The Senate has passed a bill that aims to address bot-generated scam calls, following the House’s earlier approval, Stateline reported Friday.

The Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence or TRACED Act would direct service providers to block these calls without mandating additional charges.

Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., said scammers cause businesses to pay large fines. State lawyers attribute a large fraction of complaints to these scam calls.

State-level laws have not been able to completely address this issue due to calls originating from outside the state, the report noted.

Congress will send the TRACED Act bill to President Donald Trump for signing.

A map has been updated to include new information on blackout zones or areas where compasses become untrustworthy due to magnetic forces, C4ISRNET reported Friday.

The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency worked with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the British Geological Survey to develop the World Magnetic Model, which offers navigational data to ships, military planes, GPS units, submarines and other Arctic travelers to help them address the difference between magnetic and Earth’s geographic poles.

“We’ve added something new that we call blackout zones, and these are areas around the north and south magnetic poles which we highlight as essentially ‘Do not trust your compass’ zones,” said Mike Paniccia, NGA’s program manager for the World Magnetic Model. “If you’re flying an airplane over the north pole, you need to know where you can trust your compass and where you can’t.”

The 2020 update to the map was launched Dec. 10 and Paniccia said NGA plans to purchase a new data collection platform in support of the model.

The U.S. Army equipped a platoon of 40 foot soldiers with unmanned ground vehicles and aerial drones to counter an infantry during a recent wargame, Breaking Defense reported Thursday.

“Their capabilities were awesome,” Army Capt. Philip Belanger, a Ranger Regiment and Stryker Brigade veteran, said of the drones and robots. “We reduced the risk to US forces to zero, basically, and still were able to accomplish the mission.”

The service also used artificial intelligence during the simulation. “The key technology was a platoon artificial intelligence cloud, the architecture that allowed our soldiers to be able to control robotic systems that were extending their reach within that battlespace,” said Ted Maciuba, a retired Army officer who’s now deputy director of robotic requirements at Fort Benning’s Capabilities Development and Integration Directorate.

The Army plans to develop prototypes of select technology platforms for a series of experiments in 2020. Belanger said the service will issue a request for proposals and accept offers by January.

The service will work Georgia Tech Research Institute to test and integrate the prototypes into a series of experiments in support of a “system of systems” field exercise by September.

The Department of Energy has introduced a new aircraft unit that will work to enable specialized radiation detection capabilities.

Built by Textron‘s Beechcraft subsidiary as an extended range variant of the King Air 350i system, the King Air 350ER is designed to perform baseline surveys and gauge ground and air contamination through the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Aerial Measuring System, DOE said Thursday.

The department noted the aircraft will augment AMS’s capacities in conducting accelerated wide-area assessments of nuclear activities.

“As part of its dual public safety and national security mission, AMS aircraft frequently support security preparations for high-profile events such as presidential inaugurations, the Super Bowl, Boston Marathon, and other major public events,” said Lisa Gordon-Hagerty, administrator at NNSA.

The U.S. Air Force has named the MH-139A security helicopter after a wild animal active in North America’s northern segment.

Air Force Global Strike Command dubbed the helicopter “Grey Wolf” at a ceremony in Duke Field, Fla., Minot Air Force Base said Thursday.

Grey Wolf is designed to protect intercontinental ballistic missile facilities in Colorado, Montana, North Dakota, Nebraska and Wyoming, replacing the legacy Huey rotary aircraft. The new helicopter also marks AFGSC’s first major procurement.

The namesake’s representation of the northern region recognizes the presence of the command’s ICBM bases in the area.

Boeing is working to deliver 84 Grey Wolf units under a $2.4B contract with USAF. The contract also provides for associated maintenance and complementary equipment.