Preston Dunlap: Air Force Deploys ‘DeviceOne’ Classified-Access Tool for COVID-19 Response
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Preston Dunlap: Air Force Deploys ‘DeviceOne’ Classified-Access Tool for COVID-19 Response
Preston Dunlap
Preston Dunlap

The U.S. Air Force is rolling out hardware-agnostic devices that enable healthcare providers and military personnel to remotely access classified information, C4ISRnet reported Thursday.

DeviceONE uses the SecureView software architecture developed by the Air Force Research Laboratory to allow access to classified data from unclassified devices. The tool was slated for demonstration last month along with the Advanced Battle Management System before activities were pushed back due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to C4ISRnet's report.

Preston Dunlap, a chief architect for the Air Force, told attendees at a virtual Mitchell Institue event that the service is deploying “about 1,000” of the devices throughout three-week cycles.

According to Dunlap, the ABMS and Northern Command teams previously deployed SecureView to devices in New York healthcare facilities as well as the USNS Comfort hospital ship.

The service plans to expand ABMS testing to include the Space Command and Strategic Command as well as the Indo-Pacific Command by August or September, he added.

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Six Universities Receive NASA Funding for Artemis Student Challenges
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Six Universities Receive NASA Funding for Artemis Student Challenges
Six Universities Receive NASA Funding for Artemis Student Challenges

NASA is awarding six U.S. universities roughly $2.4 milion in funding under the Artemis Student Challenges with the aim of generating student interest in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics, as well as in the Artemis mission, the NASA-led spaceflight program whose goal is to return humans to the moon.

The awardees are University of Hawaii – Honolulu and University of California – San Diego, each of which will receive $500 thousand; University of Washington – Seattle, which will receive $499.9 thousand; University of Colorado – Boulder, which will receive $499.3 thousand; and University of Alabama – Huntsville and University of Illinois – Urbana-Champaign, each of which will receive $200 thousand, NASA announced Friday.

The recipients will use the funds to produce learning resources about technologies that will be used in the Artemis mission and create hands-on learning opportunities related to CubeSats and the Great Lunar Expedition for Everyone LunaSat platform, whose aim is to send tiny spacecraft to the lunar surface and take measurements there. Competitions will also be conducted involving the development a lander free flier and the performance of exploration missions using a rover.

NASA’s Office of STEM Management handles the Artemis Student Challenges with help from the Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate, the Space Technology Mission Directorate, the Science Mission Directorate and the agency’s chief economist.

Marine Corps Systems Command Moves to Competitive Prototyping Phase for Combat Vehicle Concept
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Marine Corps Systems Command Moves to Competitive Prototyping Phase for Combat Vehicle Concept
Marine Corps Systems Command Moves to Competitive Prototyping Phase for Combat Vehicle Concept

The U.S. Marine Corps (USMC) Systems Command has partnered with the Office of Naval Research and the service branch's Combat Development and Integration unit to conduct procurement planning efforts for a combat vehicle concept.

The Advanced Reconnaissance Vehicle will house reconnaissance features and an open system framework that will enable the platform to communicate, sense, shoot and work under the Naval Expeditionary Force, USMC said Tuesday.

The Program Manager for Light Armored Vehicles has teamed up with Combat Capabilities Development Command Ground Vehicle Systems Center to modify the ARV concept into a platform that will study the effects of capability changes, while ONR has started research efforts in support of technology readiness tests and competitive prototyping for the vehicle.

PM LAV issued a request for information in 2019 to seek input on specifications for a transformational vehicle.

The military service rescheduled an industry event for the vehicle's competitive prototyping phase this month to the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Pavilion Launches Educational Site to Expand Usage Benefit Awareness for 3rd Wave of Storage Solutions; Amy Love, Enrico Signoretti Quoted
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Pavilion Launches Educational Site to Expand Usage Benefit Awareness for 3rd Wave of Storage Solutions; Amy Love, Enrico Signoretti Quoted
Pavilion Launches Educational Site to Expand Usage Benefit Awareness for 3rd Wave of Storage Solutions; Amy Love, Enrico Signoretti Quoted

Pavilion has launched HPCinnovation.com, a thought leadership storage solution website, to bring awareness to the third wave of storage for High Performance Computing (HPC) environments, the company announced on Friday. 

