Kathleen Hicks, deputy secretary of the Department of Defense (DOD) and a 2021 Wash100 Award recipient, is directing the Pentagon to reassess the Trump administration's budget proposal for fiscal year 2022, USNI News reported Wednesday.

Hicks is calling on the DOD’s director of Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation (CAPE) to study line items in the FY 2022 budget including U.S. Navy shipbuilding efforts and aircraft modernization programs. Other items up for assessment include long-range fires and nuclear weapons.

During her confirmation hearing, Hicks told the Senate Armed Services Committee that the Trump administration's FY22 blueprint includes items that “require further analysis to validate the numbers."

There were also items in the blueprint such as autonomy, force dispersal and small surface combatant fleet expansion that caught her interest, she noted. “I think the biggest challenge that I will face, if confirmed, because of this is around budget transparency,” said Hicks.

CAPE’s assessment will revolve around the identified programs’ potential involvement in deterrence efforts in the Pacific region, as well as the acceleration of autonomous systems development and the transition away from legacy systems, Defense News reported Wednesday.

The group will also evaluate potential funding for the Biden administration's climate programs and other Build Back Better initiatives for FY 2023 through 2027, according to USNI News.

Cloud Lake Technology, a subsidiary of Akima, announced on Thursday that the company has received its ISO/IEC 20000-1:2018 certification, which certifies the company’s best-in-class approach for delivering complex  IT service management to customers.

“This certification validates our capability to deliver a consistent approach to the service lifecycle,  ensuring our federal customers receive the integrated services they need to meet mission objectives,”  said Barry Smallwood, President of Akima’s Emerging Markets Group. “I am extremely proud of our  team and their commitment to meeting our customers critical needs and requirements.”

Cloud Lake Technology was one of the first in the U.S. to achieve CMMI maturity level 3 for development  and services under the new assessment method, version 2.0. This ISO/IEC certification further demonstrates the company’s commitment to continuous improvement and delivering high quality of  service to customers efficiently and effectively.

About Akima 

Akima is a global enterprise with more than 7,500 employees, delivering agile solutions to the federal  government in the core areas of aviation, construction, facilities and logistics, IT and mission support,  protective services and detention management, and systems engineering.

Akima’s core mission is to  enable superior outcomes for our customers’ missions while simultaneously creating a long-lived asset  for NANA consistent with our Iñupiat values.

Brig. Gen. Heather Pringle, commander of the Air Force Research Laboratory, said that AFRL could increase the number of programs to build transformational weapon systems, C4ISRNET reported Wednesday.

AFRL seeks to expedite current Vanguard projects called Golden Horde, Skyborg and Navigation Technology Satellite-3 as part of the U.S. Air Force's 2030 Science and Technology Strategy.

“Our goal is to achieve, or dedicate, up to 20 percent of our investments to this portfolio — this transformational, top-down strategy-driven design — by FY23,” Pringle was quoted as saying.

Golden Horde focuses on networking a swarm of munitions for autonomous multitarget engagement while Skyborg centers on the development of artificial intelligence-based wingmen drones.

The NTS-3 project aims to demonstrate a position, navigation and timing satellite platform that could serve as a testbed for new GPS technology.

The U.S. Space Force is looking to host a business-pitch event, work with industry consortia and adopt a middle-tier acquisition model in efforts to accelerate the branch's commercial technology buying process, FedScoop reported Wednesday.

Lt. Gen. John Thompson, commander of USSF's Space and Missile Systems Center, and other service leaders want to build on previous anti-jamming satellite technology collaboration with the Space Enterprise Consortium to produce other platforms.

Thompson said the branch is also considering using a rapid prototyping and fielding model under Section 804 of the Fiscal 2016 National Defense Authorization Act.

The Department of Defense (DOD) released in late 2019 a guide on middle-tier acquisition procedures that call for DOD components and their industry partners to complete projects within five years when they apply the contracting method.

USSF plans to host its inaugural pitch day in spring to collect technology ideas from the private sector, the report noted.