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Fort Meade MD, place of performance for the contract

In late April, the Defense Information Technology Contracting Organization released a request for proposals (RFP) concerning US Cyber Command’s (USCYBERCOM) $475 million indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity omnibus contract.* The RFP outlines 20 services selected contractors will provide:

• Knowledge Management
• Records Management
• Cyber Operations
• Planning; Science and Technology/Research and Development
• Cyber Focused Training
• Cyber Exercise
• Engagements
• Logistics
• Integrated Technology Support
• CybersecurityProject Analysis
• Program Management
• All-source Intelligence
• Business Process ReengineeringSecurity
• Strategy and Policy and Doctrine Development
• Administrative Support

The National Institutes of Health Information Technology Acquisition and Assessment Center (NITAAC) recently awarded its Chief Information Officer–Commodity Solutions (CIO-CS) Government-wide Acquisition Contract (GWAC), valued at $20 billion, to 65 companies. CIO-CS is an indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity information technology (IT) contract with a duration of ten years (Boyd, 2015). While the contract is primarily a health IT vehicle, it will also include a host of other services such as deployment and installation, engineering studies, web and video-conferencing, big data, virtualization and health and biomedical IT, maintenance and training, enterprise licenses and extended warranties, and cyber security (NIH, 2015). The NIH incorporated numerous changes into the CIO-CS as a result of the previous Electronic Commodities Store (ECS) III GWAC. 

The inability of the Pentagon to rapidly assimilate new technologies and cut bureaucratic red tape is increasingly being perceived as not merely a poor use of tax dollars, but as a strategic liability by both senior DoD officials and members of Congress (Freedburg, 2015). In a March address to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) Chairman John McCain compared the 18 month standard innovation cycle in the private sector to the Pentagon acquisition cycle, which can last for up to 18 years. McCain argued that the glacial pace of Pentagon acquisitions threatens to undermine the nation’s technological superiority, and the inefficient allocation of taxpayer dollars during sequestration further exacerbates the acquisition processes negative impact on national defense. 

In early March, Congress passed a $39.7 billion budget for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) which is $400 million dollars greater than the enacted FY 2014 levels.  Most components of DHS received a funding increase, but the FY 2015 budget prioritizes a series of initiatives to strengthen border security through hiring new personnel, developing new biometric identification technologies, and supporting previous efforts to improve border infrastructure. Part II of this series on the FY 2015 DHS budget will detail significant increases in the capability of the Coast Guard as a result of the FY 2015 budget, as well as trends within the agency.

CBP MQ-9 "Reaper" UAV

DJI Phantom-1 sUAS

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is looking to overhaul laws pertaining to the use of small unmanned aerial systems (sUAS), classified as aircraft weighing less than 55 pounds, within the next year. The released Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) stipulates measures relating to the operation of non-recreational sUAS in terms of height restrictions, aircraft registration, daytime flight restrictions, operator certification, and line of sight restrictions. The NPRM first step in what is likely to be a yearlong process before enforcement of new regulations begins. The White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, within the Office of Management and Budget (OBM), is conducting a ninety day review of the sUAS NPRM (Colborn, 2015). The OMB has indicated both the FAA and sUAS community lack adequate safety data.

The President’s FY 2016 budget includes $14 billion for cyber security funding across all federal agencies, including $5.5 billion for the Department of Defense (DoD).  The proposed budget would increase cyber defense spending by ten percent over the enacted FY 2015 budget levels, which is higher than the overall proposed DoD budget increase of seven percent. The increased cyber defense funding within the FY 2016 budget is part of a larger effort by the Federal Government to bolster the nation’s cyber defenses. Other steps taken toward this goal include: the development and integration of new software and systems, increasing the staff of US Cyber Command, Executive Order 13691, and the establishment of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence's new Cyber Threat Intelligence Integration Center (CTIIC). 

Earlier in February, the Obama Administration released its fiscal year (FY) 2016 budget request for the Department of Defense (DoD) with a base budget of $534 billion and an overseas operations contingency (OCO) budget of $51 billion. The President’s budget submission does not account for sequestration, which imposes a base budget cap of $499 for the DoD and does not affect the OCO budget. A strong consensus exists among defense and budgetary analysts that Congress is unlikely to repeal the Budget Control Act (BCA) in FY 2016. House Armed Services Committee Representative Adam Smith (D-Wash.) remarked, “I fully expect that Congress will again fight proposals to allow the Department of Defense to deal with the damaging effects of sequestration. We have seen this act before.” 

The National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA) recently hosted its 26th annual Special Operations/Low Intensity Conflict (SO/LIC) Symposium and Exhibition. The three day event hosted several notable speakers including: General Joseph L. Votel - Commander of US Special Operations Command (SOCOM), Lieutenant General Michael T. Flynn (Ret.) - former Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, and Lieutenant General Marshall B. Webb, Commander - NATO Special Operations Headquarters. The event covered topics such as the challenges related to combating ISIL and a more assertive Russia, as well the increasing demand for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and the growing desire for commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) technologies. 

The threat posed by ISIL was at the centerpiece of many discussions between SO/LIC event speakers and panelists. General Votel stated that at least 19,000 foreign fighters have surged into Iraq and Syria from over 90 countries. Votel further added that SOCOM has been closely observing ISIL’s operations in North Africa. Similarly, Lieutenant General Flynn offered a stark appraisal of the threat posed by ISIL, and cautioned that the ongoing international effort to defeat the group would likely last decades.