“The goal of this site is to give back to the industry by providing thought leadership and technical resources for IT professionals with high-performance computing environments that enable them to do a deeper dive on next-generation storage technologies,” said Amy Love, Chief Marketing Officer at Pavilion Data Systems.

HPCinnovation’s third wave of storage, developed by disruptive technologies including NVMe over Fabrics (NVMe-oF), Hyperparallel Flash Arrays (HFAs) and RDMA over Converged Ethernet (RoCE), has the potential to fundamentally reshape the storage market by offering users affordable performance at scale.

The third wave of storage began with NVMe which freed SSDs from legacy disk interfaces. HFAs then eliminated the bottlenecks imposed by the legacy dual-controller architecture of All Flash Arrays (AFAs) with a switch-like design enabling multiple controllers to access storage simultaneously to deliver unprecedented performance. 

“One upside from this unprecedented work from home environment is that people can dive deeper into topics of interest. IT leaders looking into newer technologies that can accelerate their business’ performance can expand their knowledge regarding how the emerging ‘third wave’ of storage is driving results in production environments and evaluate how it could help their organizations,” added Love. 

NVMe-oF and RoCE have enabled storage arrays to provide the same or better performance than direct-attached storage (DAS) solutions over a fabric. The third wave of storage gives organizations the performance of DAS with the efficiency and manageability of a SAN.

HPCInnovation.com will provide technical briefs, real-world customer use cases, white papers, links to industry organizations, and an ask an engineer questions function. Supported by Pavilion Data Systems, HPCInnovation.com presents the content for educational purposes. 

“Pavilion Data Systems initially caught our eye for Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (AI/ML).  As the 3rd wave of storage emerges, lots of questions come to mind,” said Enrico Signoretti, Sr. Data Storage Analyst at GigaOM. “Pavilion has taken a pragmatic approach to market education with a new website,www.HPCinnovation.com.  There is some really useful information here, I applaud the approach to education over advertising.”

About Pavilion

Pavilion is the inventor of the world’s first Hyperparallel Flash Array. Built for NVMe from the ground up, Pavilion brings unprecedented scalability, unmatched performance density, and an OpenChoice of NVMe SSDs and NVMe-oF topologies. Across a variety of industries, Pavilion has a proven solution that brings scale-up and scale-out storage to organizations worldwide. 

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Axon Reports First Quarter 2020 Financial Results, Progress on New Initiatives
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Axon Reports First Quarter 2020 Financial Results, Progress on New Initiatives
Axon Reports First Quarter 2020 Financial Results, Progress on New Initiatives

Axon has reported the company’s first quarter 2020 financial results as well as its progress on new initiatives, Axon announced on Friday. 

Axon noted that the company’s revenue grew 27 percent year over year to $147 million, with strength driven by our Software & Sensors product segment, which grew 41 percent year over year due to demand for Axon Cloud software offerings and Axon Body 3.

The company’s gross margin increased both sequentially and year over year to 60.2 percent and Axon’s operating expenses of $89 million included $20 million in stock-based compensation expense and $6 million in costs related to the FTC litigation.

The GAAP EPS was $0.07 and Non-GAAP EPS was $0.40. Axon’s quarterly adjusted EBITDA of $30 million more than doubled year over year, representing a 20 percent margin on revenue, and delivering a 51 percent incremental contribution margin on revenue when compared with Q1 2019.

Axon’s cash and cash equivalents and investments totaled $395 million, including an investment payable of $13.5 million at March 31, 2020. In addition to the company’s report, Axon also gave progress updates on Axon Dispatch.

The company noted that its SaaS strategy has driven a net revenue retention of 120 percent. Axon has driven adoption of its cloud software solutions through integrated bundling, which has created a flywheel effect of compounding benefits for customers.

Axon’s Officer Safety Plan 7+ has combined the company’s latest generation TASER devices and body cameras with a growing suite of cloud software, including the Axon Records records management system (RMS) and the Axon Aware live-streaming and real-time situational awareness platform. 

The company has experienced major cities upgrading their subscriptions at individual net dollar retention rates of 150 percent to 300 percent to take advantage of Axon’s growing suite of productivity and digital evidence management tools. 

