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. 

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.

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.

Suzette Kent, federal chief information officer and a 2019 Wash100 Award recipient, discussed at a conference the Technology Modernization Fund and how the federal government funds information technology transformation initiatives through TMF, Federal News Network reported Thursday.

“Coming in from the private sector, one of the very interesting things [in government] was the concept of talking about transformation, but getting that done with one-year money,” she said at Pegasystems’ Government Empowered Conference. “Those things don’t work really well together. A broad and bold vision for transformation in many agencies, whether it’s a micro-journey or something bigger than that, often takes more time.”

Chief data officers, chief financial officers and other C-suite officials at federal agencies identified “common learnings” from IT projects funded through TMF and Kent said agencies can apply those lessons in future initiatives.

“Every one of the initiatives had some element that was an all-of-government benefit,” Kent said. “What that means is a playbook came out of it, a tool for reuse, or it was a particular type of initiative where one agency started and others contributed.”

Suzette Kent, federal chief information officer and a 2019 Wash100 Award recipient, discussed at a conference the Technology Modernization Fund and how the federal government funds information technology transformation initiatives through TMF, Federal News Network reported Thursday.

“Coming in from the private sector, one of the very interesting things [in government] was the concept of talking about transformation, but getting that done with one-year money,” she said at Pegasystems’ Government Empowered Conference. “Those things don’t work really well together. A broad and bold vision for transformation in many agencies, whether it’s a micro-journey or something bigger than that, often takes more time.”

Chief data officers, chief financial officers and other C-suite officials at federal agencies identified “common learnings” from IT projects funded through TMF and Kent said agencies can apply those lessons in future initiatives.

“Every one of the initiatives had some element that was an all-of-government benefit,” Kent said. “What that means is a playbook came out of it, a tool for reuse, or it was a particular type of initiative where one agency started and others contributed.”

The Defense Innovation Unit is evaluating proposed projects on non-GPS navigation devices for the U.S. Army, Space News reported Wednesday.

DIU’s Boston-based office is looking at 25 proposals for the Dismounted Assured Positioning, Navigation and Timing System or DAPS. The future handheld device would work to help soldiers navigate through GPS-denied environments.

The solicitation ran through Oct. 28 and sought available technologies that don’t require a large amount of further development. Col. Jeff Sheehan, DIU program manager, said the proposals included optical, inertial and radio frequency navigation.