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Watch: Top 5G Challenges & How to Solve Them
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Watch: Top 5G Challenges & How to Solve Them

5G is essential to the future of wireless communications, but in the United States, we’re still dealing with some hurdles to widespread deployment. In Executive Mosaic’s latest video interview, we sat down with Gen. Rob Spalding, CEO of SEMPRE, to learn more about what’s standing in the way of 5G and what can be done to knock those barriers down.

Curious about 5G in the U.S. Navy? Hear Rob Spalding speak on a panel at the Potomac Officers Club’s 2024 Navy Summit on Aug. 15 to learn more about the Navy’s 5G use cases. Register now to attend.

“Unfortunately, the way we’ve architected infrastructure today has been in a highly centralized manner,” Spalding told Executive Mosaic’s Summer Myatt. “As you can imagine, if you’re highly centralized and you take out that single location that the network’s relying on, then you may have perfectly functioning cell towers around you, but they don’t work.”

“We don’t build centralized networks in the military. We build highly decentralized networks because they’re much more resilient,” he added.

Spalding shared that cellular technology used to be a convenience, but now, it’s “absolutely necessary.” And because of its increasing importance, we need to be building networks that are resilient and secure so that we can rely on them in times of crisis or conflict. Spalding argued that as we look to the future of 5G, we must build more decentralized infrastructure.

In addition to his role as CEO of SEMPRE, Spalding is also a retired U.S. Air Force general and a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute. His work primarily focuses on U.S.-China relations, as well as economic and national security. Earlier in his career, Spalding was the White House National Security Council senior director for strategic planning.

Meet Rob Spalding on Aug. 15 at the 2024 Navy Summit — register to attend the Navy Summit today!

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NARA Explores Automation, Other Tech to Advance Digital Records Management
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NARA Explores Automation, Other Tech to Advance Digital Records Management

The National Archives and Records Management is looking at automation and other technologies to advance digital records management without human intervention, Federal News Network reported Monday.

Lisa Haralampus, director of federal records management policy and outreach at NARA, told FNN in an interview that the agency wants to establish a group of information management professionals who can oversee digital records processes and policies.

“We are calling this strategy ‘zero click’ so it’s zero click for users,” Haralampus said.

“And I like to say, it’s 10,000 clicks for the information professionals behind the scene. So, we can get there. I think we’re going to have a modern records management environment where we’re actually systemically and at scale able to manage the records created by agencies,” she added.

According to Haralampus, NARA is working with the General Services Administration to ensure the availability of certified records management tools for agencies as they procure digital services and is assessing how artificial intelligence and machine learning impact federal records management.

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NTIA Report Recommends Active Monitoring of Risks in Open AI Models
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NTIA Report Recommends Active Monitoring of Risks in Open AI Models

The Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration has issued a report outlining policy recommendations that promote artificial intelligence innovation while actively monitoring for potential risks associated with open AI systems.

NTIA said Tuesday the Report on Dual-Use Foundation Models with Widely Available Model Weights recommends that the U.S. government establish a program to gather evidence of risks, assess the collected evidence and act on those assessments.

When it comes to evidence collection, recommended activities include conducting research into the safety of consequential and powerful AI models, maintaining a set of risk-specific indicators and supporting external research into the present and future capabilities of dual-use foundation models and risk mitigations.

“The openness of the largest and most powerful AI systems will affect competition, innovation and risks in these revolutionary tools,” said NTIA Administrator Alan Davidson.

“NTIA’s report recognizes the importance of open AI systems and calls for more active monitoring of risks from the wide availability of model weights for the largest AI models. Government has a key role to play in supporting AI development while building capacity to understand and address new risks,” added Davidson, assistant secretary of Commerce for communications and information.

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Lara Schmidt Named Vice Chair of Air Force’s Scientific Advisory Board
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Lara Schmidt Named Vice Chair of Air Force’s Scientific Advisory Board

Lara Schmidt was selected as the new vice chair of the scientific advisory board of the Department of the Air Force.

The Air Force said Monday that Schmidt, an Aerospace Corp. vice president, will reportedly play a pivotal role in ensuring the effectiveness and overall direction of the advisory board.

Schmidt will focus on studying topics determined by the Air Force secretary. Her other responsibilities include providing technology application recommendations and evaluating the department’s science and technology programs.

