Defense Department

  • DISA wants a secure mobile device manager and app store to support at least 162,000 Apple and Android mobile devices. Contract would begin next spring.

    October 23, 2012
  • Kaiser Permanente CEO George Halvorson talks e-health records. Also, BGov reporter Richard Stein gives an update on SBA's consideration of size standards by industry.

    October 23, 2012
  • During Monday night's debate, President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney discussed their different approaches to cutting the budget, particularly in the area of military spending. Romney criticized the Obama administration for proposing cuts to military spending, particularly through sequestration. Obama countered sequestration would not happen, and he said he would maintain military spending based on the needs of the Defense Department.

    October 23, 2012
  • Computer Sciences Corporation's David Rohret explains what federal networks look like from a would-be hacker's point of view. Plus, Federal Drive broadcasts live from the AUSA Conference in Washington.

    October 22, 2012
  • Warren Suss of Suss Consulting discusses Sprint's acquisition by Japanese company Softbank. Harl Sanderson, the "mayor of Beale Air Force Base," is honored as manager of the year. Roger Baker, the CIO at the VA, talks about the benefits of electronic health records. Technology reporter Ed Scannell reviews Windows 8.

    October 19, 2012
  • Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said the financial health of service members is important for troop readiness. A new report by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau details potential problems service members are facing.

    October 19, 2012
  • Dr. Andrew Ritcheson of DRC spoke the to Federal Drive with Tom Temin and Emily Kopp about what medical professionals have learned from 10 years of war about treating traumatic brain injuries.

    October 18, 2012
  • After a decade of heavy land war, Marine Corps turns to energy efficiency as a way to lighten its load and return to its expeditionary maritime roots. The service already rolled out four technologies that reduce the amount of energy a marine uses. The Marines Corps also is spending hundreds of millions of dollars on developing and testing other energy efficient equipment.

    October 18, 2012
  • Active-duty and reserve soldiers with between 15 and 20 years of service could be eligible for early retirement, the Army announced this week. The service is offering temporary early retirement authority (TERA) to military officers who have not been selected to move on to the next grade as well as noncommissioned officers identified by selection boards for involuntary separation. The service aims to shed 80,000 soldiers from its active component by the end of 2017.

    October 17, 2012
  • The Defense Department's personnel chief Erin Conaton is taking a medical leave of absence, Pentagon Press Secretary George Little said in a statement Wednesday. Panetta designated Jessica Wright, the assistant secretary of defense for Reserve Affairs, to act as the acting principal deputy undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness in Conaton's absence.

    October 17, 2012
  • FTA administrator Peter Rogoff discusses the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act. Attorney Stephen Ramaley talks about a U.S. District Court's decision ruling the 8(a) program unconstitutional. Erik Wasson of The Hill talks about Sen. Tom Coburn's Wastebook 2012. Juliet Beyler discusses the upcoming deadline for service members and their families to apply for retroactive pay.

    October 17, 2012
  • The Defense Information Systems Agency sees itself as a safety valve for increasing pressure on military services' IT budgets. At a meeting of CIOs last week, DISA told the military services they could offload commodity IT services to their data centers.

    October 17, 2012
  • A new Federal News Radio survey of federal chief information officers shows that budget cuts are among their biggest concerns. Senior technology managers also said among the biggest benefits they are seeing from moving systems to the cloud is cost savings. DoD deputy CIO Rob Carey said the Pentagon is setting certain changes in motion as part of its move to the cloud to help deal with an assortment of challenges.

    October 17, 2012
  • David Goldman of Public Health Science discusses a new customer complaint form put out by USDA. Martin Libicki of the Rand Corp. talks about Defense Secretary Leon Panetta's recent speech on cybersecurity. John Mahoney discusses the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's latest report on the federal workforce. GAO's Brenda Farrell talks about her agency's analysis of the Military Health System.

    October 15, 2012
  • Chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Darrel Issa (R-Calif.), wrote to the heads of 10 defense companies seeking information about the legal justification for not issuing notices of potential layoffs due to the across-the-board defense cuts set to go into effect Jan. 2. If contractors don't issue the notices and contracts are, in fact, terminated or modified, then agencies will pick up the contract-termination and employee compensation costs, the Office of Management and Budget stated in guidance issued late last month. But Republican lawmakers have argued the White House doesn't have the legal authority to ask companies to not comply with the law.

    October 12, 2012