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XTAR LLC, Rockville, Maryland, has named Andrew Ruszkowski vice president of Global Sales and Marketing.

Michael A. Lucki has joined CH2M HILL, Denver, Colorado, as senior vice president and chief financial officer.

John B. Allen has been assigned as deputy director, naval warfare, Director, Operational Test and Evaluation, Washington, D.C.

At a recent event sponsored by the Bipartisan Policy Center on domestic intelligence reform, the keynote speaker was Director of National Intelligence James Clapper. At the conclusion of his remarks, the floor was opened to the audience and the first question suggested that – the 9/11 Commission, the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act, and the passage of nine years notwithstanding - American intelligence remained imperfect. That is my characterization of the question, but you get the point. (As an aside, AFCEANs who are not familiar with the Bipartisan Policy Center and its activities should take a look at its website.)

Well, how did you do this fiscal year? The intell budgets have not really been cut, as much as they've been adjusted away from Cold War programs towards counterinsurgency and modern tools that more directly support the global war on terror (GWOT). Fred Kaplan, in a recent Foreign Policy Online Magazine article, points out that SECDEF Robert Gates "favors spending tens of billions of dollars to maintain, and somewhat upgrade, the nuclear arsenal. He opposes any slacking off in America's global military presence." And the NRO is preparing for "the most aggressive launch campaign we've had in 20 years." Gates has seen that the transformation from a Cold War machine is by no means complete and we don't need to shrink budgets, but adjust priorities within budget. These couple of examples are typical to the current environment as FY10 closes.

There are some important strategic changes occurring in the national security landscape. A new kind of cyber attack has been noted, one that involves use of malicious code to attack infrastructure. There are some important points in this attack that should be understood by national security decision-makers. With the launch of the code the security community calls Stuxnet, an attack was made against a programmable logic controller (PLC) that runs a physical system. This is a new degree of bad in cyber attacks. This code is potentially (probably?) nation -state sponsored. We might never know which country, but a review of the geo-political situation today can lead to some informed speculation.

The Apps4Africa competition hosted by the U.S. State Department challenged innovators in Africa to find 21st century solutions to everyday issues, and a panel of judges recently selected the winning apps.

Brig. Gen. Richard T.

Col. Scot Miller, USA (Ret.), has joined Mission 1st Group Incorporated, Shrewsbury, New Jersey, as vice president of operations.