IT, acquisition face changes in 2018 defense bills

The House and Senate have completed their draft 2018 defense bills that could result in significant changes for acquisition and IT management in the Pentagon.

Shutterstock image (by alienant): An aerial view of the pentagon rendered as a vector.
 

The House and Senate Armed Services Committees have completed their markups of the 2018 National Defense Authorization Act, and the Senate version lays out major reforms to cyber, innovation, IT management and information operations.

The two versions differ somewhat on topline numbers, with the House calling for $631.5 billion in base defense funding with another $65 billion in war funding, and the Senate clocking in at $640 billion and $60 billion respectively.

Those differences are relatively trivial compared to Senate proposals such as splitting of some of the CIO's responsibilities -- handing business functions to the chief management officer and giving much of the cyber portfolio to a new chief information warfare officer position.

According to the SASC NDAA summary, that Senate-confirmed position "would assume responsibility for all matters relating to the information environment of the DOD, including cybersecurity and cyber warfare, space and space launch systems, electronic warfare, and the electromagnetic spectrum."

SASC is calling for a "cross-functional task force" to integrate information operations, electronic warfare, public affairs and cyber operations to produce strategy and planning to "counter, deter, and conduct strategic information operations and cyber-enabled information operations."

The Senate bill focuses on improving software-related acquisition through "a high-level study by the Defense Innovation Board, a pilot program to start effective new software activities, and other programs to realign troubled major software acquisitions."

To that end, the SASC NDAA reduces funding for a number of software and IT initiatives in an effort to push the DOD to more standardized services and commercial products. "The NDAA includes several pilots as well as associated training, tools, and infrastructure to accomplish this," states the summary.

SASC is also proposing cuts to Army networking programs. Funding for the Warfighter Information Network-Tactical would drop by $448 million, and the Distributed Combat Ground System would lose $150 million. The bill also cuts $200 million from the Integrated Battle Command System, which has been fraught with software glitches.

While the SASC is cutting funding for some IT programs, it is adding half a billion dollars to innovation programs designed to advance the Third Offset Strategy of U.S.  technological superiority.

Like the House version of the NDAA, SASC is emphasizing acquisition reform and using vehicles such as Other Transactions Authority and Experimental Procurement Authority to speed development and deployment of new technologies.

SASC Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.) was highly critical of the Obama administration for not developing a comprehensive cyber deterrence strategy, and he has maintained that critique during the Trump presidency. The SASC markup requires the U.S. to set forth a policy to employ "all instruments of national power" to deter and respond to cyberattacks.

The SASC NDAA mandates the secretary of defense conduct a cyber posture review and "requires the Commanders of U.S. Cyber Command and U.S. Strategic Command to jointly assess the cyber resiliency of the nuclear command and control system."

One provision of the Senate bill that has raised eyebrows is a ban on the DOD using any Kaspersky Lab software "due to reports that the Moscow-based company might be vulnerable to Russian government influence."

Kaspersky, which was founded in Russia 20 years ago, is the subject of an FBI counterintelligence investigation, and senators from both parties have been highly critical of the organization in the wake of Russia's information operations campaign against the U.S. election.

Eugene Kaspersky, the firm's CEO has repeatedly denied claims the company has any ties to Russian intelligence. "We have never helped, nor will help, any government in the world with their cyber-espionage efforts," Kaspersky wrote in a recent blog post.

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.