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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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Barry Tanner on Navy’s Cattle Drive Initiative
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Barry Tanner on Navy’s Cattle Drive Initiative

Barry Tanner, deputy chief information officer at the Department of the Navy, said DON’s Cattle Drive initiative is currently focused on the business mission area with plans to eliminate 55 to 60 legacy business systems over the next year, Federal News Network reported Friday.

Operation Cattle Drive

Launched in 2020, Operation Cattle Drive seeks to help the Navy modernize its IT systems by eliminating redundant applications and platforms and reinvesting the achieved cost savings into modern IT capabilities.

“There a lot of legacy systems that are being consolidated into larger platforms, and so we continue to partner very closely with the financial management and controller team on making sure that the enterprise resourcing planning (ERP) and some of these other larger platforms are bringing more capabilities and functions into those so we can sunset the old ones,” Tanner said during an interview on FNN’s Ask the CIO.

“Those systems support a lot of things that we care about, not just turning off the old thing, but also eliminating vulnerabilities,” he added.

Ongoing Communication With PEOs

To remove barriers to IT modernization, Tanner stressed the importance of promoting communication with program executive officers as a key part of cultural change.

“The new thing that we’re doing, what is it replacing? What is this intended to replace? How have you engaged with the people who are your customers to help them understand how their life will change when you do this?” the deputy CIO said.

“There are plenty of examples of that across the board, but if we don’t get after that part, then this idea of Cattle Drive and this idea of divest to invest and all this other stuff like that gets 10 times harder,” he added.

Catch Tanner at the Potomac Officers Club’s 2025 Digital Transformation Summit and hear his insights on how edge technologies and other innovations are transforming military operations. Register now!

POC - 2025 Digital Transformation Summit
HHS Revamp Trims Workforce, Centralizes Functions
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HHS Revamp Trims Workforce, Centralizes Functions

The Department of Health and Human Services is reducing its workforce and centralizing several functions in a major revamp following the White House executive order, “Implementing the President’s ‘Department of Government Efficiency’ Workforce Optimization Initiative.” HHS Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. said in the department’s statement on the organizational revamp that the move not only reduces “bureaucratic sprawl” but also realigns HHS with its core mission and new priorities. “This department will do more – a lot more – at a lower cost to the taxpayer,” Kennedy remarked.

$1.8B Projected Annual Savings

The HHS reorganization will entail a reduction of approximately 10,000 employees, downsizing the organization’s workforce to about a 62,000 manpower complement and reducing its payroll by $1.8 billion annually. Centralization of IT employees is also one of the focus areas of the revamp of the department.

Its restructuring will create the Administration for Health America, combining the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health, Health Resources and Services Administration, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, and National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.

Overall, the HHS will streamline its functions by consolidating 28 divisions into 15 new divisions and reducing regional offices from 10 to 5. To prevent misuse of federal health programs, a new assistant secretary for enforcement will be created to manage the Departmental Appeals Board, Office of Medicare Hearings and Appeals, and Office for Civil Rights.

New Strategy Office to Enhance Research 

An Office of Strategy will also be formed, merging the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation with the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, to enhance research input for the HHS secretary’s policies and baseline data to improve federal health programs’ effectiveness. 

In addition, the department’s Administration for Community Living will be reorganized, reassigning its support programs for seniors and people with disabilities to other agencies, including the Administration for Children and Families and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Medicare and Medicaid services, major programs that HHS initiated in 1969 after it became a standalone department in 1979, will not be affected by the reorganization.

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Chris Wright Reforms DOE Permitting Rules for National Labs
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Chris Wright Reforms DOE Permitting Rules for National Labs

Energy Secretary Chris Wright has announced several reforms to address burdensome permitting rules and regulations for construction projects at the Department of Energy’s 17 national laboratories as part of efforts to accelerate critical infrastructure improvement initiatives at those labs.

“Unfortunately, over the years, burdensome regulations delayed the important work being done at our National Labs. Currently, many of our nation’s most critical weapons development sites rely on aging facilities, some even dating back to the Manhattan Project,” Wright said in a statement published Thursday.

“By reforming DOE’s permitting rules and regulations for our National Labs, we can speed up critical infrastructure improvements and make the Energy Department a better steward of taxpayer dollars,” he added.

Actions for Immediate Implementation

Wright has directed the department to amend delegated project authority within DOE Order 413.3B from $50 million to $300 million specific to the national labs run via management and operating contracts.

Other required actions are expanding the use of the National Nuclear Security Administration’s “OSHA-Plus” framework for subcontracted construction projects at national labs and evaluating the benefits and risks of removing construction labor agreement provisions from national lab contracts.

The secretarial order requires the revision of national lab contract clauses on Employee Compensation: Pay and Benefits to remove requirements that are not mandated by regulation or are not needed to track the department’s financial liabilities related to defined benefit plans.

Establishment of a Working Group

Wright is also directing the director of the Laboratory Operations Board to create a working group to help identify opportunities to streamline and establish new timelines and procedures to ensure greater accountability and efficiency for strategic partnership projects and cooperative research and development agreements.

Proposed improvements and initiatives to streamline processes should be submitted to the Office of the Secretary within 30 days.

The board will coordinate the necessary actions outlined in the order and monitor the implementation of such measures.

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SDA Seeks Executive Summaries for PWSA, BMC3 Ground Segments
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SDA Seeks Executive Summaries for PWSA, BMC3 Ground Segments

The Space Development Agency has issued a notice requesting executive summaries supporting 180-day studies aimed at advancing the existing Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture ground segment and the Battle Management, Command, Control and Communications Application Factory, or BMC3 AppFac.

Details of SDA’s Notice

The SDA said it is seeking industry input, through the special notice posted Jan. 15 and updated Thursday, on possible technical approaches or methods, including novel architecture concepts, technologies and capabilities, aimed at transitioning and expanding the PWSA ground and BMC3 segments utilizing design principles from the modular open systems approach, or MOSA.

The GS framework and AppFac transition initiatives are intended to progress simultaneously with the deployment of the PWSA’s Tranche 3. This notice is part of the SDA Systems, Technologies and Emerging Capabilities broad agency announcement, or SDA STEC BAA.

Interested contractors can submit their responses by April 14.

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