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Navy Engages With Indiana University to Establish New Research Facility
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Navy Engages With Indiana University to Establish New Research Facility

Navy Engages With Indiana University to Establish New Research Facility

Naval Surface Warfare Center Crane is helping Indiana University establish a new laboratory facility that would support science and technology projects.

The new Multidisciplinary Engineering and Sciences Hall or MESH would serve as an activity venue for the university’s Intelligent Systems Engineering program, Naval Sea Systems Command said Wednesday.

MESH activities would take place in a 207K-square-foot building that would offer laboratory space for collaborative studies between Crane and IU researchers.

The effort would pursue research on various national security technologies including microelectronics and edge computing.

MESH’s establishment aims to help NSWC partners access updated research, create jobs for IU graduates, further develop the university’s engineering programs and attract investors.

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Southwest Research Institute to Design, Build Magnetometer for NOAA Space Mission
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Southwest Research Institute to Design, Build Magnetometer for NOAA Space Mission

Southwest Research Institute to Design, Build Magnetometer for NOAA Space Mission

Texas-based Southwest Research Institute has received a six-year-and-three-month, $12.8M contract from NASA to design and build a magnetometer that will support the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Space Weather Follow-On Lagrange 1 mission.

The instrument will feature two three-axis magnetometers and related electronic components that will work to gauge interplanetary magnetic fields, NASA said Wednesday.

Contract work will cover the fabrication, integration, test, analysis, assessment and calibration of the tool. SwRI will also maintain and sustain the instrument’s ground support equipment and support the mission operation center.

The SWFO-L1 satellite will gather upstream solar wind data and coronal imagery to assist NOAA in forecasting and monitoring space weather activities.

The satellite will take off in 2024 through NASA’s Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe.

NASA will serve as the flight system acquisition agent for the project, while NOAA will oversee the entire initiative.

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Federal Gov’t Issues Advisory on North Korean Cyber Threats
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Federal Gov’t Issues Advisory on North Korean Cyber Threats

Federal Gov't Issues Advisory on North Korean Cyber Threats

The FBI and the departments of State, Homeland Security and the Treasury have issued a guidance on malicious North Korean cyber activities and courses of action that organizations should take to address such threats.

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency said Wednesday that the U.S. government also plans to award up to $5M to informants of illicit North Korean cyberspace operations targeting U.S. financial institutions, critical infrastructure and government networks.

North Korea has also “increasingly relied on illicit activities” such as cybercrime to gain revenue for its ballistic missile and weapons of mass destruction programs, according to the advisory.

“The [Democratic People’s Republic of Korea] has the capability to conduct disruptive or destructive cyber activities affecting U.S. critical infrastructure,” the guidance states. “It is vital for the international community, network defenders, and the public to stay vigilant and to work together to mitigate the cyber threat posed by North Korea.”

FBI, DHS and the State and Treasury departments recommend organizations to raise awareness of North Korean cyber threats, share relevant information, implement cybersecurity best practices, notify law enforcement in the event of an attack and strengthen compliance with anti-money laundering and terrorism regulations.

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VA Engages in Partnership to Help Veterans Stay Socially Connected; Robert Wilkie Quoted
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Robert Wilkie
Robert Wilkie

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has partnered with Facebook and the American Red Cross to support the mental health of veterans via social connection.

The partnership will provide over 7,400 video call devices that veterans, their families and caregivers may use to stay socially connected at home, VA said Wednesday. The American Red Cross’ Military Veteran Caregiver Network will facilitate the delivery of these devices.

“We believe this technology will help veterans who might otherwise be unreachable,” said Robert Wilkie, secretary of veterans affairs and 2019 Wash100 Award.

The program office for the President’s Roadmap to Empower Veterans and End a National Tragedy of Suicide or PREVENTS fostered the partnership. The effort will deliver the devices to participants of REACH-VET and other VA care services programs.

