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GAO: DOD’s Air Support Contract Awards Have Increased Since FY 2015
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GAO: DOD’s Air Support Contract Awards Have Increased Since FY 2015

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that the Department of Defense (DOD) awarded approximately $8.4 billion in air support contracts between fiscal years 2015 and 2021 in support of various training activities. 

GAO said Tuesday that DOD components, including the U.S. Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps, also use the contracts to manage costs and address the shortage in military planes.

According to the report, the services have increased the use of air support contracts since FY 2015, such as raising the availability of flying hours under these contracts and increasing the number of training sites to meet training requirements.

The military branches have also used the contracts to train fighter pilots by replicating enemy forces and provide close air support training to air controllers.

The congressional watchdog found that defense components have initiated steps to determine the effectiveness of air support contracts.

“In particular, the services are determining the appropriate mix of training capabilities, to include contract aircraft, as well as affordability and timeframes to modernize U.S. military adversary air capabilities. These reviews, to be completed in fiscal year 2022, are expected to affect future investments in air support contracts, according to DOD officials,” the report reads.

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Navy Taps University for Digital Twin Research Project
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Navy Taps University for Digital Twin Research Project

The U.S. Navy has selected University of South Carolina for a three-year, $10.02 million research project that will focus on exploring digital twin technologies to support naval power and energy system experiments.

UofSC will aim to produce testbeds for the military branch to demonstrate component and system-level digital twins and perform tactical energy management work that involves simulation and hardware-in-the-loop tools, the Department of Defense said Tuesday.

The Office of Naval Research (ONR) procured the research services through a long-range broad agency announcement and obligated nearly $10 million at the time of award.

DOD said the service aims to implement a new digital twin system as part of efforts to ensure the delivery of power and energy to naval mission systems under time constraints. Contract work will take place in Columbia, South Carolina through December 2024.

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NTT WEST Group Selects HPE GreenLake to Launch New Portfolio of Hybrid Cloud Services
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NTT WEST Group Selects HPE GreenLake to Launch New Portfolio of Hybrid Cloud Services

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) announced on Monday that NTT Business Solutions has selected the HPE GreenLake edge-to-cloud platform to deliver its growing ‘Regional Revitalization Cloud.’

“NTT WEST Group’s Regional Revitalization Cloud initiative to accelerate digital transformation for local governments, educational institutions, and corporations is truly advanced and extremely innovative,” said Hirokazu Mochizuki, managing director, HPE Japan. “I would like to express our heartfelt gratitude to NTT WEST Group for selecting HPE as a partner for the revitalization of the region.”

The key driver of the NTT WEST Group’s ‘Regional Revitalization Cloud’ is to solve regional issues and help businesses and institutions accelerate their digital transformation. 

The new hybrid cloud service meets the demands of their customers for robust cloud services which span public and private cloud environments and ensures that critical data are located close to the end customer, thus alleviating any concerns about data sovereignty.

NTT WEST Group is implementing a true hybrid cloud approach that leverages Microsoft Azure public cloud combined with the HPE GreenLake platform to provide a strong regional delivery model.

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NSWC Crane Uses S2MARTS OTA to Prototype Electronic Warfare Tools
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NSWC Crane Uses S2MARTS OTA to Prototype Electronic Warfare Tools

Naval Surface Warfare Center Crane Division is using an other transaction authority (OTA) to speed up the process of prototyping and evaluating tools built to support the fleet’s electronic warfare missions. 

NSWC Crane has used the Strategic and Spectrum Missions Advanced Resilient Trusted Systems (S2MARTS) OTA, managed by the National Security Technology Accelerator, for more than 10 spectrum-related projects in 2021, Naval Sea Systems Command reported Monday.

Specifically, the contract vehicle has accommodated research projects for a wide range of technologies such as software defined radios for counter-small unmanned aerial vehicles and electronic warfare applications for autonomous systems.

“We are using the S2MARTS OTA to prototype innovative EW capabilities for various unmanned systems and to seek different technology and capabilities to counter the unmanned system threats,” said Stacey Mervyn, the chief strategist for EW at NSWC Crane.

Mervyn said the OTA has been instrumental in validating the fleet’s existing electronic warfare strategy and predicting future capabilities. NSWC Crane also uses the vehicle to develop a prototype predictive modeling tool for assessing technology trends and operational effectiveness in the electromagnetic spectrum domain.

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Army to Test Experimental Autonomous Helicopter With No Crew
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Army to Test Experimental Autonomous Helicopter With No Crew

The U.S. Army will conduct a completely unmanned test-flight of the Sikorsky-made Black Hawk helicopter’s optionally manned variant in January, Vertical reported Monday.

The optionally piloted vehicle (OPV) Black Hawk’s first uncrewed flight will take place at Fort Campbell and follows the Project Convergence exercise where the experimental helicopter underwent demonstrations.

The optionally manned helicopter first flew in 2019 and has since undergone tests with safety pilots who supervised the autonomous flights while inside the aircraft. Now, the Army wants to demonstrate Black Hawk’s autonomous flight with no human in the cockpit.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) developed OPV Black Hawk, which can autonomously operate through DARPA’s Aircrew Labor In-Cockpit Automation System.

