A U.S. Army spokesperson said documents that will inform the Department of Defense’s Milestone C decision on an air defense command-and-control weapon system Northrop Grumman is developing for the service branch are in the final review stage, Defense News reported Tuesday.

The report noted administrative challenges have caused delays in DoD’s production approval process related to the Integrated Air and Missile Defense Battle Command System program.

Defense Acquisition Board members agreed with a determination that IBCS met engineering and manufacturing development requirements and received instruction from Pentagon acquisition chief Ellen Lord  to perform a follow-on document review within 30 days, according to the publication.

Northrop demonstrated the potential of its system to fuse sensor data and engage multiple targets during a flight test held in August as part of a limited user test with the Army.

The branch has invested $2.7B in IBCS development efforts to date, the report said.

The Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has proposed to amend rules to expand the use of facial recognition systems to improve the process of verifying the identity of foreign visitors arriving and departing from airports, sea ports and land ports.

A notice of proposed rulemaking published Thursday in Federal Register says current regulations limit CBP’s capacity to perform biometric exit pilot programs to 15 airports and maritime ports and the proposed rule change will allow the agency to broaden the collection of biometrics from foreign travelers departing from those sites. 

The Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) CBP plans to initially implement the proposed entry-exit process using facial recognition at commercial airports and collect photographs from all foreign travelers regardless of their age. 

“Full implementation at for land and sea ports of entry will follow after CBP has tested and refined its biometric exit strategies in those environments,” the notice reads. 

Comments on the proposed rule change are due Dec. 21.

The U.S. Coast Guard plans to implement an updated system in the cloud to help facilitate information sharing, improve security and enhance data management needed to carry out its missions and promote maritime domain awareness. 

The service plans to modernize the Maritime Awareness Global Network or MAGNet with the cloud-hosted Maritime Analytic Support System to improve system access authentication processes, update user interfaces and “ingest new data sources on an as-needed basis."

The cloud-based MASS platform will allow the Coast Guard to “apply new technologies to better tag data for retention, access, and use purposes,” the notice reads. The system will also help the service execute its 11 statutory missions by providing access to maritime data, storage and basic individual and vessel search capabilities. 

The Department of Homeland Security issued the notice of proposed rulemaking to exempt MASS from certain provisions of the Privacy Act of 1974. 

Comments on the notice are due Dec. 23.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has published a set of criteria to guide proposed unmanned aircraft system certification across 10 different drone service applicants. 

FAA said Monday that its proposed airworthiness criteria are made to standardize safety in the same way done by standards for other aircraft types.

The proposed criteria would apply to drone services operated by 3D Robotics, Airobotics, Amazon, Flirtey, Flytrex, Matternet, Percepto, Telegrid, Wingcopter and Zipline.

The agency will use the criteria to determine the certification of the mentioned companies for complex drone operations. FAA invites the public to comment on airworthiness criteria for each of the applicant companies over a 30-day period.

The U.S. Air Force has initiated an effort to help airmen access educational opportunities on digital technology, The Digital University program will provide airmen and U.S. Space Force members free access to over 12,000 courses from Pluralsight, Udacity and Udemy, USAF said Friday.

“There is hidden talent and untapped potential out there – our job is to seek it out and feed the digital hunger in our Airmen,” said Lt. Gen. Christopher Weggeman, deputy commander of Air Combat Command (ACC).

Digital University's offered courses will tackle multiple applications and topics including computer programming, game development, conflict management and public speaking.

The program's pilot will run through June 2021 before Pluralsight and Udacity licenses, including those for nano-degrees, are added to the offerings.