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DOD, Albemarle Partner to Expand Domestic Lithium Production for Battery Supply Chain; Anthony Di Stasio Quoted
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DOD, Albemarle Partner to Expand Domestic Lithium Production for Battery Supply Chain; Anthony Di Stasio Quoted

The Department of Defense and chemical manufacturing company Albemarle have inked a $90 million agreement to expand domestic lithium mining and production and support the U.S. battery supply chain.

Albemarle plans to reopen its lithium mine in Kings Mountain, North Carolina, and make it operational between 2025 and 2030, DOD said Tuesday.

The company will have the support of the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Industrial Base Policy through its Manufacturing Capability Expansion and Investment Prioritization office. The partnership reflects MCEIP’s five-year investment plan aimed at securing material and mineral supply chains to ensure the availability of essential resources to the defense and commercial sectors.

Commenting on the team-up, MCEIP Director Anthony Di Stasio said, “The agreement with Albemarle demonstrates the DoD’s ongoing commitment to meeting the needs of our warfighter, today and in the future. This investment directly supports President Biden’s April 2022 Presidential Determination for Critical Materials in Large-Capacity Batteries.”

The move is under Defense Production Act Title III authorities and utilizes Inflation Reduction Act funds.

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Senate Confirms Tanya Bradsher as VA Deputy Secretary
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Senate Confirms Tanya Bradsher as VA Deputy Secretary

Tanya Bradsher, chief of staff for the Department of Veterans Affairs since March 2021, has received confirmation from the Senate to serve as the VA’s deputy secretary, becoming the first woman to hold the leadership position.

The retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel has served as senior adviser to Secretary Denis McDonough and helped manage the expansion of Veteran care and benefits through the implementation of the PACT Act, VA said Tuesday.

“Tanya is an incredible leader who has dedicated her life to fighting for this country and her fellow Veterans — and under her leadership, I’m confident that VA will continue delivering more care and more benefits to more Veterans than ever before,” McDonough said.

Bradsher replaces former deputy secretary Donald Remy, who stepped down after nearly two years in the position.

Guy Kiyokawa, who has served as VA’s deputy secretary on an interim basis, will resume his responsibilities as assistant secretary for enterprise integration.

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CISA Outlines Roadmap to Ensure Open Source Software Security in Government; Eric Goldstein Quoted
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CISA Outlines Roadmap to Ensure Open Source Software Security in Government; Eric Goldstein Quoted

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency developed a roadmap of its goals to ensure open source software security within the federal government from 2024 to 2026.

The Open Source Software Security Roadmap, which was opened for public comment in August, has four main goals including minimizing the risks of its use by government agencies, CISA said Tuesday.

The strategy also aims to lay the foundation of CISA’s role in open source protection and defense, and to maintain continued visibility into the usage and risks of such systems. The agency intends to enforce the roadmap to bolster the ecosystem for platforms with publicly available source codes.

“Open source software has fostered tremendous innovation and economic gain, including serving as the foundation for technologies used across our federal government and every critical sector,” said Eric Goldstein, CISA’s executive assistant director for cybersecurity. “In part due to this prevalence, we know that vulnerable or malicious open source software can introduce systemic risks to our economy and essential functions. CISA is proud to serve as a partner to the open source community as we collectively take urgent steps to support open source security and ensure that all partners in this critical ecosystem invest in a secure, resilient, and innovative open source future.”

GM Defense Enters Memorandum of Understanding With NP Aerospace to Expand Global Business, Improve Product Delivery; Steve duMont Quoted
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GM Defense Enters Memorandum of Understanding With NP Aerospace to Expand Global Business, Improve Product Delivery; Steve duMont Quoted

General Motors’ defense business has signed a memorandum of understanding with NP Aerospace, a UK and Canada-based manufacturing company, to collaborate on research and development, post-production support and global logistics sustainment initiatives for military products.

Signed during the Defense and Security Equipment International 2023 event, the agreement covers the areas of integrated vehicles, power and propulsion, autonomy and connectivity, fuel cell, power generation, system integration and platform integration, GM Defense announced from London, England on Wednesday.

