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FDA Develops Strategies to Remedy COVID-19 Pandemic; Alex Azar, Amy Abernethy Quoted
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FDA Develops Strategies to Remedy COVID-19 Pandemic; Alex Azar, Amy Abernethy Quoted
FDA Develops Strategies to Remedy COVID-19 Pandemic; Alex Azar, Amy Abernethy Quoted

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has developed a new program across public, academic and private sectors to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, the administration reported on Tuesday. 

“The FDA is announcing a new, comprehensive public-private approach to bring coronavirus treatments to market as fast as possible," said HHS Secretary Alex Azar. "As part of this new program, the FDA is cutting red tape, redeploying staff and working day and night to review requests from companies, scientists and doctors who are working toward therapies.

The program is designed to expedite the development of potentially safe and effective life-saving treatments. The Coronavirus Treatment Acceleration Program (CTAP) will utilize new tools to develop and deliver therapies to sick patients as quickly as possible, as well as support research to further evaluate whether the treatments are safe and effective for treating patients with COVID-19. 

The facilities that will participate in the program include NanoViricides, Inc., Moderna, Inc., Gilead Sciences, Inc., Inovio Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and Dynavax Technologies Corporation.

In addition to FDA’s program development, the administration also announced that companies across the globe will shift its technologies to help fight the spread of coronavirus, including Biotricity, CytoDyn, Amazon, Clorox and Sorrento Therapeutics. 

At the companies, existing modern solutions in diagnostics and monitoring treatments will be repurposed and being used as tools to help fight the current pandemic. These technologies can help identify outbreak hotspots, prevent infections and reduce the need for physical contact in diagnostics.  

The FDA recently issued an update allowing certain remote diagnostic tools to be used in the fight. The update said: '"Today, as part of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's ongoing efforts to address the coronavirus outbreak (COVID-19), the agency issued a new policy that allows manufacturers of certain FDA-cleared non-invasive, vital sign-measuring devices to expand their use so that health care providers can use them to monitor patients remotely.”

The devices include those that measure body temperature, respiratory rate, heart rate and blood pressure.  

"Allowing these devices to be used remotely can help health care providers access information about a patient's vital signs while the patient is at home, reducing the need for hospital visits and minimizing the risk of exposure to coronavirus," said FDA Principal Deputy Commissioner Amy Abernethy, M.D., Ph.D. 

Amazon and Conduent Incorporated, a business process services and solutions company, recently announced that its disease surveillance and outbreak management platform, Maven, will be available on Amazon Web Services (AWS). 

Conduent's Maven solution was recently refigured to help public health agencies securely engage patients, and track, manage and report on cases and potential exposures of coronavirus (COVID-19).  

Given the critical need to stop the spread of COVID-19 in the U.S., where Maven is primarily used, Conduent is waiving the software license fee for the Maven COVID-19 module through June 30, 20201 for the qualified state- and territorial-level public health agencies as a means to enable the agencies in the fight against COVID-19.

"This policy reflects the FDA's commitment to ease burdens on health care providers and facilities as they face this public health emergency. Such devices include technologies capable of enabling remote interactions to provide crucial information to be used as an adjunctive when health care providers diagnose or treat COVID-19 or co-existing conditions.," added Abernethy.

About FDA  

The FDA, an agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, protects the public health by assuring the safety, effectiveness, and security of human and veterinary drugs, vaccines and other biological products for human use, and medical devices. The agency also is responsible for the safety and security of our nation's food supply, cosmetics, dietary supplements, products that give off electronic radiation, and for regulating tobacco products.

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Air Force Research Lab to Evaluate Raytheon’s Counter-Drone Laser Weapon, Microwave Systems
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Air Force Research Lab to Evaluate Raytheon’s Counter-Drone Laser Weapon, Microwave Systems

Air Force Research Lab to Evaluate Raytheon's Counter-Drone Laser Weapon, Microwave Systems

The Air Force Research Laboratory is set to test high-energy laser and high-power microwave systems  Raytheon developed to help the U.S. military take down unmanned aerial system threats.

AFRL will evaluate the company’s HELWS and Phaser platforms along with the laboratory-built Tactical High Power Operational Responder in an overseas field assessment that will last for 12 months, the U.S. Air Force said Monday.

“Drones are becoming more and more pervasive and can be used as weapons intended to cause harm to our military bases at long standoff ranges,” said Kelly Hammett, director of directed energy at AFRL.

