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DOD Funding to Advance Defense Tech Into Production Phase
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DOD Funding to Advance Defense Tech Into Production Phase

The Department of Defense has awarded funding grants to five small businesses, enabling them to advance new warfighting technologies into the production stage.

The Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering awards are part of the Accelerate the Procurement and Fielding of Innovative Technologies pilot program, which seeks to accelerate the development of defense capabilities that the military requires to combat existing and emerging threats, the Department of Defense said Wednesday.

Advancing Warfighting Innovations

According to Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering Heidi Shyu, a Wash100 Award winner, APFIT’s support will give the selected companies “an opportunity to push their innovations over the finish line.”

“We look forward to supporting additional projects important to warfighters as more funding is appropriated,” she noted.

The chosen projects for fiscal year 2025 include Advanced Tactical Flotation Systems for the U.S. Special Operations Command; Counter Unmanned Aerial System Fused Air Picture for the U.S. Air Force; Coral Drift for the U.S. Army; Small Unmanned Aircraft Defense for the USAF; and Software-Defined Tactical Optical Modem for Performance and Ruggedization for the U.S. Marine Corps. The APFIT pilot will allocate at least $10 million for each of the selected projects.

Bridging the ‘Valley of Death’

Launched in 2022, APFIT primarily works with small businesses to bridge the gap between tech development and production. The program intends to boost production quantities by supporting assembly line maturation and increasing existing program procurement funding.

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OMB Seeks Info on Domestic Chip Manufacture Procurement Approaches
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OMB Seeks Info on Domestic Chip Manufacture Procurement Approaches

The Office of Management and Budget has started soliciting input on methods the federal government can implement to strengthen the resilience of domestic semiconductor manufacturing and maintain this capability through the acquisition of commercial IT end products, including chips produced in the U.S.

OMB said Tuesday that through the request for information, the current administration intends to understand how the federal acquisition system can best leverage domestic chip sources to ensure a secure supply chain for commercial IT products and services purchased by the U.S. government.

The agency is soliciting feedback on potential procurement approaches to mitigate supply chain disruption and increase chip production in the U.S.

The government seeks to determine ways to incentivize government contractors to scale up their use of semiconductors produced in the U.S.

According to the RFI, market segments of interest include telecommunication infrastructure and services, cloud and data center infrastructure and services, transportation and vehicles, and ICT devices such as mobile phones and laptops.

Questions for Stakeholders 

OMB is asking stakeholders how quickly they could start using domestically produced semiconductors given the existence of sufficient economic incentives and how much production is needed to constitute a sufficient domestic chip supply.

The RFI also includes questions pertaining to domestic supply chain vulnerabilities surrounding semiconductors, the anticipated timeline for domestic production, factors that cause significant delays in bringing domestic manufacturing facilities online and the types of innovations that could help improve the efficiency of the manufacturing market.

The agency also asked about actions the federal government should take to promote strong small business participation by resellers offering commercial IT with domestically produced semiconductors.

Government Initiatives to Strengthen Domestic Chip Supply

According to OMB, the RFI follows a series of measures the government has initiated to enable an essential supply of domestically fabricated semiconductors.

Such actions include the Department of Commerce’s CHIPS Incentives Program, the Department of Defense’s Microelectronics Commons initiative and the Tech Hubs program.

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Peter Reddy Named Deputy Asst. Navy Secretary for RDT&E
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Peter Reddy Named Deputy Asst. Navy Secretary for RDT&E

Peter Reddy, the Atlantic executive director at the Naval Information Warfare Center, or NIWC, has been selected as deputy assistant secretary of the Navy for research, development, test and engineering, or RDT&E.

DASN RDT&E Duties

The Department of the Navy said Monday Reddy will leverage his extensive technical and engineering leadership experience in his new role, which he will assume in early 2025. He is knowledgeable in IT program management and oversight and command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, or C4ISR.

As the DASN RDT&E, Reddy will manage over 70,000 personnel tasked with the adoption and integration of advanced naval capabilities. He will serve as the principal advisor and policy coordinator for the ASN for research, development and acquisition. Reddy will advise on naval science, technology, advanced research and development, system prototyping, testing and programmatic evaluation and management of naval science and engineering.

Peter Reddy’s Career Highlights

The seasoned aerospace and systems engineer has around three decades of experience as a U.S. Marine Corps commissioned officer and senior civilian executive. Before joining NIWC, Reddy served as deputy executive director of the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center Atlantic. He briefly worked for SRA International as a senior strategist after spending years with the Marine Corps Systems Command.

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DOD Releases Updated Defense Readiness Reporting Guidance
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DOD Releases Updated Defense Readiness Reporting Guidance

The Department of Defense has issued an updated document establishing policy and offering guidance for conducting and submitting readiness reports into the Defense Readiness Reporting System, or DRRS.

The updated DOD Instruction took effect Tuesday, Dec. 10, and was approved by Ashish Vazirani, who currently performs the duties of the undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness.

The issuance directs readiness reporting in DRRS to support global visibility of doctrinal organizations and embedded capabilities for daily operations and wartime planning as well as continuous assessment and identification of authoritative data resources within DOD for incorporation into DRRS.