Steve duMont, president of GM Defense and a 2023 Wash100 Award recipient, highlighted NP Aerospace’s “proven track record and expertise,” which he said complements GM Defense.

“This collaboration will help position our commercial-based solutions, including the ISV and HD SUV, to global militaries while aligning our capabilities to meet the needs of the UK Ministry of Defence’s Land Industrial Strategy,” he added.

Built on the foundation of the Chevrolet Colorado ZR2 midsize truck architecture, the ISV is constructed with 90 percent commercial-off-the-shelf parts. These elements include Chevrolet Performance components that have been tailored to meet U.S. Army needs.

GM Defense recently launched the ISV Family of Vehicles, offering a variety of options to meet specific mission needs. Currently, GM Defense is also working on a purpose-built Heavy-Duty armored Sport Utility Vehicle.

The MOU multiplies the array of vehicles maintained under NP Aerospace’s Vehicle Systems, Services and Spares business, which currently holds contracts from the UK Ministry of Defence and Canadian Department of National Defence. It will also boost GM Defense’s ability to effectively deliver its products to military customers.

“Our collaboration with GM Defense is very exciting as it diversifies our product and technology offering established through the UK MoD protected mobility fleet contract and expands our vehicle armour and engineering capabilities into North America,” said NP Aerospace CEO James Kempston.

This agreement follows GM Defense’s recent integration of GM Defense Canada and establishment of GM Defense International in 2022.

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Space Force Combines Elements of SSC, SOC to Strengthen Mission Area Readiness; Gen. Chance Saltzman Quoted
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Space Force Combines Elements of SSC, SOC to Strengthen Mission Area Readiness; Gen. Chance Saltzman Quoted

The U.S. Space Force established two provisional units of Integrated Mission Delta to consolidate electronic warfare and missile warning operations with satellite communication, positioning, navigation and timing.

The prototype IMDs will be launched in the fall, as part of the service branch’s strategy to streamline operations, USSF said Tuesday.

The divisions will spin off and combine elements of maintenance activities, which are managed by the Space Systems Command, with areas under the Space Operations Command such as mission generation, cyber defense and intelligence support.

The branch plans to forge a single organization responsible for mission area readiness training, personnel, equipment and sustainment.

“We cannot afford to split a mission area’s critical activities across organizational seams,” according to Gen. Chance Saltzman, Space Force chief of space operations. “It is essential that all elements of readiness – people, training, equipment and sustainment – fall into the same organizational structure, and that we create unity of command around those elements at the lowest possible level,” the Wash100 awardee added.

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Pentagon Unveils 2023 Cyber Strategy Summary; John Plumb Quoted
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Pentagon Unveils 2023 Cyber Strategy Summary; John Plumb Quoted

The Department of Defense has issued an unclassified summary of a strategy that establishes how DOD will operate in the cyber domain to advance U.S. defense priorities and digitally protect U.S. citizens.

The 2023 DOD Cyber Strategy outlines the four lines of effort the department will pursue to address existing and future cyberthreats and implements the priorities of the 2022 National Defense Strategy, 2022 National Security Strategy and the 2023 National Cybersecurity Strategy, DOD said Tuesday.

The four lines of effort are defending the nation; preparing to fight and win the nation’s wars; protecting the cyber domain with allies and partners; and building enduring advantages in cyberspace.

To advance the first line of effort, DOD will disrupt the capabilities of malicious threat actors, defend U.S. critical infrastructure and fight threats to military readiness by working with interagency partners and using available authorities.

Other initiatives are ensuring the cybersecurity of the DOD Information Network, improving the cyber resilience of the Joint Force and building up the capability of U.S. allies in cyberspace.

“This strategy draws on lessons learned from years of conducting cyber operations and our close observation of how cyber has been used in the Russia-Ukraine war,” said John Plumb, assistant secretary for space policy at DOD.

“It has driven home the need to work closely with our allies, partners, and industry to make sure we have the right cyber capabilities, cyber security, and cyber resilience to help deter conflict, and to fight and win if deterrence fails,” added Plumb.

