The U.S. Navy has declared the initial operational capability of a Raytheon Technologies-made system designed to guide aircraft landing on naval carriers and amphibious assault ships.

The Joint Precision Approach and Landing System (JPALS) achieved IOC on May 4 and is now ready to facilitate aircraft landings on naval ships, Naval Air Systems Command said May 18th.

“JPALS has reached a historic milestone, which supports our requirement to deliver, operate and maintain a Navy with a focus on our core roles of sea control and power projection,” said Cmdr. Jeff Dugard, who leads the Naval Airspace and Air Traffic Control Standards and Evaluation Agency.

The system's IOC declaration results from a long series of developmental work that commenced in 2008 and comes almost a year earlier than scheduled.

JPALS can now help F-35C units land on nuclear aircraft carriers in any weather condition. The system has been used on amphibious assault ships since 2016 under an early operational capability.

The Department of the Air Force came up with four options to guide the data-sharing activities of both the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Space Force, Breaking Defense reported Tuesday.

The department developed these options based on the results of the Data and Infrastructure Architecture Summit, which commenced in March and ran for two weeks.

Leaders of the Air Force Department will assess the options and decide in June 2021 on which to execute. The department's Chief Architect Integration Office will then develop a minimum viable product based on what Air Force leadership decides on.

“The main premise behind all courses of action is to develop an enterprise data platform,” said Taylor Flaxington, lead design engineer for the Air Force Department.

Booz Allen Hamilton announced on Wednesday that it is partnering with Databricks to drive business value by unifying data and artificial intelligence (AI) to meet federal agencies’ data challenges and advance their missions.

“Combining Booz Allen’s deep technical expertise and mission knowledge with Databricks’ rich Lakehouse Platform will deliver truly powerful AI insights and outcomes for defense, federal civilian and intelligence agencies as they face the most urgent national data challenges,” commented John Larson, senior vice president with Booz Allen Hamilton.

“The accelerated collaboration, scale and data-driven insights that this partnership brings will add tremendous value for our federal clients as they leverage these advanced capabilities to serve our national priorities,” added Larson.

The partnership between Booz Allen and Databricks will create three critical applications that are vital resources for data-driven insights and decision-making. Including scalable enterprise AI operations, fraud, waste and abuse detection and mitigation and genomics data processing.

Booz Allen will deliver scalable machine learning workflows to accelerate AI initiatives beyond the lab to deploy them to the enterprise and enable trusted, machine-led insights in real-time. The partnership will leverage AI as a powerful tool for detecting patterns and anomalies in massive amounts of data, such as those processed by healthcare and financial organizations.

As to the genomics data processing application, the companies will use AI to bring develop computing power to help agencies unlock value from data to improve insights.

“The ability to uncover actionable insights from data has never been more important as enterprises look to adapt, innovate and better prepare for the future in an uncertain world,” said Howard Levenson, general manager of Databricks Federal.

“We’re excited to be working with Booz Allen as they leverage the power of Databricks’ Lakehouse Platform to help organizations solve their toughest problems with data. We look forward to seeing the value this partnership delivers for our joint customers,” Levenson added.

Clare Martorana, the new federal chief information officer, said the government is looking to update its digital services and cybersecurity through allocations of a $1 billion fund, FCW reported Tuesday. These digital transformation efforts would use the Technology Modernization Fund's (TMF) boost mandated by the American Rescue Plan Act.

The American Council for Technology and Industry Advisory Council (ACT-IAC) hosted a conference where Martorana talked about how the new TMF funds can help agencies bolster cybersecurity and adopt modern technologies.

“Making data shareable, adopting common standards and improving data management is just going to be mission-critical for many years to come,” Martorana stated. Agencies interested in using the funds may submit proposals through June 2nd.

Comtech Telecommunications Corp. (NASDAQ: CMTL), a world leader in secure wireless communications technologies, announced today that during its third quarter of fiscal 2021, its New York-based subsidiary, Comtech PST Corp., which is part of Comtech’s Government Solutions segment, was awarded an additional $1.6 million contract for RF microwave solid-state amplifiers from a major domestic prime contractor, adding to an initial $1.7 million contract awarded earlier this fiscal year.

