DOE Awards $61M in Research Funding for Quantum Internet, Device Development; Secretary Jennifer Granholm Quoted
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DOE Awards $61M in Research Funding for Quantum Internet, Device Development; Secretary Jennifer Granholm Quoted

The Department of Energy has set aside $61 million research funding for the development of quantum internet building blocks and quantum network testbeds, and for efforts to ensure U.S. competitiveness in quantum information science.

DOE said Thursday $30 million will go to five Nanoscale Science Research Centers to fund infrastructure and capability development in support of nanoscience-based research while $6 million will be provided to scientists working on continental-scale quantum internet and quantum network traffic devices.

The remaining $25 million will support activities focused on regional-scale quantum network testbeds. Research, design, development and demonstration efforts will be conducted as part of the funding.

“Harnessing the quantum world will create new forms of computers and accelerate our ability to process information and tackle complex problems like climate change,” said Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm.

The DOE Office of Science conducted a competitive peer review to select research projects under its Funding Opportunity Announcements.

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Brandi Vann: DOD Changes Approach to CBRN Defense
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Brandi Vann: DOD Changes Approach to CBRN Defense

Brandi Vann, deputy assistant secretary for chemical and biological defense programs at the Department of Defense, said DOD is reassessing chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear defense amid emerging threats, National Defense reported Thursday.

“The department is changing our approach to CBRN,” Vann said Wednesday at a conference.

“The administration has directed us to do a number of things, including relooking at our legacy processes, our legacy systems and really reinvesting our focus and our funding into capabilities for the future,” she added.

Vann noted that there are new opportunities to leverage artificial intelligence, quantum computing and other emerging technologies for CBRN defense.

She said DOD should shift away from using traditional approaches to acquisition, research investment and requirements development in order to transform CBRN technology and use commercial tech platforms to maintain a competitive edge over adversaries.

“Bluntly, we need to not only embrace industry, but we need to start thinking like you,” she told event attendees.

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Army Eyes Intelligence Community Campus at Fort Belvoir North Area
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Army Eyes Intelligence Community Campus at Fort Belvoir North Area

The U.S. Army is considering constructing multiple buildings on the northern part of Fort Belvoir in Virginia, including a potential Intelligence Community campus near the headquarters of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), the Washington Business Journal reported Thursday.

The service has come up with a draft master plan for the Fort Belvoir North Area, formerly the Army Engineer Proving Ground, that proposes three options on how to expand and further develop the site, ranging from minimal development to maximum expansion capacity.

The maximum capacity version includes the construction of several unidentified buildings and parking facilities for a possible IC campus.

All three versions of the draft master plan include the development of a potential Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) headquarters, Defense Logistics Operations Center, a fire station and an undisclosed tenant facility.

The draft development plans were presented to the National Capital Planning Commission, which is expected to assess the plans at its meeting on Sept. 2nd, according to the report.

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Brig. Gen. Paul Stanton: Army Cyber Center to Create Doctrine Publication
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Brig. Gen. Paul Stanton: Army Cyber Center to Create Doctrine Publication

The Army’s Cyber Center of Excellence aims to help the military service create a doctrine publication as part of efforts to gain an information advantage in the future battlefield, FCW reported Thursday.

Brig. Gen. Paul Stanton, commander of the Army CCoE, told reporters at an AFCEA-hosted event the branch is exploring methods to release data faster than the current field manual publication process.

Stanton said the branch is close to finishing its field manual revision work but he believes that a service-wide publication could educate maneuver warfighters about cyber operations in the classroom. The Army updated its “Cyberspace and Electronic Warfare Operations” in 2017, according to the report.

AFCEA reports that Lt. Gen. Theodore Martin, commander of the Army’s Combined Arms Center, said the doctrine being developed “is forcing us to move into the future and part of that future is information advantage.”

Martin added that he expects the service to release a new version of the Army Field Manual 3-0 next summer, along with a new concept for information advantage that will reflect the branch’s past accomplishments.

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Oshkosh Tests Missile Firing From Unmanned Ground Vehicle
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Oshkosh Tests Missile Firing From Unmanned Ground Vehicle

Oshkosh Defense has tested the firing performance of a missile-launching system mounted on an unmanned vehicle designed for ground-based anti-ship missile operations.

