Pentagon makes $117M investment to boost domestic manufacturing of critical microelectronics
The Department of Defense has awarded a $117 million contract to GlobalFoundries to bolster U.S. production of critical microelectronics, the Pentagon announced Monday.
As part of a Defense Production Act Title III agreement, GlobalFoundries will transfer its 45-nanometer silicon-on-insulator (SOI) semiconductor manufacturing process from its Fab 10 facility in East Fishkill, New York, to its Fab 8 facility in Malta, New York. Last year, the firm received an $8 million award to conduct initial engineering baseline activities for the transfer, according to a DOD news release.
“This agreement will ensure access to 45nm SOI semiconductors critical to DoD strategic systems,” the release stated, noting that the deal is “part of the nation’s effort to sustain the microelectronics manufacturing capability necessary for national and economic security.”
The first chips from the agreement are slated for delivery next year, according to GlobalFoundries.
“GF is proud to be a longtime supplier to the U.S. Government, and we remain deeply committed to meeting the semiconductor technology needs of the Department of Defense, as well as the technologies so critical to our national security,” CEO Tom Caulfield said in a statement.
He continued: “The strong public-private partnership demonstrated with this new supply and tech transfer agreement is an excellent example of the impact federal collaboration and investment in semiconductor manufacturing can have on strengthening domestic supply chains. Our partnership boosts the national economy, while also securing a strategic and reliable supply of chips needed by the U.S. government for aerospace, defense, and other mission-critical applications.”
Microelectronics are a key component of the DoD’s advanced capabilities including precision guided munitions, hypersonic weapons and satellites. Pentagon officials are worried about supply chains.
“The migration of semiconductor manufacturing to the Asia-Pacific region, and the subsequent decline in domestic manufacturing, represents a substantive security and economic threat for the United States and many allied nations,” DOD said in a February report on securing defense-critical supply chains, an action plan developed in response to President Biden’s Executive Order 14017.
The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated supply chain challenges.
Federal agencies, including the DOD, are seeking to boost the U.S. industrial manufacturing base.
Microelectronics are a top priority for Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering Heidi Shyu, who has deemed them a “critical technology” area.
During a webinar last month hosted by the National Defense Industrial Association, Shyu noted that “there’s a real focus on onshoring.”
Among its various microelectronics initiatives, the Pentagon wants to create regional innovation hubs to promote domestic development.
In February, Shyu’s office issued a request for information seeking feedback on creating what the DOD is calling a Microelectronics Commons.
The Pentagon envisions the commons as a public-private partnership consisting of regional innovation hubs distributed across the United States that will “foster a pipeline of innovative ideas and talent residing in university labs and small business R&D teams,” according to the RFI.
The aim is to reduce barriers to innovation and enhance infrastructure, namely by establishing “Lab-to-Fab” testing and prototyping hubs, providing broad access to those hubs for developers, and strengthening the education pipeline around microelectronics at academic institutions.
The hubs will “focus on critical, on-shore prototyping to transition innovation from universities, start-ups, and small companies to manufacturing,” the RFI said.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to include a statement from GlobalFoundries.
Artie Chin installed as first Federal Highway Administration CTO
The Department of Transportation has appointed Artie Chin as the first chief technology officer of the Federal Highway Administration.
Chin was sworn in last week, and according to LinkedIn was previously chief digital services officer at the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Prior to taking up that role, he was a program manager and lead adviser for IT modernization at the agency.
Before moving into IT services management, Chin spent a decade in a variety of service management roles at HUD, including as director of the Post Insurance Division and as director for the Office of Financial Services.
In the new role, Chin will work to ensure the Department of Transportation sub-agency has the latest solutions to ensure it is using data in the most effective way and to guard against cyberattacks.
Last summer, a landmark Senate Committee report on federal agencies’ cybersecurity arrangements identified a range of concerns, and the Department of Transportation was awarded a D grade. The Departments of State, Education and the Social Security Administration also received a D.
In March, the Department of Transportation in collaboration with the White House launched a new data sharing pilot initiative that is intended to help ease current supply chain difficulties.
The program, which is called Freight Logistics Optimization Works (FLOW), is a proof-of-concept information exchange involving 18 entities including private trucking, warehousing and logistics companies and ports.
