The Official Newsletter of The National Defense Transportation Association
February 12, 2024
NDTA-DTMO GovTravels February 26-28, 2024 – Travel Academy
Get ready for the GovTravels Symposium, hosted by the National Defense Transportation Association (NDTA) and the Defense Travel Management Office (DTMO) and supported by the General Services Administration (GSA). This year, the theme is “The Future of Government Travel: Trends in Sustainability, Innovation and Evolving Technologies,” a topic that promises to ignite discussion, spark inspiration, and empower us with knowledge about environmental protection via sustainable travel. […READ MORE…]
Air Mobility’s Left Tackle – The C-5M Super Galaxy
By Bruce Busler, Director, USTRANSCOM Joint Distribution Process Analysis Center
Most casual sports fans who watch American football marvel at the quarterback who can run and throw to keep his team moving forward, or the wide receiver who swiftly outpaces the backfield and the capable running back who can plow through the line and cut with agility to avoid defenders. However, anyone who really knows football and can see across the entire field of play will acknowledge one of the most crucial positions is the offensive line’s left tackle. The air mobility equivalent of the left tackle is the C-5M Super Galaxy, the largest aircraft in the US military’s inventory. […READ MORE…]
DOT Secretary Buttigieg Meets with U.S. Carriers and Mariners
On February 5, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg and DOT officials held a meeting with maritime labor organizations and U.S. flag shipping companies to discuss the ongoing situation in the southern Red Sea and western Gulf of Aden and its impact on shipping and the freedom of navigation in the region. […READ MORE…]
During this presentation from the NDTA-USTRANSCOM Fall Meeting, VADM Dee Mewbourne, USN (Ret.), discusses the benefits of motivation and the consequences of a lack thereof. Deep dive into the topic and find out how to develop and maintain an environment that encourages and motivates. […READ MORE…]
Editor’s Picks
As Baltics See Spike in GPS Jamming, NATO Must Respond
(Breaking Defense) For more than a month, aircraft flying in the Baltic region have been experiencing varying degrees of interference with GPS signals, according to public aircraft tracking databases. Previous reports have identified Russia as almost certainly behind the activity. Such jamming presents a risk to thousands of commercial aircraft, and as international pressure has so far failed to halt the interference, it’s time for NATO to act — proportionally.
Global Hotel Industry Bigwigs Convened Last Month. Here’s How that Impacts Your Next Trip
(The Points Guy) The Americas Lodging Investment Summit, a major hotel conference held each January in Los Angeles, is an industry star-studded, three-day affair that usually points to where the hotel sector is heading for the rest of the year. There are plenty of reasons for travelers to be excited after this year’s ALIS. Major hotel leaders discussed new brands, new booking platforms in the works and far more amenities at the hotel level, to name a few.
USAF Tried an Electric Plane. Now It Wants to Buy
(Defense One) The U.S. Air Force wants to buy battery-powered planes after it deployed BETA Technologies’ ALIA aircraft to one of the service’s bases. During testing, the aircraft flew over 55 missions, including cargo and logistics missions and a simulated casualty evacuation. The Defense Department, the world’s largest industrial producer of greenhouse gases, sees electric aircraft as a way to ease both maintenance and operational logistics in the Pacific.
Europe’s Marines in the Future European Littoral Operating Environment
(War on the Rocks) Europe’s amphibious forces are at an inflection point when they will have to define their role in the future combat operating environment. These forces, which have traditionally represented a mechanism through which rapid reaction could be delivered on both Europe’s own maritime flanks and at reach, will be presented with challenges at sea and on land.
Head of US Space Force’s Commercial Hub Talks Vendor Opportunities
(Defense News) Since its establishment last spring, the U.S. Space Force’s Commercial Space Office has been busy making connections with industry and creating pathways to deliver off-the-shelf capabilities and services to users. Col. Richard Kniseley, who leads the office, recently sat down with C4ISRNET to talk about the office’s accomplishments over the last year and its priorities for 2024.
AIT Worldwide Logistics acquires Global Transport Solutions Group
(AIT Worldwide Logistics) AIT Worldwide Logistics has acquired Global Transport Solutions Group (GTS), a European-based marine spare parts logistics specialist with more than 600 teammates in 11 countries. This marks AIT’s most significant acquisition to date.
Enabling the Future of Human Spaceflight
(Government Executive) NASA has outlined a series of missions on and around the moon in preparation for a monumental milestone: sending the first astronauts to Mars. “It’s an ambitious goal, it’s a complex mission and it’s a very necessary endeavor,” says Rick Hohmann, Leidos NASA IT vice president and division manager, of returning to the moon in search of “scientific discovery, economic benefits, and inspiration for a new generation of explorers.”
(Accenture) Allocating internationally harmonized mid-band spectrum for 5G can unlock approximately $200B to America’s economy over the next 10 years, according to a new study by Accenture. There is a risk of America’s wireless industry limiting its “future leadership of the global wireless ecosystem” if embracing 5G spectrum allocation is not fully supported and adjacent industries that leverage wireless technology such as manufacturing, utilities, and others could be impacted.
Choice Hotels Becomes First Hotel Company to Complete Total Data Center Migration to AWS
(Amazon) Choice Hotels International, Inc. announced the closure of its last data center, making it the first hotel company to migrate its entire system infrastructure to the cloud. Now fully on Amazon Web Services (AWS), the move to the cloud enables Choice to respond to real-time market conditions and provides the company with a flexible, resilient, and scalable platform that benefits owners and operators within the Choice system.
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