While extensive work has been published on the U.S. and Soviet nuclear weapons programs, very little has been said about Soviet electronics and its related espionage until author Steven T. Usdin’s book, Engineering Communism: How Two Americans Spied for Stalin and Founded the Soviet Silicon Valley. Usdin has brought readers into this intriguing world in a thorough and insightful way by revealing how the two U.S.-born spies nearly created a Soviet version of Silicon Valley.

A prototype virtual operating system will allow researchers to load experiments into supercomputers quickly without having to modify their programs substantially to operate on a specific platform. The software uses a technique called virtualization to enable a machine to run multiple operating systems, something current supercomputers cannot do. This capability would allow high-performance computers to operate a wider range of software, from highly specialized modeling and simulation programs to commercial applications.

The French army soon will deploy a tactical battlefield communications and data network that aims to provide battalion command posts with on-the-halt satellite and line-of-sight connectivity. The system is part of France’s ongoing efforts to convert its military into a fully network-centric force. In addition to extending high-bandwidth networking down to mobile command posts, the program also lays the foundations for a future fully mobile communications capability.

A U.S. Army organization is changing the way information is protected by embedding personnel and assessment processes into research and development programs. The center works with researchers to put security procedures in place by helping program managers identify and safeguard vital data. But protecting that information is challenging because it often is difficult to determine what is and is not sensitive material.

The U.S. Defense Department has developed an information assurance policy chart in an attempt to pull together the department’s diverse information assurance policies under a single umbrella document. The web-based chart provides hyperlinks directly to policies so that a user can identify and trace their origins as well as track changes that occur.

What do bad brakes, invading termites, leaky dams and equally leaky military networks have in common? They are conditions that can result in significant damage if not addressed but are easily avoided through attention, upkeep and paying attention to Certification and Accreditation (C&A) Process, DIACAP, resulting in an Approval to Operate (ATO) or an Interim Approval to Operate (IATO). . There are a number of people who will tell you that keeping them in good IA order is too much work and/or too costly. These are usually the people who have “more important things to worry about” or MITT-WA.

From an Intelligence perspective the first two weeks of May have been quite startling, but few seem to have noticed. On May 2nd we experienced the failed Time Square car bombing; on May 6th machines took over stock trading resulting a near 1000 point crash of the Dow Jones Average; and on May 8th Secretary Gates warned that the current level of defense spending is unsustainable. As backdrop to all of this an oil rig exploded on April 20th killing eleven and has been spewing 5000 barrels of crude a day into the Gulf of Mexico ever since threatening an environmental disaster of epic proportions. Meanwhile on Capitol Hill the Senate Select Committee for Intelligence (SSCI) and the House Permanent Select Committee for Intelligence (HPSCI) for no apparent reason have reengaged on passing an FY 2010 Intelligence Authorization Bill so either the President can veto it or it can be become law just in time to have no impact on IC activities!

A package of sensors, software and navigation equipment will soon permit U.S. Army ground robots, trucks and armored vehicles to move around a battlefield with minimal human supervision. The Autonomous Navigation System (ANS) allows robots to perceive and follow paths and other vehicles. The system recently completed its critical design review and is now moving on to the prototype fabrication stage.

Every once in a while, I need to take a step back and reground my motivations. Why? Because the federal market -- let alone the most intricate and challenging portion of the federal market... (i.e., the DoD and intelligence community submarkets) require long term stamina. I recently got a reminder of what a typical warfighter goes through on an average day in Afghanistan. If you have not read what a typical day in-theater is like, please check this out: A Soldier’s Guide To Staying Healthy in Afghanistan and Pakistan. It will give you a new appreciation for the urgency in helping our military and intelligence professionals get home quickly.

This year’s event occurs in mid-June, but plans for NEXT year’s event have already started, and leaders have identified some priorities.