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NOAA Deploys COSMIC-2 Smallsats
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NOAA Deploys COSMIC-2 Smallsats

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has fielded six small satellites in efforts to optimize the accuracy of weather forecasts and space weather monitoring.

The  Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere and Climate smallsats gather "bent" signals from global positioning navigation systems through the use of radio occultation to secure information such as atmospheric pressure and temperature, NOAA said Monday.

The smallsats also work to collect data on the low-altitude ionosphere. Louis Uccellini, director at NOAA's National Weather Service, said the agency seeks to employ moisture measurements and wind vector data to identify the conditions that enhance or weaken hurricanes.

The COSMIC-2 program is a joint effort with the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office, the Taiwan National Space Organization and the American Institute in Taiwan.

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Dovarius Peoples on USACE’s Data Mgmt, AI Training Efforts
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Dovarius Peoples on USACE’s Data Mgmt, AI Training Efforts

Dovarius Peoples, chief information officer of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), said the Army component is leveraging data repositories to enable the use of artificial intelligence for geospatial-related applications, Federal News Network reported Monday.

Peoples told the publication in an interview that USACE’s missions encompass military, civil and disaster response missions that rely on communications and geospatial intelligence platforms.

“We conduct a lot of inventory and consume. We conduct a lot of inventory and use information consumed by each individual program element,” he said. “And we also use our repositories as well. That’s how we identify a lot of our authoritative data sources — through repositories for the various types of information.”

Peoples noted that USACE also intends to invest in training personnel to refine their handling of emerging technologies and procedures.

“Because if not, then that means the data strategy we’re trying to put in place will be flattened,” he added.

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Gerald R. Ford Carrier to Undergo Linking Tests in Atlantic
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Gerald R. Ford Carrier to Undergo Linking Tests in Atlantic

The U.S. Navy has begun to set the USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier for communication system tests that would occur for more than a year in the Atlantic region, Defense One reported Monday.

The ship's voice and data link systems will undergo sea trials to demonstrate the ability to perform command and control with other ships.

“We’d love to get Ford to start doing some basic interaction with the rest of a strike group type of organization,” Rear Adm. Craig Clapperton, Carrier Strike Group 12 commander, told reporters Monday.

These C2 systems facilitate battle information sharing across naval ships and aircraft. USS Gerald Ford will establish connectivity with USS Harry S. Truman, a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier, and other ships in the tests.

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FCC to Accelerate 5G Implementation
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FCC to Accelerate 5G Implementation

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will push through with the plan to convert the C-band spectrum into a medium for the implementation of 5G connectivity.

The agency said Monday that its Wireless Telecommunications Bureau has already made agreements with satellite operators on the 5G implementation’s schedule. FCC wants to have 5G occupy a large percentage of the C-band spectrum portion.

“The acceptance of accelerated relocation by all eligible satellite operators vindicates the FCC’s approach for making C-band spectrum available for 5G more quickly,” said Ajit Pai, FCC chairman.

The commission’s planned 5G implementation requires operators to shift megahertz settings in the C-band space to accommodate ground-based or terrestrial connectivity. The 5G operators so far are Intelsat, Telesat, Eutelsat, SES and Star One.

FCC plans to commence an auction for the C-band spectrum in December. Spectrum adjustments will occur over two phases through December 2023.

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DoD Recommends Navy to Procure Extra-Large UUVs for Future Fleet; Mark Esper Quoted
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DoD Recommends Navy to Procure Extra-Large UUVs for Future Fleet; Mark Esper Quoted

An internal Department of Defense (DoD) study has found that investing in extra-large unmanned underwater vehicles (XLUUVs) will help the U.S. Navy deploy large manned submarines for more complex operations, Defense News reported Monday.

The report, led by Defense Secretary and 2020 Wash100 Award recipient Mark Esper’s office, recommends the Navy to earmark funding for up to 50 XLUUVs in addition to a maximum of three attack submarines for the service branch’s fleet of 2045.

Other recommendations highlighted in the study include funding for next-generation unmanned vessels that will serve as part of the Navy's potential 355-ship fleet.

