The U.S. Navy is changing the mission of its MQ-8C Fire Scout rotary-wing unmanned systems to make Littoral Combat Ships more lethal to keep up with the changing warfare, USNI News reported Wednesday. In 2018, the service began the effort to shift Fire Scout away from missions to protect LCS. Instead, the aircraft will focus on providing targeting information to weapons aboard the ship. 

Previous plans intended to provide Fire Scouts with 70mm Hydra rockets equipped with the Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System guidance system. Under the new plan, the Navy is redesigning the aircraft to carry sensors to extend the range of LCS to find and track threats.

“What’s important to us right now is making sure we have the right sensors, a good multi-function radar, some kind of passive targeting capability and the right networks to push that information to the right people at the right times,” said Cmdr. Edward Johnson, the Navy’s Fire Scout requirements officer.

The Naval Air Systems Command is also considering using the Fire Scout on the Navy’s next-generation frigate, FFG(X), to provide the same targeting capability.

The General Services Administration has released an update on the industry feedback it received after a recent solicitation for its commercial platforms initiative. Laura Stanton, deputy assistant commissioner of Federal Acquisition Services, said in a recent blogpost that GSA received over 200 pages of comments on its planned development of a government wide e-commerce platform. 

In December, GSA released the RFI in partnership with the Office of Management and Budget. Stanton said the majority of comments focused on keeping the acquisition process simple, providing a competitive pricing, improving existing purchasing channels, expanding competition and product category concerns.

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Responses also raised major concerns about the data protection language in Section 838 of the Fiscal Year 2019 National Defense Authorization Act. Section 838 provides GSA the authority to develop competitive procedures for procurements made through commercial e-commerce portals under the micro-purchase threshold of $10,000.

“It was great to receive a significant level of feedback from various stakeholders, both in response to the draft program documents,” Stanton said. 

She added the feedback will help GSA move the e-commerce platform’s proof of concept forward. The agency along with OMB expect to submit to Congress the phase II report on the commercial platforms initiative in March.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology found that artificial intelligence-based tools could help commercial wireless providers and the U.S. Navy better manage radio frequency spectrum for communications. In a new paper issued Wednesday, NIST said demonstrations show that deep learning algorithms are working better than traditional tools to detect whether radars are operating or not, which allows commercial providers to better plan the allocation of 3.5 Gigahertz Band.

The Navy relies on automated detectors to detect radar signals from ships at sea. However, NIST said the technology lacks consistency and accuracy. For the demonstrations, NIST researchers explored the use of deep learning to improve communications. The team found that AI technology can be trained to recognize offshore radar signals. The technology also outperformed traditional detectors during tests. The researchers plan to continue training AI detectors with higher-resolution, more-detailed radar data.

Vice Adm. Thomas Moore, head of Naval Sea Systems Command, said the U.S. Navy won’t restore inactive destroyers, frigates and other combat vessels to meet the planned 355-ship fleet, the Military website reported Wednesday. He told reporters on Tuesday that the decision was based on a review conducted by service leaders of the Navy’s list of decommissioned vessels stored at ship maintenance facilities in Philadelphia; Pearl Harbor, Hawaii and Bremerton, Wash.

“I was just up in Philadelphia on Friday, and we concluded that the cost of bringing them back was pretty expensive. But more importantly, the capability of the platform itself just didn’t lend itself well,” Moore said. “With all the ships that we have, if you’re willing to do the maintenance on them, you can keep them a little longer.”

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Moore added that the Navy plans to extend the service lives of its current ships to meet the target 355-ship size by early 2030’s.

President Trump issued a new strategy to protect the U.S. aviation domain from cyber attacks, unmanned aircraft and other threats. The White House announced the release of the National Strategy for Aviation Security in a press statement published Wednesday.

The new strategy sets a framework to implement an integrated approach to safeguard the aviation ecosystem and facilitate aviation-related activities supporting the U.S. economy. NSAS has four strategic objectives: protect the U.S. and its global interests in the aviation ecosystem; maximize aviation security while maintaining aviation safety and balancing economic impact; improve resilience, expedite recovery and mitigate damage and engage domestic, international and private sector partners.

The document also sets four strategic actions to maximize domain awareness; assess vulnerabilities and threats; strengthen layered aviation security; ensure continuity and promote resilience of the aviation domain. 

Adm. Christopher Grady, head of the U.S. Fleet Forces Command, said during the WEST 2019 conference he intends to create a Fleet Analytics Office supporting the U.S. Navy fleet readiness efforts, USNI reported Tuesday. Grady noted that the new office will use real-time reporting systems to handle data collection and risk assessment operations under the Revolutionize Readiness Campaign Plan initiative.

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He added that he wants to appoint a chief readiness officer to oversee enterprises such as information warfare, aviation, submarine, surface and expeditionary programs. Other readiness objectives outlined by Grady include the use of metrics to measure improvements in operational readiness, structural readiness and foundry readiness.

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Operational readiness focuses on fleet warfighting capabilities while structural readiness involves establishing relationships to aid the Navy during challenges. Foundry readiness revolves around operations at the shipyard level. Grady noted that appropriate metrics will help Navy personnel understand “how any one unit’s readiness affects the fleet’s ability to perform its wider mission.”