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AFWERX Xband Emitter Advances to Operational Use at Air Force
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AFWERX Xband Emitter Advances to Operational Use at Air Force

The AFWERX Xband Emitter, or AXE, has advanced from prototype to operational use. The innovation arm of the Department of the Air Force said in a LinkedIn post that AXE is supporting F-35 Lightning II pilot training. 

AFWERX Xband Emitter Development

AXE was born out of an annual innovation competition called Spark Tank at Luke Air Force Base in Arizona. It was originally called the Low-Cost Threat Emitter, or LCTE, designed to improve the accuracy of military training simulations. 

It won a Phase II Small Business Innovation Research contract for further development, but initially failed to meet technical and operational requirements for large-scale deployment. 

Ian Clowes, program manager for AFWERX, said his team worked with Spark Tank office leadership to continue developing the technology. They secured additional funding from an AFWERX division that provides resources to accelerate capability transitions. 

Enhancing Training

The 51st Fighter Wing at Osan Air Base in South Korea and the 86th Fighter Weapons Squadron at Hill Air Force Base in Utah have deployed the technology.

Tech. Sgt. Matthew Connelly of the 51st Fighter Wing, said he reviewed AXE and immediately saw the tool’s potential.

“Our primary mission here at Osan Air Base, through the flying hour program, focuses on the suppression and destruction of enemy air defenses,” he explained. “Seeing how our exercises play out, it was easy to recognize this as another effective tool we can use to enhance training.” 

Meanwhile, the 86th Fighter Weapons Squadron plans to use the system to replace conventional radars to enhance live-fire exercises.

Senate Confirms Former Army Captain Paul Lawrence as VA Dep Sec
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Senate Confirms Former Army Captain Paul Lawrence as VA Dep Sec

Senate has confirmed Paul Lawrence as deputy secretary at the Department of Veterans Affairs. Lawmakers on Thursday voted 51-45 in favor of Lawrence’s appointment, Senate.gov reported. 

He will serve alongside Doug Collins, who was confirmed for the role of VA under secretary in February. 

VA Second in Command

The recent vote marks Lawrence’s return to the VA, where he held the role of under secretary for benefits from 2018 to 2021 during President Donald Trump’s first term. He oversaw the delivery of disability compensation, pension, home loan guarantees, life insurance and other benefits available to veterans and their dependents. 

Before the VA, he led as vice president of public sector at Kaiser Associates. For over a year, he managed the consulting firm’s efforts to capture opportunities at the General Services Administration and Department of Agriculture. 

He also held leadership positions at Ernst & Young, Accenture, IBM and MITRE, but he spent the majority of his private sector career as a partner at PwC.

The VA official served in the Army as a captain in the 1980s. He graduated from Airborne School in Fort Benning in Georgia and received the Meritorious Service Medal.

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Army Picks 3 Vendors for Launched Effects-Short Range Tech Demo
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Army Picks 3 Vendors for Launched Effects-Short Range Tech Demo

The U.S. Army has tapped AEVEX Aerospace, Anduril Industries and RTX subsidiary Raytheon to provide their technologies for a special demonstration of the Launched Effects-Short Range, or LE-SR, system.

The service branch said Thursday AEVEX will bring its Atlas technology and Anduril will provide its Altius 600 multimission LE system for the demonstration.

The Army also selected Raytheon’s Coyote Block 3 LE variant for the demo. Raytheon said Wednesday it fired its Coyote LE SR variant from a helicopter during a recent test at Nine Mile Training Center. According to the company, the new Coyote variant can perform surveillance, reconnaissance and target acquisition; precision strike; electronic warfare; and communications.

What Is the LE-SR Demo’s Objective?

The LE-SR Special User Demonstration will enable infantry, field artillery and aviation soldiers to test the tactics, procedures and techniques for operating the LE-SR system.

“The LE-SR user demonstration is an important step forward in developing launched effects capabilities,” said Brig. Gen. David Phillips, program executive officer for aviation. “We are excited to work with our industry partners putting their systems in the hand of Soldiers to evaluate their performance and identify areas for improvement.”

Brig. Gen. Cain Baker, director of the service’s future vertical lift cross functional team, said direct feedback from warfighters “will inform not only continuous LE requirement refinement but also our future warfighting concepts and employment use cases.”

What Are Launched Effects?