“I think once we go through this process with the future fleet — that’ll really be the new foundation, the guiding post,” said Esper. “It’ll give us the general direction we need to go, and I think that’ll be a big game changer in terms of future fleet, for structure, for the Navy and Marine Corps team.”

Previously, the service issued a $43 million award to Boeing for the production of Orca XLUUVs. A 2020 Cogress report states that the Navy intends to begin procurement by 2023.

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NASA Postpones Restructuring of Human Spaceflight Directorate; Steven Jurczyk Quoted
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NASA Postpones Restructuring of Human Spaceflight Directorate; Steven Jurczyk Quoted

NASA is delaying its plans to reorganize the Human Exploration and Operations (HEO) mission directorate following the resignation of associate administrator, SpaceNews reported Monday.

Douglas Loverro, who announced his resignation as HEO head last month, was temporarily replaced by Ken Bowersox who now serves as the directorate’s acting associate administrator.

Steven Jurczyk, the associate administrator of NASA, said at an American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AA) webinar that the agency intends to appoint a permanent replacement for Loverro before commencing HEO reorganization activities.

“We believe it’s important for the new [associate administrator] to come in and take a look at the organization and the programs, and make sure that where we were headed is the right structure for the new AA, and then make adjustments to the proposed reorganization,” he noted. “Our goal is to have a new AA named with weeks, not months,” added Jurczyk.

Loverro, who assumed his most recent capacity in December, previously spearheaded efforts to restructure the directorate responsible for programs involving the International Space Station and Artemis mission. According to Jurczyk, the restructuring initiative is “really important to the organization” as well as the Artemis program.

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ArchIntel Releases White Paper to Analyze OSINT, CI in a Competitive Marketplace; Jim Garrettson Quoted
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ArchIntel Releases White Paper to Analyze OSINT, CI in a Competitive Marketplace; Jim Garrettson Quoted

ArchIntel, a provider of concise actionable intelligence to business leaders, has released its latest white paper, “Leveraging OSINT for Competitive Advantage: A Guide to Having Your Listening Post,” that analyzes how open source intelligence (OSINT) can enhance business performance and gain competitive advantages in a marketplace.

Learn more by downloading a free copy of the white paper here.

ArchIntel has described OSINT as any intelligence derived from open-source or publicly available information such as the traditional media, internet, the Deep Web and Dark Web, government reports, as well as academic and professional publications. OSINT will also enable strategic intelligence sharing across organizations.

“OSINT is a good resource for not only government and international organizations but is outstanding for businesses as well. Information is power. Businesses use OSINT to navigate new markets, investigate competitors, and so forth,” ArchIntel explains in its white paper.

This white paper outlines how companies can attain a competitive advantage by using OSINT techniques to monitor publicly available information. The report also discussed how a company can set up its OSINT listening post or infrastructure to have a steady, brief and easy to digest stream of relevant and useful information on its competitors, market and customers.

ArchIntel also noted in “Leveraging OSINT for Competitive Advantage: A Guide to Having Your Listening Post,” how outsourcing the entire process to an open-source competitive intelligence (CI) provider can be the most cost-effective solution and provided an explanation about the necessary conditions for identifying a reliable competitive intelligence provider.

The white paper has also provided context for how companies should customize the services of a vendor to align the competitive intelligence gathering process with the company’s strategic objectives.

“CI is a legitimate field, and it relies entirely on OSINT techniques to monitor publicly available information to achieve the desired results,” ArchIntel stated.

Companies that utilize competitive intelligence (CI) have the potential to gain a competitive advantage through OSINT in the business sector. CI will enable organizations to analyze competitor analysis, competitor mapping, technological advancements and changes in industry standards, marketing insights, product insights, buyer behavior and big data analytics.

“A good CI provider will adopt a categorize-dimensionalize-contextualize approach to provide customized intelligence outputs to its customers,” states ArchIntel. “The intelligence reports generated will apply directly to your business by addressing your specific needs.”

CI providers will offer detailed reports, update its intelligence regularly, deliver actionable intelligence, and have a dedicated and customized intelligence archive. The intelligence reports generated will apply directly to the business by addressing its specific needs.

