The Government Accountability Office has recommended that the Department of Defense establish processes and systems to ensure that missile defense system development programs align with the military’s operational requirements.

GAO said in a new report published Wednesday the Pentagon made modifications to the Missile Defense Agency’s acquisition flexibilities and transferred to the undersecretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment the authority to approve major MDA programs.

The changes are consistent with the acquisition best practices identified by GAO and comply with the actions it recommended that DOD take to improve missile weapons procurement. However, GAO found gaps in the process of matching the new systems’ capabilities with the end users’ requirements.

“DOD continues to rely on MDA to identify its own operational-level requirements, which could result in MDA later having to make costly, time-consuming design changes to meet warfighter needs,” GAO said in the report.

Among its recommendations is the establishment of a process at U.S. Strategic Command to record and validate operational-level warfighter needs in an initial requirements document.

The Air Force Research Laboratory and the University of New Mexico will collaborate on a congressionally funded project to establish a research center that will focus on exploring fiber lasers and other high-power technology.

AFRL said the partnership expects the future Directed Energy Center at UNM’s Science and Technology Park to commence operations by 2025.

“One of the important aspects of using DE weapons systems is that they are much less costly than traditional kinetic systems and result in less collateral damage,” said Kelly Hammett, director of AFRL’s directed energy directorate.

Edl Schamiloglu, professor in the university’s electrical and computer engineering department, will assume leadership of the center and his fellow professor Ganesh Balakrishnan will become the hub’s associate director.

Both academic professionals serve as principal investigators on a four-year, $2.4 million cooperative agreement between AFRL and UNM.

Michael Brown, director of the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU), said he believes the Department of Defense should reform its system of procurement to address the “DOD valley of death” between developing a prototype and deploying a program of record, the Washington Business Journal reported Wednesday.

He said DOD should change how it identifies systems for procurement through contract requirements, how it buys systems through its acquisition process and how it budgets for acquisition programs.

“The DOD-unique valley of death is when we bring a company through a successful prototype, and when they are ready to scale, the Department says, ‘Wait, I haven’t budgeted for that yet,'” Brown said at an event Tuesday.

“So that process, the two-and-a-half years of budgeting, really needs to be condensed and we need some flexibility around the edges so that successful technology can scale more quickly,” he added.

Brown is scheduled to speak at the Potomac Officers Club’s 8th Annual Defense and Research Summit on Jan. 19th. Click here to register for the event to hear from government and industry leaders as they discuss DOD’s innovation priorities, tech advancements and strategies to improve its defense capabilities and maintain its competitive edge.

A cross-industry alliance of semiconductor companies led by Mitre’s technology foundation has published a white paper outlining recommendations for the creation of a National Semiconductor Technology Center. 

Mitre Engenuity said Wednesday members of The Semiconductor Alliance worked together on the document, titled “American Innovation, American Growth: A Vision for the National Semiconductor Technology Center,” to call for the development of a resilient supply chain and facilitate innovation across the U.S. semiconductor ecosystem.

The white paper outlines principles for creating and governing an NSTC, proposes a plan on how the center can create value to the local semiconductor industry and provides a guideline for measuring impact and success.

Laurie Giandomenico, chief acceleration officer at Mitre and head of Mitre Engenuity, said a nationwide action is needed to address competition from international semiconductor manufacturers.

“It is not enough to lead the design of new chips, we must create incentives, stimulate investment, build the workforce, and lead technology advancements across the whole value chain,” Giandomenico.

Established in June, The Semiconductor Alliance seeks to design an implementation plan for government investments in semiconductor research and development allocated by the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act.