Mike Griffin, undersecretary of defense for research and engineering, said the move to transfer the Strategic Capabilities Office to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency will help resolve bureaucracy issues, Defense News reported Friday. 

Griffin, a 2019 Wash100 Award recipient, told reporters that the SCO’s move to DARPA will help leaders oversee the office “efficiently without adding a whole new superstructure”. Griffin will continue working with congressional oversight committees to address concerns on the reorganization which is expected to be addressed in the Armed Services committees’ final 2020 defense authorization bill over the coming weeks. 

Griffin’s comments come after Chris Shank stepped down as SCO director in June following his appointment to the role in August 2018.

The Department of Defense is working to use technologies such as the F-35 fighter jet’s sensors to support multi-platform transmission of data to improve air dominance in combat, USNI News reported Wednesday. Maj. Gen. David Krumm, director of global power programs under the office of the assistant secretary of the Air Force for acquisition, technology and logistics, said at a Mitchell Institute event said the Pentagon aims to establish a “network-connected family of systems” that operate together to gather relevant information for aerial warfare.

Maj. Gen. Michael Fantini, the director of Air Force warfighting integration capability, added that the DoD aims to establish integrated data collation functions between legacy systems and newer platforms. Previously, Lockheed Martin and the U.S. Navy conducted data integration testing between an F-35B and an Aegis Combat System equipped with a Raytheon-built Standard Misssile 6.

Maj. Gen. Michael Fantini, the Air Force’s director of warfighting integration capability, said during a panel discussion in Arlington, Va. that the service branch is establishing 10 cross-functional teams, National Defense Magazine reported Wednesday. 

Fantini told attendees at an Air Force Association event that the CFTs will focus on modernizing capabilities for combat power generation, logistics, cyber and space-related activities. He added that there are “elements of equivalency” between the planned teams and the eight CFTs under the Army Futures Command, which was established last year.

The Air Force teams’ creation come as the service continues efforts to develop next-generation air dominance technologies to combat potential threats from China and Russia.

The Department of Defense, General Services Administration and NASA are issuing an interim final rule prohibiting agencies from purchasing telecommunications and video surveillance equipment from selected Chinese vendors. The rule amends the Federal Acquisition Regulation to include a section of the fiscal 2019 National Defense Authorization Act and covers all existing indefinite-delivery/indefinite quantity contracts seeking services or equipment for securing and monitoring critical government infrastructure. 

Blacklisted companies under the regulation include Huawei, ZTE, Hytera Communications, Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology, Dahua Technology and all other related subsidiaries and affiliates. The rule also bans equipment or services that the defense secretary, director of national intelligence and FBI “reasonably believes to be an entity owned or controlled by, or otherwise connected to, the government of a covered foreign country.”

DoD, GSA and NASA are modifying the System for Award Management to implement visibility on vendors’ use of offerings from the blacklisted vendors.

Federal agencies are launching reskilling programs to provide employees new career opportunities in the field of information technology, Federal News Network reported Wednesday.

Dorothy Aronson, chief information officer at the National Science Foundation, said NSF is overseeing a pilot to assess an online learning platform, Udacity, to help volunteers from agencies learn the skills needed to become data scientists or data analysts. Aronson, who co-chairs the Federal CIO Council’s workforce committee, said NSF will conduct a survey to identify employees’ skills gaps in data science.

“We’re hoping to team people up to look across the federal government to find where various training opportunities are and leverage the existing training tools. But we want to meet people where they are instead of requiring them to be at a certain level before they begin.”

Meanwhile, the Department of Agriculture launched a Senior Executive Service candidate development program to develop the next generation of chief information security officers and CIOs. Selected candidates will undergo formal training, seminars and assessments as well as submit a portfolio to the CIO/CISO Executive Resources Board once they complete the program.

The Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency, formerly known as the Defense Security Service, plans to reduce small business engagement after merging with the National Background Investigations Bureau, FCW reported Wednesday. DCSA’s small businesses goal would drop from 65 percent to below 10 percent as NBIB transfers to the Department of Defense, Elizabeth Mudd, DCSA’s small business program manager, said at an Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association event.

Originally from the Office of Personnel Management, NBIB will move to DCSA to serve as the federal government’s sole provider of security clearance, Federal News Network reported. Mudd said the reduction aims to boost the number of subcontractors supporting four prime programs related to background investigation, with $804M in NBIB small business funds coming.

DCSA will fully adopt its background security responsibilities in fiscal year 2020, Mudd noted.