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NASA to Test FOSS Sensor System Performance During Hypersonic Flight
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NASA is set to test its Fiber Optic Sensing System

NASA is preparing to demonstrate its Fiber Optic Sensing System, or FOSS, and evaluate its performance at hypersonic speeds.

The agency said Wednesday the FOSS will be installed onto two research rockets, reaching a speed greater than Mach 5. The system’s first flights, to be conducted in summer 2025 in collaboration with the U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School in Edwards, California and the 586th Flight Test Squadron, will be used to assess its capability to measure strain and temperature on high-speed vehicles.

What Is Fiber Optic Sensing System?

FOSS is a system that utilizes a hair-thin fiber to gather strain and temperature data along its length. This advanced fiber significantly reduces the weight and space that came with other wire harnesses and sensors.

Testing NASA’s FOSS

Aside from the planned test flights, the new NASA system underwent rigorous testing in its early stages. On March 26, FOSS was subjected to vibration tests at the Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, which verified its ability to operate during a rocket launch.

Advancing Hypersonic Technology

Under the Advanced Air Vehicles Program, NASA focuses on advancing hypersonics and intends to leverage FOSS to gather crucial data on vehicle strain and temperature during flight. This will give engineers critical information on the rocket or aircraft’s condition.

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Army Selects Brandon Pugh as Principal Cyber Adviser
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Brandon Pugh is the Army's new principal cyber adviser.

The U.S. Army has appointed Brandon Pugh as principal cyber adviser. Pugh confirmed his new role in a LinkedIn post Monday. 

“I am honored and excited to start as the Principal Cyber Advisor for the Department of the Army,” he wrote. “would like to thank both President Trump and Secretary Driscoll for giving me the opportunity to serve our great country, especially in an area that I am passionate about and there is much to do!”

He succeeds Michael Sulmeyer, who stepped down from the role in 2024 to become the first cyber policy chief at the Department of Defense. 

Who Is Brandon Pugh?

Pugh serves as a national security law professor at the Judge Advocate General’s Legal Center & School and a non-resident fellow at the Army Cyber Institute.

He also led the development of public policy strategy for cybersecurity and emerging threats teams at R Street Institute, a Washington-based think tank. 

His career includes positions at American Consulting and Training, Journal of Law & Cyber Warfare, New Jersey School Boards Association and the FBI.

Army Principal Cyber Adviser Responsibilities

In his new role, the cyber and national security expert will work closely with the secretary of the Army and the Army chief of staff on matters related to the cyber domain. He will also be in charge of reviewing the service’s cyber budget, acquiring cyber tools and capabilities, improving the culture of cyber warfighting, and implementing the Department of Defense Cyber Strategy.

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USPTO Advances Generative AI Adoption
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The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office is advancing the use of generative AI technologies

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office is advancing the use of generative artificial intelligence tools to streamline business operations and enable employees to focus more on high-impact work, Nextgov/FCW reported Tuesday.

“The biggest lesson we learned [when introducing AI] was that all AI requires knowing your data, knowing data structure, data elements, data flow and, most importantly, data security,” Jamie Holcombe, chief information officer at USPTO, said Tuesday at an agency-hosted discussion.

“We realize that we are now in an era of intelligent computing where we succeed only by combining data, AI and infrastructure security for results and measurable outcomes,” Holcombe added.

Scout Chatbot Assistant

Some of the AI tools that USPTO uses are the Patents End-to-End search tool and Scout.

Scout is short for searching, consolidating, outlining and understanding. It is a chatbot assistant built from a large language model designed to help detect improper filings, support code development and advance cybersecurity threat detection efforts.

Debbie Stephens, deputy CIO at USPT, said the Scout platform supports over 200 users as of June.

“We believe our homegrown GenAI web application, Scout, has already proven its capabilities and look forward to a beta version in late summer,” Stephens noted.

RFI on AI Capabilities

In early June, USPTO started soliciting industry information on AI capabilities to enhance the patent and trademark examination processes.

According to the RFI, the agency is seeking contractors with new AI tools or IT capabilities that could improve its efficiency in granting patents, registering trademarks and advancing intellectual property policies.

