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Army CIO Leonel Garciga Focusing on Interim Software & Data Policies
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Army CIO Leonel Garciga Focusing on Interim Software & Data Policies

Leonel Garciga, chief information officer of the U.S. Army, said he is prioritizing the development of interim policies for software, cybersecurity and data to help the service keep pace with technological advances in the private sector, Federal News Network reported Monday.

One of the first interim policies the military branch is working on prizes containers, which are used to package and deploy software.

“We’re going to focus on some things that are huge leaps, both from a security perspective and from the ability to build software out faster. Container guidance — that’ll be coming out soon,” Garciga said at a conference.

Garciga, who assumed the CIO post in late June, said his office plans to release new policy on the use of data on government systems.

“We need to remind folks that there are some rules around this, and we need to protect DoD data and we need to protect personal information too. We’re going to be putting some stuff out there,” Garciga noted.

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Robert Hale & Ellen Lord on 5 Areas of Improvement in Defense Budgeting Process
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Robert Hale & Ellen Lord on 5 Areas of Improvement in Defense Budgeting Process

Commission on Planning, Programming, Budgeting and Execution Chair Robert Hale and Vice Chair Ellen Lord said speed and agility of defense budgeting could help the Department of Defense strengthen deterrence and keep its advantage over strategic competitors.

The commission has identified five improvement areas for the PPBE process, Hale and Lord wrote in an opinion piece published Friday in The Hill. The first line of effort calls for DOD to update business processes to foster innovation adoption and warfighting adaptability.

Another area of improvement is considering reforms to PPBE documents to clearly communicate how DOD’s budget implements the defense strategy.

Lord and Hale said DOD should provide Congress update on its budget by conducting a mid-year briefing to improve communications.

The two previous Wash100 Award recipients called on the Pentagon to advance use of data analytics and digital business systems to streamline the PPBE process and ensure that its workforce can implement each phase of the process.

Lord is former undersecretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment and Hale is former DOD undersecretary for comptroller and chief financial officer.

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Amentum Secures Spot on $3.2B IDIQ to Provide Engineering Services for DOD, Other Federal Organizations; Jill Bruning Quoted
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Amentum Secures Spot on $3.2B IDIQ to Provide Engineering Services for DOD, Other Federal Organizations; Jill Bruning Quoted

Amentum has been selected for a spot on a 10-year, potential $3.2 billion contract for the development, engineering and deployment of technologies for multiple Department of Defense and federal civilian organizations.

Under the multiple-award, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity vehicle, Amentum is expected to deliver aggressive, scaled and agile engineering offerings to the U.S. Army Communications and Electronics Command, Defense Logistics Agency and other government agencies, the Chantilly, Virginia-based company announced on Tuesday.

Jill Bruning, president of the engineering, science and technology group at Amentum and a Wash100 Award recipient, said that the Gateway to Sustainment contract is “another great opportunity” for the company to deliver its services to the U.S. Army while harnessing its experience in technology and engineering modernization.

“G2S offers Amentum the ability to work with the government to sustain our operational forces,” added Jack Kasiski, the organization’s senior vice president of operations.

Amentum’s work is intended to support the accelerated acquisition and deployment of counter-IED and mine detection, electronic warfare, aircraft survivability and training systems. The contract leaves room for the enterprise to receive additional orders for ancillary engineering, obsolescence monitoring and test and evaluation services.

As an awardee, Amentum will leverage its experience in science, technology and engineering modernization to support the IDIQ’s focus areas of supply chain agility, hybrid organic contractor support, Diminishing Manufacturing Sources and Material Shortages and Form, Fit and Function replacement parts.

This award closely follows multiple DOD contract wins for Amentum. Yesterday, the department announced that the company was issued a $591.6 million Navy award to provide foreign military sales customers with systems integration, systems improvement, sustainment material, training and associated support services for foreign military sales customers.

Just weeks earlier, Amentum booked an $818 million contract also from the Navy to modernize and maintain F-16 aircraft that are used for Navy air combat training and assist the Viper Maintenance Group with adversary training fleet expansion.

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GSA Launches Equity Study on Remote Identity Proofing; Sonny Hashmi Quoted
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GSA Launches Equity Study on Remote Identity Proofing; Sonny Hashmi Quoted

The General Services Administration is conducting a study to test six remote identity-proofing technologies with up to 4,000 participants as part of efforts to evaluate the impact of race, ethnicity, income, gender and other socio-demographic and socio-economic factors on the identity proofing process.

The Equity Study on Remote Identity Proofing will be performed for 12 weeks between the summer and fall of fiscal year 2023.

GSA said it will analyze the collected data from research participants and work with the Center for Identification Technology Research at Clarkson University to look for any algorithmic bias.

“This is an important study and initiative to test and validate facial recognition and matching algorithms and technology to identify barriers across demographic lines,” said Sonny Hashmi, commissioner of the Federal Acquisition Service at GSA.

“The results will not only inform government strategy moving forward, but will also lower barriers for more Americans when they interact with their government digitally,” added Hashmi, a previous Wash100 awardee.

GSA intends to release a report in 2024 that will offer a statistical analysis of proofing checks’ performance and look at the causes behind any inconclusive results.

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DHS, Army, DOE Collaborate on Hydrogen-Powered Emergency Response Vehicle Development
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DHS, Army, DOE Collaborate on Hydrogen-Powered Emergency Response Vehicle Development

A hydrogen-powered emergency relief vehicle prototype backed by the Department of Homeland Security, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Department of Energy has completed road testing.

The H2Rescue truck made its way from California to Washington, D.C., stopping at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colorado, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Denver headquarters along the way, DHS’ science and technology directorate said Thursday.

