ORNL Unveils Entrepreneurial Program to Advance Technology Commercialization Efforts
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ORNL Unveils Entrepreneurial Program to Advance Technology Commercialization Efforts

Oak Ridge National Laboratory has launched a new entrepreneurial start-up program to accelerate the commercialization of technologies developed by experts at the lab.

Safari will support the Department of Energy Office of Technology Transitions’ Practices to Accelerate the Commercialization of Technologies program to reduce barriers to accessing new capabilities to boost U.S. competitiveness and national security, ORNL said Friday.

The program will connect experienced entrepreneurs to newly developed technologies with the potential for commercialization and assist them with identifying and evaluating a selected business opportunity and developing a commercialization plan.

“Our team has a lot of experience working with researchers who have spun out their own companies as well as with licensing technology to new entrepreneurs and well-established companies,” said Jennifer Caldwell, director of technology transfer at ORNL.

ORNL offers a portfolio of technologies with potential applications in energy and utilities, manufacturing, materials, chemicals, analytical instrumentation and transportation.

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NRO, Space Force Aim to Boost Space Domain Awareness With SILENTBARKER Launch
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NRO, Space Force Aim to Boost Space Domain Awareness With SILENTBARKER Launch

A joint space domain awareness mission between the National Reconnaissance Office and U.S. Space Force launched Sunday at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

The SILENTBARKER/ NROL-107 mission flew on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket as part of NRO and Space Force’s efforts to strengthen U.S. space domain awareness as well as indication and warning capabilities, NRO said Sunday.

SILENTBARKER is NRO’s last mission onboard an Atlas V rocket. The program is expected to boost the agency’s intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance programs and Space System Command’s expertise in space domain awareness operations.

“The speed at which this program went from concept to on orbit illustrates our commitment to getting new technologies into use as fast as possible,” according to Col. Eric Zarybnisky, director of the Office of Space Launch. “This helps us stay ahead of our competitors and ensures our users have the best possible space domain awareness to do their jobs.”

GSA to Streamline Customer Service Delivery With Federal Acquisition Service Overhaul
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GSA to Streamline Customer Service Delivery With Federal Acquisition Service Overhaul

The General Services Administration will reorganize several Federal Acquisition Service business lines to enable seamless access to FAS products and services and simplify federal customers’ interactions with the agency.

GSA said Thursday the implementation of the planned overhaul will begin in fiscal year 2024 and focus on deploying a centralized reporting model to replace FAS’ legacy regional structures.

As a result of the reorganization, federal customers will connect to only one FAS team to help them obtain products and services tailored to their mission needs.

FAS Commissioner Sonny Hashmi, a previous Wash100 awardee, noted that the agency will continue maintaining offices and expertise in local communities nationwide.

“Our regional-based employees aren’t going away, but this shift to our structure will meet the growing demand from our customers that FAS respond holistically when it comes to contracting assistance,” Hashmi said.

Hashmi and GSA Administrator Robin Carnahan signed the GSA order approving the changes in August.

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DARPA Launches R&D Program to Improve Smooth Sailing for Ships, UUVs
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DARPA Launches R&D Program to Improve Smooth Sailing for Ships, UUVs

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is establishing a research and development program aimed at reducing in-transit hull resistance experienced by maritime vehicles due to waves and friction.

The Drag Reducing Architected Geometries program, which is part of DARPA’s Disruptioneering initiative, will be conducted in two phases over an 18-month period, the agency said Friday.

Resistance or “drag” forces vessels such as ships, boats, and uncrewed underwater vehicles to increase power to speed up, which requires bigger engines or more fuel.

DRAG will explore innovations in hull design and materials to decrease friction from water contact. It will exclude work on manufacturing scale-up, polymer injection approaches, or biofouling mitigation processes.

The first phase of the program will take place over nine months and involve the development of simulation and modeling tools, and later fabrication of optimized geometry of complex curvatures in the hull. The resulting design tool will be used in the second phase to create a prototype for testing.

