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Navy Unit Launches Research on AI-Based Procurement Processing
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Navy Unit Launches Research on AI-Based Procurement Processing

The Naval Surface Warfare Center, Port Hueneme Division, or NSWCPHD,  has issued a request for information on artificial intelligence-based systems for procurement processing and documentation. 

The research seeks to identify AI technologies, including natural language processing and machine learning, suitable for creating pre- and post-award documents through the tools’ comprehensive understanding and interpretation of human language, according to an NSWCPHD post on Tradewinds Friday.

Potential Navy Tool Development Opportunities

The post noted that the RFI’s feedback may assist the U.S. Navy unit determine future opportunities on AI tools that can help NSWCPHD and other Department of Defense entities improve procurement processes. 

The RFI notice also expressed the need to develop innovative AI-powered systems for creating procurement templates, guides and other documents that minimize procurement risks, while promoting efficiency, compliance and strategic decisions across industries.

Initial Discovery Paper Submission

RFI submissions will undergo a multiple-round process of competitive assessment to pinpoint the potential approaches suitable for AI streamlining of the procurement process. Round 1 involves the submission of a brief discovery paper for assessment by the Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office and technology experts. The deadline for the submission of discovery papers is on April 22. 

Papers deemed as having the highest potential for AI-based procurement processing will be invited to Round 2, which involves a video submission on a proof of concept for the proponent’s idea on technology implementation, such as NLP and MLP algorithm use. Qualifiers after the second round will get an invitation to Round 3, and they will be granted a request for prototype proposal to work with the government on the presented procurement processing and its projected costs.

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Eric Schnabel Named COO of Senior Executive Service at NIH
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Eric Schnabel Named COO of Senior Executive Service at NIH

Eric Schnabel has been appointed as chief operating officer of the Senior Executive Service at the National Institutes of Health. 

In this role, Schnabel will serve all 27 NIH institutes, focusing on upgrading security measures, increasing operational efficiency and improving employee communication.

He expressed his gratitude over the selection and said, “It is a privilege to once again contribute to upholding and defending the Constitution of the United States of America in service to the President.”

Schnabel’s Career Highlights

Prior to his NIH appointment, Schnabel was director of business development and capture at Millennium Health & Fitness for over a year. 

He was also chief operating officer for two years at Kinetic Analytics and defense and intel business development manager at QinetiQ US.

He established S3 CORP, also known as Schanebel Security Solutions, and served as its president.

Prior to working in the industry, he held several positions in the Army and the Department of Defense, including joint staff lead of the DOD’s Close Combat Lethality Task Force, deputy director of the Joint Staff J-7 Directorate’s Office of Irregular Warfare and strategic planner for the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence.

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Laurie Buckhout Appointed Deputy Asst. Secretary of Defense for Cyber Policy
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Laurie Buckhout Appointed Deputy Asst. Secretary of Defense for Cyber Policy

Laurie Buckhout has been named deputy assistant secretary of defense for cyber policy at the Office of the Secretary of Defense.

The Department of Defense said Monday Buckhout was officially appointed on March 17. She will oversee the DOD’s cyberspace policy and strategy while maintaining external relationships within the government sector and with domestic stakeholders, allies and partners.

Who Is Laurie Buckhout?

Buckhout is a retired U.S. Army colonel with over three decades of experience serving in the government, defense and private sectors. She previously ran for a seat in the House of Representatives to represent North Carolina’s 1st Congressional District.

Before her foray into politics, she worked as a chief strategist at Castellum for over three years. She founded Corvus Consulting in 2012 and served as its president and CEO until it was acquired by Castellum in 2019. During her tenure at Corvus, Buckhout further established herself as a prominent figure in the fields of cyberspace, electronic warfare and electromagnetic spectrum, or EMS, operations.

Buckhout was a member of the AFCEA International Cyber Committee and the Commerce Spectrum Management Advisory Committee, where she advised on critical spectrum policy issues. The Army veteran also served on the board of directors of Student Veterans of America and was a member of the team conducting the 2013 Defense Science Board Summer Study on 21st Century EMS Operations. She also served as president of the Association of Old Crows, senior director of defense business development at TASC and VP at Lanmark Technology.

She started her 26-year military career in 1984, most recently serving as chief of the Army Electronic Warfare Division until her retirement in 2010. Buckhout also served as an action officer within J6 on the Joint Staff.

As the commander of the 32nd Signal Battalion, Buckhout led over 600 soldiers in combat in Iraq. Before that, she held the position of presidential communications officer within White House Communications.

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Trump Orders Creation of Investment Accelerator Within Commerce
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Trump Orders Creation of Investment Accelerator Within Commerce

President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Monday to establish a new office within the Department of Commerce to accelerate and facilitate investments of more than $1 billion in the U.S.

Within 30 days, the EO directs the secretary of commerce to coordinate with the secretary of the treasury and the assistant to the president for economic policy to create the U.S. Investment Accelerator office within the Commerce Department to encourage businesses to make large investments in the country.

