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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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DHA Realigns 20 Medical Markets Into 9 Defense Health Networks; Michael Malanoski Quoted
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DHA Realigns 20 Medical Markets Into 9 Defense Health Networks; Michael Malanoski Quoted

The Defense Health Agency has reorganized 20 military medical markets into nine defense health networks as part of efforts to further improve health care delivery management and support to the military health enterprise around the world.

The move marks the launch of the initial phase of DHA’s Organizational Advancement plan, which also intends to improve combat support, the agency said Thursday.

“Moving to the network structure led by general officers, most of whom are dual hatted holding both DHA and military department medical command positions, standardizes leadership to improve health care delivery around the globe,” said Michael Malanoski, deputy director of DHA.

“This simultaneously enhances the ability of both DHA and the military departments to meet the requirements of distinctly separate yet mutually reliant medical missions,” added Malanoski.

DHA expects the advancement plan to align functions, facilitate the decision-making process at the echelon and streamline processes to enhance health care provision.

POC - 2023 Healthcare Summit

Find out the latest healthcare technology trends at the Potomac Officers Club’s 2023 Healthcare Summit on Dec. 6. Register here to attend this important event.

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Army Taps 3 Small Businesses for Automated Data Platform Development Contracts
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Army Taps 3 Small Businesses for Automated Data Platform Development Contracts

Charles River Analytics, Cougaar Software and Next Tier Concepts will develop automated data platforms for the U.S. Army under contracts awarded through the service branch’s Small Business Innovation Research program.

The Army said Monday the three small businesses will each receive $1.9 million under SBIR Direct to Phase II contracts and perform work over a period of 24 months to deliver knowledge-level distributed data platforms.

With the data platforms, the military branch will use analytical reasoning driven by artificial intelligence to distribute data and facilitate the execution of tactical decisions.

“An advanced and robust automated data platform enabled by AI and ML will deliver critical logistical value across all services, supporting a digital, data-driven Army outlined in the Army Digital Transformation Strategy,” said Blaise Zandoli, the Army Applied SBIR Program’s portfolio manager for AI/ML and climate and clean tech.

GAO Recommends DOD Assess M&A National Security Risks
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GAO Recommends DOD Assess M&A National Security Risks

The Government Accountability Office has found that the Department of Defense has limited insights into potential national security risks from mergers and acquisitions in the defense industrial base.

In a report published Tuesday, GAO revealed that DOD’s Industrial Base Policy office assessed an average of 40 defense M&As per year in fiscal years 2018 through 2022, which represents only a small portion of the total company takeovers during the period.

GAO added that most of the Pentagon’s M&A assessments focus on competition rather than other types of risks, such as national security and innovation risks, as there is no clear direction about which M&A should be prioritized for assessment beyond those initiated in response to antitrust reviews.

The agency recommended that DOD provide additional direction on assessing the full range of risks and benefits identified in its M&A policy; ensure that the Industrial Base Policy’s M&A office is adequately resourced; provide clear direction on which M&A needs to be prioritized for assessment; and require monitoring of identified risks.

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