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Report: Draft Nuclear Posture Review Seeks to Advance Low-Yield Nuclear Weapons Devt
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Report: Draft Nuclear Posture Review Seeks to Advance Low-Yield Nuclear Weapons Devt


Report: Draft Nuclear Posture Review Seeks to Advance Low-Yield Nuclear Weapons DevtThe Trump administration has issued a draft of the 2018 Nuclear Posture Review and plans to release the final version of the document in February, HuffPost reported Thursday.

The administration aims to advance the development of low-yield nuclear weapons in an effort to deter regional aggression, according to the pre-decisional NPR draft obtained by the publication.

The draft document calls for the U.S. to raise its nuclear threshold and update dual-capable aircraft with the deployment of F-35A jets.

Other themes addressed in the draft NPR include the U.S. government’s support for NATO, use of diplomatic agreements in risk reduction efforts and support for the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization Preparatory Committee, according to the report.

The document also cited that the U.S. “will not resume nuclear explosive testing unless necessary to ensure the safety and effectiveness of the U.S. nuclear arsenal.”

The NPR report also calls for the modernization of the nuclear command, control and communications capabilities and sustainment of the country’s strategic nuclear triad that includes ballistic missile submarines, ground-based intercontinental ballistic missiles and strategic bombers.

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Lawmakers Revive Push for 3% Federal Worker Pay Raise
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Lawmakers Revive Push for 3% Federal Worker Pay Raise


Lawmakers Revive Push for 3% Federal Worker Pay RaiseRep. Gerry Connolly (D-Virginia) and Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) have reintroduced a bill that seeks to increase the salary of federal civilian employees by 3 percent in 2019.

The Federal Adjustment of Income Rates Act is cosponsored by House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Maryland) and 23 other House lawmakers, according to an article published Friday on Connolly’s website.

Connolly said the bill aims to provide a “just” and “fair” compensation rate that would recognize the contributions of the federal workforce.

Schatz added that FAIR Act would help make up for the impacts of furloughs, sequestration and pay freezes on public servants in recent years.

Twenty organizations representing current and retired federal employees and military veterans support the bill.

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Navy Tests P-8 Poseidon Aircraft With IFF Tech in Patuxent Anechoic Chamber
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Navy Tests P-8 Poseidon Aircraft With IFF Tech in Patuxent Anechoic Chamber


Navy Tests P-8 Poseidon Aircraft With IFF Tech in Patuxent Anechoic Chamber

The U.S. Navy has tested a Boeing-built P-8 Poseidon aircraft equipped with an identification friend or foe technology at the Patuxent River Naval Air Station’s anechoic chamber.

The test was part of an AIMS certification process for the AN/UPX-43 IFF interrogator designed to classify surrounding vehicles and vessels as either allied or enemy forces, the Navy said Jan. 8.

The Navy estimated that performing tests inside the chamber cost nearly $800,000 and generated 15 hours of data over 3.5 weeks, while performing tests inflight would cost $5.31 million and generate only 3.6 hours of data over a 12-week period.

Anechoic chambers have walls that are built to absorb electromagnetic and sound waves.

The Defense Department established the AIMS certification to ensure the performance quality of IFF systems for military use.

P-8 is designed to perform both anti-submarine and anti-surface warfare missions.

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NASA Safety Panel Reviews Commercial Crew Program, Exploration Systems Devt
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NASA Safety Panel Reviews Commercial Crew Program, Exploration Systems Devt


NASA Safety Panel Reviews Commercial Crew Program, Exploration Systems DevtA NASA advisory committee has released its annual report for 2017 that offers information on the agency’s safety performance as well as issues associated with its space programs.

The report issued Thursday by NASA’s aerospace safety advisory panel provides assessments of the agency’s Exploration Systems Development initiative; Commercial Crew Program; International Space Station; deep space exploration; enterprise protection; and aeronautics operations, the agency said Friday.

The panel offered several recommendations such as the need for NASA to make changes to space traffic management and situational awareness operations in an effort to address safety risks posed by micrometeoroids and orbital debris to human spaceflight missions.