Launched effects are a family of platforms consisting of an aerial vehicle, mission system applications, effects payload and related support equipment designed to deliver effects as a single LE or as part of a team through autonomous or semi-autonomous means.

The military expects the LE-SR system to serve as a lightweight, agile technology to deliver threat-focused capabilities.

Another LE-SR Initiative

Later in 2025, the Army will coordinate with the Aviation and Missile Technology Consortium to launch another initiative to prototype the integration of existing industry platforms for LE-SR capabilities, effects and sensors. 

According to the military branch, 12 companies have expressed interest in the new initiative.

President Trump Calls OSTP to Action to Revitalize US Innovation
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President Trump Calls OSTP to Action to Revitalize US Innovation

President Donald Trump has sent Office of Science and Technology Policy Director and past Wash100 Award winner Michael Kratsios a letter articulating the three goals that need to be achieved to bring about what the president described as “the Golden Age of American Innovation.”

Revitalizing US Innovation

The first goal is to ensure that the U.S. continues to be the global leader when it comes to emerging technologies like artificial intelligence and quantum information science, according to an article the White House published Thursday.

Part of this goal is for the U.S. to stay ahead of its competitors technologically. “Rival nations are pushing hard to overtake the United States, and we must blaze a bold path to maintain our technological supremacy,” Trump said in the letter.

The second goal is to revitalize the science and technology enterprise in the U.S. The president called for new paradigms in research and the establishment of an ecosystem that, among other things, promotes meritocracy and attracts top talent.

The third goal involves ensuring that scientific progress and technological innovation drive economic growth and improve the lives of people.

Cementing US Technological Leadership

Reflecting on U.S. industriousness following World War II and the challenges faced by the country today, Trump said in his letter that “today, rivals abroad seek to usurp America’s position as the world’s greatest maker of marvels and producer of knowledge. We must recapture the urgency which propelled us so far in the last century. The time has come to return to our roots and renew the American scientific enterprise for the century ahead.”

Regarding Kratsios’ role in the effort, Trump said, “I am calling upon you to blaze a trail to the next frontiers of science. We have the opportunity to cement America’s global technological leadership and usher in the Golden Age of American Innovation. We are not just competing with other nations; we are seeking, striving, fighting to make America greater than ever before.”

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DLA, VHA to Centralize Acquisition Process Via $3.6B Agreement
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DLA, VHA to Centralize Acquisition Process Via $3.6B Agreement

The Defense Logistics Agency and the Veterans Health Administration have signed a potential 10-year, $3.6 billion partnership agreement to centralize the acquisition process for goods and services between the two agencies.

How Will the Agreement Benefit DLA & VHA?

DLA said Thursday the interagency agreement aligns supply chain requirements and seeks to centralize logistical support to all VHA healthcare facilities across the U.S.

The agreement also intends to formalize a partnership documenting the general terms and conditions agreement.

“In the past, the VA had an expressed interest in using DLA Disposition Services for their disposal needs, requiring a single agreement with them,” said Hadiza Abdullah-Bello, DLA’s liaison to Veteran Affairs. “With this new agreement in place, VHA can now request goods and services from all our supply chains whenever the need arises.”

On March 12, Kristin French, DLA’s deputy director of logistics operations, and DLA Deputy Chief Financial Officer Shawn Lennon signed the Level 2 interagency agreement with Ronald Miller, VHA’s deputy assistant under secretary for health for support, at Fort Belvoir in Virginia.

“Signing the agreement will enable DLA to consolidate and minimize the number of agreements DLA has with a particular trading partner to meet Departments of Treasury and Defense policies and increase the efficiency of the end-to-end purchase request process within the G-Invoicing platform,” said April Weaver, one of DLA’s General Terms and Conditions Center of Excellence, or GT&C COE, team leads.

What Is G-Invoicing?

G-Invoicing is a platform mandated by the Department of the Treasury to enhance the quality of intragovernmental buying and selling data across the federal government.

“G-Invoicing enables the agencies to set up the agreements, standardize the data, improve policies and process gaps to ensure DLA receives a clean audit opinion,” said Maxwell Walens, the DLA Finance’s GT&C COE branch chief.

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Atlantic Council Calls for DOD to Advance Software-Defined Warfare
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Atlantic Council Calls for DOD to Advance Software-Defined Warfare

The Atlantic Council on Thursday released a report outlining nine recommendations on how the Department of Defense can advance the adoption of software-defined warfare to rapidly respond to emerging threats in a dynamic security environment.