The SAB, formed in 1944, is composed of experts in the field of S&T, manufacturing, acquisition process and other matters relevant to the department. It advises the DAF leadership on scientific and technological matters and identifies tech use-cases to help in the development of new capabilities for the Air Force and Space Force.

Schmidt has been a member of the scientific advisory board since 2016.

The American University-trained mathematician is also the VP of defense architectures and integration in the defense systems group at Aerospace. Before that, she was the associate general manager of the communications and navigations capabilities division.

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GAO Recommends Using Digital Engineering Tools to Develop Hypersonic Weapons
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GAO Recommends Using Digital Engineering Tools to Develop Hypersonic Weapons

The Government Accountability Office said most of the Department of Defense’s hypersonic programs are not using leading product development practices, impacting the agency’s goal to quickly build hypersonic weapons with speeds of at least Mach 5.

Of the six hypersonic weapon efforts reviewed, four were found not using modern digital engineering tools, including virtual representations of physical products, and not soliciting user feedback to improve the capabilities of minimum viable products, GAO said Monday.

GAO also highlighted in its report the DOD’s limited experience developing and fielding hypersonic weapons, causing difficulty in how the agency determines cost estimates, and its insufficient report to Congress about the progress of its components in fielding such weapons.

The congressional watchdog provided 10 recommendations to address the issues, including increasing the incorporation of feedback from users into system designs, expanding the use of modern digital engineering tools, improving cost estimates and expanding enterprise-level reporting activities.

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Army Conducts Counter-Small UAS Demo
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Army Conducts Counter-Small UAS Demo

The U.S. Army recently completed a counter-small unmanned aircraft systems, or C-sUAS, demonstration to gauge their effectiveness against threats.

According to the Army, the challenging test was conducted by the Joint Counter-Small Unmanned Systems Office, a.k.a. JCO, to determine the command-and-control capabilities of nine C-sUAS systems against small UAS threats.

The demonstration, the fifth of its kind and the first in nearly 12 months, was held at Yuma Proving Ground from June 3 to 28. It involved more than 40 UAS threats attacking a particular target, which was defended by the C-sUAS systems.

Chief of the JCO Acquisition Division Col. Michael Parent said the test allowed them to evaluate the capabilities of the counterattack systems against challenging threat profiles, including both kinetic and non-kinetic methods of warfare. In particular, the C-sUAs were tested against rotary wing, fixed wing, slow-moving and propeller-powered UAS threats.

“You don’t want to obviously engage the target multiple times,” Parent said. “You’ve got so many [UAS] coming at you, you have to be able to differentiate and have the most promising threat first.”

The counter-drone systems were evaluated on their ability to sense and identify the different kinds of UAS threats. Other features tested included guided rockets, kinetic interceptor drones, electro-optical/infrared cameras, radio frequency scanners and radio frequency jammers.

While Parent did not provide specifics on the results of the demonstration, he did conclude that there is a need for a full system-of-systems approach to be able to handle more than 50 threats of different sizes coming from different angles at different speeds.

JCO will share the results of the test with the vendors and the different combatant commands. This will help in producing C-sUAS with specific capabilities needed by the combatant commands. Another demonstration will be held during the second or third quarter of fiscal year 2025.

ELTA North America, one of eight vendors to participate in the demo, managed to secure two proposals. The Maryland-based aerospace company proposed vehicle-mounted and platoon transport counter-drone systems.

In 2019, former Defense Secretary Mark Esper appointed the Army as the executive agent for C-sUAS defense in response to the growing threat of drone warfare. In Ukraine and Israel, for example, UAS were used for reconnaissance and transporting ammunition by enemy forces.

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Commerce Department to Provide $400M for Amkor’s Advanced Packaging Facility in Arizona
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Commerce Department to Provide $400M for Amkor’s Advanced Packaging Facility in Arizona

The Department of Commerce has agreed to provide Amkor Technology with up to $400 million in proposed direct funding under the CHIPS and Science Act.

Under a preliminary memorandum of terms signed by the two parties, the federal funding would support Amkor’s $2 billion advanced packaging project in Arizona, the Commerce Department said.

According to Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo, the funding would improve the country’s supply chain security and generate thousands of jobs in Arizona.

“The leading-edge chips that will be packaged right here in Arizona are foundational to technologies of the future that will define global economic and national security for decades to come,” Raimondo said.

