Gerald Caron, an official at the State Department, said the Trusted Internet Connections 3.0 (TIC 3.0) guidance enables agencies to drive zero-trust implementation while benefiting from flexible security requirements, Federal News Network reported Tuesday.

Caron, who serves as director of enterprise network management at the State Department’s Bureau of Information Resources, said at a prior webinar that TIC 3.0 allows agencies to move away from TIC 2.0’s “prescriptive” security guidelines.

He noted that the guide’s updated version focuses on identifying use cases for the more flexible guidelines in line with agencies’ business needs, architectures and modernization goals. Determining where the TIC 3.0 guidelines fit is also key to streamlining data management for cloud environments, according to Caron.

“I think how edge computing will have the biggest impact is how it integrates, how it fits into that overall plan that you want to accomplish in that architecture, and how it interacts with the other tools,” he said. “So looking at the bigger picture is really important.”

Gen. Charles “CQ” Brown Jr., chief of staff of the U.S. Air Force, said the service branch might need sixth-generation fighter jets as part of its future fleet, National Defense Magazine reported Tuesday. 

Brown recently told reporters that the Air Force may require a Next-Generation Air Dominance platform along with fourth- and fifth-generation aircraft like the F-35.

Brown, who leads a study on the service’s future fleet to inform fiscal year 2023 budget decisions, noted that his office is also looking into quantifying the amount of unmanned and manned aircraft in the Air Force fighter squadron.

The Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) is continuing efforts under its Skyborg “loyal wingman” program that seeks to utilize unmanned platforms for teaming operations with manned aircraft, according to the publication.

Boeing, which is bidding its concept for the Skyborg program, concluded an initial test flight for its Loyal Wingman aircraft intended for the Australian government earlier this month.

Brown noted that AFRL is “making pretty good strides” with the Skyborg program. The Air Force expects to start adding drones to its fleet by 2023.

Michael Brown, director of the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU), said the federal government must bolster investments in research and development to keep pace with industry as well as adversaries like China, C4ISRnet reported Tuesday.

Brown said at a National Defense Industrial Association event that the private sector has “moved ahead quite dramatically” in technological development and that DIU is partnering with nontraditional contractors to help achieve military dominance.

He added that R&D efforts driven by federal funding provide benefits such as openness to risk-taking and longer-term investments.

“So if we want access to the leading technology for our military, we’ve got to be accessing the commercial world, and we’ve got to learn to be a fast follower,” said Brown.

Rep. Jim Langevin, D-R.I., said at the same event that federal funding for R&D has its payoffs. Langevin, who serves as chair of the House Armed Services Committee’s cyber, innovative technologies and information systems subcommittee, cited the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (DARPA) COVID-19 research platform that supported U.S. vaccine development efforts.

“Defense-funded basic, early-stage and applied research helps us maintain our competitive edge on the battlefield, but also improves [civilians’] lives,” he noted.

Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) has launched this year's $95,000 prize challenge for 3D printing, cyber and data science technologies applicable to maritime operations. 

The four-day HACKtheMACHINE competition launched virtually on Tuesday with three separate tracks corresponding to the three technologies, NAVSEA said the same day.

The contest's cyber track will challenge participants to hack the U.S. Navy's 2021 cyber games in a virtual capture-the-flag manner. Contestants will attempt to disable a tool the Navy is looking to use for cyber surveillance.

The data science track will task participants to develop algorithms for health emergency response, and the 3D printing track will focus on metallic 3D printing of naval ship parts. The Navy may issue a small business contract for the 3D printing track's winner.

"HACKtheMACHINE is a great avenue for non-traditional partners, many who are small businesses," said Anne Bannister, director of NAVSEA's small business program.

NASA's Perseverance rover, now on Mars, is preparing to deploy its mini helicopter that will demonstrate flight on the red planet. The space agency said Wednesday that it wants to have the four-pound Ingenuity helicopter fly on April 8th at the earliest. The helicopter would fly over the Martian surface within 30 Mars days or 31 Earth days.

“Aptly named, Ingenuity is a technology demonstration that aims to be the first powered flight on another world and, if successful, could further expand our horizons and broaden the scope of what is possible with Mars exploration," said Lori Glaze, director of NASA's planetary science division.

Mars has a gravity that is approximately one-third of Earth's and gets half the solar energy received by the human-inhabited planet. NASA designed Ingenuity as a small, lightweight rotorcraft that can operate with Perseverance's limited resources. 

The space agency expects Ingenuity's deployment process to take six Mars days, also known as sols. Ingenuity must perform its first flight from a flat patch of Martian land that will serve as an airfield.

“If there is even a hint that something isn’t going as expected, we may decide to hold off for a sol or more until we have a better idea what is going on,” said Farah Alibay, who leads Mars helicopter integration for the Perseverance program.

Caroline Bean, Defense Enterprise Office Solution (DEOS) program director at the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA), said DISA is developing a guide to help agencies facilitate their migration to cloud-based collaboration tools offered by DEOS, Nextgov reported Tuesday. 

Bean said the document will serve as a checklist to help defense agencies assess their readiness for migration to DEOS cloud tools and will evolve as more users make the transition. She added that the proposed document will also provide a comparison of capabilities and limitations before and after migration.

Bean noted that one of the migration-related challenges agencies will have to deal with is transitioning users to the permanent Impact Level 5 DEOS platform while the interim IL2 Commercial Virtual Remote tool is still in operation.

“There was a bit of an education that needed to occur as far as you know, make sure you're looking at whether this meeting is on CVR or whether it's on your IL5 instance because it does matter,” Bean said. “So there [was] definitely a lot of user-type education that we needed to do just to figure out how to maneuver through these different chat capabilities now that we have at our fingertips.” 

In October, the General Services Administration (GSA) and the Department of Defense reawarded the DEOS contract to an industry team led by General Dynamics Information Technology (GDIT) as a result of corrective action following protests to the blanket purchase agreement originally awarded in August 2019. 

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is looking for input on its plans to collect cyber risk information and recommendations from agencies, companies and individuals in the wake of the SolarWinds attack. 

DHS said in a Federal Register notice published Friday that it seeks to conduct information collection and dissemination activities through a standard online form designed to provide insight into vulnerable hosts, impacts and potential reproduction of security vulnerabilities.

The form is also meant to enable companies, organizations and individuals to report system vulnerabilities while providing initial insight to agencies on recently discovered risks. 

“There is constantly a search for security vulnerabilities within information systems, from individuals or nation states wishing to bypass security controls to gain invaluable information, to researchers seeking knowledge in the field of cybersecurity,” the notice states.

In addition, the form is intended to help researchers develop concepts for identifying such vulnerabilities, according to DHS. Comments on the information collection request are due on May 18th.