Jump Aero and the California Institute of Technology will develop a machine learning-aided flight controller designed to help the U.S. Air Force boost the safety of emergency response aircraft.

This project supports USAF's Agility Prime program, which aims to speed up the development of commercially made air mobility vehicles applicable to civilian and military use cases, Jump Aero said Wednesday.

The adaptive flight controller would allow pilots to rapidly recalibrate the JA1 electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft when taking damage. JA1 transports first responders for emergency response missions.

USAF expects the new technology to increase the probability of a safe recovery when the aircraft is damaged in battle.

"We look forward to working with Professor Soon-Jo Chung's world-class autonomous systems controls laboratory at Caltech to mature this exciting new technology in the hope that a future electronic parachute will make our aircraft even more damage-tolerant," said Carl Dietrich, founder and president of Jump Aero.

The team will develop the technology under a phase one contract with USAF's Small Business Technology Transfer program.

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has issued a finalized Trusted Internet Connections 3.0 use case document that will cover security standards in cloud and mobile environments.

TIC 3.0 is meant to help agencies secure federal networks, boundaries and data while ensuring visibility into agency traffic and cloud communications, CISA said in the guidance.

The Traditional TIC Use Case includes details on establishing a security architecture that utilizes “trust zones” at the low, medium and high levels.

CISA released finalized versions of the initial TIC 3.0 guidance documents for network security programs and reference architecture in July 2020.

The agency also released a draft version of Remote User Use Case guidelines based on the TIC Interim Telework Guidance for secure remote operations in December.

If you're interested in federal cybersecurity initiatives then check out GovCon Wire's Defense Cybersecurity Forum coming up on May 12. Click here to learn more.

The U.S. Air Force has unveiled a new Boeing-built fighter jet to help the service branch meet its capacity goals while providing operational and developmental testing opportunities for USAF aircraft.

Boeing will provide a maximum of 144 F-15EX Eagle II jets to support the Air Force’s efforts to increase the F-15 fleet’s readiness capacity and replace the F-15C/D variants, the service said Wednesday.

The Air Force’s 96th Test Wing and 53rd Wing are slated to commence testing and evaluation activities with the 40th Flight Test Squadron for F-15EX.

Lt. Gen. Duke Richardson, military deputy for the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics, unveiled the fighter jet Wednesday during a ceremony at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida.

“I’m pleased to say we’ve responded boldly and decisively, with a proven platform that’s modernized and optimized to maintain air superiority now and into the future,” he said.

The first formal training unit for F-15EX will operate under the 173rd Fighter Wing at the Kingsley Field Air National Guard Base in Oregon by 2024. Oregon ANG will also house the operational squadron for the fighter fleet.

The National Security Agency (NSA) plans to publish unclassified guidance to educate the public on the security risks of 5G infrastructure, Breaking Defense reported Wednesday. Wendy Noble, executive director of NSA, said the agency plans to release the document in spring.

NSA is will base the future guidance on research from the Enduring Security Framework (ESF), a public-private partnership that aims to address risks that threaten critical infrastructure and national security systems.

The Department of Defense (DOD) and Homeland Security (DHS) work with the intelligence community and commercial companies to run ESF, which now focuses on 5G adoption.

ESF’s 5G-focused work generally aims to model related threats, maximize virtualization and help 5G infrastructure recover from potential attacks.

A NASA mission to study Bennu has concluded flyover activities and is moving away from the near-Earth asteroid following “Touch and Go” material excavation and sample collection operations.

NASA said Thursday that the Origins Spectral Interpretation Resource Identification Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) mission completed its flyby on April 7th at 6 a.m. EDT.

The agency’s OSIRIS-REx team will conduct assessments of surface changes on Bennu after TAG activities that took place in October 2020. During the flyby, OSIRIS-REx facilitated imaging procedures for 5.9 hours at a distance of approximately 2.1 miles from the asteroid’s surface to capture over a full rotation.

The mission will use the Deep Space Network to downlink data to ground stations, which are slated to receive the data no earlier than April 13. OSIRIS-Rex will remain within Bennu’s vicinity until it commences a two-year return trip on May 10. The mission is scheduled to return to Earth by Sept. 24, 2023.

Mike Moreau, deputy project manager for the OSIRIS-REx mission at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, said the mission collected around 4,000 megabytes of data during the flyover.

NASA previously selected Lockheed Martin’s space business to construct the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft and provide flight operations support.