NNSA Releases Final Site-Wide Environmental Impact Statement for Continued LLNL Operations
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NNSA Releases Final Site-Wide Environmental Impact Statement for Continued LLNL Operations

The Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration has released a final report analyzing the potential environmental impacts of two alternatives for continuing the operations of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

A notice published Friday in the Federal Register states that the final LLNL site-wide environmental impact statement analyzes two alternatives: the no-action alternative, which will continue current LLNL operations supporting assigned missions, and the proposed action, which will include foreseeable new operations and facilities for the next 15 years.

The second alternative includes 75 new projects and 20 types of modernization, upgrade and utility efforts to address aging infrastructure concerns at LLNL.

Under the proposed action, NNSA will also decontaminate, decommission and demolish 150 facilities at the laboratory.

DOE will issue a record of decision based on the final LLNL SWEIS after Dec. 4.

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NOAA Seeks Info on Licensing System for Commercial Remote Sensing Regulatory Affairs
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NOAA Seeks Info on Licensing System for Commercial Remote Sensing Regulatory Affairs

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has begun soliciting information on a new licensing system for the Office of Space Commerce’s Commercial Remote Sensing Regulatory Affairs, a.k.a. CRSRA, as part of efforts to automate workflows and improve communication security with licensed entities.

CRSRA issues licenses for the operation of space-based remote sensing systems and monitors licensees’ compliance with the terms of their licenses, laws and other regulations.

According to a request for information published Friday, CRSRA wants input on industry concepts of a licensing system that combines automated or semi-automated licensing process workflows and self-service capabilities with records management and analysis functions.

Interested vendors are encouraged to provide a description of their software architecture and recommended platforms that could meet the five envisioned functions of the licensing system: licensing process automation, licensee self-service, records management, records analysis and system governance.

CRSRA has asked stakeholders to describe how their proposed architecture could meet each of the eight notional architecture properties outlined in the RFI: data centric; modular; well-defined application programming interfaces; containerized or containerizable components; open source software; cloud-based system that is provider-agnostic; monitoring and managing system component interactions; and controlled access.

Responses to the RFI are due Nov. 17.

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NASA Reports Progress on Upper Stage Component for Artemis IV Space Launch System
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NASA Reports Progress on Upper Stage Component for Artemis IV Space Launch System

NASA technicians have completed a portion of the fifth weld confidence article to be installed on the Space Launch System rocket.

The weld confidence article was built at the Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, and will be part of the advanced upper stage of the SLS Block 1B configuration for the Artemis IV Moon mission, the agency said Friday.

The component belongs to the upper stage’s liquid oxygen tank to verify structural integrity. Before arriving at Michoud, the article’s dome was welded to the tank’s structural ring at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama. Engineers from the Michoud and Marshall centers performed simultaneous tests and analysis to validate the hardware’s welding parameters.

NASA is also working with lead SLS contractor Boeing to construct structural test articles and SLS hardware structures at the New Orleans and Alabama facilities.

House Bill Looks to Reauthorize National Quantum Initiative Act
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House Bill Looks to Reauthorize National Quantum Initiative Act

Reps. Frank Lucas, R-Okla., and Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., have introduced a bipartisan bill to reauthorize the National Quantum Initiative Act to accelerate quantum research and development in the U.S.

The House Science, Space, and Technology Committee leaders said Friday the National Quantum Initiative Reauthorization Act would build on the accomplishments of the law enacted in 2018 to boost U.S. competitiveness against China and Russia.

The reauthorization bill requires the Office of Science and Technology Policy to develop a quantum research strategy; authorizes the National Institute of Science and Technology to establish three research centers focused on quantum sensing, measurement and engineering; and mandates that the National Science Foundation create a multidisciplinary coordination hub to create new workforce pipelines.

According to Lofgren, the 2018 National Quantum Initiative Act enabled significant progress in quantum information science and technology.

“We must now build upon these original investments to ensure the United States can remain the world leader in quantum—this bill will do that and more,” she continued.

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Proposed Legislation Aims to Mandate Implementation of AI Risk Management Framework by Federal Agencies
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Proposed Legislation Aims to Mandate Implementation of AI Risk Management Framework by Federal Agencies

Sens. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., and Mark Warner, D-Va., on Nov. 2 introduced the Federal Artificial Intelligence Risk Management Act with the aim of enabling the U.S. government to take advantage of the benefits of AI while mitigating risks.

