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Jacobs Publishes Blueprint to Determine Role of Infrastructure Investments; Patrick Hill, Daniel Fujiwara Quoted
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Jacobs Publishes Blueprint to Determine Role of Infrastructure Investments; Patrick Hill, Daniel Fujiwara Quoted

Jacobs, with the help of its subsidiary Simetrica-Jacobs, has published a thought leadership paper, "Before & Beyond the Build: A blueprint for creating enduring social value at scale through infrastructure investments," on the role of infrastructure investments to address critical societal issues, the company reported on Thursday. 

"The current pandemic has brought global societal challenges like wellbeing, equity and equality into stark focus," said Jacobs People & Places Solutions executive vice president Patrick Hill. "As governments around the world make plans to rebuild economies and livelihoods, now is the time to think about the role of infrastructure investments in building strong and vibrant communities."

Jacobs’ paper has analyzed five approaches that generate social value at scale that can be incorporated into the full project life cycle, including big data analytics, co-design, blended funding, social procurement and social value measurement.

Jacobs has partnered with organizations across public, private and not-for-profit sectors to explore each of the five components, and further revise the blueprint. The company’s tests will determine how successful the components are at generating enduring social value when embedded into infrastructure and delivered at scale. 

Additionally, Jacobs’ trials will provide the circumstances in which they are most successful as well as create positive community outcomes that can help drive economic recovery.

"Simetrica-Jacobs is delighted to have been involved in this paper," said Simetrica-Jacobs director Daniel Fujiwara. "Measuring and understanding the impact of interventions on people's lives is at the core of our business. Now, more than ever, we are committed to ensuring that social value measurement is deployed in ways that have meaningful and positive impacts on decision-making and investment."

About Jacobs

At Jacobs, we're challenging today to reinvent tomorrow by solving the world's most critical problems for thriving cities, resilient environments, mission-critical outcomes, operational advancement, scientific discovery and cutting-edge manufacturing, turning abstract ideas into realities that transform the world for good. With $13 billion in revenue and a talent force of more than 55,000, Jacobs provides a full spectrum of professional services including consulting, technical, scientific and project delivery for the government and private sector.

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Rear Adm. Casey Moton on Navy’s Cybersecurity Efforts for Unmanned Vessels
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Rear Adm. Casey Moton on Navy’s Cybersecurity Efforts for Unmanned Vessels

Rear Adm. Casey Moton, program executive officer for Unmanned and Small Combatants, said the U.S. Navy is testing anti-tamper technologies in its prototypes of unmanned vessels to protect such assets from cyber hackers and other vulnerabilities, National Defense reported Wednesday.

He said the service has considered the need to counter tampering of its vessels during wargaming activities and other studies.

“From our standpoint, we are doing some robust things for the fact that these vessels will operate [network] capable. Certainly the cyber efforts are robust,” Moton said during a recent Center for Strategic and International Studies-hosted webinar.

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Updated OMB Guidance Includes Expanded Definitions of Customers, Service Delivery; Stephanie Thum Quoted
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Updated OMB Guidance Includes Expanded Definitions of Customers, Service Delivery; Stephanie Thum Quoted

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has made major changes to a section of its Circular A-11 guidance that deals with enhancing customer experience and service delivery, Nextgov reported Wednesday.

Under the updated Section 280 guidance, OMB broadened the definitions of a federal government customer, which now includes organizations, businesses and individuals that interact with a government program or agency, “either directly or via a federal contractor or even a federally-funded program.” Customers also include federal employees and public servants.

The updated section presents a more detailed definition of service delivery and adds data and research and regulatory to last year’s five types of government services: benefits, administrative, informational, recreation and compliance.

The document suggests ways how agencies should measure customer experience and summarizes the core CX functions in the categories of governance and strategy, measurement, service design and improvement, culture and organization and customer understanding.

“OMB is meshing these concepts together, and we’re seeing crossover and a fusing together in practicing customer experience,” said Stephanie Thum, former vice president of customer experience at Export-Import Bank.

“What I sense here is that we’re moving away from guidance that acts as a compliance checklist and toward a language that is queuing us toward a business discipline. These are things that make a lot of sense,” Thum added. 

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Army to Assess Environmental Impacts of Potential Training Modernization Effort
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Army to Assess Environmental Impacts of Potential Training Modernization Effort

The U.S. Army will conduct an assessment of environmental impacts that may result from training modernization activities at Fort Irwin in California. 

The service branch plans to issue an environmental impact statement that will highlight the effects of the potential modernization effort on the surrounding environment, the Department of the Army said Wednesday in a Federal Register notice.

Fort Irwin, located in the Mojave Desert, houses the Army's National Training Center where brigade combat teams undergo training.

The Army sees a need to update the center's training infrastructure in alignment with a new doctrine that emphasizes the use of large formations against near-peer threats.

Modernization activities would update the center's communications infrastructure, urban operations training facilities and weapon ranges.

Fort Irwin will accept requests for scoping-related materials via email and will open the EIS draft for public feedback when ready.

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Air Force Begins Aerial Refueling Tests for Jolly Green II Helicopter
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Air Force Begins Aerial Refueling Tests for Jolly Green II Helicopter

The U.S. Air Force has completed the initial aerial refueling test for a combat search-and-rescue helicopter built by Lockheed Martin's Sikorsky subsidiary.

The HH-60W Jolly Green II helicopter flew up to 3K feet above Eglin Air Force Base and linked with an HC-130J aerial tanker to carry out the refueling test, USAF said Monday.

The demonstration is a part of the 413th Flight Test Squadron's two-week developmental test for Jolly Green II's aerial refueling capacities. The team will monitor the helicopter's handling and its capability to attach to the fuel drogue during the tests.