DOE Selects Projects to Bridge Gap Between Technology Discovery and Commercialization
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DOE Selects Projects to Bridge Gap Between Technology Discovery and Commercialization

The Department of Energy has selected 11 research projects led by DOE national laboratories to receive a total of $73 million in funding to study new ways to help transition new technologies from discovery to commercialization.

DOE said Monday the teams will focus on discovery and use-inspired research to address gaps that limit the maturation of early-stage discoveries to deployable technologies.

“This research will integrate novel concepts and approaches in use-inspired basic research to address gaps or challenges that limit the ultimate transition to applied research for further development and demonstration,” said Asmeret Asefaw Berhe, director of the DOE Office of Science.

Among the approved projects is an Argonne National Laboratory-led initiative to develop tools that combine artificial intelligence, robotics, human interfaces and digital twins to replace legacy technologies that produce isotopes for various applications.

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory will also lead a project to study and model the behavior of microbes in bioreactors to determine why biomanufacturing processes that work well in the laboratory often fail during mass production.

DOE chose the projects through a competitive peer review.

University of Southern Mississippi Secures NOAA Funding for UxS Data Assembly Hub
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University of Southern Mississippi Secures NOAA Funding for UxS Data Assembly Hub

The University of Southern Mississippi has secured funding from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to develop a data assembly hub for NOAA’s uncrewed system operations.

NOAA said Friday the pilot project will collect and aggregate environmental data and observations for analysis in support of the agency’s future data management strategy for using and managing commercial cloud computing infrastructure.

“The Data Assembly Hub will support businesses, policy makers and researchers into the future and enable the latest artificial intelligence techniques,” said Henry Jones, director of research development and scientific entrepreneurship at USM.

The program is also meant to support the growth of the U.S. blue economy by improving the collection, analysis and dissemination of ocean and coastal-derived data to address societal challenges and support economic growth.

The data assembly hub initiative is worth $2.5 million over two years.

In February 2021, NOAA entered a 10-year agreement with USM to conduct UxS testing and evaluation to enable enhanced operation of the systems for better environmental data collection.

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Google Seeks to Advance Responsible AI Development With New Initiative, Fund
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Google Seeks to Advance Responsible AI Development With New Initiative, Fund

Google has begun an initiative that seeks to promote responsible development of artificial intelligence tools by supporting researchers, facilitating debates on public policies and organizing events.

Brigitte Hoyer Gosselink, director of Google.org, wrote in a blog post published Monday that the Digital Futures Project will focus on addressing the challenges and opportunities that AI offers.

Google.org will offer grants to academic institutions and think tanks to further explore AI through a $20 million fund.

The Digital Futures Fund is built to support institutions as they work to understand the potential impact of AI on global security, labor and economy and identify governance structures that could help advance responsible AI development, among other issues.

The fund’s inaugural grantees include the Aspen Institute, Brookings Institution, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Institute for Security and Technology, Center for Strategic and International Studies, Center for a New American Security, R Street Institute, Leadership Conference Education Fund, MIT Work of the Future and SeedAI.

Kelly Dalton: Air Force Research Lab Supercomputer Has Potential to Shorten R&D & Acquisition Project Timelines
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Kelly Dalton: Air Force Research Lab Supercomputer Has Potential to Shorten R&D & Acquisition Project Timelines

The U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory installed a new supercomputer that can calculate 12 petaflops per second, reportedly reducing the simulation and data processing time from years to days.

AFRL said Monday the Raider supercomputer is a product of the Department of Defense High Performance Computing Modernization Program, and is also accessible to the U.S. Navy and Army.

The system, which is located at the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio, has 189,000 processors. Its computing speed can condense a five-year research or acquisition timeline into approximately 200 days, according to Kelly Dalton, technical director at AFRL’s DOD Supercomputer Resource Center.

AFRL’s Digital Capabilities Directorate has already ordered the next two supercomputers to be delivered in 2024, as the laboratory and DOD implement a continuous upgrade strategy to stay abreast of the latest technology.

“We’re trying to help the scientists and engineers do the work faster and with higher fidelity so they can produce superior capabilities for the warfighter,” Dalton said. “In terms of AFRL, we are trying to advance the research being done here.”

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