Earlier this year in January, a bipartisan group of senators called for further information about the processes and responsibilities of the Homeland Security and Transportation departments to detect, prevent and respond to cyberthreats to the nation’s transportation systems.
CIA hires first-ever chief technology officer
The CIA named Nand Mulchandani its first-ever chief technology officer, citing a need for cutting-edge innovations, Friday.
Mulchandani brings more than 25 years’ experience working in Silicon Valley and for the Department of Defense, to a role in which he’ll be identifying emerging technologies to apply to the CIA’s mission.
CIA Director William Burns has prioritized technology and the hiring of a CTO since his confirmation.
“I am honored to join CIA in this role and look forward to working with the agency’s incredible team of technologists and domain experts, who already deliver world-class intelligence and capabilities, to help build a comprehensive technology strategy that delivers exciting capabilities working closely with industry and partners,” Mulchandani said in the announcement.
Mulchandani previously served as CTO and acting director of DOD’s Joint Artificial Intelligence Center. Before that he co-founded several startups including Oblix, Determina, OpenDNS and ScaleXtreme acquired by Oracle, VMWare, Cisco and Citrix respectively.
Mulchandani has a degree in computer science and math from Cornell University, a Master of Science in management from Stanford University, and a Master in public administration from Harvard University.
Fusing open-source and military intelligence is next big step in Army’s transition to information advantage
As the Army moves toward finalizing its new information advantage doctrine, its next major focus is better fusing open-source intelligence with the exquisite military sources it has traditionally relied upon, according to the service’s retiring top cyber commander.
Defense of the network, which officials have called one of the Army’s foundational weapon systems, must be underpinned by good information, which must come from integrating traditional military intelligence and commercial intelligence, Lt. Gen. Stephen Fogarty told FedScoop.
“What we’re seeing is the integration of traditional military intel, these exquisite capabilities, integrated with all this other information that is available,” Fogarty, the outgoing commander of Army Cyber Command, said in an interview.
Fogarty is retiring and handing the reigns over to Maj. Gen. (P) Maria Barrett in a change of command ceremony May 3.
The Army is finalizing doctrine setting in place the notion of information advantage with the ultimate goal of providing commanders with decision dominance to better sense, understand, decide and act faster. The concept has five main pillars: enable decision-making, protect friendly information, inform and educate domestic audiences, inform and influence international audiences, and conduct information warfare.
Fogarty said the Army added “inform” as a fifth mission thread alongside operate, defend, attack, influence, which is critically important in defending the network and denying the network to the enemy.
While there are some things only the U.S. military can do with its unique intelligence collection capabilities, Fogarty said it has gained an appreciation for the non-traditional sources of information and that power comes by fusing the two, not an either-or.
Commercial threat intelligence can be very helpful in tipping analysts to potential threats on the network, Fogarty said.
Commercial vendors have a global presence on millions of machines — places the military might not have collection on — and have the ability to report how a threat is presenting itself in an unclassified manner.
What this provides the military, Fogarty said, is immediately actionable information that can be used to block a threat while the traditional military intelligence can provide a deeper dive into the threat itself.
The key, however, is not for traditional military intelligence professionals to validate or duplicate what commercial sources are providing.
“What my traditional military intelligence can do is they can help refine who’s behind it. Why is this happening now? What’s the long-term objective for this?” Fogarty said.
To help fuse these intelligence disciplines, the Army created the Cyber Military Intelligence Group, which will blend military intelligence activities with commercial data and public information to support cyber operations.
“Over the last four years, we’ve worked that very, very hard” on that fusion, Fogarty said.
Additionally, the new Information Warfare Operations Center, which will provide an unprecedented real-time ability to sense and understand the global information environment, is helping to integrate capabilities and mission threads as well, he said.
New force proposals
Other changes Army Cyber Command is looking to make as it transitions to information advantage include a raft of proposals it has submitted for approval to the Army regarding new constructs for 1st Information Operations Command and information warfare task forces.
After supporting the Information Warfare Task Force in Afghanistan, Army Cyber Command learned some lessons regarding the importance of integrating cyber, electronic warfare, psyops, public affairs and space. During the Defender Pacific exercise last year, it tested some new concepts for supporting geographic Army service commands.