The group will also assess the functionality of the aircraft's gauges and systems.

"Our job is to evaluate how difficult aerial refueling will be for operational pilots and to identify any unforeseen hazards due to the unique configuration of the HH-60W, which may not have been present in the legacy HH-60G," said Joe Whiteaker, 413th FLTS combat rescue helicopter flight chief.

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DoD Eyes Open Architecture Framework for Directed Energy Weapon Systems
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DoD Eyes Open Architecture Framework for Directed Energy Weapon Systems

The Department of Defense (DoD) is looking to deploy a modular open system architecture (MOSA) to support the operations of directed-energy weapons such as microwave systems and high-powered lasers, DoD News reported Tuesday.

Chris Behre, head of directed energy and MOSA at the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, told attendees at a Booz Allen Hamilton-sponsored event that MOSA will help quicken the pace of development through the installation of standardized weapons and execution of incremental updates.

Sean Ross, deputy lead of the High Energy Laser Technical Area and prototyping liaison for the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), noted during the same event that a successful MOSA program can help attract nontraditional vendors that develop niche technologies.

According to Ross, the key is to establish a broad set of government program standards and allowing industry to develop their own approaches.

The DoD and Missile Defense Agency (MDA) are working on a draft MOSA strategy that will be available for feedback in the coming months, Behre said.

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Air Force Launches ‘AI Accelerator’ Effort to Drive Collaborative Tech Dev’t; Capt. Lindsey McEvoy Quoted
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Air Force Launches ‘AI Accelerator’ Effort to Drive Collaborative Tech Dev’t; Capt. Lindsey McEvoy Quoted

The U.S. Air Force has partnered with Lincoln Labs and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) for a three-year accelerator program aimed at helping the service branch speed up its artificial intelligence development initiatives.

The Air Force said Tuesday that it has selected 11 airmen and three reservists for the AI Accelerator program, which also includes civil sector-focused activities such as consultations, outreach programs and senior leadership training.

Current initiatives under the program include AI-driven disaster response, weather prediction, image processing, navigation and training. Capt. Lindsey McEvoy, chief of AI research for the accelerator effort, said each project under the program is focused on “having an impact in the broader AI community”.

“For my project in particular, it would be the development of a next generation spectrum analyzer, which can separate signals into multiple components,” she said. “This currently doesn’t exist and can help the communication systems in the outside world cite transmitters and understand the interference environment.”

According to the Air Force, 40 percent of the accelerator team also took part in the service’s Education With Industry fellowship program with industry partners. The Air Force plans to accept more proposals for the AI Accelerator this summer.

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NIST Finalizes Guidance for Zero-Trust Architecture Implementation
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NIST Finalizes Guidance for Zero-Trust Architecture Implementation

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has released a publication to help agencies establish and implement a zero-trust architecture (ZTA) for their networks and systems.

The ZTA guidance highlights the core components of the architecture that work to transition cyber defenses from wide network perimeters to assets, resources and users.

NIST noted that the guidance also includes an abstract definition for ZTA as well as use cases and deployment models designed to help fortify the security posture of information technology systems.

“Zero trust focuses on protecting resources (assets, services, workflows, network accounts, etc.), not network segments, as the network location is no longer seen as the prime component to the security posture of the resource,” according to the agency.

“ZTA strategies are already present in current federal cybersecurity policies and programs, though the document includes a gap analysis of areas where more research and standardization are needed to aid agencies in developing and implementing ZTA strategies.”

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Legislation Aims to Protect COVID-19 Research from Cyberattacks
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Legislation Aims to Protect COVID-19 Research from Cyberattacks

Reps. Frank Lucas, R-Okla., and Andy Barr, R-Ky., have unveiled legislation that seeks to secure COVID-19 research efforts by universities and research institutions from cyberattacks.

The bill aims to allow access to cybersecurity standards and practices created specifically for researchers and universities, the office of Frank Lucas said Tuesday.

"My bill would have the director of National Institute of Standards and Technology put forth guidance to preserve COVID-19 research and greatly reduce the threat of cyberattacks," said Barr.

Lucas noted the government has received evidence of state-sponsored cyberattacks from China against COVID-19 research activities.

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Army to Seek Tech That Conceals Electromagnetic Signatures; BG Rob Collins Quoted
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Army to Seek Tech That Conceals Electromagnetic Signatures; BG Rob Collins Quoted

The U.S. Army will explore ways to bolster the security of command posts through a program that seeks signal concealment technologies, C4ISRnet reported Tuesday. The service branch plans to virtually meet with members of industry to discuss preparations for Capability Set ’23, a future suite of tools envisioned to boost tactical network resiliency.

“Certainly, any time that you adopt a lot of commercial technologies you start to look at how your signature is on the battle space," Brig. Gen. Rob Collins, who leads Army Program Executive Office Command, Control, Communications-Tactical (PEO C3T).

The effort will seek technologies that conceal visual profile, electromagnetic spectrum presence and infrared emission. The preliminary design review for Capability Set ’23 is scheduled to commence in April. 

"I really look to industry and how they can bring some of their best ideas and technologies for how we can potentially do spectrum obscuration, as well as decoys so we can minimize our footprint on the battlefield," BG Collins said on Tuesday during Potomac Officers Club's (POC) 'Weaponizing Data Across the Digital Battlefield' Virtual Event as part of POC's Future Battlefield Series. 

In case you missed the virtual event, click here to watch or rewatch all of POC's recent events on-demand. Don't miss Potomac Officers' Club's 'Secure IT Modernization in Today’s Environment' Virtual Event on August 26th. Register here for the event to learn how to COVID-19 has impacted the nation's IT modernization plans and capabilities. 

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