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IEEE OKs New NIST-Informed Cloud Federation, Interoperability Standard
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IEEE OKs New NIST-Informed Cloud Federation, Interoperability Standard

An Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineer (IEEE) Standards Association board has approved a new rule that defines a functional cloud federation model to enable interoperability between different computing services.

The IEEE 2302-2021 Standard for Intercloud Interoperability and Federation addresses various cloud service elements such as topology, messaging, trust infrastructure, geo-independence, audit and compliance, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), said Tuesday.

The new rule aims at helping in the development of a dynamic cloud infrastructure that can support changing business models, addressing the current coverage, functionality and scalability limitations of current services.

NIST research helped inform the formulation of the standard by IEEE’s P2302 Working Group, which was chaired by the institute’s Robert Bohn.

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Lawrence Livermore National Lab Announces New Incubator for AI Collaboration
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Lawrence Livermore National Lab Announces New Incubator for AI Collaboration

The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) has launched a new collaborative where artificial intelligence experts can work together to advance automated technologies for scientific and commercial applications.

LLNL said Monday that the new AI Innovation Incubator aims at building a cohesive view between the laboratory and the industry and academic sectors through a cognitive simulation approach featuring automation and high-performance computing systems.

With AI3, the lab explained that partners can apply revolutionary AI methods, hardware and software to address applied science problems and develop technologies for the U.S. national security enterprise.

“AI is such a quickly evolving field that having these hubs as a vehicle to quickly plant the most important, most exciting new ideas from outside the Lab to inside — and vice versa – is vitally important,” noted Brian Spears, LLNL physicist and AI3 director.

The lab already confirmed various partnerships with commercial companies, including Google, IBM, NVIDIA and Hewlett Packard Enterprise, for the use of the incubator, with plans to create new collaboration over the next three years.

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DLA Uses Bots to Automate Processes; Plans to Boost Bot Development
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DLA Uses Bots to Automate Processes; Plans to Boost Bot Development

The Defense Logistics Agency is using bots to automate tedious tasks that are repetitive across operations, as DLA continues to pursue digital transformation, Nextgov reported Monday. The agency is implementing robotic process automation to increase the availability of human personnel for the more critical types of work.

George Duchak, chief information officer of DLA, said at the Roadmap to Modernization Summit that the agency is reviewing all its business processes to determine how to streamline operations.

DLA’s digital transformation effort, which began two years ago, includes developing approximately 40 bots per year. The agency now has over 120 deployed bots. Duchak’s office now plans to implement training programs that can bolster bot development.

Magellan Healthcare Launches In-Home Aging, Behavioral Health Support Program With DUOS; Dr. Caroline Carney Quoted
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Magellan Healthcare Launches In-Home Aging, Behavioral Health Support Program With DUOS; Dr. Caroline Carney Quoted

The behavioral health division of Magellan Health has launched a program meant to connect older adults with care coordination and companionship services to assist with health related needs and aging support.

Magellan Healthcare’s program, a collaborative effort with digital health company DUOS, is expected to help older individuals access healthcare, manage social isolation and address their behavioral health needs while retaining independence, Magellan Health said Monday.

“We look forward to our collaboration with DUOS, which will allow us to enhance our behavioral health offerings and expand our multi-disciplinary care teams through a personal assistant solution for older adults,” said Magellan Health’s Chief Medical Officer, Caroline Carney, M.D.

Dr. Carney added that the program aligns with Magellan Healthcare’s commitment to developing “high-tech and high-touch solutions” that take a holistic approach to “whole-person healthcare.”

Through the program, Magellan Healthcare will leverage DUOS’ existing service model that pairs trained personal assistants, called Duos, with members to offer a range of care and companionship services like working with healthcare providers to navigate health matters, arranging transportation and online grocery ordering. 

Magellan Behavioral Health of Pennsylvania launched a pilot of the program in Northampton County recently, which deployed Duos to members’ homes for in-home support. 

The program aims to address challenges surrounding social determinants of health, such as food insecurity, housing instability and poverty while assisting with chronic conditions and functional impairments. These mission areas are expected to improve members’ quality of life and reduce burdens to caretakers.

“As we focus on the social determinants of aging, it’s a crucial opportunity for us to meet members where they are in their healthcare journey and help them achieve a healthy, vibrant life,” commented Jim Leonard, CEO of Magellan Behavioral Health of Pennsylvania.

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Report: Space Systems Command to Undergo Another Reorg
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Report: Space Systems Command to Undergo Another Reorg

Space Systems Command, led by Lt. Gen. Michael Guetlein, is set for another reorganization that has been approved by Air Force Secretary and three-time Wash100 Award recipient Frank Kendall, Breaking Defense reported Monday.

The publication cited sources that say the planned move seeks to align the command’s acquisition programs with the Space Warfighting Analysis Center’s force designs and mission focus areas.

“It’s been signed off, and they’ve talked publicly a little bit about it but it’s not complete yet,” a space acquisition expert said of the planned reorg. “I think what Secretary Kendall is doing is, he wants to create SSC based on mission areas, rather than … a production corps, a development corps.”

The expert noted that the command would create mission area teams and “then use some kind of integration or cross-cutting organization to try and tie them together.”

The proposed SSC reorg comes as congressional members set their sights on advancing space acquisition reform and development of a resilient space architecture.

Space Acquisition Forum

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