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PEO Digital Ruth Youngs Lew Announces Retirement
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PEO Digital Ruth Youngs Lew Announces Retirement

Ruth Youngs Lew, the program executive officer for digital and enterprise services at the Department of the Navy, is retiring at the end of May, concluding over 30 years of service.

Youngs Lew announced her retirement on LinkedIn, saying that, although the decision was difficult, she was now choosing to focus on her family.

The outgoing official described her tenure as PEO Digital and, before that, as PEO for enterprise information systems as “an amazing and transformative journey” and expressed pride at the work that she had done with her colleagues.

Youngs Lew was appointed PEO Digital in 2020, which put her in charge of a variety of projects concerning IT networks, enterprise services and digital infrastructure benefiting the Navy and Marine Corps.

“It has been an honor to support our Navy and Marine Corps missions by delivering the capabilities our Warfighters require, and it has been a pleasure to serve among the finest professionals throughout my career,” Youngs Lew said.

PEO Digital Executive Director Louis Koplin will hold the position of program executive officer on an acting basis until a permanent successor is chosen, DefenseScoop reports.

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Army Program, Working Group Formation Part of Biden Admin Push for Advanced Nuclear Technology
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Army Program, Working Group Formation Part of Biden Admin Push for Advanced Nuclear Technology

The U.S. Army seeks to deploy small modular nuclear reactors and microreactors to power several of its sites across the country and will soon issue a request for information for the program.

The Army’s plan to use advanced reactors is part of the Biden administration’s overall efforts to tap nuclear technology to achieve its goal of a carbon free electricity sector by 2035 while ensuring U.S. energy security, the White House said Wednesday.

The Army program, alongside similar initiatives by the Air Force and the Office of the Secretary of Defense’s Strategic Capabilities Office, will be a source of information to guide regulations and supply chains that will facilitate future nuclear technology deployments.

Also part of the Biden administration’s nuclear thrust is the establishment of a Nuclear Power Project Management and Delivery working group, whose role will be to engage stakeholders and determine ways to make nuclear technology deployment efficient and cost-effective.

The working group will be composed of various federal government entities.

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NASA’s Starling Mission Demonstrates Autonomous Swarm Operations
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NASA’s Starling Mission Demonstrates Autonomous Swarm Operations

NASA’s four CubeSat spacecraft for the Starling mission have met all their key objectives, marking a successful demonstration of autonomous swarm operations in low-Earth orbit.

Over a ten-month period, the swarm of satellites completed the Distributed Spacecraft Autonomy and Mobile Ad-hoc Network, or MANET, experiments, Starling Formation-Flying Optical, or StarFOX, demonstration and Reconfiguration and Orbit Maintenance Experiments Onboard, a.k.a. ROMEO, tests, the space agency said Wednesday.

The distributed autonomy experiment showcased the satellites’ data collection and information distribution abilities, while the MANET experiment demonstrated network communication among the spacecraft swarm. StarFOX, on the other hand, focused on autonomous swarm navigation, while ROMEO tests looked into onboard maneuver planning and execution.

“The success of Starling’s initial mission represents a landmark achievement in the development of autonomous networks of small spacecraft,” said Roger Hunter, program manager for NASA’s Small Spacecraft Technology program at Ames Research Center.

NASA plans to move on to testing Starling swarm’s space traffic coordination in partnership with the Starlink constellation of SpaceX.

“Starling’s partnership with SpaceX is the next step in operating large networks of spacecraft and understanding how two autonomously maneuvering systems can safely operate in proximity to each other,” shared Hunter. “As the number of operational spacecraft increases each year, we must learn how to manage orbital traffic.”

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Momentus Books DARPA Contract to Advance In-Space Construction Capabilities; John Rood Quoted
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Momentus Books DARPA Contract to Advance In-Space Construction Capabilities; John Rood Quoted

In-space transportation services provider Momentus has received a contract from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to help develop technologies that could support construction projects in space.

Momentus’ work will support the agency’s Novel Orbital and Moon Manufacturing, Materials and Mass-efficient Design initiative, known as NOM4D, which aims to lay a foundation for building large-scale structures in the domain, the company announced from San Jose, California on Thursday.