Responsibilities of DOD Officials

The defense undersecretary for personnel and readiness should oversee readiness reporting policy development, manage the DRRS data exchange, create and maintain force elements with the DRRS Group Management module and develop a DRRS-compatible system for the registration of selected allied and partner forces needed to support strategic readiness assessments.

The updated instruction calls for the assistant secretary of defense for readiness to develop and recommend policy and plans for the continued development, operation and modernization of DRRS in support of National Defense Strategy objectives and oversee governance structures to manage the continued modernization of the DRRS IT system and development of readiness reporting policy requirements.

The director of the Defense Health Agency should develop standardized readiness reporting requirements to improve the capability, visibility and capacity of medical supplies and the medical logistics support capability to the joint force and integrate DHA military treatment facilities that support combatant command plans with definitive healthcare capabilities into DRRS.

Readiness Reporting in DRRS

The document also offers guidance for unit registration in DRRS, mission registration and management in DRSS, mission and capability assessments in the system and readiness reporting associated with threat-informed capability, contested and congested cyberspace, medical capability and electromagnetic spectrum.

The latest DOD instruction also cites military department installation, prepositioned war reserve materiel and allied and partner forces readiness reporting.

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ODNI Issues Intelligence Community Standards Document
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ODNI Issues Intelligence Community Standards Document

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence has released a document outlining citation and reference standards for open source intelligence, commercially available information and publicly available information, Federal News Network reported Tuesday.

The Intelligence Community Standards, or ICS, document signed on Dec. 2 seeks to standardize how intelligence agencies should cite open source data and commercial information, including artificial intelligence-backed services, in their reports and products.

“In many ways, this has made the citing of PAI, CAI and OSINT much easier to do,” Eliot Jardines, director of operations at the OSINT Foundation, said of the new IC document.

The former head of open source efforts at ODNI stated that the ICS replaces a 2017 standards document that was not open for the public.

“Having this standards document be unclassified means it’s available for industry to use, and certainly for academia to use so those future open source officers can be trained,” Jardines said.

The president of Gnosis Solutions noted that the new document provides transparency and enables the protection of privacy and civil liberty.

“At the same time, because the standards are so well articulated in when we need to be completely explicit about where we get this and where in other instances we might not want to do that, it also enhances operational security,” Jardines added.

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DOC Funds Micron Projects to Enhance Memory Chip Production
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DOC Funds Micron Projects to Enhance Memory Chip Production

The Department of Commerce has awarded $6.17 billion in direct funding to Micron Technology for projects to boost the production of legacy memory chips.

Micron will use the award to expand its facilities in Idaho and New York, which is expected to strengthen the domestic supply chain of DRAM chips, Commerce said Tuesday.

Micron’s 20-Year Manufacturing Project

The CHIPS investment supports Micron’s 20-year, $125 billion plan of modernizing and expanding its facilities. The company intends to utilize $100 billion on its New York facility, while the Idaho site will get $25 billion. The projects are expected to generate around 20,000 jobs and bolster the nation’s share of advanced memory manufacturing from less than 2 percent today to 10 percent by 2035. 

What Are Micron DRAM Chips?

DRAM chips are necessary for advanced technologies including personal computing, industrial, high-performance compute, automotive, wireless communications and artificial intelligence. The chips generate and fuel Micron’s performance memory, known as high-bandwidth memory, or HBM, and HBM is key in new AI model support.

DOC will also invest in the expansion of Micron’s facility in Manassas, Virginia to onshore the company’s 1-alpha technology. The two parties have already signed a non-binding preliminary memorandum of terms for proposed funding valued at $275 million.

Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo stated, “With this investment in Micron, we are delivering on one of the core objectives of the CHIPS program – onshoring the development and production of the most advanced memory semiconductor technology, which is crucial for safeguarding our leadership on artificial intelligence and protecting our economic and national security.”

Micron President and CEO Sanjay Mehrotra added, “Micron’s investments in domestic semiconductor manufacturing capabilities, supported by the bipartisan CHIPS Act, will help drive economic growth and ensure that the U.S. remains at the forefront of technological advancements.”

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EY Books DHA Contract to Prototype Military Healthcare Tool
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EY Books DHA Contract to Prototype Military Healthcare Tool

Global business advisory firm Ernst & Young has secured one of the initial four spots in a multi-contract award to prototype patient-centered technologies for the Defense Health Agency’s Digital Front Door, or DFD, program for which the Defense Innovation Unit issued a solicitation in April. Besides patient experience, DFD’s focus also includes supportive commercial products for healthcare providers, DIU said.

The tasks in Ernst & Young’s DFD other transaction contract award include the development of a tool to streamline health record access and virtual healthcare. The company will partner with the DHA team to develop a technical strategy for integrating the native iPhone operating system and Android development with the military health system and third-party offerings.

Meet the Other Prototype Contractors

Another DFD contractor, Bluestaq, will prototype a defense health data technology designed to enhance the usability of DHA’s existing health database for downstream applications.