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James Geurts Talks Navy Efforts to Accelerate R&D, Contract Awards
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James Geurts Talks Navy Efforts to Accelerate R&D, Contract Awards
James Geurts
James Geurts

James Geurts, assistant secretary of the U.S. Navy for research, development and acquisition and 2020 Wash100 Award winner, said the service is revising its business procedures amid the current health crisis, National Defense Magazine reported Wednesday.

Geurts told attendees at the virtual Sea-Air-Space conference that the Navy is “understanding how to collaborate better” while working to expedite research and development activities through partnerships with academic entities.

He added that the Navy is implementing a distributed research framework to allow concurrent operations between multiple organizations. The service is additionally deploying a three-phase approach to prevent program delays and accelerate contract awards, said Geurts.

“What we can’t afford to do is take a year or two off of research and development, lose those key performers because they are key to our readiness five and 10 years from now,” he noted. “We’re looking to be as aggressive with them, if not more so, than we are with our more traditional defense partners.”

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NATO Creates Tool to Address Signal Degradation
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NATO Creates Tool to Address Signal Degradation

NATO Creates Tool to Address Signal Degradation

The NATO Communications and Information Agency’s new software works to facilitate assessments of areas prone to degradation of signals from global navigation satellite systems.

The Radar Electromagnetic and Communication Coverage Tool or REACT allows users to estimate areas where interfering signals may affect the performance of GPS and other GNSS technologies that provide positioning, navigation and timing data, NCIA said Monday.

“NATO must take appropriate measures to ensure Allied forces can operate in a degraded or denied environment,” said Jean-Philippe Saulay, a NATO navigation and identification officer, who also noted that enemies have the means to deter GPS signals.

NATO member nations may obtain REACT for free as the tool continues to undergo testing.

REACT users must input a jammer’s technical and location information into the software that then maps areas where GNSS receivers may have trouble accepting signals due to interference.

The Trident Jupiter 2019 exercise demonstrated the use of REACT and gathered operator feedback.

NATO will further look into the software’s operation in classified networks under REACT’s next developmental phase.

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NASA’s Lori Glaze: Mars 2020 Rover Mission on Schedule for Summer Launch
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NASA’s Lori Glaze: Mars 2020 Rover Mission on Schedule for Summer Launch

NASA's Lori Glaze: Mars 2020 Rover Mission on Schedule for Summer Launch

Lori Glaze, director of the planetary science division at NASA, said the agency is trying to avoid delays in a Mars rover exploration mission slated to launch in July or August, SpaceNews reported Wednesday.

Glaze told attendees at a virtual group meeting that NASA is working to balance health and safety requirements with the need to keep activities on schedule. NASA intends to launch the rover dubbed “Perseverance” between July 17 and Aug. 15 to avoid waiting for the next launch window in over two years.

NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida received the rover earlier this year ahead of its launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in February 2021.

According to Glaze, Mars 2020 is a top priority for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate along with the James Webb Space Telescope program which is currently facing delays.

Jim Bridenstine, administrator of NASA and former Wash100 Award recipient, previously cited Mars 2020 and the Crew Dragon mission to the International Space Station as key programs for the agency in the coming months.

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FDA Accepts Regeneron Pharmaceuticals’ Biologics License Application for REGN-EB3 to Treat Quickly-Spreading Pathogens; Dr. George Yancopoulos Quoted
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FDA Accepts Regeneron Pharmaceuticals’ Biologics License Application for REGN-EB3 to Treat Quickly-Spreading Pathogens; Dr. George Yancopoulos Quoted

FDA Accepts Regeneron Pharmaceuticals’ Biologics License Application for REGN-EB3 to Treat Quickly-Spreading Pathogens; Dr. George Yancopoulos Quoted

Regeneron Pharmaceuticals has announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has accepted for Priority Review a new Biologics License Application (BLA) for REGN-EB3, an investigational triple antibody treatment for Ebola virus infection, the company announced on Thursday.