The combined factors have sustained a dollar-based net revenue retention of about 120% across our entire SaaS customer base over the past two quarters. In addition, Axon has increased momentum in corrections. The company has engaged with more than 10 state departments of corrections, including the five most populous states in the country, including California, Texas, Florida, New York and Pennsylvania. 

About Axon

Axon is a mission-driven company whose overarching goal is to protect life. Our vision is a world where bullets are obsolete, where social conflict is dramatically reduced, and where everyone has access to a fair and effective justice system. Axon is also a leading provider of body cameras for US law enforcement, providing more transparency and accountability to communities than ever before.

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SBA Awards $300K in Grants to Company Entrepreneurship Training for Women Veterans, Military Spouses; Larry Stubblefield Quoted
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SBA Awards $300K in Grants to Company Entrepreneurship Training for Women Veterans, Military Spouses; Larry Stubblefield Quoted
Larry Stubblefield
Larry Stubblefield

The  U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) today awarded $300 thousand in grants to three organizations that will offer entrepreneurship training to women service members, veterans and military spouses, the company reported on Thursday. 

"Women veterans represent a fast-growing segment of the veteran population. As this number grows, so has the number of women veterans who continue to serve their country by becoming small business owners," said Larry Stubblefield, Associate Administrator for SBA's Office of Veterans Business Development.

The administration’s funding will be granted through SBA's Office of Veterans Business Development. It will support the selected organizations’ entrepreneurial programs for women who serve in our military and veteran communities. 

The awardees were chosen based on the organizations’ demonstrated commitment to provide training programs and resources to women. One of the awarded companies, Lift Fund, was awarded $75 thousand of the grants. Lift Fund is a non-profit organization that has supported small business owners with limited access to capital. 

The Women Veteran Entrepreneurship Program offers in-person and online training opportunities, as well as one-on-one advising for women veterans, transitioning service members, active duty military and spouses who are aspiring or currently operating small businesses in Texas.   

ONABEN: Beyond the Boots: A Veteran and Service Member Initiative was also awarded $75 thousand. ONABEN is a non-profit organization that delivers economic and entrepreneurial development services to the Native American business community. 

The organization has provided entrepreneurial training services to support the growth of women veterans, service members, as well as women spouses of military personnel in Oklahoma, Texas, and Arkansas through coaching, webcasts, and training. 

The program will provide women veterans with the resources to grow in business, explore the importance of social entrepreneurship to build stronger communities and economies, and overcome the challenges of small business through culturally appropriate capacity building, peer coaching, and entrepreneurial activities.

Securing the largest grant, Institute for Veterans and Military Families at Syracuse University: Veteran Women Igniting the Spirit of Entrepreneurship (V-WISE) was awarded $150 thousand from the SBA.

The V-WISE program is an intensive three-phase program containing a 15-day online preparatory course, a three-day residency program, and post-training technical support. The program empowers women veterans and military spouses to find passion and learn the business savvy skills necessary to turn an idea or start-up into a growing venture.

"As women veterans, service members, and spouses continue to contribute greatly to our economy, we are eager to fund organizations that will support them through their entrepreneurial journey and set them up for success," added Stubblefield.

About the U.S. Small Business Administration

The U.S. Small Business Administration makes the American dream of business ownership a reality. As the only go-to resource and voice for small businesses backed by the strength of the federal government, the SBA empowers entrepreneurs and small business owners with the resources and support they need to start, grow or expand their businesses, or recover from a declared disaster. It delivers services through an extensive network of SBA field offices and partnerships with public and private organizations.

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3M Secures 2 Contacts from DoD to Expand N95 Respirator Development During COVID-19 Pandemic; Mike Roman Quoted
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3M Secures 2 Contacts from DoD to Expand N95 Respirator Development During COVID-19 Pandemic; Mike Roman Quoted
3M Secures 2 Contacts from DoD to Expand N95 Respirator Development During COVID-19 Pandemic; Mike Roman Quoted

3M has been awarded two contracts through the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) to further develop U.S. production of N95 respirators in response to the COVID-19 outbreak, the company reported on Friday.

