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Trump signs first bill and actions as president

migration — Fri, 20 Jan 2017 19:30:33 +0000

President Donald Trump on Friday quickly claimed the mantle of the White House, signing legislation allowing retired Gen. James Mattis to serve as his defense secretary, as well as the nomination papers for his Cabinet choices.

Less than an hour after wrapping up his inaugural address, Trump sat in an ornate room steps from the Senate floor and signed a series of papers formally launching his administration. Flanked by Vice President Mike Pence and congressional leaders, he praised each of his nominees as he signed the papers and handed out the pens he was using, exchanges that allowed him to banter with his new congressional rivals, including Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York and House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of California.

Trump also signed a proclamation declaring a national day of patriotism, according to a tweet from White House spokesman Sean Spicer.

The bill passed by Congress last week grants Mattis a one-time exception from federal law barring former U.S. service members who have been out of uniform for less than seven years from holding the top Pentagon job. The restriction is meant to preserve civilian control of the military. Mattis, 66, retired from the Marine Corps in 2013.

The signing ceremony captured Trump’s first acts as president. It was unclear whether more was coming Friday.

The president distributed pens to top congressional leaders during the ceremony. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, for instance, received the pen with which Trump nominated Elaine Chao, McConnell’s wife, to be Transportation secretary.

When Pelosi jokingly objected to a pen used to nominate Rep. Tom Price of Georgia to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, House Speaker Paul Ryan interjected, “I’ll take it.”

While Trump participated in the ritual of the day, there were signs his new government was up and running. Federal websites and agencies immediately began reflecting the transfer of power, and WhiteHouse.gov was revamped to reflect Trump’s policy priorities.

Gone was a page dedicated to outlining the president’s policies on LGBT rights. Trump’s site appears to make no reference to the issue.

And in place of a page promoting the Obama administration’s Climate Action Plan was a page detailing Trump’s “America First Energy Plan,” which stresses Trump’s commitment to “eliminating harmful and unnecessary policies such as the Climate Action Plan.”

But the Trump team kept a section of the White House site that let voters petition the White House. Two new petitions were posted Friday: one calling on him to release his tax returns and verify that he is not receiving payments from foreign government, while the other asks him to divest of his holdings or put them in a blind trust.

Shortly after Trump became president, the Department of Housing and Urban Development suspended the Obama administration’s planned reduction of mortgage insurance premium rates, a move that had been intended to make home ownership more affordable. Trump’s choice to run HUD, Ben Carson, said at Senate hearings that he wants to examine the reductions.

Although Trump campaigned on promises to get to work immediately, Trump officials have said they expected Monday as the first big workday of the new administration, his effective Day One.

As a candidate, Trump assembled an 18-point plan of actions for his first day in office. But has backed off some of his promised speed, downplaying the importance of a rapid-fire approach to complex issues that may involve negotiations with Congress or foreign leaders. On others issues, he has affirmed the plan, indicating significant policy announcements may be teed up in the first hours and days of the Trump administration.

“The glacial pace and the excuse of divided government in Washington, those days are gone,” said White House counselor Kellyanne Conway, who served as Trump’s final campaign manager. “That really will be swept into the bin of recent history.”

Spicer said Thursday that two executive orders on trade would be coming soon. On his Day One list, Trump said he would formally declare the United States’ intention to withdraw from the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, which he vigorously opposed during his campaign as detrimental to U.S. businesses and workers. He also promised to declare his intention to renegotiate the two-decades-old Clinton era North American Free Trade Agreement or withdraw from the deal.

During the campaign, Trump promised to propose on his first day a constitutional amendment to impose term limits on members of Congress. He vowed to impose a hiring freeze for federal workers, and begin to remove immigrants who are criminals and living in the country unlawfully.

He also said he would “cancel every unconstitutional executive action, memorandum and order issued by President Obama.”

Given Trump’s opposition to Obama’s immigration actions, that could mean cancellation of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, which has protected about 750,000 young immigrants from deportation. The program also offered those immigrants work permits.

If he terminates the program, Trump could choose to immediately cancel the deportation protection and revoke the work permits, or he could opt to block new enrollment and allow those already approved to keep their work permits until they expire.

Trump also faces an early choice of naming a Supreme Court justice to fill the vacancy left by the late Justice Antonin Scalia. Trump has said he will announce a nominee in about two weeks.