The committee also called for a review and amendment of the NASA Authorization Act of 2005 that mandates a presidential investigation into loss of space vehicles and crew as well as implementation of an independent review that would look into mishaps related to human spaceflight missions.

The report also highlighted the panel’s concerns with the 33-month launch gap between Exploration Mission-1 and EM-2 due to possible modification to the Mobile Launch Platform; issues with the Deep Space Gateway; and safety concerns associated with ISS deorbit planning efforts.

The committee also cited the impact of continuing resolution on NASA’s program management and implementation as well as funding concerns related to the agency’s aircraft management information system.

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Rear Adm. James Downey: Continuing Resolution Prompts Navy to Modify Ship Maintenance Procurement Method
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Rear Adm. James Downey: Continuing Resolution Prompts Navy to Modify Ship Maintenance Procurement Method


Rear Adm. James Downey: Continuing Resolution Prompts Navy to Modify Ship Maintenance Procurement MethodRear Adm. James Downey, deputy commander for surface warfare at the U.S. Navy‘s Regional Maintenance Center, has said that the military branch restructured its contracting approach for ship maintenance services under a continuing resolution, Federal News Radio reported Friday.

Downey told the audience at the Surface Naval Association Conference held Thursday in Arlington, Virginia, that the Navy takes advantage of the flexibility of ship modernization funds to award new contracts for maintenance work.

CR measures often prevent the issuance of new contracts, but money appropriated for ship modernization can be used to start contracts since those funds have a three-year availability period, the report noted.

“The base of the contract in some cases is now the modernization work for a maintenance availability and the maintenance work is an option, which we execute if we get [maintenance appropriations] just in time,” Downey added.

He noted that the approach helps the Navy meet fleet demand in time, but processes could be more efficient if maintenance activities are funded under an approved budget.

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NASA Releases First Lunar Data Set From SAGE III Mission
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NASA Releases First Lunar Data Set From SAGE III Mission


NASA Releases First Lunar Data Set From SAGE III MissionNASA has publicly released the first set of lunar data from the Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment III mission launched on the International Space Station last year.

The space agency said Friday its Atmospheric Science Data Center offers the public access to information about measurements of ozone and nitrogen trioxide in the atmosphere after sunset.

In October, NASA also published solar data from the SAGE III instrument.

SAGE III employs a lunar occultation method to record the presence of NO3 in the atmosphere without sunlight that causes concentration levels of the gas to drop close to zero.

Ball Aerospace & Technologies produced the SAGE III system for researchers to study profiles of aerosols and gases such as Earth’s ozone, which filters ultraviolet radiation in the upper atmosphere.

NASA said it plans to release data on solar occultation water vapor records and lunar occultation nitrogen dioxide measurements on a monthly basis.

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Study Explores Use of Virtual Reality Tech in Pilot Training
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Study Explores Use of Virtual Reality Tech in Pilot Training


Study Explores Use of Virtual Reality Tech in Pilot TrainingStudents from Air University’s Air Command and Staff College have performed an adaptive flight training study on virtual reality technology as part of efforts to help advance U.S. Air Force pilot training and education methods.

The service branch said Friday the study occurred at Columbus Air Force Base from Jan. 9 to Jan. 12 and examined the application of an VR environment to adult learning.

The study tackled the human brain’s behavior with other body parts while subjected to learning processes using VR.

Three groups composed of individuals with no previous T-6 Texan II flight experience were tasked to fly in a T-6 simulator through four simulation tests.

The first test was done as a basic sortie simulation around Columbus AFB to serve as a basis of comparison for the succeeding tests.

Afterwards, subjects participated in three virtual training sessions with corresponding environments, as optical and auditory cues decreased through the progression of tasks.

Participants then went on a conclusive flight with the T-6 simulator to identify any improvements having stemmed from the VR training.

The effort also made use of support from other parties such as bio-machine software company Senseye.

Senseye contributed gear, VR program support and eye movement data collection for the study.

In addition to eye movement, the study also sought to collect data on heart and lung activity.

Data gathered through the study will be analyzed in association with success/failure patterns observed from the simulation tests.

