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Department of Transportation Selects 9 Vendors to Provide Complementary PNT Technologies for Field Testing
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Department of Transportation Selects 9 Vendors to Provide Complementary PNT Technologies for Field Testing

The Department of Transportation has awarded contracts to nine companies that will provide the Volpe National Transportation Systems Center with commercial complementary positioning, navigation and timing technologies to be subjected to field test trials.

During the tests, the Volpe Center will deploy the CPNT technologies in nominal as well as challenging conditions, evaluate them and use the resulting data in research work for the promotion of CPNT service adoption, according to a solicitation posted on SAM.gov.

CPNTs are envisioned as complementary services to be deployed in the event of disruption of conventional PNT capabilities, like the Global Positioning System, according to the DOT’s Complementary PNT Action Plan.

Karen Van Dyke, director for positioning, navigation and timing & spectrum management at the DOT’s Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research & Technology, said in an interview with Inside GNSS that the aim of the field trials is to get CPNT “thoroughly tested” so that its limits and vulnerabilities can be “well understood” before the agency can recommend its use.

The following are the awardees and the value of their contracts:

  • NextNav – $1.8M
  • Carahsoft Technology – $1.5M
  • Microsemi Frequency and Time Corp. – $1.4M
  • Parsons Government Services – $132,416
  • Hoptroff – $934,076
  • Locata – $778,630
  • Safran Trusted 4D – $245,300
  • NAL Research- $144,599
  • Tern AI – $51,780
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Istari Digital Wins AFWERX Contract for Modeling & Simulation Services; Dr. Will Roper Quoted
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Istari Digital Wins AFWERX Contract for Modeling & Simulation Services; Dr. Will Roper Quoted

Istari Digital has received a $15 million AFWERX contract titled “Model One.” The program will connect models and simulations throughout the Air Force to tackle the challenges of “internetized” warfare.

Dr. Will Roper, Istari Digital founder, president and CEO, believes that with digital transformation increasingly accelerating industries, the new contract will allow the company to speed up its innovation processes, the Arlington, Virginia-based company announced Wednesday.

“This latest contract demonstrates our commitment to breakthrough data-meshing solutions and our customers’ confidence in leveraging them,” said Roper, a multiple Wash100 Award winner. “Our plug-n-play digital thread platform provides secure, real-time, digital collaboration across difficult-to-integrate data types, unlocking digital speed of all innovation.”

An Air Force program dubbed “Flyer Øne” is already harnessing Istari Digital’s platform, effectively constructing the world’s first digitally-certified airplane.

Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt remarked, “Model Øne is an exciting opportunity for Istari Digital to create a virtual military on the way towards creating the industries of the future.”

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Lockheed Secures $64M Navy Award for Continued F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Program Support
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Lockheed Secures $64M Navy Award for Continued F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Program Support

Lockheed Martin‘s aeronautics business will continue providing infrastructure services in support of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program for the U.S. Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps and F-35 cooperative program partners under a $63.5 million contract modification.

The award for continued infrastructure support covers engineering, maintenance, logistics, manpower and material for F-35 JSF laboratory facilities and aircraft developmental flight test activities, the Department of Defense said Tuesday.

Lockheed Martin Aeronautics will perform the majority of work in Fort Worth, Texas, until August. Other contract locations are in Orlando, Florida; Linthicum, Maryland; Nashua, New Hampshire; San Diego and El Segundo, California; the U.K.; and within the continental U.S.

Patuxent River, Maryland-based Naval Air Systems Command serves as the contracting activity.

In May 2022, Lockheed received a two-year, $632.1 million contract from NAVAIR for software builds and developmental flight tests in support of the F-35 program. The recent modification award extends the company’s work under this contract.

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OFPP Seeks Comments on Application of Cost Accounting Standards to Indefinite Delivery Vehicles
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OFPP Seeks Comments on Application of Cost Accounting Standards to Indefinite Delivery Vehicles

The Office of Federal Procurement Policy within the Office of Management and Budget is soliciting public comments on whether and how to amend the rules to address the application of cost accounting standards, or CAS, to indefinite delivery vehicles, or IDVs.

