Air Combat Command will combine this summer its 24th and 25th air forces to integrate cyber, electronic warfare, information operations and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance activities at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland in Texas, the Air Force reported Thursday.

“The merger of 24th and 25th is the next step in leveraging and integrating new ideas and technologies to both improve the quality and speed of decision-making and deliver improved effects for commanders,” said Gen. Mike Holmes, commander of Air Combat Command. “This formalizes the existing collaborations between cyber and ISR while expanding our competitive space in EW and IO, also improving readiness and increasing lethality across the range of military operations – all vital to the success of multi-domain warfighting in the 21st century,” Holmes added.

The integration seeks to provide more options for combatant commanders, support National Defense Strategy priorities and deliver the first information warfare numbered air forces to establish the service branch’s ability to provide electromagnetic spectrum capabilities.

Christopher Krebs, director of the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and 2019 Wash100 Award winner, said DHS plans to unveil a new personnel system in late 2019 to provide agency officials “capabilities to hire people based on their skill sets, not what’s on a piece of paper,” Nextgov reported Thursday.

“I need a different set of hiring authorities and that’s part of what we’re doing,” Krebs said Thursday during the Forcepoint Cybersecurity Leadership Forum. Krebs said the proposed Cyber Talent Management System would help the department recruit cyber professionals on a continuous basis.

DHS expects the new system to accelerate the hiring process for cyber employees and employ at least 150 cyber professionals by the end of fiscal year 2020, according to the department’s budget request obtained by the publication.

The Wash100 award, now in its sixth year, recognizes the most influential executives in the GovCon industry as selected by the Executive Mosaic team in tandem with online nominations from the GovCon community. Representing the best of the private and public sector, the winners demonstrate superior leadership, innovation, reliability, achievement and vision.

Visit the Wash100 site to learn about the other 99 winners of the 2019 Wash100 Award. On the site, you can submit your 10 votes for the GovCon executives of consequence that you believe will have the most significant impact in 2019.

The Department of Defense has begun the development of low-yield submarine-launched nuclear cruise missiles, USNI News reported Wednesday.

John Rood, undersecretary of policy at the Department of Defense, said the U.S. military also requested funding through fiscal year 2020 to perform low-yield alteration to existing ballistic missiles and warheads deployed on submarines. Rood also noted in a Senate Armed Services strategic forces subcommittee hearing that China and Russia started modernization efforts for their nuclear weaponry, including low-yield missiles.

“The sub-launched cruise missile is further behind, and we’re just doing an AoA or analysis of alternatives at this stage,” said Rood.

Representatives Adam Smith and Susan Davis are questioning the need for low-yield missiles, stating the currrent U.S. nuclear weaponry is sufficient.

The General Services Administration revised a special item number on IT Schedule 70 to provide federal agencies access to information technology professional services related to cloud adoption and management.

The updated Cloud SIN 132-40 includes labor categories and services associated with cloud-related work such as assessment of cloud platforms, workload refactoring, migration of legacy systems to the cloud, DevOps and development of cloud-based applications, GSA said Monday. Such services could be added to the revised Cloud SIN through a new order or modification.

“Contractors may propose other types of relevant services, as long as they are specifically designed to work within and/or support the type of cloud products offered under 132-40,” the agency noted.

The updated Cloud SIN gives a clearer interpretation of the term “measured service,” which is one of the five essential characteristics of the cloud as defined by the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

Scott Gottlieb, commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, announced the release of a discussion paper as the agency considers developing new regulatory framework to advance the development of artificial intelligence-based medical devices.

“We are exploring a framework that would allow for modifications to algorithms to be made from real-world learning and adaptation, while still ensuring safety and effectiveness of the software as a medical device is maintained,” Gottlieb said in a statement published Tuesday. 

He said the proposed framework intends to assure that algorithm changes use a validation process to ensure the effectiveness and safety of AI-based software and adhere to pre-specified performance goals and promote performance monitoring once the device enters the market. 

The FDA also plans to assess predetermined change control plan for software to offer detailed data on the types of anticipated changes based on the AI algorithm’s update and retraining strategy. Gottlieb noted the agency plans to issue draft guidance based on feedback it receives on the discussion paper. 

The Nuclear Command, Control and Communications Enterprise Center received initial operability status from the U.S. Strategic Command on April 3. The facility serves to restructure decision making, situation oversight, planning, force direction and management for nuclear command functions, STRATCOM said Wednesday.

Elizabeth Durham-Ruiz, NC3 Enterprise Center director for STRATCOM, said the designation is part of the command’s plans to provide reinforced NC3 capacities within the 21st century.

“The center was created to help break down stovepipes in NC3 operations across the Defense Department,” she said. “We want to bring a whole-of-government approach to NC3 as we focus on operations, requirements, systems engineering and integration and analytics for the entire enterprise.”

The Department of Defense instructed the command to enact the NC3 Governance Improvement Implementation Plan, an initiative that creates program roles, provides direction to government partners and establishes the foundation for the center.