The council said the recommendations are organized around technology, process and people pillars and propose actionable steps to modernize software development practices, establish a cohesive digital ecosystem, shape software investments and develop a skilled and sustainable workforce.

The first five recommendations outlined in the report are mandating an enterprise data repository and investing in artificial intelligence enablers; ensuring software interoperability and integration; modernizing test and evaluation infrastructure; enforcing commercial as the default approach for software; and transforming DOD software requirements.

The document also recommends that the department remove all restrictions on software funding; measure what matters for DOD software; enable software talent across the enterprise; and fully establish a DOD software cadre.

Mandating Enterprise Data & Investing in AI Enablers

To advance this initial recommendation, the report recommends that the deputy secretary of defense direct the Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office to monitor enterprise-wide progress and suggest actions to the deputy secretary and vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to expedite the adoption of data best practices across DOD.

DOD should resource CDAO to procure and sustain unified, shared platforms that advance the end-to-end development, governance and deployment of AI tools, the Council suggested. CDAO should also come up with a strategy to make the AI tools accessible to the end-user community to operationalize AI to address mission-critical problems.

The report calls for the department to support chief information officers at service branches to invest in AI enablers that are service- and domain-specific. CDAO and military branches should also maintain classified and unclassified datasets of highly relevant use cases that could be used by industry to demonstrate capability viability.

Embracing Software-Defined Warfare

According to the report, integrating advanced software upgrades to legacy platforms could enable DOD to realize efficiencies.

Software-defined capabilities could also help the Pentagon build the force of the future and deliver time and cost efficiencies to a range of operational and administrative processes.

Commission on Software-Defined Warfare

The Atlantic Council’s Commission on Software-Defined Warfare contributed to the report.

The commission was formed in December 2023 to help develop recommendations to improve the U.S. military’s production and integration of advanced software technologies.

The commission’s co-chairs are Mark Esper, former secretary of defense and a three-time Wash100 Award recipient; Christine Fox, former acting deputy secretary of defense and a previous Wash100 awardee; and Mung Chiang, president of Purdue University.

Join the Potomac Officers Club’s 2025 Digital Transformation Summit on April 24. Listen to experts as they discuss how emerging technologies and the latest tech advancements are reshaping government operations. Register now!

Atlantic Council Calls for DOD to Advance Software-Defined Warfare
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MDA Issues Multiple Authority Announcement for Advanced Missile Defense Tech
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MDA Issues Multiple Authority Announcement for Advanced Missile Defense Tech

The Missile Defense Agency has introduced its first Multiple Authority Announcement.

According to a notice posted on SAM.gov Thursday, MDA aims to utilize the MAA to offer a comprehensive acquisition strategy supporting a variety of technical efforts.

The MAA is a vehicle designed to enable the MDA and Department of Defense agencies to explore various forms of unconventional acquisition methods consolidated under a single announcement. This includes broad agency announcement, commercial solutions opening, cooperative research and development agreement, other transaction agreement and procurement for experimental purpose. This competitive approach is intended for the pursuit of disruptive technologies and rapid development and deployment of advanced capabilities from alternative sources.

Enhancing Missile Defense Against Advanced Threats

MDA is focused on the development and deployment of a multi-layered missile defense system to address emerging advanced missile threats, including unknown missiles and advanced warheads with unpredictable trajectories and other advanced features. The agency aims to develop technology more advanced than existing and future threats such as innovative sensors for early threat detection, kinetic, non-kinetic and directed energy systems for ballistic and non-ballistic missile interception, and efficient battle management and control and command systems for effective coordination.

Potential projects that can be solicited under the MAA include kinetic and hypersonic defense, command and control battle management, integrated non-kinetic and electronic warfare, disruptive technologies and systems, and international missile defense system cooperation. Other possible topic areas include space-based sensors, interceptors and effectors, digital revolution and radiation effects, and heavy ion, proton and pulsed neutron single event effects on electronic devices.

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FCC Opens Inquiry on PNT Technologies as GPS Alternative
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FCC Opens Inquiry on PNT Technologies as GPS Alternative

The Federal Communications Commission will assess commercial technologies providing position, navigation and timing, or PNT, data through an inquiry it launched Thursday. The notice of inquiry seeks to explore potential alternatives or methods complementary to the Global Positioning System used widely and vulnerable to adversarial disruption or manipulation, FCC said in its NOI launching statement.