According to a Federal Register notice published Tuesday, the Cost Accounting Standards Board within OFPP will accept comments through Aug. 19.

The CAS Board is considering the disadvantages and benefits of revising its rules to address when CAS applies to IDVs in light of the notable increase in the use of the vehicles in government procurement.

The board seeks to ensure its continued ability to achieve consistency in the cost accounting practices governing the assignment, measurement and allocation of costs to contracts with the U.S. government and identified provisional principles to support its assessment of alternatives.

Principles include helping each contract party to manage risks, reducing regulatory burden to the government and contractor, and promoting consistency in the application of CAS.

The board has identified six possible approaches to addressing CAS coverage to IDVs to facilitate public feedback: order-by-order; maximum award value; minimum award value; cumulative threshold; order-by-order for multiple award IDVs and maximum award value for single award IDVs; and order-by-order for multiple award IDVs and cumulative threshold for single award IDVs.

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Army Eyes Generative AI Pilot Program in July; Jennifer Swanson Quoted
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Army Eyes Generative AI Pilot Program in July; Jennifer Swanson Quoted

The U.S. Army plans to conduct a pilot program of a generative artificial intelligence technology in July as part of a 500-day plan to mitigate risks associated with AI algorithms, Breaking Defense reported Tuesday.

The pilot program within the Army’s acquisition, logistics and technology division will use a large language model and will be conducted in a secure cloud environment classified at Impact Level 5.

“The pilot is not just about increasing our productivity, which will be great, but also what are the other things that we can do? What are the other industry tools that are out there that we might be able to leverage or add on … say, our vehicles or you know, our weapon systems,” Jennifer Swanson, deputy assistant secretary of the Army for data, engineering and software, said Tuesday at a summit.

According to Swanson, the military branch will use its own data to train the LLM and expects the technology to accelerate the contract writing process in the future.

“I don’t think we are going to necessarily out of the gate write contracts with it, but I think in the area of contracts and in the area of policy, I think there’s a huge return on investment for us,” Swanson said. “But we got to pilot and test and make sure everybody’s comfortable with it first.”

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Rear Adm. Doug Noble Retires as DLA Logistics Operations Director
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Rear Adm. Doug Noble Retires as DLA Logistics Operations Director

Navy Rear Adm. Doug Noble, director of logistics operations and commander of joint regional command support at the Defense Logistics Agency, has retired after 35 years of active service.

DLA said Tuesday Air Force Maj. Gen. David Sanford, director of logistics, engineering and force protection at Headquarters Air Mobility Command at Scott Air Force Base in Illinois, will succeed Noble as head of logistics operations.

Army Lt. Gen. Mark Simerly, director of DLA, presided over the retirement ceremony held Friday at the McNamara Headquarters Complex Auditorium at Fort Belvoir in Virginia.

During the event, Simerly commended Noble for leading efforts to help the service branches and combatant commands restore readiness of weapon systems and for overseeing the development of a plan to ensure the agency’s capability in supporting the Department of Defense’s response to conflict, global competition and natural disasters.

In May 2021, he assumed the positions of logistics operations director and head of joint regional combat support at DLA.

His previous assignments include commander of the DLA Support Team-Afghanistan, commander of the Naval Supply Systems Command Weapon Systems Support and special assistant for audit readiness to the assistant secretary of the Navy, financial management and comptroller.

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Christopher Hanson to Continue to Chair Nuclear Regulator Commission
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Christopher Hanson to Continue to Chair Nuclear Regulator Commission

Christopher Hanson will continue to lead the Nuclear Regulatory Commission as chair after being sworn in for a second term that will run through the end of June 2029.

He became an NRC commissioner in June 2020 and assumed the role of chairman in January 2021, the agency said Tuesday.

Under Hanson‘s leadership, NRC established a technology-inclusive framework to license new and advanced reactors and advance fusion energy systems regulations, among other efforts.

“I look forward to building on the successes of recent years as the agency embraces a culture of trust and confidence and as we become even more efficient and effective in applying risk-information in our licensing reviews and decisions,” Hanson said.

He brings to the role over 20 years of experience in the government and private nuclear sectors.