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Col. Nathan Stuckey Appointed Director of AFWERX
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AFWERX has named a new director: Col. Nathan Stuckey.

Col. Nathan Stuckey was officially appointed director of AFWERX during a change of leadership ceremony held on June 17 at the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio.

The Air Force Research Laboratory said Tuesday that Stuckey will also serve as the chief commercialization officer for the Department of the Air Force. In his new role, Stuckey will spearhead AFWERX’s initiatives to drive rapid development and meet critical national defense needs. He succeeds Col. Elliott Leigh, who has held the dual role since December 2022.

Col. Stuckey’s Career Highlights

Prior to his appointment, Stuckey served as the military deputy director for the Rapid Sustainment Office, where he oversaw the rapid fielding of sustainment capabilities by utilizing advanced technologies to enhance mission readiness and minimize lifecycle costs.

Stuckey was also the deputy chief of the C-5M Super Galaxy Division, materiel leader of the B-1 Systems Engineering Branch and project manager of both the Protected Tactical Enterprise Service and Future Systems of the White House Communications Agency. The new director also held leadership roles with the 46th Test Squadron and the Directed Energy Directorate.

AFRL commander Brig. Gen. Jason Bartolomei presided over the event and said, “We’re already in a serious science and technology competition with some pretty competitive people on the world market. Our job is to win that fight — and we can’t do it without working together with the innovation ecosystem and without AFWERX doing what it does best.”

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GSA Seeks Industry Input on OASIS+ Phase II Domains
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GSA is soliciting industry input to help inform the development of domain offerings under the OASIS+ contract's Phase II

The General Services Administration has issued a request for information on industry capabilities that could meet the requirements of the second phase of the One Acquisition Solution for Integrated Services Plus, or OASIS+, contract program.

According to a notice published Tuesday, responses to the RFI through the Qualtrics survey platform are due July 8.

GSA said it will use the RFI survey responses to inform the development of new domain offerings for the contract program’s expanded scope.

5 New Domains in OASIS+ Phase II

GSA is soliciting feedback from industry service providers to help develop evaluation criteria and refine technical capabilities for five new domains in the OASIS+ contract vehicle’s Phase II.

The five domains are financial services; human capital; social services; marketing and public relations; and business administration.

The financial services functional area, for instance, includes requirements designed to support financial objectives, such as accounting, financial advising, budgeting, loan servicing, asset management support and complementary financial services. Sub-areas include audit services, cost estimating and analysis, financial data analytics and reporting, grant management, and credit and debt management services.

According to the agency, the RFI builds on the award of eight domains under the contract’s initial phase: management and advisory; technical and engineering; intelligence services; logistics; research and development; facilities; environmental; facilities; and enterprise solutions.

What Is the OASIS+ Contract Program?

OASIS+ is a suite of six multiple-award, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contracts with a five-year base period and a five-year option term. The program is designed to help federal agencies meet their procurement requirements for services-based solutions.

The program seeks to meet agencies’ non-IT service requirements, promote competition among service contractors and eliminate barriers to entry to maximize small business participation.

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DARPA to Demonstrate UAS VTOL Capabilities Soon
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DARPA's Early VTOL Aircraft Demonstration program aims to propel drone development and deployment to warfighters.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is preparing to demonstrate the vertical takeoff and landing capability of five unmanned aerial systems weighing less than 330 pounds in the coming days.

Known as EVADE — short for Early VTOL Aircraft Demonstration — the program involves five companies, namely AeroVironment, Griffon Aerospace, Karem Aircraft, Method Aeronautics and Sikorsky, to showcase the rapid deployment of advanced UAS capabilities to the warfighter, DARPA said Tuesday.

“With EVADE, our focus is on speed of development, not on first-flight perfection,” explained Phillip Smith, DARPA program manager and U.S. Marine Corps Reserve officer. “The faster we can get these aircraft airborne, the quicker we can identify issues and deliver these technologies to our warfighters.”

EVADE UAS Features

The participating companies will demonstrate that their aircraft can be optimized for different strengths, including VTOL control, airspeed, storage capacity, cruise altitude, time on station, powertrain configurations and control methodologies. While the UAS platforms vary in their capabilities, they are all equipped with Sikorsky’s MATRIX flight autonomy software and are designed to carry a 60-pound payload and maintain an endurance of 12 hours with a range of 100 nautical miles.

