The U.S. Air Force has applied open architecture and agile models toward updates of its ground infrastructure for analysis and processing of data collected from military sensors, drones and manned aircraft, Federal News Radio reported Wednesday.

Jared Serbu writes the Air Force Research Laboratory last year built an open prototype of the Distributed Common Ground System with the intent to help the military service embed plug-and-play tools into the platform.

The military branch plans to test the open architecture-based DCGS at five locations this year.

Col. Bruce Lyman, chief of ISR for the Air Force’s DCGS, was quoted as saying agile methodology will “allow us to not only take new technology and very quickly give that to our analysts, but to add those capabilities in parallel instead of waiting for years and years to go through the usual requirements and acquisition process.”

The Air Force used the ground intelligence platform to test a rapid acquisition approach last year through the PlugFest Plus experiment, which involved a consortium of non-traditional vendors and use of other transaction authority, Serbu reports.

The U.S. Army Research Laboratory has developed a concept that aims to use mission requirements provided by soldiers in order to build small unmanned aerial systems on demand through 3D printing, the Army reported Wednesday.

The report said the concept involves the use of off-the-shelf and 3D-printed parts and components to develop a UAV through a software that works to produce a computer-aided design of a drone.

A team of researchers at ARL’s vehicle technology directorate has partnered with Georgia Tech’s aerospace systems design lab to develop the software and hardware for the project.

Eric Spero, an acting team lead at ARL’s vehicle technology directorate, said the team’s project aims to address the need for manned-unmanned teaming platforms for use in threat detection missions.

“The solution is envisioned to be available at the battalion level and below, supporting the company, platoon, squad and individual soldier,” he added.

The Army Training and Doctrine Command selected the ARL project for the next phase of experiments as part of the live Army Expeditionary Warrior Experiments that will be held in January 2017 at Fort Benning in Georgia.

Tom Donilon, President Barack Obama’s former national security adviser, has been named chairman of the Commission on Enhancing National Cybersecurity, The Hill reported Wednesday.

Jordan Fabian and Cory Bennett write Sam Palmisano, former CEO of IBM, will serve as deputy chairman of the commission.

The White House established the commission on Feb. 9 as part of a national cybersecurity plan that Obama released along with his budget request for fiscal 2017.

Kevin Freking also reports for the Associated Press that the new panel will deliver a report to the president by Dec. 1 that details long-term plans on how to protect public and private computer networks from potential cyber attacks.

The commission will be composed of up to 12 members and will offer recommendations on best practices for data security and how to improve the acquisition process for information technology systems, Freking writes.

CIA Director John Brennan has told CBS News in an interview that cyberspace offers a path for U.S. adversaries to attack critical infrastructure such as transportation and financial systems.

He said to reporter Scott Pelley in the “60 Minutes” segment aired Sunday the CIA is developing safeguards to protect the country’s key assets from attack vectors.

Brennan added he believes people make themselves vulnerable to exploiters when they disclose information on social networks.

“Individuals are liberally giving up their privacy, you know, sometimes wittingly and sometimes unwittingly as they give information to companies or to sales reps… or they go out on Facebook or the various social media.”

A middle-of-the-night phone call for Brennan could mean that a tragedy has occurred or that he needs to make a potentially life-and-death decision, he noted to CBS’ Pelley.

Jeh Johnson, secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, has said that DHS will be involved in every initiative of the Cybersecurity National Action Plan that President Barack Obama introduced on Feb. 9, FierceGovernment IT reported Tuesday.

Johnson said in a Feb. 11 speech at the Wilson Center in Washington that such initiatives include efforts to bolster investments in cyber technology platforms and set up a Commission on Enhancing National Cybersecurity.

Molly Bernhart Walker writes Johnson noted that the department will work to help federal agencies implement the Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation and Einstein 3A programs that aim to protect networks from cyber threats.

He also mentioned the plan to increase the number of cybersecurity advisers and teams that are tasked to respond to cyber attacks, according to the report.