Electronics manufacturers send warning shot across CMMC’s bow. (Federal News Network) “DoD’s own cost analysis estimated the cost of a CMMC Maturity Level 3 (ML3) certification to be more than $118,000 in the first year. This means DoD’s own estimate of CMMC compliance costs is too high for 77 percent of the IPC survey respondents,” IPC found.
The Space Force wins with OTAs. (C4ISRNET) ” Today, nearly 500 companies participate in the consortium, three quarters of which qualify as nontraditional suppliers… For single-phase projects, SpEC has been known to award in less than 90 days after posting a solicitation and deliver a prototype in a fraction of the time of traditional FAR-based contracts.”
Acquisition reform that works & no one has heard of. (Breaking Defense) “… the SBIR program now relies on the creativity of DoD and the services to generate the requirements… Rather than relying solely on research ideas generated from within the upper echelon of the Air Force, AFWERX provides “Open Topic” opportunities to allow small firms and entrepreneurs to propose any idea or technology that may have an Air Force application.”
Software Development: DoD faces risks and challenges in implementing modern approaches and addressing cybersecurity practices. (GAO) “For example, 12 of the 18 programs reported that DOD’s life-cycle activities only supported Agile methods to some or little to no extent. Program officials also reported challenges associated with implementing Agile software development.”
Why agile fails because of corporate culture. (DZone Agile) Rob Slaughter comments: “This is one of the best articles I’ve read on providing insights into why the DoD and USG fail at “agile”… No one in the history of the world has ever “scaled agile” and been successful. The best anyone can do is “descale the organization”. Large organizations need to focus their attention on how they can best achieve “flatness” and how more and more of their organizations can operate like small agile teams vs focusing on what percentage of their large teams are running “agile/sprints”. Culture eats process for breakfast.”
SMC’s space safari office to focus on ‘urgent’ launch needs. (Breaking Defense) “Space Safari is a part of SMC’s Special Programs Directorate, which will fall under the Space Systems Command (SSC) Enterprise Corps once SSC is established later this year… the TacRL-2 team [space safari’s first mission] got the satellite ready for launch “in record time,” and noting that “what normally would have required two to five years, took 11 months.” … The objective is 24 hours from “call up” notification (emphasis ours) to on-orbit capability.””
FAA defends SpaceX to Congress. (AVweb) ““We would not have cleared them to start flight operations again had I not been confident they had modified their procedures effectively and addressed the safety culture issues that we saw,” Monteith said. SpaceX launched the silo-like SN8 from Boca Chica, Texas, on the first high-altitude test of its all-important belly-flop descent maneuver despite an FAA safety inspector’s warning to abort the launch.”
Pentagon launches artificial intelligence effort to prep combatant commands for JADC2. (C4ISRNET) “Kathleen Hicks described the Artificial Intelligence and Data Acceleration Initiative, an effort that will deploy technical teams to combatant commands to prepare military networks for Joint All-Domain Command and Control… These teams will provide the commands with expertise in cataloging, managing and automating data.”
What the budget reveals — and leaves unclear — about the cost of JADC2. (C4ISRNET) “By one conservative estimate, a national security expert expects the Pentagon to spend more than $1 billion on JADC2 next year… But the budget left many details murky, with chunks of classified spending, no top-line figures and much of the funding mixed in larger programs, raising questions with insiders.”
New USV to deploy loitering munitions by UVision. (Naval News) “to supply the Hero-120 for the US Marine Corps Organic Precision Fire Mounted (OPF-M) System. The system will be integrated with LAV-M, JLTV, and LRUSV… Hero-120 is a high precision smart loitering munition system with a unique aerodynamic structure that carries out pinpoint strikes against anti-armor, anti-material and anti-personnel targets including tanks, vehicles, concrete fortifications, and other soft targets in populated urban areas. “
Navy revamping aviation maintenance in new ten-year FIOP plan. (USNI News) “The Navy is working on a new 10-year effort to revitalize its aviation infrastructure, the service’s top officer told Congress on Tuesday.” Little details provided.
US Navy’s deadliest new subs are hobbled by spare-parts woes. (The Day) “The U.S. Navy has swapped more than 1,600 parts among its new Virginia-class submarines since 2013 to ease maintenance bottlenecks as components that are supposed to last 33 years wear out decades sooner… According to the Navy, 70% of the part swaps were between Block I subs that first entered service in 2004 and Block II vessels initially delivered in 2008.”
Lockheed Martin wins $4.9 billion contract to build advanced missile-warning satellites. (Space.com) “The satellites will monitor Earth from the geosynchronous orbit, an orbit at the altitude of 22,000 miles.” LM received $2.9 billion for the first three Next-Gen OPIR satellites, and will get $4.9 billion for the next three (including ground mission software and engineering support for launch vehicle integration).
The Army might really build walking war machines. (Popular Mechanics) “A new study from U.S. Army Research Lab (ARL) scientists reveals there’s nothing stopping the military from producing walking combat vehicles—at least from a power perspective, anyway…A combat robot walking on four legs, like ED-209 from Robocop or a robot from the Gundam universe, will use about the same amount of energy to get around as an M1A2 Abrams tank.”
The Air Force says its next missile tests could kill 219 giant clams, 9 snails. (Popular Mechanics) “The report says reentry vehicles (RVs) plunging into the waters near Kwajalein Atoll in the Pacific Ocean, including the AGM-183A Agile Rapid Response Weapon (ARRW), could kill thousands of coral colonies, hundreds of clams, and a handful of snails”
The Air Force’s new ABMS strategy: Buy new capability, now. (C4ISRNET) “What will lawmakers get for that $204 million? More than half of those funds will go toward the first ABMS “capability release” to be procured and delivered to the field: a bespoke pod for the Boeing KC-46 refueling tanker that will allow it to act as a communications node for the stealthy F-22 and F-35 fighters… “When we first started looking at ABMS it was demo after demo, and we were sort of like, what’s your point?” Mak said.”
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