Jeff Heggemeier of the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) said technical challenges and COVID-19 pandemic-related complications has led the service to move the initial test of the Self-Protect High Energy Laser Demonstrator system aboard a fighter aircraft from 2021 to 2023, Defense News reported Tuesday.

“This is a really complex technology to try to integrate into that flight environment, and that’s ultimately what we’re trying to do with this program, is demonstrate that laser technology is mature enough to be able to integrate onto that airborne platform,” Heggemeier, SHiELD program manager at AFRL, told the publication in a June 10th interview. “But even things like COVID, and COVID shutting down the economy. That has impacts.”

Heggemeier said the Air Force should continue development work on the SHiELD program in order for it to assess the usefulness and maturity of capabilities. SHiELD is composed of laser being developed by Lockheed Martin, the pod encasing the weapons platform from Boeing and the beam control system from Northrop Grumman.

Heggemeier said the pod is under construction phase and the service plans to begin integration of the laser and beam control system in 2021.

The Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) public safety and homeland security bureau has designated Huawei Technologies and ZTE as national security threats as part of efforts to safeguard U.S. communications networks from security risks.

The designation suggests that organizations may no longer use FCC’s Universal Service Fund to buy, maintain, modify or support any services or equipment provided by ZTE and Huawei, the commission said Tuesday.

“Both companies have close ties to the Chinese Communist Party and China’s military apparatus, and both companies are broadly subject to Chinese law obligating them to cooperate with the country’s intelligence services,” said FCC Chairman Ajit Pai. “Today’s action will also protect the FCC’s Universal Service Fund—money that comes from fees paid by American consumers and businesses on their phone bills—from being used to underwrite these suppliers, which threaten our national security.”

FCC implemented in November 2019 a ban on the use of the $8.3 billion fund to procure or maintain any product or services manufactured by companies that pose a national security threat to the country’s communications networks.

The U.S. Space Force’s organizational structure finalized by the Department of the Air Force will be composed of three echelons: field commands, deltas and squadrons, the service reported Tuesday.

Space Systems Command (SSC), Space Operations Command (SpOC) and Space Training and Readiness Command (STARCOM) will serve as the military branch’s three field commands.

SSC will oversee the acquisition, development and deployment of space capabilities for warfighters and launch, on-orbit checkout, developmental testing and maintenance and sustainment of space systems.

SpOC will provide the space forces and capabilities for the joint force, combatant commanders and coalition partners. STARCOM will be responsible for educating and training space professionals and is expected to be officially established in 2021.

An interim space training and readiness delta will be set up in July at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado to serve as the parent organization for operational test and evaluation and training units that will move to the new service branch by summer.

“This is an historic opportunity to launch the Space Force on the right trajectory to deliver the capabilities needed to ensure freedom of movement and deter aggression in, from and to space,” said Gen. Jay Raymond, chief of space operations at the Space Force and a 2020 Wash100 Award winner. “How we organize the Space Force will have a lasting impact on our ability to respond with speed and agility to emerging threats in support of the National Defense Strategy and Space Strategy.”

Squadrons will focus on specific tactics and operate within the deltas, which will be led by an O-6 and organized based on specific functions such as training, installation support and operations.

The Department of Agriculture (USDA) has issued its annual Technology Transfer Report detailing innovations and progress in the U.S. agricultural industry.

USDA said Monday it recorded  278 active Cooperative Research and Development Agreements (CRADA) and 97 new patent applications in addition to 510 income-bearing licenses in fiscal 2019.

The report's highlights include the development of a data repository for the 2017 Census of Agriculture and the expansion of a public health information system export module meant to automate electronic certification and application procedures.

USDA also gathered data from over 10,000 pesticide samples for the Pesticide Data Program’s website and deployed geospatial intelligence technologies to study flooded areas and potential crop losses in the aftermath of Hurricanes Barry and Dorian, the report states.

“The outcomes and impacts in this comprehensive report represent a tremendous amount of scientific excellence and creativity in finding solutions to complex problems,” said Scott Hutchins, deputy undersecretary of agriculture and head of the department's research, education and economics mission area.

The annual report covers a range of technology transfer topic areas including marketing services, health inspections, economic research, food safety, natural resource conservation and rural development.

Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) and Florida State University have engaged in a partnership to produce sensors via reinforced ceramics 3D printing. The effort aims to develop a method through which sensors can be 3D printed through a new liquid polymer material, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base said Monday.

The liquid polymer releases a pre-ceramic polymer that then forms ceramic through pyrolysis, a process that decomposes a material via heating.

Research, led by AFRL's Amanda Schrand and former FSU Associate Professor Cheryl Xu, tackled the use of various materials for the creation of high-temperature sensors. Xu said the liquid polymer allows 3D printers to manufacture complex shapes and cellular designs like honeycombs.

"Examples of interest include and are not limited to, propulsion or thermal protection systems, leading edges of hypersonic vehicles, lightweight mechanical metastructures, microelectromechanical systems, etc.," Xu said about the technology's potential applications.