The Remotely Operated Ground Unit for Expeditionary or ROGUE Fires launched a naval strike missile to a sea target during the Sink at Sea Live Fire Training Exercises, Oshkosh said Wednesday.

ROGUE Fires used the Navy Marine Expeditionary Ship Interdiction System or NMESIS to launch the missile. SINKEX took place in Hawaii as part of the Department of the Navy’s Large-Scale Exercise 2021, which tests various Navy and Marine operating concepts across the globe.

ROGUE Fires builds on Oshkosh’s existing Joint Light Tactical Vehicle and features similar payload capacity and off-road mobility. The new unmanned vehicle can switch between leader-follower and teleoperate modes.

Pat Williams, vice president and general manager for U.S. Army and Marine Corps programs at Oshkosh, said the demonstration verifies ROGUE Fires’ maturity as a weapons platform.

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NASA Announces Winners of Competition for Lunar Ice-Digging Tech
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NASA Announces Winners of Competition for Lunar Ice-Digging Tech

NASA has named the 13 winners of a $500,000 prize competition that sought technologies and ways to dig through the moon's icy regolith, in response to the need for water in future lunar exploration missions.

The space agency said Thursday its Break the Ice Lunar Challenge was championed by Florida-based Redwire Space, which won $125,000 for a two-rover ice-digging system. The competition began in November 2020 and aims to support future resource needs of NASA's Artemis exploration program.

Redwire's Lunar Transporter or L-Tran, a low-mass transportation rover, would deploy the Lunar Regolith Excavator or L-Rex, which is designed to dig through large amounts of lunar ice. L-Tran would then deliver the gathered ice and regolith.

Colorado School Of Mines and Austere Engineering won the competition's second and third places, respectively, for their own ice excavation systems.

“The system concepts developed as part of this challenge will enable sustainable lunar surface operations, paving the way for us to convert lunar ice to vital resources and decreasing our supply needs from Earth," said Monsi Roman, program manager for Centennial Challenges at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center.

NASA also awarded $25,000 each to the following runner-up teams:

  • AggISRU from Texas A&M University in College Station
  • Aurora Robotics from the University of Alaska in Fairbanks
  • Lunar Lions from the Columbia University Robotics Club
  • OffWorld Robotics
  • Oshkosh Corporation
  • Rocket M
  • Space Trajectory from South Dakota State University
  • Team AA-Star
  • Team LIQUID
  • Terra Engineering
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NAIRR Task Force Extends Deadline for Roadmap Public Comments; Erwin Gianchandani Quoted
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NAIRR Task Force Extends Deadline for Roadmap Public Comments; Erwin Gianchandani Quoted

The deadline for public comments on the implementation plans for the National Artificial Intelligence Research Resource (NAIRR) has been extended for one month to take in more diverse perspectives, a task force official told FedScoop Wednesday. 

Erwin Gianchandani, cochair of the team responsible for creating the NAIRR roadmap and representative of the National Science Foundation (NSF), said the timeline will help them maximize the responses and discuss the ideas during the task force’s deliberations. 

The Congress, through the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act, ordered the NAIRR task force to develop a blueprint for a shared AI research infrastructure. The facility is intended to support researchers and students in the AI field and enable them to access educational tools, data and computational resources. 

“Given that we want to hear from as many folks as possible—we’d really like a broad and diverse set of perspectives among the responses—we felt it best to extend the RFI response date by a month,” Gianchandani said. 

The task force will be accepting input from stakeholders on how the NAIRR can strengthen the principles and practices of AI research and development until Oct. 1, according to the Federal Register notice on request for information.

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Sehlke Consulting Named to Inc. Magazine’s Fastest-Growing Private Companies List; CEO Chad Sehlke Quoted
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Sehlke Consulting Named to Inc. Magazine’s Fastest-Growing Private Companies List; CEO Chad Sehlke Quoted

Sehlke Consulting announced on Thursday that the company was named to Inc. Magazine’s 5000 list, the highly prestigious annual ranking of the nation’s fastest-growing private companies.