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DOE Eyes Big Data, Computing Tools for Transportation Energy Efficiency Initiatives
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DOE Eyes Big Data, Computing Tools for Transportation Energy Efficiency Initiatives


DOE Eyes Big Data, Computing Tools for Transportation Energy Efficiency InitiativesThe Energy Department‘s Vehicle Technologies Office has earmarked $2.5 million in fiscal 2018 funds for two new programs that seek to address transportation energy management challenges with big data and high-performance computing platforms.

DOE said Tuesday the Big Data Solutions for Mobility initiative looks to create big data tools and algorithms to model urban transportation networks, as well as data science and HPC-based methods to analyze transportation systems.

Four national laboratories will collaborate with industry and academic organizations on the effort.

The HPC4Mobility initiative aims to encourage companies, transportation system operators and cities to identify  energy efficiency measures for mobility systems.

Qualifying participants under that program will have access to machine learning platforms, supercomputing facilities and data science expertise at national laboratories.

DOE VTO has provided $500,000 in total seed funds for separate projects led by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

LBNL partnered with the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority to develop an HPC-supported method to compute demand models and forecast the energy impacts of emerging mobility technology.

ORNL teamed up with GRIDSMART Technologies to create reinforcement learning-based approaches to manage traffic efficiency and energy use.

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GSA to Update Acquisition Regulation With Data Security, Cyber Incident Reporting Requirements
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GSA to Update Acquisition Regulation With Data Security, Cyber Incident Reporting Requirements


GSA to Update Acquisition Regulation With Data Security, Cyber Incident Reporting RequirementsThe General Services Administration has announced plans to amend the GSA Acquisition Regulation to integrate new information security and cyber incident reporting requirements for government contractors and contracting officers as part of its unified regulatory agenda.

A Federal Register notice posted Friday says GSA plans to require contractors to protect agency-related data and information systems from cyber threats and other vulnerabilities in compliance with the Federal Information Security Modernization Act of 2014  and other cyber regulations.

Under this proposed rule, the agency will require contracting personnel to integrate into the statement of work GSA-related cyber requirements that will cover contractor systems, mobile devices and cloud platforms.

GSA plans to release the notice of proposed rulemaking for information security requirements in April with plans to conclude the comment period in June.

The agency also plans to issue in August its proposed rule for cyber incident reporting and accept feedback through October.

The proposed measure would require contractors to report any incidents that appear to compromise GSA’s information systems and data and would specify the timeframe for reporting such threats.

The rule would also call for the agency’s contracting staff to incorporate reporting requirements into contracts and task orders and establish requirements for incidents that involve personally identifiable information.

GSA also plans to set requirements for employee training and collection of images associated with hacked systems under the proposed cyber incident reporting rule.

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Capt. John Rucker: Navy Takes Incremental Approach Toward Unmanned Maritime Systems Devt
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Capt. John Rucker: Navy Takes Incremental Approach Toward Unmanned Maritime Systems Devt


Capt. John Rucker: Navy Takes Incremental Approach Toward Unmanned Maritime Systems DevtThe U.S. Navy is working to build a range of unmanned maritime vessels through an incremental development approach, National Defense Magazine reported Thursday.

Capt. Jon Rucker, Navy program manager for unmanned maritime systems, said at the Surface Navy Association’s national symposium in Arlington, Virginia that the service branch develops modular and open systems architectures to support the insertion of new technologies into unmanned systems as they become ready.

Rucker noted that the Navy and its industry partners addressed technical challenges facing the Knifefish unmanned minehunting system in 2017, and that the vessel is slated to complete sea acceptance trials in February.

Last year, the Navy also initiated efforts to develop the Orca extra-large unmanned underwater vehicle for mine warfare and the Snakehead large displacement UUV, which is designed to conduct intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions.

The military branch will begin testing the Garc optionally-manned armed coastal patrol vehicle as well as the Adaro man-portable ISR platform later this year.

Rucker added that the Navy seeks to acquire unmanned surface vehicles larger than 160 feet in one or two years.

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