John Rood, CEO of Momentus, said the organization is “delighted by the opportunity to partner with DARPA to work at the forefront of the future in-space infrastructure economy.”

As part of the NOM4D program, the enterprise will carry out experiments that could be incorporated into the Momentus Vigoride Orbital Services Vehicle while maintaining compliance with requirements for launch and in-space operations.

The vehicle is powered by the company’s water-based propulsion system, which will enable it to maneuver and modify orbit to achieve the demands of the project.

“Vigoride’s flexibility, payload capacity, and power make it well-suited to support the demonstration of NOM4D technologies that overcome current volume, load, and vibration constraints currently limiting the type and scale of in- space structures,” said Rood.

Throughout the duration of the program, Momentus will execute on-orbit demonstrations of NOM4D’s assembly and manufacturing technologies to improve its overall technology readiness level.

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Scott Flanders Elevated to Permanent CIO Role at Nuclear Regulatory Commission
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Scott Flanders Elevated to Permanent CIO Role at Nuclear Regulatory Commission

Scott Flanders, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s acting chief information officer since January, will assume the permanent CIO role on June 2.

He will manage the overall information technology functions, including cyber and information security, data management, artificial intelligence and enterprise governance, to enhance information access and improve performance across the NRC, the agency said Wednesday.

Before taking on the role on an acting basis, Flanders was deputy CIO responsible for planning, directing and overseeing resources to align IT and information management services with NRC’s mission objectives.

Flanders joined the NRC in 1991 as a reactor engineer intern and later served as director of the Office of New Reactors Division of Site Safety and Environmental Analysis and the deputy director of the Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards Division of Waste Management and Environmental Review.

“His experience with the government’s use of information technology and his deep understanding of the NRC mission will help the agency navigate the challenges of the future,” said Raymond Furstenau, acting executive director for operations at the NRC.

FAA Authorizes Autonomous Drone Swarm Exercises at LLNL Site
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FAA Authorizes Autonomous Drone Swarm Exercises at LLNL Site

The Federal Aviation Administration has authorized Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s Autonomous Sensors team to field test autonomous drone swarms at the main LLNL site.

The certificate of authorization enables the team to operate up to 100 drones during the daytime over the next two years as part of efforts to evaluate swarm controls and sensor payloads designed for national security applications.

Brian Wihl, systems engineer at LLNL and the initiative’s project lead, said the national lab seeks to apply artificial intelligence and machine learning tools to its autonomous sensors but could not field-test the technologies.

“Receiving this approval enables us to take the next step in our research. We’ll be able to apply swarming technology across several national security mission spaces to see how the swarms learn and respond in real-time,” Wihl said.

Jacob Trueblood, Autonomous Sensors electrical hardware team lead and principal investigator for the initiative, said the broad-use-case approval would enable rapid development of software tools and allow the lab to benchmark available software and recommend future updates.

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Army Launches Universal Artillery Projectile Lines Facility in Texas; Christine Wormuth Quoted
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Army Launches Universal Artillery Projectile Lines Facility in Texas; Christine Wormuth Quoted

The U.S. Army has unveiled a modular metal parts manufacturing facility in Mesquite, Texas, as part of the military branch’s plan to modernize the industrial base and strengthen the country’s munition production capabilities.

General Dynamics’ ordnance and tactical systems business will operate the Universal Artillery Projectile Lines or UAPL facility, which features high-tonnage forging capabilities, automation and digital data capture systems, the Army said Wednesday.

The UAPL facility comes with high-volume production capabilities for metal parts ranging from 60 mm to 155 mm.

Army Secretary Christine Wormuth said the new facility reflects the military branch’s efforts to modernize the World War II-era organic industrial base.

“We are building new production lines across the country, and we are expanding our contracts with existing production facilities to increase their production speed and capacity. And we couldn’t increase our production rates without the skilled expertise of the Americans who work in these arsenals and facilities around the country,” added Wormuth, a 2024 Wash100 awardee.

General Dynamics designed and built the plant for the Army through a package of contracts worth $576 million.

