By Lauren C. Williams
NOTE: This article first appeared on FCW.com.
President Joe Biden will nominate the director of the Defense Department’s innovative acquisition arm to be the Pentagon’s top buyer, the White House announced April 2.
Michael Brown has been the director of the Defense Innovation Unit, which helps DOD prototype and field new technologies with rapid acquisition techniques, since 2018.
DIU recently celebrated its five-year anniversary and has expanded its portfolio under Brown’s leadership, fielding 26 new capabilities.
Brown was previously a White House Innovation Fellow for the Defense Department and was the CEO of two Silicon Valley companies, the cybersecurity firms Symantec and Quantum, which is one of the biggest suppliers of drives for personal computers.
By Lauren C. Williams
NOTE: This article first appeared on FCW.com.
The House Armed Services Committee has launched a task force to investigate defense supply chain vulnerabilities, foreign manufacturing concerns and other issues raised by the pandemic. The experience of our totally disrupted supply chains in the early part of the pandemic was a pretty searing experience, Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.), co-chair of the Defense Critical Supply Chain Task Force, told reporters on March 10.
Supply chain vulnerabilities have long been a concern in the Pentagon but really gained increased attention in recent years particularly regarding foreign manufacturing of technologies such as small drones, semiconductors and microelectronics.
By Adam Mazmanian, Justin Katz
Mar 10, 2021
NOTE: This article first appeared on FCW.com.
The Technology Modernization is poised to receive one heck of a present for its three-year anniversary – a $1 billion funding injection from Congress that would dramatically its capitalization.
The TMF was founded by the Modernizing Government Technology Act and launched with $100 million. The fund has received three $25 million appropriations but overall has remained small – especially considering lawmakers initially sought to fund it with $3 billion.
The House of Representatives included $9 billion for TMF in its initial version of the bill, but that provision was scrubbed after objections from many in the Senate. However, TMF backers in the Senate managed to include $1 billion their version of the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act. The bill also contains other tech funding, including $200 million for the U.S. Digital Service and $650 million for the Cybersecurity and Infrastruct
Biden addressed the global security forum for the first time as president last week when he called for the United States to cooperate with European allies on establishing cyberspace norms.
The Defense Department is still figuring out how to give contractors reciprocity with the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification program and similar certifications, but the end is close, officials say.