//
Air Force Tests Combat Use of Palantir’s Maven AI System
Published on
Air Force Tests Combat Use of Palantir’s Maven AI System

The U.S. Air Force 805th Combat Training Squadron has deployed Palantir’s Maven Smart System to test human-machine teaming, or HMT, for battlefield risk reduction. The squadron, also known as the Shadow Operations Center – Nellis, or ShOC-N, teamed Palantir’s Maven system with Maverick artificial intelligence in the kill-chain targeting process to test potential improvements in speed, scale and accuracy using the technology, the Air Force said.

The tests, conducted during ShOC-N’s recent biannual Capstone 24B event, demonstrated Maven and Maverick AI’s team-up in tactical control, execution and assigning assets in a common operating scenario.     

“Maven has the capability to integrate across domains, so if we can do space and cyber, it helps facilitate realistic, all-domain operations,” said Capt. Edwardo Ramirez, Capstone 24B lead. 

All-Domain Operations Use

The functionality of Palantir’s MSS was also tested in the line of operations for the Air Force software known as Kessel Run’s All Domain Operations Suite, or KRADOS, to improve the whole kill-chain process. Through the ShOC-N event, the Air Force is continuing to integrate additional air operations tools to boost the process.

A Department of Defense contract award on the Palantir MSS in May had also led to the DOD’s Global Information Dominance Experiments program wherein the system is the primary workflow platform for enterprise Combined Joint All-Domain Command and Control.

In December, Palantir and Anduril announced a partnership to form a consortium with the goal of ensuring U.S. dominance in global artificial intelligence, a collaboration that also calls for merging Palantir’s Maven with Anduril’s Lattice software system.

//
DOD Seeks Proposals for Digital Engineering Platform for IC Development
Published on
DOD Seeks Proposals for Digital Engineering Platform for IC Development

The Department of Defense has started soliciting proposals for a digital engineering platform to accelerate the development of integrated circuits, or ICs.

Boosting IC Development

The Defense Innovation Unit said the DOD is seeking contractors capable of creating a digital engineering platform that can expedite the design and validation of analog integrated circuits as well as mixed-signal, photonic and hybrid chips in interposers or other heterogeneous integration structures.

Under the Chipweave project, the selected vendor should build a platform capable of design automation to reduce reliance on manual processes and verification of IC design and behavior. The platform should also have flexible Field Programmable Analog Arrays that can be compatible with various applications. In addition, it should be able to redesign or reverse-engineer analog circuits.

Interested vendors may send their proposals by Feb. 21.

The DOD intends to address the challenges in designing electronic chips, which are essential for legacy and modern military systems. Some applications still require the performance attributes of analog, mixed-signal, photonic and hybrid chips. These chip designs are hindered by lengthy design cycles and frequent resigns while manual design processes are repetitive, susceptible to errors and take too much time.

The project is meant to deal with these issues to boost the design process and reduce errors.

//
House Bill Seeks to Ban DeepSeek From Government Devices
Published on
House Bill Seeks to Ban DeepSeek From Government Devices

Reps. Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J., and Darin LaHood, R-Ill., have introduced the No DeepSeek on Government Devices Act, which would prohibit federal employees from using the China-produced artificial intelligence tool.

The House bill would prevent the use of DeepSeek on devices owned by the U.S. government, Gottheimer said in a Thursday press release, noting that the United States has evidence indicating that the AI technology is designed to steal data from U.S. citizens.

National Security Threat

According to LaHood, the legislation “will ban the app from federal workers’ phones while closing backdoor operations the company seeks to exploit for access.” He added that DeepSeek poses an alarming national security threat to the United States.

Citing new research, the lawmakers said the DeepSeek code is linked to the Chinese Communist Party and thus adversarial to U.S. interests. They stressed that the AI platform can potentially share user data with China Mobile, a telecom company owned by the Chinese government and with close association with China’s military.

Designed to Collect Sensitive Data

The legislators also warned that by using DeepSeek, Americans could be sharing sensitive information with the technology’s owner, including contracts, documents and financial records. DeekSeek could deliver such critical data to the CCP, which declared “it will exploit any tool at its disposal to undermine our national security, spew harmful disinformation, and collect data on Americans,” explained Gottheimer.

//
DARPA’S NOM4D Program Advances to In-Space Demos
Published on
DARPA’S NOM4D Program Advances to In-Space Demos

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has fast-tracked the third phase of its NOM4D program aimed at building large structures in Earth orbit to two in-space demonstrations instead of laboratory tests. 

Andrew Detor, the program’s manager, said that “the maturity is there” after NOM4D’s first two phases, and space demos would be more impactful. He noted that the program’s two performers, the California Institute of Technology and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, now have space launch companies as partners for in-space testing of their assembly methods and materials. 