Looking at PNT Approaches, Tradeoffs 

Through the notice, the commission will look into the various PNT technologies being developed by government entities and industry players using FCC-licensed spectrum, such as broadcasters and wireless operators. The NOI is also geared to solicit comments on emerging PNT technologies’ tradeoffs on such factors as geographic coverage, performance, adoption, commercialization and cost. 

The specific input that FCC wants from the inquiry includes comments on space-based approaches for PNT resiliency, such as medium Earth and low Earth orbit satellite systems. Comments on terrestrial methods for resilient PNT operation, like harnessing ground-based transmitters, is another point of interest in the commission’s inquiry.  

With the NOI’s input, FCC plans to establish a comprehensive lineup of possible measures for strengthening GPS and promoting PNT technologies. Its potential actions could include rule revisions and public–private partnerships, the commission said.

Government & Private Sector Collaboration 

Brendan Carr, FCC chairman, said the NOI’s emphasis is on systems complementary to GPS. “Beyond answering technical questions, we hope this effort will engage stakeholders across government and industry to encourage the development of new PNT technologies and solutions,” added the FCC head.

One PNT project that advanced recently to the manufacturing and deployment phase involves the U.S. Army’s Mounted Assured, Positioning, Navigation and Timing System Generation, with Collins Aerospace as the service branch’s partner vendor. In February, the Department of Homeland Security’s Science and Technology directorate also issued a guide on best approaches to PNT services for critical infrastructure. 

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Katherine Sutton Nominated for DOD Cyber Policy Role
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Katherine Sutton Nominated for DOD Cyber Policy Role

President Donald Trump has nominated Katherine Sutton, a cyber policy and technology expert, to serve as assistant secretary of defense for cyber policy.

Congress received Sutton’s nomination for the Department of Defense position on Monday and referred it to the Senate Armed Services Committee.

If confirmed, Sutton would oversee DOD’s policy for cyber operations and concurrently serve as principal cyber adviser to the secretary of defense.

Katherine Sutton’s Career Background

Sutton has been serving as chief technology adviser to the commander and director of Pentagon operations at U.S. Cyber Command since 2023. In this capacity, she advises the commander on the development of engineering policies and strategies to execute the command’s authorities for acquisition, workforce management, service-like functions and enhanced budget control.

She has over two decades of experience in cyber policy, technology development and legislative oversight.

Before joining USCYBERCOM, the national security official served as a professional staff member on the Senate and House Armed Services Committees.

Sutton spent 15 years at Sandia National Laboratories, where she served as a research and development cybersecurity manager, Congressional Fellow to HASC’s Emerging Threats and Capabilities Subcommittee and nuclear nonproliferation R&D technical adviser at the National Nuclear Security Administration.

The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign graduate holds a master’s degree in electrical engineering from Stanford University.

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James Schmidt Named 7th JMU President
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James Schmidt Named 7th JMU President

James Schmidt, a seasoned educator, has been selected as the new president of James Madison University.

The university said Wednesday Schmidt was appointed by the JMU Board of Visitors as the seventh president in the school’s history. He will start his tenure on July 1.

Who Is James Schmidt?

Schmidt has been part of academia for over three decades. He is the current chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, a role he has held for nearly 12 years. The higher education administrator played a crucial role in the university’s achievement of a top-10 ranking in the U.S. News & World Report’s list of best regional public universities in the midwest. In 2016, UW-Eau Claire was selected as the top master’s university for excellence in undergraduate research by the Council for Undergraduate Research. It is also the only master’s university in Wisconsin to be included in the nation’s top 20 institutions for student involvement in study abroad programs. Furthermore, the school has distinguished itself by producing two Rhodes scholars since 2005 and the most Fullbright students among all master’s level universities in Wisconsin and Minnesota.

Before joining UW-Eau Claire, Schmidt was with Winona State University for over 15 years. He served as vice president for university advancement at the university. He spent over 11 years at the Riverland Community College where he was the VP for student affairs. The academic leader serves as chair of the board of directors at WNB Financial N.A.

“I take great pride in this institution and will do everything I can to support the board and our new president during this transition,” said Charlie King, interim president of JMU.

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