Other issues poised to receive early action include energy, where Trump is likely to undo regulations on oil drilling and coal, and cybersecurity, where he has already said he will ask for a report on the strength of the nation’s cyber defenses within 90 days of taking office.

Associated Press writer Alicia A. Caldwell contributed to this report.

The US Air Force Could Pick New Army-Marine Corps Ride to Guard Missile Fields

migration — Wed, 04 Jan 2017 20:24:25 +0000

WASHINGTON — The Army and Marine Corps Joint Light Tactical Vehicle could be one option on the table as the Air Force seeks new vehicles for its security forces protecting missile-launch facilities.

The service is in the earliest stages of the process, and no decisions have been made on the number of vehicles needed or whether to opt for a military-specific or commercial product, officials told Defense News. Procurement by the Air Force would be an unexpected boon for JLTV manufacturer Oshkosh Defense, which is eagerly looking to add to its customer base.

At this point, requirements have been formalized by Air Force Global Strike Command and are currently being vetted by the Air Force’s Security Forces Center and the Vehicle Supply Chain Operations Squadron (VSCOS), Air Force spokesman Capt. Chris Mesnard said. Once they are set in stone, Air Force Materiel Command will take the lead in the acquisition process.

The Air Force needs a specialized vehicle for missile field security to replace the aging Humvees currently in operation, Maj. Gen. Michael Fortney, vice commander of Air Force Global Strike Command, said in a December interview.

“We had been using up-armored Humvees for a long time,” he said. According to the Air Force, some of those models date as far back as 1998 and have not been modernized since their purchase, which Fortney said creates problems in upkeep.

“Those [vehicles] are no longer going to be supportable in the DoD after a certain point in time. So what is the right vehicle for that mission set up there?” he said.

Oshkosh’s Joint Light Tactical Vehicle is seen as one potential option. Air Force representatives visited Marine Corps Base Quantico in early December to see the ride in action, receiving briefings and demonstrations from Army and Marine Corps officials. Individuals from Air Force headquarters, Global Strike Command (AFGSC), AF Security Forces Center, VSCOS and Warner-Robins Air Logistics Complex were in attendance, Mesnard confirmed.

Should the Air Force decide to buy into the JLTV program, it could benefit from the economies of scale inherent to such a large procurement. The Army and Marine Corps plan to buy a total 54,599

vehicles over the course of the program.

The company delivered the first seven JLTVs to the Army and Marine Corps in late September. According to an Army statement, Oshkosh will provide about 100 vehicles over the next year for testing at Yuma Proving Ground, Arizona.

And once full-rate production starts in 2019, the services hope that lower-than-expected unit prices can drive bigger purchases every year, shaving about $6 billion in costs, Scott Davis, the Army’s program executive officer for combat support and combat service support, said in an October news release.

Air Force officials stressed that no decision to procure the JLTV has been made. In an emailed response to questions, Mesnard said the service believes both military and commercial, off-the-shelf vehicles may be able to meet its requirements.

The Air Force on Dec. 21 issued a request for informationon tactical vehicles that will be used to help the service identify potential options ahead of a competition.

The RFI includes divides vehicles into “Level 1” — ultra-light variants less than 10,000 pounds — and a larger “Level 2” vehicle that can weigh up to 20,000 pounds. The JLTV, which has a curb weight of 14,000, fits into the heavier category.

Level 2 vehicles should also be able to meet speeds of at least 65 miles per hour, have a 3,000-pound payload capability, and have a fuel range of 350 miles while traveling at 35 miles per hour. The Level 1 vehicles have a smaller payload — only 1,500 pounds — but must be able to hit 75 mile per hour speeds.

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The number of vehicles AFGSC will buy depends on things like procurement cost, mix of light and medium variants, available budget, etc.,” Mesnard stated.

If the Air Force does opt for the JLTV, the service has also not determined whether it would need Oshkosh to modify the vehicles for service-specific requirements driven by the harsh, frigid climates of the northern-tier missile bases.

Cost considerations and long lead time would likely preclude the service from purchasing a clean-sheet design, Mesnard said, adding that “the Air Force would only pursue a service-specific buy if a suitable joint vehicle was not available to meet mission requirements.”

A spokeswoman for Oshkosh declined to provide specifics about the company’s level of involvement in the demonstrations to Air Force officials in Quantico, but signaled that the company would welcome adding a third US military service to its list of customers.