Specifically, Fogarty said the command deployed an expeditionary cyber team — one of an eventual 12 such teams as part of the 915th Cyber Warfare Battalion that will help plan tactical cyber operations for commanders and conduct missions in coordination with deployed forces — to the Pacific with liaisons to help augment the Multi-Domain Task Force. 1st Information Operations Command became the framework to operate across the Pacific throughout the exercise, building an information advantage task force embedded within Army Pacific headquarters.
The Army is taking the lessons it learned from that exercise to apply it to a similar task force in Europe that will support Army Europe and Africa — though, Fogarty said they aren’t trying to repeat the same model as the Pacific given it is a different theater. Rather, they want to be able to provide exactly what each theater needs.
“We said from the very beginning is we’re not trying to put the Pacific model in Europe, but we gained some relevant experience from the time we spent out in the Pacific,” he said. “That actually helped, I think, inform some of the options that we provided and some of the options that they selected. Then one of the things I think we’ve been really good at is this idea of build, assess, and then modify.”
Fogarty added they submitted several proposals to the Army that it is working its way through right now.
Industry groups call on lawmakers to support extra tech funding in FY23 appropriations
A coalition of industry groups has written to lawmakers, calling on them to support additional funding for technology modernization across federal agencies as part of the fiscal year 2023 appropriations process.
In a joint letter published Friday, the nine trade groups asked lawmakers to support either meeting or exceeding the $300 million requested for the Technology Modernization Fund by the White House as part of the President’s Budget.
The groups added that lawmakers in both chambers should support the provision of broader funding for tech modernization to ensure that agencies are able to meet zero trust goals.
“Funding is also needed to meet the government’s cybersecurity needs and goals. OMB Memorandum M-22-09, which follows the Executive Order on ‘Improving the Nation’s Cybersecurity’ (EO 14028), directs all federal agencies to mature their zero trust capabilities,” the missive said.
It added: “The additional funding should be made available for agencies that are just getting started on their zero trust journeys because these cybersecurity efforts are essential to maintaining a strong federal network defense posture for years to come.”
The Biden administration in March asked lawmakers to approve an additional $300 million in funding for the Technology Modernization Fund as part of the president’s fiscal 2023 budget request.
The request for extra funding came as the board of the federal IT investment fund continues to assess project proposals from federal agencies as it decides how to spend the remaining sum of $1 billion provided as part of the American Rescue Plan (ARP) 2021.
The joint letter was signed by the Alliance for Digital Innovation, Center for Procurement Advocacy, Computing Technology Industry Association, Information Technology Industry Council, National Defense Industrial Association, The Professional Services Council, Security Industry Association, Software and Information Industry Association and TechNet.
Energy Department launches council to coordinate AI activities
The Department of Energy established the Artificial Intelligence Advancement Council earlier this month to coordinate funding and development of algorithms and hold agencies accountable for how they are used.
A lean team consisting of five members, AIAC will quickly approve task forces, implementation plans and organizational changes for the AI & Technology Office, DOE Executive Secretariat, and AI Program Committee to execute.
DOE stood up the Responsible and Trustworthy AI Task Force ahead of AIAC’s first meeting, tentatively planned for June, to suggest departmental principles and practices, particularly around equity and ethics.
“We are very mindful of the fact that there are activities and initiatives that are underway, as well as initiatives that should be considered, in AI space,” AITO Director Pamela Isom told FedScoop. “And we’re also needing the support at the level that the council brings.”
As AITO director, Isom will have a seat on AIAC along with the following officials: under secretary for science and innovation, under secretary for nuclear security and administrator of security administration, Office of the General Counsel general counsel, and Office of Intelligence and Counterintelligence director. The two under secretaries will serve as council co-chairs.
One of the goals of the council is to hold agency leaders accountable for how their departments use AI, as well as overseeing the work of practitioners and researchers.
Meanwhile AIPC will consist of DOE agencies with an interest in AI that will help AIAC identify new task forces and implement solutions, like those in the climate and clean energy domains.
Both domains present opportunities for AI partnerships between AIAC and agencies within and outside DOE, industry and academia. DOE wants to replicate and tailor other agencies’ AI best practices, Isom said.
