Two U.S. Navy organizations and the Pennsylvania State University’s research arm have teamed up to modernize undersea sensors that help provide situational awareness to the military branch’s ships and submarines.

Penn State Applied Research Laboratory will work with the Naval Surface Warfare Center Crane Division and the Naval Undersea Warfare Center Newport Division as the service looks to address acoustic technology requirements, Naval Sea Systems Command said Thursday.

David Bartlett, NSWC Crane’s chief engineer for undersea sensors, pointed out that commercial advancements do not exactly fit the Navy’s demands given that the military service’s needs are larger in scale than any other commercial market and the sound energy it uses is greater than what any other industry member operates with.

He noted the branch seeks to build on science and technology developments funded through the Future Naval Capabilities program and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

The Department of Defense unveiled in December 2020 a tri-service maritime strategy, called Advantage at Sea, that envisions an all-domain naval power through the integration of complementary systems across the Navy, Marine Corps and the Coast Guard.

Bartlett said the Navy needs sonar technology to stay ahead of foreign adversaries who are working on hard-to-detect platforms.

The branch is testing the TR-343 transducer, a component of a larger sonar system that supports the AN/SQQ-89(V) undersea warfare combat platform for surface ships.

Penn State ARL provides national security research and development services to the Navy under a 10-year, $2.1 billion contract awarded in 2018.

The National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) plans to use launch services outside of its usual National Security Space Launch (NSSL) program when needed to launch missions on tight schedules or deploy lower-cost research payloads, SpaceNews reported Friday. 

The NRO develops and operates the U.S. government’s spy satellites and typically uses the U.S. Space Force run NSSL program to get satellites into orbit. Although the NRO will use commercial contracts for some missions, it will also help fund technical support and mission assurance activities for NSSL. 

Some congressional lawmakers have raised concerns that procuring launch services outside the NSSL program with commercial contracts makes the NSSL program more expensive. Regardless, the NRO has launched satellites on SpaceX and Rocket Lab rockets under such commercial contracts. 

The Space Force awarded five-year contracts to United Launch Alliance and SpaceX to launch Department of Defense and intelligence agency satellites last year. The companies compete for single missions on a yearly basis. If launch providers secure commercial contracts outside of the NSSL, they often offer more competitive prices for NSSL missions.

Although the government benefits if providers offer lower prices, fewer missions might make the NSSL program less efficient. However, the number of non-NSSL launches the NRO has used are unlikely to have a consequential effect. 

An NRO spokesman stated that the agency is a partner of the Space Force in the NSSL program but gave several factors as to why alternative launch options will be considered in the future. Such factors include satellite risk tolerance, required launch dates, available launch vehicles and cost. 

Col. Robert Bongiovi, head of the Space Force’s Space and Missile Systems Center launch enterprise, said NSSL Phase 2 was “constructed to provide affordable and innovative access to space.”As to why agencies pursue other options to launch their satellites, “you have to talk to those two agencies on why they chose different approaches,” Bongiovi started in November during a Mitchell Institute event.

Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) selected 12 academic and commercial entities to conduct cost-shared research and development on smart medical technology, with a total project value of $20.4 million. 

AFRL said Thursday its Nano-Bio Materials Consortium (NBMC) issued the awards on Feb. 15th, with the goal of developing medical technologies that benefit both the public and the military.

The awardees contribute $10.7 million in cost-shared funds to the projects, which AFRL also supports with additional funding. AFRL researchers may work together with industry teams under projects supported by NBMC.

“This is a new way for AFRL researchers to participate as project performers responsible for contributing to project milestones and deliverables, in addition to providing program management oversight that AFRL has employed for past NBMC projects,” said Jeremy Ward, who is part of AFRL's Entrepreneurial Opportunity Program.

Battelle announced on Wednesday its new collaborative effort with the Ohio State University and Northwestern University aimed at combating ‘misinformation’ related to COVID-19 by assessing the risk of COVID-19 ‘misinformation’ in near real-time. The effort is sponsored by a $1 million grant from the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA). 

