The Office of Management and Budget released the final Cloud Smart strategy on Monday to help federal agencies accelerate the adoption of cloud platforms. The Federal Cloud Computing Strategy retains the proposed programs and measures stated in the draft strategy issued in September and calls for agencies to rationalize their application portfolios to facilitate cloud adoption.

The app rationalization process will include the assessment of the need for and usage of apps and a move to discard redundant, obsolete or overly resource-intensive apps. The new strategy focuses on procurement, security and workforce elements and came a week after the Federal CIO Council released a new playbook designed to help agency portfolio managers facilitate app rationalization under the Cloud Smart program.

“To be Cloud Smart, agencies must consider how to use their current resources to maximize value: re-skilling and retraining staff, enhancing security postures, and using best practices and shared knowledge in acquisitions,” Federal CIO and 2019 Wash100 Award winner Suzette Kent wrote in the document. “Cloud Smart is about equipping agencies with the tools and knowledge they need to make these decisions for themselves, rather than a one-size-fits-all approach.”

Kent also mentioned the advantage of app rationalization and the need for agencies to transition to the “solve before buy” approach.

The Aviation and Missile Center within the U.S. Army’s Combat Capabilities Development Command is pursuing rotorcraft research under a U.S.-Germany partnership that began in 1979, Dvids Hub reported Monday. The center’s Aviation Development Directorate is among five primary teams to investigate on rotorcraft applications for the U.S. German Project Agreement on Advanced Technologies effort.

ADD will focus on one of the program’s three tasks. The directorate will work to develop tactile cueing technology for inceptor-controlled helicopters. “Tactile cueing is the mechanism by which signals are detected by humans through the sense of touch,” said Jeff Lusardi, an engineer at ADD.

“This tactile cueing flight research test is designed to make it easier for the pilot to follow calculated landing guidance without having to spend all of (their) time focused inside the aircraft, staring at flight guidance symbology on the instrument panel,” said Lt. Col. Dave Hnyda, deputy associate director at ADD. 

The directorate tested tactile cueing to evaluate the technology’s cyclic and collective characteristics in an actual flight environment in February. The test also supports the Army’s Future Vertical Lift program.

The cooperative research agreement’s two other task areas are: helicopter aids for missions with degraded visual environments and manned-unmanned aircraft teaming with limited datalink connectivity.

Maxar Technologies’ Intelsat 39 geosynchronous communications satellite has completed its final delivery checkouts at the company’s manufacturing facility in Palo Alto, California and has safely arrived at the Arianespace launch base in Kourou, French Guiana, the company announced on Tuesday. 

Intelsat 39 is the 52nd satellite built for our long-term customer, Intelsat, by Maxar. The Intelsat, Arianespace and Maxar teams in Kourou are preparing the satellite for launch on an Ariane 5 rocket, which is scheduled for July 24th.

Once it reaches its final destination at 62 degrees East, the satellite will provide broadband and video distribution services across Africa, Europe, the Middle East and Asia. The satellite will also enhance mobile connectivity for aero, maritime and government users in the Indian Ocean region. The satellite will replace the Intelsat 902 satellite, which Maxar also built back in 2001.

Intelsat 39 is based on Maxar’s decades-proven 1300-class platform, which offers high power, reliability and flexibility to support a broad range of applications and technology advances. The satellite has C-band and Ku-band transponders and uses hybrid electric and chemical propulsion to reach its desired orbit, where it is designed to provide service for a minimum of 15 years. 

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