“Competitive intelligence in the open source world is a moving target that professional analysts wrestle with and fight the distraction of unreliable sources. Planning and direction, collection,Processing and exploitation,Analysis and production, dissemination and integration are the key watch words for this community,” said Jim Garrettson, ArchIntel president and founder.

Download your free copy of ArchIntel’s “Leveraging OSINT for Competitive Advantage: A Guide to Having Your Listening Post” here.

About ArchIntel

ArchIntel provides business leaders with customized, actionable daily intelligence and situational awareness about their competitors, customers and partners delivered in concise newsletter format by email at 6 a.m. and online at archintel.com. By leveraging highly-customized search engines crafted to the precise specifications of each ArchIntel customer, a human intelligence team of account-dedicated researchers, writers and editors construct daily intelligence briefings that help executives identify critical information. ArchIntel researchers leverage proactive sourcing to deliver highly-customized daily intelligence reports. 

While traditional open-source intelligence providers rely upon mainstream media, social media platforms, customer specialized public domains, and private resources, ArchIntel researchers take it a step further to leverage non traditional sources of actionable intelligence. This includes patent and trademarks, human capital movement, site-specific reporting, and customizable manual searches. ArchIntel houses all daily intelligence briefings in private, secured interactive archives with user-friendly features. ArchIntel Daily Intelligence Brief subscribers can utilize the interactive archive to collaborate around all sourced intelligence.

ArchIntel serves as a competitive intelligence library, and a business and corporate development tool. ArchIntel is part of a larger network that reaches over 150,000 daily subscribers; half of ArchIntel’s customers are leaders of Fortune 1000 companies. To request a complimentary customized Daily Intelligence Briefing, please visit archintel.com or call 703-226-7009.

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Accenture Completes Acquisition of Gekko to Strengthen Cloud, AI Capabilities; Olivier Girard, Roland Esnis Quoted
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Accenture Completes Acquisition of Gekko to Strengthen Cloud, AI Capabilities; Olivier Girard, Roland Esnis Quoted

Accenture has completed the acquisition of Gekko, a leading French Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud services company, Accenture reported on Tuesday. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

“Aligned with our development strategy, the acquisition of Gekko would be another significant addition because it would give clients more support for public cloud options. Gekko would also be a major opportunity to accelerate our growth strategy in France,” said Olivier Girard, Accenture’s Geographic Unit managing director for France and Benelux. 

The acquisition will strengthen Accenture's cloud and artificial intelligence as well as extend its ongoing relationships with technology providers, including Amazon, Google and Microsoft. Accenture will also gain additional cloud migration expertise and strategic objectives of the Accenture AWS Business Group (AABG).

Gekko will provide more than 100 trained cloud professionals, with more than 85 AWS certifications and a deep relationship with AWS. Gekko is an AWS Advanced Partner and maintained AWS competency in Storage and is an AWS Authorized Training partner. 

The acquisition of Gekko would strengthen Accenture’s general and industry-specific cloud experience in AWS technologies. The combination of Gekko’s skills in AWS with Accenture’s industry knowledge and experience in global large-scale cloud initiatives will provide highly differentiated end-to-end services to the European market.

“Accenture’s advantage is our ability to keep pace with evolving customer expectations. Our clients call on Accenture to help them innovate and transform their business. Gekko would bring key cloud, AI and DevOps skills and would help us serve a greater and more diverse range of clients in France and the broader European market.” 

“In the fast-growing cloud market, joining Accenture would be a unique opportunity to help even more organizations to leverage journey to the cloud for accelerating their digital transformations, growing their businesses and improving customer experiences,” said Roland Esnis and Julien Favre, co-founders and CEOs of Gekko. 

About Accenture

Accenture is a leading global professional services company, providing a broad range of services in strategy and consulting, interactive, technology and operations, with digital capabilities across all of these services. 

We combine unmatched experience and specialized capabilities across more than 40 industries — powered by the world’s largest network of Advanced Technology and Intelligent Operations centers. With 509,000 people serving clients in more than 120 countries, Accenture brings continuous innovation to help clients improve their performance and create lasting value across their enterprises.

