DOE Office Introduces Vision to Advance Fusion Energy S&T Goals
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DOE Office Introduces Vision to Advance Fusion Energy S&T Goals

The Department of Energy’s Office of Fusion Energy Sciences has released its new vision outlining DOE’s priorities to advance fusion energy by resolving fusion materials and technology gaps in the supply chain.

The Building Bridges plan aims to align the department’s FES program with the Biden administration’s Bold Decadal Vision for Commercial Fusion Energy, which is designed to build new technologies to enable fusion-pilot-plant designs to achieve clean energy goals, DOE said Thursday.

According to the document, FES seeks to collaborate with partners in the government, academia and the private sector on a staged approach to fusion energy development.

These partnerships will strengthen workforce development and sustainment, resolve research and development gaps and nurture plasma science and technology breakthroughs.

“As a part of these efforts, we will broaden and diversify program elements in FES, including emerging plasma concepts to reflect discovery plasma science and technology that could ultimately have a broad impact in society,” said Jean Paul Allain, associate director for FES at DOE.

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NASA Beams High Data Rate Video From Deep Space as Part of Optical Communications Demonstrator
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NASA Beams High Data Rate Video From Deep Space as Part of Optical Communications Demonstrator

NASA has transmitted an ultra-high definition streaming video from the Psyche mission spacecraft at a distance of 19 million miles from Earth.

The space agency said Monday that the transmission is part of its Deep Space Optical Communications experiment, which seeks to demonstrate a laser communication capability meant to transmit data from deep space at up to 100 times faster than the rates that state-of-the-art radio frequency systems can offer.

The video was beamed from the flight laser transceiver aboard the Psyche spacecraft to the Hale Telescope at the California Institute of Technology’s Palomar Observatory in the form of an encoded infrared laser with a bit rate of 267 megabits per second.

The video is a looped footage of a cat belonging to a Jet Propulsion Laboratory employee. The video shows the cat chasing a laser pointer while overlayed graphics show various types of information related to the Psyche mission.

After reaching Palomar, the video was sent via the internet to the JPL at a speed slower than its transmission from deep space, according to JPL’s Ryan Rogalin, leader of the project’s receiver electronics. The video had taken 101 seconds to travel from the Psyche spacecraft to Earth.

The transmission of high data rate signals will continue up to the farthest distance of Mars from Earth as the Psyche mission heads to its target asteroid between Mars and Jupiter.

CSIS Releases Report on Sensor Architecture for Hypersonic Missiles
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CSIS Releases Report on Sensor Architecture for Hypersonic Missiles

A study by the Center for Strategic and International Studies underlined the need for advanced sensor architecture in countering missile threats and bolstering hypersonic missile defense.

The report released Monday is supported by companies including General Atomics, L3Harris, Leidos and Lockheed Martin.

The researchers noted that certain trade-offs in terms of sensors and Earth’s orbit are necessary, and outlined a schedule for building and deploying hypersonic missile sensors into space.

They also concluded that while the Department of Defense already conducting programs and technologies to implement sensor architecture, its components will still need to be aligned using a governing acquisition and systems engineering body.

Policymakers should be conscientious of the lifecycle of sensor architecture, taking into account its deployment phasing and projected time of degradation, CSIS said.

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OMB Releases Guidance on Use of Project Labor Agreements in Federal Construction Projects
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OMB Releases Guidance on Use of Project Labor Agreements in Federal Construction Projects

The Office of Management and Budget has issued a memorandum providing agencies guidance on reporting on the use of project labor agreements, or PLAs, in federal construction projects and reporting on exceptions to PLA requirements.

OMB said Monday the guidance document was issued in accordance with a February 2022 executive order, which requires the use of PLAs in federal construction projects worth over $35 million as part of efforts to alleviate coordination challenges and minimize disruptions on large projects.

Under the guidance, agencies should carry out and document inclusive market research for all large construction projects and require PLAs unless an exception applies.

Agencies should also ensure that any exception is approved by the senior procurement executive and report PLA exceptions and activities with supporting explanations of exceptions to OMB.

An agency may determine whether a PLA is required at the contract level or on an order-by-order basis for indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contracts.

“If the IDIQ contract is intended to support one large-scale construction project, the agency must require a PLA for the entire contract (i.e., all orders of any size), unless an exception applies,” the OMB guidance reads.

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CISA to Streamline Approach to Cyber Threat Information Sharing
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CISA to Streamline Approach to Cyber Threat Information Sharing

Michael Duffy, associate director at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s cybersecurity division, said CISA will launch a strategic effort in 2024 to modernize its approach to sharing enterprise threat information.

In a blog post published Monday, Duffy said the planned effort aims to drive improvements across the enterprise by streamlining the provision of cyberthreat information from CISA’s agency partners and commercial sources and building the agency’s platform around human-centered design principles.

