The U.S. Navy and Lockheed Martin plan to integrate the company’s 150-kilowatt laser system into the USS Little Rock littoral combat ship as part of the service’s risk reduction efforts, USNI News reported Monday.

LCS-9, which is potentially slated for deployment to the U.S. 4th Fleet, will be fitted with the high-energy laser ahead of plans to begin LCS lethality and survivability modification activities starting fiscal year 2022.

Joe DePietro, vice president and general manager of small combatants and ship systems at Lockheed, told USNI News that the two-phase modernization effort includes naval strike missile capabilities and surface electronic warfare technologies.

He noted that directed-energy systems and laser systems could be added to vessels that don’t need a large amount of space and weight.

The Navy previously selected amphibious transport dock ship USS Portland to assess the 150kw laser’s capacity as part of the Solid-State Laser – Technology Maturation program.

The U.S. Army plans to use its Global Agile Integrated Transport communications platform for the Defender 2020 military exercise in Europe, C4ISRnet reported Monday.

GAIT, which acts as a router for point-to-point communications across the world, will be deployed for the large-scale Mission Partner Environment that connects coalition forces as part of the exercise in spring.

Army officials said the tool may also be used for disaster response due to its capacity to connect with non-military domains. GAIT is additionally suitable for medical operations in the battlefield, they noted.

“The beauty of GAIT is it doesn’t really carry data that you can use; it’s a transport,” said Joe Vano, a tactical network project manager for the Army. “You can’t take anything out of there. Everything has to be encrypted.”

The National Institute of Standards and Technology asks the public to submit input on the modernization of a platform through which inventors report on their federally-funded products.

The agency said Monday it plans to update and simplify the Interagency Edison System or iEdison for improvements in functionality, information security and user experience. 

The National Institutes of Health has been managing iEdison since 1995 and intends to grant the platform's management to NIST upon modernization.

The platform allows federal grant recipients to electronically report on invention- and patent-related matters for work under 35 federal agencies. Recipients also use iEdison to submit extension requests and document work progress.

NIST now seeks to identify the platform's existing features that need to be retained, user challengers and areas that hold potential for improvement.

“A modern iEdison system is critically important to efficiency in research administration and reporting of inventions that ultimately create value for society and the economy,” said Walter Copan, undersecretary of commerce for standards and technology and NIST director.

Interested parties may submit input through Jan. 27. The agency will also host workshops and other events to inform the public on the updated iEdison's development.

NIST plans to deploy the modernized platform by early 2022.

Gordon Bitko, senior vice president for policy and public sector at the IT Industry Council, said there's an “arbitrary rush” for agencies to meet the National Defense Authorization Act's deadlines, Federal News Network reported Monday.

The NDAA requires the Department of Defense to “develop a consistent, comprehensive framework” for improving the security of the defense industrial base by February. The Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification effort, launched last year, must be presented to lawmakers by March 11.

According to Bitko, DoD might “create a duplicative infrastructure” if it doesn’t address issues such as CMMC’s scope, its applicability to the supply chain and the feasibility of conducting certifications for thousands of vendors every three to five years.

In addition the CMMC, the NDAA also requires the Pentagon to pilot two to five projects involving “alpha contracting teams” for complex acquisitions.

Matthew Cornelius, executive director of the Alliance for Digital Innovation, said the effort will bring out the best in industry, academic and government entities if done correctly.

“These initiatives should be broadly scoped so as to allow true collaboration and technical expertise to influence better buying decisions and not bias outcomes towards a single, established entity,” he noted.

The 5th Generation Aerial Target (5GAT) drone completed engine run testing on Jan. 10th with Sierra Technical Services (STS), the company announced on Tuesday. The Demonstrator First Flight is scheduled for later this year. 

“This is a major step forward to providing our warfighters an attritable, low-cost, high-performance, full-scale, 5th Generation Aerial Target that can be also be used by the Department of Defense (DoD) for other emerging projects," said Roger Hayes, president and CEO of STS.

The 5GAT drone is a high-performance, unmanned, fighter-size aircraft that will be utilized for Air-to-Air and Surface-To-Air weapons evaluation, pilot training and ground forces training when translated into production as the Next Generation Aerial Target (NGAT). The drone is intended to counter multifaceted potential threats in an aerial combat situation. 

STS was awarded a position on a contract from the Office of the Secretary of Defense, Director of Operational Test and Evaluation (OSD/DOT&E) to design, manufacture, assemble, integrate and ground/flight test the 5GAT Demonstrator as well as subject matter expertise during the design process. The contract was administered by the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers.

About Sierra Technical Services, Inc.

Sierra Technical Services, Inc. (STS) is a Woman-Owned Small Business registered as an "S" Corp in the state of California. STS is located at the Tehachapi Airport in Tehachapi, CA. STS is a design, manufacturing, assembly and testing company that specializes in unmanned aerial vehicles and aerospace low-cost composites design and fabrication. 

STS was founded in 2006 to provide innovative aerospace engineering and manufacturing capabilities that meet the "prototype to rapid introduction to the market" cycle and maintain low cost products and services that exceeds our growing government and industry client base demands.