The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has delayed the implementation of two new rules that will require operators of small unmanned aerial systems to register their UAS for remote identification tracking, and allow them to conduct drone operations over people and vehicles at certain times of the day, Nextgov reported Thursday.

Both Remote ID and Operations Over People and at Night rules were finalized in Dec. 2020 and are now scheduled to go into effect on April 21, more than a month later than their original implementation date. The rescheduling was due to a 60-day regulatory freeze enacted to give the new administration time to review rules before they take into effect.

The Remote ID rule is aimed at helping law enforcement and national security agencies ensure public safety by tracking drones while in-flight using emote ID capabilities while the Operations Over People regulation seeks to streamline Part 107 drone operations at night and over people by eliminating the need to secure a waiver.

“The new FAA regulations jointly provide increased flexibility to conduct certain small drone operations without obtaining a waiver,” according to the agency.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) and the University of Oxford in England have partnered to test proofs of concept for human-machine interaction in education and other research areas using artificial intelligence tools and cloud computing platforms. 

The partnership used the Oxford X-Reality Hub as a testbed to observe the potential of virtual reality tools to transform students' experience in the classroom and address an attainment gap for disadvantaged pupils as part of an educational technology project, according to an AWS blog entry posted Thursday.

Ninety pupils took part in the first phase of the study that simulated London in the Victorian era for an English literature lesson and researchers found that VR technology improved educational outcomes by 65 percent in less than four months.

“The AWS team supporting the EdTech in the Cloud project introduced us to technology we did not know at such short reach," said Mattia Montanari, an associate researcher for the Oxford X-Reality Hub project. He added that the team created databases and applied natural language processing algorithms during the effort.

AWS will also collaborate with the Oxford University's mathematical, physical and life sciences division in other projects through 2022 to incorporate AI and cloud technologies to engineer materials for space exploration, automate the case description process, review scientific literature and classify cultural artifacts.

To register for this virtual summit, visit the Potomac Officers Club Events page.

Five trade organizations in the security industry have created programs and materials designed to help organizations avoid sophisticated cyberattacks and protect sensitive data from threat actors.

The Security Industry Association said Wednesday it produced a report that recommends strategies for securing the product development life cycle and a beginner's guide to developing an enterprise cybersecurity risk management approach.

The Monitoring Association launched a certificate program that aims to educate monitoring center information technology personnel about managing insider and external threats, while the Electronic Security Association offers continuing education courses in cyber threat preparedness.

PSA Security Network published a white paper for the electronic security industry to learn about the Center for Internet Security controls. ASIS International offers insight on cybersecurity issues through the group's security management publication.

The U.S. Northern Command (USNORTHCOM) and the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) will hold a five-day demonstration to test artificial intelligence technologies that will be incorporated into various decision-making processes, FedScoop reported Wednesday.

The participants will test and evaluate three decision aid technologies during the course of the second Global Information Dominance Exercise event. The partnership also intends to transition the technologies to applicable users and units.

Nine combatant commands will join the five-day activity and implement the platforms into various military components.

"We are conducting these experiments to bring everyone together," said U.S. Air Force Gen. Glen VanHerck.

The demonstration is a part of the U.S. military's plans to transition to joint all-domain command and control technologies.

The U.S. Navy has issued an environmental assessment stating that home-basing 20 Boeing-built MQ-25A Stingray refueling drones at Naval Base Ventura County (NBVC) in Point Mugu, California, will have no significant impact on the environment.

The Navy said Wednesday that the service intends to use NVBC’s training facilities, hangar and related infrastructure to support maintenance and training operations involving the MQ-25 carrier-based unmanned air system fleet.

Activities that will take place at the naval base include over 960 annual Stingray flight operations and related stationing support for approximately 730 personnel and their families.

According to the Navy, the EA comes as part of collaborative efforts with the California Coastal Commission and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in line with National Environmental Policy Act requirements.

Stingray operations will help expand the Navy’s aircraft carrier capacity while developing versatility for aerial refueling as well as multi-mission and sea-based intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance activities.

The drone will also help extend the reach of the carrier fleet on the West Coast to support national security objectives, the Navy noted. The EA is available for public access through the project website.

The Department of Defense (DOD) has teamed up with the Norwegian Ministry of Defense to build a high-speed propulsion technology that could support hypersonic and supersonic weapons. 

The partnership is a part of the Tactical High-speed Offensive Ramjet for Extended Range (THOR-ER) program, an initiative that seeks to develop and update solid fuel ramjet technologies into full-size prototypes that could reach extended ranges and high speeds, DOD said Wednesday.

Col. Corey Beaverson, director of mission prototypes at the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, said the program also aims to inform potential ramjet co-production efforts.

The U.S. Navy's Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division will work with Nammo Group and the Norwegian Defense Research Establishment to explore technologies that are viable for high-speed weaponry.

THOR-ER began in 2019 and is expected to wrap up in 2024. Ramjets are propulsion systems that compress the air for combustion by utilizing a missile's forward motion.

The Department of Energy will use $24.5 million on electricity infrastructure projects that aim to implement clean energy and respond against the climate crisis. DOE said Wednesday that it will distribute these funds across two funding opportunities for research and development on clean energy technologies.

The funding opportunity for “Flow Battery Systems Manufacturing” will allot a maximum of $20 million for R&D on electrochemical batteries powered by externally stored electrolytes.

The second opportunity, titled “Conductivity-enhanced materials for Affordable, Breakthrough Leapfrog Electric applications,” will seek boosted conduction efficiency in manufacturable materials.

“These funding opportunities will help manufacture the next-generation energy storage systems and power lines that support President Biden’s climate goals, create and sustain U.S. jobs and build a strong, secure and efficient electric grid," said Jennifer Granholm, secretary of energy.