Before NRC, he was a staff member on the Senate Appropriations Committee. He also served in the Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy and the Office of the Chief Financial Officer.

Hanson moved to DOE from Booz Allen Hamilton, where he served as a consultant leading engagements for industry and government in the energy sector.

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Strategic Systems Programs Scores High on Cyber Operational Readiness Assessment
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Strategic Systems Programs Scores High on Cyber Operational Readiness Assessment

Strategic Systems Programs, the Navy command tasked with providing lifecycle support for the sea component of the U.S. nuclear triad, completed in May the Cyber Operational Readiness Assessment, or CORA, program, for which it received high scores.

Formerly known as the Command Cyber Readiness Inspection Program, CORA is an assessment process that forms part of the cybersecurity strategy of the Department of Defense with a focus on key risk identifiers and, most recently, an emphasis on operational readiness over compliance, according to an article posted Monday on the SSP website.

The latest iteration of CORA saw the addition of new requirements and assessment criteria, which made it necessary for SSP teams to approach the process collaboratively in order to receive high marks.

Because of its high performance in CORA, SSP shared with Joint Force Headquarters – Department of Defense Information Network lessons learned and best practices, which will be used to inform future assessment standards.

SSP Deputy Command Information Officer Phil DiPietro noted, however, that it is his organization’s high standard of day-to-day operations readiness that made it possible to score high on CORA.

“There’s no way to do well [on CORA] without regular rigorous self-assessment and lifecycle implementation,” DiPietro said.

Strategic Systems Programs Scores High on Cyber Operational Readiness Assessment

Naval leaders, experts and innovators from government and industry will discuss how they’re enhancing maritime security, driving technological advancements and fostering strategic cooperation during the Potomac Officers Club’s 2024 Navy Summit, which will take place on Aug. 15. Register now to attend this important event!

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Air Force Special Operations Command Demos Real-Time Onboard Data Collection, Analysis to Support Joint Force
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Air Force Special Operations Command Demos Real-Time Onboard Data Collection, Analysis to Support Joint Force

Air Force Special Operations Command performed real-time collection and analysis of MC-130 aircraft’s onboard data, showcasing ability to support the readiness and resilience of the joint forces.

AFSOC said Tuesday it was also able to identify cybersecurity and maintenance anomalies from the operational aircraft and transfer information to a Department of Defense cloud environment during the demonstration.

A commercial, off-the-shelf observability platform was used to gather and analyze data for potential anomalies. Results were then sent to the cyber mission defense team ground station, which streamed the information real-time into a joint cloud instance for further analysis.

“Gaining real-time or near real-time observability into operational aircraft gives us the ability to develop countermeasures to overcome enemy cyber-attacks, generate force readiness and improve mission capable rates,” said Col. Alfredo Corbett, AFSOC director, cyber and C4 systems.

The demonstration was held at Hurlburt Field, Florida, and was attended by Special Operations Forces Acquisition, Technology and Logis​​tics, AFSOC Staff, Cyber Mission Defense Teams and maintenance personnel.

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Anduril’s Ghost Family of Unmanned Aircraft Systems Added to DIU Blue UAS Cleared List
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Anduril’s Ghost Family of Unmanned Aircraft Systems Added to DIU Blue UAS Cleared List

The Defense Innovation Unit has added to its Blue UAS Cleared List a pair of modular, small uncrewed aircraft systems from Anduril Industries.

Anduril said Tuesday that the inclusion of Ghost and its upgraded sibling, Ghost-X, to the DIU list, certifies the UAS’ compliance with pertinent National Defense Authorization Act provisions, their cybersecurity and availability for purchase by government users.

Powered by Anduril’s Lattice software operating system, Ghost works to provide a variety of capabilities, including electronic warfare, network extension and reconnaissance and targeting.

An expanded capability variant, Ghost-X offers superior endurance, capacity for multiple payloads and operating range.

Alex Chang, Ghost general manager at Anduril, expressed pride over the addition of the Ghost family of uncrewed aircraft systems to the cleared list, saying, “The Blue UAS certification enables us to deliver these capabilities to our national security partners with greater speed and security.”

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