The Government Accountability Office has recommended that the Department of Defense document roles and responsibilities and communications approaches for the office of the secretary of defense nuclear transition review (SNTR), a new entity that DOD created in January to oversee the nuclear enterprise.

GAO made the recommendation after it found that DOD failed to define specific responsibilities for the SNTR and how the new organization will facilitate communications with other entities, according to a report published Wednesday.

The congressional watchdog found that the Pentagon has made progress implementing recommendations from 2014 and 2015 reviews of its nuclear forces. 

However, the department still needs to provide guidance to its components when it comes to assessing the outcome and process metrics and milestones for the remaining recommendations in the 2014 nuclear enterprise review to determine if they are appropriate for assessing implementation progress.

DOD should also “document guidance that identifies the means for monitoring long-standing issues including the associated metrics and information sources” with regard to the health of the nuclear enterprise, the report reads.

The U.S. Army is seeking new sensor technology that can fly on a balloon or a glider plane at an altitude of at least 60,000 feet and facilitate target jamming, C4ISRNET reported Wednesday.

Col. Daniel Holland, capability manager for electronic warfare at the Army, said at AFCEA's TechNet Augusta event that the service is considering the idea of integrating a light payload on a high-altitude platform to place effects on a target using electronic attack or radio frequency-enabled cyber mechanisms.

The branch refers to the concept as High-Altitude Extended-Range Long Endurance Intelligence Observation System (HELEIOS) and aims to test HELEIOS through Project Convergence, a series of exercises slated to take place at Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona this fall.

“The idea is blanketing the deep area with low-cost attributable sensors to enable deep sensing and deep effects,” Holland was quoted as saying.

The Army awarded other transaction agreements to Raytheon Technologies and L3Harris Technologies in June to develop sensor prototypes for first phase of the Multi-Domain Sensing System program.

HELEIOS will serve as a component of the MDSS suite, according to the report.

The State Department is conducting market research to identify potential vendors that could migrate its legacy information technology applications to multiplatform, multitenant cloud infrastructure.

A sources sought notice posted on SAM.gov indicates the department is looking at enterprise application platform-as-a-service (aPaas) offerings for its cloud migration effort. The plan includes procuring software IT services via a utility-based model and implementing no code/low code systems, the notice states.

The department is eyeing Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP)-compliant cloud service providers to help transform its IT portfolio through aPaas approach as part of efforts to accelerate software development, deployment, configuration and update processes.

Interested businesses can submit responses to the request for information until Aug. 23rd.

The General Services Administration (GSA) has supported the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) information technology modernization initiative and helped consolidate several online contact centers, enhance the USDA website and boost the Farm Loan program's approval rates by 3.5 percent to date.

USDA became the first subject of the Technology Transformation Services' Centers of Excellence in 2018 and since then, the department has tackled IT modernization issues and avoided more than $50 million in costs, GSA said Wednesday.

The partnership has focused on addressing challenges in cloud adoption, contact center, customer experience, data and analytics as well as infrastructure optimization in an effort to transform USDA.

Collaboration results include the closure of 31 of 37 data centers, reduction of duplicate data analytics, dashboards and data visualization training, launch of a single omnichannel infrastructure for contract center support, development of a Centralized USDA Cloud Office and establishment of data analytics capability.

"The IT modernization initiative] creates not only a new customer-focused environment but also ensures we continue to save millions of dollars in duplicative and antiquated systems each year,” said Gary Washington, chief information officer of USDA.

The Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center (AFNWC) has partnered with contractor Sabel Systems to establish a hub that consolidates and manages data for the Minuteman III program.

The Teamcenter hub brings the opportunity to smoothen the 18-year transition from the aging Minuteman III system to the new Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent (GBSD), Capt. John McCrae of AFNWC's Minuteman III Systems Directorate wrote in a commentary published Monday.

The hub will help the program office visualize workflows and work breakdown structures of systems through 3D illustrations.

“Teamcenter provides us the capability to maintain a digital library of our complex weapon system and has the ability to store that data in a secure cloud,” said Col. Erik Quigley, director, AFNWC Minuteman III Systems Directorate.

Minuteman III is an intercontinental ballistic missile system employed by the U.S. military since the 1970s. GBSD will serve as Minuteman III's successor.

Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is implementing a new platform designed to streamline research activities and standardize the regulatory review of VA research operations across the nation. VA said Monday its Office of Research and Development (ORD) has transitioned 105 research-active medical centers and the Central Institutional Review Board (IRBNet) to the new IRBNet platform.

IRBNet consolidates all research operations into a single platform and provides ORD a nationwide research overview in the form of a unified, authoritative dataset.

VA also expects IRBNet to support policy implementation, mitigate regulatory risks, boost research transparency and reduce the workload of research offices.

“This enterprise approach will decrease the need for national data calls and will enable the Office of Research and Development to have an ‘air traffic control board’ to see where studies, by topic, are happening across the system,” said Molly Klote, director at VA's Office of Research Protections, Policy and Education.