“Developed using Regeneron’s proprietary VelociSuite rapid response technologies, REGN-EB3 was shown to save lives in the PALM trial, which evaluated multiple therapies against the current standard of care,” said George Yancopoulos, M.D., Ph.D., Co-Founder, President and Chief Scientific Officer of Regeneron.

The REGN-EB3 BLA is supported by data from the randomized, controlled PALM clinical trial conducted in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Regeneron stopped the trial in Aug. 2019 once preliminary results showed that REGN-EB3 crossed the pre-specified superiority threshold for preventing death compared to the control arm, ZMapp.

REGN-EB3 demonstrated greater efficacy compared to ZMapp across multiple measures, including reduced mortality and fewer days until the Ebola virus was no longer detected in the bloodstream.

Regeneron’s VelociSuite technologies will enable the efficient creation and selection of potent fully-human antibodies against a specific biological target, which will be critical to address both new and quickly-spreading pathogens such as Ebola and COVID-19.

These technologies facilitate the rapid cloning and generation of optimized fully-human antibodies from both VelocImmune mice and convalescing human volunteers and allow for the rapid escalation of fully-human antibodies into manufacturing-quality cell line production and large-scale bioreactor manufacturing.

Once strong therapeutic antibody candidates are identified, the company’s in-house preclinical, clinical and commercial-scale manufacturing capabilities allow for fast scale-up and flexibility to adapt to current needs. REGN-EB3 has received Orphan Drug and Breakthrough Therapy designation from the FDA.

The technologies have been developed under an ongoing collaboration and with funding provided by the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), part of the office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Service.

“Regeneron is now applying this same approach to develop an antibody medicine that can potentially prevent and treat COVID-19, with initial clinical trials expected to begin in June,” Yancopoulos added.

About Regeneron 

Regeneron (NASDAQ: REGN) is a leading biotechnology company that invents life-transforming medicines for people with serious diseases. Founded and led for over 30 years by physician-scientists, our unique ability to repeatedly and consistently translate science into medicine has led to seven FDA-approved treatments and numerous product candidates in development, all of which were homegrown in our laboratories. Our medicines and pipeline are designed to help patients with eye diseases, allergic and inflammatory diseases, cancer, cardiovascular and metabolic diseases, pain, infectious diseases and rare diseases.

Regeneron is accelerating and improving the traditional drug development process through our proprietary VelociSuitetechnologies, such as VelocImmune, which uses unique genetically-humanized mice to produce optimized fully-human antibodies and bispecific antibodies, and through ambitious research initiatives such as the Regeneron Genetics Center, which is conducting one of the largest genetics sequencing efforts in the world.

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1901 Group Enters $2.1M Agreement, Partnering with NTIS, to Develop NCFs; Paul Wilkinson Quoted
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1901 Group Enters $2.1M Agreement, Partnering with NTIS, to Develop NCFs; Paul Wilkinson Quoted

1901 Group Enters $2.1M Agreement, Partnering with NTIS, to Develop NCFs; Paul Wilkinson Quoted

1901 Group has secured a seven-month, $2.1 million agreement, under its joint venture partner agreement with the National Technical Information Service (NTIS) for data innovation support, to assist the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s (CISA) National Risk Management Center (NRMC), the company announced on Thursday.

“We are proud to continue our collaboration with NTIS in support of the DHS’s mission to remain resilient and protect citizens from homeland security threats,” said Paul Wilkinson, EVP Business Development at 1901 Group.

1901 Group will provide analytic research and innovation to further develop the National Critical Functions (NCFs) risk architecture framework. The project will be conducted in collaboration with NTIS. 1901 Group will deliver expertise and analysis to assist the NRMC in developing and documenting the analytic requirements to further define the threat landscape to the nation’s NCFs.

1901 Group provides comprehensive cybersecurity support using our FedRAMP Authorized Enterprise IT Operations Center and In³Sight security management platform to deliver best in class services that span on-premise, on the go, and in the cloud resulting in an improved cybersecurity posture.

The company’s cybersecurity division additionally provides identity, credential and access management, fully managed SOC, hybrid/co-managed SOC, traditional SOC, incident response, information security continuous monitoring (ISCM), vulnerability assessment, compliance and patch management.

