Frank Kendall, secretary of the Air Force and a three-time Wash100 Award winner, said there are seven operational imperatives for the service branch to modernize to counter emerging threats and challenges and one of those is the need to achieve operationally optimized Advanced Battle Management System and Joint All-Domain Command and Control, the Air Force said Thursday.

“This imperative is the Department of the Air Force component of Joint All Domain Command and Control. It is intended to better define and focus DAF efforts to improve how we collect, analyze, and share information and make operational decisions more effectively than our potential adversaries,” Kendall said Thursday at a symposium.

He stressed that this imperative requires discipline and that the Air Force should focus on investing in improvements “with measurable value and operational impact.”

The other six imperatives Kendall discussed at the event are defining resilient and effective space order of battle and architectures; achieving moving target engagement at scale in a challenging operational environment; defining the B-21 Long Range Strike family-of-systems; defining the Next Generation Air Dominance system-of-systems; defining optimized resilient basing, sustainment and communications in a contested environment; readiness of the Department of the Air Force to transition to a wartime posture against a peer competitor.

Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Brown and Chief of Space Operations Gen. John “Jay” Raymond, participated in a fireside chat Tuesday and noted that while the Air Force and Space Force are two independent services, these branches have similar objectives.

“We are so intertwined; we are dependent on each other not just from a base operating support construct, but also operationally. We could not do what we do as joint force without the Air Force and the Space Force,” Brown said.

Raymond, a 2022 Wash100 Award winner, discussed the Space Force’s partnership with the Air Force and shared his views on continuing resolutions. He also noted that space has transitioned into a warfighting domain.

“Our adversaries now have the advantages [in space] we’ve always enjoyed. It’s a different domain that required a different approach,” he said.

The U.S. Navy is planning to demonstrate a new mine countermeasure sensor payload built by BAE Systems for its intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and targeting unmanned helicopters in spring

The Naval Air Systems Command said Wednesday the Single System Multi-Mission Airborne Mine Detection payload will look for mines in shallow and deep water onboard the MQ-8C Fire Scout aircraft in Panama City, Florida.

SMAMD, MQ-8C’s first mine countermeasure system and its heaviest payload, will provide servicemen the capability to scan for mines and obstacles on land and at sea and analyze visual information onboard an aircraft in real time.

Capt. Thomas Lansley, the Navy’s Fire Scout program director, pointed out that a mine warfare technology would help reduce risks for vessels traversing in littoral waters.

Results of the demonstration will validate the ability of the MQ-8C to operate a podded MCM system without any impact on its performance.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology is investing a total of almost $54 million in 13 research and development projects focused on how manufacturing can support pandemic response. 

These projects run at eight manufacturing innovation institutes in the Manufacturing USA network, with the cooperation of over 80 partners including small and large businesses, nonprofits and universities, NIST said Monday. The American Rescue Act provided the funds for these grants.

Tackled topics include disposable photonics-based point-of-care sensors, a decision framework for robotics and automation, a domestic supply chain for vaccine manufacturing and the scaling of advanced respirator production.

Manufacturing USA consists of public-private partnerships specializing in advanced manufacturing applications, such as robotics, chip production and additive manufacturing.

Grant recipients under NIST’s new investment include the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, BioMADE, North Carolina State University and Advanced Functional Fabrics of America.

“Rebuilding our manufacturing economy is an essential component to strengthening our communities and creating opportunity for all Americans,” said Gina Raimondo, the secretary of commerce.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has introduced a program with the goal of developing technology to help clinicians assess the behavioral and mental health of active-duty service members and veterans through preconscious thinking activity.

DARPA said Wednesday it intends for the Neural Evidence Aggregation Tool to augment current military health screening methods that use questions that a soldier could answer with filtered responses from their conscious mind.

The agency is scheduled to host a virtual event on March 15 to brief potential proposers on the NEAT program and expects to post a broad agency announcement on the SAM website in the coming weeks.

“Using the preconscious will hopefully enable us to detect signs of depression, anxiety, or suicidal ideation earlier and more reliably than ever before,” said Greg Witkop, a program manager at DARPA’s Defense Sciences Office.

“If successful, NEAT will not only significantly augment behavioral health screening, but it could also serve as a new way to assess ultimate treatment efficacy, since patients will often tell their clinicians what they think the clinician wants to hear rather than how they are truly feeling.”

The program covers a proof of concept phase that will run for 24 months and an operational setting phase that will last for 18 months.

DARPA plans to appoint an independent group to advise both agency personnel and contractors on ethical, legal and societal matters in connection with the cognitive science tool development effort.

The agency hopes to attract professional teams in the cognitive science, bioengineering, and machine learning disciplines to work in the program’s research and development and validation and verification areas.