The office of Sen. Moran said Thursday the proposed legislation will require federal agencies to incorporate into their AI management policies the AI Risk Management Framework, which was released by the National Institute of Standards and Technology earlier this year.

Sen. Warner said AI can facilitate innovation in industry but requires strong governance, adding: “It’s crucial that the federal government follow the reasonable guidelines already outlined by NIST when dealing with AI in order capitalize on the benefits while mitigating risks.”

Meanwhile, Sen. Moran issued that AI could positively impact government and private industry but noted that “it would be naive to ignore the risks” that come with the new technology.

“The sensible guidelines established by NIST are already being utilized in the private sector and should be applied to federal agencies to make certain we are protecting the American people as we apply this technology to government functions,” Warner said.

Companion legislation will be introduced in the House of Representatives by Rep. Ted Lieu.

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Kemba Walden Says Companies Pledged to Build US Digital Ecosystem
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Kemba Walden Says Companies Pledged to Build US Digital Ecosystem

Kemba Walden, acting national cyber director, has commended the commitments made by technology companies, defense manufacturers, financial institutions, non-profits and other organizations to build the U.S. cyber workforce in support of the Biden administration’s cybersecurity workforce strategy.

Walden said in a statement published Friday that Cisco Systems, Palo Alto Networks, Boeing and Visa have responded to the administration’s call to action to create a more defensible and resilient digital ecosystem.

Defense and aerospace contractor Boeing has launched the second cohort of its paid apprenticeship program that prepares candidates to gain technical skills for emerging and in-demand job opportunities.

Cisco Systems has unveiled the Cisco Networking Academy to train 200,000 people with cybersecurity skills in the U.S. by July 2025 and Palo Alto Networks has launched a competition for college students to identify and address cyber threats in vulnerable sectors.

Meanwhile, credit card company Visa has introduced the Visa Payments Learning Program to provide learning courses and certifications to upskill underutilized talent.

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Young Bang: Army Eyes Digital Contracting CoE to Back Digital Engineering Pursuit
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Young Bang: Army Eyes Digital Contracting CoE to Back Digital Engineering Pursuit

Young Bang, principal deputy assistant secretary of the Army for acquisition, logistics and technology, said the service branch is establishing a digital contracting center of excellence that will serve as a hub and resource to streamline the contracting process and facilitate training of officers, Federal News Network reported Friday.

The move comes as the military branch seeks to further advance digital engineering.

Bang said that digital twins and digital engineering play a role in the Army’s digital transformation efforts.

“Digital engineering is the process throughout the whole lifecycle spanning more than just acquisition, spanning concepts, requirements, wargaming, modeling and simulations, into the material development to include everything in acquisitions, designs, testing, to the point of soldier feedback, and then going back through the whole cycle of testing and models and simulations,” Bang said at an event on Wednesday.

“So, the outcome becomes more than a paper-based way of doing things. It becomes a digital instantiation of the concepts that we can take to accelerate,” he added.

He cited the importance of upskilling and enhancing recruitment and retention initiatives and taking lessons from industry in advancing digital transformation.

Bang noted that the service is encouraging industry to pursue digital transformation by offering incentives.

Army Acquisition Priorities: Balancing Readiness and Modernization Forum

Bang will serve as a keynote speaker at the ExecutiveBiz’s Army Acquisition Priorities: Balancing Readiness and Modernization Forum on Nov. 8. Register now to hear him, other Army officials and industry experts talk about the service branch’s efforts to align its acquisition and procurement processes with modernization priorities.

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First-ever DHS Connected Community Governance Guide Focuses on Strategies for Local Leaders
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First-ever DHS Connected Community Governance Guide Focuses on Strategies for Local Leaders

The Department of Homeland Security published guidelines to help municipalities develop a strategy for building a secure “connected community,” which includes the digitalization of local government services.

The Connected Community Governance guide is the first of its kind and aims to help define smart service areas, set cybersecurity and privacy perimeters and establish performance metrics for urban, rural and all other types of communities, DHS announced Friday.

Smart services may be categorized in terms of ecological impact, public safety, transportation, government transparency, entrepreneurship and digital technology for individual residents. Municipalities can align their projects based on these areas.

