The U.S. Air Force plans to test in October a new process that aims to speed up contract awards to startups and small businesses within days, FlightGlobal reported Friday.

Will Roper, assistant secretary for the service’s acquisition, technology and logistics, said the process would involve a call for startups to present their ideas in one or two pages and pitch their concepts through a “90-second video like Kickstarter.”

“We’ll invite them to come pitch live and the idea will be 60 to 80% [of companies] have a high likelihood walking out of a live pitch being on contract that day,” he added.

The report said the military branch intends to have the Air Force Research Laboratory run a trial of the process by the end of October to award up to 50 contracts within 50 hours.
 

The White House seeks more comments on a proposal to establish an advanced research center that will leverage practices and innovations from the private sector to resolve problems in the federal government, NextGov reported Thursday.

Mary Ellen Wiggins, performance manager in the Office of Management and Budget, disclosed during a Government Executive-hosted event that the public sector wants to learn more about the planned Government Effectiveness Advanced Research center’s governance structure, physical location and funding initiatives.

The White House received over 40 responses to its request for information that was issued in July.

The government will possibly launch a challenge on how to establish the GEAR center once all the responses to the RFI have been reviewed, Wiggins said.

Establishing the research facility is part of the Trump administration’s government reorganization plan.

Rep. Jody Hice, R-Ga., has introduced a bill that would give the Trump administration authority to formally present governmentwide reorganization plans to Congress.

The Reforming Government Act also calls for the legislators to expedite the review of such proposal and for the Office of Management and Budget to validate if reform efforts will likely save taxpayers money, Hice’s office said Sept. 14.

Sens. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., and James Lankford, R-Okla., introduced a companion bill in June.

“In order to streamline our government and save valuable taxpayer dollars, we must enable a system of good governance focused on results rather than the same burdensome, ineffective approach,” Hice said.

Alan Thomas, commissioner of the General Services Administration’s Federal Acquisition Service, told Federal News Radio in an interview published Thursday about the factors he looks for in proposals for the next round of awards under the Technology Modernization Fund.

“I’m always focused on if someone will spend money with an industry partner, I’m looking at what vehicle are they using, is it shovel ready, and I tend to be a little bit of stickler on payback,” he told the station’s Ask the CIO program.

“The fund doesn’t revolve if the money isn’t paid back.”

He also shared his views on GSA’s Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions contract and cited the metrics he considers when it comes to EIS.

“From my perspective, vendors have to be ready to respond to solicitations, and agencies actually have to have the solicitations to put them on the street,” Thomas noted.

“So those are a couple of key metrics that I do look at.”
 

Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden has asked Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and three other lawmakers to support legislation that would permit the U.S. Senate Sergeant at Arms to secure the personal accounts and devices of senators and their staff from hacking.

Sen. Wyden explained in a letter dated Sept. 19 that the SAA was legally prohibited from using public funds to provide protection for electronics and accounts that were not issued by the government.

Wyden’s office learned of this restriction after the sergeant at arms refused to help several senators and senate employees when their private emails were attacked by foreign agents.

Wyden insisted that, with the November elections fast approaching, and in light of the continuing cyber threat posed by foreign actors, “[this] approach must change to keep up with changing world realities.”

Wyden went on to call on Sen. McConnell, Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, Sen. Roy Blunt and Sen. Amy Klobuchar to “support legislation that I am introducing to permit the SAA to provide cybersecurity assistance to senators and staff, on an opt-in basis, for their personal devices and accounts.”

The U.S. Navy is set to christen the LCS 22 or the future USS Kansas City littoral combat ship this Saturday in Mobile, Ala.

Tracy Davidson, wife of Adm. Philip Davidson who leads the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, will perform the christening as sponsor of the latest Independence variant LCS, the Navy said Thursday.

Austal USA began the construction of LCS 22 in November 2017.

The ship will be the second naval vessel to carry the name of Kansas City, following a Wichita-class replenishment ship that served in the Vietnam War.

Patrick Shanahan, deputy secretary of defense, said that cybersecurity will become the Defense Department‘s key basis in evaluating the defense industry, Fifth Domain reported Wednesday. His comments come as the Pentagon urges the industry to boost its cybersecurity focus, in support of a new cyber strategy.

Shanahan added that contractors belonging to the industry’s top tier are responsible for managing the supply chain and helping lower tier firms maintain security in products.

The DoD is implementing a new cybersecurity strategy aiming to address cyber threats posed by foreign competitors such as China and Russia.

This strategy is intended to increase force lethality, grow partnerships, reform the department, develop talent and help the U.S. compete in cyber space.

Lt. Gen. Steven Kwast, commander of the Air Education and Training Command, has said AETC intends to integrate artificial intelligence in the U.S. Air Force’s pilot training program, Federal News Radio reported Wednesday.

The command has tested AI and augmented reality pilot training systems in a beta program, and discovered that virtual trainers are capable of analyzing focus areas that students need to work on.

Kwast noted that AETC aims to leverage AI to train pilots to rapidly deploy personnel in the battlefield.

“Competence is the constant, so when you have learned to master the skill, you can go to your squadron and start being a part of the fight,” Kwast said.

He added that the command wants to deploy AI coaches to give airmen the freedom to choose what they want to learn about, which a human trainer will later validate.

AETC intends to submit its proposal to the secretary of the Air Force in 2019.

Reforming pilot training practices comes as the Air Force is set to deploy a new fleet of F-35 planes.

U.S. Navy Vice Adm. Thomas Moore, head of Naval Sea Systems Command, has said NAVSEA plans to introduce changes to the multiple-award contract/multi-order strategy in an effort to improve the contracting process with private shipyards for maintenance work, USNI News reported Wednesday.

NAVSEA has started a pilot program that aims to combine ship maintenance availabilities to provide private yards with a “little more stable and predictive work” and facilitate on-time delivery of ships, Moore said Tuesday at the American Society of Naval Engineers’ Fleet Maintenance and Modernization Symposium.

“My goal is eventually that we will eventually – on each coast – bundle availabilities six months at a time… so you can know at least what work you can have in the next six months and beyond,” he noted.

The service plans to test the strategy through repair work on the USS Gunston Hall (LSD-44) amphibious warship and two guided-missile destroyers, USS Bulkeley (DDG 84) and USS Arleigh Burke (DDG-51).

Moore said the Navy wants both public and private yards to complete ship maintenance work on time as the service ramps up its readiness efforts driven by the Defense Department’s new warfare strategy against potential adversaries.