In a memo dated Oct. 24, Secretary of Defense James Mattis established the Protecting Critical Technology Task Force (PCTTF) to protect the Department of Defense’s (DoD) “critical technology.” The task force will work to prevent the loss of classified and controlled unclassified information–the loss of which is “putting the Department’s investments at risk and eroding the lethality and survivability of our forces.” […]

With the Department of Defense setting culture change as a priority, DoD IT is making efforts to shed some of the department’s traditional risk-averse mindset and adopt new technologies and processes faster, said Nancy Norton, director of the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) and the commander of the Joint Force Headquarters Department of Defense Information Network (JFHQ–DODIN) on Thursday. […]

When it comes to contracting, the Department of Defense (DoD0 tends to run its own show with soliciting, awarding, and managing the contracts awarded under its $700 million+ annual budget. […]

The Defense Department is lending assistance to the Department of Homeland Security as DHS works to protect election infrastructure in the run-up to next week’s mid-term congressional elections, said Ed Wilson, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Cyber Policy, on Tuesday at the Symantec 2018 Government Symposium. […]

A Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee staffer suggested Tuesday that the many and sometimes disparate elements of industry and academia that make up what could be considered the artificial intelligence (AI) sector should take action to present a more united front to Congress if they hope to convince legislators to create laws that would benefit the sector. […]

Leaders at defense and intelligence agencies have a unique challenge–how to build a cloud environment that is secure, reliable, and delivers a wide variety of services. […]

The Pentagon confirmed on Friday a cyber breach that compromised personal and credit card information of military and civilian personnel. […]

A report issued late last month by the Defense Department (DoD) finds that the U.S. defense industrial base (DIB) is facing an “unprecedented set of challenges” that are eroding the nation’s DIB and manufacturing sectors and threatening DoD’s “ability to be ready for the ‘fight tonight’ and to retool for great power competition.” […]

Department of Defense CIO Dana Deasy described how DoD is approaching cloud services, including the Joint Enterprise Defense Initiative (JEDI), and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies during an interview on “Government Matters” on Sunday. […]

The Navy is taking software development, particularly with regard to maritime cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, and development operations, out to sea. […]

Congress is getting behind the push to develop artificial intelligence technologies and policies with recent calls for research and development that may overlap efforts already underway. It also reflects the kind of “whole of country” approach that some leaders have said is necessary to keep up with the Chinese. […]

Defense Department CIO Dana Deasy said today that DoD is currently sorting through the FY 2019 budget allocation for the new Joint Artificial Intelligence Center (JAIC), and likely will be creating outposts for JAIC to spur outreach to members of academia. […]

Pentagon officials have been pretty clear about their belief that artificial intelligence is changing the game for military operations, saying that AI will penetrate “every corner” of the Department of Defense, in the words of Brendan McCord, head of machine learning at the Defense Innovation Unit. DoD Chief Information Officer Dana Deasy lists AI among his four most important strategic areas. Defense Secretary James Mattis reportedly pushed for a “whole of country” approach earlier this year as the White House was announcing its Select Committee on Artificial Intelligence. […]

The Senate Armed Services Committee’s cybersecurity and personnel subcommittees held a joint hearing today to examine the cyber operational readiness of the Department of Defense and heard from leaders of both the military and civilian side of the DoD cyber force about the mounting challenges they face. […]

The Defense Department (DoD) has renewed its focus on equipping the warfighter with the best technology. Alongside new changes, they’re proceeding at machine speed to streamline that process. IT innovation through audacious experimentation has been a DoD hallmark throughout the years, and has led to storied research and development (R&D) accomplishments. But on that path, some Pentagon projects have gone amiss. […]

Small drones have been a useful tool to the military for years, primarily as a way to provide on-the-spot surveillance. But as hardware and artificial intelligence guidance systems continue to improve, macro- and nano-drones are poised to begin playing a bigger role in contested areas as both friend and foe. […]

The Pentagon’s geospatial intelligence analysts, who have admitted in the past that they have more data than they can properly analyze, are turning to artificial intelligence (AI) to automate and refine how they sift through massive amounts of imagery from satellites and other sources. […]

The Department of Defense (DoD) has selected 10 small business to be a part of its Information Analysis Center Multiple-Award Contract (IAC-MAC). […]

Defense Department CIO Dana Deasy declined to comment today on DoD’s extension earlier this week of the deadline on the Joint Enterprise Defense Initiative (JEDI) cloud contract from September 17 to October 9. […]

The Department of Defense in December will wrap up a two-year pilot program using the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency’s (NGA) mobile application store–the GEOINT App Store–as the official app store of the entire DoD. […]

Defense Secretary James Mattis in May urged President Trump to create a “whole of country” national strategy to advance U.S. development of artificial intelligence technologies, shortly after the White House’s announcement on May 10 of a new AI advisory committee–the Select Committee on Artificial Intelligence–to advise the White House on research and development efforts across government and industry. […]

Services provider KBR was awarded a $71 million task order from the Defense Health Agency (DHA). […]

The Department of Defense’s (DoD) move to the cloud is fueled by the agency’s desire to improve interoperability and adopt emerging technologies, according to officials speaking during yesterday’s MeriTalk webinar. On the webinar, which was underwritten by AWS and Red Hat, Stephen Moon, senior solutions architect, DoD at Amazon Web Services, and Ted Brunell, chief architect, DoD at Red Hat discussed why cloud is mission-critical and how DoD sees it shaping the future. […]

The Defense Department is pushing full speed ahead on modernization efforts, with recent strides made on a $28 billion R&D project, a $10 billion cloud infrastructure proposed contract, efforts to move cyber defense infrastructure to the cloud, along with myriad advanced research and futuristic projects. They’re even working to overhaul their travel planning system. Call it AirDoD, perhaps? […]

The Department of Defense (DoD) has hired Michael Conlin as its first chief data officer (CDO). According to his LinkedIn profile, Conlin started in his new position in July. […]

The Department of Defense (DoD) has awarded to TekSynap, a small business based in Reston, Va., a $435 million contract for enterprise IT services and support for the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA). […]

Deputy Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan announced Thursday that the Pentagon’s Defense Innovation Unit Experimental (DIUx) will undergo a re-branding. The unit will drop “experimental” from its name and will be called Defense Innovation Unit, or DIU. […]

Vice President Pence said today that the Trump administration and the Defense Department are preparing to move forward with detailed plans to establish a new United States Space Command as a unified combatant command, and if Congress approves, as a separate branch of the military–dubbed the U.S. Space Force – equal to and separate from the existing five branches. […]

The U.S. Cyber Command (Cybercom) and the National Security Agency have joined the effort to protect the integrity of this year’s midterm elections, which are occurring under the shadow of Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election and warnings from U.S. intelligence agencies that 2018 is seeing more of the same. […]

Welcome to MeriTalk News Briefs, where we bring you all the day’s action that didn’t quite make the headlines. No need to shout about ‘em, but we do feel that they merit talk. […]