What Is the Purpose of the Investment Accelerator?

In a fact sheet published Monday, the White House said the Investment Accelerator will help reduce regulatory burdens; speed up the permitting process; coordinate responses to investor issues across federal agencies; boost access to national resources; facilitate collaboration with national laboratories; and work with all 50 state governments and their economic development organizations.

The accelerator will also administer the CHIPS Program Office and help negotiate better CHIPS Act deals.

An executive director will lead the Investment Accelerator, which will be staffed with legal, operational, transactional and support personnel to help identify existing mechanisms and opportunities in federal law that can be used to assist local and foreign investors while protecting national security.

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AUKUS Challenge Seeks Proposals for Undersea C2 Systems
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AUKUS Challenge Seeks Proposals for Undersea C2 Systems

A total of $9 million funding has been allocated for three to 10 proposals for the AUKUS Maritime Innovation Challenge 2025, which is open to commercial companies offering systems for enhancing undersea command, control and communication capabilities. The U.S. Defense Innovation Unit said in a statement Monday that it is collaborating in the proposal solicitation for the challenge with Australia’s Advanced Strategic Capabilities Accelerator and the U.K.’s Defence and Security Accelerator. 

DIU also noted that the challenge is being pursued under Pillar II of the trilateral AUKUS alliance of Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States focused on global maritime security.

Desired System Capabilities 

The AUKUS challenge solicitation seeks proposals designed to provide near real-time communications between undersea vehicles and similar UVs, with a capability to communicate with command-and-control systems/battle management systems as well as seabed systems. 

The proposals on enhancing underwater warfighting capabilities should also optimize bandwidth utilization and effective range, while UVs operate in contested/congested environments. In addition, the challenge seeks system capabilities for the optimal matching of assets to tasks in complex and dynamic environments. 

TRL 6 Proposals Qualify

According to DIU, systems that had achieved Technology Readiness Level 6 in a model or prototype demonstration are eligible to submit proposals in the challenge. The deadline for the submission of proposals is on April 28, with a tri-national question-and-answer session scheduled on April 3. 

The proposal solicitation follows the conclusion and announcement of winners in the inaugural AUKUS Electronic Warfare Challenge in September. The U.S. winner, Distributed Spectrum, was awarded $150,000 for its radio frequency sensing platform for real-time intelligence gathering on adversary activity.

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House Lawmakers Propose Bill to Establish National AI Resource
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House Lawmakers Propose Bill to Establish National AI Resource

House lawmakers have introduced a bill that will establish a shared national resource for artificial intelligence. The Creating Resources for Every American To Experiment with Artificial Intelligence Act of 2025, or CREATE AI Act, would establish the National AI Research Resource, or NAIRR, House.gov reported Monday. 

“Artificial intelligence is one of the most transformative technologies of our time, but currently the tools needed to develop it are out of reach for most Americans,” commented Rep. Jay Obernolte, R-Calif., one of the bill’s proponents.

“The CREATE AI Act will democratize access to cutting-edge AI resources by establishing a shared national infrastructure for research and experimentation,” he added. 

National Hub for AI R&D

The CREATE AI Act would put in place a formal governance structure for NAIRR. It would form a steering subcommittee, which would operate under the White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy, and a program management office within the National Science Foundation to oversee the resource center’s activities.

The bill would also utilize donated resources from federal agencies and the private sector. 

Democratizing AI

The lawmakers behind CREATE AI Act envision NAIRR to become an equalizer that would give students, researchers, academic institutions, non-profits and small businesses datasets and infrastructures needed to build and deploy AI. 

Rep. Don Beyer, D-Va., who was also a sponsor of the bill, added that NAIRR would support the United States’ mission to maintain global leadership in AI. 

“This access to high-quality data, compute resources, and support would drive the innovation necessary to strengthen our global competitiveness in trustworthy AI development and in turn help accelerate solutions to the world’s most pressing challenges,” he said.

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VA Chooses 9 Facilities to Deploy Federal EHR System
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VA Chooses 9 Facilities to Deploy Federal EHR System

The Department of Veterans Affairs has revealed the nine new medical facilities slated to utilize the Federal Electronic Health Record system in 2026.

Modernizing VA Healthcare Operations

The VA said Monday the additional VA medical centers and clinics will go live with the EHR. The new sites, located in Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana and Alaska, include:

  • Cincinnati VA Medical Center-Fort Thomas
  • Chillicothe VAMC
  • Cincinnati VAMC
  • Dayton VAMC
  • Louis Stokes Cleveland VAMC
  • Fort Wayne VAMC
  • Marion VAMC
  • Richard L. Roudebush VAMC
  • Alaska VA Healthcare System

Officials from the VA’s EHR Modernization Integration Office, along with regional and local VA medical leaders and clinicians, and Oracle Health conducted planning sessions to determine the new medical facilities.

