The U.S. Air Force, Coast Guard and Navy are updating individual Arctic strategies to expand their military presence in the region amid the growing threats of Russia and China, USNI News reported Wednesday.

The military has been facing challenges in deploying ships and building infrastructures in the Arctic due to logistics and the tyranny of distance, according to service officials. 

Retired Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Paul Zukunft suggested that the Pentagon increases private-public partnerships to support Arctic operations, missions and stationing.

The three service branches mainly aim to build new ports and other facilities around Alaska to support such missions. 

The Air Force already started moving F-35A Lighting II Joint Strike Fighters to support F-22s and F-16s currently stationed in the state. The service is also expected to deploy up to 10,000 airmen to the region.

Meanwhile, Navy Secretary Richard Spencer said his service might spend $1.3B to establish its presence on an island in the Aleutians off the Alaskan coast. 

For the Coast Guard, its expanding Arctic presence will focus on deploying capabilities to monitor and protect territorial waters, such as icebreaker ships.

Russia and China reportedly are modernizing military installations and ships to operate in Arctic waters.

The Coast Guard plans to release its updated Arctic strategy at the National Press Club in December, while Air Force and Navy officials expect to issue their strategies in early 2019.

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.