“Previous research has enabled ship drag reduction in laminar flow conditions but not in transition and fully turbulent flow,” said Susan Swithenbank, program manager in DARPA’s Defense Sciences Office. “The problem with adding power is that it means you need more batteries, fuel, or a bigger engine, which increases the size of your ship or UUV, adding more drag. We aim to lower the drag coefficient to allow increased speed without increasing power or to go the same speed using less power.”

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Michael Brown, Lorin Selby: US Should Leverage Emerging Tech in Hedge Strategy Implementation
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Michael Brown, Lorin Selby: US Should Leverage Emerging Tech in Hedge Strategy Implementation

Michael Brown, former director of the Defense Innovation Unit, and Lorin Selby, a retired U.S. Navy rear admiral, said the U.S. should implement a hedge strategy to advance the development and procurement of small, unmanned and smarter weapons systems, enhance the capability of the Joint Force in the next four years and deter China’s potential military action in the Indo-Pacific region.

“The hedge strategy should leverage emerging technologies with an emphasis on adopting these technologies at scale within the next three years,” Brown, who is now a partner at Shield Capital, and Selby, former chief of naval research, wrote in a commentary published Thursday in War on the Rocks, a Texas National Security Review publication.

In this piece, they discussed the four elements of the strategy, including the integration of a multiplicity of small and low-cost, smarter, unmanned systems and adoption of commercial platforms with a sense of urgency.

Selby and Brown offered five recommendations for the hedge strategy’s implementation and the first calls for Congress to create an undersecretary of defense for innovation and commercial technology who will serve as the chief innovation officer at the Department of Defense.

“Second, the department should name organizational homes for these commercial technologies to focus building centers of expertise for assessing these technologies, assign an ongoing budget, better signal demand to private industry, and avoid duplication across the department,” the former DOD officials wrote.

They also called on DOD to “embody a commercially oriented acquisition process that maximizes competition and operates at commercial speed and with commercial terms” and keep pace with commercial product cycles by ensuring a sustained budget for commercial platforms in a “capability of record.”

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Navy Installs Automated Energy Monitoring Tools Onboard Arleigh Burke-Class Destroyers
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Navy Installs Automated Energy Monitoring Tools Onboard Arleigh Burke-Class Destroyers

Engineers at the Naval Sea Systems Command have equipped the U.S. Navy’s fleet of Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers with a suite of energy monitoring capabilities.

The Global Energy Information System was installed onboard the DDG 51 Arleigh Burke destroyers to collect, consolidate and present actionable energy information to ship operators, the Navy said Friday.

GENISYS includes a Shipboard Energy Assessment System and digital logbooks to establish a link between fuel use and mission and environmental data to help operators afloat and ashore monitor and manage the fleet’s energy consumption.

SEAS connects sensors and energy-related data sources to produce a real-time operational data model for enabling logistics, mission planning and operational awareness.

The eLogBook provides a smart logging capability to digitize shipboard operational data logs.

The tools will undergo testing and crew training onboard the DDG 51 class destroyers before achieving operational capability later in 2023.

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DOD Principal Deputy CIO Leslie Beavers Urges Increased Industry-Government Alliance Against Cyber Threats
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DOD Principal Deputy CIO Leslie Beavers Urges Increased Industry-Government Alliance Against Cyber Threats

Leslie Beavers, principal deputy chief information officer of the Department of Defense, is calling for increased collaboration between DOD and the private sector to address cybersecurity threats.

In an event involving private and government sector representatives, Beavers said that cybersecurity challenges are a “whole of government” issue that can only be solved with everyone’s participation.

She highlighted the initiatives DOD has begun to strengthen defense against internet-based attacks, including their zero trust framework. The strategy comprises four high-level goals: zero trust enablement, technology acceleration, cultural adoption and security and defense of their information systems.

Beavers said they are also ramping up user experience modernization and recruiting more talent to man their cybersecurity operations. She emphasized that all of their approaches will need industry partnerships in order to be effective.

