The Department of Defense plans to integrate the strategic capabilities office into the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to centralize more research divisions under Michael Griffin, DoD undersecretary for research and engineering and 2019 Wash100 Award recipient, Reuters reported Friday.

The SCO oversees the development of technological capabilities against emerging threats. Its projects include drone swarming and modification of Standard Missile 6 to become an offensive weapon system. DARPA requested $3.5 billion in funds for fiscal 2020 and would assume $1.3 billion in additional budget, or 37 percent more, for the next fiscal year should DoD proceed with its plan to transition SCO to DARPA, according to the report.

President Trump is calling on the intelligence community to “quickly and fully cooperate” with investigations on alleged surveillance operations during the 2016 presidential elections, the White House said Thursday. Trump is directing the community to comply with the attorney general, who is tasked with examining potential cases of election-related interference and will have full and complete authority to declassify information relevant to the investigation. 

“As part of that process, I am confident that the Attorney General will work with the IC in accordance with the long-established standards to protect highly-sensitive classified information that, if publicly released, would put our national security at risk,” said Daniel Coats, director of national intelligence, in a separate press release.

According to the White House statement, the directive ensures the nation will learn about the government’s actions to address the issue and “restore confidence in our public institutions.”

The Senate Armed Services Committee has approved a budget for the Pentagon’s proposed space-based sensor layer to detect and track high-speed threats from Earth’s orbit, C4ISRNet reported Thursday. Funding for the project was added to the panel’s version of the $750 billion National Defense Authorization Act for 2020, which now heads to the full Senate for confirmation. 

In March, the Missile Defense Agency told lawmakers that it marked the sensor layer as its top priority that lacked funding. Lt. Gen. Samuel Greaves, director of MDA, said the space infrastructure would include two constellations of satellites that will serve different roles. One system will track ballistic missiles, while the other will focus on hypersonic missiles.

“The threat is moving fast and faster, and the reason I include it as my top priority in the unfunded list is that I believe that as time is the enemy, let’s not waste it, and if additional funding is provided, that’s where it would go,” Greaves said. 

DoD did not include extra funding for sensor layer in it’s formal budget request for FY20. 

Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson said that congressional authorities for rapid technology prototyping and testing helped the service meet its Century Challenge milestone to cut 100 years from ongoing weapons development programs. The service said Thursday it started streamlining processes in May 2018 through the authorities provided by the Fiscal 2016 National Defense Authorization Act. Wilson said the Air Force created guidelines that helped program managers with decision making to test and bring technology platforms to the field. 

“We’re able to dismiss things that don’t add value to our programs while remaining exceptionally disciplined on things that do,” said Will Roper, assistant secretary of the Air Force for acquisition, technology and logistics.

The areas that showed accelerated development include communications and defensive systems for fighter jets, satellites, hypersonic weapons, intelligence and cyber. The Air Force issued a science and technology strategy to guide the service to maintain technological advantage through 2030 and beyond.