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Navy’s PEO Digital Advances Tech Development via Small Business Innovation Research; Justin Fanelli Quoted
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Navy’s PEO Digital Advances Tech Development via Small Business Innovation Research; Justin Fanelli Quoted

The U.S. Navy’s Program Executive Office for Digital and Enterprise Services, or PEO Digital, is advancing the development and testing of new technologies meant to improve its processes through the Small Business Innovation Research program, Federal News Network reported Wednesday.

Justin Fanelli, acting chief technology officer at the Department of the Navy, said that SBIR has helped PEO Digital streamline the process of informing small businesses of its objectives and telling such firms how they could support the service branch.

“We’re looking at more mechanisms. We have something that’s called Advanced Naval Technology Exercise so that we can do commercial solution offerings. We have both phase one and phase two [opportunities] going out,” he said of the SBIR program.

Fanelli, who also serves as technical director of PEO Digital, told FNN how the use of other transaction authorities and partnership with the Defense Innovation Unit enable the Navy to support small businesses as it advances the use of the SBIR program.

He noted that PEO Digital looks at five mission outcomes as it pursues SBIR contracts and works with DIU and other government and industry partners. The measured outcomes are user time lost, operational resilience, net promoter score, cost per user and adaptability.

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Acuity’s KC Wilberg Discusses Leadership Values, Shares Insights on Contracting Environment
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Acuity’s KC Wilberg Discusses Leadership Values, Shares Insights on Contracting Environment

As vice president of Acuity’s intelligence business, KC Wilberg is responsible for helping Intelligence Community customers achieve an agile mindset while making sure their work stays secure and confidential.

In a recent interview with the Potomac Officers Club, Wilberg shared his core values, discussed his leadership philosophy and offered his insights on what changes should be made within the federal contracting realm.

In this excerpt from the interview, Wilberg explains the importance of building a skilled team:

“Technology is only as good as it is useful and deployed. If project teams and users are not proactively trained and clearly skilled in both supporting and implementing new technology, they can’t maintain, evolve or take advantage of new opportunities. But when they are, amazing things happen. When our people are performing at their best, are supported by one another and are equipped with the tools that extend their impact exponentially, government customers get the outcomes to achieve the mission.”

For more on Wilberg’s leadership approach, read the full Executive Spotlight interview on the Potomac Officers Club website.

Interested in participating in your own Executive Spotlight interview? Potomac Officers Club members have exclusive access to this brand-building opportunity and even more exciting benefits. To learn more about our membership options and choose which one is right for you, click here.

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NASA Begins Final Testing Phase of Updated Aerojet Rocket Engines for SLS
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NASA Begins Final Testing Phase of Updated Aerojet Rocket Engines for SLS

NASA conducted a hot fire test of an updated version of the Aerojet Rocketdyne-built RS-25 engine on Oct. 17 at the Stennis Space Center’s Fred Haise Test Stand.

The event marks the first of 12 hot fires comprising the final certification testing phase of the new rocket engine, a new set of which will power the Space Launch System, a.k.a. SLS, beginning with the fifth mission under the Artemis lunar exploration program, NASA said Wednesday.

The test series, which is expected to be carried out through 2024, aims to gather information regarding the performance of new components.

The recent test saw the RS-25 fired up for 550 seconds — longer than during an actual mission — at 111 percent of the power required to launch the SLS.

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Craig Searle Joins HawkEye 360 Full Time as VP of Strategic Finance
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Craig Searle Joins HawkEye 360 Full Time as VP of Strategic Finance

HawkEye 360 has selected Craig Searle as vice president of strategic finance.

Searle served as a member of HawkEye 360’s Board of Directors four years prior to his appointment, the Herndon, Virginia-based enterprise announced on Thursday.

“Having worked with the HawkEye 360 leadership team for the past several years I am thrilled to join the company full time,” Searle said. He added that he looks forward to being a part of the team during HawkEye 360’s next phase of growth.

The organization currently operates a constellation of 21 satellites designed to detect, characterize and geolocate radio frequency signals from a wide array of emitters. Searle said the “unique and growing constellation of satellites is creating a safer world during a time of increasing uncertainty.”

While a part of HawkEye 360’s board, Searle represented Advance, the organization’s investor, and served as chair of the Audit Committee and as a member of the Compliance Committee.

John Serafini, CEO of HawkEye 360, said Searle “has been an exceptional board member” with an in-depth understanding of all elements of the company’s business.

“His strong background in corporate strategy, principal investment and investment banking is well-aligned with the needs of our management team as we continue to grow and scale HawkEye 360,” Serafini added.

Before being chosen for his new role, Searle was vice president of finance and strategy at fintech company 21.co, where he oversaw financial planning and analysis, business development, corporate development and fundraising while guiding the enterprise’s scaling efforts during an accelerated growth phase.

Earlier, he served as director of strategic investments and acquisitions at Advance, a role in which he led the organization’s investment in Hawkeye360 and other deals in the technology and media sectors.

DOE Seeks Industry Information on Leasing Savannah River Site for Clean Energy Generation
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DOE Seeks Industry Information on Leasing Savannah River Site for Clean Energy Generation

The Department of Energy is requesting information from organizations interested in lease agreements with the government for the agency’s planned utility-scale clean energy project at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina.

In an RFI issued Tuesday, DOE said it is looking for industry partners for the development of carbon pollution-free electricity generation and storage activities at the 13,200-acre site.