CISA will consolidate customer-facing cyberthreat intelligence offerings to simplify the process as part of a new initiative called Threat Intelligence Enterprise Services, which will share information capabilities under a single platform.

The agency will also build on the successes and known challenges of the legacy Automated Indicator Sharing program.

“While CISA implements this transition over the next two years, the AIS program will remain available, and we encourage users to continue leveraging this capability and actively share indicators back with CISA,” Duffy said.

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Space Training and Readiness Command Designated as USSF Test & Evaluation Lead
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Space Training and Readiness Command Designated as USSF Test & Evaluation Lead

The U.S. Space Force has designated Space Training and Readiness Command, also known as STARCOM, as the service branch’s lead agency for testing and evaluating space systems and programs.

Gen. B. Chance Saltzman, chief of space operations, has signed a memorandum assigning STARCOM as the independent operational test agency for space programs to oversee the Space Force’s overall test and evaluation activities for space systems, techniques and capabilities, the command said Friday.

“By bringing OTA under STARCOM’s responsibility, we are not just streamlining processes but also equipping our space forces with credible, combat-ready capabilities at unparalleled speed,” said Maj. Gen. Timothy Sejba, commander of STARCOM.

Col. Sacha Tomlinson, deputy operational test authority — a.k.a. OTA — at STARCOM, said the designation validates the command’s capabilities to prepare and deliver warfighting technologies.

“We leverage lessons learned and best practices from our sister service OTAs with a focus on our service’s priorities and revolutionary developments like Zero Trust and Artificial Intelligence,” Tomlinson said.

The Air Force Operational Test and Evaluation Center has been the OTA for space operations since December 2019.

Space Training and Readiness Command Designated as USSF Test & Evaluation Lead

Join the Potomac Officers Club’s 2024 Space Summit on March 5 to learn how new technologies, commercial investments and adversarial threats are shaping the future of space operations. Register here to save your seat!

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Carlos Del Toro: US Congress Should Take Urgent Action on Navy, Marine Corps Funding
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Carlos Del Toro: US Congress Should Take Urgent Action on Navy, Marine Corps Funding

Carlos Del Toro, secretary of the Navy and a 2023 Wash100 awardee, said Congress should take immediate action to approve the Department of Defense’s annual budget to fund the U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps to deter adversaries and ensure freedom of the seas.

In an opinion piece published Thursday in Federal Times, Del Toro noted that the Department of the Navy is operating “under a cloud of uncertainty due to the temporary nature of our appropriations,” preventing the department from responding to threats posed by China and supporting partners in Ukraine to counter Russian aggression, among others.

The secretary cited the impact of stopgap funding measure on DON.

“If any agency of the federal government remains under a continuing resolution come January, the Department of the Navy will face a $15 billion cut to the FY23 spending levels we are still operating under — well below what we need to man, train and equip our Navy and Marine Corps today,” Del Toro wrote.

He also mentioned the potential effect of sequestration on the acquisition of ships, munitions and aircraft, particularly on multiyear procurement contracts.

“We are a maritime nation, and Congress has a constitutional duty to resource our Navy and Marine Corps, ensuring we remain the world’s premier naval services,” Del Toro added.

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DOD Issues Call for Projects Under Microelectronics Commons Program; David Honey Quoted
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DOD Issues Call for Projects Under Microelectronics Commons Program; David Honey Quoted

The Department of Defense will provide up to $280 million in funding to support projects that advance prototyping work and production of microelectronics for the U.S. military.

DOD said Monday the Microelectronics Commons FY24 Call for Projects reflects the department’s focus on strengthening the U.S. microelectronics manufacturing industry to maintain the country’s military tech advantage.

Project awards are expected to be announced in the third quarter of fiscal year 2024.

“This Call for Proposals is the next step in our effort to bridge the valley of death from ‘lab-to-fab,’” said David Honey, deputy under secretary of defense for research and engineering.

“With participation from companies and universities across the nation, these projects will catalyze domestic production of advanced microelectronics that are vital to America’s national defense and economic competitiveness, supporting the goals set forth by the White House and the CHIPS and Science Act,” Honey added.

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RTX Secures $80M Navy Contract to Prototype EW System; Bryan Rosselli Quoted
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RTX Secures $80M Navy Contract to Prototype EW System; Bryan Rosselli Quoted

An RTX business has booked an $80 million contract to prototype an electronic warfare tool for the U.S. Navy.

Over the award’s three-year period, Raytheon will develop and test the consolidated Advanced Electronic Warfare, or ADVEW, system for the F/A-18 E/F Super Hornet aircraft, the company announced from Goleta, California on Tuesday.

“These advancements are paving the way for the next generation of electronic warfare,” said Bryan Rosselli, president of advanced products and solutions at Raytheon.