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BWXT Divests U.S. Nuclear Services Portfolio to Framatone; Rex Geveden Quoted
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BWXT Divests U.S. Nuclear Services Portfolio to Framatone; Rex Geveden Quoted

BWX Technologies (BWXT) has completed the process to divest its United States-based commercial nuclear services business to Framatome, the company reported on Tuesday.

“Adding a premier nuclear-qualified manufacturing facility to our footprint also enables expansion into space and defense microreactors,” said Rex Geveden, BWXT’s president and chief executive officer.

In a cashless transaction, BWXT will receive a 118 thousand square-foot manufacturing facility and the associated 11 acres of land from Framatome. BWXT will also transition certain contracts, equipment and intellectual property to the company.

BWXT will assume occupancy and ownership of the Framatome facility located near one of BWXT’s Virginia manufacturing sites. BWXT’s Canadian-based nuclear manufacturing and services business is not part of this transaction and will continue its work in North America and overseas.

BWXT has a proven track record of providing maintenance, field service, inspection and plant refurbishment, assisting our customers in meeting their challenging business needs within the company’s nuclear services division.

The company has worked to ensure that all of its projects are aligned with our customers’ goals to increase safety, improve plant productivity and availability, and extend plant equipment life. BWXT has extensive experience in managing projects involving the primary and secondary systems of nuclear plants and reactors.

BWXT’s projects have drawn upon the company’s solutions and have delivered a multi-disciplinary approach with custom engineering capabilities, quality control, research and development and field service personnel.

“This strategic divestiture implies a sharper focus on our core government nuclear manufacturing and site operations businesses,” added Geveden.

About BWXT

At BWX Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: BWXT), we are People Strong, Innovation Driven. Headquartered in Lynchburg, Va., BWXT provides safe and effective nuclear solutions for national security, clean energy, environmental remediation, nuclear medicine and space exploration.

With approximately 6,600 employees, BWXT has 12 major operating sites in the U.S. and Canada. In addition, BWXT joint ventures provide management and operations at more than a dozen U.S. Department of Energy and NASA facilities

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QTS Announces Upsize and Pricing of Forward Common Stock Offering
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QTS Announces Upsize and Pricing of Forward Common Stock Offering

QTS Realty Trust has announced the upsize and pricing of an underwritten public offering of 4.4 million shares of its Class A common stock offered by the forward purchasers or their affiliates in connection with the forward sale agreements at a public offering price of $64.90 per share, the company reported on Tuesday. 

The offering was upsized from the previously announced offering size of 4 million shares of common stock. The forward purchasers or their affiliates have also granted the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase an aggregate of up to an additional 660 thousand shares of common stock.

QTS has entered into separate forward sale agreements with each of Bank of America Securities and Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC or their affiliates, with respect to 4.4 million shares of the company's common stock covered by the offering. 

The forward purchasers or their affiliates are expected to borrow from third parties and sell 4.4 million shares of QTS’ common stock to the underwriters in connection with the forward sale agreements. The company expects to physically settle the forward sale agreements in full and receive proceeds by June 30, 2021.

QTS will not initially receive any proceeds from the sale of shares of its common stock offered by the forward purchasers or their affiliates to the underwriters, except in certain circumstances described in the prospectus supplement relating to the offering. 

The company has projected that net proceeds to it, after deducting the underwriting discounts and commissions and other estimated offering expenses, will be approximately $273.6 million, assuming full physical settlement of the forward sale agreements, and excluding the option to purchase additional shares.

When drawn, QTS will use the net proceeds of the offering to repay a portion of the amounts outstanding under the company's unsecured revolving credit facility, for capital expenditures, including the development of properties in the company's portfolio, and for other general corporate purposes.

About QTS

QTS Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE: QTS) is a leading provider of data center solutions across a diverse footprint spanning more than 7 million square feet of owned mega scale data center space throughout North America and Europe. 

Through its software-defined data center platform, QTS is able to deliver secure, compliant infrastructure solutions, robust connectivity and premium customer service to leading hyperscale technology companies, enterprises, and government entities.

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