President Trump and Ajit Pai, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, announced several efforts to advance 5G adoption and expand broadband access in the U.S.

Trump said in his speech at the White House on Friday that the country will have 92 5G deployments by the end of 2019 and his administration will eliminate regulatory hurdles to facilitate network build-out projects.

After the president’s speech, Pai unveiled the FCC’s 5G FAST Plan and discussed the strategy’s three components: free up more spectrum, promote 5G wireless infrastructure and update regulations. He said the commission will offer 3,400 megahertz of spectrum in three different bands at its third 5G spectrum auction beginning Dec. 10.

The FCC also formed the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund to invest $20.4 billion in high-speed broadband networks in the next 10 years to provide up to 4 million rural households and small businesses access to such networks.

The U.S. Navy and Marine Corps concluded the exercise ANTX West 2019 exploring how both services could integrate new information warfare technologies into operations in the field, USNI News reported Friday.

The 10-day event at the Navy’s offshore San Clemente Island ranges and in San Diego laboratories and facilities involved nearly 60 defense contractors, tech companies, military laboratories and members of the academia. During the exercise, Navy and Marine Corps officials assessed matured technologies, including communications, sensors, countermeasures, command-and-control, strikes, non-kinetic fires, counter-intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and targeting systems.

“We’re out there testing ideas, seeing what works, what’s possible. This is innovation,” said Rear Adm. Donald Gabrielson, commander of Carrier Strike Group 11. “This is exciting because it’s going to produce results.” 

Service officials attending ANTX West sought new command-and-control and surveillance technologies to give Navy and Marine forces new capabilities in highly-contested, high-tech environments.

Sanjay Gupta, chief technology officer at the Small Business Administration, said agencies should assess options when moving to the cloud, especially when considering either a single or multi-cloud enterprise to save time and cut migration costs, GovernmentCIO Media & Research reported Friday. 

He said at the recent FCW 2019 Cloud Summit that agency leaders should focus on technology, people and process as the traditional three domains in enterprise cloud migration. In the area of technology, either a single cloud or multi-cloud environment requires focus on connectivity, tool assessment from providers and data management to cut costs when moving between clouds. 

Gupta also cited the advantages and disadvantages of vendor lock-in. He said working with a single cloud service provider offers an easier and cheaper process to manage and leverage commercial services. However, he noted having a multi-cloud environment provides the extra “room” missing in a single-cloud environment with one provider. The SBA is using cloud services from Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure along with software-as-a-service tools from Salesforce and Adobe to manage its data. 

“Get to a cloud, doesn’t matter which cloud it is. Make the decision quick because cloud is not your destination,” Gupta said. “Pick one, move on and try to leverage the value that the cloud brings to you.”

Gen. David Goldfein, U.S. Air Force chief of staff, gathered leaders from other countries to discuss various space issues, Space News reported Saturday. Leaders from Australia, Canada, Italy, Germany, Japan, the U.K. and other nations attended the first conference of international air chiefs that took place at a Colorado-based facility.

Goldfein, the conference’s host, told Space News that discussions revolved around cooperative work in space. Other topics included information sharing and policy to regulate international space activities. “As airmen, we believe we need norms of behavior in space as we have for airspace,” he said.

The air chiefs also discussed the technologies, including artificial intelligence, to be used for communications and information sharing in space.

The U.S. Navy selected five teams to proceed to the final phase of a competition that focuses on the development of methods to address the branch’s sustainment planning gaps.

Nine teams were initially chosen to create prototype predictive analytical models that will work to validate potential program sustainment needs and resources to fulfill the Navy’s readiness objectives, the Navy said Friday. The remaining competitors will validate their analysis and provide working prototypes prior to their participation to the Sustainment Data Challenge Summit wherein the submissions will be presented.

The winners will receive opportunities to develop their proposed systems after the competition.

“Those selected to advance to the next phase show great promise in producing a series of models that are scalable across naval aviation as well as offer a more holistic view of aviation sustainment,” said Capt. William Sherrod, commander and baseline lead for the Naval Air Forces Sustain Program.

 

The Department of Homeland Security’s Science and Technology Directorate is looking for ideas on how to detect opioids entering the country by international mail, the department said Friday.

DHS will award up to $1.6M in prizes for the Opioid Detection Challenge, which is a collaborative effort between Customs and Border Protection, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and the Office of National Drug Control Policy that was launched in February to address the current opioid crisis.

“We know that international mail is a major route for illicit opioids entering the country, and new detection tools will be critical for cutting off the flow of these dangerous drugs,” noted William Bryan, a DHS senior official performing the duties of the undersecretary for science and technology.

Eight finalists will share a prize pool of $800K for the first phase, followed by a 14-week prototyping period for an additional $750K as part of phase two.

The second increment will provide the finalists with access to relevant data, mentorship activities, webinars and government expert guidance. The final event will involve mandatory on-site live testing at a government facility for a grand prize of $500K and a consolation prize of $250K.

According to the department, participants may leverage a range of technologies and methods such as chemical and anomaly analysis, artificial intelligence, machine learning and other data-driven capabilities. Interested participants may submit applications through April 24.