Technology

Peer cache is a great way to optimize Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager (MECM) and provide a more significant user experience to warfighters in remote areas.

MECM, formerly System Center Configuration Manager, is an enterprise tool to maintain compliance for Windows operating systems. It maintains all updates, third-party applications and enterprise configurations. Trying to maintain computers used for defense operations can be quite a challenge and this gives engineers the ability to directly affect battlefield endpoints.

The U.S. military’s existing satellite communications network, built to serve legacy systems, cannot appropriately enable warfare in the information age. To enable joint all-domain command and control, or JADC2, the U.S. Space Force needs to proliferate low-earth- and mid-earth-orbit, LEO and MEO, satellite constellations. In addition, the service needs to leverage space-based optical communications to reach the full potential of proliferated satellite communication networks.

Today, the Air Force Research Laboratory, or AFRL, unveiled the two winning groups of the Space University Research Initiative program, the first such university-based research effort for the two-year old U.S. Space Force, which may also result in technology transition to the U.S. Air Force.

Which articles from our SIGNAL Media team caught your eye this past year? Check out the top 10 most-read articles from 2021.

1. Special Forces Command Seeks Key Data Aggregation, Cyber Tools
By Kimberly Underwood, February 17, 2021

The Internet protocol suite, commonly known as TCP/IP, enabled exponential Internet growth. However, as a point-to-point architecture, it has limitations. Over the past two decades, Named Data Networking (NDN) has emerged as a viable Internet architecture designed to improve TCP/IP’s weaknesses and enable applications at the tactical edge. Those within the Defense Department responsible for shaping future warfighting networks should note the opportunities this provides for ad hoc, mobile users.

Emerging from academia via MIT, David is the CTO and co-founder at Markforged.

What is the most important activity for revolutionizing the supply chain?

The next step in revolutionizing the supply chain requires the continuation of supply chain digitization. This means turning toward digital solutions for supply chain management tools, which can store a digital record for each individual item in the supply chain.

Pittsburgh-based Near Earth Autonomy, developer of autonomous flight systems, and Melbourne, Florida-based L3 Harris Technologies are partnering in a medically oriented effort and are seeing progress. According to Near Earth, the companies successfully demonstrated an unmanned aircraft vehicle (UAV) and system that can autonomously deliver whole blood and other medical supplies hundreds of miles from an operational base to medics in precise locations.

The U.S. government and commercial sector is moving to deploy Fifth Generation, or 5G, wireless technology that will greatly increase connectivity and speed for a variety of mobile and remote users.

But while 5G is on the horizon, there are still technical challenges to address before it becomes ubiquitous, Stephen Douglas, senior director of market strategy for Spirent Communications, told Robert K. Ackerman, SIGNAL Magazine’s editor in chief during a SIGNAL Executive Video Series discussion.

A stealth unmanned aircraft under development as an inexpensive expendable tactical vehicle may find a use as a supply drone serving the vast Indo-Pacific region. Researchers at the U.S. Air Force’s Air University are exploring this alternative use for the XQ-58A Valkyrie, which is part of the service’s Low-Cost Attritable Aircraft Technology program to develop expendable vehicles that can be deployed in high-risk environments.

Q&A with Rick Wagner, corporate vice president for Microsoft Federal.

What will be the key new commercial technology that will be embraced by the federal government in the coming years?

The Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) is developing an important solution to provide clear situational awareness for electromagnetic spectrum, or EMS, operations. The agency expects to roll out an initial version of the Electromagnetic Battle Management System, or EMBM, next spring, according to Alan Rosner, program manager, Joint Spectrum Center, Defense Spectrum Organization, at DISA.

Rosner spoke during a panel session of AFCEA International’s TechNet Cyber conference in Baltimore in October 27.

The transition plan for some of the technologies involved in the U.S. Army’s Project Convergence 2021 (PC 21) campaign of learning should be delivered to the commander of U.S. Army Futures Command by Christmas, according to his deputy commander.

Lt. Gen. James Richardson, USA, deputy commander, Army Futures Command, told the audience at the Association of United States Army (AUSA) annual conference in Washington, D.C., that PC 21 includes about 110 technologies, some of which could transition very quickly to programs of record. PC 22 began this month and will end on November 9.

There is a lot of information available about zero trust—at times inconsistent and unreliable. Talk to different vendors and you are likely to get different answers as to exactly what zero trust is and how to adopt it within your agency.