H2Rescue was conceptualized in 2021 as part of an initiative by the DOE Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Office.

Accelera, the energy technology business of Cummins, built the vehicle under a cooperative agreement with USACE’s Engineer Research and Development Center-Construction Engineering Research Laboratory.

DHS S&T, DOE, FEMA, the Army Ground Vehicle Power and Mobility and the Naval Research Laboratory provided design and funding assistance to the project.

The truck houses a mobile command center, can carry up to 33,000 pounds of load into a disaster zone and generate power at a 15-home, three-day capacity.

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CISA’s Christine Lai, Jonathan Spring: AI Software Must Be Secure by Design
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CISA’s Christine Lai, Jonathan Spring: AI Software Must Be Secure by Design

Christine Lai and Jonathan Spring of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency said technology developers should ensure that artificial intelligence software are secure by design.

The AI engineering community should apply Secure by Design practices, which other safety principles and other guardrails rely on, and institute Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures and other vulnerability identifiers, Lai and Spring wrote in a blog post published Friday.

“Since AI is software, AI models – and their dependencies, including data – should be captured in software bills of materials. The AI system should also respect fundamental privacy principles by default,” they noted.

They discussed the importance of AI-specific assurance issues and the difference between adversarial inputs that drive misclassifications and security detection bypass.

Lai is AI security lead and Spring is a senior technical adviser at CISA.

Trusted AI and Autonomy Forum

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Johns Hopkins APL Exploring Conversational AI’s Potential to Support Tactical Combat Care
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Johns Hopkins APL Exploring Conversational AI’s Potential to Support Tactical Combat Care

The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory is using large language modeling to develop technology that can help soldiers with no medical training to administer care to injured comrades on the battlefield.

APL said Thursday the Clinical Practice Guideline-driven Artificial Intelligence project uses an algorithm based on the Tactical Combat Casualty Care guidelines, which the Department of Defense Joint Trauma System developed.

The lab’s Research and Exploratory Development Department is leading the project, which leverages the Reconfigurable APL Language model Framework designed by the laboratory’s Intelligence Systems Center. The software allows users to create LLM-based applications and their corresponding conversational AI agents.

CPG-AI has demonstrated its ability to answer medical care questions in plain English while guiding soldiers through the tactical field care process.

The researchers plan to use the next phase of the study to improve accuracy in collecting and categorizing data from clinical practice guidelines they obtained from DOD’s Joint Trauma System.

Trusted AI and Autonomy Forum

On Sept. 12, ExecutiveGov’s sister site ExecutiveBiz will host the Trusted AI and Autonomy Forum in person in Fall Church, Virginia. Register to join the event.

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Navy, General Dynamics Kick Off Construction of 32nd Virginia-Class Submarine
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Navy, General Dynamics Kick Off Construction of 32nd Virginia-Class Submarine

The U.S. Navy and General Dynamics Electric Boat have initiated construction of Virginia-class submarine SSN 805.

Naval Sea Systems Command said Thursday that it held a keel-laying ceremony at GD Electric Boat’s Groton, Connecticut, shipyard for the future USS Tang submarine, named after two predecessors that made combat history.

The vessel will be a Virginia-class Block V submarine, which is nuclear-powered to displace up to 8,000 tons of shore-based targets at stealth mode.

Such underwater craft are also designed for stealth surveillance as well as mine delivery and mapping.

The two previous USS Tang ships were commissioned in 1943 and 1951, respectively. The first one, SS 306, hit or sunk more than 30 enemy vessels in the Pacific during World War II, earning four battle stars and two Presidential Unit Citations.

SS 563, the second USS Tang, was used during the Vietnam War, and was ultimately decorated with four battle stars.

PCAST Outlines Recommendations for Federal Nanotechnology R&D Coordination
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PCAST Outlines Recommendations for Federal Nanotechnology R&D Coordination

The President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology has released its assessment of the National Nanotechnology Initiative outlining a set of recommendations to coordinate nanotechnology research and development efforts across the federal government.

PCAST recommends that the government consider sunsetting or streamlining the directives in the 21st Century Nanotechnology Research and Development Act, including ending the mandated reviews and the annual Supplement to the President’s Budget, the White House said Friday.

According to the council, the heads of the Office of Science and Technology Policy and the National Science and Technology Council should work together to direct the Nanoscale Science, Engineering and Technology Subcommittee to more fully utilize its authority to facilitate federal nanotechnology coordination.

The NSET Subcommittee is responsible for establishing and updating a nanotechnology strategic plan every three years, establishing research centers, awarding grants and promoting the adoption of nanotechnology for commercial applications.

To help create a multi-disciplinary workforce, agencies in the NSET Subcommittee should enhance and expand experiential learning programs for high schools, community colleges, universities and industry, per PCAST’s analysis.

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NSF Official Sean Jones Named Argonne Deputy Laboratory Director for Science & Technology
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NSF Official Sean Jones Named Argonne Deputy Laboratory Director for Science & Technology

Sean Jones, assistant director of the National Science Foundation’s Mathematical and Physical Sciences directorate, has been named deputy laboratory director for science and technology at the Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory.

He will assume responsibilities as Argonne’s senior science strategist, adviser and chief research officer on Oct. 9, the national laboratory said Wednesday.

At NSF, Jones manages a $1.86 billion portfolio encompassing five science divisions, interdisciplinary research programs and domestic and international research facilities and centers.

During his 14-year career at the agency, Jones oversaw the construction of two major astronomy facilities, led the operation of national user facilities and major instruments and developed new initiatives in biotechnology, precision sensing and other emerging fields.

Before joining NSF, he held leadership roles at the University of Florida, Norfolk State University, Lucent Technologies, Luxcore Networks and Applied Plasmonics.

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