Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats has issued a new document that provides a strategic direction for 17 agencies within the intelligence community in the next four years.

The 2019 National Intelligence Strategy seeks to advance innovation, integration, partnerships and transparency within the IC in response to threats posed by adversaries, ODNI said Tuesday.

“As a community, we must become more agile, build and leverage partnerships, and apply the most advanced technologies in pursuit of unmatched insights. The 2019 NIS provides a roadmap to achieve this end,” said Coats, a 2019 Wash100 winner.

The strategy has seven mission objectives and those are cyber threat intelligence; strategic intelligence; counterintelligence and security; counterproliferation; current operations intelligence; anticipatory intelligence; counterterrorism; and strategic intelligence.

Integrated mission management; people; integrated business management; innovation; partnerships; privacy, civil liberties and transparency; and information sharing and safeguarding are the seven enterprise objectives of the strategy.

The document also establishes seven principles of professional ethics for the IC and those are mission; lawfulness; truth; excellence; diversity; integrity; and stewardship.
 

The Department of the Navy looks to establish a new executive role to address information technology and data matters, Federal News Network reported Monday.

Richard Spencer, secretary of the Navy, said the future assistant secretary for information management would have a larger role compared to a standard chief information officer. Although, the politically-appointed position’s specific functions still remain uncertain.

The potential role’s creation may require changes in organizational structure and in law, as the Navy is legally allowed to have only up to four assistant secretaries. The role’s announcement follows the DON’s removal of a standalone chief information officer from the department’s structure.

The U.S. Air Force launched a pilot program allowing private companies to handle information technology-related tasks assigned to service members, C4ISRNet reported Friday. The Enterprise IT as a Service program comes as part of the ongoing reorganization for the service. 

Service leaders stated that companies can help the Air Force maintain its IT infrastructure and manage day-to-day enterprise computing tasks, such as base infrastructure and email services under the program. They also noted moving IT tasks to contractors enables service members to focus on cyber defense.

Previously, Microsoft and AT&T received two contracts worth $121M combined to help the Air Force in its IT modernization efforts. Matt Donovan, CIO and undersecretary of the Air Force, said the service is also working on other reforms to improve its IT.

The Air Force aims to enforce structured data standards, establish a common digital backbone for data and information flow and change how it manages people and business systems to improve performance and affordability.

The American Medical Association published a study reflecting the reduction of wait time in government-based veteran health care compared to private sector clinics. The “Comparison of Wait Times for New Patients Between the Private Sector and United States Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Centers” covered 15 major metropolitan locations and focused on primary care, dermatology, cardiology and orthopedics, VA said Friday.

Results indicate shorter wait times between 2014 and 2017 for VA-based care services compared to private sector counterparts in primary care and specialty care areas except orthopedics. The average wait time for government-based orthopedics services is still longer than that of the private sector. The study also reflects increasing customer satisfaction in VA-based care services.

The U.S. Air Force’s 24th Special Operations Wing has collaborated with software firm TrainHeroic to deploy a mobile application helping Special Tactics operators communicate during deployments and humanitarian missions, the Air Force said Friday.

The app enables the human performance team to directly coordinate workout plans and adjustments via phone, laptop or tablet instead of having to print plans and wait for operators to return to obtain input. The Air Force noted the software standardizes Special Tactics missions and allows operators to avoid unnecessary adjustments when transferring units.

The 24th SOW’s human performance team has over 1,000 operators deployed to more than 10 locations around the world.

The Department of Health and Human Services has partnered with the Presidential Innovation Fellows for a 14-week program to develop data-driven tools streamlining healthcare operations, HHS said Thursday.

The Opportunity Project Health sprint saw 11 teams from around the world produce digital health-related tools utilizing emerging technology and curated datasets provided by the HHS and PIFs. Both sponsors enabled the teams to access federal data stewards as part of the tech sprint.

The first TOP Health challenge required eight teams to develop artificial intelligence-based tools to help patients access experimental therapies. The second task asked three teams to use citizen science and data-sharing capabilities to provide information on Lyme and tick-borne diseases.

HHS noted that industry and nonprofit organizations will sustain the digital tools on a long-term basis. The applications will be showcased during the upcoming “Demo Day” in Washington, D.C.

A new study from the Department of Defense highlights the potential impacts of climate change on military installations across the U.S. DoD said there has been a growing need for inland and littoral flood planning and mitigation efforts, research and flood protection infrastructures to address vulnerabilities of bases from climate-related events, according to the report released Jan. 10.

“The effects of a changing climate are a national security issue with potential impacts to DoD missions, operational plans and installations,” the agency said. 

For the study, the Pentagon analyzed natural events affecting 79 priority installations in the country to predict potential vulnerabilities over the next 20 years. DoD found that most of the sites have been experiencing recurrent flooding, drought, desertification, wildfires and thawing permafrost. The U.S. Air Force has the most bases affected by climate change, with 35 sites covered in the study, followed by the U.S. Army with 20 and the U.S. Navy manages 19 studied installations. 

To help the military branches and other defense agencies reduce climate-linked risks, DoD plans to launch new research efforts under its Strategic Environmental Research and Develop Program. The agency intends to apply, evaluate, improve scenarios and other tools for projecting impacts of sea level rise, storm surge, precipitation or land-based flooding at U.S. military sites. The Pentagon also wants to study materials fragility and implications for infrastructure design.

Dave Mihelcic, federal chief technology and strategy officer at Juniper Networks, has said the government shutdown could push potential new hires, technologists and other highly skilled employees to seek employment outside the federal government, Nextgov reported Friday.

“If this shutdown goes for much longer, you could see some of those best, most employable [people] fleeing,” he told Nextgov.

DHS’ homeland security management directorate has put approximately 90 percent of employees in furlough during the shutdown, which Mihelcic said comes during the “prime hiring season” for soon-to-be and recent graduates.

He also noted about the shutdown’s possible impact on the government’s image, including those of agencies that continue to operate.

“There just will be a more negative perception of the stability and security and viability of a career in the federal government coming out of this shutdown,” said Mihelcic, former chief technology officer at the Defense Information Systems Agency.