The Air Force Medical Service formed a new field agency to optimize the U.S. Air Force’s operational medical readiness. Led by Brig. Gen. Mark Koeniger, the Air Force Medical Readiness Agency is established to manage expeditionary medical functions, mission support requirements and medical readiness efforts, the service branch said Monday.

“Activating AFMRA streamlines our organization from a dual-focus on health benefit delivery and readiness, to one laser focused on readiness,” said Lt. Gen. Dorothy Hogg, surgeon general at the Air Force.

In addition, the organization will help the military service’s surgeon general create policies supporting base-level unit missions and major commands. The organization is temporarily headquartered at Falls Church, Va., and is part of Air Force’s efforts to reform AFMS and the Military Health System.

The Government Accountability Office conducted an inspection on the construction projects of the Army Corps of Engineers and the General Services Administration. GAO said Tuesday that it found both agencies do not regularly track the time length of processing contract changes. This reduces USACE’s and GSA’s capacities to identify and address issues, according to GAO.

The accountability office recommends the agencies develop a headquarters-level strategy to standardize information collection and time frame monitoring of construction contract changes. Additionally, GAO advises USACE to expand existing data and systems to develop the sought strategy. GAO administered the study due to contractors’ reports on delays of contractual changes.

The Office of Personnel Management issued a memorandum allowing federal agencies to add “data scientist” job titles to a number of positions to establish the role of chief data officers and their support personnel and support the President’s Management Agenda and the Foundation for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act of 2018, Nextgov reported Tuesday.

Mark Reinhold, associate director for employee services at OPM, wrote in the June 27 memo to agency human resources directors that data scientist work involves skills in analytical applications, data analysis, big data engineering, machine learning and algorithms, among other areas. He also defined data scientists as professionals with “sufficient knowledge in the areas of business needs, domain knowledge, analytical skills and software and systems engineering to manage the end-to-end data processes in the data life cycle.”

The document also noted that agencies are not precluded from using any unofficial title for positions. “Unofficial titles (such as those relating to specific agency organizations or programs) are appropriate and may be helpful for internal agency use or for recruiting purposes,” Reinhold wrote.

The U.S. Air Force has initiated talks with some commercial launch service providers to lease Western Range launch pads at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California as space launch activity slows down, SpaceNews reported Tuesday.

“We are having a lull,” said Col. Michael Hough, commander of the Air Force 30th Space Wing and Western Range. “This is market driven. Demand for polar orbits is just not that high.” The report said launch activity at the Western Range might increase in a few years as the Air Force kicks off the second phase of the National Security Space Launch program.

Northrop Grumman and Blue Origin have emerged as potential tenants at Vandenberg as they compete for the National Security Space Launch Phase 2 contract, which is projected to be awarded in 2020. United Launch Alliance and SpaceX have launch pads at Vandenberg AFB. ULA leases Space Launch Complex 6 for its Delta 4 Heavy rocket launches, while SpaceX operates the SLC-4 site.

Adm. John Richardson, the chief of naval operations, said at a Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies event in Washington, D.C. that the U.S. must focus on nuclear triad revitalization, National Defense magazine reported Tuesday.

Richardson noted that new manufacturing procedures like 3D printing can be implemented to develop nuclear weapons and modernize the nation’s command and control system. Additive manufacturing can also help the U.S. craft powerful weapons such as radiological dispersal devices or “dirty bombs”, he said.

According to Richardson, the U.S. must continue research into the production of low-yield nuclear systems as stated in the 2018 Nuclear Posture Review. Such efforts should include hardening weapons against “modern challenges” such as cyber threats, he added.

President Trump has signed the Taxpayer First Act extending the Internal Revenue Service’s authority to directly hire cyber staff and offer a higher pay grade for such personnel through 2025, FCW reported Tuesday. The higher salary offer, which can reach up to $240,000, is intended to attract tech and cybersecurity talent, according to the Treasury Department’s inspector general.

The Taxpayer First Act also allows IRS to establish its own anti-fraud Information Sharing and Analysis Center. Cabinet officials will perform on-site reviews and ensure contractor’s compliance with data security requirements as part of the directive. In addition, independent entities will oversee the Customer Account Data Engine 2 program which seeks to replace the agency’s aging electronic tax return processing system.

Several commissioners have called on Congress to restore such IRS authorities after the 2013 deadline, citing the need to address evolving information technology modernization and cybersecurity needs.

The Department of Homeland Security’s Science and Technology Directorate partnered with the Federal Emergency Management Agency and Department of Energy to provide wider access to an emergency response guidebook for “dirty bomb” detonation events.

DHS said Tuesday that S&T’s National Urban Security Technology Laboratory, FEMA and DOE’s National Nuclear Security Administration will work to make the “Radiological Dispersal Device Response Guidance Planning for the First 100 Minutes” guidebook available to more first responders through a range of current and upcoming training programs.

NUSTL collaborated with DOE national laboratories to animate scenarios detailed in the guidebook. The lab is slated to help launch a train-the-planner course for local community responders through a mobile FEMA course catalog by 2021. The guide, published in 2017, contains findings from DOE laboratories’ research efforts as well as scientific recommendations and direct input from first responders.

Dimitra Stratis-Cullum, biomaterials team leader at the Army Research Laboratory, said at a Defense One event in Washington, D.C. that the Army is studying synthetic biology capabilities for camouflage applications, Defense One reported Monday.

“We want our soldiers to be able to move and not be detected on the battlefield. We don’t want their infrared signature to be detected. There’s a whole host of signatures that we worry about that could allow them to be targeted,” Stratis-Cullum noted.

T’Jae Gibson Ellis, the Army’s spokesperson, added that synthetic biology is one of ARL’s top research priorities that will build on previous developments under the Living Materials program. According to Startis-Cullum, the lab will focus on studying capabilities for soldier survivability rather than modifying warfigters’ genetic makeup.

“Now we can actually take from nature, so if we could do that in a scalable, stable, limited way, we could bring new concepts to concealment,” she said.