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Report: GSA to Launch Blockchain Pilot Initiative Under Digital Govt Services Program
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Report: GSA to Launch Blockchain Pilot Initiative Under Digital Govt Services Program


Report: GSA to Launch Blockchain Pilot Initiative Under Digital Govt Services ProgramThe General Services Administration plans to launch a blockchain pilot initiative this summer as part of the agency’s Emerging Citizen Technology program that seeks to explore how artificial intelligence and new technologies can be integrated into digital government services, Federal News Radio reported Monday.

Justin Herman, manager of social media and digital engagement programs at GSA’s Technology Transformation Service, told Federal News Radio that GSA has begun to identify government business cases and needs that blockchain technology can help address.

Herman added GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service and the State Department‘s Office of Global Partnerships will host a forum in the coming months to discuss ways to work with the blockchain industry, the report stated.

He said rapid development pilots could pave a path for agencies to begin looking into blockchain and emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, Federal News Radio noted.

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Aircraft Systems Top Marine Corps’ FY 2018 Unfunded Priorities List
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Aircraft Systems Top Marine Corps’ FY 2018 Unfunded Priorities List


Aircraft Systems Top Marine Corps' FY 2018 Unfunded Priorities ListThe U.S. Marines Corps has submitted its fiscal year 2018 unfunded priorities list to Congress, which requests a total of $3.18 billion including $2.36 billion for aircraft and aviation systems procurement, USNI News reported Monday.

The list includes two Sikorsky-built CH-53K Super Stallion heavy lift helicopters worth $287.7 million; four Lockheed Martin-made KC-130J transport planes for $355.5 million; and six Lockheed F-35 Joint Strike Fighters worth $876.6 million, the report stated.

Two MV-22 tilt-rotor aircraft and seven AH-1Z Viper attack helicopters also made the list at $180.5 million and $220 million, respectively.

The Marine Corps also seeks $482.7 million to support ground forces, including $16.6 million for a long-range small unmanned aerial vehicle as well as $42.5 million for 155m artillery and 60mm and 81mm mortars training rounds, among others.

DHS Unveils $1.6B in Emergency Preparedness Grant Opportunities; John Kelly Comments
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DHS Unveils $1.6B in Emergency Preparedness Grant Opportunities; John Kelly Comments


DHS Unveils $1.6B in Emergency Preparedness Grant Opportunities; John Kelly CommentsThe Department of Homeland Security has allocated up to $1.6 billion for 10 preparedness grant programs intended to help non-federal government agencies, nonprofit organizations and companies prepare for natural disasters, terrorist attacks and other emergency situations.

DHS said Friday the fiscal year 2017 funding grants represent the department’s push to fulfill the country’s immediate security needs and maintain public safety in state, local, tribal and territorial communities.

The department aims to support up to regional preparedness efforts in 33 high-threat urban areas through the Urban Area Security Initiative.

DHS will also provide funds to law enforcement and terrorism prevention efforts across the country to help communities prepare for and respond to activities that may be indicators of terrorist activity.

“The administration remains committed to strengthening the security and resilience of our state and local communities,” said Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly.

Kelly added that funds from the Federal Emergency Management Agency will help recipients develop and sustain preparedness tools at various levels of government and communities.

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Robert Cardillo: NGA Needs to Address Full-Motion Video Automation
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Robert Cardillo: NGA Needs to Address Full-Motion Video Automation


Robert Cardillo: NGA Needs to Address Full-Motion Video Automation
Robert Cardillo

National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency Director Robert Cardillo has said extracting data and insights from full-motion video has posed a challenge to NGA, Breaking Defense reported Monday.

FMV is “time-consuming, manually intensive, redundantly exploited, poorly integrated and it leaves a great deal of useful data unexploited and undiscovered,” Cardillo said Monday at the GEOINT Symposium in San Antonio, Texas.

He said he has tapped Buzz Roberts, special programs lead at NGA, to serve as the agency’s chief of artificial intelligence, automation and augmentation to help advance FMV automation efforts.

Cardillo, an inductee into Executive Mosaic’s Wash100 for 2017, said NGA plans to set up a public-private partnership to help facilitate collaboration with industry.

He noted that Anthony Vinci, director of plans and programs at NGA, will lead the proposed public-private partnership that seeks to invest NGA’s data, analysis and byproducts into companies, startups and concepts.