The National Nuclear Security Administration is also involved with AITO in standing up AIAC, though decisions surrounding it are more sensitive and therefore confidential, Isom said.
The Responsible and Trustworthy AI Task Force is already meeting, and the initial set of principles, practices and activities it suggests to AIAC will be taken up at the council’s first meeting.
“We need better AI independent verification and validation processes,” Isom said. “We need to improve the test processes.”
White House: Agency CIOs to play key role in Infrastructure Act implementation and oversight
C-suite IT leaders at federal agencies will play a key role in overseeing and implementing the trillion-dollar Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, under new guidance published by the White House.
The Office of Management and Budget on Friday instructed agencies to create cross-functional teams to monitor how the legislation is enacted. The teams will include chief information officers, chief information security officers and chief data officers from federal agencies, as well as other senior officials such as chief financial officers and customer experience leaders.
In addition to setting up expert oversight panels, each agency must designate a senior accountable official who will be responsible for the implementation of the spending law.
The White House has issued the latest guidance as it seeks to ensure sufficient oversight of the $1 trillion in public spending that was approved in November.
The guidance also includes the requirement that agencies embed sufficient equity expertise within the teams working on projects funded by the act. The equity expertise is intended to support the Biden administration’s executive order on racial equity and supporting underserved communities, which was signed in January last year.
President Biden is today meeting with about a dozen inspectors general and other officials as the White House seeks to make sure the spending plans receive sufficient scrutiny.
An administration official told Reuters that the federal government is working to hire about 8,000 people to implement the infrastructure law, with the majority to be hired in 2022.
OPM was quietly redesignated the point office for HR shared services
The Office of Management and Budget quietly redesignated the Office of Personnel Management the quality services management office for civilian human resources transactions March 30, after finding the agency better suited to stand up a modern IT solutions marketplace that includes commercial offerings.
OPM spent the last six months on the migration and is preparing to inventory agencies’ HR IT systems and modernization roadmaps.
The Trump administration originally designated the General Services Administration the HR quality services management office (QSMO) as it attempted to abolish OPM, but now the latter is heading up governmentwide HR shared services from enterprise resource planning (ERP) platforms to point solutions.
The QSMO program was created in April 2019 to reform how the government works with shared services. Though the program, single agencies were designated as leaders in the provision of specific services to other government agencies and programs.
“Every agency feels like they need to have the features of a Lexus SUV, but they have the budget for a Toyata hatchback,” said Steve Krauss, interim director for the civilian HR transaction services QSMO, during ACT-IAC’s Shared Services Summit on Thursday. “They feel like they are falling farther behind as time goes on, and the reality is the only way to square that circle is through some sort of ride-sharing arrangement.”
The QSMO is focused on hiring assessment and data analytics solutions to start, the former to help agencies comply with the July 2020 executive order to modernize and reform federal hiring. Commercial hiring assessment solutions exist, as does OPM’s USA Hire based on a commercial solution contract.
On the data analytics front OPM may stand up a Human Capital Data Analytics Community of Practice across agencies with private sector participants.
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency‘s QSMO has already made two major shared services awards for a vulnerability disclosure platform service, which received its authority to operate (ATO) three weeks ago, and a protective DNS resolver service that received its ATO on Wednesday.
CISA is currently engaging with agencies and industry on how best to incorporate commercial solutions into its QSMO marketplace.
“We’re going to be turning a lot of focus to, for example, how can we partner with GSA on governmentwide vehicles,” said Branch Chief Jim Sheire. “How do we bring more commercial providers into the QSMO marketplace to provide those services to agencies?”
CISA has a request for information (RFI) out now looking at security operation services and how to implement them in a zero-trust context, in response to larger agencies with security operations centers seeking a “cereal aisle” of offerings, Sheire said.
The agency also released technical reference and architecture guidance on its Secure Cloud Business Applications (SCuBA) project a few weeks ago for public comment.
Meanwhile the newest QSMO, the grants QSMO within the Department of Health and Human Services, has engaged with all but two “very small” awarding agencies out of 49, said Executive Director Chad Clifford.
