US Promises Money for K-12 Cyber Defense

Morning Coffee is a robust blend of links to news around the internet concerning the Naval Air Station Patuxent River economic community. The opinions expressed here do not reflect opinions of the Leader’s owners or staff.

A surge in ransomware and malicious cyberthreats to K-12 schools and libraries drew the Biden administration to announce plans to release hundreds of millions of dollars in public and private funding to combat the threats, reports Cyber Security Dive. Amazon Web Services announced its commitment of $20 million in grants to support cyber resilience, as rival technology firms and school administrators are scheduled to meet at the White House for the roll out of the administration’s broad K-12 cybersecurity effort.

CISA and FEMA have partnered to add another $375M in their grant program to bolster state and local cybersecurity. This will be the second year of the State and Local Cybersecurity Grant Program, CISA announced Tuesday. Applicants are encouraged to submit their cybersecurity plans developed with FY22 funds to access FY23 funding.

A new report found a 40% increase in cyberattacks targeting government agencies and the public sector from March to May 2023 compared with the previous year, Defense One reports. Part of the increase is attributed to a 13% increase in novel malware campaigns that affected financial institutions, health care services, and critical-infrastructure industries, according to the quarterly Global Threat Intelligence report published by Blackberry.

An elite group of North Korean hackers secretly breached computer networks at a major Russian missile developer for at least five months last year, according to technical evidence reviewed by Reuters and analysis by security researchers. Reuters found cyber-espionage teams linked to the North Korean government, secretly installed stealthy digital backdoors into systems at a rocket design bureau based in a small town on the outskirts of Moscow.

President Biden is calling for his cabinet to “aggressively execute” plans for federal employees to work more in their offices this fall after years of working remotely, according to an email sent Friday to every cabinet member and obtained by Axios.

DefSec Lloyd Austin has issued guidance for a workaround to Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s (R-AL) personal hold on military confirmations. “This unprecedented, across-the-board hold is having a cascading effect, increasingly hindering the normal operations of this Department and undermining both our military readiness and our national security,” Austin wrote in an August 2 memo obtained by Military Times and first reported by CNN.

Construction workers on federal projects are poised to receive better wages and worker protections under a Department of Labor rule to go into effect in about two months. The new ruling will affect an estimated 1.2 million workers, reports Maryland Matters. The regulation also makes it easier for the federal agency to withhold funds from contractors to ensure workers are paid properly and protects workers from employer retaliation.

Italy, already working with Japan on a sixth-generation fighter by 2035, has now dispatched F-35s for a first-ever training exercise in Japan. Military Times reports four Italian Air Force F-35As arrived at Komatsu air base in Japan on Friday ahead of the exercise, which launched Monday.

Finland’s multiyear quest to buy a high-altitude air defense capability is one step closer to materializing after the US State Department approved the export of the US-Israeli David’s Sling system to the Nordic state. Defense News reports, a day after it officially joined NATO in April, the Finnish government announced its intention to buy the long-range air defense system, developed jointly by the Israeli Ministry of Defense and the US Missile Defense Agency.

The Navy awarded contracts for nine Arleigh Burke-class (DDG 51) destroyers August 1. First commissioned in 1991, these destroyers are designed for offensive and defensive operations in warfare scenarios. Navy Recognition reports Huntington Ingalls of Mississippi will build six and Bath Iron Works in Maine three. Two are to be completed during each of the fiscal years 2023, 2024, 2025, and 2026 with the ninth ship to be completed in FY27.

The Hill, citing The Wall Street Journal as its source, said four US destroyers, along with P-8 Poseidon reconnaissance aircraft, shadowed a fleet of 11 Chinese and Russian warships that were patrolling near Alaska’s Aleutian Islands until they quietly left the area without entering US territory. Senate Armed Services Committee member Dan Sullivan (R-AK) called the combined “incursion … another reminder that we have entered a new era of authoritarian aggression led by the dictators in Beijing and Moscow.”

Second Thomas Shoal, occupied for decades by Philippine forces but also claimed by China, hosted the latest flareup in the long-seething territorial conflicts in the South China Sea which also involve Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan, and Brunei. Military Times reports China’s use of water cannons in a tense, weekend confrontation with Philippine vessels in the disputed waters produced a formal, diplomatic protest out of Philippines.

CAPT Michael “Sniff” Burks became the 15th program manager of the F/A-18 and EA-18G Program Office (PMA-265) on August 3 relieving CAPT Jason “Stuf” Denney during a change of command ceremony at Naval Air Station Patuxent River. PMA-265 provides life-cycle acquisition management for the F/A-18A-D Hornet, F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, and EA-18G Growler, reports SMNewsNet. (US Navy photo by Peter Fitzpatrick.)

Military Times reports on Hiroshima marking the 78th anniversary of the US dropping an atomic bomb. “Leaders around the world must confront the reality that nuclear threats now being voiced by certain policymakers reveal the folly of nuclear deterrence theory,” said Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui as the city remembered the anniversary Sunday. “They must immediately take concrete steps to lead us from the dangerous present toward our ideal world.”

