An interim report released by the Atlantic Council presents 10 policy recommendations to help the Department of Defense and Congress address challenges in adopting defense innovations amid the geopolitical environment facing the U.S.

The report outlined eight enterprise challenges with regard to defense technology adoption, including outdated research and development model, valleys of death, program-centric acquisition, long timelines and the shrinking industrial base, the Atlantic Council said Wednesday.

Some of the recommendations for DOD leaders, congressional defense committees and agencies to advance tech adoption within the Pentagon are introducing a new capability portfolio model, consolidating program elements, strengthening the alignment of capital markets to defense outcomes and incentivizing tech companies to do business with DOD.

The council’s commission on defense innovation adoption also called for the modernization of budget documents, efforts to scale the Space Development Agency model and establishment of a bridge fund for successfully demonstrated technologies.

Former DOD Secretary Mark Esper and Deborah Lee James, former secretary of the Air Force, serve as co-chairs of the Atlantic Council’s commission on defense innovation adoption. Both officials are previous Wash100 awardees.

In March, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency performed the third experiment in March for a program that seeks to demonstrate and assess the performance of combat-scale autonomous vehicles in off-road environments at the U.S. Army National Training Center at Fort Irwin in California.

Teams from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Washington participated in the three-week experiment as part of DARPA’s Robotic Autonomy in Complex Environments with Resiliency program, the agency said Tuesday.

“At Experiment Three, we successfully demonstrated significant improvements in our off-road speeds while simultaneously reducing any interaction with the vehicle during test runs,” said Stuart Young, RACER program manager at DARPA’s Tactical Technology Office.

Army Research Laboratory researchers also took part in the experiment by demonstrating the performer team’s autonomy software.

Performer teams conducted more than 55 autonomous runs through challenging terrain with a dozen RACER fleet vehicles, logging 246 miles in 24.6 total hours and speeds of approximately 25 miles per hour.

“During this latest experiment, we continued to push vehicle limits in perceiving the environments to greater distances, enabling further increase in speeds and better adaptation to newly encountered environmental conditions that will continue into RACER’s next phase,” noted Young.

Under the second phase, performers will further develop their software stacks and test the autonomous movement of their vehicles in longer off-road environments with fewer interactions.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is looking to conduct research into emerging satellite and ground technologies through broad agency announcements.

Forthcoming BAAs will focus on potential projects to design a microwave sensor, demonstrate ground processes and address passive sensor data corrupting emissions, NOAA said Friday.

The agency wants to explore modern tools that could support the modernization of numerical weather prediction models and satellite support infrastructure.

NOAA added that the research efforts are part of a partnership program under the Office of System Architecture and Advanced Planning.

The agency will post the announcements on the SAM website and host an event for organizations interested in the exploratory initiatives.

The Department of Homeland Security’s Science and Technology Directorate has published a pair of requests for information to identify industry sources capable of demonstrating technologies designed to counter threats posed by small unmanned aerial systems.

DHS S&T said Tuesday it is in need of counter-UAS tools that are able to detect, track, report and neutralize sUAS with low or no radio frequency emissions as well as kinetic tools to mitigate threats from small drones.

Vendors will be required to perform live product demonstrations starting in July under the direction of DHS S&T’s C-UAS initiative, which assesses counter-drone technologies in laboratory and operational environments.

A live demonstration of the selected C-UAS technologies is scheduled for July 31 to Aug. 11 at Oklahoma State University, with follow-up events potentially occurring in mid-2024.

DHS S&T is also set to conduct kinetic mitigation demonstrations on July 10 to 28 in 2023, and July 2024, at the Northern Plains UAS Test Site in North Dakota.

Responses to both RFIs are due May 5.