“Being selected for these contracts will allow us to increase our manufacturing capability even more. We thank the Trump Administration and the Department of Defense for their close collaboration on this effort and share their goal of protecting the American public,” said Mike Roman, 3M chairman of the board and chief executive officer. 

In Jan. 2020, 3M expanded its production of respirators and doubled its global output to 1.1 billion per year, including 35 million N95 respirators per month in the U.S. With the contracts, 3M to make another 39 million respirators per month in the U.S. 

An additional investment already underway by 3M will add another 22 million respirators per month to that output, nearly tripling the company’s total production of N95 respirators to more than 95 million per month in the U.S. The contracts have been awarded through a collaboration under the Defense Production Act.

3M has invested over $80 million in the production of N95 respirators since the outbreak began. The investments and actions, along with these contracts, will enable the company to nearly double its current capacity again to 2 billion respirators globally by the end of the year.

The increase in production will be made possible by the addition of new equipment that manufactures N95 respirators. The construction of that equipment has begun in Wisconsin where initial production of the respirators will start in June. 

The equipment will eventually be relocated to a new expansion at 3M’s facility in Aberdeen, South Dakota. 3M’s Aberdeen plant has been a key part of the company’s U.S. manufacturing strategy of personal protective equipment for decades and throughout the COVID-19 outbreak.

“3M is working around the clock to get much-needed personal protective equipment to the nation’s frontline healthcare workers,” added Roman. 

About 3M

At 3M, we apply science in collaborative ways to improve lives daily. With $32 billion in sales, our 96,000 employees connect with customers all around the world. 

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KBR Joins Multi-Million Dollar NTSP Framework to Support UK Nuclear, Defense Infrastructure; Andrew Barrie, Charles Hoskins Quoted
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KBR Joins Multi-Million Dollar NTSP Framework to Support UK Nuclear, Defense Infrastructure; Andrew Barrie, Charles Hoskins Quoted

KBR Joins Multi-Million Dollar NTSP Framework to Support UK Nuclear, Defense Infrastructure; Andrew Barrie, Charles Hoskins Quoted

KBR has announced that the company has reinforced its growing presence in the UK Nuclear and Defence Infrastructure sectors after being selected to join a seven-year, multi-million dollar delivery framework, the company reported on Friday. The framework is valued between $295 million and $470 million to support DIO and includes the option of a three year extension.

“We will drive positive innovation and change through working collaboratively to support the Clyde Infrastructure Programme. Combining our Government, Defence and cross industry experience, digital capability and respected program management capabilities to provide innovative solutions for the wide ranging projects ahead at this strategically important Royal Navy base,” said Andrew Barrie, KBR President, Government Solutions EMEA.

KBR has partnered with Assystem and Doosan Babcock, and has been operated under the name of KAD Nuclear, were one of three suppliers selected by the Defence Infrastructure Organization (DIO) to join the new Nuclear Technical Support Provider (NTSP) framework.

“This is a fantastic achievement – one that highlights our dedication to a truly collaborative approach and enhances our position within the UK defence and nuclear sectors,” added Barrie.

NTSP will deliver engineering and project management services for the naval base infrastructure upgrade and specialist nuclear technical services to the Navy Command and other UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) organizations.

The framework will also support the Clyde Infrastructure Programme (CIP) and wider Royal Navy and defence requirements. NTSP will focus on delivering the refurbishment and upgrade of critical infrastructure at Her Majesty’s Naval Base (HMNB) Clyde.

Charles Hoskins, DIO’s Clyde Infrastructure Programme Director, said: “The NTSP is vitally important to the delivery of our major infrastructure programme and wider operations at HMNB Clyde. The expertise and collaborative approach from our new partners will be crucial to our success as we move forward into the exciting and challenging next chapter of our programme.”

About KBR, Inc.

KBR is a global provider of differentiated professional services and technologies across the asset and program lifecycle within the Government Solutions and Energy sectors. KBR employs approximately 37,000 people worldwide (including our joint ventures), with customers in more than 80 countries, and operations in 40 countries, across three synergistic global businesses: Government Solutions, Technology Solutions, Energy Solutions.

