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DOD, NASA Wrap Up 3rd Recovery Test for Artemis II Mission
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DOD, NASA Wrap Up 3rd Recovery Test for Artemis II Mission

The Department of Defense and NASA have completed their joint third test for the sea recovery of the crewed Artemis II capsule after the spacecraft’s 10-day moon mission scheduled for April 2026. The drill, called Underway Recovery Test 12, or URT 12, used as its platform the amphibious transport dock USS Somerset (LPD 25), the U.S. Navy said in a statement after the test’s completion Monday.

Capt. Andrew Koy, USS Somerset commanding officer, noted the “long history” of the U.S. Navy and NASA’s partnership in recovering astronauts and equipment after space missions.

“The inherent capabilities of our amphibious transport dock ships are the perfect combination to ensuring the Artemis capsule and crew are safely recovered following their mission,” Koy pointed out, citing his crew’s competencies and USS Somerset’s facilities. Another Navy vessel, USS San Diego (LPD 22), was deployed for the previous recovery rehearsal, URT 11.

During URT 12, DOD and NASA demonstrated and evaluated the processes, procedures and equipment for the recovery operations, including the crew extraction from the Artemis II capsule and the astronaut’s transfer to the ship’s medical facility. A full-scale replica of Orion, the Artemis II capsule, was used to practice the recovery procedures.

US Air Force Support

To support the U.S. Space Command in the Artemis II recovery, the U.S. Navy assigned additional units, including Expeditionary Strike Group 3, Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 23, Explosive Ordnance Disposal Group 1 and Amphibious Construction Battalion 1. The U.S. Air Force also extended assistance through its First Air Force, Detachment 3 and U.S. Space Force’s 45th Space Launch Delta Weather Squadron.

With their experience from the Artemis I recovery, the DOD-NASA teams adjusted their Artemis II recovery timelines and procedures, targeting to have the mission’s four astronauts safely transferred aboard the recovery ship within two hours after Orion’s splashdown in the Pacific Ocean.

NASA Astronauts’ Participation

NASA said in a separate statement Monday that its astronaut and Artemis II pilot Victor Glover, along with his colleagues Andre Douglas and Deniz Burnham, as well as European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano, joined URT 12. “Allowing astronauts to participate when they are not directly involved in a mission gives them valuable experience by exposing them to a lot of different scenarios,” said Glover.

Besides Glover, the other Artemis II crew members are NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman—mission commander—and Christina Koch—mission specialist—plus her counterpart from the Canadian Space Agency, Jeremy Hansen.

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Karen Evans Nominated as DHS Under Secretary for Management
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Karen Evans Nominated as DHS Under Secretary for Management

President Donald Trump has nominated Karen Evans, a senior Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency official, to serve as under secretary for management at the Department of Homeland Security.

Congress received and referred Evans’ nomination to the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on March 24.

Her nomination to the role came a month after she rejoined DHS to serve as executive assistant director for cybersecurity at CISA, where she acts as national coordinator for critical infrastructure security and resilience initiatives.

Karen Evans’ Career Background

Evans served as chief information officer at DHS from March 2020 to January 2021.

She supported the Department of Energy’s national security mission by serving as the first assistant secretary for cybersecurity, energy security and emergency response during the first Trump administration.

She also held roles within the departments of Justice and Agriculture and at the National Park Service.

The West Virginia University graduate is an elected fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration.

Evans co-founded SafeGov and was managing director of the Cyber Readiness Institute.

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Joe Maletta Named Acting Senior Procurement Executive at VA
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Joe Maletta Named Acting Senior Procurement Executive at VA

The Department of Veterans Affairs has appointed Joe Maletta as acting senior procurement executive and executive director of its Office of Acquisition and Logistics.

Announcing his appointment in a LinkedIn post, Maletta said he started on the new job in March. His responsibilities include ensuring that VA components accomplish their missions and comply with laws, policies and directions from execution branch partners.

