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DHS Posts ID Application Tech Concept RFI
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DHS Posts ID Application Tech Concept RFI


DHS Posts ID Application Tech Concept RFI

The Department of Homeland Security has issued a request for information to seek sources of technologies that will implement digital receipt, transmission and authentication of applicant documents and information. A Federal Register notice posted Thursday says DHS looks to mitigate processing time, manage potential fraud risks and optimize security in ID application processes.

DHS is also seeking for concepts that can validate potential technologies and augment adoption rates in compliant identification processes. Interested vendors are required to answer a series of questions and are encouraged to post comments through the eRulemarking Portal.

Responses to the notice are due Dec. 9.

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Library of Congress Addresses GAO IT Recommendations
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Library of Congress Addresses GAO IT Recommendations


Library of Congress Addresses GAO IT Recommendations

Carla Hayden, the librarian of congress, said the Library of Congress has made progress to improve information technology management since 2015, Fedscoop reported Thursday.

The library, also known as the Congress’ research arm, has addressed almost 95 percent of the Government Accountability Office’s recommendations from a 2015 audit.

“We have stabilized our core IT structure, we have streamlined and strengthened our IT governance and we have centralized and professionalized our IT workforce,” Hayden said at a Senate hearing.

Bernard Barton, the library’s chief information officer, said the organization lacked vision and oversight, and not necessarily talent. Six recommendations remain in the library’s backlog and the organization plans to fully address the audit by the current fiscal year’s end.

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DHS to Visit Florida, Puerto Rico for SBIR Road Tour
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DHS to Visit Florida, Puerto Rico for SBIR Road Tour


DHS to Visit Florida, Puerto Rico for SBIR Road Tour

The Department of Homeland Security will launch a road tour for its Small Business Innovation Research in Puerto Rico and Florida. The tour will allow Florida- and Puerto Rico-based small businesses to seek opportunities under DHS’ SBIR program, the department said Thursday.

“We are continually seeking new opportunities to engage with innovators and the SBIR Road Tour provides DHS the chance to meet directly with innovative small businesses and discuss technology needs,” said William Bryan, acting undersecretary for science and technology at DHS.

The Small Business Administration sponsors the road tour as an effort to reach out to small businesses. The road tour will feature federal agency representatives who will discuss programs and sought research areas.

DHS will visit Miami and San Juan, Puerto Rico on Nov. 13 and 15, respectively, for the road tour.

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ARPA-E Announces Funding Program to Develop Lower-Cost Fusion Energy Concepts
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ARPA-E Announces Funding Program to Develop Lower-Cost Fusion Energy Concepts


ARPA-E Announces Funding Program to Develop Lower-Cost Fusion Energy Concepts

The Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy plans to award up to $30M for research projects designed to create lower-cost concepts for the development of deployable, commercially viable fusion energy.

Under a new program, dubbed Breakthroughs Enabling THermonuclear-fusion Energy, ARPA-E aims to establish controlled fusion energy by lowering the cost of more-mature fusion concepts and enhancing the application of existing fusion research and development capabilities, the Department of Energy said Thursday. 

DoE views controlled fusion as an ideal energy source due to its potential to generate abundant, clean and safe power, enabling a cost-effective, low-carbon economy. 

The BETHE initiative builds on the recent progress in the department’s first fusion program, called Accelerating Low-Cost Plasma Heating and Assembly, which demonstrated new methods of reaching fusion conditions. 

The program also seeks to foster partnerships between the government and industry in an effort to build a path to fusion commercialization. 

DLA Synchronizes Global Support Activities via New Center in Virginia
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DLA Synchronizes Global Support Activities via New Center in Virginia


DLA Synchronizes Global Support Activities via New Center in Virginia

The Defense Logistics Agency officially opened its new Agency Synchronization Operations Center on Wednesday at the McNamara Headquarters Complex in Fort Belvoir, Va., in an effort to better operationalize support to warfighters and agencies. 

DLA said Thursday the center has a team of experts that utilizes predictive analytic tools to create support plans that incorporate the agency’s operational and business support functions around the world.

The ASOC replaces the Joint Logistics Operations Center created in 2008 and serves as an extension of the DLA Readiness Dashboard, which offers a real-time view of the status of key military weapons systems. 

DLA Director Army Lt. Gen. Darrell Williams said the center coordinates the agency’s activities to deliver the appropriate combat logistics support for agency leaders and mission partners. 

The ASOC team will operate 24/7 to assess and determine the specific needs of partners and service members deployed worldwide. 

