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26 Jun 13. Russia is opening an airbase in northwestern Belarus, near the Polish and Lithuanian borders, within just a few months, a Russian Air Force general said Wednesday. The airbase, modern Russia’s first on Belarusian soil, will consolidate bilateral defense collaboration as part of the Union State of Russia and Belarus, Russian Air Force chief Lieutenant General Viktor Bondarev told reporters. Located in Lida, a city of nearly 100,000, the base will be an important element in the “strategic defense of the Union State,” the two-star general said, adding that Russian Su-27SM3 fighter jets would be stationed there. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in May that the base was not being set up in response to deployment of a US missile shield in Europe that has been strongly opposed by Russia. However, Moscow has also taken issue with NATO jets flying combat air patrols close to Russian airspace. Belarus borders NATO nations Poland, Latvia and Lithuania. (Source: Open Source Information Report/RIA Novosti)

28 Jun 13. General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems announced that it has attained the Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) Level 5 rating. CMMI is a business strategy tool that provides guidance to effectively and efficiently improve processes across the organization. A CMMI Level 5 appraisal indicates that processes are controlled and measured and undergo continuous improvement. Under the CMMI methodology, processes are rated according to maturity levels on a five-point scale. With a CMMI Level 5 rating, General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems’ Mission Integration Systems division received the highest appraisal indicating that it continually improves its processes based on a quantitative understanding of its business objectives and performance needs.

23 Jun 13. Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ray Odierno has approved a new cyber school for soldiers to consolidate training of the Army’s growing cyber force in one location at Fort Gordon, Ga., the first step in what could be a significant reorganization of soldiers with connections to cyberspace operations. The new Cyber Center of Excellence will incorporate the Signals Center of Excellence and unify training and modernization efforts for cyberspace operations, electronic warfare, cyber electromagnetic activity and cyber-related signals intelligence, Army officials said. Training and Doctrine Command commander Gen. Robert W. Cone has publicly called for the cyber school and also for a cyber career field, and plans to create the latter are underway. (Source: Open Source Information Report/Army Times)

26 Jun 13. DRS Technologies, a Finmeccanica company, has been awarded the James S. Cogswell Award for Outstanding Industrial Security Achievement. For 2013, the Defense Security Service (DSS) awarded three DRS facilities, including its corporate headquarters in Arlington, Va., that exemplify the eminent principles of industrial security and exceed U.S. Department of Defense requirements. This is the first time DRS Technologies has been recognized for this significant achievement. The James S. Cogswell Award was established in 1966 and is the most prestigious citation for a cleared facility that demonstrates security excellence and a proven history of substantial compliance by a cleared facility over multiple years. The award is historically earned by less than one percent of the nation’s more than 13,000 eligible cleared defense contractor facilities. The three Cogswell Awards come on the heels of DRS recently receiving the highest U.S. honor for protecting classified information and technology when in April 2013 the company was presented with the Defense Security Service Award for Excellence in Counterintelligence. This is the first time a company operating under a Proxy Agreement has been given the Award for Excellence in Counterintelligence and the Cogswell Award in the same year.

27 Jun 13. Steria, a leading provider