The Government Accountability Office has called on the Pentagon to implement joint oversight of military services’ pre-positioned stock programs to improve management of supplies across the world. The Department of Defense has been failing to synchronize how each service branch manages deployed supplies and equipment, which could lead to duplication of effort and inefficiency, GAO said in a new report issued Thursday. 

GAO highlighted that DoD was unable to address some of the requirements set by the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2014. The Pentagon failed to provide all the information required by the NDAA in program planning and that defense officials also let military services work on their own to implement their programs. GAO said the service branches to date manage their programs with little joint oversight.

To help improve management of military supplies, the government watchdog recommended that DoD provide the information required by the NDAA, a more detailed implementation plan and establish a joint oversight of pre-positioned stock programs. GAO added the Pentagon should also update Congress on the progress of its efforts.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has launched the Competency-Aware Machine Learning program intent on developing autonomous systems that can continuously and rapidly perform self-checks in unpredictable situations, DARPA said Thursday. The agency is looking for proposers to provide machine learning, artificial intelligence, pattern recognition and other capabilities for autonomous technology as part of the project.

According to DARPA, the program will result in a “force-multiplying effect” where humans and machine-learning based systems would collaborate efficiently in time-critical and constantly changing scenarios. Jiangying Zhou, program manager for DARPA’s Defense Sciences Office, said the dynamic can be useful for technologies such as self-driving vehicles, which require performance assessments while traveling in fluctuating natural conditions.

DARPA will hold a proposer’s day via pre-recorded webcast on Feb. 20. The research entity expects to release a broad agency announcement in mid-February.

The Department of Defense’s inspector general said there’s a growing interest across the Pentagon to conduct another agency-wide audit following the first assessment that found pervasive weaknesses, Federal News Network reported Thursday.

Carmen Malone, deputy assistant IG for audit and financial management readiness at DoD, said defense officials now understand the impact of the audit. “The biggest thing we’ve seen this year was tone at the top, from the secretary of defense all the way down to the commanders at the bases,” she said.  

DoD’s first agency-wide audit reported over 2,400 findings and recommendations, with nearly half of that number related to financial issues and the other focused on weaknesses of information technology systems. Malone said the Pentagon has required its components to have corrective action plans and timelines to resolve the issues. DoD has also established a centralized database to track the efforts and to maintain accountability over the deficiencies.

“Seeing that process that we’ve never seen before is huge,” Malone said. “If you’re making people focus on the corrective actions and ensuring that those corrective actions address the problem, you will make progress both in readiness towards the audit, in operations, in saving money.”

However, the DoD IG office warned the next audit might reveal more issues in 2019.

Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard, D-Calif., who chairs the U.S. House of Representatives’ Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee, listed a number of democrat-supported border security proposals. The proposals intend to balance investments within the Department of Homeland Security given a limited budget, Roybal-Allard’s office said Wednesday.

Proposed efforts include the addition of 1,000 new customs officers, new imaging technology to scan vehicles entering the country, new situational awareness technology and entry point repair projects. A number of proposals also aim to support programs of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the U.S. Coast Guard, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Transportation Security Administration. Among these programs are ones that may not receive funding if President Trump pushes through with the $5.7B allotment for border construction.

The Department of Agriculture has provided $200M in packages to 57 organizations to support farmers and ranchers securing export opportunities under an agricultural initiative. The Agricultural Trade Promotion program seeks to mitigate potential trading concerns for U.S. exporters and farmers, USDA said Thursday.

“This infusion will help us develop other markets and move us away from being dependent on one large customer for our agricultural products,” said Sonny Perdue, secretary of USDA.

The packages also include a food distribution service and a Market Facilitation Program that allows farmers to receive payments addressing tariff regulations. Members and organizations from different agricultural sectors are also eligible to participate in the program. President Trump approved U.S. agriculture programs worth $12B in value under a trade mitigation package in 2018.

The Department of Homeland Security’s science and technology directorate has incorporated over 9,700 software test cases into its marketplace platform to help developers assess their software based on real-world scenarios, DHS said Thursday.

The directorate finished integrating the test cases, known as BugInjector cases, from its Static Tools Analysis Modernization Project into the Software Assurance Marketplace as part of the objectives outlined in the DHS Cybersecurity Strategy and 2016 Federal Cybersecurity Research and Development Strategic Plan.

STAMP aims to rapidly provide static analysis tools for use in software development, while SWAP seeks to help software assurance experts and developers address vulnerabilities through capabilities such as realistic test cases. Both SWAMP and STAMP are research initiatives under S&T’s Software Assurance Program.

Users can avail of the BugInjector cases through the SWAMP website or GrammaTech, a software development tool provider based in New York and funded by S&T.

Dana Deasy, chief information officer of the Department of Defense, told the Senate Armed Services Committee that the Pentagon plans to conduct assessments of cybersecurity self-evaluation among defense suppliers, Federal News Network reported Wednesday. According to Deasy, the proposed new procedure will have the DoD evaluate vendors’ cybersecurity self-checks and give “confidence scores” on these assessments.

The CIO added that the Pentagon is also looking into using emerging technologies and enlisting the help of third-party companies to handle secondary assessments. 

In 2017, DoD mandated contractors to conduct self-assessments on compliance with the National Institute of Standards and Technology cybersecurity standards. The department doesn’t conduct evaluations on whether the firms accurately interpreted the security of their own systems. Deasy noted the effort to develop new cybersecurity procedures will be managed by the DoD’s office of the undersecretary for acquisition and sustainment.

The National Defense Authorization Act of 2019 has directed supply chain companies and academic entities to ramp up their efforts to thwart cyberattacks in their systems.

The Defense Information Systems Agency has distributed new biometric devices across military partners under a pilot program in partnership with Qualcomm, FCW reported Wednesday. The program disseminated 50 units of the device with Joint Interoperability Test Command among the recipients, Stephen Wallace, systems innovation scientist at DISA, told FCW.

The command is working to evaluate the device that uses multiple biometrics to authenticate users. It’s designed to analyze multiple user characteristics such as walking gait, facial structure and voice patterns, the report noted. Initial testing for the program with the 50 devices will conclude in the spring.