The latest variant of the U.S. Army’s UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter has secured certification to fly in national airspace at any time of the day and under instrumented meteorological conditions, Defense News reported Tuesday.

Brig. Gen. Robert Barrie, the program executive officer for Army aviation, said the Instrument Flight Rules certification clears the way for the service to conduct the second initial operational test for the UH-60 Victor-model aircraft in July.

A unit of the Army National Guard received the first UH-60V Black Hawk from the Utility Helicopter Program Office in July 2021 nearly two years after the variant underwent its first initial operational test and evaluation at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state.

The Army decided to hold a second test in 2020 but was pushed back due to software and reliability fixes and delays in the IFR certification process.

The UH-60V helicopter replaces the Army’s legacy Black Hawk L-model helicopter fleet and includes a digital cockpit designed by Northrop Grumman.

The Department of Labor has released a new directive to promote enforcement and improve compliance evaluations of federal contractors as part of efforts to advance equal employment opportunity for workers.

The directive outlines the office of federal contract compliance programs’ updated policies with regard to its scheduling of contractors for compliance assessments, DOL said Thursday.

The document replaces and rescinds four previous directives and describes expectations concerning the production of affirmative action programs and data, which the OFCCP uses to evaluate the employment practices of a federal contractor.

“The directive we issued today will enhance our ability to use strategic enforcement to help more workers,” said OFCCP Director Jenny Yang. 

“By providing transparency and clarity on OFCCP’s policies and expectations, the directive will foster consistent accountability and avoid delay in compliance evaluations. It will also promote a proactive approach to compliance by federal contractors,” added Yang. 

The directive also makes clarification when it comes to contractors certifying their compliance with annual affirmative action program obligations through the Contractor Portal and outlines the agency’s expectations regarding access to workers, applicants and other witnesses and submission of other compliance evaluation-related data by contractors.

The Small Business Administration has moved to increase the eligibility of small companies for SBA’s contracting and loan programs by releasing four final rules meant to revise small business size standards based on revenues in 16 North American Industrial Classification System sectors.

SBA said Tuesday it decided to increase 229 size standards across 16 industrial sectors after analyzing over 1,100 public comments during the review process for the four rules.

“SBA continues to evolve its approach on size standards to ensure that we create access to contracting and loan opportunities for as many small businesses as possible,” said Bibi Hidalgo, associate administrator for government contracting and business development at SBA.

“The publication of these final rules will make 59,000 additional firms eligible for millions of dollars in revenue and business expansion opportunities across a wide range of sectors. This expansion is equally important for contracting agencies, as a diverse industrial base helps ensure a healthy supply chain and, in turn, supports our nation’s broader economic health,” added Hidalgo.

SBA said it expects the final rules to provide 844 newly qualified small firms with contracting opportunities worth approximately $1 billion and extend 96 7(a) and 504 loans valued at nearly $45 million to such companies.

The agency issued the final rules as part of its second five-year evaluation of size standards in compliance with the Small Business Jobs Act of 2010. SBA also intends to issue in the coming months additional rulemakings on size standards in wholesale trade, manufacturing and retail trade.