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.

Deborah Frincke, director of research at the National Security Agency, said federal government agencies should begin adapting their digital security processes for the future amid rapid developments in quantum computing technology, Nextgov reported Monday.

Quantum computers could break the codes that secure digital data, but Frincke believes expediting the deployment of encryption schemes without thorough vetting could result in additional risks.

“There are two ways you could make a mistake with quantum-resistant encryption: One is you could jump to the algorithm too soon and the other is you jump to the algorithm too late,” she said. “It’s very important that people wait for NIST to do its due diligence.”

The National Institute of Standards and Technology launched a competition in 2016 to come up with “quantum-resistant” algorithms. In January, the agency selected 26 entries that would move to the next phase. NIST is putting the 26 algorithms through an 18-month vetting process with plans to trim that number to 12 by June 2020.

The U.S. Air Force plans to launch a cybersecurity vetting program for satellite communications companies to streamline pre-assessment procedures for contractors, Space News reported Friday.

Andrew D’Uva, president of Providence Access Company, said at this year’s CyberSat conference that the commercial satcom office within the Air Force Space Command will handle operations for the proposed Infrastructure Asset Pre-Assessment program.

D’Uva noted that IA-Pre would require satcom providers to undergo assessments from third-party auditors to ensure that they meet National Institute of Standards and Technology regulations covering the protection of critical government information.

“With IA-Pre you’ll be able to get pre-assessed by a third party. Once that’s done there will be no more paperwork,” he said.

The Air Force will keep a database of satcom providers that went through independent audits, which will exempt them from cybersecurity evaluations required for every contracting proposal.

IA-Pre is slated to launch in 2020.

The U.S. Postal Service and National Science Foundation are continuing efforts to modernize their operations through cloud migration and reskilling efforts, Federal News Network reported Friday.

Gary Barlet, chief information officer of the USPS Office of the Inspector General, told attendees at the 930Gov conference that the agency has prepared its 106 field offices across the country for moving networks to the cloud through newer data analytics capabilities. He added that USPS has already transitioned its data away from data centers and refurbished its digital infrastructure.

Dorothy Aronson, CIO of the National Science Foundation, noted that her agency is still working to migrate “heavy-lift” assets such as its database infrastructure. She added that NSF is working on an online training and reskilling program called Udacity aimed at rapidly upskilling personnel to serve as data analysts or data scientists.

“We still cannot yet move our database to the cloud, but we are working inch by inch to get there while modernizing customer-facing utilities,” she said.

Rear Adm. Thomas Ishee, director of the undersea warfare division within the office of the chief of naval operations, said that the U.S. Navy seeks to improve strategic deterrence and lethality, USNI News reported Friday.

Ishee told attendees at a Naval Submarine League event that the service seeks to plan its budgeting for strategic deterrence in line with potential funding changes to prevent diminished buying power.

He added that efforts to improve lethality may involve advanced command-and-control capabilities as well as sensors and payloads designed to support submarine defense against land, surface and subsurface targets.

According to Ishee, the Navy is seeking “advanced payloads” such as long-range kinetic weapons and next-generation electromagnetic warfare technologies. He also cited long-term goals such as an undersea test range and advanced Virginia-class nuclear-powered submarines under the SSN(X) program.

The Navy is slated to receive its first modernized Harpoon anti-ship missile in fiscal 2021.