“The goal would be to obtain a return on that data in the form of new or transformed data, new algorithms, trained machine vision approaches or an application of linked software,” he added.

Cardillo also tapped David Bray, chief information officer at the Federal Communications Commission, to join NGA in July to lead the newly created office of ventures and innovation, the report noted.

Heather Wilson: Air Force Needs to Get Beyond Budget Caps to Restore Readiness
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Heather Wilson: Air Force Needs to Get Beyond Budget Caps to Restore Readiness


Heather Wilson: Air Force Needs to Get Beyond Budget Caps to Restore Readiness
Heather Wilson

Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson has said Congress should put an end to budget caps that impede the service branch’s efforts to build up readiness and update its aging aircraft fleet, Defense News reported Monday.

“If you don’t provide relief from the Budget Control Act, we will hollow out the force and set ourselves back years,” Wilson said Monday at a breakfast event of the Air Force Association.

“We have to get beyond the Budget Control Act.”

She also reiterated her support to investments in space capabilities, recapitalization of the Air Force’s nuclear weapons and retention of the A-10 Warthog aircraft.

“At some point, there are about 134 A-10s that are going to have to get their wings redone if we’re going to keep them long term, but when we look out five years they are still in the Air Force inventory,” added Wilson, who assumed her current post in May.

Wilson also discussed the service branch’s budget proposal for fiscal year 2018 that includes the plan to acquire 46 Lockheed Martin-built F-35A Lightning II fighter jets and 15 Boeing-made KC-46A Pegasus aircraft as well as fund development work on the B-21 Raider bomber program, the Air Force reported Monday.

She said the service branch intends to retain more pilots and aircrews through the implementation of a new aviation bonus structure and plans to field to Europe an F-16 Fighter Falcon fighter unit in early 2018 in support of the European Reassurance Initiative, the report added.

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Report: Trump Picks Finance Industry Vet Richard Spencer as Navy Secretary
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Report: Trump Picks Finance Industry Vet Richard Spencer as Navy Secretary


Report: Trump Picks Finance Industry Vet Richard Spencer as Navy SecretaryPresident Donald Trump will nominate Richard Spencer, managing director of consulting firm Fall Creek Management, as secretary of the U.S. Navy, Washington Examiner reported Monday.

Philip Bilden, a financier and former intelligence officer at the U.S. Army Reserve, was initially considered for the role but withdrew his nomination due to concerns that his business interests did not meet government ethics requirements.

Spencer previously served as vice chairman and chief financial officer of Intercontinental Exchange, where he managed the transition of the company from private to public.

The finance industry veteran also worked as president of venture capital firm Crossroads Investment Management.

Spencer served in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1976 to 1981 and is currently vice chairman of the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation.

He is also a member of the Chief of Naval Operations Executive Panel and the Global Atlantic Financial Group‘s board of directors, among others.

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DARPA’s Electronics Tech Devt Project Gets $75M Under FY 2018 DoD Budget Request
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DARPA’s Electronics Tech Devt Project Gets $75M Under FY 2018 DoD Budget Request

DARPA's Electronics Tech Devt Project Gets $75M Under FY 2018 DoD Budget RequestThe Defense Department‘s budget request for fiscal year 2018 includes $75 million for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency‘s public-private initiative that seeks to support further technological developments in the area of electronics.

DARPA said Thursday the “electronics resurgence” initiative aims to foster a continued boost in electronics performance even without further miniaturization.

The budget allocation will supplement DARPA’s FY 2018 research and development portfolio in electronics, photonics and related systems, which will create a combined effort worth more than $200 million.

The agency expects to receive additional funds through private sector investments.

DARPA’s Microsystems Technology Office will conduct technology discussions, workshops and other activities with the microelectronics community over the next months to establish collaborative, cost-shared research agenda under the electronics initiative.

MTO Director Bill Chappell said DARPA will work with the commercial sector, defense industrial base, academia, national laboratories and others in the push for electronics revolution.

The project aims to study the use of unconventional circuit ingredients to optimize circuit performance without requiring smaller transistors as well as explore circuit structures that meet the needs of tasks they perform.

The initiative also looks to create tools to design and develop specialized circuits, which provide increased speed and energy efficiency compared to general-purpose circuitry.