“As data is becoming more crucial to agencies’ missions, we look forward to providing our expertise and emerging technologies to further protect specific activities that are crucial to our country,” added Wilkinson.

The agreement follows the appointment of Bob Beck as 1901 Group’s senior director of business development for the Department of Defense market in March 2019.

Beck is a well-known figure with over 30 years of experience in government business development, financial management, and implementing strategies within the public sector marketplace.

He joined 1901 Group after serving as vice president and general manager for IPsoft Government Solutions (IGS) building a portfolio of artificial intelligence (AI) and cognitive computing offerings including an AI ability to assist veterans in completing disability claim forms.

Beck served as the DoD Account Executive with CSRA (now General Dynamics Information Technology) doubling the company’s cybersecurity practice during the first year of implementation.

About 1901 Group, LLC

1901 Group is a leading provider of innovative IT services and solutions in the public and private sector. We improved service delivery by leveraging our FedRAMP authorized Enterprise IT Operations Center (EITOC) to provide 24×7 support of end-users, complex IT infrastructure environments, and mission-critical systems.

Our capabilities include cloud, cyber security, and enterprise-scale managed services to transition customers from traditional on-premise IT infrastructure and support models to hybrid cloud solutions that improve performance and reduce costs. We proudly support customers that span federal, state, and local governments, including law enforcement and criminal justice agencies and commercial markets. Customers benefit from our 24×7 Cloud Factory with FedRAMP authorization, ISO 9001 certification, and CMMI Maturity Level 3 appraisals.

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AAR Mobility Systems Secures $11.9M FFP Contract to Produce LMS for U.S. Army; Lee Krantz Quoted
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AAR Mobility Systems Secures $11.9M FFP Contract to Produce LMS for U.S. Army; Lee Krantz Quoted

AAR Mobility Systems Secures $11.9M FFP Contract to Produce LMS for U.S. Army; Lee Krantz Quoted

AAR’s Mobility Systems division has been awarded a five-year, $11.9 million sole-source firm-fixed-price (FFP) contract from the US Army to produce three variants of Lightweight Multipurpose Shelters (LMS), the company announced on Thursday. These shelters will be manufactured at AAR Mobility Systems in Cadillac, Michigan.

“AAR Mobility Systems is proud to continue providing this critical capability to support the warfighter. This sole-source firm-fixed-price (FFP) contract will ensure that the US Army will be provided the best equipment possible to meet the challenges of today and for years to come,” said Lee Krantz, senior vice president, AAR Mobility Systems.

Under the contract, AAR Mobility Systems will provide the US Army with a direct method for procuring three variants of LMS shelters for requirements to support multi-domain warfare operations. The products will be designed to support Command, Control, Computers, Communications, Cyber, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (C5ISR) and other operations while being vehicle-mounted.

The US Army contract adds to AAR’s history of supporting federal agencies. In Jan. 2020, the company was awarded a contract by the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) Troop Support in Philadelphia, US, for the supply of critical assets.

Under the $90 million indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity (IDIQ) contract, the company will be responsible for the manufacture of specialized shipping and storage containers.  Production of the containers will take place in Cadillac, Michigan.

Through this contract, the US Armed Forces and its allies can purchase quick deployment products from AAR directly.

“We take pride in providing these critical assets to support the warfighter… This contract will ensure that the US Armed Forces and its allies maintain their full spectrum dominance,” AAR Mobility Systems Business Development vice-president Jeffery Jackson said.

About AAR

AAR is a global aerospace and defense aftermarket solutions company that employs more than 6,000 people in over 20 countries. Headquartered in the Chicago area, AAR supports commercial and government customers through two operating segments: Aviation Services and Expeditionary Services. AAR’s Aviation Services include Parts Supply; OEM Solutions; Integrated Solutions; and Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) Services. AAR’s Expeditionary Services include Mobility Systems and Composite Manufacturing operations.

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