Joe Maletta’s Career Highlights

Before assuming his new position, Maletta served as the executive director of acquisitions at the Veterans Health Administration, where he advised senior agency leaders and managed the department’s strategic partnerships with other federal agencies. He was also the executive director of the VHA’s Regional Procurement Office East, where he managed a $4 billion operating budget and oversaw the VA’s contracting activities on the East Coast.

Earlier, Maletta was director of contracting at the Naval Reactors Laboratory Field Office and director of the Naval Reactors Material Office. He earned a master’s in human services counseling from Liberty University and a bachelor’s degree in operations management from Penn State University.

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Barry Tanner on Navy’s Cattle Drive Initiative
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Barry Tanner on Navy’s Cattle Drive Initiative

Barry Tanner, deputy chief information officer at the Department of the Navy, said DON’s Cattle Drive initiative is currently focused on the business mission area with plans to eliminate 55 to 60 legacy business systems over the next year, Federal News Network reported Friday.

Operation Cattle Drive

Launched in 2020, Operation Cattle Drive seeks to help the Navy modernize its IT systems by eliminating redundant applications and platforms and reinvesting the achieved cost savings into modern IT capabilities.

“There a lot of legacy systems that are being consolidated into larger platforms, and so we continue to partner very closely with the financial management and controller team on making sure that the enterprise resourcing planning (ERP) and some of these other larger platforms are bringing more capabilities and functions into those so we can sunset the old ones,” Tanner said during an interview on FNN’s Ask the CIO.

“Those systems support a lot of things that we care about, not just turning off the old thing, but also eliminating vulnerabilities,” he added.

Ongoing Communication With PEOs

To remove barriers to IT modernization, Tanner stressed the importance of promoting communication with program executive officers as a key part of cultural change.

“The new thing that we’re doing, what is it replacing? What is this intended to replace? How have you engaged with the people who are your customers to help them understand how their life will change when you do this?” the deputy CIO said.

“There are plenty of examples of that across the board, but if we don’t get after that part, then this idea of Cattle Drive and this idea of divest to invest and all this other stuff like that gets 10 times harder,” he added.

Catch Tanner at the Potomac Officers Club’s 2025 Digital Transformation Summit and hear his insights on how edge technologies and other innovations are transforming military operations. Register now!

POC - 2025 Digital Transformation Summit
HHS Revamp Trims Workforce, Centralizes Functions
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HHS Revamp Trims Workforce, Centralizes Functions

The Department of Health and Human Services is reducing its workforce and centralizing several functions in a major revamp following the White House executive order, “Implementing the President’s ‘Department of Government Efficiency’ Workforce Optimization Initiative.” HHS Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. said in the department’s statement on the organizational revamp that the move not only reduces “bureaucratic sprawl” but also realigns HHS with its core mission and new priorities. “This department will do more – a lot more – at a lower cost to the taxpayer,” Kennedy remarked.

$1.8B Projected Annual Savings

The HHS reorganization will entail a reduction of approximately 10,000 employees, downsizing the organization’s workforce to about a 62,000 manpower complement and reducing its payroll by $1.8 billion annually. Centralization of IT employees is also one of the focus areas of the revamp of the department.

Its restructuring will create the Administration for Health America, combining the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health, Health Resources and Services Administration, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, and National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.

Overall, the HHS will streamline its functions by consolidating 28 divisions into 15 new divisions and reducing regional offices from 10 to 5. To prevent misuse of federal health programs, a new assistant secretary for enforcement will be created to manage the Departmental Appeals Board, Office of Medicare Hearings and Appeals, and Office for Civil Rights.

New Strategy Office to Enhance Research 

An Office of Strategy will also be formed, merging the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation with the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, to enhance research input for the HHS secretary’s policies and baseline data to improve federal health programs’ effectiveness. 

