A group of six lawmakers has proposed a bipartisan bill that would establish a new office to help strengthen the U.S. manufacturing industry and its workforce and improve the country’s economic competitiveness.

The proposed Office of Manufacturing and Industrial Innovation Policy Act seeks to create a new office led by a chief manufacturing officer to conduct studies and develop a national plan to help ensure U.S. edge in manufacturing, according to a new release published Monday.

The bill would also form the Federal Strategy and Coordinating Council on Manufacturing and Industrial Innovation and establish a National Medal of Manufacturing and Industrial Innovation to acknowledge contributions to the field.

Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, introduced the measure with Sens. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and Chris Coons, D-Del., and Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., and Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio.

"The Office of Manufacturing and Industrial Innovation will work to coordinate existing federal programs and resources for manufacturers, while providing the President with analysis and perspective," said Portman. "Much like the National Security Advisor, the Chief Manufacturing Officer will create a strategic plan to ensure our nation’s manufacturing and industrial sector remains world-class."

White House officials on Tuesday briefed lawmakers on a potential $2 trillion infrastructure plan that would fund electric vehicles, public transit, highways, electrical grid and water systems upgrades, broadband internet expansion and semiconductor research efforts, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.

President Biden is scheduled to discuss his administration’s infrastructure package during his speech on Wednesday in Pittsburgh. The package will be the first of a two-part program that seeks to reshape U.S. economic policy and compete with China.

WSJ cited sources that say the infrastructure package would be covered by tax increases, including a rise in corporate tax rate and overseas earnings of companies.

Senior White House aides said they expect Congress to pass the infrastructure bill by summer. The Biden administration plans to release a second proposal focused on child care, education and health care in April as part of the two-part program.

Tyndall Air Force Base received the first batch of semi-autonomous robot dogs designed by Immersive Wisdom and Ghost Robotics for the U.S. Air Force's 325th Security Forces Squadron. 

The Quad-legged Unmanned Ground Vehicles can navigate on difficult terrains and come with 14 sensors each to allow a situational awareness coverage of 360 degrees, USAF said Monday. Q-UGVs also feature crouch and high-step modes as well as the capacity to endure a temperature range of minus 40 to 131 degrees.

"They can patrol the remote areas of a base while defenders can continue to patrol and monitor other critical areas of an installation," said Mark Shackley, security forces program manager at Tyndall AFB's program management office.

Tyndall AFB have been working with various organizations such as the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) and the 325th Civil Engineer Squadron since July to develop the Q-UGVs. 

The U.S. Army approved a capability development document that aims to speed up the experimentation and development of navigation warfare and situational awareness technologies. 

The Navigation Warfare Situational Awareness (NAVWAR-SA) Abbreviated Capability Development Document (A-CDD) outlines approaches on the usage of various tools for soldier assessment, testing and rapid prototyping of NAVWAR-SA technologies, the Army said Monday.

The Army's Assured Positioning, Navigation and Timing/Space Cross-Functional Team also intends to inform the service branch's NAVWAR-SA technology requirements through the use of a "buy, try and decide" method.

According to the military service, the team worked with the Army's capability managers for space and high altitude to craft the written requirements and undergo the accreditation process for A-CDD.

The team aims to evaluate and demonstrate prototype NAVWAR-SA technologies during the PNT Assessment Exercise and the Project Convergence 21 event.

NAVWAR-SA technologies are designed to characterize operating environments determine interferences that could degrade the quality of PNT signals.

President Biden plans to allow the National Space Council (NSC) and its User Advisory Group (UAG) to continue operations following its revival under the Trump administration in 2017, Politico reported Monday. 

The NSC was headed by Mike Pence, the former U.S. vice president, and included the heads of NASA, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), the State Department and the departments of Defense (DOD) and Commerce (DOC).

NSC told reporters that it is “still working details” and will prioritize the current administration’s goals in areas such as space exploration, climate change, space regulations and related national security initiatives.

The council’s renewal comes after interdisciplinary organizations wrote to the White House seeking to retain NSC and the UAG.

NASA has chosen 16 academic teams to further their deep-space exploration proposals as part of the agency’s Revolutionary Aerospace Systems Concepts – Academic Linkage (RASC-AL) program. 

NASA said Tuesday that the teams will develop their concepts that fall under five themes involving lunar surface habitation, Mars ascent vehicles, Venus flyby missions, lunar sample analysis, International Space Station activities and human missions to the dwarf planet Ceres.

Representatives from Lockheed Martin, SpaceX, Northrop Grumman, Aerojet Rocketdyne, Blue Origin and Boeing were among the industry experts that helped select the participating teams.

The teams will receive a “modest development stipend” to support concept development activities while the top two groups will secure $6,000 to present their proposals at the 2021 ASCEND conference in Nov. 2021 according to NASA.

All teams must present their developed concepts during the 2021 RASC-AL Forum which will be held virtually in June. RASC-AL is a NASA-sponsored event that falls under the management of the National Institute of Aerospace.

Citadel Defense has received a follow-on urgent contract award from the U.S. Department of Defense to protect servicemen and servicewomen from small drone threats.

Christopher Williams, CEO of Citadel Defense, says, “Our team is honored to support the military’s efforts by bringing effective and easy-to-use CUAS capabilities to U.S. troops and allies. Titan delivers an operational advantage over adversaries using drones as a weapon.”

Titan applies artificial intelligence, machine learning, and low-collateral electronic countermeasures that blind the drone pilot from collecting intelligence and prevent the drone from penetrating protected airspace. With the click of a button, Titan generates a post mission analysis report that highlights threat activity patterns. This analysis equips operators and their command leadership with insights that help chart a course of action for each mission.

Warfighters in live threat environments value Titan as a critical part of their mission based on its effectiveness, ease of use, and interoperability with other command and control interfaces. Titan’s low cost of support and sustainment, upgradability, and autonomy create efficiencies necessary to improve military and government mission outcomes.

“We constantly improve the Titan platform to equip operators with capabilities that address and adapt to the rapidly proliferating threat of small UAS across any region of the world,” explained Sean Troyer, Director of Business Development at Citadel Defense and a former US SOCOM member.

Citadel Defense will accelerate delivery of Titan systems to address urgent operational needs to meet an aggressive deployment schedule for U.S. troops.