Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has said he intends to arrange tabletop exercises in the fall of this year to help the Defense Department establish and explore the “war fighting attributes” of a new combatant command for space, SpaceNews reported Wednesday.

Dunford wrote a memo to Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson to address the latter’s concerns about U.S. Space Command’s acquisition responsibilities.

“I agree that the U.S. Space Command design should not assume all aspects of the U.S. Special Operations Command model, especially in terms of acquisition authorities which may require legislative action,” Dunford said in the Sept. 24 memo obtained by the publication.

“However, the U.S. SOCOM model is particularly informative on the development and shaping of U.S. Space Command’s war fighting functions, authorities, structure and command relationships,” he added.

Dunford also responded to Wilson’s concerns about the appointment of an assistant defense secretary for space and potential overlaps between the proposed space force and Space Command.

The Government Accountability Office has outlined potential measures the U.S. government should consider to maintain the country’s competitive edge in synthetic biology, quantum computing and other research areas.

Those considerations include information sharing; development of a strategic approach to convene potential partners through consortia; emphasis on technology development and commercialization; and talent recruitment, training and employee retention to build up the science and technology workforce, GAO said in a report published Wednesday.

GAO partnered with the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine to seek feedback from 19 industry, academia and government experts on potential considerations to maintain U.S. competitiveness.

The congressional watchdog also recommended federal agencies that oversee quantum computing and synthetic biology research implement collaboration practices.

Such practices include efforts to agree on responsibilities and roles, define a common outcome, establish procedures and policies to operate across agencies, establish joint strategies and develop measures to evaluate results.

GAO also found that over 10 agencies back research on synthetic biology, while at least six agencies support research work on quantum computing.
 

David Chow, chief information officer at the Department of Housing and Urban Development, told Nextgov in an interview published Wednesday that HUD is in discussions with the General Services Administration to establish a new center of excellence focused cybersecurity.

“There have been talks—preliminary conversations—about looking into some sort of a cybersecurity assessment,” Chow told the publication.

“GSA has been working very closely with [the Homeland Security Department] to look for ways or opportunities that we could potentially create the sixth CoE and make sure we can really go through our security assessments.”

GSA selected HUD to serve as the second host agency for the five CoEs that intend to advance information technology modernization across cloud adoption, infrastructure optimization, customer experience, contact centers and service delivery analytics areas.

Chow, who joined HUD in August, said he expects the CoE program’s initial phase to run for up to eight months and hopes to enter the second phase by the second half of 2019.

He noted that he intends to see initial results in the first six months of phase 2 and expects the agency to complete the program within two years to 30 months from now.
 

LaVerne Council, national managing principal for enterprise technology strategy and innovation at Grant Thornton, told Federal News Radio in an interview published Tuesday that agency chief information officers seeking to establish trust within their departments should integrate mission goals with data-based information technology strategies.  

Council, former CIO at the Department of Veterans Affairs, noted that agency CIOs should start with their employees when it comes to building “digital trust.”

“In order for the organization to have a trusted digital capability, you have to have the people engaged in the change processes that occur in an organization,” she told the station’s CIOs as Trusted Leaders of Transformation program.

“They really have an opportunity through the transparency of the CIO to understand where they are going and what’s expected of them.”

Council said there are core characteristics that teams should have to establish digital trust and those include teamwork; accountability; transparency through communications; and innovation.
 

Congressional lawmakers underscored in a recently published report the need for the U.S. to remain competitive in artificial intelligence, even as the legislators warned that the nation’s leadership position in the emergent field “is no longer guaranteed.”

The House Subcommittee on Information Technology pointed out in a document entitled “Rise of the Machines: Artificial Intelligence and Its Growing Impact on U.S. Policy” the need to increase research and development spending in order to bolster the country’s edge in AI, noting how aggressive Chinese investments in R&D are expected to push the Asian competitor ahead of the U.S. 

The subcommittee members expressed concern at the prospect of the U.S. lagging behind other countries in artificial intelligence technologies, noting how such a scenario could have serious ramifications for the nation’s cybersecurity posture, as well as the use of AI in warfare.

The authors of the report also noted how the country’s competitiveness in AI is tied to its economic security, recognizing that “AI is posed to be a key driver of economic growth.”

The lawmakers went on to note the government’s “essential role” in preserving U.S. leadership in AI, and called on the legislative and executive branches of government “to educate themselves about AI, increase the expenditures of R&D funds, help set the agenda for public debate, and, where appropriate, define the role of AI in the future of this nation.”

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.