The U.S. Navy has established a new facility to help Fleet Readiness Center East maintain its F-35 Lightning II aircraft via laser technology. Construction of the F-35 laser shock peening facility concluded in July, with full operational capability expected in 2020, the Navy said Tuesday.

A contractor for the laser shock peening will be stationed at the facility in early spring to prepare for the arrival of the first F-35 aircraft to undergo the service. The aircraft will arrive at the site in June 2020 for validation and verification.

Laser shock peening works to strengthen aircraft components without the need for additional metal, boosting an aircraft’s lifespan. The new facility will allow the U.S. Marine Corps to use the technology on F-35 aircraft.

Matthew Crisp, F-35 Joint Program Office site lead at FRCE, said the technology has been used for the F-22 Raptor and production of aircraft components such as engine blades. The facility measures 16K square feet and consists of two bays for laser shock peening activities.

“Being able to perform this laser shock peening process adds a huge strategic capability to our depot,” said Donald Jeter, portfolio manager of FRCE’s F-35 aircraft line.

The Department of Veterans Affairs’ Office of the Inspector General released the results of an audit seeking to validate the Veterans Health Administration and the Office of Information Technology’s Veterans Information Systems and Technology Architecture Scheduling Enhancement effort. The audit confirmed the management team did not oversee the project to enable precise development of updates and help the system meet user standards, VA OIG said Tuesday.

OIG confirmed delays in the fielding of an updated version for VSE in 2017 and validated that VA placed a medical appointment scheduling system’s deployment on hold. OIG advised the agency’s assistant secretary for information and technology and chief information officer to strictly implement project management processes to help VA define planning requirements prior to project execution

VA’s OIT plans to introduce a program management review process to track the delivery and sustainment of project results. Additionally, the agency is slated to adopt a scheduling capability as part of modernization efforts for VistA.

The Department of Homeland Security’s science and technology directorate met with the First Responder Resource Group to discuss public safety gaps, priorities and potential projects. FRRG reviewed initiatives under the directorate’s Silicon Valley Innovation Program, Small Business Innovation Research effort and Next Generation First Responder Apex Program, DHS said Tuesday.

DHS S&T demonstrated some of its technologies during the meeting, including a GPS tracking tool and a virtual training system. In addition, the two entities discussed the expansion and commercialization of DHS S&T technologies and opened new solicitations for various topics.

“Thanks to strong relationships with our industry partners and their ongoing hard work and innovation, we are able to create technological solutions and apply them to the emergency response environment,” said Milt Nenneman, a program manager at DHS S&T.

Suzanne Spaulding, a member of the Cyberspace Solarium Commission, said the group will release cybersecurity recommendations in early 2020, The Hill reported Tuesday. A strategic cyber approach will require all available tools, resources and connections from both public and private sectors, she said at the Digital Government Institute’s 930gov conference.

The 2019 National Defense Authorization Act required the creation of the commission that must work to report on cyber space. The House’s proposal for the bill’s 2020 version tasks the commission to submit the report by Sept. 1 next year, and the Senate’s version calls for a Feb. 2 submission date. Spaulding formerly served as an undersecretary for a specific directorate within the Department of Homeland Security. This former directorate now operates as the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.

The Small Business Administration conducted a pilot project focusing on using artificial intelligence and cloud technology to improve agencies’ cybersecurity posture, Nextgov reported Tuesday.

Guy Cavallo, deputy chief information officer of SBA, told attendees at a Nextgov event that the agency conducted 90-day sprint pilots using cloud infrastructure and iterative procedures that helped simplify development operations. He added that SBA’s pilot efforts helped establish cloud cyber tools as viable cybersecurity capabilities for the agency that meet the goals under the Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation program.

“Unfortunately we don’t have any data scientists or any AI experts on staff at SBA, so it is something we are going to have to work through, most likely through contractors with government leadership,” Cavallo noted.

SBA and other agencies like the Department of Veterans Affairs are working on addressing bias issues in datasets and AI algorithms. 

Ron Ross, a National Institute of Standards and Technology fellow, said the agency integrated more privacy controls for Revision 5 of Special Publication 800-53 focused on cybersecurity and supply chain matters, Fifth Domain reported Wednesday.

Ross, who leads the Federal Information Security Modernization Act Implementation Project at NIST, told the publication that the Office of Management and Budget’s delayed review of SP 800-53 has also pushed back the relase date of related guidelines.

“That document, as long as it’s being held up for its final public draft, that’s kind of put a hold on six other publications,” he said. “We’ve got things in the queue.”

According to Ross, the fifth revision covers security controls spanning program management, privacy and supply chain security. He added that he anticipates the final draft of NIST’s 800-160 Vol. 2, which covers cyber resiliency in system development, to be released on Sept. 5.

Ross’ comments come after NIST delayed its release of SP 800-171 Revision 2, which is used by Department of Defense contractors as cybersecurity guidelines for handling unclassified information.

Gen. Mike Holmes, head of Air Combat Command, said artificial intelligence tools are still in the learning phase and requires human help, Defense One reported Tuesday. 

“[W]e’re still in the process of teaching the algorithms to be able to predict what’s there from the data and be as reliable as we would like it to be or as reliable as our teams of people [who] are doing that,” Holmes said Tuesday during a Defense Writers Group breakfast. 

“Those tools are there. We’re starting to use them and experiment with them,” he said. “I don’t think, in general, they’re at the point yet where we’re confident in them operating without having a person following through on it, but I absolutely think that’s where we’re going.” 

In addition, Holmes said AI is improving in regards to identifying objects in drone video and could be used to predict failure in aircraft parts and components.

John Sherman, chief information officer for the intelligence community, said the IC plans to establish a new program executive office to advance the development of new information technology capabilities, FCW reported Tuesday. Sherman said Tuesday that the community wants the new PEO to have in-person access to subject matter experts during the Department of Defense Intelligence Information System Worldwide Conference in Tampa, Fla.

The proposed office would also continue work on chat and secure file transfer capabilities. In addition to the release of a cloud strategy and work on a new data strategy, Sherman also announced that the IC finalized its cybersecurity implementation plan.

“Using a new approach that we call the cybersecurity performance evaluation model, we started just this last month to receive our first tranche of [critical infrastructure protection]-related asset inventory data into our IC security coordination center,” he said.