The Department of Energy (DOE) will invest $40 million in research that aims to reduce the waste emitted by nuclear reactors. DOE said Wednesday its Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy will use the funds to finance projects under the Optimizing Nuclear Waste and Advanced Reactor Disposal Systems (ONWARDS) program.

ONWARDS will explore how to lessen the waste and used nuclear fuel of advanced nuclear reactors by 10 times. The project will seek improvements in recycling processes, waste forms and sensors and data used for nuclear material management.

DOE pursues ONWARDS to further commercialize advanced nuclear reactors and protect the environment through the implementation of clean energy.

“More than half of our zero-carbon energy is generated from nuclear power, and through this groundbreaking research we can expand nuclear's potential,” said Jennifer Granholm, secretary of Energy.

Database management system developer Neo4j has received approval to join a U.S. Air Force-run digital hub of binary container images intended for use on Department of Defense networks.

The company said Wednesday it built a hardened container with the Air Force’s Platform One software development team and will offer the technology via the DOD Centralized Artifacts Repository.

Jim Webber, chief scientist of Neo4j, noted the company aims to help DOD network users understand data connections.

The graph technology provider used an authorized base image and followed a container hardening guide as part of the Iron Bank certification program.

Nicolas Chaillan, chief software officer of the Air Force, said the service built DCAR “as part of our effort to select, certify, and secure best of breed development tools and software capabilities.”

The U.S. Army implemented Neo4j’s platform to monitor equipment maintenance data.

The U.S. Air Force has conducted its first information warfare-focused exercises to test the concept at a new range in the New Mexico desert. The Air Combat Command has performed ten proof of concept exercises intending to consolidate and operationalize all the capabilities to provide Air Force and joint commanders integrated information warfare packages.

The exercises were designed with the critical concept of convergence supported by Lt. Gen. Timothy Haugh, commander of 16th Air Force, the Air Force’s first information warfare numbered force that integrates global intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, cyber, electronic warfare, and information operations under a single commander. C4isrnet reported the story on Wednesday.

Jeffrey Phillips, commander of the 67th Cyberspace Wing, commented on the theme of convergence, saying, “how do we organize ourselves around problems that also don’t constrain us by the geography? Because in many cases, that information that’s available to us will not necessarily be collocated with the adversary we’re targeting.” 

“It’s taking advantage of our global access, our global access to the data and unique authorities, whether that’s intelligence authorities or the role that we play as a cyber component of the capabilities that we now stood up from an information warfare and an information operations perspective. How those come together and integrate are the outcomes that we are producing and will produce with our partners, Phillips added. 

Phillips also explained that the Air Force has begun to combine other disciplines, such as electronic warfare and intelligence, into specifically trained airmen who will play a critical role in communications systems in keeping with the convergence theme. 

The airmen who complete electronic warfare training will be assigned to air operations centers to support squadrons, where they will have a substantial impact. These airmen are also trained as behavioral scientists and are experts in military information support operations, military deception operations, psychological operations.

“We see to get them the right formal training so they can bring all those functions together and take them out to the field to influence operations,” Phillips concluded.

Stacy Cummings, who is performing the duties of the undersecretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment at the Department of Defense (DOD) and a 2021 Wash100 Award winner, said at a virtual conference that software acquisition changes are turning up positive initial results, FedScoop reported Wednesday.

The Adaptive Acquisition Pathway, an update to DOD's traditional acquisition approach, aims to streamline acquisition of software and is implemented into several defense programs for its pilot run.

“Early trends look really good,” said Cummings during a National Defense Industry Association-hosted event. She added that the pilot is still under evaluation.

More programs are being lined up to implement the new purchasing policy, according to the DOD procurement lead. The move to the software acquisition pathway was recommended by a 2019 software acquisition report from the Defense Innovation Board.

Ball Aerospace, teaming with Microsoft, has completed a series of successful demonstrations to showcase the viability of using commercial cloud computing to process and securely deliver actionable information, Ball Aerospace reported on Wednesday. 

