FROM THE DESK OF CLEARANCEJOBS.COM
1. Death, taxes, and clearances. William Loveridge explains, “From time to time, the federal government has placed emphasis on closely scrutinizing anyone who owes delinquent federal or state obligations (income or other taxes, student loans, personal property tax, etc.) Such delinquent obligations reflect poorly on an individual’s compliance with established laws and failure to demonstrate financial responsibility.”
2. Fed hiring. No fair! Contributor Chandler Harris reports, “Federal hiring practices are far from fair, with federal hiring managers predetermining who will fill vacancies and sometimes only accepting internal applications, according to a recent review of federal hiring practices by the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB). . . . If an agency doesn’t already have a candidate in mind, hiring officials rely primarily on resumes and cover letters, followed by interviews, occupational questionnaires and reference checks, respectively.”
THE FORCE AND THE FIGHT
1. 6th Generation Fighters and the Air Dominance Initiative. Defense News’ Paul McLeary reports, “Pentagon acquisition chief Frank Kendall told a Senate panel that there is money in the next budget for the Air Force to begin work on its 6th generation fighter . . . . The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has been working on a series of studies on 6th generation fighter technologies for the past several years, and Air Force officials have said they expect to begin flying the next-generation jets by as early as the 2030s. Industry teams are also known to have started internal research and development projects on potential 6th generation technologies. The DARPA 6th generation fighter program has been dubbed the Air Dominance Initiative.” See also from DoD Buzz, “Pentagon Unveils Program to Help Build 6th Generation Fighter.”
2. Sequestration and national security. Defense One’ Mary O’Toole reports, “The U.S. military’s top officers testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Wednesday that the mandatory spending caps known as sequestration are threatening national security — although Congress is unlikely to do anything about it. On Monday, the Obama administration is expected to request a $585 billion Pentagon budget for fiscal year 2016, exceeding the budget caps by $34 billion in 2016 and $150 billion over the next five years. The request includes $534 billion for the base budget, which would be the largest in history. The Budget Control Act of 2011 set caps on defense spending next year at $500 billion.”
3. Hagel retrospective. Defense Media Activity’s Karen Parris reports, “Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel led the Defense Department through fundamental changes during his tenure of almost two years. Since being sworn in on Feb. 27, 2013, Hagel shepherded internal reforms and defended against new and rapidly evolving external threats. He welcomed same-sex couples into the ranks and continued the work to open combat arms jobs to women. He oversaw the end of the U.S. combat mission in Afghanistan, enhanced the rebalance to the Asia-Pacific region and deployed U.S. personnel to counter the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant and to help the U.S. Agency for International Development fight Ebola at its source in West Africa.” See also, “Chuck Hagel, 24th Secretary of Defense.”
4. ISIS’ hostage industry. AP reports, “Japan said it was putting its trust in Jordan to help gain the release of a Japanese journalist held by Islamic State militants, after the latest message purportedly from his captors extended until sundown Thursday in the Middle East the deadline for the Jordanians to release an Iraqi prisoner. . . . Japan has scrambled to deal with the crisis that began last week with the release of a video by the Islamic State group showing Goto and another Japanese hostage, Haruna Yukawa, kneeling in orange jumpsuits between a masked man who threatened to kill them within 72 hours unless Japan paid a $200 million ransom.” See also, “US uses Kobane defeat in ‘counter-message’ against Islamic State.”
CONTRACT WATCH
1. Digital twins and threads: Air Force reinventing high tech acquisition. Aviation Week’s Graham Warwick reports, “The acquisition process now being piloted has two key elements: the ‘digital thread,’ a model of the system that begins at conceptualization and evolves through its life to retirement; and the ‘digital twin,’ a model of the system as built, including any manufacturing discrepancies, that is used to support the system in service.”
2. GSA’s $100 million blanket purchase agreement. Federal Times’ Aaron Boyd reports, “Offices within the General Services Administration will have an easier time purchasing Infrastructure-as-a-Service with the announcement of a new blanket purchase agreement (BPA). Cloud service provider Aquilent was awarded a five-year, $100 million contract to supply infrastructure needs to GSA offices . . . .”