The QSMO closed an RFI in late March inquiring about commercial grants management solutions and services, data implementation, customer experience and potential acquisition strategies, and the responses are currently being evaluated by an interagency group of reviewers.
“How can we expand this marketplace by next year to bring on commercial providers, and where should we focus first?” Clifford said. “We know what the agencies need, but how can we do that now while maturing over time?”
The financial management QSMO within the Treasury Department‘s Bureau of the Fiscal Service just reached an agreement with GSA on a contract acquisition approach to populate its marketplace with commercial offerings, a special item number under the Multiple Award Schedule vehicle. Tech companies will be able to apply to participate in the QSMO marketplace starting in mid-May, said Reed Waller, financial systems advisor for the QSMO.
At the same time the QSMO is working to identify the best IT system candidates for modernization.
“We’ve collected an inventory of financial systems that I don’t think has ever existed before,” Waller said.
NOAA office with expanding space surveillance responsibilities names new chief
Space industry executive and former two-time White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Space and Aeronautics Director Richard DalBello is set to lead the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Office of Space Commerce, or OSC.
His appointment as director, announced by the agency on Wednesday, comes nearly 16 months after OSC’s last chief stepped down—and also as the office confronts weighty new responsibilities and prepares for what could be a massive budget boost proposed by President Joe Biden’s administration.
“Richard DalBello officially starts his new role on May 9, 2022,” NOAA Spokesperson John Leslie told FedScoop on Thursday.
OSC has operated as the government’s main coordinator and hub for space commerce activities for decades, and Its key mission is to foster technological advancement within the commercial space industry. The office also maintains operating licenses for private space systems.
More recently though, the office’s responsibilities have expanded to include a greater focus on modernizing and managing America’s systems for space situational awareness.
An influential memorandum on space policy signed by former President Donald Trump in 2018 essentially transferred the authority of monitoring space traffic and warning of potential orbital collisions from the Defense Department to OSC, within NOAA and the Commerce Department. That switch came partly because the number of satellites, tools and debris in that realm is growing exponentially as space commercialization booms. With all those items increasingly hovering around Earth, the Pentagon opted to move on from that mandate so it could place an even deeper focus on its space-based national security missions.
So far, Commerce has not acted so swiftly on this transition to governing Earth’s orbit, but Biden’s budget request for fiscal year 2023 commits roughly $88 million to OSC to make it happen. That marks an almost eight-fold increase from its 2021 enacted level of funding.
“This is an exciting opportunity and I appreciate the support and encouragement OSC is receiving from NOAA, the Department of Commerce, the White House and Congress,” DalBello said in the agency’s release. “Space safety and sustainability are two of the most critical issues facing the international community today and I am pleased the Biden administration has made these issues a priority.”
Having a new permanent director to help manage those millions, provided Congress approves that money, will also likely make a notable difference in this space surveillance operation. NOAA’s Leslie noted that the office’s last director, Kevin O’Connell, stepped down in January 2021, with the transition from Trump’s team to Biden’s. Mark Paese, the deputy assistant administrator of NOAA’s Satellite and Information Service, is serving as acting OSC director until DalBello assumes his fresh position.
Leslie said the agency will share more information regarding DalBello’s early priorities after his first day on the job.
Former Chief of Staff at the National Space Council Jared Stout told FedScoop that he has known DalBello for nearly 10 years and that he is a “brilliant, dedicated and extremely hard-working” official.
Commenting on OSC’s evolving responsibilities, Stout added: “I think we are going to have to see, ultimately, what they decide to do with the funding, but my sincere hope is that the roles and responsibilities of the Office of Space Commerce will continue to grow and that Congress will continue to empower the office.”
DalBello will enter the position with more than 3 decades of experience in the space industry, according to his LinkedIn profile. From 2013 to 2015, he was OSTP’s lead for space and aeronautics under former President Barack Obama—a position he also held during the Clinton administration. Most recently, he was the vice president of government affairs at space consulting firm GXO. And prior to that, he served as Virgin Galactic’s vice president of business development and government affairs, among other roles.
Stout, who is now the director of congressional and regulatory policy at Meeks, Butera and Israel, said OSC’s first priority under its new leadership “absolutely must be to stand up the civil space situational awareness system as soon as possible, with U.S. industry leading the way.”
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