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DOD to Release New Strategy Addressing Defense Industry Challenges
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DOD to Release New Strategy Addressing Defense Industry Challenges

Laura Taylor-Kale, assistant secretary of defense for industrial base policy, announced at the Defense Logistics Agency Demand Forecast event on Nov. 6 that the Department of Defense will release a new National Defense Industrial Strategy in early December.

Taylor-Kale said the new strategy would seek to address the various challenges confronting defense companies, including technological change and workforce and supply chain issues, the DLA reported Tuesday.

The new strategy, which reinforces the 2022 National Defense Strategy, also aims to establish an industrial ecosystem that would provide the U.S. an edge over adversaries.

An accompanying implementation plan will be issued in January 2024. The implementation plan will feature metrics and actionable steps.

The DLA Demand Forecast event was attended by representatives of various industry groups, including the Aerospace Industries Association, the National Defense Transportation Association and the Professional Services Council.

The event revealed to participants the areas in which the DLA intends to do business in 2024.

DARPA Announces Innovation Challenges for Civilian, Military Medical Triage
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DARPA Announces Innovation Challenges for Civilian, Military Medical Triage

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is launching a three-year competition to spur innovations in medical triage in civilian and military settings.

The agency announced Tuesday that it is funding teams from Arete Associates, Battelle Memorial Institute, Charles River Analytics, the University of Maryland, University of Pennsylvania and RTX‘s BBN business as initial participants in the DARPA Triage Challenge.

The five-track challenge will focus on new approaches to injury signature identification in mass civilian or military incidents. It will be divided into virtual, systems and data competitions.

Technologies may range from autonomous systems with standoff sensors, to artificial intelligence and robotic military platforms that can be used in primary and secondary triage.

DARPA is expecting to fund more teams in the coming weeks. Self-funded teams may also submit their application until Nov. 27.

The Potomac Officers Club is gathering private and public sector healthcare experts to discuss critical issues such as changes in the industry since the COVID-19 pandemic. The 2023 Healthcare Summit is happening on Dec. 6, and registration is now open.

POC - 2023 Healthcare Summit
Bipartisan Bill to Reauthorize Section 702 Intelligence Collection Authority, Introduce Surveillance Reform Measures
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Bipartisan Bill to Reauthorize Section 702 Intelligence Collection Authority, Introduce Surveillance Reform Measures

Four Senate and House lawmakers have introduced a bipartisan bill that would reauthorize for four years the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act’s Section 702 provision and establish accountability measures and protections to prevent warrantless searches and other forms of surveillance abuse.

Sens. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Mike Lee, R-Utah introduced the Government Surveillance Reform Act with Reps. Warren Davidson, R-Ohio, and Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif.

“Our bill continues to give government agencies broad authority to collect information on threats at home and abroad, including the ability to act quickly in emergencies and settle up with the court later. But it creates much stronger protections for the privacy of law-abiding Americans, and restores the warrant protections that are at the heart of the Fourth Amendment,” Wyden said in a statement published Tuesday.

The proposed Government Surveillance Reform Act would protect U.S. citizens from warrantless backdoor searches, limit the acquisition of information on Americans as part of large datasets and require warrants for government purchases of private data of Americans from private brokers and for surveillance of citizens’ web browsing, location data and search records.

The legislation would also prohibit the targeting of foreigners as a pretext for surveilling Americans and would include exceptions to ensure that the U.S. government can continue to use the Section 702 authority for defensive cybersecurity purposes.

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DOD CIO Names Kevin Mulvihill Permanent Deputy Chief Information Officer for C3
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DOD CIO Names Kevin Mulvihill Permanent Deputy Chief Information Officer for C3

Kevin Mulvihill, acting deputy chief information officer for command, control and communications within the Office of the Department of Defense CIO, has assumed the role of deputy CIO for C3 on a permanent basis.

The Office of the DOD CIO announced Mulvihill’s appointment in a LinkedIn post published Tuesday.

In this capacity, he provides strategic direction, policy guidance and oversight of DOD’s efforts to modernize C3 capabilities, including communications systems and networks; position, navigation and timing; waveform management; tactical network management; enterprise mobility; and spectrum.

Mulvihill’s “expertise and leadership of key initiatives will ensure that DoD continues to modernize and improve support to the Warfighter – ranging from the Satellite Communications and PNT to the implementation of cutting edge 5G/Next G technologies in support of operations,” the Office of the DOD CIO said in the post.

Mulvihill previously helped the DOD CIO meet warfighter requirements by leading modernization initiatives in the fields of satellite and tactical communications and data links.

The U.S. Air Force veteran also served as a net-centric capability portfolio manager within the Office of CIO Headquarters Air Force at the Pentagon.

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NASA Invites Lunar Community Feedback on Moon Infrastructure Tech Demonstration Program
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NASA Invites Lunar Community Feedback on Moon Infrastructure Tech Demonstration Program

NASA is soliciting information from organizations that can participate in the development of its Lunar Infrastructure Foundational Technologies demonstration.

The agency on Monday issued a request for information to advance its plan for an In-situ Resource Utilization demonstration, which will be part of the Artemis Moon missions.

LIFT-1 aims to showcase technologies with capabilities such as extracting oxygen from lunar soil, generating power and landing and exploring the surface of the Moon’s South Pole region.

“Using in-situ resources is essential to making a sustained presence farther from Earth possible,” said Prasun Desai, acting associate administrator of NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate, which leads the program. “Just as we need consumables and infrastructure to live and work on our home planet, we’ll need similar support systems on the Moon for crew and robots to operate safely and productively.”

NASA will open an industry forum for LIFT-1 on Nov. 13, and accept RFI responses until Dec. 18.

