Collins Aerospace, an RTX subsidiary, has finished flight testing the MS-110 Multispectral Airborne Reconnaissance System on the F-16 aircraft.

This milestone comes one year after the system’s first flight on an F-16 in June 2022 for an unnamed international customer, the company announced from its Cedar Rapids, Iowa headquarters on Friday.

“With MS-110 development and integration completed, the critical intelligence made available by the system can be rapidly rolled out to support multi-domain efforts,” said Andy Hunter, director and general manager of intelligent sensing for Collins Aerospace.

He said that this expansion of an earlier indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract with a U.S. Air Force foreign military sales client “will be a major factor” in ramping up production and increasing system affordability.

Included in the MS-110 are multispectral features designed to boost intelligence analysts’ ability to collect information from a broad range of target sets. The system utilizes Collins Aerospace’s multi-spectral imaging knowledge from SYERS-2C, which was flown on the U-2.

MS-110 is built on the foundation of the DB-110 and uses the same support and imagery exploitation infrastructure — a characteristic that allows DB-110 operators to adapt their pods to the MS-110 configuration at their own maintenance facilities to lower costs and reduce operational downtime for the system. MS-110 is also compatible with MALE unmanned aerial vehicles, including the MQ-9.

During the flight testing period, Collins Aerospace conducted an exhaustive set of assessments and related ground activities to ensure that the system’s wide area, long-range sensor suite was prepared for deployment. Currently, the organization is working to deliver 16 total sensors to global Fast-Jet operators as well as 13 pods for three other customers.

Collins Aerospace’s airborne and reconnaissance systems have been employed on both tactical fast jet platforms and special mission intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance business jets.

The National Science Foundation has introduced the Research on Research Security Program to fund projects focused on identifying, preventing and diminishing research security risks.

The program will accept proposals until Sept. 25, and award grants by December, NSF said Wednesday.

The Research on Research Security Program builds on efforts by NSF and other agencies in the R&D, law enforcement and intelligence sectors to secure U.S. research infrastructure. It aims to help the research community improve transparency, collaboration and responsible disclosure of data.

Prior to the program’s launch, NSF will host a workshop for national and international experts to raise awareness and identify study topics for the project. The foundation will also host webinars on July 13 and 26.

Gen. Randy George, who was recently nominated by President Joe Biden to serve as the 41st chief of staff of the Army, has shared his priorities for the position.

Testifying before the Senate, George, who currently serves as Army vice chief of staff, highlighted recruiting challenges and several other areas as issues he would focus on if confirmed, the Department of Defense said on Thursday.

Strengthening the Army profession and creating successful teams, said George, begins with recruiting to maintain “an army of the people and for the people — a formidable team of all-volunteer warriors.”

George said that he suspects recruiting to be one of the toughest challenges he may face as chief of staff, and added that he sees it as the number one difficulty the Army is dealing with.

“I will tell you that every leader in the Army, and I have been as the vice, is completely focused on this,” he remarked.

A major aspect of this focus is the service branch’s approach to selecting and placing recruiters as well as the command and control structure of the recruiting enterprise and marketing, said George.

He noted a shift in public perception among young people as another challenge to Army recruitment. George attested that he believes many people view enlistment as “putting their life on hold” — but his perspective is different.

George said that he was told that the Army would “accelerate” his life, an idea that he still embraces.

“I still use that … because it has. And I think we need to get that word out. And we’re working very hard to do that,” he emphasized.

In doing so, the Army is offering support to help soldiers fulfill the service branch’s standards. George cited the Future Soldier Prep Course, a pilot program designed to help soldiers meet the weight requirements to progress to basic training, as an example.

George also noted preparing the Army for future warfighting, maintaining a strong industrial and sustainment base and providing soldier and family support infrastructure as key priorities during his testimony.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s Defense Sciences Office is sponsoring a hybrid workshop on July 25 to provide information on a program to create new rare earth elements separation and purification strategies.

DARPA said Wednesday it is issuing an advanced research concept opportunity to solicit ideas to develop environmentally sustainable and commercially viable techniques to separate and purify REEs from domestic sources for defense applications.

The U.S. currently relies on foreign sources for REE processing and purification, which may pose risks to the domestic supply chain, according to the agency.

Through the program, DARPA seeks to establish a domestic manufacturing industry to extract and purify REE resources within the U.S. to mitigate potential supply chain vulnerabilities.

“Solving the technological challenge of separating rare earths from each other is critical for establishing a secure domestic supply chain of strategic materials and requires a re-examination of the fundamental physics and chemistries of these elements,” said DARPA Innovation Fellow Rebecca Chmiel.

REEs comprise 17 elements used in modern technologies, including cell phones, electronic displays and electric vehicles.