NASA‘s Solutions for Enterprise-Wide Procurement contract, the agency’s governmentwide procurement vehicle, has remained operational despite the government’s shutdown, FCW reported Tuesday.

Joanne Woytek, SEWP’s program manager, told FCW that the vehicle’s main federal customers continue buying services via SEWP amid the shutdown. SEWP operations are performing near a normal standard. Woytek added that the vehicle’s main contract is 95 percent staffed. The program manager said she cannot visualize impacts to SEWP in the short-term, but notes that effects may surface if the shutdown lasts for months.

“So clearly at some point if the shutdown continues, we will see fewer orders and, unless purchasing increases from the open agencies, overall dollar amounts will decrease,” she said.

SEWP’s major customers include the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs.

The U.S. Navy test-fired 20 hyper velocity projectiles from guided missile destroyer USS Dewey into the Pacific Ocean last summer, USNI News reported Tuesday.

The ship fired the missiles from its Mk 45 naval gun as part of the effort to expand the weapon’s utility against unmanned aircraft and cruise missiles, the report noted. The test was also part of the Rim of the Pacific 2018 international exercise that united the naval forces of more than 20 nations. The HVP’s purpose is to launch from electromagnetic railguns.

The Department of Defense sees the possibility of a new near-hypersonic missile defense weapon that would launch the HVP, the report noted.

The Department of Energy‘s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy is investing $25M in 12 research and development efforts on marine energy technologies. These technologies would generate electricity from different forms of marine energy including waves, tides and currents, DOE said Tuesday.

“Advancing next-generation marine energy will help the U.S. ensure a secure, reliable, and enduring supply of American energy,” said Mark Menezes, undersecretary of energy.

The department intends to support economic development, boost the energy grid’s resiliency and refine the country’s port and coastal infrastructure. The effort is divided into three categories: early stage device design, controls and power take off design integration and testing and dissemination of environmental data and analyses to facilitate the marine energy regulatory process.

Recipients of funds under the effort include:

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• AWS Ocean Energy
• Atargis Energy
• CalWave Power Technologies
• Columbia Power Technologies
• Florida Atlantic University
• Kearns and West
• Littoral Power Systems
• North Carolina State University
• Oscilla Power
• Portland State University
• Texas A&M University
• University of Hawaii

The Department of Defense’s office of inspector general has released a new report to help non-auditors understand the findings of the first departmentwide financial audit in fiscal year 2018.

A team of over 1K auditors visited more than 600 DoD sites and evaluated over 90K sample items and found that 13 of the 21 DoD reporting entities received disclaimers of opinion, which means that an auditor fails to obtain sufficient audit evidence on which to base an opinion, according to the report released Tuesday.

Five of the reporting entities secured “clean” or unmodified opinions, while one organization received a qualified opinion and the other two failed to complete the audits.

DoD IG said it expects audit opinions on the Defense Information Systems Agency’s General Fund and Working Capital Fund to be issued in January.

The five DoD components that received unmodified opinions are the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers-Civil Works, Defense Health Agency-Contract Resource Management, Military Retirement Fund, Army Sub-Allotted and the Defense Logistics Agency Sub-Allotted.

As of Nov. 30, the inspector general and auditors from independent public accounting firms issued approximately 2.4K notifications of findings and recommendations to DoD components.

Auditors classified the NFRs and identified 129 material weaknesses. Most of the weaknesses are related to information technology, such as security management, system changes and inadequate controls over access, the report noted.

Other material weaknesses identified include universe of transactions; inventory and related property; Fund Balance with Treasury; and financial statement compilation.
The report also noted that reporting entities recorded 37 episodes of non-compliance with laws and regulations.
 

The commander of the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command has said that the service is looking to major urban centers around the country to increase its recruitment figures, National Defense reported Tuesday.

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Speaking at a Jan. 7 forum that the Association of the United States Army hosted, Gen. Stephen Townsend said that the Army is targeting cities like Boston, Chicago and Los Angeles with the aim of attracting 18 to 24-year-old recruits.

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Townsend also said that the service is improving its presence on social media, noting that “Americans are tech and social media savvy and our Army has not been”.

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The U.S. Army decided to embark on the effort after it failed to reach its recruitment objective in 2018.

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Last year, 70K volunteers signed up for the service, which, according to Townsend, is “more soldiers than we’ve enlisted in well over a decade”.

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The Army’s goal for the year, however, was 76.5K.

The Kessel Run Experimentation Laboratory seeks civilian personnel to help the U.S. Air Force address software matters that affect various weapon and information systems. Kessel Run intends to hire 50 new employees during an event taking place on Jan. 23 to 24 as part of an expansion effort in Boston, Mass., Wright-Patterson Air Force Base said Friday.

The laboratory has opened 18 different types of jobs including program management, software engineering, data engineering and product design. Adam Furtado, lab director at Kessel Run, said that they will work to further refine the F-35 aircraft’s air operations center software.

Individuals interested to apply may register here.

The Department of Energy will award 189 research and development grants worth a total of $33M in support of the Office of Science’s efforts to study the feasibility of new technology, DOE said Monday.

The department will select 149 small businesses in 32 states to participate in R&D programs for the Office of Advanced Scientific Computing, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Office of Biological and Environmental Research and Office of Nuclear Physics. Grants under the program’s first phase will run for six to 12 months and have a median amount of $150K.

The firms who were successful may apply in fiscal year 2020 for phase two grants which will focus on the development of prototypes or processes that build on the companies’ phase one findings. The phase two grants have a $1.1M median amount and will run for up to two years.

DOE will provide funding for the grants through its Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer programs.