Thomas Webber, director of the U.S. Army’s Space and Missile Defense Command Technical Center, has disclosed that the organization is focusing its technological efforts on high-energy lasers, small satellites and hypersonic weapons, Defense News reported Thursday.

Webber said during a presentation at the Association of the U.S. Army’s annual meeting that the center has started assessing various electric lasers as part of a broader effort to develop a weapon that can be installed on a small tactical truck and used to launch a non-kinetic attack.

SMDC is also prioritizing research on small satellites, which the Army believes can speed up the transmission of data in the battlefield.

“We’re trying to figure out a way in which we can use [low-Earth orbit] space … to basically provide much more global situational awareness coverage,” Webber noted.

Lastly, SMDC is studying how to control hypersonic missiles to develop the technology and deliver it to warfighters.

The Office of Personnel Management has announced plans to introduce two direct hiring authorities as part of its civil service reform efforts, Federal Times reported Thursday.

Agencies will have a DHA for engineering; economics; math, statistics and actuarial sciences; physical science; and biological sciences effective next week.

The report said another DHA will authorize agencies to fill vacancies in cybersecurity and information technology areas.

“These are all critical components of focusing on mission, focusing on where we’re having a difficult time getting the right — particularly highly specialized, highly educated — individuals into government to pursue the mission of the 21st century,” Margaret Weichert, acting OPM director and  deputy director for management at the Office of Management and Budget, said at a press roundtable.

OPM also plans to set up an interagency working group to determine how to implement an alternative pay and classification platform for economists, according to the report.

Agency officials said OPM intends to have an operational system by the spring of 2019 and plans to build additional pay systems for three to five more roles in the next year.

The announcement comes days after the appointment of Weichert, who is also deputy director for management at the Office of Management and Budget, as OPM’s interim chief.

The Government Accountability Office has said that the U.S. Coast Guard should incorporate lessons gathered from acquisition programs into shipbuilding initiatives, to fill in capability gaps and address oversight on some naval aspects.

In a report published Thursday, the GAO pointed out that USCG and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration can adopt some of the watchdog’s findings to tighten their shipbuilding modernization efforts.

These lessons include establishing a long-term acquisition plan; ensuring the soundness of a business proposal before allocating resources; requesting fiscal help from the U.S. Navy; and exploring the pros and cons of various procurement methods before pursuing one.

In September, the GAO found out the Coast Guard failed to establish the soundness of the polar icebreaker program’s business case as there had been issues with its schedule, cost and performance indicators.

The government audit agency recommended that the USCG implement a 20-year fleet modernization strategy, disclose trade-off action in its annual capital investment plans and find a workaround for its polar icebreaker purchase to turn it into a sound business case.

Bindu Nair, deputy director for basic research at the Defense Department, told Federal News Network in an interview published Thursday that DoD intends to speed up basic research’s impact on capabilities through the Defense Enterprise Science Initiative.

The Pentagon selected five university-industry teams in August for the DESI pilot program that seeks to address technological gaps and support other basic research initiatives within the department.

“We’ve known for a long time that basic research, which is unfettered, curiosity-driven research, is critically important to the economic engine that runs the country and certainly to the Defense Department,” Nair said.

She noted that Michael Griffin, defense undersecretary for research and engineering, has highlighted the need to be more agile in order to rapidly deploy new technologies. 

“One of the ways that we think of doing this is to build this ecosystem that allows us, very quickly, to pull things from basic innovation up,” Nair said.

“There are a bunch of different programs we are using to do this, DESI being one of them.”
 

The Energy Department has issued a new policy framework regulating cooperation between the U.S. and China concerning the sharing of civilian nuclear technology.

The DOE said on Thursday that the new framework was developed due to concerns that China may be attempting to acquire nuclear technology from U.S. companies in such a manner that is, in the words of Energy Secretary Rick Perry, “outside of established processes of U.S.-China civil nuclear cooperation.”

The new framework focuses on the China General Nuclear Power Company and establishes a “presumption of denial” against requests from CGN, its subsidiaries or related organizations to export from the U.S. nuclear technology, equipment, components or other material.

“The presumption of denial will be in place until the U.S. Government is satisfied with CGN engagement on its indictment with the U.S. legal system,” the new policy framework said.

The CGN was indicted by the Justice Department in 2016 for its role in a conspiracy to acquire U.S. expertise to develop nuclear material outside the country without obtaining the requisite authorization from the Energy Department.

Brig. Gen. Richard Angle of Army Cyber Command has announced that the U.S. Army is working on a “holistic talent management strategy” to hire, train and retain a “world-class workforce,” Fedscoop reported Thursday.

Speaking at the recently-concluded 2018 Association of the United States Army conference, Angle cited the Cyber Direct Commissioning Program as an example of the service’s cyber recruitment efforts, noting that, just this May, two lieutenants were commissioned from the initiative.

The Cyber Direct Commissioning Program was launched in October 2017. Its aim is to draw cybersecurity professionals from industry or academia, who could then be commissioned as officers.

Angle noted the preoccupation with technology and the assumption that success hinges on developing new tools. He pointed out that having the right personnel is key.

“At the end of the day, it’s people that are going to make us successful,” Angle said.

The Defense Innovation Board looks to create a set of ethics guidelines and recommendations when it comes to artificial intelligence technology development and implementation, NextGov reported Thursday.

The DoD will seek assistance from the board – which is composed of defense industry experts and academics – to develop AI principles for effective and ethical military use, the report noted.

Joshua Marcuse, the advisory board’s executive director and adviser to the Defense Department‘s chief management officer, said initial work on the project began in July following orders from Defense Secretary James Mattis to set up a working guidance on the proper deployment and use of AI technologies.

“It is abundantly clear from the discussions thus far, the department’s experts on AI already have a deep appreciation, even a healthy skepticism for the limitations of AI, as well as its promise,” Marcuse said during the board’s quarterly public meeting on Wednesday.

The board plans to come up with a final set of recommendations to be presented for Mattis’ appraisal within nine months, according to the report.