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Ravenswood Receives $555M IDIQ Contract to Support Army, National Guard Training Program, Dan Donoghue Quoted
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Ravenswood Receives $555M IDIQ Contract to Support Army, National Guard Training Program, Dan Donoghue Quoted


Ravenswood Receives $555M IDIQ Contract to Support Army, National Guard Training Program, Dan Donoghue Quoted

Army Contracting Command–Orlando has awarded Ravenswood Solutions a potential five-year, $555 million indefinite delivery/ indefinite quantity (IDIQ) contract to support the Army National Guard’s (ARNG) eXportable Combat Training Capability (XCTC) program, Ravenswood announced on Friday. Ravenswood Solutions will provide planning, operations, and sustainment for the XCTC program through October 31, 2024. 

“Ravenswood Solutions gives our all to provide best-in-class products and services to our troops,” said Dan Donoghue, President and CEO of Ravenswood Solutions. “We are honored to be chosen to continue to support this critically-important training to our nation’s Guardsmen.”

The mission of the XCTC program is to provide a highly realistic, fully instrumented, and intensive live training event for brigade combat teams, functional, and multi-functional brigades. The scope of the ARNG’s XCTC program involves training as many as three brigades simultaneously at multiple locations using a government-provided instrumentation system that tracks and records location and time-synchronized training events.

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Robert Wilkie: VA May Receive Higher Budget After 2020 Elections
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Robert Wilkie: VA May Receive Higher Budget After 2020 Elections


Robert Wilkie
Robert Wilkie

Robert Wilkie, secretary of veterans affairs and a 2019 Wash100 Award recipient, said he predicts his department’s programs would win the budgetary favor of the upcoming 2020 elections, Military Times reported Thursday.

The Department of Veterans is pursuing multiple technology reform efforts, such as the electronic health record, that require a higher budget, he said. Wilkie noted that VA will also need more funds to address supply chain reforms and keep up with Congress-imposed requirements.

“I don’t see how, no matter what is in store electorally, how anyone goes back on selling VA short in terms of the budget,” he said Thursday in an interview with Military Times.

The secretary noted the department’s development over time in terms of leadership, White House support and people’s recognition of VA’s changes.

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Mark Lewis Named Research, Engineering Director at DoD
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Mark Lewis Named Research, Engineering Director at DoD


Mark Lewis
Mark Lewis

Mark Lewis, formerly chief scientist at the U.S. Air Force, has been appointed director of research and engineering for modernization at the Department of Defense, Air Force Magazine said Wednesday.

Under his new role, Lewis will work as an assistant for Mike Griffin, undersecretary for research and engineering at DoD. Lewis will also serve as a temporary assistant director for space at DoD in line with Derek Tournear’s promotion as head of the Space Development Agency.

The hypersonics, propulsion and space vehicle design expert spent four years at USAF and led the American Insitute of Aeronautics and Astronauts as president. He also spent 24 years at the University of Maryland as an instructor.

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Will Roper: US Military Should Invest in Ideas to Win Innovation Battle Against China
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Will Roper: US Military Should Invest in Ideas to Win Innovation Battle Against China


Will Roper
Will Roper

Will Roper, assistant secretary of the Air Force for acquisition, technology and logistics and a 2019 Wash100 Award recipient, said the U.S. military should entice the country’s venture capitalists to invest in novel defense technologies in order to keep ahead of China and “win the innovation battle,” Breaking Defense reported Thursday.

“Again, this is about innovation as a battlefield. Capital is a part of it. Companies that can’t get capital from us fast enough will find foreign investments that they gotta take to keep from going under,” he told reporters Wednesday at the Air Force Space Pitch Days in San Francisco.

Roper said the Department of Defense needs to reform its acquisition model to better engage the private sector and compete with China, which is ramping up investments in U.S. tech startups.

“It’s not enough to develop and procure systems anymore. We’ve got to get in the business of of buying ideas and generating ideas,” he added.

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Lt. Gen. Robert Ashley Warns of Foreign Space Threats to US Satellites
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Lt. Gen. Robert Ashley Warns of Foreign Space Threats to US Satellites


Robert Ashley
Robert Ashley

Army Lt. Gen. Robert Ashley, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency and a 2019 Wash100 Award winner, mentioned at a conference the development of foreign space and counter-space capabilities that could target U.S. satellites and ground control platforms in future conflicts, SpaceNews reported Thursday.

He said Wednesday at the CyberSat 2019 conference that Russia and China have been advancing the development of those capabilities, including lasers, surface-to-air missiles, malware, co-orbital maneuvering satellites and electronic jammers.

Ashley also cited an unclassified DIA report on foreign counter-space threats issued in February. “Part of the reason we wanted to put that out at the unclassified level is so we can start the dialogue,” he said.

He added that the move seeks to help lawmakers better inform the public of why the Pentagon needs to invest in space programs.

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