The U.S. Marine Corps is planning to build robotic systems that would scout sea floors for possible mine threats and other man-made traps. The service branch’s Crawling Remotely Operated Amphibious Breacher or CRAB would clear amphibious areas to provide a safe landing spot for troops, USMC said Thursday.

These unmanned robots would deploy from a littoral craft and neutralize obstacle threats both explosive and nonexplosive. In theory, the CRAB system will breach through man-made obstacles in the surf zone,” said Capt. Anthony Molnar, MK154 and MK155 project officer at Marine Corps Systems Command.

The command awaits the Office of Naval Research’s approval to rapidly prototype CRAB with fiscal 2020 funds over a two-year period. Molnar said MCSC would collaborate with the service branch’s Combat Development Command to develop CRAB.

“The CRAB will support combat engineers and explosive ordnance disposal Marines by providing a remote or autonomous explosive and nonexplosive obstacle reduction capability within the very shallow water, surf zone and the beach,” said Michael Poe, who leads MCSC’s Mobility and Counter Mobility program.

The Department of Energy will host the fourth iteration of an annual contest that would allow cybersecurity college students to access national laboratories. The CyberForce Competition will take place Nov. 15 to 16 across 10 national laboratories within the country, Argonne National Laboratory said Friday.

The competition aims to bolster the U.S. cybersecurity workforce by extending skill-building opportunities.

Teams of students will work to protect a simulated infrastructure from an opposing group of cybersecurity professionals. The student teams will aim to secure systems while still providing services for a group representing customers. A total of 105 student teams will participate in this year’s students.

​“The idea behind the competition is to build a strong workforce to defend this infrastructure from cyberattacks,” said Amanda Joyce, the competition’s director and cybersecurity analysis group lead at Argonne National Laboratory.

Multiple DOE offices, including the National Nuclear Security Administration, are co-funding CyberForce.

A NASA-operated space observatory has passed the preliminary design review phase, marking a major milestone for the spacecraft’s development, Space News reported Monday.

Michael New, deputy associate administrator for science at NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, said the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope passed the PDR phase with successful results.

Work to convert WFIRST’s primary mirror also exceeded performance expectations, New told the National Academies’ Space Studies Board during a meeting last Wednesday.

The space agency announced the telescope’s PDR completion in a tweet posted Nov. 1. WFIRST passed the PDR despite a lack of funds, with Congress allotting more budget for the James Webb Space Telescope.

NASA plans to launch WFIRST within the 2020s.

NASA, along with teams from Boeing and Aerojet Rocketdyne, completed integration of RS-25 engines with the core stage of the agency’s Space Launch System ahead of the Artemis I mission to the moon.

The agency said Saturday that it connected all four engines with the SLS core stage at the Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans. Boeing serves as the prime contractor for the core stage, while Aerojet Rocketdyne is the lead contractor for the RS-25 engines.

The teams connected the first RS-25 engine to the rocket’s core stage in May and are slated to begin integration activities for propulsion and electrical systems. A functional test of avionics, computers and electrical systems will then commence ahead of the rocket’s expected completion by the year’s end.

The Securities and Exchange Commission’s  Office of Inspector General released a report stating that the agency “did not fully implement its cloud strategy” and failed to execute an enterprise information technology approach to cloud migration.

According to the report, SEC lacked progress in its 2017 cloud strategy and launched only two pilot programs slated for implementation across an enterprise network. The IG also found that SEC’s contracts didn’t include security requirements and that there were incomplete or missing security assessment reports as well as Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program baseline controls.

“The conditions we observed occurred because the Office of IT  had not developed policies and procedures specific to cloud system security, or adequate processes to ensure compliance with FedRAMP baseline controls and enhancements for which the agency is responsible,” the report noted.

“As a result, the SEC has not yet fully realized the potential performance and economic benefits attributed to cloud computing services.”

Roberto Guerrero, deputy assistant secretary of the Air Force for operational energy, has said that the service must put focus on addressing fuel challenges and invest in technologies that optimize fuel demand.