In addition, the department’s Administration for Community Living will be reorganized, reassigning its support programs for seniors and people with disabilities to other agencies, including the Administration for Children and Families and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Medicare and Medicaid services, major programs that HHS initiated in 1969 after it became a standalone department in 1979, will not be affected by the reorganization.

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Chris Wright Reforms DOE Permitting Rules for National Labs
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Chris Wright Reforms DOE Permitting Rules for National Labs

Energy Secretary Chris Wright has announced several reforms to address burdensome permitting rules and regulations for construction projects at the Department of Energy’s 17 national laboratories as part of efforts to accelerate critical infrastructure improvement initiatives at those labs.

“Unfortunately, over the years, burdensome regulations delayed the important work being done at our National Labs. Currently, many of our nation’s most critical weapons development sites rely on aging facilities, some even dating back to the Manhattan Project,” Wright said in a statement published Thursday.

“By reforming DOE’s permitting rules and regulations for our National Labs, we can speed up critical infrastructure improvements and make the Energy Department a better steward of taxpayer dollars,” he added.

Actions for Immediate Implementation

Wright has directed the department to amend delegated project authority within DOE Order 413.3B from $50 million to $300 million specific to the national labs run via management and operating contracts.

Other required actions are expanding the use of the National Nuclear Security Administration’s “OSHA-Plus” framework for subcontracted construction projects at national labs and evaluating the benefits and risks of removing construction labor agreement provisions from national lab contracts.

The secretarial order requires the revision of national lab contract clauses on Employee Compensation: Pay and Benefits to remove requirements that are not mandated by regulation or are not needed to track the department’s financial liabilities related to defined benefit plans.

Establishment of a Working Group

Wright is also directing the director of the Laboratory Operations Board to create a working group to help identify opportunities to streamline and establish new timelines and procedures to ensure greater accountability and efficiency for strategic partnership projects and cooperative research and development agreements.

Proposed improvements and initiatives to streamline processes should be submitted to the Office of the Secretary within 30 days.

The board will coordinate the necessary actions outlined in the order and monitor the implementation of such measures.

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SDA Seeks Executive Summaries for PWSA, BMC3 Ground Segments
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SDA Seeks Executive Summaries for PWSA, BMC3 Ground Segments

The Space Development Agency has issued a notice requesting executive summaries supporting 180-day studies aimed at advancing the existing Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture ground segment and the Battle Management, Command, Control and Communications Application Factory, or BMC3 AppFac.

Details of SDA’s Notice

The SDA said it is seeking industry input, through the special notice posted Jan. 15 and updated Thursday, on possible technical approaches or methods, including novel architecture concepts, technologies and capabilities, aimed at transitioning and expanding the PWSA ground and BMC3 segments utilizing design principles from the modular open systems approach, or MOSA.

The GS framework and AppFac transition initiatives are intended to progress simultaneously with the deployment of the PWSA’s Tranche 3. This notice is part of the SDA Systems, Technologies and Emerging Capabilities broad agency announcement, or SDA STEC BAA.

Interested contractors can submit their responses by April 14.

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AFWERX Xband Emitter Advances to Operational Use at Air Force
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AFWERX Xband Emitter Advances to Operational Use at Air Force

The AFWERX Xband Emitter, or AXE, has advanced from prototype to operational use. The innovation arm of the Department of the Air Force said in a LinkedIn post that AXE is supporting F-35 Lightning II pilot training. 

AFWERX Xband Emitter Development

AXE was born out of an annual innovation competition called Spark Tank at Luke Air Force Base in Arizona. It was originally called the Low-Cost Threat Emitter, or LCTE, designed to improve the accuracy of military training simulations. 

It won a Phase II Small Business Innovation Research contract for further development, but initially failed to meet technical and operational requirements for large-scale deployment. 

Ian Clowes, program manager for AFWERX, said his team worked with Spark Tank office leadership to continue developing the technology. They secured additional funding from an AFWERX division that provides resources to accelerate capability transitions. 