“Although 2020 held many twists and turns, we experienced our largest revenue growth year,” said Chad Sehlke, CEO & founder of Sehlke Consulting. “We are known for our commitment to precision-inspired performance through innovative technologies, and subject matter expertise driving best-value solutions. 2020 proved no exception to this, resulting in a 58% increase in revenue.

Among the 5,000, the average median three-year growth rate soared to 543 percent, and median revenue reached $11.1 million. Together, those companies added more than 610,000 jobs over the past three years.

“Although there was much less travel to clients this year, we found creative solutions and technology-driven ways to stay in close contact with our clients and partners,” Sehlke added. “Since 2013, Sehlke has averaged 101% in year-over-year revenue growth. We are proud of what our employees around the world continue to accomplish!”

Complete results of the Inc. 5000, including company profiles can be found at www.inc.com/inc5000.

“Building one of the fastest-growing companies in America in any year is a remarkable achievement. Building one in the crisis we’ve lived through is just plain amazing,” says Scott Omelianuk, editor-in-chief of Inc. “This kind of accomplishment comes with hard work, smart pivots, great leadership, and the help of a whole lot of people.”

About Sehlke Consulting

Our Mission and culture of integrity offers comprehensive and leading solutions in Financial Management, Acquisition Management, Logistics and Supply Chain Management, and National Security and Defense Programs. Our Corporate commitment is to provide our clients with precision inspired performance through innovative technologies, and subject matter expertise driving best-value solutions.

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Accenture Federal Services Completes Acquisition of Novetta; Tiffanny Gates, John Goodman Quoted
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Accenture Federal Services Completes Acquisition of Novetta; Tiffanny Gates, John Goodman Quoted

Accenture Federal Services (AFS) has completed its recent acquisition of Novetta, a McLean, Virginia-based advanced analytics company.

“Our combined company brings the scale and power of Accenture Federal Services’ digital capabilities together with Novetta’s ability to solve the government’s toughest mission challenges with precision,” said Accenture Federal Services CEO and four-time Wash100 Award recipient John Goodman. “We look forward to delivering the next generation of solutions that today’s missions and times demand.”

With the acquisition, AFS adds a new National Security portfolio to its business to be led by Novetta President and CEO Tiffanny Gates.

The acquisition adds approximately 1,300 people, including software developers, data scientists, and specialists in machine learning, cyber, cloud, and information exploitation to AFS’ 11,000 person workforce.

This portfolio will provide the highly specialized, mission solutions that clients turn to for expertise in the converging domains of analytics, intelligence expertise, cloud engineering, and cyber.

“I’m tremendously excited about my role as senior managing director of this new segment of Accenture Federal Services’ business,” said Gates, a three-time Wash100 Award winner. “Our disruptive technologies combined with Accenture Federal Services’ ability to deliver federal innovation at scale are highly complementary and will play a major role in meeting our clients’ mission needs.”

About Accenture Federal Services

Accenture Federal Services, a wholly owned subsidiary of Accenture LLP, is a U.S. company headquartered in Arlington, Virginia. Accenture’s federal business has served every cabinet-level department and 30 of the largest federal organizations. Accenture Federal Services transforms bold ideas into breakthrough outcomes for clients at defense, intelligence, public safety, civilian and military health organizations.

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Jay Bonci Assumes CTO Role With U.S. Air Force
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Jay Bonci Assumes CTO Role With U.S. Air Force

Jay Bonci, a 14-year veteran of Akamai Technologies, has started his new work as chief technology officer at the Department of the Air Force.

“My part of the mission is to empower and accelerate those on the ground by providing a cohesive enterprise architecture and service delivery strategy," Bonci wrote Tuesday in a LinkedIn post announcing his 

The new DAF CTO said he believes the department needs to identify a solid digital foundation that could support commodity information technology functions and weapon systems throughout the department.

He will be responsible for overseeing technology programs for the Air Force and Space Force in his new position and will work within the department's Office of the Chief Information Officer.

Bonci most recently served as senior director of public sector engineering at Akamai. Before that, he was director of the company's managed content delivery network offering for the government sector for more than five years and also held software engineering roles during his career there.

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