DHA has also selected Clearstep to prototype a smart routing platform for a secure, clinically validated artificial intelligence healthcare assistant for self-service access to patients.

The fourth DFD contractor, BDR Solutions, will prototype a health data system integrating advanced data management approaches, such as application programming interfaces, generative AI and cloud computing.

The competitive solicitation for DFD prototypes drew proposals from over 220 companies, DIU said.

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CMS Releases Presolicitation Notice for RMADA 3 IDIQ
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CMS Releases Presolicitation Notice for RMADA 3 IDIQ

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has issued the statement of work, or SOW, for the Research, Measurement, Assessment, Design and Analysis 3 indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract.

Presolicitation Objectives

The purpose of the issuance is to provide vendors information regarding the requirements under RMADA 3 and allow for the development of appropriate business partnerships to address those needs, according to a presolicitation notice posted Tuesday on SAM.gov.

Contract Requirements

RMADA 3 calls for analytical support and technical assistance activities that will support various programs involving innovative care delivery and payment models as created or derived under current or future health reform legislation. The assistance activities will also support the demonstration efforts for those models.

The assistance activities will take various forms, including support for model design and operations; program, data and environmental analysis; model site implementation monitoring; and survey and data collection design and implementation.

CMS may also ask the contractor to help develop and implement learning systems to bring about accelerated learning, improvement and dissemination of promising practices.

Future RFP

CMS intends to issue task orders under RMADA 3 to meet these requirements, though the agency, as yet, is not calling for proposals.

Comments regarding the SOW may be incorporated into the document’s final version, which will accompany a future request for proposals.

Past RMADA Contracts

Positions on the second iteration of RMADA were awarded in late 2019. An additional 3 companies were added to the list of awardees in early 2020. RMADA 2 had a total potential value of $5 billion.

The original RMADA contract had a period of performance of five years and featured 15 vendors. That contract had a total potential value of $7 billion.

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NASA to Launch 2 Balloon Flights for December Antarctic Campaign
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NASA to Launch 2 Balloon Flights for December Antarctic Campaign

NASA will resume its annual long-duration balloon operation in Antarctica by launching two flights in mid-December for planned nine missions to near space.

The Antarctic campaign’s balloon flights will lift off from a camp near the National Science Foundation’s McMurdo Station on the Ross Ice Shelf to conduct astrophysics, space biology, heliospheric research and upper atmospheric research probes, the space agency said Tuesday.

Andrew Hamilton, acting chief of NASA’s Balloon Program Office, noted that carrying out an operation in a remote location was made easier with support from NSF, the New Zealand government and the U.S. Air Force. “Antarctica is our cornerstone location for long-duration balloon missions,” he explained.

Critical NASA Missions in Near Space

For the 2024 campaign, one of NASA’s chief missions is to identify anti-matter particles produced by dark matter interactions that can be observed only in space. Spearheaded by Columbia University in New York, the experiment aims to better understand the dark matter’s unexplored energy regime.

NASA’s Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility will also conduct the Salter Test Flight Universal mission to test and verify long-duration balloons and subsystems. Within the effort, the agency will support smaller payloads or piggyback missions, such as studying how a fungus called Aspergillus niger adapts to thrive in harsh environments. A deeper knowledge of the fungus could prompt the development of treatments to protect astronauts from high radiation exposure.

Data Gathering Operation

NASA employs zero-pressure balloons in the Antarctic campaign to take advantage of the region’s stable wind conditions, enabling the balloon missions to remain in near space for an extended period to collect massive amounts of scientific data.

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Lockheed Missile Interceptor Demos Guam Defense
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Lockheed Missile Interceptor Demos Guam Defense

Lockheed Martin and the Missile Defense Agency have demonstrated a live exo-atmospheric intercept of an in-flight, medium-range ballistic missile through the company’s Aegis Guam System, or AGS, at the western North Pacific island. 

The demo, dubbed Flight Experiment Mission-02, or FEM-02, supports the Department of Defense and the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command’s capability to defend Guam, Lockheed said Wednesday.

Rapid Systems Integration

Paul Lemmo, Lockheed vice president and general manager of integrated warfare systems and sensors, noted that the company’s partnership with MDA enabled the transition from contract award to intercept flight demo in less than two years. “This rapid integration of capabilities to demonstrate the defense of Guam was enabled by leveraging proven systems and Lockheed Martin’s systems engineering, production and test excellence,” he said.

According to Rear Adm. Greg Huffman, Joint Task Force-Micronesia commander, the test confirmed the INDOPACOM unit’s capability in detecting, tracking and engaging a target flying missile, which increases defense readiness against evolving enemy threats, Breaking Defense reported.

First End-to-End Missile Radar Tracking

In the FEM-02 demo, Lockheed deployed its AN/TPY-6 Radar, Vertical Launching System, or VLS, in the AGS at Guam’s Andersen Air Force Base. The VLS fired a standard Missile-3 Block IIA to counter an air-launched medium-range ballistic missile.

“The AN/TPY-6 radar tracked the target shortly after launch to intercept in the first end-to-end tracking use of the radar during a live ballistic missile flight test,” the Pentagon said in the Breaking Defense report.

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