UAS Integration Into Military Operations

EVADE, part of the second phase of DARPA’s Advanced Aircraft Infrastructure-Less Launch and Recovery initiative, will also demonstrate the significant role of a 330-pound UAS in military operations.

“This is about democratizing air power,” Smith said. “By equipping smaller units—like Army, Marine Corps, and special operations teams—with these drones, we’re eliminating the need for traditional ground control stations and enabling rapid deployment in even the most austere environments.”

Following successful flight tests, DARPA intends to transition the aircraft to military services by the end of 2025.

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NIST Issues New White Paper on Securing 5G Networks
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The 5G Network Security Design Principles white paper by NIST's cyber center aims to strengthen privacy on 5G networks.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology has published a new white paper on securing 5G networks from cyberthreats. 

Developed by the NIST National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence, or NCCoE, the 5G Network Security Design Principles white paper provides network infrastructure security design principles for commercial and private 5G network operators. 

The 12-page document is part of the Applying 5G Cybersecurity and Privacy Capabilities white paper series, which provides resources for commercial mobile network operators, private 5G network operators and organizations using 5G-enabled technologies.

How to Bolster Cybersecurity & Privacy in a 5G Network

The white paper addresses the challenges that data centers and cloud environments, which typically use the same physical connections and the same network devices to process traffic. According to the document, because there is no way to physically separate 5G traffic from other types of traffic and segregate types of 5G traffic from one another, organizations must apply methods. Doing so could reduce the risk of cyberattacks from spreading across network segments and ease the integration of cybersecurity tools and techniques for each traffic. 

The different types of 5G network traffic are data plane, signaling, and operation and maintenance.

NIST’s secure network design principles guide readers on how to ensure the logical separation of 5G traffic. NCCoE even provides a look into how its underlying network infrastructure works to segregate data plane, signaling and O&M traffic. 

The agency said its principles are tested, but the public are welcome to submit their comment about the white paper until July 17.

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Johns Hopkins APL, NAVSEA Partner to Advance Additive Manufacturing Adoption
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A new collab between Johns Hopkins APL and NAVSEA furthers the adoption of additive manufacturing for military applications.

The Naval Sea Systems Command and Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory have collaborated to facilitate the adoption of additive manufacturing, or AM, for military applications.

Johns Hopkins APL said Tuesday it will team up with NAVSEA researchers to prove that AM can be utilized for advanced defense manufacturing.

Johns Hopkins APL, NAVSEA Partner to Advance Additive Manufacturing Adoption

Register to join the Potomac Officers Club’s 2025 Navy Summit, where naval and maritime leaders will discuss the latest innovations and initiatives, such as additive manufacturing.

Proving the Potential of Additive Manufacturing

The strategic partnership intends to determine the potential of AM for building military hardware through extensive research and testing, along with active engagement with NAVSEA’s technical community. The participating researchers will focus on laser powder bed fusion, a high-precision metal 3D printing process.

The method involves precise control over technology, which a specific APL study used to disprove porosity issues with metal additive manufacturing. The study showed careful control over process parameters addressed porosity and quality issues. Another study determined that material consistency can be achieved across the industry, while a third validated the durability of parts made through additive manufacturing.

NAVSEA aims to develop standardized processes and prioritize quality control, including raw material properties and manufacturing conditions, to address concerns on product uniformity. It intends to ensure that all components made by different vendors are of the same quality.

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Air Force Completes 1st Decision Advantage Sprint for Human-Machine Teaming Experiment
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The first Decision Advantage Sprint for Human-Machine Teaming by USAF included the development of C2 capability prototypes

The Department of the Air Force concluded the first experiment under the Decision Advantage Sprint for Human-Machine Teaming, or DASH, initiative, providing warfighters and software developers with an opportunity to develop prototypes of command and control capabilities and microservices designed to speed up decision-making in battle management scenarios.