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NASA Rebrands Future Solar Probe Spacecraft to Honor Astrophysicist Eugene Parker
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NASA Rebrands Future Solar Probe Spacecraft to Honor Astrophysicist Eugene Parker


NASA Rebrands Future Solar Probe Spacecraft to Honor Astrophysicist Eugene ParkerNASA has renamed its future mission to a star called the Solar Probe Plus spacecraft to honor astrophysicist Eugene Parker for his studies on the solar wind phenomenon and research on how stars engage orbiting planets.

The space agency said Wednesday that the spacecraft, now known as the Parker Solar Probe, is slated for launch in 2018 as part of NASA’s Living With a Star program which aims to study elements of the sun-Earth system that impacts society.

“This is the first time NASA has named a spacecraft for a living individual,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington.

Zurbuchen noted that Parker’s body of work helped discover a new field of science that helped inspire other discoveries and worked to answer questions that the space agency seeks to study.

Johns Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Laboratory currently oversees the Parker Solar Probe mission for NASA and the former will also build, design and operate the future spacecraft.

Parker currently serves as the S. Chandrasekhar Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus for the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of Chicago.

He received a bachelor’s degree in physics from Michigan State University and a doctorate degree from the California Institute of Technology before taking on faculty roles at the University of Utah, University of Chicago and the Fermi Institute.

The astrophysics expert also received various awards for his work such as the Bruce Medal, George Ellery Hale Prize, Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society, Gold Medal of Science, James Clerk Maxwell Prize, Kyoto Prize and the National Medal of Science.

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Report: DoD FY 2018 Budget Request Includes $4.8B for European Defense Efforts
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Report: DoD FY 2018 Budget Request Includes $4.8B for European Defense Efforts


Report: DoD FY 2018 Budget Request Includes $4.8B for European Defense EffortsThe Defense Department‘s fiscal year 2018 budget request allocates approximately $4.8 billion for the European Reassurance Initiative, an increase of $1.4 billion from ERI funds in FY 2017, DoD News reported Thursday.

Air Force Maj. Gen. David Allvin, director of strategy at the U.S. European Command, told reporters in a telephone briefing that the funding increase will support efforts against future Russian aggression through heightened air, sea and land force activities as well as interoperability with multinational forces.

Allvin added the requested FY 2018 ERI budget includes $1.7 billion for increased U.S. military presence; $218 million for exercises and training; $2.2 billion for prepositioning military equipment; $338 million to optimize infrastructure; and $267 million to boost the defense capacity of allies and partners.

The budget request also allocates $150 million to aid Ukraine’s internal defense operations, the report stated.

EUCOM said in a press release that the U.S. Army will maintain its rotational armored brigade combat team and combat aviation brigade presence in the region in FY 2018.

The military branch will also ramp up intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance efforts; integrated air and missile defense efforts; interoperability and deterrence exercises; and prepositioned equipment, according to the report.

The U.S. Air Force will expand ISR processing, exploitation and dissemination activities with European allies and continue support for NATO missions.

EUCOM noted the U.S. Marine Corps will work to grow its rotational presence across the theater and increase prepositioning assets while the U.S. Navy will boost anti-submarine warfare and surface mine-countermeasure efforts and equipment.

Delfin Gets DOE Approval to Export Liquefied Natural Gas From Proposed Offshore Terminal
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Delfin Gets DOE Approval to Export Liquefied Natural Gas From Proposed Offshore Terminal


Delfin Gets DOE Approval to Export Liquefied Natural Gas From Proposed Offshore TerminalThe Energy Department has granted Delfin LNG approval to export 1.8 billion cubic feet per day of liquefied natural gas over a 20-year period to countries that are not bound by free-trade agreements.

The company will export LNG from the proposed Delfin floating liquefaction facility in the Gulf of Mexico, DOE said Thursday.

The U.S. Coast Guard and the Maritime Administration conducted the environmental review of the Delfin project that is located off Cameron Parish in Louisiana.

The proposed offshore project will cover the development of storage vessels and floating liquefaction terminals.

Energy Secretary Rick Perry said the authorization seeks to reflect efforts to invest in natural gas for job creation and economic development as well as help allies ensure energy security.

The approval of the Delfin offshore project brings the country’s total natural gas export capacity to 21 billion cubic feet per day.

India-based Fairwood Group and U.S.-based Peninsula group jointly own the Delfin LNG terminal.

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