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DCMA Updates Automated Contract Administration Tool
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DCMA Updates Automated Contract Administration Tool


softwareThe Defense Contract Management Agency has rolled out a new version of its automated tool that works to help DCMA personnel evaluate acquisition programs and review contracts.

DCMA said Tuesday Integrated Workload Management System 3.0 includes a program assessment reporting feature designed to support team collaboration and facilitate report generation and approval processes as well as enterprise-level data analysis functions.

The agency noted that users can attach files, enter case data, generate and distribute letters and forms to designated recipients as well as manage cases via an end-to-end process using the combined features of the IWMS platform.

Antoine McNeal, IWMS program manager, said that DCMA added three new capacities and various additional features to the tool as a result of the agency’s efforts.

“We were able to develop an enterprise PAR with minimal resources in less than six months and logic-intense contract review in less than a year,” McNeal added.

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DLA Personnel Take Part in Air Force Nuclear Weapons Mgmt Course; Terry Simpson Comments
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DLA Personnel Take Part in Air Force Nuclear Weapons Mgmt Course; Terry Simpson Comments


mentorApproximately 30 Defense Logistics Agency employees who work in support of the Defense Department’s nuclear mission participated in a two-day course conducted by a U.S. Air Force mobile training team at Fort Belvoir in Virginia.

A training group from the Air Force Nuclear College in New Mexico kicked off on Nov. 1 the Nuclear Management Executive Course that aims to help personnel manage and support nuclear weapons systems through acquisition, logistics, sustainment and maintenance activities, DLA said Tuesday.

The course also covers lifecycle planning, stockpile guidance and other issues related to nuclear weapons.

“This course gives those individuals who receive orders, process contracts or buy material a truer understanding of what they’re supporting and gives them an idea of the importance of what they do on a daily basis,” said Terry Simpson, deputy executive director of DLA’s Nuclear Enterprise Support Office.

Air Force Lt. Gen. Andy Busch, director of DLA, established NESO in January 2015 as part of DLA’s logistics operations division in an effort to support DoD’s nuclear triad of submarine-launched ballistic missiles, ground-based bombers and intercontinental ballistic missiles.

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Army Wants to Hone Soldiers’ Cyber Skills; Jerry Turner, Patricia Frost Comment
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Army Wants to Hone Soldiers’ Cyber Skills; Jerry Turner, Patricia Frost Comment


cyberwarfareU.S. Army officials are looking to employ a social media-savvy force to help the military branch’s field commanders implement cyber strategies in tactical environments.

The Army said Tuesday cyber officials have begun to review results of a study conducted by the 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team’s 2nd Infantry Division earlier this year with the use of virtual effects in a simulated battlefield.

The study was part of the pilot Cyber Support to Corps and Below program that seeks to facilitate the development of a guide on how maneuver commanders should use cyber in combat operations.

“I think there is a better comfort level with our young folks that understand the complexity of the environment in which we are operating,” Col. Jerry Turner, commander of the 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, told a cyber discussion hosted by the Association of the U.S. Army.

“They think in a very network kind of way because that’s how they operate in their daily lives,” he added.

Brig. Gen. Patricia Frost, director of cyber for the Army’s Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff, G-3/5/7, said the research showed that a team comprised of up to 15 soldiers performed best to inform a brigade commander on offensive and defensive cyber tactics, electronic warfare and information operations.

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Report: DoD Proposes Rules on Industry’s Use of Independent R&D Investments
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Report: DoD Proposes Rules on Industry’s Use of Independent R&D Investments


research and development RDThe Defense Department has proposed an amendment to a policy that would require contractors to consult with DoD on independent research and development programs, Federal News Radio reported Tuesday.

Scott Maucione writes the Pentagon also plans to introduce a new rule that would ask contract officers to take into account the use of IRAD in the final contract price when it comes to the selection of a contractor.

The two policies are part of DoD’s efforts to limit industry’s use of public funds for IRAD projects in order to achieve short-term goals like price reduction on a competitive product, Maucione reports.

“By requiring industry to tell government what it’s doing will encourage more meaningful content,” said Frank Kendall, defense undersecretary for acquisition, technology and logistics.

Comments on the proposed policy on the use of IRAD in contract assessments are due by January, according to the report.

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Donald Trump Elected President
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Donald Trump Elected President


WhiteHouseRepublican candidate Donald Trump has won the 2016 U.S. presidential election over Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton in one of the country’s largest-ever political upsets, Reuters reported Wednesday.

Trump gathered enough of the 270 state-by-state electoral votes required and won in several key battleground states, Steve Holland and John Whitesides wrote.

Bloomberg Government analyzed Trump’s defense plans in an article published Nov. 2 and said he looks to increase the U.S. Army‘s size to 540,000 active duty soldiers, reach 350 ships for the U.S. Navy, equip the U.S. Air Force with 1,200 fighter aircraft and establish a total of 36 battalions in the U.S. Marine Corps,

Trump also indicated a focus on joint and coalition military operations and boosts to intelligence sharing and cyber warfare to counter the Islamic State militant group, according to BGOV.

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NASA Eyes Earth Science Data from Small Satellite Constellations
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NASA Eyes Earth Science Data from Small Satellite Constellations


CubeSatNASA plans to purchase Earth science data from small satellite constellations in 2017 to determine how the acquired data can help the space agency meet its needs, Space News reported Wednesday.

