Navy Acquires Supply Chain Risk Assessment Tool to Automate Processes; John Roach, Adam Hauch Quoted

The U.S. Navy has acquired a new supply chain risk assessment tool from KSM Consulting to quicken the analysis of the microelectronics and monitor supply chains for IT-related products, FedScoop reported Thursday.

Analysts have observed documents to determine vulnerabilities to adversary influences. The process will enable the service branch to test if a product is safe for the Navy’s networks, which has required the collection of financial records and public data and private information held by the Department of Defense

“We have automated all of that data gathering process,” said John Roach, executive vice president of data analytics at KSM Consulting. The company’s Automated Microelectronics Analysis & Reporting Optimization (AMARO) solution has been acquired by Naval Surface Warfare Center-Crane Division to automate data collection. 

The solution has integrated natural language processing to gather public and private information on companies in the microelectronic supply chain and extract important text. AMARO will enable analysts to quickly determine a company’s supply chain trustworthiness.

“We are excited to roll out this technology to the field,” said Adam Hauch, supply chain awareness and security technical lead for DoD. “The AMARO tool will allow us to quickly and thoroughly examine the supply chain of commercial microelectronics, as well as identify vulnerabilities and over-reliance in a more strategic manner.”

AMARO is cloud-native and built to be scaled. The acquisition has followed statements that DoD officials have made and as the agency moves to a zero-trust model for microelectronics. Roach said the DoD will still monitor the supply chain. 

With the acquisition, the department will have better insights into the supply chain and will give the service branches more information on challenges, acquisitions and enhancements on existing products to detect threats and foreign ownership.

“This is a capability that will directly lead to improving our supply chain awareness and security,” Hauch concluded.