Lt. Gen. Robert Ashley Jr., director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, said the U.S. is facing a “competitive and dangerous period” that now involves the space domain, the University of Alabama in Huntsville said Monday.

Lt. Gen. Ashley, a two-time Wash100 Award recipient, told attendees at UAH’s Distinguished Lecture Series that the U.S. must be wary of the technological advances of its two primary adversaries, Russia and China. He noted that China is a “learning superpower” that takes the lead in hypersonics, space assets and cyber and nuclear warfafe.

“They see outer space as a critical area of competition,” said Ashley. “They have made huge investments. They had more space-oriented operations in 2018 than any other country. They continue to make huge investments in hypersonics. They believe supremacy in space is the key to any future conflict,” he said.

Russia is also making progress in artificial intelligence and weapons jamming technologies. Previously, the country launched efforts to develop its own GPS system and a railgun. Ashley was appointed to his current role in 2017 after serving as the U.S. Army’s deputy chief of staff.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology has issued a plan outlining a set of measures federal agencies to support the development of standards for artificial intelligence in compliance with an executive order signed in February. 

“This plan provides a path to ensure the federal government supports AI standards that are flexible and inclusive – and suited for a world of rapidly changing technologies and applications,” Walter Copan, NIST director and undersecretary of commerce for standards and technology, said in a statement published Monday.

The document calls for federal agencies to strengthen AI standards-related knowledge, coordination and leadership as well as advance focused research on the trustworthiness of AI platforms, expand public-private partnerships to advance the use of AI standards and engage with international organizations to advance AI standards for U.S. national security and economic needs.

NIST issued a draft plan in July and received comments from over 40 government, industry and academic organizations. The agency also conducted a workshop in May to seek public comments on the plan.

The Government Accountability Office found that the National Nuclear Security Administration was unable to leverage its “enhanced procurement authority” to exclude suppliers of nuclear weapons and components that may pose risks to supply chain security.

GAO stated in its report that the Department of Energy component has not used the authority it received in 2013 to prohibit procurement of items related to the development and maintenance of nuclear weapons as well as associated components and information technology systems. According to NNSA officials, the agency was unable to use the authority due to lengthy approval procedures and concerns that it is best applied on a case-by-case basis.

“By formally communicating the agency’s concerns about, and suggested changes to, the enhanced procurement authority in a timely manner, NNSA would provide Congress with the relevant information for considering how to make the authority more useful to DOE and NNSA for managing supply chain risks,” the watchdog noted.

NNSA is slated to submit a draft report including recommendations on delegating a lower-level approval authority to speed up procedures and allowing the enhanced procurement authority to cover multiple contracts with a single supplier.

David Spirk Jr., chief data officer of the Special Operations Command, said at a National Defense Industrial Association-hosted conference that the command is developing a strategy for emerging technology initiatives, National Defense Magazine reported Friday. Spirk said the strategy will help SOCOM plan its allocations for artificial intelligence and machine learning efforts for fiscal years 2022 to 2026.

Applications covered by the blueprint include cyber protection, contract and budget management, training, planning and maneuver, predictive maintenance, logistics and forecasting. Spirk also mentioned that SOCOM will also establish a digital data mission management team and enlist the help of experts for program management and other technical matters.

“Data-driven technologies can be used in every function that we have,” he told National Defense. “We hope to demonstrate the capability and then allow that to just grow in the services where, naturally, it should.” Components under the special operations forces will meet in September to work on the new strategy before calling on industry and academic entities for input, Spirk noted.

The National Institutes of Health has awarded a total of $35M in grants to Morgan State University for academic research efforts including training and the establishment of an innovation center. An amount of $16.9M will go to the second phase of a program that aims to train biomedical researchers, NIH said Friday.

This effort is known as A Student-Centered, Entrepreneurship Development or ASCEND. The university will use $14.2M of the grants to build a research center that would support the development of medical applications for Baltimore citizens.

The center, known as RCMI@Morgan, will pursue laboratory-based and behavioral research to address urban health disparities such as HIV and poverty-associated gene expression. The remaining fraction amounting to $3.7M would finance other research efforts at the biology and chemistry departments within Morgan’s School of Computer, Mathematical and Natural Sciences.

“The grant awards we have received were made possible by the collaboration of more than 25 hardworking faculty and staff members committed to bringing in the resources needed for these important research initiatives,” said Hongtao Yu, SCMNS’ dean.

The U.S. Air Force conducted an exercise to train aircrews in surviving various mission scenarios. Eleven airmen from the Travis Air Force Base tested Somewear Labs-built hotspot devices with combat-configured smartphones while they performed evasion training under the Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape program, the service branch said Friday.

Nate Simon, a product manager at Somewear Labs, said the hotspot is designed to enable data transmission, satellite messaging and blue-force tracking capabilities for command centers.

“This new device can be paired with any smartphone once the user downloads the application and provides encrypted messaging between the user in the field, the receiver, another team member, a recovery force or a personnel recovery cell,” Tech. Sgt. Emanuel Espino-Mata, a noncommissioned officer in charge of SERE operations at the 60th Operations Support Squadron.