The U.S. Army Futures Command (AFC) has concluded a 13-day exercise to assess the capacity of 15 technologies for applications such as offensive cyber, electronic warfare and tactical electromagnetic-spectrum operations, FedScoop reported on Monday.

Cyber Quest 2021 saw assessments of cyber technologies such as an Accenture-developed pattern recognition concept for manipulating digital signatures.

“This is unique because of the dialog it allows,” noted Maj. Gen. Neil Hersey, the Army Cyber Center of Excellence's commanding general. AFC also simulated an airbase attack to test radios with anti-jamming elements as well as features for tracking adversary actions through electromagnetic signatures.

The Army expects the larger-scale tests that took place during the exercise to help inform the service branch’s requirements for future contracts.

Hanscom Air Force Base (AFB) is slated to implement a consolidated service desk and catalog system that will support more than 700,000 users worldwide.

The first wave of the Enterprise IT-as-a-Service (EITaaS) platform features integrated security management capabilities, automated compliance checks and regular hardware and refresh updates, the U.S. Air Force said Monday. USAF aims to augment devices and speed up login times across U.S. Space Force and Air Force installations through the Wave 1 update.

The Department of the Air Force launched the EITaaS program in a move to deliver a standardized and agile information technology service to USSF and USAF. The team intends to work with industry and offer a contract in 2022 to deliver enhanced network performance to airmen.

“The partnership between EITaaS and the private sector on Wave 1 will set the foundation for delivering enterprise services across the Air and Space Forces,” said Col. Justin Collins, senior materiel leader at USAF’s enterprise information technology and cloud capabilities division, command, control, communications, intelligence and networks directorate.

The Wave 1 update is a part of the EITaaS Risk Reduction Effort, a feasibility assessment program that seeks to study security, operational, organizational and technical standards for enterprise IT systems.

Robert Work, vice chairman of the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence (NSCAI), said the U.S. must integrate autonomy and AI into systems warfare to stay ahead of adversaries, FCW reported Monday.

Work told the House Oversight and Reform Subcommittee on National Security and Armed Services Subcommittee on cyber, innovative technologies and information systems at a joint hearing that the U.S. needs a universal cloud-based digital infrastructure like the Joint AI Center’s Joint Common Foundation (JCF) to support the development and identification of use cases for AI.

“This will literally affect every operation, mission that we do. And it’s going to require a different way of training our and educating our commanders and our people,” he noted.

Eric Schmidt, chair of NSCAI, added that the Department of Defense (DOD) needs to have a stronger stance on large-scale AI adoption. He noted that this entails more resources and control at the commander and combatant command levels.

NSCAI cited recommendations in its report such as more funding for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to conduct multiple research efforts on the use of AI for disinformation campaigns.

Cobham‘s mission systems business said Tuesday its space pyrotechnic valves on the NASA Perseverance rover mission supported precise landing on Mars. Eight valves fired at exactly the right moment to allow an on-target guided entry, descent and landing on Mars as the Rover’s transitioned from parachute to retrorockets deceleration.

“Cobham Mission Systems is so proud to support NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) with proven space propulsion solutions that power Mars exploration,” said Craig Ryan, integrated product team director for Space Systems at Cobham Mission Systems.

During Perseverance’s seven-month voyage to Mars, the pyrovalves were kept closed to isolate fuel until the journey’s final minutes. During the Rover’s descent, the pyrovalves enabled precise navigation and landing by releasing needed fuel on cue, safely landing Perseverance into the scientifically rich location selected by NASA scientists.

Cobham Mission Systems’ pyrovalves are compatible with NASA Standard Initiators and are fully flight qualified.

“We have a long heritage of providing space technologies, starting with the design of John Glenn’s breathing regulator used in the world-famous Project Mercury flight in 1962. Nearly sixty years later, we are delighted to play a role in the successful Perseverance rover Mars landing. Congratulations to the NASA [Jet Propulsion Laboratory] team and all involved,” concluded Ryan.

Sarah Armstrong, director of the Joint Hypersonics Transition Office (JHTO) Systems Engineering Field Activity at Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC) Crane Division, said her work involves looking for “similarities between program needs and ways to maximize investments,” Naval Sea Systems Command reported Monday.

“I look at today’s research and state-of-the-art systems and determine how they can help carry out the long-term strategy for the hypersonics enterprise,” she added.

The office of the undersecretary of defense for research and engineering’s JHTO created the systems engineering field activity at NSWC Crane in Oct. 2020 and Armstrong said one reason behind the move is that the division has the capability to establish a connection between research and the warfighter. 

“We have a history of looking at what’s in the research world and connecting that with the needs of our customers,” Armstrong said. “We also have a host of capabilities from a systems engineering view, modeling and simulation view, and testing view. That helps us take these ideas into a fieldable capability.” 

She also cited the importance of communication in accelerating tech deployment and shed light on her work at NSWC Crane.

“My job is to take the systems engineering view of the overall hypersonics strategy and break it down to pieces of approachable technologies for the research community to address. We then accelerate the transition of those technologies into program implementation,” Armstrong said.

Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Brendan Carr has proposed a spectrum roadmap and new infrastructure reforms meant to extend U.S. leadership in 5G. 

Carr proposed several actions in 2021, including an auction of 100 MHz of spectrum in the 3.45 GHz band at power levels that will support 5G builds, adoption of an order that allows very low power devices to operate in the 6 GHz band and efforts to collect feedback on increasing the power levels for Citizens Broadband Radio Service operations in the 3.5 GHz band, FCC said Monday.

He also outlined his plans for 2022, including holding an auction for the 50 MHz of spectrum between 1300-1350 MHz and another auction of millimeter wave spectrum with the 42 GHz band as one of the prime candidates.

“So in 2017, the FCC put a plan in place to turn things around,” Carr said Monday at an American Enterprise Institute-hosted event. “I am proud of the results our reforms helped deliver—including accelerating new tower builds from just 708 in 2016 to over 46,000 in 2019 alone. Now is the time to build on these accomplishments.”

Carr said the FCC should get the broadband maps done by the fall 2021, kick off the 5G Fund auction in early 2022 and establish a Federal Lands Desk to address permitting delays.