The General Services Administration has partnered with the Department of Housing and Urban Development to help HUD modernize its information technology systems through the Centers of Excellence program.

The technology transformation services at GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service will help HUD assess IT challenges and requirements through a discovery sprint and leverage the CoE model to support IT modernization efforts, GSA said Tuesday.

The Agriculture Department serves as the first “lighthouse” agency for the five CoEs.

GSA Administrator Emily Murphy said the agency will build on CoE-related work it has started at USDA to implement best practices at HUD.

“This first phase will help us identify the upgrades we need to bring our technology systems and accounting procedures into the 21st century,” said Irv Dennis, chief financial officer at HUD.

GSA issued requests for quotes in July in support of the CoE program’s second phase at USDA and plans to announce the Phase II awards in the next few weeks.
 

The U.S. Air Force has started employing data analytics to predict problems in aircraft as part of a broader effort to implement a new maintenance approach for the service’s aviation fleet, Defense News reported Wednesday.

Lt. Gen. Robert McMurry, commander of the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, said in a Sept. 18 interview that the Air Force has applied 100 algorithms on the B-1B Lancer bomber and C-5 Super Galaxy cargo plane to determine which parts need to be repaired before they begin showing vulnerabilities.

The effort follows the Air Force Materiel Command’s decision to leverage a conditions-based maintenance model to address increasing issues with aircraft mishaps.

The Air Force selected the B-1B and C-5 planes to test the new maintenance approach because they have older and smaller inventories, as well as various technical problems.

McMurry reported that the new sustainment model has started delivering benefits to the maintainers of the two aircraft, such as reducing troubleshooting operations and costs.

He added that the service seeks to use other aircraft fleets to further test the conditions-based maintenance model during fall.

The leaders of the House and Senate Armed Services Committees have asked the Defense Department to delay the implementation of a proposed rule that seeks to compensate contractors based on performance, Breaking Defense reported Tuesday.

“We should not make it harder to do business with the Department of Defense than it is to do business with other parts of government — and that’s exactly what this regulation does,” HASC Chairman Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) told reporters Tuesday.

Thornberry and SASC Chairman Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) expressed their concerns over the proposed policy through a Sept. 24 letter sent to Deputy Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan.

Ellen Lord, defense undersecretary for acquisition and sustainment, said in a recent interview that DoD plans to use performance payments as an incentive to contractors that meet the requirements under the proposed rule, which is slated for implementation later this year.

Thornberry said Congress has asked DoD to provide data on contractor payments.

“Let’s hold this off until we can all look at the facts, and then we’ll take a new look at what makes sense based on what the data shows,” he added.
 

The U.S. Marine Corps could see its F-35B fighter jets take off for an initial combat mission in the next few days after an amphibious assault ship started its voyage toward the Persian Gulf, CNN reported Wednesday.

Defense officials told the publication that the Lockheed Martin-built F-35B aircraft aboard the USS Essex ship could be deployed soon to support airstrikes in Afghanistan.

The report said USMC declared its short takeoff, vertical landing variant of F-35 combat ready in 2015.

The Marines transferred the first F-35B fighter attack squadron from Arizona to Japan in January 2017 as part of the service’s worldwide deployment effort.
 

Jim Evangelos, deputy director of standards at the Joint Tactical Networking Center, has said he seeks to leverage modular open systems to develop modern tactical radios, Federal News Radio reported Tuesday.

Evangelos plans to make the next generation of tactical radio systems interoperable across the U.S. military as they are used similarly as software applications.

However, he explained that vendors currently do not see profit from an open systems architecture.

A working group within the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense seeks to incorporate modular open systems in the contracting language to encourage private companies to invest in the technology.

“And what drives all of this at the end of the day is cost,” Evangelos said.

He added that reusing the same components would reduce efforts for developing software, as well as decrease costs of large complex systems.

The Department of Energy has recently earmarked $5.8M to fund research and development initiatives in a bid to design technologies aiming to boost the resilience of the nation’s power grid. 

The DOE said Tuesday the funding opportunity announcement, which supports the department’s Office of Electricity Transmission Reliability program, seeks to invest in applications that leverage artificial intelligence, machine learning and big data platforms to secure grid and grid sensor health.

Specifically, the DOE will provide funding allocation to support projects that aim to create tools and mechanisms that sustain grid analytics and scaling; grid asset management and automated controls that can help system operators prevent grid outages, maintain operations and address costs.

Interested private sector parties may submit proposals until Nov. 9.

 

 

The Department of Energy has awarded 85 research contracts worth a total of $218M to academic institutions and the department’s national laboratories to conduct studies in quantum information science.

The department said Monday the contract awards align with the Trump administration’s plan to advance research in quantum computing, which could lead to innovations in computer and information processing and other technologies.

The awards cover various assignments such as developing systems for modern quantum computers, identifying new materials that possess special quantum elements and determining the purpose of QIS in understanding cosmic phenomena. 

Energy Secretary Rick Perry said investing in quantum computing research will allow the U.S. to become leaders in the field.

The Advanced Scientific Computing Research, Basic Energy Sciences and High Energy Physics programs of the DOE’s Office of Science are managing the contract awards.

The U.S. Army is mulling plans to allocate $31.6B in fiscal 2020 funds to help the service branch update its combat vehicle and helicopter fleets, Bloomberg Government reported Monday.

The Office of the Secretary of Defense would still have to give its approval of the service’s budget request before the funding request can be included in the official Defense Department fiscal 2020 budget proposal in February, the report said.

The Army is considering the appropriation of an additional $7.5B for research and development efforts for the next five years, which includes funding for the Army Futures Command in Austin, Texas.

The service branch also wants to give $2.36B to its Future Vertical Lift program and $1.2B to R&D efforts on its next-generation combat vehicle.

In addition, the Army wants to allocate $3.8B for procurement of the next-generation combat vehicle over a five-year period, and $1.4B and $1.3B for upgrades to General Dynamics‘ Abrams tank and Stryker combat vehicle, respectively.

The report said the DoD will be subjected to budget caps for fiscal 2020 and 2021.