Commander Naval Air Forces Atlantic inspectors have approved the flight deck and air traffic control station of USS Gerald R. Ford after sailors demonstrated operational readiness with the U.S. Navy's aircraft carrier.

USS Ford and Carrier Air Wing Eight personnel had to conduct flight operations that involved F/A-18F and F/A-18E jets over a two-day period as part of the certification process, the military service said Monday.

The team completed 50 day traps on the first day, then conducted 70 day traps and 40 night traps the following day, surpassing the minimum requirements.

Ship crew was also required to get clearance for the vessel's precision approach landing systems in order to  secure FDC and CATCC certifications.

CNAL inspectors commended sailors who worked to complete the approval process.

“All CATCC functional areas were outstanding. Additionally, the leadership and expertise exhibited by the Air Operations Officer and his staff were extremely evident throughout the course of the entire week," they wrote in the certification letter.

Huntington Ingalls Industries' Newport News Shipbuilding division delivered Ford to the branch on May 31, 2017.

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is seeking public comments on further changes to remove tariffs on additional medical products from China to help address the coronavirus pandemic, Nextgov reported Monday.

“In prior notices, the U.S. Trade Representative has modified the action in the Section 301 investigation of China’s acts, policies, and practices related to technology transfer, intellectual property, and innovation by removing additional duties from medical-care products needed to address the COVID-19 outbreak,” USTR General Counsel Joseph Barloon wrote in a notice set to be published Wednesday on Federal Register.

The agency lifted duties on approximately 200 medical care products, including personal protective equipment, on March 5 in response to the pandemic and would like to request feedback on other goods that could be added to the tariff exemption list.

“Each comment specifically must identify the particular product of concern and explain precisely how the product relates to the response to the COVID-19 outbreak,” according to the notice.

USTR will accept feedback through June 25 and may extend the comment period as appropriate.

Maj. Gen. Michael Fantini and Lt. Col. Jake Sotiriadis of the U.S. Air Force wrote in a commentary piece published Monday on Defense News that the U.S. military should address its “digital connection deficit” to achieve the decision advantage needed to win against potential adversaries.

“Decision advantage — or what I would call the collection, interpretation and use of information required to win in tomorrow’s conflicts — will default to the side that is most connected across all domains — air, land, sea, space and cyberspace,” they wrote.

Fantini and Sotiriadis discussed how the Advanced Battle Management System could help warfighters compete in the digital information age and stressed the importance of having a digitally connected joint force.

They also cited how the Joint All-Domain Command and Control operating concept could facilitate the use of decision advantage to win against rivals.

“JADC2 will leverage machine-learning algorithms to sift and fuse massive amounts of information and employ real-time edge processing from the battlefield to target according to commanders’ priorities,” Fantini and Sotiriadis wrote “Doing so will allow joint and combined forces to distribute access to information more widely, empowering commanders at all echelons with decision advantage at every level.”

The National Academy of Public Administration announced that a five-member panel would direct NAPA research personnel to look at the potential outcomes of the proposed merger of the Office of Personnel Management with the General Services Administration, FCW reported Monday.

NAPA will examine OPM’s statutory mandates, views of stakeholders on the merger, the impact of the move on labor management relations and the potential impact of the merger on agency functions and costs and benefits.

NAPA entered into a contract with OPM to conduct the study and is expected to hand over the report to Congress by March 2021. The study is part of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 202 for fiscal year 2020.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s new event analysis tool underwent testing with U.S. Indo-Pacific Command in December.

DARPA said Thursday its Collection and Monitoring via Planning for Active Situational Scenarios or COMPASS toolset works to help the military determine whether a geopolitical event connects to an adversarial strategy.

“Indo-Pacific Command provided great support for this experiment, and their feedback and insights remain invaluable as we continue to develop the AI technologies and the user interface,” said Fotis Barlos, a program manager with DARPA’s Strategic Technology Office.

COMPASS uses artificial intelligence, among other drivers, to analytically support military decision making with regard to an adversary’s geopolitical interests.

The tool suite produces a number of hypothetical suggestions based on data input, Barlos noted.

“COMPASS has potential to be an extremely useful tool in the world of mission assurance, and demonstrates that we can discover patterns of activity at the ‘speed of need’ and then act upon them,” said Col. Joseph Musacchia, critical infrastructure protection, anti-terrorism and mission assurance division chief at Indo-Pacific Command.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology has issued a guidance to help federal agencies implement a cybersecurity framework developed by NIST in partnership with the private and public sectors.

NIST’s guidance states that the Framework for Improving Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity is meant to help agencies streamline their efforts focused on information security risk management. The guide includes use cases encompassing enterprise risk management, cybersecurity program management, acquisition procedures and risk reporting.

The agency noted that the framework aligns with requirements under the Federal Information Security Management Act to prevent “unauthorized access, use, disclosure, disruption, modification, or destruction of a federal information system or federal Information.”

Using a risk-based approach also enables agencies to determine risks relevant to the operational lifecycle and allocate appropriate resources to “treat those risks to an acceptable level,” according to NIST.

“It is vital that agency personnel at all levels manage their assets wisely and address cybersecurity risks effectively,” NIST said. “To do that, agencies need a holistic approach to their enterprises’ risk management that includes timely, streamlined approaches and automated tools.”

NIST noted that the new guidance complements its prior publications focused on risk management for information systems and information security risk.