Stephen Volz, assistant administrator for National Environmental Satellite, Data and Information Service at NOAA, said NESDIS is adopting an approach where a satellite is built while taking into account other satellite constellations and how the systems work together, SpaceNews reported Tuesday.

Speaking at a Space Foundation webinar, Volz explained that a portfolio approach to Earth-observation mission is aimed at helping the agency "have the best mix and match of instruments and observations in the coming years."

NOAA also prepares for a possible change in its data-gathering approach and considers the use of low Earth orbit observations from the systems of the agency's partners, including the U.S. Space Force, NASA, Eumetsat, European Space Agency (ESA) and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.

Volz said some of NOAA's partners studying the difference between data gathered by large satellites and constellations of small satellites. According to him, small satellite constellations have more coverage than "the old approach" and enable flexibilities in instrumentation.

“We’re working with our partners to see what they’re learning, but also potentially to use that same approach for our low Earth orbit satellites in the next generation,” he added.

Rima Kasia Oueid, commercialization executive in the Department of Energy's (DOE) technology transitions office, said collaboration with the private sector could help DOE to further quantum information science (QIS) research work and apply the emerging computing technology to modernize power grid infrastructure, FedScoop reported Tuesday.

She gave her perspective on the potential of quantum-based algorithms for power grid management during a virtual forum hosted by the American Council for Technology-Industry Advisory Council.

Kasia Queid told event attendees that industry has shown interest in the combinatorial optimization concept and she believes integrating classical and quantum algorithms could support optimization use cases.

DOE has invested more than $1 billion in QIS projects in the past few years, according to the publication.

Congress established the department's Office of Technology Transitions in 2015 to encourage public-private partnerships in research and development projects such as quantum computing work.

The Department of Defense (DOD) has introduced an artificial intelligence development competition with the intent to identify algorithms that have the potential to facilitate autonomous coordination among long-range, fixed-wing air vehicles built to operate at high speed in a contested environment.

DOD is inviting commercial organizations to propose AI-based algorithms for a prototyping project that will center around collaborative formation, threat avoidance and dynamic task allocation, the Defense Innovation Unit said.

The department plans to hold a series of events where participants will demonstrate prototypes through an unclassified setting that uses an integrated live-virtual-constructive model along with the Advanced Framework for Simulation, Integration and Modeling framework.

Selected vendors will have access to a government reference architecture they can use as the development baseline and will aim to provide modular algorithms or complete agents to the government for simulation-based assessments.

Participants will compete to showcase the performance of their offerings via three preliminary events, followed by a final prototype competition, DIU noted.

Interested parties can submit proposals through June 6.

Join GovCon Wire’s AI: Innovation in National Security Forum on June 3 to hear from federal and industry representatives as they share insight on the use of emerging technology in efforts to stay ahead of adversaries.

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has called on federal agencies to take action on its recommendations to fully implement the foundational practices for managing supply chain risks associated with information and communication technologies.

The foundational practices include establishing executive oversight of ICT activities; developing an agency-wide ICT supply chain risk management strategy; setting up a process to carry out a SCRM assessment of a potential supplier; and creating organizational procedures to detect organizational procedures to detect compromised and counterfeit ICT products prior to deployment, according to a GAO report published Tuesday.

In December, a compromise involving the SolarWinds Orion network management software suite was discovered. During that month, the congressional watchdog reported that none of the 23 civilian agencies had fully carried out the foundational ICT SCRM practices.

“GAO stressed that, as a result of not fully implementing the foundational practices, the agencies were at a greater risk that malicious actors could exploit vulnerabilities in the ICT supply chain, causing disruptions to mission operations, harm to individuals, or theft of intellectual property,” the report reads.

If you want to know more about the latest updates about the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification, then check out Potomac Officers Club's CMMC Forum coming up on June 16. To register for this virtual forum and view other upcoming events, visit the POC Events page.