In a Defense News piece published Monday, Guerrero wrote that the Air Force, which is largely dependent on fuel, must keep up with adversaries’ developments in fuel logistics and address risks that come with transporting fuel.

According to Guerrero, the Air Force must integrate operational and maintenance data to help inform decisions regarding fuel consumption. The service should also invest in drag-reduction technologies, energy-efficient engines and predictive maintenance capabilities to improve fuel optimization and aerial refueling operations.

In addition, Guerrero recommended the use of modeling and simulation to help airmen better understand challenges in energy and fuel logistics.

“When we use our assets more efficiently in peacetime, we build a more energy-aware culture that will better prepare our airmen for tomorrow’s fight, if and when it happens,” he said. “Smarter use of fuel means more funds available to invest in our airmen and weapon systems; and when we employ our assets optimally, we reduce stress on airframes and crews.”

Raytheon announced on Tuesday that the company is collaborating with Red Hat to develop a new, security-focused software development solution, known as DevSecOps, for enterprise environments.

Raytheon’s integrated suite of DevOps software development tools will be combined with Red Hat OpenShift for enhanced protection of the software application development process. 

“The need for rapid delivery of secure capability is paramount to our national security,” John DeSimone, vice president of Cybersecurity and Special Missions at Raytheon Intelligence, Information and Services. “We worked with Red Hat to develop an innovative new offering that combines our efficient approach to DevSecOps with a focus on security, enhanced by Red Hat’s container platform.”

The Raytheon DevSecOps solution offers security automation and the option of integrating solutions and customizing resources based on mission requirements, contributing to reduction in cost and timeline.

Red Hat OpenShift is a security-focused enterprise container platform with full-stack automated operations to manage hybrid cloud and multicloud deployments. Red Hat OpenShift is built on the backbone of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, the first operating system to achieve Common Criteria certification with Linux Container Framework Support.

“Our work with Raytheon further exemplifies Red Hat’s collaborative approach to accelerating innovation and delivery of mission with our system integrator partners,” said Paul Smith, senior vice president and general manager of Red Hat’s public sector and 2019 Wash100 Award winner. “Red Hat OpenShift’s enhanced security capabilities can enable Raytheon to deliver a faster, more efficient DevSecOps approach with security at its core.”

About Raytheon

Raytheon Company, with 2018 sales of $27 billion and 67,000 employees, is a technology and innovation leader specializing in defense, civil government and cybersecurity solutions. With a history of innovation spanning 97 years, Raytheon provides state-of-the-art electronics, mission systems integration, C5I products and services, sensing, effects and mission support for customers in more than 80 countries.

The U.S. military has launched efforts to modernize its explosive ordnance disposal technologies and one of the service branches has made progress developing robotic systems in the past year, National Defense reported Friday.

Louis Analure, product manager for unmanned ground vehicles at the project manager office for force protection, said the U.S. Army is working on three open architecture-based systems: the man transportable robotic system increment 2, common robotic system-heavy and the common robotic system-individual.

FLIR Systems works on the MTRS increment 2 project, while QinetiQ North America develops CRS(I). The CRS(H) program is still in the solicitation phase and is expected to be deployed in fiscal year 2020.

Analure said the Army plans to field MTRS increment 2 and CRS(I) in the second quarter of FY 2020.

Maj. James Alfaro, EOD capability development chief at the Army’s capability development integration directorate, said the EOD system modernization is part of the service’s operating concept for 2028 multidomain operations, which he said focuses on compete, penetrate, disintegrate, exploit and recompete phases of warfare.

“The expectation here is that our adversaries are going to multiple layers of standoff [weapons] in all domains to separate U.S. forces and our allies in time, space and distance in order to defeat us,” he said. “To counter that, EOD formations need to be resilient, mobile and unpredictable in a manner that enables the supported formations to engage adversaries from a position of advantage.”

Alfaro said the service also plans to provide EOD warfighters with unmanned aerial vehicles to support their payload delivery and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance operations.