A report by a congressional task force has strongly recommended that the United States win the artificial intelligence race to ensure the resiliency of the supply chain within civilian and military sectors and “identify, replace, and retire costly and ineffective legacy platforms.”

The bipartisan Future of Defense Task Force consists of House lawmakers presented the report to the House Armed Services Committee.

The task force also called for the U.S. government to prioritize defense capabilities against cyber and gray zone attacks within the Department of Defense and industry, increase investment in foundational science and technology research, leverage private sector innovation and foster STEM talent.

DoD should continue to make the acquisition process “more agile and less risk-averse” by training and incentivizing the acquisition workforce, employing the U.S. Air Force’s Kessel Run model and evaluating defense acquisition rules to make them less onerous.

The task force suggested those recommendations based on several findings, including the national security and economic threat posed by China to the U.S., the impact of technology advancements in AI and biotechnology on national security and the need to test new operational concepts against emerging technologies.

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The U.S. Air Force has completed the installation of the B-1B Lancer aircraft fleet's new Integrated Battle Station (IBS), earlier than expected. USAF said Saturday it modified 60 Lancer units from late 2012 to this month for three different parts of the IBS.

The bomber aircraft underwent modifications for a fully integrated data link, a vertical situational display unit and a central integrated test system of the new battle station.

“With all new workload, the start of the modification line was slow, however, with enterprise buy-in and support, the modification line eventually reduced flow days and met ‘Art of the Possible’ goals,” said Rodney Shepard, director of the 567th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron.

The new IBS will boost crew flexibility during missions and improve flight operations with the Lancer fleet. The system's early installation finish added 987 days to aircraft availability.

The Department of Energy's Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security, and Emergency Response (CESER) has earmarked $12 million in cooperative agreements to support the development and deployment of cybersecurity technologies for distribution and municipal utility companies.

CESER will team up with the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA) and the American Public Power Association to build technologies that will track adversarial activities through community-led information sharing efforts, DOE said Friday.

The partnership also aims to employ artificial intelligence and advanced analytics to mitigate false positives in threat detection and determine how and when a system was compromised.

CESER seeks to field one technology from the program to utility companies by 2023. NRECA represents over 900 public power districts, electric cooperatives and public utility districts while APPA supports community-owned utilities that serve nearly 50M customers. 

The U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) is launching an effort to establish a satellite-based monitoring system for spacecraft traveling in the area between the lunar and Earth orbits.

AFRL intends to develop a prototype Cislunar Highway Patrol Satellite (CHPS) that will handle space domain awareness operations in the cislunar region, Breaking Defense reported Monday.

The lab is also assessing the feasibility of deploying CHPS in the Lagrange points, which are orbital domains that allow spacecraft to reduce fuel consumption through gravitational forces.

Capt. David Buehler, program manager at AFRL, told the publication in an email that the CHPS effort is in its early stages and the lab is “working to establish the science and technology required for domain awareness” to support missions beyond geosynchronous orbit.

Buehler noted that AFRL is also studying various launch options for CHPS as well as potential partnerships with NASA and industry.

"We are interested in technologies to support wide area search, narrow field tracking, and autonomous space domain awareness," he added. Other technologies of interest include positioning, navigation, and timing systems for flight experiments beyond GEO, said Buehler.

AFRL is looking to host an industry day on the CHPS effort in the coming summer.