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GSA Partners with FDA in CoE Initiative to Strengthen Work Culture, Tech Modernization; Anil Cheriyan, Vid Desai Quoted
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GSA Partners with FDA in CoE Initiative to Strengthen Work Culture, Tech Modernization; Anil Cheriyan, Vid Desai Quoted
Anil Cheriyan
Anil Cheriyan

The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) is entering into a partnership with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as part of GSA’s Centers of Excellence (CoE) initiative, housed within GSA's Technology Transformation Services (TTS) office, the agency announced on Thursday. 

“The Centers of Excellence is partnering with the FDA to support its IT community and accelerate the modernization of core capabilities,” said TTS director Anil Cheriyan. “We’re bringing the best talent from within the federal government and the private sector together to collaborate and drive the next generation of customer-centric results at OIMT.”

Under the people-centered partnership, the CoE and FDA’s Office of Information Management and Technology (OIMT) will strengthen its employee engagement to drive the FDA’s technology modernization efforts. The initiative will support the workforce’s adoption and delivery of new technologies and processes to directly assist the FDA’s broad regulatory responsibilities.

GSA’s CoE, within the agency’s Federal Acquisition Service (FAS), will accelerate IT modernization at federal agencies by leveraging private sector innovation and government services while centralizing best practices and expertise for holistic transformation. 

TTS helps agencies make their services more accessible, efficient, and effective with modern applications, platforms, processes, personnel and software solutions. The FDA is the latest agency to partner with GSA and apply the CoE approach to modernization. 

Within the CoE, the GSA has partnered with the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Office of Personnel Management, the Consumer Product Safety Commission and the Department of Defense’s Joint Artificial Intelligence Center (JAIC), among many others.

“The FDA’s OIMT is responsible for the technical infrastructure of the agency,” said FDA Chief Technology Officer Vid Desai. “OIMT enables us to support public health by providing critical technology to all of our offices and centers. When we put our workforce first we know they’ll be better equipped to meet the challenges of the FDA’s diverse mission by enabling a modern organization, strategies, and infrastructure.”

The GSA CoE’s partnership with JAIC announced new innovations to leverage data as a strategic asset and advance AI across the DoD, through the Centers of Excellence (CoE) collaboration in Feb. 2020.

This next step paves the way for the DoD to improve how we manage and leverage data as a strategic asset," said Lt. Gen. Jack Shanahan, director of the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center and 2020 Wash100 Award recipient. "We appreciate the CoE's commitment to creating a collaborative environment that enables solutions for broader AI governance, technology acquisition strategies, and scaling AI solutions through the Joint Common Foundation."

JAIC stakeholders and CoE members have engaged in a series of human-centered design workshops to determine essential roles and responsibilities for managing data assets. The determination will shape a flexible governance framework to manage data holdings, including cybersecurity, healthcare, predictive maintenance and business automation.

Through implementing governance tailored specifically to AI initiatives, the partnership has created an innovative AI stance. The system integrates flexibility and interoperability of an enterprise-wide Joint Common Foundation expedite AI capabilities. 

About GSA

The mission of the U.S. General Services Administration is to deliver value and savings in real estate, acquisition, technology, and other mission-support services across the government. One of GSA’s four strategic goals is to improve the way agencies buy, build and use technology.

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DHS S&T Helps Other Department Teams Implement Awareness Tool
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DHS S&T Helps Other Department Teams Implement Awareness Tool
DHS S&T Helps Other Department Teams Implement Awareness Tool

The Department of Homeland Security's Science and Technology Directorate has engaged with other DHS components to help them implement the Team Awareness Kit, a digital tool designed to facilitate response team coordination.

Public safety teams may use TAK to simplify day-to-day activities, communicate and observe tactical awareness, DHS said Tuesday.

S&T helped other DHS teams modify TAK to suit their unique needs and fully deploy the tool enterprisewide. Air Force Research Laboratory originally developed TAK.

The kit features server and client components that would run on an organization's existing hardware. TAK cost models would depend on an organization's equipment.

DHS also offers an S&T-funded interactive guide for U.S. Border Patrol agents using TAK. Agents may access both TAK and the guide via mobile devices.

“The guide will also allow more well-versed TAK users to expand their knowledge of the tool as their comfort level increases," said Shawn McDonald, program manager at S&T.

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