Katie Liszewski, a cybersecurity engineer, stated that “These tools track the potential of new misinformation spreading through influential groups to the general public and eliminates the need to exhaustively catalog the millions of tweets, posts, and likes generated every day."

“The approach will enable decision-makers and spokespeople to quickly craft public service announcements to counter dangerous misinformation without causing information fatigue,” Liszewski added. 

Previously, attempts to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 ‘misinformation’ have been mostly unsuccessful because they were attempts to retroactively correct false narratives. The team’s investigators’ backgrounds include cyber trust and analytics, mathematics, social networks, communication and public policy. 

Erik Nisbet, Owen L. Coon Endowed Professor of Policy Analysis and Communication, said of the team, “There have been many efforts to track and mitigate misinformation, but this initiative is truly unique due to its combination of multiple approaches from network science, social media analytics, and computational linguistics, and an understanding of the psychology behind its spread and influence.”

The first concepts to battle ‘misinformation’ began when COVID-19 was first reported in the U.S. The collaboration was initially internally funded by both Battelle and the Ohio State Office of Research.

About Battelle

Every day, the people of Battelle apply science and technology to solving what matters most. At major technology centers and national laboratories worldwide, Battelle conducts research and development, designs and manufactures products and delivers critical services for government and commercial customers. Since its founding in 1929, Battelle, Headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, serves the national security, health and life sciences and energy and environmental industries. 

President Biden plans to present a $6 trillion investment in transportation, infrastructure, education, environmental efforts and other factors relevant to the U.S. economy, the New York Times reported Thursday.

The planned budget proposal for fiscal year 2022 aligns with Biden's agenda to improve the nation's social security standards and modernize public infrastructure. 

Biden's plan would require historically high levels of spending for water piping, manufacturing research, internet service, and other investments that aim to sustain U.S. global competitiveness.

The investment would also include boosted spending in the areas of social welfare and national security. New York Times reported Biden's plan might require borrowed funds in addition to boosted tax revenue.

The Department of Defense (DOD) has proposed changes to the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation (DFARS) Supplement to implement a provision in the fiscal year 2018 National Defense Authorization Act that provides offerors enhanced rights with regard to postaward debriefings for competitively negotiated contracts, delivery and task orders.

Section 818 of the FY 2018 NDAA seeks to increase postaward debriefing requirements for contracts valued at $10 million or higher and provide debriefed contractors an opportunity to send follow-up questions and receive responses from agencies, according to the proposed rule posted on May 20.

The section also intends to “extend the timeframe during which the contracting officer shall immediately suspend contract performance or terminate the awarded contract if a protest is filed,” the document states.

The proposed rule would apply to contracts that deal with the procurement of commercial off-the-shelf products and other commercial items in an effort to promote competition and further develop small business capabilities.

“Properly conducted postaward debriefings with this enhanced transparency may minimize the number of unnecessary protests filed while strengthening relationships between DoD and industry,” the proposed rule reads.

Comments on the proposed rule are due July 19th.

The Department of Energy (DOE) has allocated $100 million in funding to support efforts to expand the skilled science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) workforce through the Early Career Research Program. 

Eighty-three scientists representing 11 DOE National Laboratories and 41 universities will receive grants that will cover salary and research expenses over a five-year period, the department said Thursday.

Some of the awardees' research topics are advanced scientific computing research, basic and fusion energy sciences, biological and environmental research as well as nuclear and high energy physics. Grants also provide for accelerator and isotope research, development and production.

“Maintaining our nation’s braintrust of world-class scientists and researchers is one of DOE’s top priorities—and that means we need to give them the resources they need to succeed early on in their careers,” said Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm.

National Labs researchers are entitled to annual grants of $500,000 while university-based researchers are set to receive $150,000 funding per year.