Capt. Andrew Charles, director of tactical exploitation of national capabilities for the U.S. Navy, has said the service should determine where artificial intelligence technologies apply in its operations, and where they don’t, Federal News Network reported Friday.

“I’m going to figure out where AI doesn’t belong and where it does belong in that decision cycle that takes me from finding a potential threat to engaging that potential threat somehow,” Charles said during a future naval technology panel at the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association Nova Navy information technology day on Oct. 1.

Charles said issues regarding AI platforms include security breaches and the inability of AI modules to make critical subjective decisions during warfare.

Kurt Wendelken, assistant commander of supply chain technology/systems integration at Naval Supply Systems Command, said whenever the topic of AI arises, people become concerned about their job security.

 

The head of cybersecurity at the Health and Human Services Department’s Office of the Inspector General recently said that he and his team are learning as much as they can about supply chain threats and application development security, to respond to such issues effectively, Federal News Network reported Friday.

Jarvis Rodgers, HHS OIG Cybersecurity and IT Audit Division director, told Federal News Network via email that his unit is aware that risks related to global supply chains “present a unique set of challenges” and that poorly written code can result in costly and persistent security vulnerabilities.

Rodgers also pointed out that even though members are located at different parts of the country, the team nevertheless seeks to promote a culture characterized by “accountability and ownership.” He said his team members understand that “they have a significant role in the cybersecurity of HHS.”

Expressing confidence in the people under him, Rodgers commented, “We feel we are well aligned to take on the challenges of the future.”

The Senate on Thursday confirmed Army Gen. Robert Abrams as the next chief of U.S. Forces Korea in a series of approvals for Defense Department nominees in the upper chamber, Stars and Stripes reported Friday.

Abrams, who has led Army Forces Command since 2015, will also serve as commander of United Nations Command and Combined Forces Command.

Vice Adm. Craig Faller, formerly senior military assistant to Defense Secretary James Mattis, was also confirmed as head of U.S. Southern Command.

The upper chamber also approved Thursday the nomination of U.S. Air Force veterans Robert McMahon and James Stewart to assistant secretary roles at DoD.

Stewart, a retired Air Force major general, will focus on manpower issues at the Pentagon.

The report said McMahon, who previously served as assistant defense secretary for logistics and material readiness, will oversee DoD’s sustainment issues.

Vice Adm. Andrew Lewis, who has served as deputy head of naval operations, has been confirmed commander of the 2nd Fleet, according to the report.

A recent study has revealed that, on average, roughly half of federal government employees consider workforce training and development to be the most critical element in achieving information technology modernization at their respective agencies.

The study, which was conducted by the American Council for Technology-Industry Advisory Council in partnership with news organization MeriTalk, surveyed finance, IT and procurement decision-makers from federal civilian and defense agencies concerning a variety of issues related to IT modernization.

The study defines IT modernization as “building a more modern and secure architecture for Federal IT systems to improve citizen-facing services, make better use of emerging technologies, and improve security across the Federal enterprise.”

According to the survey, 53 percent of IT respondents said that providing workers with the necessary training was key to achieving IT modernization, while 50 percent of procurement respondents and 49 percent of finance respondents held the same opinion.

Nevertheless, only 28 percent of respondents, on average, felt confident about the efforts their agencies have taken to equip employees with the requisite knowledge and skills.

Subsequently, the study recommended that agency chiefs work with their respective human resource departments to “effectively prepare employees for the future of government IT.”

Sens. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., and Gary Peters, D-Mich., are supporting Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., new bill aiming to help secure elections from cyber threats. The Protecting American Votes and Elections Act of 2018 would require U.S. federal elections to employ physical paper ballots and undergo post-voting audits to limit risks, Wyden’s office said Thursday.

“We have seen undeniable evidence that adversaries interfered in our 2016 elections and are planning similar efforts in the future,” said Sen. Peters. “I’m proud to join my colleagues in cosponsoring this bill to help secure our elections and strengthen faith in our political system.”

The addition of the four senators to bill’s support comes a month before the upcoming U.S. elections.

Wyden, along with five other Democratic party senators, originally introduced the bill in June this year.

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.”