Enhancing Training

The 51st Fighter Wing at Osan Air Base in South Korea and the 86th Fighter Weapons Squadron at Hill Air Force Base in Utah have deployed the technology.

Tech. Sgt. Matthew Connelly of the 51st Fighter Wing, said he reviewed AXE and immediately saw the tool’s potential.

“Our primary mission here at Osan Air Base, through the flying hour program, focuses on the suppression and destruction of enemy air defenses,” he explained. “Seeing how our exercises play out, it was easy to recognize this as another effective tool we can use to enhance training.” 

Meanwhile, the 86th Fighter Weapons Squadron plans to use the system to replace conventional radars to enhance live-fire exercises.

Senate Confirms Former Army Captain Paul Lawrence as VA Dep Sec
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Senate Confirms Former Army Captain Paul Lawrence as VA Dep Sec

Senate has confirmed Paul Lawrence as deputy secretary at the Department of Veterans Affairs. Lawmakers on Thursday voted 51-45 in favor of Lawrence’s appointment, Senate.gov reported. 

He will serve alongside Doug Collins, who was confirmed for the role of VA under secretary in February. 

VA Second in Command

The recent vote marks Lawrence’s return to the VA, where he held the role of under secretary for benefits from 2018 to 2021 during President Donald Trump’s first term. He oversaw the delivery of disability compensation, pension, home loan guarantees, life insurance and other benefits available to veterans and their dependents. 

Before the VA, he led as vice president of public sector at Kaiser Associates. For over a year, he managed the consulting firm’s efforts to capture opportunities at the General Services Administration and Department of Agriculture. 

He also held leadership positions at Ernst & Young, Accenture, IBM and MITRE, but he spent the majority of his private sector career as a partner at PwC.

The VA official served in the Army as a captain in the 1980s. He graduated from Airborne School in Fort Benning in Georgia and received the Meritorious Service Medal.

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Army Picks 3 Vendors for Launched Effects-Short Range Tech Demo
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Army Picks 3 Vendors for Launched Effects-Short Range Tech Demo

The U.S. Army has tapped AEVEX Aerospace, Anduril Industries and RTX subsidiary Raytheon to provide their technologies for a special demonstration of the Launched Effects-Short Range, or LE-SR, system.

The service branch said Thursday AEVEX will bring its Atlas technology and Anduril will provide its Altius 600 multimission LE system for the demonstration.

The Army also selected Raytheon’s Coyote Block 3 LE variant for the demo. Raytheon said Wednesday it fired its Coyote LE SR variant from a helicopter during a recent test at Nine Mile Training Center. According to the company, the new Coyote variant can perform surveillance, reconnaissance and target acquisition; precision strike; electronic warfare; and communications.

What Is the LE-SR Demo’s Objective?

The LE-SR Special User Demonstration will enable infantry, field artillery and aviation soldiers to test the tactics, procedures and techniques for operating the LE-SR system.

“The LE-SR user demonstration is an important step forward in developing launched effects capabilities,” said Brig. Gen. David Phillips, program executive officer for aviation. “We are excited to work with our industry partners putting their systems in the hand of Soldiers to evaluate their performance and identify areas for improvement.”

Brig. Gen. Cain Baker, director of the service’s future vertical lift cross functional team, said direct feedback from warfighters “will inform not only continuous LE requirement refinement but also our future warfighting concepts and employment use cases.”

What Are Launched Effects?

Launched effects are a family of platforms consisting of an aerial vehicle, mission system applications, effects payload and related support equipment designed to deliver effects as a single LE or as part of a team through autonomous or semi-autonomous means.

The military expects the LE-SR system to serve as a lightweight, agile technology to deliver threat-focused capabilities.

Another LE-SR Initiative

Later in 2025, the Army will coordinate with the Aviation and Missile Technology Consortium to launch another initiative to prototype the integration of existing industry platforms for LE-SR capabilities, effects and sensors. 

According to the military branch, 12 companies have expressed interest in the new initiative.

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