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SDA Releases RFI for Optical Communications Waveforms
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SDA Releases RFI for Optical Communications Waveforms

The Space Development Agency has started soliciting information from industry on optical communications waveforms and current work with other agencies within the Department of Defense on waveforms and datalinks.

SDA said Monday it will use the responses to the request for information to inform the planning phase for the third tranche of the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture that is set to begin in fiscal year 2024 and subsequent acquisition processes that are expected to kick off in FY 2025.

The agency will use the RFI responses to guide the integration of datalinks and waveforms into future tranches of PWSA and reduce risks toward interoperability within the space architecture.

Stakeholders should provide an assessment of effort and schedule needed to add, transmit and receive capabilities at their current SDA-compatible optical communication terminals, or OCTs, to enable pulse-position modulation — or PPM — waveforms and state possible challenges of operating each waveform at several space-to-space ranges.

SDA also wants information on anticipated development and operational limitations, insights on the implementation of burst mode on-off keying and PPM and suggestions for the next revision of the OCT standard.

Responses to the RFI are due Dec. 8.

Fermilab’s SQMS Center Opens New Quantum Information Science Facility
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Fermilab’s SQMS Center Opens New Quantum Information Science Facility

The Superconducting Quantum Materials and Systems Center, led by Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, has opened a new quantum information science and technology facility in Illinois to facilitate QIS research collaboration among scientific communities, industries and start-ups.

The Quantum Garage is a 6,000 sq ft lab space featuring new large dilution refrigerators that host devices developed by the SQMS collaboration for performing quantum sensing, computation, metrology and communications, Fermilab said Monday.

The platforms include a commercial quantum processor; quantum memories and transducers based on novel technology approaches; quantum metrology tools for materials standards development; and quantum sensors for fundamental physics.

“The SQMS Quantum Garage will enable the scientific community, including start-ups, academia and industry to advance quantum technology and science, and break through the difficult technical barriers, with increased access to cutting-edge scientific tools and equipment,” said Geri Richmond, undersecretary for science and innovation.

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Maria Roat & Richard Spires: Federal Agencies Need a System to Stay Ahead of AI Security Risks
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Maria Roat & Richard Spires: Federal Agencies Need a System to Stay Ahead of AI Security Risks

Maria Roat, former deputy federal chief information officer and a previous Wash100 awardee, and Richard Spires, former CIO at the Department of Homeland Security, said government officials should get ahead of artificial intelligence-related security risks by quickly setting up a system to regulate and safeguard against AI threats.

In a joint commentary published Monday in Nextgov/FCW, Roat and Spires wrote that one of the fastest ways agencies could address AI vulnerabilities is by looking at existing frameworks and policies and iterating them rapidly.

“For instance, agencies can use the recently-released NIST AI Risk Management Framework to augment the existing processes for establishing an authority to operate for an agency system. Such an approach can provide a scalable template and groundwork for establishing an AI compliance initiative,” they noted.

Spires and Roat called on federal agencies to work with industry and form a “transformation tiger team that can handle the cross-functional challenges and opportunities posed by AI at scale.”

Agencies should tap professionals who are experienced in data risk management and cybersecurity and properly adapt existing governance models, data policies and programs for AI to accelerate secure adoption of AI tools, they added.

Roat and Spires are members of stackArmor‘s AI Risk Management Center of Excellence.

POC - 5th Annual Artificial Intelligence Summit

Register here to attend the Potomac Officers Club’s 5th Annual Artificial Intelligence Summit on March 21 and hear federal leaders and industry experts discuss the latest developments in the field.

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Jason Richards Named Deputy Assistant Director at FBI Directorate of Intelligence
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Jason Richards Named Deputy Assistant Director at FBI Directorate of Intelligence

Jason Richards, a nearly 20-year FBI veteran, has been named deputy assistant director at the bureau’s Directorate of Intelligence, serving as the senior executive leader for enterprise human intelligence and information technology.

He announced his new post Monday on LinkedIn and assumed the role after serving as section chief in the FBI’s Office of the Chief Information Officer, where he led enterprise efforts for cloud strategy and helped enhance supply chain risk management.

Before that, he was an assistant special agent in charge of multiple Joint Terrorism Task Force squads focused on detecting and disrupting international terrorism threats to Northern Virginia and Washington, D.C.

He previously served as assistant section chief of the FBI Counterterrorism Division and unit chief of the Directorate of Intelligence.

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CBRNE Threat Detection Capabilities Developed by DARPA Advancing Toward Operationalization
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CBRNE Threat Detection Capabilities Developed by DARPA Advancing Toward Operationalization

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is now in the process of transitioning to operational use the technologies developed under the SIGMA and SIGMA+ programs following the completion of three weeks of demonstrations through July involving the participation of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

The demonstrations featured simulations of various chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and explosive threat scenarios and their detection through the use of an automated mobile sensor suite integrated into Port Authority vehicles deployed in the New York and New Jersey metropolitan region, DARPA said Monday.

The event gave Port Authority officers the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the SIGMA+ systems and their capabilities and to develop procedures and tactics that would govern the use of those systems ahead of their operationalization this fall. The event also gave homeland security stakeholders the opportunity to see the SIGMA+ systems in action and determine their viability.

The demos mark the conclusion of five years of technology development that resulted in tools that, according to Port Authority Chief Security Officer Greg Ehrie, “provide an enhanced layer of vigilance to keep the millions of people who use and work at our facilities safe.”

Mark Wrobel, who managed the technology development program for DARPA’s Defense Sciences Office, praised the agency’s partnership with the Port Authority, saying: “This outstanding cooperation enabled DARPA to test cutting-edge technology in the nation’s largest metropolitan region, which significantly sped up the transition from R&D to operational use.”

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