ADVEW is designed to condense existing electronic warfare systems into fewer components and build an open architecture to provide modernization and performance enhancement. During the development process, Raytheon intends to align and integrate ADVEW with other radio frequency sensors and effectors used by the Super Hornet.

The new system is set to supplant the aircraft’s current AN/ALQ-214 integrated defensive electronic countermeasure and AN/ALR-67(V)3 radar receiver.

Rosselli said the one-box technology “will deliver a generational refresh to the electronic warfare capability for the lifetime of the Super Hornet.”

The prototype phase will include preliminary design review, critical design review and flight testing. A majority of these activities will occur in Goleta, California.

This contract follows RTX’s earlier support for the Navy’s efforts to upgrade the Super Hornet. Last month, the company’s StormBreaker precision-guided glide bomb was fielded on the aircraft, which represents the first Navy aircraft cleared to host the weapon system.

RTX has recently won multiple other Navy awards, including a $96.3 million contract modification for sensor network design and engineering and a $20.8 million award to construct and demonstrate two wideband passive sensor systems as part of the service branch’s Birdseye Yonder initiative.

Dr. Shankar Rachakonda to Introduce Dana Chisnell at the POC-hosted CX Imperative Forum
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Dr. Shankar Rachakonda to Introduce Dana Chisnell at the POC-hosted CX Imperative Forum

Register here to be part of  The CX Imperative Forum and uncover how government leaders are pushing for human-centered designs in federal technology and solutions.

 

Dr. Shankar Rachakonda of Radiant Digital will introduce keynote speaker Dana Chisnell, Executive Director for Customer Experience at the US Department of Homeland Security. 

 

At the Potomac Officers Club’s (POC) CX Imperative Forum, insights on the impact of digital transformation in the government space will be shared and discussed.

 

Learn more about Dr. Shankar Rachakonda and his role in promoting digital revolutions in the government here.

 

Dr. Shankar Rachakonda: Who is he?

 

Radiant Digital CEO Dr. Shankar Rachakonda
Photo of Dr. Shankar Rachakonda/IAICC

Dr. Shankar Rachakonda is the present Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Radiant Digital, a company passionate about developing applications and products that promote organizational change and provide users with a competitive edge.

 

As CEO, Dr. Rachakonda oversees the development of Radiant Digital’s growth and strategy plans and programs focused on digital transformation and expanding the company’s operations in the Caribbean, India, and North America.

 

Even before taking the leadership reins at Radiant Digital, Dr. Rachakonda has taken the helm of leadership at other technology-based companies. His previous roles were crucial to his growth as a leader and distinguished technology space forerunner.

 

Leadership Background

 

Government AI initiatives
Image by VideoFlow/Shutterstock

Below are the roles Dr. Shankar Rachakonda took on before joining Radiant Digital:

  • Chief Executive Officer of the SCI Group, from September 2000 to March 2015
  • Consultant at Network Solutions, from 2001 to 2009
  • Consultant at VeriSign, from 2000 to 2002
  • Principal Consultant at PriceWaterhouseCoopers, from September 1998 to August 2000
  • Technical Manager at the Raytheon Company (present-day Raytheon Technologies), from 1996 to 1998
  • Senior Engineer at the Hughes Information Technology Company, from 1995 to 1996

 

Dr. Shankar Rachakonda, Keynote Introducer at the CX Imperative Forum

 

Technology has been an indispensable part of various government processes. Through digitizing assets and procedures, government workers are capable of providing citizens with all sorts of services that cater to their welfare.

 

That said, government agencies need to push for digital reforms to keep up with the changing federal landscape and needs of civilians.

 

Dr. Shankar Rachakonda to Introduce Dana Chisnell at the POC-hosted CX Imperative Forum

 

The Potomac Officers Club offers other summits that discuss the most important aspects of the government. Register to become a member and get access to exclusive content from the foremost government leaders and decision-makers.

 

On January 25, 2024, the Potomac Officers Club will host the CX Imperative Forum at Falls Church, Virginia. At the summit, Dr. Shankar Rachakonda will introduce Dana Chisnell of the US Department of Homeland Security as the keynote speaker.

 

Jeffrey “Jeff” McLaughlin, Senior Vice President at Radiant Digital, will act as the summit’s moderator.

 

POC’s CX Imperative Forum will cover the impact of the government harnessing technology to advance President Joe Biden’s Executive Order on Transforming Federal Customer Experience and Service Delivery to Rebuild Trust in Government, implemented in 2021.

 

The summit speakers will shed light on how digital transformation would help modernize services while ensuring they’re accessible, transparent, equitable, protective, and user-friendly for civilians.

 

You might also be interested in: Accenture, Google Introduce New Cybersecurity Center of Excellence; Karen Dahut & John Goodman Quoted

 

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