Raj Shah, Defense Innovation Unit Experimental managing partner, has said DIUx wants to work with partners that can provide new technologies to the warfighters in support of the group’s mission to connect with technology companies, DoD News reported Thursday.

Lisa Ferdinando writes DIUx has awarded 12 agreements worth $36 million total for products and services that include drone technologies, wireless communications and cyber defense as well as a simulation sandbox for real-world event modeling functions.

Shah noted that DIUx has also opened an office in Boston to compliment the organization’s Silicon Valley hub and established a presence in Austin, Texas to identify new technologies within the geographical ecosystems and with companies in those regions.

“We look at certain types of software, automation, artificial intelligence… we need to get these types of capabilities to our men and women as fast and as safely as we can,” Shah said.

The Government Accountability Office has found the Defense Department‘s February 2016 report did not include all required information on military, civilian and contracted services workforces to demonstrate cost savings.

GAO said Wednesday DoD did not meet section 955 of the National Defense Authorization Act that requires the department to report costs of civilian and contracted services workforces from fiscal years 2012 through 2017.

Auditors said DoD’s report did not have a summary of cost savings achieved in the previous fiscal year through military and civilian workforce reductions as well as a summary of contracted services reductions.

The department interpreted section 955 as requiring a report on civilian savings achieved when comparing costs from fiscal years 2012 to 2017 and not each year in between, officials told GAO.

Officials added DoD did not provide accurate number of full-time equivalents for contracted services to include in the report.

Auditors found that DoD has not developed and implemented a plan to reduce civilian and contracted services workforces and the department failed to show how its reductions are consistent with workforce management laws in the report as required by section 995.

In December 2015, GAO recommended for DoD to include costs savings for civilian personnel in its reports and provide a description of efficiencies plan to achieve savings.

The U.S. Navy and its U.K. counterpart plan to test approximately 50 unmanned systems from more than 40 organizations as part of a joint demonstration around Scotland, Breaking Defense reported Tuesday.

Sydney Freedberg writes the Office of Naval Research will provide 10 different technologies for the Unmanned Warrior 2016 exercise.

Seven of 10 systems from ONR are related to mine warfare such as Rapid Environmental Assessment, mine warfare platoons, underwater drones called Slocum Gliders, Mine Counter-Measures Command and Control systems and others, Freedberg reported.

Unmanned Warrior is part of the Joint Warrior exercise that involves all three U.K. services and NATO countries.

Researchers at the U.S. Army Natick Soldier Research, Development and Engineering Center have patented a new harness design they created to protect wearers from blast debris in specifically the groin and femoral artery areas.

The Army said Thursday the team made the harness design to provide fragment protection and help prevent debris embedding in the groin area which may lead to extreme discomfort along with health and hygiene issues.

“The protection that existed before was letting debris in because it wasn’t fitted close enough to the body,” said Cara Tuttle, an NSRDEC clothing designer and design lead.

NSRDEC’s human factors and anthropology teams have partnered to created the design that worked to provide movement and range of motion through adjustable straps and buckles used for doffing and donning functions.