Navy
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Right now, the Navy has more than 630 network baselines on its ships at sea. A contract the service awarded this week aims to change that. The Navy is committing up to $2.5 billion to five vendors who will replace that IT mishmash with a single, standards based network architecture. Federal News Radio's DoD Reporter Jared Serbu reports. Read Jared's related article.
August 22, 2014 -
The indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity award will converge the heterogeneous IT architectures aboard Navy ships - all 630 of them - into a single, standards based architecture.
August 21, 2014 -
When the Navy needs to reform a program it sometimes turns to a special test called an Analysis of Alternatives. Right now the Navy's analysts are hard at work on acquisition reform. Ryan Dickover is director of eBusiness Policy and Oversight in the Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development and Acquisition. He explained the AoA process on In Depth with Francis Rose.
August 20, 2014 -
The Navy awarded blanket purchase agreements to 17 small businesses, which they hope will take care of most DoD's conference planning needs for the next three years.
August 20, 2014 -
The Navy puts its wounded sailors back to work before they're even discharged from the hospital. The Wounded Warrior Intern Program takes wounded sailors interested in science and engineering careers and puts them to work at Naval Sea Systems Command. Dr. Tom Murphy is the program manager. He explained how the program works on In Depth with Francis Rose.
August 19, 2014 -
Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel called the crew aboard the U.S. ship MV Cape Ray Monday to congratulate the ship's crew on finishing their unprecedented work of neutralizing the most dangerous chemicals in Syria's declared stockpile at sea. The secretary said that by ridding the world of these materials, they - as part of an ongoing international effort to eliminate the Syrian chemical weapons arsenal - have helped make an important and enduring contribution to global security.
August 19, 2014 -
In this week's edition of Inside the DoD Reporter's Notebook, Jared Serbu examines news and buzz in the Defense community that you might have missed including: Pending the outcome of a Justice Department investigation, the Director of Naval Intelligence still has no security clearance; DARPA's former director is found to have improperly endorsed her former company; and changes are coming to the way DoD uses firm fixed price level of effort contracts.
August 15, 2014 -
Scott B. Miserendino Sr., a former contracting official with the Navy's Military Sealift Command, pleaded guilty on Tuesday, Aug. 12 to conspiracy to commit bribery and accepting bribes as a public official.
August 14, 2014 -
Gary Wyckoff, the chief information officer of the Office of Naval Research, said ONR is on the cusp of putting several applications in the cloud. He said mobility is a more difficult road to travel.
August 14, 2014 -
Navy jets have been dropping 500 lb. bombs in Iraq on ISIL positions in northern Iraq. The 500 lb. bomb is one of the smallest and one of the most common air-dropped weapons in the world. Although the nominal weight is 500 lbs., its actual weight varies considerably depending on its configuration, from 510 lbs. to 570 lbs. It comes with a streamlined steel casing containing 192 lbs. of Tritonal high explosive. The bombs being used in Iraq are laser-guided for precision.
August 11, 2014 -
Improving acquisition compliance and ethics may involve less rulemaking and more culture shaping according to panelists at the National Contract Management Association's World Congress conference. At the conference, agency leaders discussed the need to streamline and pursue innovative approaches to federal acquisition policies.
July 30, 2014 -
An uninvited guest crashes the world's largest international naval exercise. A Chinese spy ship is watching over the Rim of the Pacific exercise that runs until Friday. But the ship isn't breaking any navigation laws, so Chinese military experts say it's a non-issue. Sam LaGrone, news editor of the US Naval Institute, broke the news of the ship's presence outside RIMPAC. On In Depth with Francis Rose, he explains why it's not a huge surprise.
July 29, 2014 -
Suicides among active-duty military rose this year compared with the same period last year, but Pentagon officials indicate more service members are seeking help through hotlines and other aid programs. Pentagon documents obtained by The Associated Press show there were 161 confirmed or suspected suicides as of July 14, compared with 154 during the same time frame in 2013. The increase was among the Air Force and Navy, while soldiers and Marine suicides went down.
July 23, 2014 -
The Navy thinks 3D printing can eliminate a wide range of challenges with its supply chain. The service is already testing the idea of using additive manufacturing technologies to build small spare parts aboard ships, as they're needed, rather than having to transport them from supply ships or distant warehouses. And one day, the service thinks the technology could even be able to build a small UAV at the press of a button. Carolyn Lambeth is a mechanical engineer for Combat Direction Systems Activity at Dam Neck, Virginia. She explained the future of 3D printing at the Navy on In Depth with Francis Rose.
July 10, 2014 -
The Navy has its first female four-star admiral, Michelle Janine Howard. She was promoted on Tuesday to the service's highest rank. She graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1982 and in 1999 became the first African-American woman to command a Navy ship. She was a key figure is the real-life rescue of Captain Richard Phillips from Somalia pirate. The story later became a block-buster movie.
July 03, 2014