“While we defer to the US government on their program requirements and procurement plans, we are confident that the JLTV platform provides superior performance, off-road mobility and protection for all services, including the Air Force,” Jennifer Christiansen, Oshkosh’s vice president of global strategy and marketing, said in a statement. “Oshkosh stands ready to produce JLTVs for all services to ensure our troops receive the next generation equipment the need to successfully complete their missions.”

The Army’s cyber ops has a data problem

migration — Wed, 16 Nov 2016 19:50:17 +0000

The Army’s cyber operations are challenged by the amount of data flowing through the network, according to the service’s cyber director in the Army’s G-3/5/7 branch.

“We are challenged with big data analytics,” Brig. Gen. Patricia Frost said at Federal Times’ CyberCon conference in Washington on Wednesday. The Army and the other services are working on how to cull through “a tremendous amount of data” in a way that brings appropriate knowledge or information to the decision-makers in the field.

“At echelon, when you talk to our commanders, they are overwhelmed, they rarely feel they [have] the information required to get to the decision,” Frost said.

Solutions to understanding the cyber battle space and help process the data could include visualization tools to aid commanders in the electronic warfare spectrum; the ability to pinpoint an adversary, if the adversary can see you in cyberspace; and where one may be denied the ability to operate, she said.

Brig. Gen. Jennifer Buckner, deputy commander of operations at U.S. Cyber Command’s Cyber National Mission Force, said the force’s relationship with the Defense Innovation Unit Experimental (DIUx) has helped bring some technologies to light that could help offensive and defensive operations in cyberspace, to include better ways to speed through or harvest data and even respond automatically based on data ingested into the system.

The need to process large amounts of data into usable information for commanders is just the “tip of the spear” of cyber operations.

The network itself, Frost noted, is a war fighting platform for the “digitized” military. “If you are denied service on that war fighting platform, portions of what you are trying to achieve as a commander” cannot be accomplished, she said.

“We look at the capabilities needed and so we have to train our forces to understand the war fighting platform defensively, but then what do we actually want to put in the hands of our commanders at echelon that would give them an offensive advantage,” Frost said. “I truly believe that our commanders at each echelon need to have capability to visualize this battle space, this [Department of Defense Information Network] DoDIN.”

And cyber operators need to see the battle space and how data is moving within that — whether they are sitting in a contingency-operating base or a forward-operating base — in order to shape operations, according to Frost. Then the Army needs to ensure it’s providing the right tools to act on the offense within cyberspace when necessary.

On the defensive side of cyber operations, the Army is getting ready to conduct an event it’s calling Hack the Army, recently announced by Army Secretary Eric Fanning, Frost noted.

The concept is similar to the Defense Department’s “bug bounty program” that pays outside hackers to discover and disclose vulnerabilities on DoD networks. Hack the Army will launch at the end of November.

Army battles policy hurdles in cyber electromagnetic activities

migration — Wed, 16 Nov 2016 18:57:58 +0000

The Army stood up cyber electromagnetic activity cells that can — by way of challenging capabilities integration work — operate effectively at the tactical level, the cyber director in the Army’s G-3/5/7 division said. Among the key challenges, however, is working through some of the bureaucratic hurdles.

The structure of the cyber electromagnetic activity cells is key to the concept.

“Looking at the integration of cyber electronic warfare information operations, and if you were actually deployed in a joint fight, you would also include psychological operations, a lot of different information capabilities into that cell,” Brig. Gen. Patricia Frost said at the CyberCon conference hosted by Federal Times and C4ISRNET in Washington on Wednesday. “So it’s looking at understanding that each of these capabilities bring a different line of authorities [influencing] how you can actually execute operations.”

The Army plans to push the envelope in terms of getting the right policies in place, Frost said. For instance, clearance to have access to certain intelligence or information at the right echelons so commanders can make appropriate decisions in the cyber battle space is something to be examined differently, she added.

“Right now we are very stovepiped” when it comes to having clearances, she said. “How do we break some of those barriers down to get at the capability required of the commander?”

Frost said there’s been some headway in crafting policy to operate more seamlessly because of the pressing cyber and electronic warfare (EW) threats out there.

The cyber EW cells are helping to foster the discussion in the Army to ensure the right systems, processes and methodologies are in place, and exercises are now being conducted to achieve that.

While ensuring that integration occurs where it makes sense, there is still a “uniqueness” to EW, information operations and cyber, Frost said. Each bring different attributes to the fight that needs to be acknowledged, she added.