A total of 13 facilities will deploy the Federal EHR system in 2026. The four previously selected facilities are VA Battle Creek Medical Center, VA Detroit Healthcare System, VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System and VA Saginaw Healthcare System. The EHR system will be fully implemented at every VA site as early as 2031.

 “We are excited to bring Veterans in Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio and Alaska a modern medical record system that will result in improvements to care, coordination and convenience,” said Doug Collins, secretary of the VA. “The Federal EHR is integrated across all VA and Department of Defense components, enabling seamless data exchange while enhancing care, safety and customer service for patients,” he added.

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DOD, NASA Wrap Up 3rd Recovery Test for Artemis II Mission
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DOD, NASA Wrap Up 3rd Recovery Test for Artemis II Mission

The Department of Defense and NASA have completed their joint third test for the sea recovery of the crewed Artemis II capsule after the spacecraft’s 10-day moon mission scheduled for April 2026. The drill, called Underway Recovery Test 12, or URT 12, used as its platform the amphibious transport dock USS Somerset (LPD 25), the U.S. Navy said in a statement after the test’s completion Monday.

Capt. Andrew Koy, USS Somerset commanding officer, noted the “long history” of the U.S. Navy and NASA’s partnership in recovering astronauts and equipment after space missions.

“The inherent capabilities of our amphibious transport dock ships are the perfect combination to ensuring the Artemis capsule and crew are safely recovered following their mission,” Koy pointed out, citing his crew’s competencies and USS Somerset’s facilities. Another Navy vessel, USS San Diego (LPD 22), was deployed for the previous recovery rehearsal, URT 11.

During URT 12, DOD and NASA demonstrated and evaluated the processes, procedures and equipment for the recovery operations, including the crew extraction from the Artemis II capsule and the astronaut’s transfer to the ship’s medical facility. A full-scale replica of Orion, the Artemis II capsule, was used to practice the recovery procedures.

US Air Force Support

To support the U.S. Space Command in the Artemis II recovery, the U.S. Navy assigned additional units, including Expeditionary Strike Group 3, Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 23, Explosive Ordnance Disposal Group 1 and Amphibious Construction Battalion 1. The U.S. Air Force also extended assistance through its First Air Force, Detachment 3 and U.S. Space Force’s 45th Space Launch Delta Weather Squadron.

With their experience from the Artemis I recovery, the DOD-NASA teams adjusted their Artemis II recovery timelines and procedures, targeting to have the mission’s four astronauts safely transferred aboard the recovery ship within two hours after Orion’s splashdown in the Pacific Ocean.

NASA Astronauts’ Participation

NASA said in a separate statement Monday that its astronaut and Artemis II pilot Victor Glover, along with his colleagues Andre Douglas and Deniz Burnham, as well as European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano, joined URT 12. “Allowing astronauts to participate when they are not directly involved in a mission gives them valuable experience by exposing them to a lot of different scenarios,” said Glover.

Besides Glover, the other Artemis II crew members are NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman—mission commander—and Christina Koch—mission specialist—plus her counterpart from the Canadian Space Agency, Jeremy Hansen.

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Karen Evans Nominated as DHS Under Secretary for Management
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Karen Evans Nominated as DHS Under Secretary for Management

President Donald Trump has nominated Karen Evans, a senior Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency official, to serve as under secretary for management at the Department of Homeland Security.

Congress received and referred Evans’ nomination to the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on March 24.

Her nomination to the role came a month after she rejoined DHS to serve as executive assistant director for cybersecurity at CISA, where she acts as national coordinator for critical infrastructure security and resilience initiatives.

Karen Evans’ Career Background

Evans served as chief information officer at DHS from March 2020 to January 2021.

She supported the Department of Energy’s national security mission by serving as the first assistant secretary for cybersecurity, energy security and emergency response during the first Trump administration.

She also held roles within the departments of Justice and Agriculture and at the National Park Service.

The West Virginia University graduate is an elected fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration.

Evans co-founded SafeGov and was managing director of the Cyber Readiness Institute.

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Joe Maletta Named Acting Senior Procurement Executive at VA
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Joe Maletta Named Acting Senior Procurement Executive at VA

The Department of Veterans Affairs has appointed Joe Maletta as acting senior procurement executive and executive director of its Office of Acquisition and Logistics.

Announcing his appointment in a LinkedIn post, Maletta said he started on the new job in March. His responsibilities include ensuring that VA components accomplish their missions and comply with laws, policies and directions from execution branch partners.

Joe Maletta’s Career Highlights

Before assuming his new position, Maletta served as the executive director of acquisitions at the Veterans Health Administration, where he advised senior agency leaders and managed the department’s strategic partnerships with other federal agencies. He was also the executive director of the VHA’s Regional Procurement Office East, where he managed a $4 billion operating budget and oversaw the VA’s contracting activities on the East Coast.

Earlier, Maletta was director of contracting at the Naval Reactors Laboratory Field Office and director of the Naval Reactors Material Office. He earned a master’s in human services counseling from Liberty University and a bachelor’s degree in operations management from Penn State University.

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