Will Roper, acquisition executive at the U.S. Air Force and a 2020 Wash100 Award winner, said a deal between the service and Boeing to implement a final remote vision system design for the KC-46A Pegasus tanker could pave the way for autonomous aerial refueling of other aircraft, Defense News reported Wednesday.

“A proper RVS like that is right on the doorstep to autonomy,” Roper told reporters. “All you have to do is take that data that tells the world inside the jet the reality of geometries between the airplane and the boom outside the jet. Once you have that, you simply need to translate it into algorithms that allow the tanker to tank itself.”

Boeing and the Air Force signed a memorandum of agreement on April 2 to implement the RVS 2.0 design for KC-46A at no additional cost to the service branch. The design will feature 4K color cameras and light detecting and ranging sensor to enhance depth perception.

“We have added an engineering change proposal into the deal with a not-to-exceed threshold of $55 million, so that when RVS 2.0 is done, we can then take the next step beyond 2.0 to develop those autonomy algorithms and install them if we think we can certify them for safe use,” Roper said.

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.

Stanford University Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence has issued a letter to Congress and President Donald Trump regarding collaboration between multiple sectors towards the development of AI technologies.

Stanford HAI said in a letter it seeks for industry, academia and government to jointly sustain the U.S. advantage in the AI field through the creation of a national research cloud and a corresponding task force.

"We believe the government, working with industry and academia, must devote substantially more computational, data and human resources to maintain our leadership in this area," the letter said.

The institution asks the Office of Science and Technology Policy to establish a bipartisan task force that would propose specific efforts for this envisioned research cloud. The future organization would consist of academia, industry and government representatives 

"The group will identify and prioritize computational needs and potential datasets to support academic AI research and develop a plan that ramps up over the next five years," Stanford HAI noted.

The U.S. Navy concluded vital combat system testing of the USS Gerald R. Ford nuclear aircraft carrier within the ship’s post-delivery test and trials phase.

The carrier demonstrated technology integration and combat system performance during the tests that took place in the Atlantic Ocean, the service branch said Tuesday.

Earlier certification tests focused on this ship’s Air Traffic Control Radar Beacon that works to track surrounding aircraft and identify enemy units.

Ford’s vital combat systems also underwent sea-based developmental testing to demonstrate tactical defense. The carrier’s dual-band radar demonstrated the ability to track aircraft during this part of testing.

“Without these self-defense systems, Gerald R. Ford wouldn’t be able to deliver lethal effects to our nation’s adversaries,” said Sam Lantinga a 2nd class fire controlman.

The ship continues its qualification tests in the ocean.

NASA has earmarked over $7 million for 23 studies as part of a three-phase initiative that could help support the Artemis mission as well as future efforts to establish long-term human presence on the moon.

The agency said Wednesday it allocated $125,000 for selected phase one proposals to undergo a nine-month prototyping period under the  NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts program.

Phase two participants will get $500,000 to continue concept development for up to two years, while phase three studies will receive $2 million to mature and transition their concepts into actionable missions within two years.

Proposals selected for NIAC’s first two increments include asteroid mapping technologies and other capabilities built to support in-space pharmaceutical development and water extraction on the moon. NASA also chose a study focused on using imaging technologies to visualize Earth-like planets beyond the solar system for the third phase.

Sixteen of the awardees are new NIAC participants, while seven proposals previously secured at least one grant under the program.

That the National Institute of Standards and Technology has updated its security guidelines intended to help agencies ensure safety in deploying mobile devices, FedScoop reported Tuesday.

Gemma Howell, and information technology security engineer at NIST and co-author of the revised guidelines, told the publication that the original framework covers subject areas such as threats, device characteristics, security tools and deployment procedures.

The updated guidelines now include risk assessment operations and detailed steps that agencies must take throughout the device deployment lifecycle.

“This is really focused on device-side threats, considerations and things you can do on the device,” she said. “What we want folks to be aware of are the many changes in the industry and the solutions available to them to help secure their mobile devices that are being used during this telework time to access their enterprise resources.”

NIST will accept public feedback on the new guidelines through June 26.