Gen. Richard Clarke, commander of the U.S. Special Operations Command, said the command is looking into encryption and electronic warfare techniques to advance military communications operations, FedScoop reported Thursday.

Clarke said at a hearing with the Senate Armed Services Committee that he “personally changed" the command’s priorities and restructured its funding operations to modernize encryption-related concepts.

USSOCOM is also prioritizing initiatives involving data management and artificial intelligence, including a pilot effort on AI-driven “pathfinder” technology for large-scale use, he added.

“We also have to have encrypted communications and electronic warfare capabilities so that our forces…reduce the probability of them to be targeted,” said Clarke.

Amazon Web Services, Inc. (AWS), an Amazon.com, Inc. company (NASDAQ: AMZN), announced the general availability of Amazon Lookout for Metrics, a new fully managed service that detects anomalies in metrics and helps determine their root cause. 

Amazon Lookout for Metrics helps customers monitor the most important metrics for their business like revenue, web page views, active users, transaction volume, and mobile app installations with greater speed and accuracy. 

The service also makes it easier to diagnose the root cause of anomalies like unexpected dips in revenue, high rates of abandoned shopping carts, spikes in payment transaction failures, increases in new user sign-ups, and many more—all with no machine learning experience required. 

With Amazon Lookout for Metrics, there is no up-front commitment or minimum fee, and customers pay only for the number of metrics analyzed per month. 

The U.S. Marine Corps Systems Command assembled a group of technical professionals to help update infrastructure that interconnects service personnel, architecture, processes, physical and logical topology and cyber operations.

Task Force Aquila (TFA) has been tasked to monitor changes to the Marine Corps Enterprise Network (MCEN) through a process-based method, perform technology assessments and provide recommendations on system performance and security, USMC said Thursday.

“Because the MCEN is a complex system of systems, assessing changes requires pooling technical expertise, and test infrastructure and resources from across the naval enterprise,” said Mike O’Neil, senior engineer for emerging technology at the Marine Corps Tactical Systems Support Activity.

David Goosman, lead architect for TFA, said the task force will employ architectural analysis and data-driven models to help inform the branch’s decision-making process.

The group aims to build a digital twin of the network for its efforts to replicate components and assess complex systems before implementing a technology product. The team will also propose possible MCEN enhancements that could support tactical operations.

The U.S. Space Force is allowing the loan of precise positioning service receiver cards for use in military GPS capability testing work in partner nations as part of a three-year multinational initiative established by USSF's Space and Missile Systems Center.

Project Arrangement took effect when Canada co-signed the document in Dec. and the Canadian government received the initial M-code PSS receivers last month, USSF said Thursday.

The arrangement calls for U.S. allies to test Increment 1 Military GPS User Equipment at laboratories and on the field and share data from MGUE performance and compatibility tests.

USSF projected that France, Germany, South Korea and the U.K. will receive Increment 1 MGUE technology. The military branch noted that Australia, Italy, Sweden and the Netherlands intend to join the loan program later this year.

Space and Missile Systems Center coordinated with the Department of Defense's chief information officer and the U.S. Air Force's deputy undersecretary for international affairs to create the program.

M-code technology is designed to help secure positioning, navigation and timing systems against jamming or spoofing attacks.

The General Services Administration (GSA) will hold its second-ever cryptocurrency sale on March 29th as part of the federal government’s clearinghouse operations for excess bitcoin assets. GSA Auctions will open commission-free bidding activities at 4 p.m. CT, the agency said Wednesday.

GSA will auction off 6.79 bitcoin, which is valued at over $383,000 and will be segmented into 10 lots. Bidding will take place within 48 hours and close on March 31 at 4 p.m. CT.

Thomas Meiron, a regional commissioner at GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service, said the auction serves as the agency's “first steps wading into the cryptocurrency market” and that he expects the event to generate excitement among investors in cryptocurrency.

Winning bidders must have a digital wallet and are required to make payments through wire transfer by April 2nd. GSA Auctions also handles bidding activities for federally-owned items such as vehicles, office furniture, collectibles and scientific equipment.

Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) has created a software application designed to inform the U.S. Army and U.S. Marine Corps on how to efficiently use energy resources. The IPOWER application, accessible via a web browser, simulates how the service branches store, gather and move energy resources, the Navy said Tuesday.

“There is now a pressing need for energy analysis tools such as IPOWER to help acquisitions officers, doctrine developers, logisticians and warfighters make conscious energy-saving decisions,” said Richard Stroman, a mechanical engineer at NRL.

IPOWER determines how energy moves in a unit based on climate data, mission timelines and equipment models.

NRL is now working to identify ways IPOWER can support mission planning with the Windows Tactical Assault Kit, a planning software utilized by ground-based warfighters.