To ensure that digitalization does not compromise consumer and government data, agencies must implement secure-by-design and secure-by-default principles in acquiring hardware and software systems.

DHS endorsed adoption of the CIA Triad, which prioritizes information integrity, confidentiality and restricted accessibility. Local leaders should install endpoint protection tools and prepare incident response and recovery plans to ensure resilience of connected communities, DHS said.

National security will be the center of the Potomac Officers’ Club’s event on Nov. 15. Join the 2023 Homeland Security Summit by registering now.

POC - 2023 Homeland Security Summit
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AI Easier to Exploit Than Expected, Defense Officials Say; Kathleen Hicks Quoted
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AI Easier to Exploit Than Expected, Defense Officials Say; Kathleen Hicks Quoted

Defense officials have warned that artificial intelligence models are easier to exploit than previously thought and are not yet qualified for full deployment in the military, the Washington Times reported on Friday.

At a National Defense Industrial Association symposium held last week, Alvaro Velasquez, a program manager at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, stated that large language models are “a lot easier to attack than they are to defend.”

“I’ve actually funded some work under one of my programs at DARPA where we could completely bypass the safety guardrails of these LLMs, and we actually got ChatGPT to tell us how to make a bomb, and we got it to tell us all kinds of unsavory things that it shouldn’t be telling us, and we did it in a mathematically principled way,” he explained.

Generative AI tools, which can create text that appears to be written by a human, have gained traction in the past year with the increasing popularity of tools like ChatGPT, a model that can solve problems and generate content when prompted.

The Department of Defense began experimenting with generative AI before ChatGPT was released, according to Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks, a three-time Wash100 Award winner.

On Thursday, Hicks told reporters that some DOD units have developed their own AI models that are being tested with human supervision.

“Most commercially available systems enabled by large language models aren’t yet technically mature enough to comply with our ethical AI principles, which is required for responsible operational use,” Hicks said.

She added that the department has identified more than 180 scenarios in which generative AI technologies could be valuable for oversight, citing debugging and developing software faster, speeding analysis of battle damage assessments and verifiably summarizing texts from both open source and classified data sets as some examples.

The DOD released a new AI strategy on Thursday, which said that U.S. competitors will keep pursuing advanced AI technologies as their range of military use cases grows.

The plan states that the DOD will develop new technologies in a way that protects U.S. advantages from foreign theft and exploitation while maintaining compliance with relevant laws.

Hicks assured that the department is not seeking a conflict with any nation over AI or technological superiority.

“With AI and all our capabilities, we seek only to deter aggression and defend our country, our allies and partners and our interests,” she said.

AI Easier to Exploit Than Expected, Defense Officials Say; Kathleen Hicks Quoted

Interested in learning more about how the Department of Defense is exploring AI? At the Potomac Officers Club’s 5th Annual Artificial Intelligence Summit, experts from both the public and private sectors will dive into numerous topics related to AI in the federal government. Click here to learn more, and click here to register for the event.

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Engineering Solutions-Meadowgate Technologies Merger Launches Vibrint; Tom Lash Quoted
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Engineering Solutions-Meadowgate Technologies Merger Launches Vibrint; Tom Lash Quoted

Vibrint has been established following an April merger between Engineering Solutions and Meadowgate Technologies.

The new brand aims to develop and deploy intelligent systems for government clients looking to gather and utilize data, Vibrint announced from its Hanover, Maryland headquarters on Monday.

“Our national security customers are constantly challenged to improve the speed and quality of mission-critical decisions. We’re excited to introduce Vibrint as a new partner in solving that problem,” said Tom Lash, the organization’s CEO.

Vibrint is focused on four areas: high-performance computing; software, systems and infrastructure; signals intelligence operations, research and analytics; and mission resilience. The company’s work will center emerging technologies influencing national security, such as artificial intelligence and quantum computing, and it will leverage its Collaboration Lab environment to build new partnerships between customers, manufacturers and data specialists to address mission challenges.

Lash said that despite being a new brand, Vibrint is “not a brand-new business” and clients can “depend on the continuing quality of service and the personal touch they have come to expect over the years from ESi and Meadowgate.”

Vibrint, he said, incorporates “two best-in-class, proven leaders in building, testing and sustaining the systems pivotal to effective and timely intelligence gathering and analysis.”

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