On Dec. 10, 2018, Oracle America released a redacted, unsealed version of a complaint filed in the Court of Federal Claims challenging the Pentagon's Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure solicitation, alleging two Defense Department officials helped craft a single-award strategy for the Pentagon's $10 billion cloud program while having "significant" conflicts of interest tied to their work with Amazon Web Services.
Documents
December 12, 2018
On Dec. 12, 2018 the Senate Armed Services seapower and readiness and management support subcommittees held a joint hearing on Navy and Marine Corps readiness. Includes the joint testimony of Navy Secretary Richard Spencer, Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Robert Neller and Vice Chief of Naval Operations Adm. William Moran, as well as John Pendleton from the Government Accountability Office.
December 11, 2018
In a Dec. 11, 2018 decision, the Government Accountability Office's comptroller general dismissed IBM's cloud computing protest "because the matter involved is currently pending before a court of competent jurisdiction."
On Dec. 11, 2018, Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering Lisa Porter and Pentagon Chief Information Officer Dana Deasy testified before the House Armed Services emerging threats and capabilities subcommittee on the Defense Department's artificial intelligence efforts.
The Dec. 11, 2018 Congressional Budget Office report "projects that the annual cost (in 2018 dollars) of replacing the aircraft in the current fleet, essentially one-for-one, would average $15 billion in the 2020s, $23 billion in the 2030s, and $15 billion in the 2040s."
On Dec. 11, 2018 Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Jim Inhofe (R-OK) spoke on the Senate floor with the first "Common Sense for the Common Defense," a series of floor speeches designed to highlight key national security policies.
December 10, 2018
On Dec. 6, 2018 the Army released slides -- marked "for official use only" -- from a Nov. 14, 2018 industry day for the Next Generation Squad Weapons program.
The Dec. 10, 2018 Congressional Budget Office report finds that "the share of international affairs funding that was provided outside of agencies' base budget for ongoing activities -- that is, 'nonbase' funding -- increased markedly from 2014 to 2017, mostly for overseas contingency operations."
December 07, 2018
The Dec. 3, 2018 Navy memo calls for steps "to implement readiness . . . for challenge inspections in compliance with United States Government obligations under the Convention on the . . . Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), without compromising national security information."
The Nov. 7, 2018 Defense Business Board briefing slides "provide a public update on the Industry-Government exchange study that was directed in Section 883 of the [fiscal year] 2019 National Defense Authorization Act."
December 06, 2018
On Dec. 6, 2018 the Army released its new concept for fighting near-peer competitors Russia and China, "The U.S. Army in Multidomain Operations 2028," following the priorities outlined in the National Defense Strategy.
In a draft December 2018 letter, dozens of Republican House lawmakers led by Rep. Mike Turner (R-OH) urge President Trump to support a $733 billion fiscal year 2019 defense budget, rather than the $700 billion being considered by the Office of Management and Budget.
December 04, 2018
In a Nov. 28, 2018 request for white papers, the Defense Information Systems Agency announces it will work with two companies to prototype a "cloud based Internet isolation capability" product for isolating potential cybersecurity risks from the internet in cloud environment, with one vendor possibly moving on to provide the technology across the Defense Department.
On Dec. 3, 2018 the F-35 Joint Program Office issued a request for proposals to support a sustainment supply chain risk-management (SCRM) review. Includes the RFP as well as the statement of work.
In a Dec. 4, 2018 Federal Register notice, the Defense Department "proposes to amend the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) to implement sections of the National Defense Authorization Acts for Fiscal Years 2017 and 2018 that establish limitations and prohibitions on the use of the lowest price technically [acceptable] source selection process."
In a Dec.
In a Dec. 4, 2018 Federal Register notice, the Defense Department issued "a final rule amending the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) to implement a section of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019 that removes the requirement to make a best procurement approach determination to use an interagency acquisition."
On Dec. 4, 2018 the Senate Armed Services Committee held a hearing on the nominations of Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Kenneth McKenzie to become the next head of U.S. Central Command and Army Lt. Gen. Richard Clarke to become head of U.S. Special Operations Command. Includes McKenzie's and Clarke's answers to advance policy questions.
December 03, 2018
In a Nov. 27, 2018 statement, the House Budget Committee discusses the Defense Department's completing "its first-ever full financial audit, fulfilling the requirement called for in the Fiscal Year 2010 National Defense Authorization Act and the recommendations of numerous House budget resolutions."
The Sept. 27, 2018 memo from Air Force Scientific Advisory Board Chairman James Chow calls for three studies to be conducted in fiscal year 2019: "(1) 21st Century Training and Education Technologies (TET)"; "(2) Fidelity of Modeling, Simulation, and Analysis to Support Air Force Decision Making (MSA)" and "(3) Multi-Source Data Fusion for Target Location and Identification (DFT)."