A new Federal CIO Council report provides 10 recommendations on how agencies can improve the hiring process and develop the future information technology workforce.

The report titled Future of the Federal IT Workforce Update suggests the development of a governmentwide special pay system for the IT workforce, transition to a competency-based classification model for all IT positions, creation of interdisciplinary procurement teams and expansion of existing pilot programs to enhance recruitment efforts.

The document calls for agencies to redesign the IT recruiting and hiring processes to attract talent, make federal IT career paths more attractive to the future workforce, enhance recognition for innovators and top performers in federal IT, compare the effectiveness of workforce initiatives with industry, boost adoption of intragovernmental augmentation offerings and employ more technical subject matter experts.

The report is organized around five primary issue areas – recruiting, retaining, reskilling, measuring and augmenting IT talent – that serve as critical steps needed to build the future IT workforce. The council examined each of the five areas in light of five factors or drivers impacting the federal IT workforce: innovation, mobility, cybersecurity, collaboration and agility.

The update is based on interviews conducted by the council with nearly two dozen agency chief information officers, chief human capital officers, IT innovators, industry executives and other experts.

Army Research Laboratory, part of the service's Combat Capabilities Development Command, has introduced a new framework that would help soldiers obtain boosted situational awareness in low-bandwidth environments. A group of ARL scientists has enhanced distributed algorithms that allow for autonomous coordination across multiple intelligence agents, the Army said Monday.

Jemin George and James Hare of ARL worked with North Carolina State University and research fellow Anjaly Parayil to pursue the study. The two-part study applies autonomous multi-agent coordination to support surveillance and directed communication.

“This multi-agent approach allows for establishing a directed communication channel without having access to a physically connected antenna array,” George said.

The scientist and his team virtually presented their findings at the 45th International Conference on Acoustics, Speech and Signal Processing. The effort will go on to generally apply this discovery to different machine learning methods and other pursuits prioritized by the Army.

The U.S. Air Force has completed the T-7A Red Hawk aircraft's critical design review at Wright-Patterson AF Base after one year and a half of work and preparations.

The CDR put Red Hawk's systems in tests aimed at demonstrating training performance for pilots of fourth- and fifth-generation aircraft such as the F-35, Edwards AFB said Tuesday.

Tested systems include external pylons, the propulsion engine and a new escape mechanism.

The service branch partnered with Boeing, the aircraft's maker, to conduct Red Hawk's aircraft and overall system CDR in a three-day summit. Representatives from Randolph and Edwards AFBs virtually took part in the CDR.

“The combined government and Boeing team continues to leverage outside-the-box thinking, process tailoring and are breaking the norms by utilizing advanced engineering digital design practices to design, test and produce aircraft," said Shanika Sims, chief of the Air Vehicle Branch.

Boeing, partnered with Saab, supports the T-7A program under a $9.2B contract with USAF.

A team from Dyess Air Force Base teamed up with civilian software developers to build a training facility that houses augmented and virtual reality technology capacities.

The C-130 Hercules virtual reality laboratory features an adjacent classroom, 16 training stations and a learning curriculum that will allow airmen to train and become eligible for mission-based tasks, the U.S. Air Force said Tuesday.

Senior Master Sgt. Ronald Cooney, maintenance operations flight superintendent at the 317th Maintenance Group, said the lab employs a direct feedback system that gauges trainees' performance based on their understanding of various concepts.

The 317th MXG is set to incorporate software tools that will help students study Roll Royce-built engines that propel C-130J Super Hercules units. The squadron also eyes training 250 airmen in the facility.

USAF noted it seeks to develop VR and AR training technologies to help aviators and aircraft maintenance personnel.

Brig. Gen. Robert Collins, the U.S. Army’s program executive officer (PEO) for Command, Control and Communications – Tactical (C3T), has said the service branch’s tactical space intelligence program is a “significant focus area” in its modernization goals.

Collins told C4ISRnet in an interview published Tuesday that the Tactical Intelligence Targeting Access Node (TITAN) initiative is aimed at establishing a scalable and integrated ground station to support multi-domain operations across the battlefield. 

He said he envisions the TITAN system to leverage terrestrial sensors, artificial intelligence and machine learning to generate actionable data and support a multilayered approach to space defense.

According to Collins, the Army has been making progress in related efforts such as the Terrestrial Layer System for missile defense and is looking to continue training activities for the TITAN infrastructure. Speaking on the Army’s acquisition reforms, Collins said that concepts such as other transaction authorities helped the service rapidly scale technologies and apply engineering changes.

"I think there’s a lot of flexibility and we’re starting to do our critical thinking to decide how we approach each acquisition, because each acquisition and capability is unique," he said.

The PEO’s comments come after Derek Tournear, director of the Space Development Agency (SDA), said the Army is the agency’s biggest partner in efforts to establish a multilayered space defense layer.