“Pushing the performers to do a demo in space means they can’t just sweep challenges under the rug like they could in a lab. You better figure out how it’s going to survive in the space environment,” the NOM4D program manager remarked.

Launch Partners & Test Focus Areas 

Caltech’s focus in NOM4D is mass-efficient in-space manufacturing designs. It has partnered with Momentus for its technology demo aboard the Momentus Vigoride Orbital Services Vehicle scheduled for low Earth orbit launch on the SpaceX Falcon 9 Transporter-16 mission in February 2026.

The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign’s NOM4D work centers on in-space materials and manufacturing for which it has developed a high-precision, in-space composite-forming process. Voyager Space, which has rebranded to Voyager Technologies, is its partner for the demo launch to the International Space Station aboard NASA’s Commercial Resupply Mission NG-24, tentatively set for April 2026. The Bishop Airlock module attached to ISS will host the demo. 

Third Phase 3 Test at NASA Marshall

The University of Florida, NOM4D’s third team, is not joining the in-space Phase 3 tests and instead working on innovative laser sheet metal bending techniques for space manufacturing. It is maturing the capability at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.

DARPA launched NOM4D, which stands for Novel Orbital Moon Manufacturing, Materials and Mass Efficient Design, in March 2022, with eight industry and university teams participating in the three-phase program.

//
NASA to Update Core Flight System Software Within 2025
Published on
NASA to Update Core Flight System Software Within 2025

NASA will update its reusable flight software within the year, according to Ashok Prajapati, core Flight System, or cFS, program manager at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.

A steering committee established a three-year road map for NASA cFS 2.0, which will include new features supporting all future missions, Prajapati told SpaceNews on Monday. The upcoming software bump will offer plug-and-play capabilities for in-space robotics, cybersecurity, distributed computing, spacecraft autonomy and onboard machine learning, he added.

Benefits of cFS Software

Prajapati said his office is working with other NASA centers to integrate high-performance space computing, which focuses on next-generation flight computing, and cFS. He urged people to skip building their flight software and use NASA’s offering instead to save on costs and avoid potential defects.

Government and Open-Source Versions

The space agency will roll out a government-only version of NASA cFS in the second half of 2025 with enhanced security, artificial intelligence, robotics support and autonomy features. Companies working on NASA instruments, payloads, rovers, landers, balloons and unmanned aircraft will be given access to the software.

NASA will then deploy the open-source version of cFS, which will support several key projects, including small satellites, NASA Artemis, lunar Gateway, Mars Sample Return and the Roman Space Telescope.

/
Johns Hopkins APL to Enhance Space Security With New Program
Published on
Johns Hopkins APL to Enhance Space Security With New Program

The Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory has unveiled a new digital engineering program meant to enable U.S. space agencies to protect satellites and other systems critical to national security.

Utilizing Digital Twins to Boost Space Security

The APL said Monday its new modeling, simulation and analysis tool utilizes model-based systems engineering and digital engineering that allows users to simulate responses of national security systems to different space events. The simulations enable them to gain insights of the strengths and weaknesses of the system and use them to strengthen the agency’s space security infrastructure.

The knowledge gained from using digital twins can also be leveraged in making critical and action-based decisions to boost the survivability of warfighters in various environments and enhance capabilities to safeguard vital operational assets.

Michaelyn Thomas, program manager at APL, remarked, “We provide a suite of analyses that identifies where functional and technology gaps exist in the nation’s space command and control architecture so that our sponsors can make informed choices on how to maximize their systems.”

Grace Colonell, co-technical lead of the program, added, “Our model tries to identify the functions that an agency needs to consider. When we compare those options to what’s actually available, we can identify potential gaps.”

/
Michael Ellis Begins Role as CIA Deputy Director
Published on
Michael Ellis Begins Role as CIA Deputy Director

Michael Ellis, former general counsel of the National Security Agency during the first Trump administration, took oath Monday as CIA deputy director.

“Michael is highly respected in the Intelligence Community and ranks among our nation’s finest national security professionals,” CIA Director John Ratcliffe said in a statement published Monday.

“Having known Michael for many years, I am truly excited to welcome him to Langley,” added Ratcliffe, a 2025 Wash100 awardee.

Michael Ellis’ Career Background

Prior to joining the agency, Ellis was general counsel and corporate secretary at video sharing platform Rumble.

Ellis held other senior national security positions in the U.S. government, including senior director for intelligence programs at the National Security Council and general counsel of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.

Earlier in his career, he clerked for Judge Jeffrey Sutton of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit and for Judge Amul Thapar, then of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky.