“The Department of Defense, as large as it is, is heavily reliant on civilian infrastructure and companies as well as other government organizations,” Beavers said. “It’s a journey that we have to go on together.”

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Denis McDonough: VA Launches Trustworthy AI Framework
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Denis McDonough: VA Launches Trustworthy AI Framework

Denis McDonough, secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs, said the VA has publicly introduced a Trustworthy AI Framework that will serve as a foundation for the department to design, build, procure and use AI systems in a way that promotes veteran trust and confidence.

“This framework will help us build AI that is safe, secure, unbiased, transparent, accountable, and effective. All of which is to say, building trustworthy AI to complete the tasks that it does best, so VA’s people can do the work that they do best,” McDonough said during his speech at an event Thursday.

The VA secretary noted that the framework integrates into a single structure all of the White House’s AI work, including an executive order that fosters support for underserved communities and the Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights.

According to McDonough, VA has become the first federal agency to unveil such a framework and is exploring ways on how to make better veteran-centric decisions while advancing collaboration with other federal agencies and eliminating redundant tasks.

Trusted AI and Autonomy Forum

Listen to public sector leaders and technology experts as they talk about the opportunities and risks associated with generative AI and related tools at ExecutiveBiz’s Trusted Artificial Intelligence and Autonomy Forum on Sept. 12. Register here.

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Biden Taps Michael Whitaker for FAA Administrator Post
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Biden Taps Michael Whitaker for FAA Administrator Post

President Joe Biden has nominated Michael Whitaker, chief operating officer of Hyundai Motor Group subsidiary Supernal, to serve as head of the Federal Aviation Administration.

Whitaker spent three years as deputy administrator at FAA, where he helped lead the move of the country’s air traffic control system to a satellite-based surveillance technology called Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast, the White House said Thursday.

His more than 30-year career in the aviation industry included time as group CEO at India-based travel conglomerate InterGlobe Enterprises, senior vice president at United Airlines and assistant general counsel of international and regulatory affairs at Trans World Airlines.

Whitaker is a private pilot who sits on the board of the Flight Safety Foundation.

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Lockheed Martin-University of Iowa Team Tests AI Use in Air-to-Ground Mission
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Lockheed Martin-University of Iowa Team Tests AI Use in Air-to-Ground Mission

Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works unit and pilots from the University of Iowa’s Operator Performance Laboratory have successfully tested the use of artificial intelligence agents in carrying out an electronic attack task.

Represented by two piloted L-29 aircraft, the AI agents were able to provide jamming support in a simulated air-to-ground mission, Lockheed Martin announced from Iowa City, Iowa on Wednesday.

Joe Villani, vice president of Lockheed Martin’s 21st Century Security Demonstrations & Prototypes unit, said the initiative is a “terrific example” of applying AI and unmanned aerial systems to realize the Department of Defense’s Joint All Domain Operations vision.

During the program, known as Enhanced Collaborative High-Frequency Orientation System, the L-29 aircraft were flown by OPL pilots who followed directions in the form of heading, altitude and speed cues from the AI agents.

Trained with advanced deep multi-agent reinforcement learning methods, the AI agents became capable of using emergent collaborative tactics with minimal reward shaping and an emphasis on mission completion. The assessment centered sim-to-real transfer to train the AI agents in simulated environments and carry that understanding into use on real aircraft.

On the first day of the test, the agents aligned between the fighter and target within a tight tolerance, preventing the radar from getting a track on the fighter. Over the three-day period, the team was able to complete every test card ahead of schedule.

Tom Schnell, founder and director of the OPL, said the test was an “exceptional example of industry and academia working together on a cutting-edge project.”

Skunk Works and OPL aim to evaluate AI in an end-to-end Suppression and Destruction of Enemy Air Defenses mission prior to the end of 2023. Information gathered from these tests is intended to drive future AI and automation development for upcoming programs, including the U.S. Air Force’s upcoming Collaborative Combat Aircraft, and current crewed-uncrewed teaming development.

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