POC - 2024 Army Summit

Attend the Potomac Officers Club’s 2024 Army Summit on June 13 to hear military officials, government leaders and industry executives share their most urgent priorities, strategies and solutions to their toughest challenges. Register here.

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Sen. Roger Wicker Calls for Generational Investment in US Military Through New Report
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Sen. Roger Wicker Calls for Generational Investment in US Military Through New Report

Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., has released a report outlining key recommendations to rebuild the U.S. defense industrial base and military through generational investments to achieve military readiness and strengthen deterrence.

The defense investment plan titled 21st Century Peace Through Strength: A Generational Investment in the U.S. Military stressed the need to increase the annual defense budget to 5 percent of gross domestic product and recommended routes through which the Department of Defense, Congress and the executive branch could work together to speed up the development of new capabilities, Wicker’s office said Wednesday.

The recommendations are classified into major areas, including proliferating integrated air and missile defense, reviving homeland defense, restoring fleet readiness and accelerating U.S. Army transformation efforts.

Some of the specific recommendations listed in the report are reforming the Defense Production Act, modernizing the air defense radar network, accelerating the production of B-21 bombers and E-2D Hawkeye aircraft, expanding requirements for the Collaborative Combat Aircraft program, advancing the adoption of 5G at defense installations to improve data processing and buying at least 340 more fighter jets in the next five years.

Wicker, the ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, also called on the U.S. Space Force to accelerate the deployment of layered, network satellite architecture and strengthen ground stations and underlying architecture.

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DARPA Sets Proposers Day for Artificial Intelligence Quantified Program
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DARPA Sets Proposers Day for Artificial Intelligence Quantified Program

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency will host a proposers day on June 14 to discuss with industry an upcoming broad agency announcement to develop and test mathematical methods for guaranteeing the capabilities of generative artificial intelligence models used across the Department of Defense.

DARPA said Wednesday the Artificial Intelligence Quantified, or AIQ, program aims to test the hypothesis that mathematical foundations of AI, combined with advances in modeling and measurement, will enable guaranteed quantification of generative AI capabilities.

“AI has achieved near human-level performance in domains including text generation, game playing, and such, which raises the prospect of widespread integration with human partners in the military and society,” said Patrick Shafto, program manager of AIQ at DARPA. “And at the most general level, we’re interested in determining how to ensure AI systems will have the properties needed to solve various problems.”

The program will be divided into two technical areas. Technical Area 1 will focus on providing foundations for understanding and guaranteeing capabilities across levels while Technical Area 2 will develop methods for evaluating AI models.

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Jen Easterly Reveals CISA Will Develop 2025 National Infrastructure Risk Management Plan
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Jen Easterly Reveals CISA Will Develop 2025 National Infrastructure Risk Management Plan

Jen Easterly, director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and a 2024 Wash100 Award recipient, has shared that CISA will develop a national plan that will guide federal initiatives to protect critical infrastructure from cyberthreats.

In a blog post published Wednesday, Easterly said the 2025 National Infrastructure Risk Management Plan will be informed by a new risk management cycle as stated in the National Security Memorandum-22 on Critical Infrastructure Security and Resilience, which the White House issued on April 30.

According to Easterly, the upcoming document will replace the 2013 National Infrastructure Protection Plan and state how the U.S. government will work with partners to detect and manage national risk amid the evolving threat landscape.

“Most importantly, the National Plan will recognize that the U.S. government cannot make all critical infrastructure immune from all threats and hazards,” she wrote.

The 2025 National Plan will outline U.S. government efforts to improve the resilience of critical infrastructure against prioritized risks based on cross-sector risk assessments of CISA and risk assessments of 16 critical infrastructure sectors.

The CISA director said the agency and other federal partners will collaborate with sector risk management agencies to help manage unique sector risks.

Easterly also stressed the importance of insights from state, local, tribal and territorial governments and private sector partners in helping CISA develop and implement the 2025 National Plan.

“We ask that you work with your respective SRMAs through the development of your sector risk assessments and sector risk management plans, as these will be core inputs into the National Plan,” she noted.

POC - 2024 Cyber Summit

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