The U.S. Air Force already saw progress in accelerating acquisition processes, mainly in software development that now takes just weeks or months compared to previous methods that require years before fielding new tools, Federal News Network reported Wednesday.

Senior officials said the service aims to cut all of its acquisition programs to just 100 years. However, they found new strategies that they believe could cut 62 years from the existing schedules to buy technologies for the military.

The Air Force currently is utilizing agile development, rapid prototyping and Software-as-a-Service, said Susan Thornton, director for information dominance programs in the office of the Air Force’s assistant secretary for acquisition.

Contracting offices are also being integrated into the single contract management tool, called CON IT, to help speed up the buying process. 

Such tools already enabled the U.S. Southern Command to award more than 14,000 contracts in less than nine months.

The Air Force also established a new a program executive office in September to promote agile Dev-Ops methodologies across the service’s acquisition enterprise. The office currently manages nearly 100 acquisition programs.

The Department of Health and Human Services has developed an acquisition tool called HHS Accelerate that uses blockchain technology, machine learning and artificial intelligence, FCW.com reported Wednesday.

HHS Accelerate is designed to provide information such as terms and conditions and pricing data for 10 purchase categories across the department in real-time.

Jose Arrieta, associate deputy assistant secretary for the HHS Division of Acquisition, said Tuesday at an FCW event he expects the procurement tool to get an “authority to operate” certification within next week.

Arrieta said his team conducted tests on the new platform and used machine learning technology to connect contract systems. He said the estimated return on initial investment is at 800 percent.

The Department of Defense has proposed a rule that aims to set restrictions on the use of the lowest price technically acceptable approach in the source-selection process.

A Federal Register notice published Tuesday says DoD introduced the rule as an amendment to Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement to comply with the provisions of the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal years 2017 and 2018.

Under the proposed regulation, agencies can only use the LPTA process if the minimum requirements are presented in terms of standards, measures and performance objectives that will be used to assess offers.

The approach will apply to products that are “predominantly expendable in nature, are nontechnical, or have a short life expectancy or short shelf life” and will be used if an agency does not see any additional technological advantage with regard to the implementation of other vendor-selection processes.

According to the notice, the proposed LPTA restrictions would cover commercial items procured through FAR part 12 procedures and orders placed through Federal Supply Schedules using FAR subpart 8.4 processes.

The department will accept feedback on the proposed rule through Feb. 4.
 

The U.S. Air Force is looking to station the F-35 Lightning II Hybrid Product Support Integrator organization at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.

The HPSI organization provides product support for all F-35 users including joint and international customers, USAF said Tuesday.

“Wright-Patterson Air Force Base has the trained acquisition professionals with the right fighter aircraft experience to run this organization for DoD’s Joint Program Office,” said Heather Wilson, secretary of the Air Force.

The organization works to globally support the entirety of the aircraft’s supply chain, maintenance and sustainment activities, logistics information technology and training.

USAF will decide on the organization’s final location after conducting a requisite environmental analysis.

The service branch also considers Robins AFB as a potential alternative location for HPSI.

The Trump administration has announced a strategy that aims to drive innovation by promoting science, technology, engineering and mathematics education.

The plan, titled Charting a Course for Success: America’s Strategy for STEM Education, is intended to keep the U.S. at the top of innovation and economy, the White House said Tuesday.

The effort directs federal agencies to work with STEM communities in promoting all paths under the broad area, and fortify the country’s STEM workforce.

The administration developed the plan based on comments from students, teachers, academic executives, parents, government officials and industry leaders.

Researchers from the National Institute of Standards and Technology have performed an analysis of the threats affecting modern communication and wearable devices that public safety officers use when performing their duties.

The threat analysis is part of a new NIST study entitled “Security Analysis of First Responder Mobile and Wearable Devices,” a draft version of which has recently been made available for public comment.

In the threat analysis, Joshua Franklin, Gema Howell, Scott Ledgerwood and Jaydee Griffith list different kinds of events that could affect a mobile or wearable device and associate each threat with a systemic or procedural vulnerability.

The researchers then characterize each threat in terms of how severely it may affect either data confidentiality, integrity or availability. Impact severity changes depending on which public safety service is using the affected device.

Next, the authors of the study describe the nature of the threat event —  whether it is the result of an attack, human error, hardware or software failure, or a natural disaster — and predict its likelihood of occurrence.

Franklin and his co-authors point out that “[by] understanding the threats and risks posed to public safety systems and their users, life-threatening scenarios can be prevented from escalating due to malicious or accidental failures of technology.”

The proponents of the study also called for “robust and innovative mitigations for the threats identified within this report, along with practical guidance for their implementation.”