Jeff Foust writes Michael Freilich, director of NASA’s Earth science division, said the agency intends to set aside several tens of millions of dollars to procure and analyze the research utility of data products from private sector developed and launched smallsat constellations if Congress funds the mission.

Freilich said that NASA has issued a request for information in July that stated the space agency anticipates an award of up to $25 million on data purchase agreements by the end of fiscal year 2017.

He added that the space agency has expressed interest on global atmospheric profiling data and moderate resolution, multi-spectral land imaging formation data.

“Our objective is to leverage and, in a sense, glom on to what they are doing, not to direct them to do certain things for NASA research,” said Freilich.

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University Teams to Develop Computer Algorithms for IARPA Object Recognition Challenge
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University Teams to Develop Computer Algorithms for IARPA Object Recognition Challenge


NIH imageThree university-led teams have been chosen for a program to map, understand and mathematically re-create visual processing in the brain in response to an Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity challenge that aims to close gaps between computer and human recognition.

Sandia National Laboratories said Nov. 2 that participants of IARPA’s Machine Intelligence from Cortical Networks project will work to explain how brains see patterns and classify objects then use that information to develop computer algorithms for national security and intelligence applications.

Carnegie Mellon University, Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, Harvard University, Baylor College of Medicine, Allen Institute for Brain Science and Princeton University will utilize different techniques to map the visual cortex and generate models to develop computer algorithms for object recognition.

“We’re building better tools to see things that we were unable to see before and we’re trying to come up with theories to explain what we’ve observed,” said Brad Aimone, computational neuroscientist and principal member of technical staff at Sandia National Laboratories.

“The hope is it will tell us something that will make our models better so we could use them to do interesting things.”

Aimone will also lead a team to evaluate how much neuroscience machine learning algorithms will incorporate through computational neuroscience models as well as perform peer-review panel tasks to compare that university-led teams’ conclusions.

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VA Adds 15 Sites to Innovators Network Program; Bob McDonald Comments
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VA Adds 15 Sites to Innovators Network Program; Bob McDonald Comments


Veterans Affairs Department logoThe Department of Veterans Affairs‘ center for innovation will expand its Innovators Network program with the addition of fourteen new VA medical center innovation sites as well as a national cemetery innovation site.

VA said Tuesday the selected sites were selected from a pool of 44 innovation sites based on a review of 12 parameters that included plans to empower and engage employees, local infrastructure and proposed Veteran-centered approaches.

“We have invested in creating a culture of innovation which we can constantly find, test and create better ways to deliver services to our veterans,” said Bob McDonald, veterans affairs secretary.

Sites selected to serve as Innovators Network Sites in 2017 include:

  • Albany Stratton VA Medical Center
  • Fort Snelling National Cemetery
  • Grand Junction VA Healthcare System
  • Hines VA Medical Center
  • Hunter Holmes McGuire VA Medical Center
  • Lebanon VA Medical Center
  • Lexington VA Medical Center
  • Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center
  • New Mexico VA Healthcare System
  • Puget Sound VA Healthcare System
  • South Texas Healthcare System
  • Tuscaloosa VA Medical Center
  • VA Loma Linda Healthcare System
  • VA San Diego Healthcare System
  • White River Junction VA Medical Center

VA noted that the innovators network has established a pathway designed to streamline the development of new experiences for veterans and their respective families and the agency has invested in 38 projects designed to boost veteran access to services and care.

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Frank DiGiovanni: DoD Creates Prototypes for Cyber Learning Practices
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Frank DiGiovanni: DoD Creates Prototypes for Cyber Learning Practices


cyberThe Defense Department has created a series of prototypes to explore best learning practices in cyber skill education, C4ISRNet reported Tuesday.

Frank DiGiovanni, force training director at the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Readiness, told the publication DoD seeks to prototype variants of learning practices to determine the best approach to teach new cyber skills, Mark Pomerleau wrote.

DiGiovanni modeled part of the course based on interviews with 21 hackers and the prototype is built around sets of curriculum that is designed to teach high level skills within six months, Pomerleau reported.

DoD is in talks with the four military services, the National Security Agency and the U.S. Cyber Command on how to incorporate lessons from two prototypes into current practices, according to C4ISRNet.

DiGiovanni told C4ISRNet DoD might create a third prototype and the department currently develops a “blended learning approach” that entails in-person learning with a mentor.

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DoD News: Army Tests Zika Virus Vaccine on Humans
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DoD News: Army Tests Zika Virus Vaccine on Humans


HealthThe U.S. Army has conducted clinical trials of an inactivated Zika virus vaccine on 75 human adults at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, DoD News reported Tuesday.

Cheryl Pellerin writes WRAIR will test the ZPIV vaccine’s safety and capacity to trigger an immune response in the body as part of Phase 1 trials.

The Army and Defense Department funded WRAIR’s initial trials and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases served as sponsor, Pellerin reported.

NIAID also helped identify the viral strain used in ZPIV and supported WRAIR’s preclinical safety testing, DoD News said.

Rhesus monkeys vaccinated with ZPIV developed an immune response against two strains of Zika virus, according to an earlier preclinical study.

WRAIR and NIAID entered a joint research collaboration agreement with the Department of Health and Human Services’ Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority to support ZPIV’s development.

The Army agreed to transfer ZPIV technology to Sanofi Pasteur under a cooperative research-and-development agreement.

BARDA awarded a six-year contract to Sanofi Pasteur to further develop ZPIV toward a license.

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