TECH, PRIVACY, & SECRECY
1. Next generations of cybercrime. Defense One contributor Linda Kinstler reports, “Eugene Kaspersky, who runs the Kaspersky Lab security group, cautioned that cybercrime has evolved to rival the sophistication of states. ‘A few years ago, there was criminal malware, and state-sponsored malware. and the difference [was] like a car and a space shuttle. Now, many criminals, unfortunately, the evolution in cybercrime is such that they are very professional.’ Jean-Paul Laborde, executive director of the UN Counter-Terrorism Executive Directorate, warned of ‘more and more connections between organized crime and terrorist organizations.’”
2. Criminalizing the NSA. U.S. News’ Steven Nelson reports, “In eight states, legislators are pushing bills they hope will either boot National Security Agency facilities or ban the agency from setting up shop. The bills would prohibit state and local governments from offering material support to the agency, including use of public utilities that carry water and electricity. Two of the bills would criminalize official cooperation with the NSA and several seek to squeeze contractors out of work with the electronic spy agency.”
3. Peshmerga goes high-tech. Rudaw’s Campbell MacDiarmid reports from Erbil, “Canada delivered six demining robots to the Kurdistan Region’s Peshmerga forces, where 70 percent of casualties are caused by planted bombs. The remotely-operated device . . . will be used to detect and defuse improvised explosive devices (IEDs) laid by retreating Islamic State (ISIS) fighters. A major source of danger, IEDs cause 70 percent of all Peshmerga casualties . . . .”
4. Good Idea Fairy. Wired’s Alex Davies reports, “The Panjandrum has to be one of the craziest, most explosively unsuccessful flops in modern military history. Concocted by the British as a means of breaking through formidable German defenses on the beaches of Normandy, the engineering brief reads like something out of an Acme catalog: Install a bunch of rockets on two huge wheels joined by a drum-like axle packed with explosives. Point it at the Germans, fire the rockets and get the hell out of the way.”
POTOMAC TWO-STEP
1. Lynch in limbo. “Sen. Jeff Sessions announced Wednesday he will not vote to confirm President Obama’s nominee to succeed Attorney General Eric Holder. . . . ‘Unfortunately, when asked today whether she found the president’s actions to be ‘legal and constitutional,’ Ms. Lynch said that she did,’ Sessions said. ‘I therefore am unable to support her nomination.’ Lynch told the Senate Judiciary Committee she viewed the immigration directive as ‘reasonable,’ and said that those who are here illegally should work.”
2. Pelosi warns Netanyahu. “Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) this week warned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that his coming speech before Congress threatens to sink the nuclear talks between Iran and the United States, the Democratic leader said Wednesday. ‘I think that such a presentation could send the wrong message,’ Pelosi told reporters during the Democrats’ annual issues retreat in Philadelphia. ‘That’s my view, and I shared that with the prime minister today.’ A Pelosi spokesman said Pelosi and Netanyahu spoke by phone earlier in the day. The spokesman declined to characterize Netanyahu’s response.”
OPINIONS EVERYONE HAS
1. “Iraq War in the Bright Lights.” U.S. News contributor Brad Bannon argues, “I hope that the furor over ‘American Sniper’ rekindles memories of the war in Iraq and puts the fear of God into the public and decision-makers alike so the U.S. never makes such a tragic mistake again. I say hope because movies like ‘Born on the Fourth of July’, ‘Coming Home’ and ‘Platoon’ about the American disaster in Vietnam didn’t stop the U.S. from repeating the same mistake in the Middle East.”
2. “Nuclear Armageddon Threatens World Again.” The Moscow Times contributor Ivan Sukhov argues, “Now, an entirely different situation has arisen as the fears of the Soviet Union that some Western ideologists held during the Cold War are becoming a reality—almost 25 years after that country has ceased to exist. And with Russia threatening to withdraw from the restraints imposed by mutual arms controls agreements signed since the Cold War, the nuclear threat is experiencing a rebirth.” See also from Reuters, “Ukraine looking more like Poland on the brink of World War Two.”
3. “How companies deal with fear of change.” Christian Science Monitor’s Editorial Board offers, “People’s ability to cope with ever-more-complex gadgets, data, machines, and documents may be reaching a neo-Luddite threshold of resistance.”
