The Air Force Research Laboratory's aerospace systems directorate secured a patent for a method of safely airdropping packages from a high altitude to military troops on the ground.

The approach uses a low-drag drogue parachute to stabilize the package following its release from aircraft and prior to the deployment of a high-drag chute, the directorate said Thursday.

AFRL’s ballistic airdrop system is designed to exploit wind field calculation to offer a fall path in a useful manner.

"After the packages exit the aircraft, our method of timing of the transition from drogue to main parachute, allows for some ability to shape the distribution of the impact of packages on the ground," said David Doman, principal aerospace engineer at the lab's aerospace systems directorate.

Doman added that his team developed algorithms that works to compute transition altitudes and facilitate  package clustering in intended ground destinations.

Ellen Lord, undersecretary for acquisition and sustainment at the Department of Defense and a 2020 Wash100 Award winner, said DoD has seen an increase in the number of defense-related companies that have shut down and reopened since the coronavirus pandemic started, Defense News reported Thursday.

The number of firms that have reopened rose by 73 since April 20 and Lord said the improved figures could be attributed to companies’ proactive measures to come up with hygienic work spaces, shared experiences from other firms and some states that seem to have reached their peak in COVID-19 cases.

She also expressed concerns about the flow of cash into small businesses that are most at risk during this pandemic and called for transparency among companies over relief funds.

“I believe that the major primes are flowing down, they’ve committed. But I always like to trust, yet verify,” Lord said. “So I encourage all of those companies to be as transparent and forthcoming as they can be because we have a responsibility to the taxpayer, as well as the mid-tiers and the small companies, to make sure actions we take at the prime level do go down all the way through the chain."

About The Wash100

This year represents our sixth annual Wash100 Award selection. The Wash100 is the premier group of private and public sector leaders selected by Executive Mosaic’s organizational and editorial leadership as the most influential leaders in the GovCon sector. These leaders demonstrate skills in leadership, innovation, achievement, and vision.

Visit the Wash100 site to learn about the other 99 winners of the 2020 Wash100 Award. On the site, you can submit your 10 votes for the GovCon executives of consequence that you believe will have the most significant impact in 2020.

The Department of Homeland Security's Science and Technology Directorate is pursuing an effort to boost the safety of borders and protect migrants from environmental dangers.

DHS S&T is helping U.S. Customs and Border Protection execute the Missing Migrants Program that aims to address the safety hazards surrounding migrants wanting to enter the country, the department said Wednesday.

“The primary objective of the Missing Migrants Program is to improve our ability to save the lives of migrants that are attempting to enter the U.S. between the ports of entry at our southwest border or circumvent our immigration checkpoints,” said Lorraine Castillo, program manager at DHS S&T.

Migrants lack resources and are exposed to temperatures uncommon to them, reducing their survivability in the border environment.

CBP has stationed rescue beacons and 911 placards across the southwest border to notify border patrol agents when help is needed. The beacons send notification signals to patrol agents and the placards contain contact information on emergency services.

The beacons and placards, however, have technical limitations due to factors like physical terrain and reliance on cellular connectivity.

The program developed an interactive dashboard and an analysis playbook to address these limitations. The dashboard uses geospatial data and allows agents to determine where to strategically place beacons and placards. The playbook provides guidance to other entities that might need to adopt a similar dashboard.

The Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) is testing the use of artificial intelligence for human-machine teaming operations for various applications such as ship identification, Defense One reported Wednesday.

Terry Busch, technical director for DIA’s Machine-Assisted Analytic Rapid-Repository System segment, said at a recent viewcast that the agency launched the experimental effort earlier this year to train analysts on leveraging AI-driven quantitative workflows to support national security missions.

As part of the experiment, DIA tested AI systems’ capacity to establish ship identification methodologies. Researchers then assessed the technology’s efficiency with less data, removing feed from the navigation infrastructure’s Automatic Identification System.

The end goal is to establish a machine-intelligence complementary system to human analysts, according to Busch.

“Once we began to take away sources, everyone was left with the same source material — which was numerous reports, generally social media, open source kinds of things, or references to the ship being in the United States — so everyone had access to the same data,” he said. “The difference was that the machine, and those responsible for doing the machine learning, took far less risk — in confidence — than the humans did.”

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has issued an audit stating that NASA’s acquisition management procedures are under the former's "high risk" list due to potential program delays and cost increases for the third consecutive year.

GAO said in the report released Wednesday that NASA’s project costs reached 31 percent over the baseline since May 2019 and that “delays are likely” for the Artemis I deep-space exploration mission.

GAO also found that NASA “underreported cost growth” for the Artemis mission's Space Launch System and Orion crew capsule programs last year, according to the recent audit.

NASA has since announced plans to implement broader project management strategies and update its cost estimates throughout the acquisition procedures of its major programs.

The report serves as GAO’s 12th annual “Quick Look” audit on major NASA projects.

Will Roper, the U.S. Air Force’s acquisition chief and a 2020 Wash100 Award recipient, said he is working with the Department of Defense to identify space firms impacted by the COVID-19 crisis, SpaceNews reported Wednesday.

Roper, who serves as the assistant secretary of the Air Force for acquisition, technology and logistics, told attendees at a video conference that the Space Acquisition Council is assessing the current situation of the space industry and will determine potential forms of assistance to suppliers.

“When we get the results back, it’ll help us put out a unified message to Congress, to the Office of the Secretary of Defense and others about where to take actions,” he said.

The council, which also includes representatives from the National Reconnaissance Office, held an emergency meeting this week to discuss potential actions and decided to release a survey focused on the space industrial base.

Roper noted that among the industry areas weakened by the pandemic are microelectronics, small launch services and satellite components.