusted the way it acquires capabilities in some instances. A couple of years ago, the service adopted an approach where it would buy capabilities for its tactical network in tranches rather than purchasing everything at once. 

“That’s really what I think agile does for us in the government — these agile acquisition programs can more directly tie commander needs to how we build our programs,” said Kitz. 

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