Lt. Gen. Bruce Crawford, chief information officer of the U.S. Army, has said the service formed in September a new task force that aims to integrate artificial intelligence into the battlefield and business operations, Federal News Network reported Friday.

He said in an interview on Ask the CIO that Brig. Gen. Matt Easley, a signal officer, oversees the new AI task force and directly reports to Army Futures Command.

Crawford noted that his office supports the new task force across six areas and one of those is ensuring the security of data in the cloud.

He also mentioned his office’s other tasks in support of the new AI organization such as efforts to build up the certification process based on the risk management framework and improve the identity credentialing and access management through two-factor authentication.

The Army has begun to work with defense and intelligence community partners to develop a streamlined RMF process.

“It is one of the fundamental things that we have to do in order to achieve the vision of the Army 2028,” Crawford said.

“We’ve got to figure out how to streamline the RMF process so that we can get the speed that is required to be able to get things connected to the network and get weapons systems and technology to the soldier.”
 

David Norquist, acting deputy secretary of defense, said Wednesday during a Center for the National Interest event in Washington, D.C. the Department of Defense is developing a financial audit database, FCW.com reported Wednesday.

Norquist said the pilot program aims to resolve issues cited by the DoD inspector general’s first ever audit issued in November 2018. The program will utilize the DoD IG’s audit findings and enable budget analysts to view the department’s transaction history to foster accountability and take corrective actions.

Norquist noted that the department doesn’t have a projected cost for repairing its information technology systems throughout the multi-year effort. He added that the Pentagon has begun working through its second financial audit.

Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., introduced a legislation to modernize the process through which federal grant recipients report to the government. The Grant Reporting Efficiency and Agreements Transparency or GREAT Act would enforce data standards for reported grant information, the congress said.

The bill would define core data elements for the management of financial assistance awards, and apply technologies designed to reduce compliance costs.

The GREAT Act would also leverage consolidated collection and access of open data to support the monitoring of federal grants and agreements.

House Rep. Robin Kelly, ranking member of the subcommittee of information technology, warned that the ongoing government shutdown might lead to challenges in attracting IT talent for federal agencies. The temporary closure of agencies expects to have “massive short-term impacts” on more than 800K federal workers, Kelly said in a statement posted Wednesday.

The democrat from Illinois’s 2nd congressional district also warned the shutdown adds to the factors that might discourage workers to enter the government. Kelly cited that as the government cannot compete on salary with the private sector, the chance of working without pay with the government might also lead IT talent away.

“How can we ever hope to recruit or maintain IT talent when hardworking government workers are told: ‘sorry, you aren’t getting paid, but you still need to come to work’ or ‘sorry, but no paycheck this week because of politics?’ Large private sector companies never say this to their employees and these are our competitors when it comes to IT talent recruitment,” she said.

Kelly called on Senate Leader Mitch McConnell to support the bills recently passed by House lawmakers to reopen the government. 

The Department of Defense launched a new pilot program to increase the understanding of business operations between military and commercial sectors. The DoD said Wednesday its Defense-Industry Talent Exchange Pilot Program will involve 13 military and industry participants who would share the best practices from respective sectors. The program will seek high-performing, mid-career civilians who have demonstrated potential to serve as leaders.

“In its inaugural year, this pilot program implements Acting Secretary of Defense Patrick M. Shanahan’s July 2018 guidance on the use of a new public-private talent exchange authority provided by congress,” said Jose Gonzalez, executive director of human capital initiatives at the DoD.

He added that the department would use the pilot program’s results to inform future efforts.
 

Navy Secretary Richard Spencer wants to improve how the service branch plans its spending, finds partnerships and speeds up the deployment of new technologies to boost the capabilities of its service members, USNI News reported Wednesday. Spencer said he’s looking for ways to increase the budget and accelerate the acquisition process to empower sailors and the civilian workforce. 

“We’re not going to have more money; we’ve got to be smarter with what we have,” the secretary said during an event at the Center for a New American Security. 

He called on Navy officials to work with innovators outside the Pentagon to help research and development projects. 

“And I will tell you that almost 90 percent of the problems, 95 percent of the problems, someone outside the building has either solved that problem or has an algorithm to solve the problem that you can apply yourself,” he said.

Spencer also noted the Navy as well as the Marine Corps should prioritize shorter timelines to increase innovation, determine and fix more problems across the service branches. 

“I’ve got to make sure that the whole system understands the urgency,” he said. “We have the dollars we, finally, need. We have the resources. Time is something that we can’t buy, and we have to have everyone focus on that.”

Acting Deputy Defense Secretary David Norquist confirmed the Pentagon has received the budget figure for fiscal year 2020 and a rollout remains on schedule for February, MilitaryTimes reported Wednesday. 

Officials had expressed concerns that the Department of Defense might delay the release of its budget as the agency announced at end of 2018 that it had yet to receive a final figure. Norquist declined to reveal the exact budget for DoD.

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The agency originally requested a $733B defense top-line figure, which was initially denied and reduced to $700B by President Trump. However, in December, Trump agreed to increase the figure to $750B following a meeting with former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and congressional defense leaders.

The U.S. Navy is set to commission LCS 13, the littoral combat ship to be named USS Wichita, on Jan. 12 at Naval Station Mayport, Fla., the ship’s designated homeport. Kate Lehrer, wife of Wichita-based former news anchor Jim Lehrer, will order the Freedom-variant LCS’ activation as the ship’s sponsor, and Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., will administer the ceremony’s principal address, the Department of Defense said Wednesday.

The future USS Wichita, designed as an LCS, is geared to deter mines, underwater vessels and fast surface vessels at near-shore scenarios. The ship is the third to carry Wichita’s name, following a replenishment oiler and a heavy cruiser.

Lockheed Martin leads the development of Freedom-variant ships.

Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson and Chief of Staff Gen. David Goldfein have said the service has begun to develop a strategic vision for the Arctic region to ensure its capability to meet the National Defense Strategy’s objectives.

“We must be ready to defend our security interests and deter aggression by major powers,” Wilson and Goldfein wrote in a Defense News commentary published Wednesday.

They mentioned the military branch’s efforts to project U.S. strength in the Arctic region, such as upgrading space surveillance systems in Thule, Greenland, and exploring approaches to update radars.

“Meanwhile we continue to train and equip for cold weather operations, managing the Defense Department’s oldest polar survival school and retaining the capacity to land on ice with unique, ski-equipped aircraft,” Goldfein and Wilson noted.

Aside from the Air Force’s partnership with Canada, they said the service is exploring opportunities to collaborate with other allies in the Arctic via exercises such as sharing best practices and reconnaissance, weather and communications data.