Military and industry participants of the ninth Technical Exchange Meeting this year used the event’s platform to discuss the U.S. Army’s network modernization design goals to match future operational environments.

Held in Nashville, Tennessee, TEM 9 attendees took into consideration the electronic warfare-contested battlefield as one of the defining elements of the Army’s unified network of 2030.

The two-day event gathered nearly 1,000 stakeholders from the Army, joint service, and the defense industry to talk about the network modernization Capability Set 25 and 27 design goals. Aside from operations and management, experts focused on zero trust architecture, data centricity and agnostic and resilient network transport.

CS25 prototypes are designed to support data delivery at the point of need. Among them are automation technologies that can enhance the C5ISR/EW Modular Open Suite of Standards by using cards embedded with interconnectivity capabilities. CS27 design goals include the use of zero trust principles to migrate from coalition Mission Partner Networking to a true Mission Partner Environment. The transition will forgo the need for establishing new shared space for every new mission.

“Near-peer threats operate in cyberspace at a very high level, and we need to acknowledge that and build a network that enables [joint] and coalition operations, with the flexibility to maneuver it and to defend it,” Lt. Gen. John Morrison, U.S. Army deputy chief of staff G-6, said in his keynote speech.

The U.S. National Science Foundation granted funding to 16 Phase I multidisciplinary research teams as part of its Convergence Accelerator program for sustainable material innovations.

NSF announced Monday that aside from its $11.5 million investment, the Australian government’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation will also provide funding and deploy Australian researchers to two of the projects.

“Creating environmentally – and economically – sustainable materials and products is critical to our future. The use-inspired solutions in which we are investing in today will advance the circular design of materials and manufacturing processes to reduce pollution and waste,” said Erwin Gianchandani, NSF assistant director for Technology, Innovation and Partnerships.

The following awardees are involved in one or more projects selected by NSF.

• Battelle Memorial Institute
• Black & Decker
• Cornell University
• IBM
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Oregon State University
• Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
• University of Alabama
• University of Delaware
• University of Florida
• University of Georgia Research Foundation

Australia’s University of Wollongong and Western Sydney University are participating in one of the projects led by re:3D, a manufacturer of industrial 3D printers based in Texas. Research Foundation for the State University of New York will partner with the University of Queensland in another project.

The Government Accountability Office has recommended that the Department of Defense analyze its portfolio of piloted fixed-wing tactical aircraft platforms and establish a requirement for the routine submission of information from that portfolio review to Congress.

The DOD integrated acquisition portfolio review should cover portfolio goals, potential tradeoffs and overlap, capability gaps, risk and schedule, cost and performance information on each platform, GAO said in a report published Tuesday.

According to the report, the U.S. Air Force and the U.S. Navy plan to invest approximately $20 billion per year in the acquisition and modernization of tactical aircraft over the next half-decade. This is largely due to the fact that most of the tactical aircraft — otherwise known as fighter and attack planes — were acquired in the 1970s and 1980s and are reaching the end of their lifespan.

Although the Pentagon has initiated measures to improve its portfolio management practices, the congressional watchdog found that the department has not yet performed an integrated acquisition analysis of its fighter plane portfolio.

“Without an analysis of the tactical aircraft platform portfolio and a requirement to report underlying information externally, DOD and Congress will continue to have limited information when making major investment decisions,” the report reads.

The U.S. Postal Service plans to invest approximately $9.6 billion in the acquisition of at least 66,000 battery electric vehicles by 2028 as part of its plan to advance the electrification of its fleet of delivery vehicles.

The investment includes $3 billion in funds from the Inflation Reduction Act and covers the purchase of 45,000 electric Next Generation Delivery Vehicles and 21,000 commercial off-the-shelf electric vehicles, USPS said Tuesday.

USPS expects the new NGDVs to begin servicing postal routes in late 2023 and plans to reach its goal of acquiring 100 percent electric delivery vehicles in 2026.

By May 2023, the agency intends to release a draft supplemental environmental impact statement that examines the environmental impacts of its vehicle procurement alternatives.

“The $3 billion provided by Congress has significantly reduced the risk associated with accelerating the implementation of a nationwide infrastructure necessary to electrify our delivery fleet,” said Postmaster General Louis DeJoy.

“What is less widely understood is that our network modernization initiative is necessary to enable this vehicle electrification and will also provide meaningful cost and carbon reductions in other ways,” DeJoy added.

The White House said $1.7 billion of the Inflation Reduction Act funds will enable USPS to install charging infrastructure for electric vehicles.

In March, USPS placed a potential $3 billion order for 50,000 NGDVs from Oshkosh Defense, including at least 10,000 electric battery-powered vehicles.