Sens. Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., and Jack Reed, D-R.I., have announced the Senate Armed Services Committee’s intention to conduct an early nomination hearing for David Norquist, a 2019 Wash100 Award recipient and President Trump’s pick for deputy secretary of defense. SASC said Thursday that it will host the nomination hearing on Wednesday, July 24 to provide advice and consent. Norquist currently holds the role on an acting basis. 

“The Deputy Secretary of Defense is the number-two civilian role at the Pentagon, so it’s incredibly important to receive a formal nomination and confirm the nominee quickly,” said Inhofe who chairs the committee.

The committee normally administers voting seven days after nominations, but have decided to accelerate the process due to the role’s significance. He added that the committee must strictly examine received nominations despite the urgency.

Reps. Jim Baird, R-Ind., Haley Stevens, D-Mich., and Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., introduced a bill to support small business research and development programs. The Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer Improvements Act would require the Small Business Association to annually report to Congress on SBIR and STTR programs, Baird’s office said Wednesday. The bill would also task the Department of Defense to foster technological innovation across these programs with a focus on manufacturing and cybersecurity.

“The Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer Improvements Act will make these programs even stronger by increasing accountability, prioritizing cybersecurity and promoting diversity among grant award recipients,” said Stevens, who chairs the House’s Research and Technology Subcommittee.

Vice Adm. Scott Buschman, commander of the U.S. Coast Guard’s Atlantic area, has said the service is still looking to repair its facilities damaged by three hurricanes two years ago, Federal News Network reported Wednesday.

Buschman noted that Coast Guard facilities in the Virgin Islands, South and North Carolina, Puerto Rico, Florida and Texas are yet to fully recover from the impact of hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria. He added the Coast Guard wants to reconstruct its damaged bases by hardening or elevating them to avoid water and weather-related damages.

“We are looking at making sure that wherever we rebuild a facility that we can rebuild the resiliency standard so they can survive future storm that might impact that area,” he said.

The Coast Guard is also working on deploying unmanned aerial systems for disaster response and modernizing the service’s information technology infrastructure.

The U.S. Army has approved the draft of a capabilities development document for assault helicopters intended to support the service branch’s Future Vertical Lift program, DefenseNews reported Wednesday. The Army seeks to purchase and field two long-range assault aircraft units to replace its AH-64 Apache and UH-60 Black Hawk fleet.

Additionally, the service branch requires a detailed schedule to speed up the deployment of the helicopters. The military service will conduct an industry day on July 31 to explain the requirements and specifications of the planned aircraft. The Army anticipates to issue a request for proposals at the said date.

Aside from FVL, the Army has launched efforts to replace its legacy combat vehicles and long-range precision missile platforms.

The Department of Defense is looking for a nonprofit organization to conduct audits and train contractors to comply with soon-to-be established Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification standards, Fedscoop reported Wednesday. The CMMC guidelines will have five levels intended to assess cybersecurity measures implemented by businesses seeking opportunities with DoD.

“We are making security a part of that discussion,” said Katie Arrington, special assistant to the assistant secretary of defense acquisition for cyber. “In fact, it is paramount to that discussion.”

Arrington expects the selected third-party entity to begin certification operations by January 2020.

The Government Accountability Office recommends that the Army Futures Command track small business engagements and bolster coordination with other U.S. Army components. GAO said Wednesday that it found the new command, despite supporting small businesses, does not maximize the use of Army expertise such as that of the service’s Office of Small Business Programs.

Futures Command aligns with the service’s branch’s recognition of small businesses, with $2.3B in Army awards covering small business efforts between fiscal 2013 and 2017. However, the command does not track the frequency of of small business engagements involving all its research and development efforts.

GAO said that engagement tracking would support the command’s capacity to evaluate and possibly improve small business activities. The accountability office urges Futures Command’s commanding general to formalize personnel functions on small business coordination.

Gen. Paul Selva, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said at a Brookings Institute event that the efforts to miniaturize satellites are helping to reduce costs in constructing and deploying large constellations, C4ISRnet reported Thursday. Selva noted that this may result in broadband services hosted by low-Earth orbit satellites that are cheaper compared to fiber-optic networks.

“But it’s not just miniaturization. It’s integration, so the capacity to make a small satellite that will do multiple things,” he said. “Similarly, if you want to specialize that same satellite, the integration of sensors into storage and transmission methodologies that allow you to build a much more elegant sensor on a smaller platform that demands less power.”

The Department of Defense intends to deploy LEO constellations to support military communications and missile warning operations. Previously, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency launched a program called Blackjack aiming to launch 20 smallsats carrying a range of DoD payloads as part of a commercial constellation.