Hammett added the lab equipped THOR with an electronic technology that works to deter adversarial drones through a rapid-fire mechanism.

Michael Jirjis, base defense experimentation director in the Air Force Strategic Development Planning and  Experimentation Office, said the lab seeks to explore the potential of directed energy systems and help the service branch determine a path forward on counter-small unmanned aerial systems.

The SDPE Office previously tested laser and microwave systems at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico and at Fort Sill in Oklahoma.

Trump Signs Executive Order to Advance International Support for Use of Space Resources
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Trump Signs Executive Order to Advance International Support for Use of Space Resources

Trump Signs Executive Order to Advance International Support for Use of Space Resources

President Trump has issued an executive order to advance international support for the private and public recovery and use of minerals, water and other resources in space.

The executive order signed Monday directs the secretary of the State Department to oversee and initiate all appropriate actions to promote international support for the use and recovery of space resources.

The secretary should be in charge of negotiating multilateral arrangements and joint statements with foreign states with regard to sustainable and safe operations in support of the use and recovery of space resources.

The policy also states the country’s position on the Moon Agreement and requires the secretary of State to submit a report to the president within 180 days about measures and other efforts to encourage foreign support for the recovery and use of resources in space.

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Dana Deasy Leads New DoD Task Force to Address Teleworking Challenges
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Dana Deasy Leads New DoD Task Force to Address Teleworking Challenges
Dana Deasy
Dana Deasy

The Department of Defense (DoD) has established a new task force led by Dana Deasy, DoD chief information officer and a 2020 Wash100 Award winner, to help address teleworking-related challenges amid the coronavirus pandemic, FedScoop reported Monday.

The Teleworking Readiness Taskforce meets several times each week and includes CIOs and senior information technology officials across military branches, the Defense Information Systems Agency and other Pentagon components.

“The Task Force is working across the department to ensure we bring the right capabilities at the right time to address any actual or anticipated telework issues that may arise,” Lt. Col. Robert Carver told the publication in an email.

Army CIO Lt. Gen. Bruce Crawford said the task force has worked on a cloud-based collaboration platform that allows users to perform video, chat and audio communications in a secure environment. “Collaboration with Joint partners on the policies required to protect a dispersed workforce from cyber threats, given the expanded attack surface, has also been invaluable,” he added.

Gen. Stephen Lyons: TRANSCOM Looks for Ways to Offload Work to Commercial Airlines
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Gen. Stephen Lyons: TRANSCOM Looks for Ways to Offload Work to Commercial Airlines
Stephen Lyons
Stephen Lyons

Army Gen. Stephen Lyons, head of U.S. Transportation Command, said TRANSCOM is exploring ways on how to shift work to Civil Reserve Air Fleet partners in an effort to mitigate the financial impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the commercial airline industry, Defense News reported Monday.

CRAF is a program where Delta, United Airlines and other commercial aviation firms can carry out transport missions on behalf of the Pentagon during emergencies.

“On a cargo side, the civil aviation fleet is going pretty strong. On a passenger side, it has dropped off significantly,” Lyons said. “We’re talking to [commercial airline companies] regularly. I am concerned, to some degree, about impacts on the passenger segment of the aviation industry, so any opportunity we have to push workload in their direction, we’re doing that.”

The State Department’s repatriation task force tapped TRANSCOM in late March to help manage contracts with U.S. airlines to transport U.S. citizens and permanent residents back to the country.

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NASA Installs Wheels on Perseverance Rover
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NASA Installs Wheels on Perseverance Rover

NASA Installs Wheels on Perseverance Rover

NASA has installed the wheels, air brakes and parachute system of Perseverance, the rover designed to collect samples for the Mars 2020 mission.

The space agency said Friday its Kennedy Space Center completed the rover’s wheel installation March 30, following a test in December with mock-up wheels.

The new, mission-tailored wheels are engineered to accommodate the red planet’s terrain and build on the ones used by the existing Curiosity rover.

Perseverance’s wheels have bigger diameters than those on Curiosity and new tread designs. Jet Propulsion Laboratory tested the new treads and have generated results that show improvement over the previous model in terms of pressure resistance.

The parachute installation took place earlier and ended on March 26 after multiple days of work.

Perseverance is scheduled to launch this year for a mission to study microbial life and geology on the red planet, in preparation for manned exploration under the Artemis program.

