Navy cloud and Air Force space launch

Navy moves cloud initiatives to spur change

Frustrated with slow data center consolidation and cloud adoption, the Navy is moving initiatives to a new home in hopes of shaking up server-hugging commands.

Speaking May 14 at the Naval IT Day sponsored by AFCEA's Northern Virginia chapter, John Zangardi, the Navy's acting CIO, announced that the Data Center and Application Optimization program office will move the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command headquarters to under Program Executive Office-Enterprise Information Systems "as a separate entity or program office."

The official move is slated for July. “We have to make this shift from a mistaken belief that all our data has to be near us and somewhere where I can do and hug the server, instead of someplace where I don't know in the cloud,” Zangardi said. “This is a big shift for many ... it's not going to be an easy transition."

Air Force to certify SpaceX for launches by June

The Air Force said it expects to certify Space Exploration Technologies Corp. to compete for future military satellite launches after amending an R&D agreement covering the service's Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle program, Defense Systems reported.

Air Force Space and Missile Command said the amended agreement with Elon Musk’s SpaceX would streamline the certification process so the upstart company can compete with the United Launch Alliance for future Air Force satellite missions. An upgraded version of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket, designated Falcon v1.1, would serve as the baseline configuration for the coming competition, the Air Force said.