A new partnership between the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Center for Atmospheric Research intends to build a common infrastructure for climate modeling. The joint effort aims to foster collaboration and resource sharing between climate modeling scientists from public and private sectors, NOAA said Thursday. The new infrastructure would store shared models, avoid duplications and boost research efficiency for weather and climate forecasts.

“Historically, different architectures for developing weather and climate models across the public and private sector created challenges for implementing the very best systems quickly,” said Neil Jacobs, assistant secretary of commerce for environmental observation and prediction at NOAA. He added the infrastructure would streamline the process and provide a common set of tools for researchers and forecasters to accelerate model production.

NOAA is also looking to update the Global Forecasting System with a new community modeling-based dynamic core designed to drive up forecast accuracy.

President Trump intends to nominate Christopher Scolese, director of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, for the same position at the National Reconnaissance Office. Scolese has received numerous of NASA awards and held several leadership roles including associate administrator and chief engineer at the space agency, the White House said Thursday.

In 2009, he implemented the country’s civil space program during his nearly seven-month tenure as acting NASA administrator. The space sector leader also worked to align NASA’s policy with executive and legislative bodies, and regulated the agency’s engineering workforce.

The Defense Advance Research Projects Agency started phase two of the Secure Handhelds on Assured Resilient networks at the tactical Edge program aiming to protect crucial information on multiple security levels, FCW reported Thursday. The SHARE effort intends to access multiple security levels through one device connected to a tactical network to protect data exchanged with key coalition entities.

Joseph Evans, SHARE program manager working under DARPA’s strategic technology office, said the U.S. Army and U.S. Marine Corps will start testing around 100 of the new SHARE devices in June before a full transition to the military branches by 2020. Evans expects to receive feedback on the devices as well as their Android Windows Tactical Assault Kit GPS mapping interface that is deployed by the State Department and Department of Defense.

The SHARE project was built on discoveries made during DARPA’s Remote, Advise, and Assist program launched to help special forces and coalition partners collaborate on Islamic State counterterrorism missions.

Will Roper, assistant secretary of the U.S. Air Force for acquisition, technology and logistics, intends to train military program managers to understand software development and improve how the service acquires new technologies, Federal News Network reported Thursday. 

The official will work with the Air Force Education and Training Command to create formal certification for Air Force software leaders to participate in the tech acquisition process. Roper also wants to assign the officials as coding ambassadors, who will oversee systems development and procurement. 

“We train people to be acquisition professionals and we call them materiel leaders and senior materiel leaders. We have certifications that say you can have this much control, we don’t have that for software,” Roper said. 

In 2018, the Air Force established the Kessel Run hub in Boston, tasked with building and providing new software and applications to airmen. The service has plans for additional hubs in the future, including those planned for the Space and Missile Systems Center, the Air Force’s Distributed Common Ground System and the Air Force Sustainment Center.

Lisa Hershman, acting chief management officer at the Pentagon, said the agency’s fiscal year 2020 funding request will include a formal reform budget for the first time, Defense News reported Thursday. She said her office has over 50 reform initiatives focusing on the Office of the Secretary of Defense, fourth estate agencies and military departments.

“We’re actually giving a nod specifically to numbers allocated for reform. Let’s keep in mind, some of these, to make these big changes, might include some investment, but there’ll also be savings,” Hershman said.

In late fiscal 2017 and in fiscal 2018, the CMO’s office found $4.7B in validated savings from reform efforts across the Department of Defense. Hershman said the new initiatives included in DoD’s FY20 budget could slightly increase savings. Changes in regulations and statutes as well as streamlining the procurement process could also contribute to the future savings.

Hershman said her team found 249 regulations that if repealed would save nearly $25M on the process side. On the procurement side, the CMO suggested reviewing day-to-day expenses of DoD to address bureaucracy.

The Energy Department earmarked $35M to fund 12 projects aiming to deploy medium-voltage electricity for the electrical grid, transportation systems and other industry applications, DOE said Thursday. Eight of the projects will support the Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy’s Building Reliable Electronics to Achieve Kilovolt Effective Ratings Safely program, while four initiatives will aid in the OPEN+ Kilovolt Devices effort. 

The BREAKER projects will focus on producing direct current devices capable of handling large amounts of power, prevent safety hazards, mitigate distribution losses and enable the optimization of renewable resources and energy storage. The Kilovolt Devices efforts will address a range of issues in medium-voltage power electronics, with a focus on fortifying grid security. 

“These ARPA‑E projects serve first and foremost to modernize how we move power around safely, reliably and efficiently, creating a new set of capabilities for tomorrow’s utilities and industry,” said U.S. Secretary of Energy Rick Perry. 

DOE noted that most existing power distribution networks utilize alternating current instead of DC electricity. 

The Department of Defense is behind schedule reviewing data provided by contractors to help the agency avoid fraud, waste and abuse in military contracts, according to the Government Accountability Office. GAO issued a report Thursday showing that DoD is lacking the mechanism to monitor reviews and ensure the process is being conducted in a timely manner. 

Federal and defense acquisition regulations and policies require DoD to review the adequacy of contractor business systems that provide data on accounting, estimating and purchasing, among other systems. The Pentagon intends to catch up on the delayed reviews over the next three years, however, GAO has questioned the sufficiency and consistency of the defense agencies responsible for the reviews.

The Defense Contract Management Agency failed to monitor whether the reviews are being conducted consistent with current policies, while the Defense Contract Audit Agency conducted few business system audits than required since 2013. GAO recommended that DoD require the directors of DCMA and DCAA to collaborate and create a mechanism to monitor and assess whether contractor business systems reviews are completed on time.