India in recent months has barred domestic manufacturers of military drones from using components made in China over concerns about security vulnerabilities, reports Reuters. The measure comes amid tensions between the nuclear-armed neighbors and as New Delhi pursues greater military use of unmanned quadcopters, long-endurance systems, and other autonomous platforms.

Western microchips used to power smartphones and laptops continue to enter Russia and fuel its military arsenal, CNBC reports. Convoluted trade routes via China, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, and elsewhere allow the parts to evade sanctions and enter Russia. A recent academic analysis of 58 pieces of critical Russian military equipment recovered from Ukraine’s battlefield found more than 1,000 foreign components, primarily Western semiconductor technologies that were subject to export controls.

Britain moved to curb the supply of military and other vital equipment for the Russian war effort in Ukraine by expanding sanctions on Tuesday to include 22 individuals and companies based outside Russia, reports The New York Times. The new measures will affect businesses in Turkey, Dubai, and Iran and target Slovakian and Swiss nationals that Britain says have supplied weaponry or components, including electronics, needed to sustain Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The New York Times also reported the Biden administration planned to issue new restrictions on American investments in certain advanced industries in China, this week, according to people familiar with the deliberations. The move was described as necessary to protect national security but is expected to rankle Beijing.

Niger’s airspace closed on Sunday, the deadline a group of African countries set for Nigerien military coup leaders to release power and reinstate the country’s democratically elected president, reports CNN. Nigerien coup leader Colonel Major Amadou Abdramane closed the airspace due to “the threat of intervention from neighboring countries.”

Acting US Deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland met with the junta leaders and described them as unreceptive to US pressure to return the country to civilian rule, reports AP News. US law cuts most aid from a democratically elected government toppled by unconstitutional means, particularly military aid. Nuland was not allowed to meet with Niger’s democratically elected President Mohamed Bazoum, who was detained with his wife and son in the Presidential Palace at the time of the coup in late July. AP News reported on Wednesday that Bazoum and his family are without electricity and only have rice and canned goods left to eat.

The Pentagon is keeping US troops in Niger, calling their presence as a vote of confidence in the people of the West African nation, even as hope for a restoration of the democratically elected government begins to dwindle, writes Military.com.

Ukraine troops are testing war kayaks which appear built for river-born ambushes. Task & Purpose reports the two-seater Poloz-M16 uses an “almost silent” electric motor, can also be propelled with oars, and can be steered remotely. The kayaks carry a UAG-40 40mm automatic grenade launcher on their bow, which Ukraine says can fire a distance of more than 2 kilometers.

Despite waves of Russian air strikes that Kyiv says targeted civilians and residential buildings, Ukraine is seeing “significant results” from US and German air defense systems, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Sunday. According to Reuters, Russia reported it had shot down a drone heading for Moscow in the third such attack in a week, while officials on both sides said Ukraine had struck two bridges linking Crimea to the mainland.

The United States has committed more than $60B in aid to Ukraine since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion, $43.1B in military aid, $20.5 in economic aid, and 2.6B in humanitarian aid. This is more than the US distributes in aid to any other country, reports The Washington Post, nevertheless, while the US is the leading donor to Ukraine, other countries have committed a much larger percentage of their GDP to fund Kyiv’s efforts. The funding includes weapons, training, medical supplies, generators, and rebuilding. Experts view the amount as a massive investment in a US ally not seen since at least World War II.

A recently published study has found sea ice in the Antarctic region has fallen to such a record low that a co-author estimated “decades if not centuries for these things to recover.” Reuters reports the study showed the continent’s minimum summer ice cover, which last year dipped below 772,000 square miles for the first time since satellite monitoring began in 1978, fell further to a new low in February.

Last June, third-generation Canadian dairy farmer Ben Loewith artificially inseminating 107 cows and heifers with the first-to-market bull semen with a low-methane genetic trait. Reuters reports that the calves born next spring will be among the first in the world to be bred with a specific environmental goal: burping less methane.

Contracts:

Lockheed Martin Rotary and Mission Systems, Manassas, Virginia, is awarded a $30,261,423 cost-plus-fixed-fee and cost-only modification to previously awarded contract N0002419C6400 for systems engineering and integration on Navy submarines. Work will be performed in Manassas, Virginia (68%); Waterford, Connecticut (10%); Groton, Connecticut (10%); Middletown, Rhode Island (7%); and Newport, Rhode Island (5%), and is expected to be completed by September 2024. Fiscal 2020 shipbuilding and conversion, Navy funds in the amount of $3,562,092 (22%); fiscal 2021 shipbuilding and conversion, Navy funds in the amount of $6,349,281 (40%); and fiscal 2023 research, development, test and evaluation, Navy funds in the amount of $5,947,768 (38%) will be obligated at time of award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, DC, is the contracting activity.