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Navy Reuses USS Enterprise Data Link on John F. Kennedy Carrier
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Navy Reuses USS Enterprise Data Link on John F. Kennedy Carrier

Navy Reuses USS Enterprise Data Link on John F. Kennedy Carrier

Naval Undersea Warfare Center has delivered a salvaged data system to the John F. Kennedy nuclear aircraft carrier after refurbishment and installation activities at Naval Information Warfare Center Pacific.

The repurposed AN/USQ-167 Common Data Link System, formerly of the decommissioned USS Enterprise, would allow John F. Kennedy to process sonobuoy data transmitted from undersea warfare aircraft, the U.S. Navy said Friday.

San Diego-based Fleet Test and Evaluation Center performed installation activities and a technical refresh to link the system with Kennedy’s USW aircraft.

“Live testing, consisting of both on-deck and in-flight operations, were successfully conducted, proving the next-generation common data link system increased capabilities were operationally sound,” said Dave McKae, an engineering technician at FTEC.

The Reuse of USS Enterprise’s CDLS allowed the Navy to save $1.8M.

Sen. Mark Warner Asks OMB to Clarify Relief for Contractors Involved in National Security Missions
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Sen. Mark Warner Asks OMB to Clarify Relief for Contractors Involved in National Security Missions
Mark Warner
Mark Warner

Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee and a three-time Wash100 award winner, has asked the Office of Management and Budget to release a directive that would direct agencies to implement a provision in the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act that offers relief to contractors supporting the country’s national security missions.

“Without such overarching directive, I fear that agencies and their contracting officers will take disparate approaches, leading to uncertainty and instability in the contractor industrial base, if not a permanent loss of capability,” Warner wrote in a letter to Acting OMB Director Russell Vought.

Warner said he wants the policy to support teleworking initiatives and payment for contractors amid the COVID-19 pandemic and provide a fair cost reimbursement method.

The lawmaker also asked OMB to come up with a standard contract modification language within 15 days of the directive’s release to “maintain ready state (on-call) contractor capability, reflects dependencies on subcontractors and suppliers whose performance may be impaired by COVID-19, and adjust contract performance issues.”

To avoid any disruption in contract implementation, Warner said the directive should permit accelerated consideration of extensions in performance periods and “adjustments in contract ceiling values.”

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Navy Commissions USS Delaware
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Navy Commissions USS Delaware

Navy Commissions USS Delaware

A Virginia-class submarine built by Huntington Ingalls Industries and General Dynamics‘ Electric Boat company has entered into active service with the U.S. Navy.

Codenamed SSN 791, USS Delaware is the 18th of the Virginia-class attack submarines to join the service branch, the Department of Defense said Saturday.

The attack submarine measures 377 feet long and will work to conduct various operations such as anti-surface warfare, intelligence, reconnaissance and surveillance missions. It can also submerge at depths over 800 feet, travel at a speed of more than 25 knots and operate for over three decades.

“I am equally proud of the families who have stood by through the long hours of shift work, testing, and sea trials and supported our mission with patriotism and devotion,” said Cmdr. Matthew Horton, commanding officer at USS Delaware.

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2020 Wash100 Awardees John Murray, Bruce Jette Cite Plans to Prevent Disruptions in Army Modernization Efforts
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2020 Wash100 Awardees John Murray, Bruce Jette Cite Plans to Prevent Disruptions in Army Modernization Efforts
2020 Wash100 Awardees John Murray, Bruce Jette Cite Plans to Prevent Disruptions in Army Modernization Efforts

U.S. Army officials have said that the military branch is working to prevent further delays in its more than 800 acquisition programs as the coronavirus pandemic continues to cause disruptions, National Defense Magazine reported Friday.

Gen. John Murray, commanding officer of the Army Futures Command and 2020 Wash100 Award winner, said at a teleconference that programs such as the integrated air-and-missile defense battle command system could be at risk of delays due to current health-related restrictions.

Testing of the IBCS was initially slated to take place in May while another test for the long-range precision strike missile is scheduled for this month. According to Murray, the Army may “have to look at some concurrency” if the service deems it necessary.

Bruce Jette, assistant secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics and Technology, and a fellow 2020 Wash100 Award recipient, added that the service has continued network modernization initiative as well as testing of hypersonics technology amid the health crisis.

Other Army projects that could face disruptions include the Integrated Visual Augmentation System designed to support warfighters’ situational awareness functions on the field, Murray noted.

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.

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