What you need to know is this:

The U.S. Navy is looking to quickly implement commercial information technologies while it concurrently conducts a cattle drive to rid itself of obsolete capabilities, said its chief information officer (CIO). Aaron Weis allowed that industry will play a key role in providing innovation in an outside the box approach that addresses serious shortcomings.

“We have an infrastructure that for the most part is not supporting the mission,” Weis said.

Professor emeritus of Management, Technology and Innovation at The George Washington University and author of the book Beyond Knowledge.

How has the pandemic changed the way people acquire and exchange information?

The pandemic highlights how modern societies are fragile and unable to cope with crises. We now face the stark realization that social institutions must be reformed to survive more pandemics, climate change and other threats. It is particularly sobering that many refuse to take precautions (masking, vaccines) because of unfounded beliefs, driving home the destructive power of disinformation.

The speed and distributed nature of the modern public and private workplace means that getting the right teams and people aligned for a project can be challenging, as can coordinating and sharing information between those individuals. One way to do this is through virtual workspaces that can be applied to both existing physical spaces like meeting rooms and in a purely online setting.

This type of cooperation is important because it helps teams and decision makers work together in ways that traditional collaboration and screen sharing tools can’t because of their inherent limitations, explains David Kung, vice president for marketing strategy at Bluescape.

Scientists participating in an international research effort at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, or NIST, have discovered a previously unknown component of silicon crystals and unveiled new information about a subatomic particle. In doing so, the researchers of the multi-year experiment have yielded details about the “long-theorized fifth force of nature.” The findings may enable additional breakthroughs in quantum technologies, the University of Waterloo announced in a September 10 statement.

With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. Defense Department entered something of a forced telework pilot situation, maximizing telework flexibility to minimize workforce health risks. Having experienced the hurdles, hiccups and Herculean adaptation across the department, I think the department did well. I also support the department implementing maximum telework policy even if COVID becomes less of a threat.

I recently contributed to a written product circulating among Army leaders concerning the Army’s telework situation pre- and post-pandemic. Therein multiple advantages existed among a few manageable disadvantages.

As China, Russia, the United States and others race to gain an advantage with artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, quantum-enabled AI may be the next evolution, according to a panel of experts at the August 16-19 AFCEA TechNet conference in Augusta, Georgia.

The panel of women experts included moderator Carrie McLeish, director of federal capture, SANS Institute; Maj. Gen. Johanna Clyborne, ARNG, deputy commanding general, ARNG U.S. Army Cyber Center of Excellence; Arlene Espinal, vice president, Analytics, Automation, AI and Innovation Capabilities Office, ManTech; and Gokila Dorai, assistant professor, School of Computer and Cyber Sciences.

The U.S. Defense Department has entered the first phase of delivery on a sweeping capability known as Joint All-Domain Command and Control (JADC2), a once-in-a-generation modernization of the military’s approach to commanding forces.

Department officials aim to deliver a minimal viable product that includes an array of capabilities, such as a fundamental platform, identity control access management, zero-trust cybersecurity and data transport capabilities, according to Lt. Gen. Dennis Crall, USMC, director for command, control, communications and computers/cyber and chief information officer, Joint Staff/J-6. Once the minimal viable product, also known as an MVP, is in place, the department can continue to add capabilities.

In order to make the unified network vision a reality, the Army will need to adopt an array of technical capabilities, including 5G, zero trust cybersecurity, software-defined networks and data fabric.

Within this decade, commanders of combat units will have to plan and execute information activity, according to Army officials speaking at the August 17-19 AFCEA TechNet Augusta conference in Augusta, Georgia.

Appearing via video, Lt. Gen. Ted Martin, USA, commander, Combined Arms Center, Fort Leavenworth, said the new doctrine being drafted “as we speak” by Army officials “is forcing us to move into the future, and part of that future is information advantage.”  

As technology accelerates all aspects of modern life, from business to warfare, the need for real-time situational awareness has become critical.

But several hurdles must be cleared to achieve this level of awareness, specifically the need to avoid or close any capability gaps and the ability to scale. 

“When you get to the heart of it, when we’re talking about real-time situational awareness, we are talking about mission,” David Erickson, senior director for solutions architecture at Elastic told Robert K. Ackerman, SIGNAL Magazine’s editor in chief during a SIGNAL Media Executive Video interview.

As part of the Army’s efforts to eventually unify its tactical and enterprise networks, the service is developing three pilot technologies designed to simplify the planning and management of its tactical network.