The U.S. Air Force is restructuring its information technology office to include new components that would assist the service’s chief information officer in the area of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, C4ISRNet reported Tuesday.

A new combined intelligence/IT office and a corresponding deputy CIO would take up duties divided from the primary CIO’s responsibilities.

Meanwhile, the CIO’s role will elevate as an Air Force undersecretary.

Bill Marion, deputy CIO of the Air Force, said at an Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association event that the new office would bring offensive, defensive and ISR communities together for full-spectrum information warfare.

Marion oversees a $17B portfolio covering 54,000 cyber operations, and leads the service branch’s IT investment strategy, as well as associated policy.

President Donald Trump has met with Defense Secretary James Mattis and chairmen of the House and Senate Armed Services Committees to discuss the administration’s plan to implement a $33B cut to the Pentagon’s fiscal 2020 budget, Defense News reported Tuesday.

“I had a frank and productive conversation about our national security goals with the president,” Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), SASC chairman, said in a statement.

“I am confident from the meeting that the president is determined to keep our nation strong and the military adequately funded,” he added.

HASC Chairman Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) joined Inhofe and Mattis during the Tuesday meeting with Trump at the White House.

CNN reported that the meeting was held after the administration called on the Department of Defense to come up with a $700B budget plan for fiscal 2020, which reflects a 5 percent reduction from DoD’s proposed spending request.

“The $733B figure was arrived by the department carefully looking at the requirements of the National Defense Strategy,” Lt. Gen. Frank McKenzie, Trump’s nominee to lead Central Command, told the Senate panel Tuesday.

McKenzie added that below that budget would raise risk that would be exhibited across the force.

The Washington Post initially reported news of the White House meeting.

The Internal Revenue Service has revamped its approach to identify, test, procure and deploy technology platforms that can support tax collection and management functions.

A FedBizOpps notice posted Thursday stated IRS aims to accelerate the timeline for the agency’s bid solicitation process and introduce multiple projects or contests through the Pilot IRS framework.

The agency will publish information about the outcomes, funded systems, potential applications and lessons learned on each project or solution challenge that will highlight an area of interest such as digitization and robotic process automation.

IRS seeks to inform participants of requirements and offer feedback on proposals within weeks rather than months. It also intends to communicate preliminary thoughts on offerings before making a funding decision.

Each project and challenge will receive $7M in total funds over a period of up to five years.

The Defense Department looks to accelearate space projects and leverage commercial technology platforms through the establisment of a new agency early next year, SpaceNews reported Tuesday.

Deputy Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan and Michael Griffin, DoD undersecretary for research and engineering, have said a Space Development Agency would help address military innovation challenges in that domain.

Shanahan wants the department to form SDA during the first quarter of 2019 and Griffin expects the proposed organization to operate under his office.

The DoD R&E chief is considering a potential transfer of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency‘s Blackjack military satellite program and the Missile Defense Agency‘s Space Sensor Layer research project to the SDA.

The U.S. Navy has commissioned DDG 116 or USS Thomas Hudner, the service branch’s 66th Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer.

The branch said Monday it commissioned the ship on Saturday during a ceremony in Boston where Thomas Hudner III, son of the vessel’s namesake, gave a speech.

Charlie Baker, governor of Massachusetts, administered the ceremony’s principal address.

Georgea Hudner, wife of the ship’s namesake, and Barbara Miller, former co-chair of the flag officer spouse training, ordered USS Thomas Hudner’s activation as the ship’s sponsors.

“While many would say that my father’s actions were an extraordinary act, my father never thought of himself or that action as extraordinary,” Hudner III said.

Capt. Thomas Hudner, a medal of honor recipient, crash landed his aircraft to save Ensign Jesse Brown, his wingman, in 1950 during the Battle of the Chosin Reservoir.

The ship will now proceed to its base of operations in Mayport, Fla.

General Dynamics‘ Bath Iron Works subsidiary built the ship.

The U.S. Navy plans to genetically engineer marine microorganisms to add the ability to react to its surroundings to signal the passage of enemy submarines, underwater vessels or divers, Defense One reported Saturday.

The Naval Research Laboratory is leading a study on abundant sea organisms that could react to substances left by vessels, divers or equipment, such as metals, fuel exhaust or human DNA. 

NRL researcher Sarah Glaven said the organisms may react through electron loss, which the Navy can detect with sensors on ships or autonomous vehicles.

The Navy launched the study as part of a $45M program with the Army and Air Force aimed at providing tools to engineer organisms that could support the military. 

However, Glaven noted the Navy has yet to provide evidence that it could engineer reactions in abundant marine life forms.

Meanwhile, the Army is looking at biology to allow soldiers to rapidly produce or print new camouflage coatings in the field to conceal equipment, according to Dimitra Stratis-Cullum, head of biomaterials team at the Army Research Laboratory.

Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson announced that the service completed the developmental review for its B-21 Long Range Strike Bomber program, Military.com reported Monday.

The official said at the recent Reagan National Defense Forum in Simi Valley, Calif., that the program remains on schedule following the review in late November. 

“We are pleased with how that program is going forward,” she said while attributing the progress to new acquisition authorities approved by Congress. 

Lawmakers recently provided new buying authorities to Air Force leaders to speed up decision-making and deployment of new technologies. 

Edwards Air Force Base in California and Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma will provide the facilities for test, evaluation, maintenance and sustainment of the B-21. 

Northrop Grumman’s facility in Melbourne, Fla., serves as the program’s design and development headquarters under a potential $55B contract awarded in 2015. 

The B-21 currently is in the engineering and manufacturing development phase, and the Air Force expects the first aircraft to reach initial operating capability in the mid-2020s.

Work continues within the Defense Intelligence Agency to build a new database to store intelligence data from across the globe for the U.S. defense intelligence enterprise, C4ISRnet reported Monday.

DIA is building the Machine-Assisted Analysis Rapid-Repository System to replace the agency’s legacy Modernized Intelligence Database.

The core database modernization will use agile acquisition with three to five pilots running concurrently to speed up the process, said Terry Busch, DIA MARS program manager.

The agency uses a three-pronged approach to build the new database, which focuses on government use cases, industry feedback and utilizing a test-bed environment to see how a data model appears on MARS.

DIA issued a broad agency announcement to industry this fall and will accept responses until December.

Busch said contracts may be released in 2019 to begin the pilots.