"Our tests showed that the cloud is, in fact, a viable solution for data processing, exploitation and dissemination of data that is not only fast but also flexible, secure, scalable and resilient," said Steve Smith, vice president and general manager, Systems Engineering Solutions, Ball Aerospace.

"For years, the military has envisioned an agile and connected force structure. During the demonstration, the CASINO team proved that we are ready to field low-latency links today, which moves this vision much closer to reality," Smith added.

For the demonstrations, simulated data from Overhead Persistent Infrared (OPIR) was pushed to Microsoft's AZURE cloud where it was processed using Ball-developed event-driven architecture and then disseminated to multiple endpoints. 

"Direct satellite-to-cloud communication and accelerated ground data processing allows the Department of Defense to gain advanced analytics capabilities enabling predictive modeling and new actionable insights capable of reshaping the future as they advance their mission," said Tom Keane, corporate vice president of Azure Global for Microsoft.

Smartronix announced on Tuesday its acquisition of C2S Consulting Group (C2SCG). C2SCG is a full spectrum cloud solution provider specializing in the transformation of government customers in data-intensive environments through innovation, automation and adoption of hybrid and multi-cloud solutions. The financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed

“Joining the Smartronix team ensures a great career trajectory for our employees, access to a broader range of innovative solutions for our clients, and the ability to better leverage our automation and hybrid and multi-cloud solutions with an entirely new set of clients,” commented Brandee Daly C2SCG CEO and founder.

C2SCG will join Smartronix’s Cloud Solutions business unit under president John Sankovich. The company will utilize its deep technical expertise and cutting-edge solutions to strengthen Smartronix’s position as a cloud sector leader.

The acquisition will add over 50 highly skilled technical staff members to Smartronix’s workforce. C2SCG will expand Smartronix’s client base into the U.S. intelligence community and the Department of Homeland Security and strengthen its base within the Department of Defense (DOD) and federal civilian agencies.

Brandee Daly will join the Smartronix executive leadership team as executive vice president, and he will report directly to CEO Peter LaMontagne and will develop strategic client and cloud growth initiatives.

“C2SCG’s strong presence in the U.S. Intelligence Community and impressive technical depth significantly enhance our leadership position in the cloud solutions market,” s Peter LaMontagne, Smartonix’s CEO.

C2SCG’s exclusive financial advisor was Baird and its legal counsel was Miles & Stockbridge. Smartonix’s legal counsel was Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher.

“The acquisition of C2SCG strengthens our unique market position as a leader in multi-cloud solutions and digital transformation,” stated John Sankovich.

“The addition of top talent from C2SCG and that of recently acquired Datastrong, combined with our in-house expertise, truly advances our vision to empower clients with innovative cloud solutions and data intelligence to realize the maximum return on their strategic investments,” Sankovich added.

U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) has planned investments in a range of emerging technologies to address the challenges of future warfare, C4ISRnet reported Tuesday.

These technologies include secure data sharing, edge computing and others that can improve USSOCOM's performance in information and electronic warfare.

“We have to develop and make sure we really look at what SOF [special operations forces] can do in competition and what SOF can do in high-end conflict,” Gen. Richard Clarke, USSOCOM commander, said at the National Defense Industrial Association’s Special Operations Forces Industry Conference.

USSOCOM's Hyper-Enabled Operator effort helps the command's operations personnel make information-aided decisions. This effort had a budget of $16 million in fiscal year 2020.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has been housing larger amounts of data as it continues to employ artificial intelligence to inform weather forecasts, Federal News Network reported Tuesday.

Jamese Sims, NOAA's senior science adviser for AI, said the agency uses the technology to set physical parameters for prediction models and analyze associated errors.

About 200 of NOAA's projects use AI across research and operational activities. NOAA currently uses supercomputers to store the corresponding workload but considers turning to cloud technology in anticipation of AI's further development.

The agency's National Centers for Environmental Information stores 37 petabytes of data on geophysical, oceanographic and coastal observation.

“We need to better understand what data is actually needed, as we talk about using AI more across the agency,” Sims said.