Wichita State University’s FirePoint Innovations Center has become one of five facilities chosen to deliver and operate a Defense Innovation OnRamp Hub program for the National Security Innovation Network.

FirePoint announced Thursday that it will operate the Great Plains Mission Acceleration Center to provide small businesses and academic organizations with a pathway to win Department of Defense contracts.

“The OnRamp Hub program is designed to tear down barriers between the private sector, defense and homeland security operations to accelerate technology deployment,” FirePoint Executive Director Steve Cyrus explained. “We’re extremely excited to bring this new opportunity to businesses here in Kansas and the region to give them a competitive advantage.”

FirePoint was co-created by Wichita State and the U.S. Army’s Combat Capabilities Development Command, Aviation and Missile Center. Its purpose is to expedite collaborative innovation, transfer and commercialization associated with technologies that can contribute to the service branch’s modernization plans.

The center is located at Wichita State’s Innovation Campus and is expected to benefit partners looking to identify new talent in its high tech projects.

The eighth Global Information Dominance Experiment, an effort intended to improve Combined Joint All Domain Command and Control (CJADC2) capabilities run by the Department of Defense’s Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office, is set to conclude today after a two-week run.

Known as GIDE 8, the program aims to deliver minimum viable capability for CJADC2 by the end of the year with a focus on global integration and joint fires, the DOD said Thursday.

“GIDE 8 is culminating a year of rapid experimentation resulting in the fielding of initial CJADC2 capabilities focusing on global integration for decision advantage,” said GIDE Experiment Director Col. Matthew Strohmeyer.

To carry out its experiments, the initiative brings together experts from the department and its international partners. The CDAO completed three iterations of GIDE in the 2023 calendar year, evaluating policies, wargame global crisis scenarios and tactics, techniques and procedures.

The Senate has unanimously passed the Building Chips in America Act, a bipartisan bill that would optimize the process of federal reviews for microchip manufacturing facilities.

If passed by the House of Representatives, the legislation would streamline permitting requirements for semiconductor projects to enable large-scale manufacturing activities, Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., announced on Thursday.

“Once again, the Senate made clear that streamlining our current permitting system for semiconductor manufacturing projects is an urgent, bipartisan priority,” Kelly, who sponsored the bill, said in a statement.

The bill was cosponsored by Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas; Todd Young, R-Ind.; Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio; Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn.; Martin Heinrich, D-N.M.; and Kyrsten Sinema, I-Ariz.

Under the bill, the Department of Commerce will act as the lead agency to carry out National Environmental Policy Act reviews for any semiconductor project identified as a major federal action.

The legislation explains that certain projects under the CHIPS for America Act are not major federal actions and are exempt from NEPA review. These projects include those that have or will receive federal and state permits and are set to begin construction within the next year, among other classifications of initiatives.

The bill will also provide the secretary of Commerce with greater tools to execute reviews more effectively and efficiently.

Forcepoint‘s Global Governments and Critical Infrastructure (G2CI) arm has teamed with Microsoft to incorporate the former’s cross-domain technologies into the latter’s Azure cloud service portfolio.

Under the partnership, the two companies will collaborate to develop new cloud offerings for defense and intelligence clients, Forcepoint announced from its Austin, Texas headquarters on Tuesday.

“By partnering with Microsoft, our combined innovation and industry expertise will realize expanded capabilities from cloud to tactical edge,” said Forcepoint G2CI CEO Sean Berg.

The enterprise, he said, is “committed to supporting the missions of our customers who must maintain decision dominance in a world of increasing nation-state and non-nation-state driven attacks.”

Tools developed through the partnership will provide users across the full chain of command with the ability to access information at the speed and scale necessary to execute their missions.

Zach Kramer, vice president of mission engineering at Microsoft, said the agreement will allow the company to continue to develop its cloud products and provide customers with accredited, secure collaboration capabilities.

“When the power of Microsoft Azure is combined with Forcepoint G2CI’s defense-grade cybersecurity solutions, we enable improved security and a real-time experience for our government users and coalition partners worldwide,” he added.

Lt. Gen. Michael Guetlein, commander of Space Systems Command, said artificial intelligence integration, network modernization, space systems cybersecurity and dynamic space operations are key priorities for the Space Force as it gears up for future great power competition, Breaking Defense reported Thursday.

Guetlein, who has been nominated as the next vice chief of the U.S. Space Force, highlighted the need to improve the service’s various computer networks “because the networks we have today, both admin and warfighting, are not going to be what we need going into a near-peer conflict.”

To achieve this, Guetlein said during the Space Force Association’s inaugural Spacepower conference that SSC is focused on exploiting existing data, including missile warning and tracking data from the Space Force’s Overhead Persistent Infrared multi-layered constellation of satellites.

For AI applications, SSC is working with industry partners to incorporate AI into “every system that we’re building now,” Guetlein said.

Guetlein is set to speak at the Potomac Officers Club’s 2024 Space Summit on March 5. Join the event to hear from space experts, government leaders and industry executives about the new technologies and investments that are shaping the future of U.S. space operations.

The Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory and the University of Colorado Boulder have expanded their partnership on technology research and development to address critical national security needs.

Under the partnership, APL will engage with researchers at CU Boulder’s Center for National Security Initiatives on research efforts in areas such as hypersonics and propulsion, space technologies, autonomy and climate and environment, APL said Wednesday.

APL’s Air and Missile Defense Sector, or AMDS, and the Space Exploration Sector will lead the laboratory’s work in the new research partnership.

“This agreement raises our collaborative potential to the next level, and comes at a time where our contributions are more critical than ever to national security,” said Dave Van Wie, head of AMDS.

APL and CU Boulder previously collaborated on an independent research and development project to predict the wear and damage of thermal protection systems used on spacecraft and hypersonic vehicles.

The Potomac Officers Club will host the 10th Annual Defense R&D Summit on Jan. 31 to discuss the latest developments in the defense technology sector. Register here and save a seat at the highly anticipated event!