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NASA Deploys Imager to Study Sun’s Corona; Amy Winebarger Quoted
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NASA Deploys Imager to Study Sun’s Corona; Amy Winebarger Quoted

NASA has launched a spacecraft designed to help researchers study the soft X-ray emissions and growth of the Sun's corona.

The space agency said Monday its Marshall Grazing Incidence X-ray Spectrometer (MaGIXS) solar imager launched on July 30th from White Sands Missile Range. NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center developed the spacecraft.

MaGIXS uses an X-ray spectrometer, a telescope and a high-powered camera to observe the corona's x-rays in detail.

“Our knowledge of the corona’s heating mechanisms is limited, partly because we’ve not yet been able to make detailed observations and measurements of the temperature distribution of the solar plasma in the region,” said Amy Winebarger, a heliophysicist who serves as principal investigator for the MaGIXS mission.

NASA expects the spacecraft's data to help scientists determine the reasons and frequencies of the corona's heat. The corona is a layer of plasma that makes up the outermost portion of the solar atmosphere.

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Day & Zimmermann Receives $311M IDIQ for the U.S. Army Grenade and Consolidated Fuze Contract; Michael Quesenberry Quoted
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Day & Zimmermann Receives $311M IDIQ for the U.S. Army Grenade and Consolidated Fuze Contract; Michael Quesenberry Quoted

Day & Zimmermann announced on Tuesday that its Munitions & Government unit has been awarded a potential five-year $311 million indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity (IDIQ) contract for the U.S. Army Grenade and Consolidated Fuze.

“We are extremely pleased with the confidence and trust the US Army continues to express in our workforce and production quality,” said Michael Quesenberry, vice president and general manager for Day & Zimmermann Lone Star.

The contract consists of five, one-year ordering periods from 2021 to 2026 and includes the M67 fragmentation grenade, the new XM111 offensive grenade, training grenades and various types of fuzes.

“To date Day & Zimmermann has produced over 47 million M67 fragmentation grenades for the United States Department of Defense and allied forces worldwide,” Quesenberry added.

The work will be performed at Day & Zimmermann’s 5,500 acre Lone Star facility in Texarkana, Texas.

ABOUT DAY & ZIMMERMANN

Founded in 1901, Day & Zimmermann is a family-owned company with a workforce of 41,000 specializing in construction & engineering, operations & maintenance, staffing, security and defense solutions for leading corporations and governments around the world.

Operating from more than 150 worldwide locations with 2.4 Billion USD in revenue, Day & Zimmermann is currently ranked as one of the largest private companies in the U.S.

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Gen. Mark Milley: AI, Other Emerging Tech Needed to Deter Aggressors, Win Future Wars
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Gen. Mark Milley: AI, Other Emerging Tech Needed to Deter Aggressors, Win Future Wars

Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and a four-time Wash100 Award winner, said artificial intelligence, hypersonics, 3D printing, unmanned systems, long-range precision fires and other emerging technologies could transform the conduct of warfare and are needed to win future wars in the event of deterrence failure, DOD News reported Monday.

"Those technologies are available right now to every country in the world. There's nothing particularly secret about many of them. And I would argue that the country that masters those technologies … is likely to have a significant, and perhaps decisive advantage," Milley said at an event Monday.

He noted that power projection and sea control are key to maritime superiority.

"In my mind, no one has ever done it better than the United States Navy, in the history of the world. The same is true for air and space and cyber in our ground forces. In fact, our joint force is second to none,” Milley said.

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Bipartisan Bill Would Require AI Training for Federal Acquisition Professionals
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Bipartisan Bill Would Require AI Training for Federal Acquisition Professionals

A bipartisan bill introduced by Sens. Gary Peters, D-Mich., and Rob Portman, R-Ohio, would mandate the creation of a training program for federal employees tasked with procuring artificial intelligence platforms.

The Artificial Intelligence Training for the Acquisition Workforce Act is intended to help government buyers to learn the potential advantages and risks associated with the emerging technology, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee said Friday.

Under the bill, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) director must work with professionals across the public and private sectors to create the educational program.

A March report from the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence (NSCAI)  recommended that the federal government establish a digital service academy to train the workforce and a digital reserve corps to recruit talent.

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Chris Inglis Backs Creation of Cyber Statistics Bureau Within DHS
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Chris Inglis Backs Creation of Cyber Statistics Bureau Within DHS

National Cyber Director Chris Inglis has expressed support for a plan to establish a bureau of cyber statistics that would collect and analyze data related to cyberthreats and cyber incidents, CyberScoop reported Monday.

Inglis said the White House is considering the idea of creating the bureau. He also cited how threat data could help the government understand how to better respond to threat actors. 

“I would observe that to properly address risk we have to first understand it. We have to understand where it’s concentrated, where it cascades, what causes it, and more importantly to then discover how to address it,” Inglis said at an event Monday.

“I think all would agree that in the absence of this information, we are going to be episodic, we’re going to be uneven, and perhaps less than optimal in our response to any of these threats which affect all of us in common,” he added.

The Cyberspace Solarium Commission (CSC) initially proposed the idea of establishing the bureau. Sens. Angus King, I-Maine, Mike Rounds, R-S.D., and Ben Sasse, R-Neb., proposed a bill in late July that would create the new office within the Department of Homeland Security.

King is co-chair of the CSC and Sasse serves as a commissioner.

