The Department of Homeland Security‘s Science and Technology Directorate has launched a publicly available dashboard consisting of over 1,500 research entries on terrorism and extremism prevention.

The move is meant to support efforts seeking to counter terrorism across many disciplines such as the social and behavioral science, the department said Friday.

“[The dashboard] streamlines access to peer‑reviewed and methodologically sound research, so government partners, academics and interested members of the public can develop a sound evidence base in the field of terrorism prevention for what works, what doesn’t and why,” said Kathleen Deloughery, program manager at S&T.

The dashboard’s covered range of topics include diversion, mitigation, resilience and program evaluations, as well as transferable programs and international programs.

Interested consumers may view the dashboard’s accessibility instructions here.
 

The Energy Department’s National Nuclear Security Administration will proceed with the final production qualification activities of the B61-12 Life Extension Program after completing a final design review of a new B61 variant.

The department said Friday NNSA will initiate production qualification operations of B61-12 bomb variants at its Pantex Plant within the month, then conduct phase 6.5 first production authorization in September 2019.

The final design review involved 12 military and civilian nuclear experts tasked with analyzing three years worth of B61-12 LEP electrical, mechanical, thermal and flight-testing data at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, N.M.

The B61-12 LEP team also assessed the Pantex Plant’s operations.

The NNSA aims to replace the military’s existing stock of B61 bombs with B61-12 variants to sustain the U.S. nuclear triad. The first B61-12 production unit will commence in March 2020.

The U.S. Coast Guard has renamed its heavy icebreaker funding program to emphasize national security, USNI News reported Thursday.

The program’s rebranding as the Polar Security Cutter is intended to address funding requirements for a new class of icebreaker ships, by marketing the effort as one significant to national security.

The renewed program may involve arming the sought cutters with weapons, as hinted in recent USCG sourcing notices that requested proposals on deck-mounted weaponry, the report noted.

At a U.S. Naval Institute event in August, Adm. Karl Schultz said that the icebreaker will need to also function as a national security vessel to protect the nation’s sovereign interests.

A new report published by the non-profit organization Partnership for Public Service has criticized the federal government for failing to exert enough effort to recruit or cultivate technological talent that could help change the way agencies approach tech-intensive projects and address subsequent challenges.

The authors of the report, Jennifer Anastasoff and Jennifer Smith, emphasized not only the need to bring on board modern technical experts but also to place them in positions that would maximize their involvement in a project.

On the other hand, senior government officials need to be technologically literate as well, Anastasoff and Smith said, noting that “[familiarity] with and appreciation for modern technology in top leadership positions is so critical for success that such expertise should be no more than one step removed from an agency’s leader.”

The authors also underscored the role of chief information officers, who need to be “highly skilled technological managers who can successfully handle existing technical operations, infrastructure and services.”

The availability of such talent would benefit programs run by the government and those offloaded onto contractors.

“Without these skills, agencies will not have the expertise to fully understand the solutions they need or evaluate which contractors are best to deliver those solutions,” the authors said.

The Defense Department, NASA and the General Services Administration have released a final rule that seeks to revise the instructions for System for Award Management registration.

A Federal Register notice posted Wednesday says the final rule is set to take effect on Oct. 26 and amends the Federal Acquisition Regulation to require vendors to register through SAM prior to bid submission.

The regulation would direct contracting officers to use the name and address in the offeror’s SAM registration for the unique entity identifier.

The three agencies released the final policy two years after they proposed the rule and sought public comments.

The notice contains the agencies’ responses to feedback about the rule’s potential effect on competition and submission of offers as well as public burden.

The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee passed on Wednesday a bill that would authorize the White House to implement its government reorganization plan, Federal News Radio reported Thursday.

Sens. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) and James Lankford (R-Okla.) sponsored the Reforming Government Act of 2018 that would allow Congress to clear reorganization proposals through a simple majority of 51 votes to accelerate passage of such plans.

Bloomberg Government reported that the bill passed the Senate panel through a voice vote after Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.) drafted a compromise amendment that would permit a simple majority if five lawmakers from each party would cosponsor the reorganization plan.

The legislation includes a provision that would direct the Office of Management and Budget to guarantee that the proposed reorganization plans would actually save taxpayers’ money.

NASA has published its space exploration roadmap for the next several years, detailing efforts that will transition human space-based activities from low-Earth orbit towards the moon, Mars and beyond.

The roadmap, referred to as the National Space Exploration Campaign, has five strategic goals, namely: the maturation of commercial LEO spaceflight; the installation of space facilities – such as the Gateway lunar orbital station – that will facilitate missions to the surface of the moon; robotic missions to the lunar surface; manned lunar missions; and the testing and evaluation of technologies that would eventually allow for manned missions to the rest of the solar system.

The National Space Exploration Campaign is the agency’s response to the challenge put forth by President Donald Trump’s Space Policy Directive-1 as well as the requirements itemized in the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Transition Authorization Act of 2017.

Furthermore, NASA said that the document will help “revitalize and add direction” to the agency’s mission of “expanding the frontiers of human experience and scientific discovery” on the planet and in the cosmos while addressing critical national concerns including economic growth and social development.

Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory engineers demonstrated light fidelity or Li-Fi networking technology during a trip aboard the USS Carl Vinson.

The technology uses light-emitting diodes that turn on and off for more than a million cycles in a second to send data between wireless communication devices, JHU APL said Thursday.

The demonstration was part of the Navy’s Trident Warrior 2018 experiment effort aimed at identifying and addressing the service branch’s technological gaps in operational environments.

“The Navy wanted to see what the effects of shock and vibration would have on the wireless link and the equipment,” said Ryan Mennecke, communications engineer at APL.

JHU APL began studying light fidelity technology in 2016 under the Defense Information Systems Agency‘s interests, and is now helping DISA test and assess Li-Fi products.

The U.S. military is looking to apply Li-Fi technology to communications systems at vehicles and facilities.