Valiant Technical Services Inc., Clarksville, Tennessee, has been awarded a maximum $8,758,968 hybrid firm-fixed-price, cost-plus-fixed-fee, cost-reimbursement, no-fee definitive contract for third-party logistics hazardous materials support. This was a competitive acquisition with one response received. This is a one-year base contract with four one-year option periods. Locations of performance are Virginia and Texas, with an April 26, 2024, performance completion date. Using customer is Defense Logistics Agency. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2023 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Distribution, New Cumberland, Pennsylvania (SP3300‐23‐C‐5001).

UPDATE: FPM-AECOM JV1, Oneida, New York (W912DR-23-D-0018); and Hana-Bay West 8A II JV LLC, Richmond, Virginia (W912DR-23-D-0019), have been added as awardees to the multiple award contract announced July 6, 2023, for architectural and engineering services, and will compete for each order of the $200,000,000 firm-fixed-price contract. Bids were solicited via the internet with 21 received. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of June 29, 2028. US Army Corps of Engineers, Baltimore, Maryland, is the contracting activity.

AECOM International Inc., Neu-Isenbury, Germany (W912GB-23-D-0016); Coplan-Merrick JV LLP, Greenwood Village, Colorado (W912GB-23-D-0019); Black & Veatch Special Projects Corp., Overland Park, Kansas (W912GB-23-D-0017); Stantec GS Inc., Charlottesville, Virginia (W912GB-23-D-0018); exp Federal Inc., Chicago, Illinois (W912GB-23-D-0020); Jacobs Government Services Co., Arlington, Virginia (W912GB-23-D-0021); and WSP USA Solutions, Washington, DC (W912GB-23-D-0022), will compete for each order of the $49,000,000 firm-fixed-price contract for architect-engineer services. Bids were solicited via the internet with nine received. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of Aug. 8, 2028. US Army Corps of Engineers, Europe District, is the contracting activity. 

Webworld Technologies Inc., Fairfax, Virginia (FA7014-23-D-0004); Inflowlogistics LLC, San Antonio, Texas (FA7014-23-D-0005); 1 Mission Partners, Haymarket, Virginia (FA7014-23-D-0006); Innovative Approach JV LLC, Alexandria, Virginia (FA7014-23-D-0007); and Karthik Consulting, LLC, Falls Church, Virginia (FA7014-23-D-0008) have been awarded multiple award, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contracts with a total ceiling amount of $99,999,999 for Air Force Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance, Cyber Effects Operations Electromagnetic Spectrum Superiority advisory and assistance support services. Work will be performed mainly at government facilities within the National Capital Region determined at the time task orders are executed, and is expected to be completed by Aug. 28, 2029. This contract was a competitive acquisition and five offers were received. Fiscal 2023 operations and maintenance funds in the amount of $1,000 for each contract are being obligated at time of award. Air Force District of Washington, Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, is the contracting activity. (Awarded Aug. 4, 2023)

Regulus Global LLC, Virginia Beach, Virginia, was awarded a $10,830,090 firm-fixed-price contract for the Army/Navy Portable Visual Search-21 Low Profile Night Vision Goggle Kits, Clip on Thermal Modules, Micro Combat Identification Beacons, and Airfield Multi-Spectral Beacon System Lighting System Kits. Bids were solicited via the internet with one received. Work will be performed in Miamisburg, Ohio, with an estimated completion date of May 30, 2025. Fiscal 2010 Foreign Military Sales (Egypt) funds in the amount of $10,830,090 were obligated at the time of the award. Army Contracting Command, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, is the contracting activity (W91CRB-23-C-5024).

General Dynamics NASSCO-Norfolk, Norfolk, Virginia, is awarded a $9,529,812 modification to previously awarded cost-plus-award-fee, cost-plus-incentive-fee contract N00024-16-C-4306 for the USS George H.W. Bush (CVN-77) fiscal 2023 continuous maintenance availability. Work will be performed in Norfolk, Virginia, and is expected to be completed December 2023. Fiscal 2023 operations and maintenance, Navy funds in the amount of $9,529,812 will be utilized in support of this modification. Mid-Atlantic Regional Maintenance Center, Norfolk, Virginia, is the contracting activity.

Bowhead Marine Support Services LLC, Springfield, Virginia, is being awarded a $25,000,000 firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract to provide the Navy and eligible foreign partner nations access to a broad range of services and materials associated with the acquisition, operation, and maintenance of small boat maritime assets. Work under this contract will be performed world-wide; specific locations will not be known until the requirements are identified by the Navy or eligible foreign partner nations through orders under the contract (ordering will be through August 6, 2028). This contract combines purchases for the Navy (25%); and various foreign partner nations (75%), under the Foreign Military Sales program. This contract was not competitively procured in accordance with 10 US Code 3204(a)(5) (a statute expressly authorizes or requires that the procurement be made through another agency or from a specified source). The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, DC, is the contracting activity (N00024-23-D-4116).