The DOE-owned Savannah River Site was originally built as a nuclear materials refinement facility in the 1950s. The agency is now planning to include SRS In its Cleanup to Clean Energy Initiative, along with the Hanford Site in Washington and a portion of land where the Idaho National Laboratory is located.

The agency has yet to decide whether to lease part or all of SRS to a single entity or multiple. Developers of solar, wind and nuclear energy are able to respond to the RFI until Nov. 17.

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New NASA Competition Working Toward Universal Interface to Accelerate Spacecraft-Payload Integration
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New NASA Competition Working Toward Universal Interface to Accelerate Spacecraft-Payload Integration

Registration is now open for the NASA TechLeap Prize’s Universal Payload Interface Challenge, which is looking to establish a universal interface that would simplify and accelerate the integration of diverse payloads onto various types of spacecraft, a requirement brought about by the space agency’s increased use of commercial technologies.

The competition intends to develop a process that speeds up and reduces the cost of payload integration, thereby potentially accelerating subsequent flight testing timelines, NASA said Monday.

Innovators from industry and academic institutions are being invited to join. The competition, launched Oct. 16, will result in up to three winners being awarded $650,000 each to build their interface and flight test it for free.

NASA Flight Opportunities Program Manager Danielle McCulloch described the competition as a great opportunity to work with the community, adding: “This has the potential to be a huge step forward for advancing space exploration and expanding the space economy.”

Flight Opportunities conducts flight tests to evaluate the viability of space technologies for mission use.

Interested parties have until Feb. 1, 2024, to register for the competition. Afterward, they have until Feb. 22 to submit applications.

MARAD Achieves Full Enrollment for Maritime, Tanker Security Programs; Pete Buttigieg Quoted
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MARAD Achieves Full Enrollment for Maritime, Tanker Security Programs; Pete Buttigieg Quoted

The Maritime Administration has reached full enrollment for its two security programs that provide U.S.-flagged and U.S.-crewed sustainment sealift ships and product tankers for the Department of Defense during armed conflict or national emergency.

Under the Maritime Security Program, MARAD has enrolled Liberty Global Logistics’ Liberty Power ship and Fidelio Limited Partnership’s Tulane vessel to provide militarily useful cargo capacity to the DOD, the Department of Transportation said Tuesday.

MARAD also selected U.S. Marine Management’s Pyxis Epsilon for the Tanker Security Program.

The TSP ship will reflag under the U.S. registry by the end of 2023 and will be renamed the Shenandoah Trader.

“In the years ahead, these vessels will deliver vital goods, strengthen both our economy and our national security, and create good jobs for American mariners,” said Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.

NIST Requests Public Comment on Proposed Changes to Federal Data Security Standard SP 800-53
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NIST Requests Public Comment on Proposed Changes to Federal Data Security Standard SP 800-53

The National Institute of Standards and Technology is accepting public comment on proposed new controls in Special Publication 800-53 standards for federal information security and privacy.

The comment period is open from Oct. 17 to 23, in preparation for a patch release of the 5.1.1 version of SP 800-53 in November, NIST said Tuesday.

The special publication is part of NIST’s Risk Management Framework, which includes seven steps to guide organizations in addressing data security and privacy risk and help them comply with the Federal Information Security Modernization Act.

The new revision aims to address gaps in identity and management system controls, particularly for providers and servers of identity authorization and authentication technologies.

DARPA Solicits Proposals for Creating Improved Autonomy Transfer Techniques
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DARPA Solicits Proposals for Creating Improved Autonomy Transfer Techniques

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has begun soliciting proposals for a two-phase program to develop autonomy transfer methods for refining low-fidelity models and simulations to be used for transfer.

The Transfer from Imprecise and Abstract Models to Autonomous Technologies, or TIAMAT, program aims to create sim-to-sim and sim-to-real autonomy transfer techniques that will enable same-day transfer of autonomous technologies from simulation to reality, DARPA said Tuesday.

DARPA expects that the proposed TIAMAT method could result in autonomous systems that are adaptable to different military missions.

Phases 1 and 2 will each run for 18 months and the results of the first segment will be used to down-select participants from six to three.

Interested parties have until Dec. 20 to submit proposals.

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DOD Asks Tech Advisory Board to Identify Innovation Barriers, Study Data Economy
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DOD Asks Tech Advisory Board to Identify Innovation Barriers, Study Data Economy

The Defense Innovation Board will conduct a study to identify policies and practices that act as barriers to innovation and another study to come up with recommendations on the Department of Defense’s data economy, C4ISRNET reported Tuesday.

The board will perform the two studies in response to memos issued by David Honey, deputy undersecretary of defense for research and engineering.

For the first study, the “recommendations should focus on procedures that align Department incentives, policies for accelerating and scaling new warfighting capabilities, and practices that inspire and attract the next generation of innovators” and “should be wide-ranging – across security, acquisition, information technology, and human capital – and actionable, with the goal of laying the groundwork needed to compete and overmatch in a technology and innovation driven environment,” according to the Oct. 6 memo.

Under the second study, DIB should assess the current state of the department’s data economy including opportunities and gaps, offer recommendations for an “assured, available, and accessible” data economy by 2024 and provide industry best practices for developing a data economy, Honey said in the Oct. 10 memo.

Honey’s office expects the board to complete the studies by February.

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