The Air Force’s Advanced Battle Management Cross-Functional Team, or ABMS CFT, led the two-week experiment in partnership with the Air Force Research Laboratory, the 711th Human Performance Wing, Integrated Capabilities Command and the 805th Combat Training Squadron, also known as Shadow Operations Center-Nellis, or ShOC-N. 

The experiment was held at the Howard Hughes Operations Center, or H2O, in Las Vegas.

“The DASH experiment showed how machine support can dramatically reduce decision time and improve decision quality for air battle managers working in complex operational environments,” said Col. Christopher Cannon, ABMS CFT lead. “Battle management teams were exercising command and control decision advantage.”

Perceived Actionable Entity Function

The experiment focused on Perceived Actionable Entity, or PAE, which is the critical subfunction of the Transformational Model-Battle Management, or TM-BM.

The PAE function seeks to determine which actions are permissible, possible and desirable against an operational entity.

A ShOC-N coding team and four industry teams partnered with Total Force and Royal Canadian Air Force air battle managers to develop and test code designed to help soldiers make faster decisions on the battlefield.

“Our C2 systems are still putting the burden of complex decision-making entirely on the human; this sprint starts to change that by giving our Airmen digital teammates that help them perceive, decide and act faster,” said Lt. Col. Shawn Finney, 805th CTS/ShOC-N commander at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada. “The ShOC’s H2O center serves as an unclassified software development and vendor engagement hub allowing the DASH teams to rapidly code.”

Conducting the DASH Experiment in 2 Phases

The Air Force performed the DASH experiment in two phases to measure the impact of human-machine teaming.

In the initial phase, battle managers used only their existing tools and training to perform a combat scenario, establishing a performance baseline.

Under the second phase, they executed a similar scenario using prototype decision-support tools built during the sprint.

“The DASH experiment isn’t just a coding sprint—it’s a learning environment. Industry teams bring diverse perspectives and technical approaches that push us to think differently about C2. That collaboration accelerates our ability to deliver functional software and refine requirements for the entire enterprise,” said Lt. Col. Wesley Schultz, 805th CTS/ShOC-N director of operations.

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FAR Council Releases Model Deviation Text for Sections Related to ICT Procurement, Emergency Acquisitions
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The Revolutionary FAR Overhaul initiative includes an update on rules for the acquisition of IT and communication technology.

The Federal Acquisition Regulatory Council has issued new model deviation text as part of the Revolutionary FAR Overhaul, or RFO, initiative in compliance with an executive order and an Office of Management and Budget memorandum.

In mid-April, President Donald Trump signed an executive order directing his administration to amend the FAR to streamline the federal procurement process and remove barriers to doing business with the government.

The FAR Council said Friday the overhauled FAR parts include sections related to emergency acquisitions, contract modifications and acquisition of information and communication technology, or ICT.

The council will accept feedback on the updated FAR parts through July 28.

ICT Acquisition

FAR Part 39 concerning ICT procurement has been streamlined to highlight strategies that promote faster acquisition and secure deployment of new or emerging technology.

Under the updated section, agencies should continue to use modular contracting for incremental and successive contracts when acquiring IT. In addition to IT, Part 39 covers Internet of Things devices and operational technology.

The prohibition on describing minimum experience or educational requirements is now discretionary. Information regarding risk management has been streamlined.

Part 39 still requires accessibility standards, including Section 508 compliance, to ensure federal employees and members of the public with disabilities have comparable access and use of information and data.

Contract Modifications

The council has streamlined FAR Part 43 concerning contract modifications to provide essential standards for the workforce to mitigate risk to the government and the public.

The updated section retained non-statutory definitions and procedures for contract modifications to maintain uniformity across the government and clarified instructions for documenting change orders.

Emergency Acquisitions

The council has updated FAR Part 18 to streamline the acquisition flexibilities for emergency acquisitions.

The overhauled section retained increased thresholds for contingency operations; defense or recovery from certain events to include cyber, nuclear, biological, chemical or radiological attacks; international disaster assistance; emergency or major disaster response; and humanitarian or peacekeeping operations.

The document also retained statutory requirements related to emergency and major disaster declarations; humanitarian or peacekeeping operations; and award preference for local organizations. It also retained the waiver of provisions for ocean transportation by U.S. flag vessels.

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