The PMT will also give Amkor access to $200 million of proposed loans from the CHIPS Program Office and up to 25 percent of tax credit from the Department of the Treasury.

When it becomes operational, Amkor’s Arizona facility will package and test leading-edge chips for autonomous vehicles, 5G/6G smartphones and large-scale data centers.

The company will also support around 2,000 jobs in the state and establish a pipeline for skilled jobs by collaborating with leading universities across the U.S.

The Commerce Department noted that the upcoming Amkor facility will enable companies such as TSMC, Apple and GlobalFoundries to package and test their essential chips locally.

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Valiant Wins 3 Education Department Contracts to Provide Data, Cyber Services
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Valiant Wins 3 Education Department Contracts to Provide Data, Cyber Services

The Department of Education has awarded Valiant Solutions three contracts to deliver data, cyber and secure IT services supporting the agency’s programs and operations.

Work on the potential five-year, $28.3 million ED Data Security and Services Operations Contract, or EDSSOC, began in June, involving program management, security operations center support, incident management, forensics and malware analysis, and threat management services, Valiant Solutions said Monday.

The period of performance under EDSSOC will run through June 20, 2029.

Valiant also won a position on the five-year, $98.1 million Cyber Data Innovation and Services blanket purchase agreement and was awarded the first CDIS call order.

Under the BPA, the company will perform various tasks, including project and contract management, compliance and risk management support, security information and event management, ED cyber data lake support, integration support services and information security continuous monitoring.

The third award is a five-year subcontract supporting T-Rex Solutions in developing the ED’s Portfolio of Integrated Value-Oriented Technologies-Hosting programs designed to provide integrated and secure IT services for various programs and locations.

“Valiant is honored to have this opportunity to support the Department of Education and we look forward to a successful partnership,” said Matt Raydo, CEO and president at Valiant.

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Raytheon Tapped to Mentor Anacapa Micro Products & Nara Logics Under DOD Initiative
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Raytheon Tapped to Mentor Anacapa Micro Products & Nara Logics Under DOD Initiative

Raytheon has agreed to mentor technology businesses Anacapa Micro Products, a secure supply chain solution provider, and cloud-based synaptic intelligence platform developer Nara Logics.

The RTX business said Monday that it will collaborate with Anacapa and Nara Logics to develop operational artificial intelligence to support Department of Defense platforms and missions.

The partnership is part of the DOD Mentor-Protege Program, which matches small businesses with larger defense companies to expand their capacities and work on major government programs. Raytheon has been participating in the oldest continuously operating federal mentor-protege program since 1991.

According to Colin Whelan, president of advanced technology at Raytheon, the Mentor-Protege Program plays a critical role in the company’s overall supplier diversity small business strategy.

As a mentor, Raytheon will assist Anacapa and Nara Logics in areas of developing operational AI, software architecture, systems integration, digital security and authority-to-operate requirements.

“Through this partnership, we’ll leverage commercial innovations that can make meaningful contributions to our defense capabilities and ultimately, the success of our servicemen and women,” said Whelan.

The collaboration is sponsored by Naval Air Systems Command and the Office of Naval Research.

In May, Raytheon also entered into a strategic partnership with test and measurement equipment supplier TEVET under the Mentor-Protege Program.

Bipartisan Senate Bill Seeks to Reform Federal Document Classification System
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Bipartisan Senate Bill Seeks to Reform Federal Document Classification System

Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., has proposed a bipartisan bill that would create a presidential task force to streamline the federal government’s document classification system and reduce the declassification backlog.

“We are facing an overwhelming backlog of hundreds of millions of pages awaiting declassification and experts telling us that 50 to 90 percent of classified materials could be made public without risk to our national security,” Peters said in a statement published Monday.

“My bipartisan bill will address this issue by updating the classification system to enhance our ability to safeguard critical information, while promoting the transparency that is so vital to our democracy,” added Peters, chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

The Classification Reform for Transparency Act would direct federal employees to present a written justification of classification decisions stating national security risks that could stem from the disclosure of specific information.

The proposed legislation would require government agencies to respond to congressional members’ declassification requests in a timely manner and ensure that employees are not routinely overclassifying information.

The measure establish a “drop-dead date” of 50 years from the time of original classification, at which point the document’s classified status would expire, and allow the public to submit declassification requests when potential national security risks are outweighed by the public interest in disclosure.

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