The Dartmouth College and Yale Law School graduate served as an intelligence officer in the U.S. Navy Reserve.

/
Ryan Riedel Named Energy Department CIO
Published on
Ryan Riedel Named Energy Department CIO

The Department of Energy has appointed IT professional Ryan Riedel as chief information officer, Politico’s E&E News reported.

In this capacity, he will manage the operations and cybersecurity across the national labs, the National Nuclear Security Administration and power marketing administrations.

Ann Dunkin, former CIO at DOE, welcomed the appointment of Riedel in a LinkedIn post.

“Handing the keys over to you, virtually. You’ve got a great team and they’re ready to help you do great things,” Dunkin added.

Riedel’s Career Highlights

According to his profile on the professional networking site, the new CIO most recently served as lead network security engineer at SpaceX.

Prior to SpaceX, he served as a network manager at U.S. Army Cyber Command.

Riedel spent more than seven years at the Corpus Christi Army Depot, where he served as a network engineer, IT project manager and IT service desk lead.

He also served in the Navy as a network administrator and communications security custodian.

//
Army CIO Issues Cross Domain Solution as a Service Policy
Published on
Army CIO Issues Cross Domain Solution as a Service Policy

Leonel Garciga, the U.S. Army’s chief information officer and a 2025 Wash100 awardee, has released a memorandum outlining the policy for using Cross Domain Solution as a Service, or CDSaaS, across the military branch.

What Is CDSaaS?

CDSaaS is a cloud computing-based platform that cloud service providers offer as a service to government organizations to facilitate the transfer of information across two or more different classification domains.

The transfer can be done from high-to-low, low-to-high or in any combination needed to meet mission requirements.

Policy Details

According to the memo published Jan. 31, all Army cloud cross domain solution, or CDS, requirements will be approved and managed through the Enterprise Cloud Management Agency Cloud Governance Committee, also known as ECMA CGC.

ECMA tenants will adhere to raise the bar, or RTB, requirements, and CGC will assess requests for specific critical missions or operational workloads for consideration for approval.

The document states that only ECMA will provide CDSaaS services for use by Army organizations and that no enterprise CDS offerings will be paid for or used without approval from the Army CIO. 

Roles & Responsibilities of Army Officials

According to the memo, CGC will serve as the approval and governance committee for ECMA CDSaaS tenant requests to align with Army portfolio management.

ECMA will serve as the lead organization for all cloud Department of Defense Information Network-Army, or DoDIN-A, operations. It will have the sole responsibility of establishing all governance, maintenance, and approval for unit utilization of CDSaaS.

ECMA will also be responsible for providing guidance and support to CGC and the sole Army organization that can use reciprocity for CDSaaS operations.

The document tasks Army Cyber Command with providing cybersecurity service provider integration and monitoring efforts.

/
New NASA Aircraft Guidance System to Help Trim Research Cost
Published on
New NASA Aircraft Guidance System to Help Trim Research Cost

NASA recently flew its Gulfstream-IV, or G-IV,  aircraft for the first flight test of a new aircraft guidance system designed to lessen Earth science studies’ operating costs. Called Soxnav, the system is geared to help pilots maintain precise aircraft course at flight speeds of up to 500 miles per hour, NASA said.  

Soxnav’s design provides pilots with 3D automated steering used for a precise landing approach in poor visibility. The system’s technical baseline as a compact, automated guidance was drawn from previous aircraft navigation models.

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California and the Bay Area Environmental Research Institute in California’s Silicon Valley collaborated on Soxnav’s development.

Precise Altitude for Radar Efficiency

Joe Piotrowski, G-IV operations engineer, said Soxnav will enable pilots to maintain the exact flight altitude for the data collection missions of the aircraft through its Next Generation Airborne Synthetic Aperture Radar, or AirSAR-NG. 

“With the data that can be collected from science flights equipped with the Soxnav instrument, NASA can provide the general public with better support for natural disasters, tracking of food and water supplies, as well as general Earth data about how the environment is changing,” the agency’s engineer said.

Soxnav Use Eyed in Other NASA Aircraft

According to NASA, Soxnav can provide G-IV the capability for collecting broader, more accurate and less costly scientific information, with the optimized AirSAR-NG observations. The agency plans to expand the system’s use to its other aircraft types to support missions for their current and future sensors.

NASA’s Gulfstream aircraft-based studies include a partnership with the U.S. Geological Survey initiated in October 2022 for a five-year, $16 million research project that will use airborne hyperspectral imaging technology to map critical minerals and study their impact on climate change.

1 … 113 114 115 116 117 … 2,618