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Rear Adm. Carl Chebi Nominated as NAVAIR Commander
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Rear Adm. Carl Chebi Nominated as NAVAIR Commander

Navy Rear Adm. Carl Chebi, deputy program executive officer for the Joint Strike Fighter, has been nominated by President Biden to serve as the next commander of Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR).

In line with his nomination, Chebi will also be promoted to the rank of vice admiral, the Department of Defense said Monday.

Chebi served as the Navy PEO for command, control, communications, computers and intelligence and space systems from February 2017 to September 2019 and held a short stint as vice commander of NAVAIR.

From 2014 to 2016, he was program manager of the Naval Integrated Fire Control/Counter Air system and led engineering, integration, test, fielding and training efforts for the branch’s air warfare systems.

He also worked as deputy program manager in the F/A-18 and EA-18G Program Office and program manager in the Precision Strike Weapons Program Office.

Chebi has logged more than 3,700 flight hours and 700 carrier arrested landings with various military aircraft platforms. His awards include the Distinguished Service Medal, Legion of Merit and the Meritorious Service Medal.

He holds a bachelor’s degree in computer systems engineering from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and an executive MBA from the Naval Postgraduate School.

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White House Appoints Chirag Parikh as National Space Council Executive Secretary
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White House Appoints Chirag Parikh as National Space Council Executive Secretary

Chirag Parikh, former director of space policy at the National Security Council, has been named executive secretary of the White House National Space Council chaired by Vice President Kamala Harris, SpaceNews reported Monday.

Parikh will join the council from Microsoft, where he has served as senior director of Azure Space since January 2020.

He previously worked at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, where he served as deputy director for counterproliferation.

He also served as deputy national intelligence officer for science and technology within the National Intelligence Council and spent a decade as an aerospace engineer within the U.S. Air Force’s national air and space intelligence center.

Parikh’s appointment came three months after Harris was named head of the National Space Council.

The White House said the council is expected to have its first meeting in the fall of 2021.

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USAF Provides 2 Boeing-Built Chinook Helicopters to Australia as Part of Foreign Military Sales Program
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USAF Provides 2 Boeing-Built Chinook Helicopters to Australia as Part of Foreign Military Sales Program

The U.S. Air Force completed the delivery of two CH-47F Chinook helicopters, manufactured by Boeing, from Dover AF Base in Delaware to a military airbase in Townsville, Australia, under a foreign military sales deal.

USAF said Monday its 9th Airlift Squadron used a C-5M Super Galaxy to transport the Chinooks that the Australian government procured for use by the Asia-Pacific country's army.

Boeing, a program office within the 436th Aerial Port Squadron and Australia's defense capability acquisition and sustainment agency took part in the process of fulfilling the FMS requirement.

The two countries are scheduled to conduct joint missions with the Chinook platform in the spring of 2022.

The State Department approved a $259 million sale of four CH-47F aircraft with customer-unique modifications and related equipment to Australia in April.

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Navy Flight Tests MQ-4C With New Multi-Mission Sensor for First Time; Capt. Dan Mackin Comments
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Navy Flight Tests MQ-4C With New Multi-Mission Sensor for First Time; Capt. Dan Mackin Comments

The U.S. Navy has conducted its first test flight of the MQ-4C Triton unmanned aircraft system in the new Integrated Functional Capability-4 configuration at Naval Air Station Patuxent River. The surveillance aircraft demonstrated its stability and control following a 30-month multi-mission sensor upgrade process, NAVAIR Thursday.

Present at the functional check flight and initial aeromechanical test points at Maryland was the Triton Integrated Test Team, which consists of representatives from the Navy, the U.S. government and industry sectors, and Australian partner organizations.

The Navy plans to reach the initial operational capability milestone for the upgraded aircraft in 2023 as part of its Maritime Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance (ISR) and Targeting transition plan.

Capt. Dan Mackin, the naval program manager for persistent maritime UAS, noted that Tritons would "continue to provide unprecedented maritime intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities which are especially critical to national interests with the increased focus in the Pacific."

The Navy plans to deploy the Northrop Grumman-developed long-endurance ISR drones to five orbits around the world.

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US Navy Holds Christening for Virginia-Class USS Hyman G. Rickover; James Geurts Quoted
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US Navy Holds Christening for Virginia-Class USS Hyman G. Rickover; James Geurts Quoted

The U.S. Navy has christened the second submarine named after Hyman G. Rickover, the former four-star Navy admiral who initiated the adoption of nuclear propulsion with technological and cultural advances in the service. 

James Geurts, currently performing the duties of the undersecretary of the Navy and a 2020 Wash100 Award winner, likened the sailors and shipbuilders' commitment of excellence in constructing the boat to Rickover's culture of excellence, the U.S. Navy said Saturday. 

US Navy Holds Christening for Virginia-Class USS Hyman G. Rickover; James Geurts Quoted

The Virginia-class attack submarine USS Hyman G. Rickover, also known as SNN 709, is slated to join the fleet with 132 crews, 12 vertical launch systems payload, 7,835 tons of displacement and four torpedo tubes. 

The multimission platform is designed to allow five Navy maritime strategy core capabilities that include sea control, power projection, forward presence, maritime security and deterrence. 

The previous Hyman G. Rickover ship was commissioned on July 21, 1984, at the Submarine Base, New London, in Groton. 

Submarine sponsor Darlene Greenert, a navy veteran and wife of former Chief of Naval Jonathan Greenert, was also present Friday during the christening ceremony held at General Dynamics’ Electric Boat shipyard facility in Groton, Connecticut.

She underscored the sacrifices of militaries and commemorated Eleonore Rickover, the admiral’s late wife. 

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