Technology

The U.S. Marine Corps began efforts to enhance an existing identification technology employed by law enforcement battalions. The Expeditionary Forensics Exploitation Capability is a portable toolset designed to help law enforcement troops gather, analyze and store data associated with friend or foe identification, USMC Systems Command said Tuesday.

A senior defense official clarified that the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is prioritizing ethics and human guidance in a program that seeks artificial intelligence-based drones designed to distinguish enemies from civilians and allied troops in urban battles, Defense One reported Friday.

NASA unveiled a batch of candidates to participate in CubeSat satellite missions to take place over the next three years. The space agency said Friday that it will launch 16 small research satellites as auxiliary payloads at missions scheduled for 2020, 2021 and 2022 under the CubeSat Launch Initiative.

The U.S. Air Force Laboratory's composites branch partnered with the University of Miami, Louisiana Tech University, University of Arkansas and the University of Texas to highlight the application of 3D printed carbon fiber and epoxy components on air and spacecraft structures. AFRL also performed joint projects with international allies to craft lightweight core structures that can hold the payload through the use of composite printed materials, the Wright Patterson Air Force Base said on Friday.

The Defense Information Systems Agency is encouraging mission partners to pursue “app rationalization” by rebuilding or customizing applications to leverage the benefits of operating in the cloud, Federal News Network reported Friday. John Hale, chief of cloud services at DISA, said such a move could help agencies realize cost savings from cloud adoption.

Rep. Will Hurd, R-Texas, intends to issue a national artificial intelligence strategy to guide the U.S. government in the development and ethical use of the technology, Nextgov reported Friday. The lawmaker said at IBM’s recent Think Gov conference that he wants to maintain the government’s AI ethics that reflect “Western liberal democracies.” Hurd emphasized that the government should avoid the methods China uses to develop AI-based technologies.

The U.S. Marine Corps Systems Command intends to mobilize a vehicle-mounted tool that will allow warfighters to track enemy movement.

The Department of Energy intends to award $30 million in grant funds supporting research and development efforts in carbon dioxide capture technologies. DOE said on Thursday that the department seeks to invest in projects focusing on the collection, usage and storage of carbon dioxide to support front-end engineering design efforts for coal and natural gas plants as part of the Carbon Capture program.

The General Services Administration launched a new service to help federal agencies manage software licenses. Bill Zielinski, acting assistant commissioner of GSA’s office of information technology category, wrote in a blog post published on Tuesday that the new software license management service, SLM Fast, seeks to help agency chief information officers, chief financial officers and acquisition professionals control software asset inventories.
 

Acting Defense Secretary and 2019 Wash100 Award winner Patrick Shanahan officially unveiled the new space development agency, CNN reported Wednesday. Fred Kennedy, director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s tactical technology office, will lead the agency as part of the proposed space force, according to a copy of Shanahan’s memo obtained by the publication.