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U.S. Completes Troop Withdrawal From Afghanistan; Antony Blinken Quoted
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U.S. Completes Troop Withdrawal From Afghanistan; Antony Blinken Quoted

Five U.S. C-17 military transport planes departed Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan late Monday, marking the completion of U.S. troop withdrawal and evacuation operations and the end of a 20-year war in the country, The New York Times reported.

As part of the evacuation, approximately 123,000 individuals have been airlifted out of Afghanistan in the last two months, including about 6,000 U.S. citizens.

Taliban forces and their supporters celebrated their victory by firing tracer rounds early Tuesday after the U.S. completed the withdrawal of its troops from Afghanistan.

Secretary of State and 2021 Wash100 Award winner Antony Blinken unveiled in a speech Monday a plan to use diplomacy as the country works to evacuate the remaining citizens and Afghan allies.

“A new chapter of America’s engagement with Afghanistan has begun,” said Blinken. “It’s one in which we will lead with our diplomacy. The military mission is over. A new diplomatic mission has begun."

The plan includes using the post in Doha, Qatar, to manage diplomacy with Afghanistan, continuing efforts to help U.S. citizens, Afghans and foreign nationals leave Afghanistan, staying focused on counterterrorism and continuing humanitarian assistance to the Afghan people.

The Times reported that there are fewer than 300 Americans who remain in Afghanistan. Blinken reiterated the State Department’s commitment to helping Americans evacuate should they decide to leave Afghanistan.

“Additionally, we’ve worked intensely to evacuate and relocate Afghans who worked alongside us and are at particular risk of reprisal,” he said. “We’ve gotten many out, but many are still there. We will keep working to help them. Our commitment to them has no deadline."

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Leidos Invests in Facility Construction of Alabama School of Cyber Technology and Engineering
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Leidos Invests in Facility Construction of Alabama School of Cyber Technology and Engineering

Leidos has made a $1 million donation to support the construction of an academic and residential facility in Huntsville, Alabama, in an effort to help the Alabama School of Cyber Technology and Engineering (ASCTE) pursue advancements in technology.

The investment is also meant to underscore the company's commitment to the state students' science, technology, engineering and mathematics education, Leidos said Monday.

"This donation is our commitment to the future," said Roger Krone, chairman and CEO of Leidos and a previous Wash100 Award recipient. "It also addresses the ongoing need for a 21st century workforce of skilled science and engineering professionals."

According to the company, ASCTE is the only U.S. public high school whose academic disciplines were integrated with cyber technology and engineering. Its active promotion of STEM education for a diverse student population is also noted.

"Support from Leidos and other industry partners helps us provide a robust program to educate future industry professionals and leaders," commented Matt Massey, president of ASCTE.

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White House Cites Climate Change, Emerging Tech as R&D Priorities for FY23 Budget
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White House Cites Climate Change, Emerging Tech as R&D Priorities for FY23 Budget

The White House has issued a memorandum outlining the administration’s research and development priorities that federal agencies should include in their budget proposals for fiscal year 2023, Government Executive reported Monday.

The multiagency R&D priorities listed in the memo are pandemic readiness and prevention; tackling climate change; research and innovation in emerging and critical technologies; innovation for equity; and national security and economic resilience.

For addressing climate change, priorities are climate science, innovation in clean energy technologies and infrastructure, climate adaptation and resilience, monitoring and measurement and nature-based climate solutions for mitigation and adaptation.

The document also calls on agencies to collaborate to advance public-private partnerships and foster research and innovation in support of U.S. industries and jobs in the areas of artificial intelligence, quantum information science, microelectronics, advanced communications technologies, robotics, high-performance computing, biotechnology and space technologies.

“Agencies should coordinate to leverage these technologies to ensure the sharing and use of the vast troves of Federal Government datasets to enable large-scale data analysis, and high-fidelity, high-resolution modeling and simulation to address critical challenges in public health, climate science, and disaster resilience,” the document reads.

Shalanda Young, acting director of the Office of Management and Budget, and Eric Lander, director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, issued the memo to executive departments and agencies Friday.

POC - Bolstering Climate Resilience for National Security

If you're interested to know about the national security implications of climate change and how data analytics can inform agencies’ climate adaptation strategies, then check out the Potomac Officers Club's Bolstering Climate Resilience for National Security Forum coming up on Sept. 14.

To register for this forum and view other upcoming GovCon events, visit the POC Events page.

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Lt. Col. Kristin Saling: Army Employs AI, Automation in Talent Management Efforts
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Lt. Col. Kristin Saling: Army Employs AI, Automation in Talent Management Efforts

Lt. Col. Kristin Saling, chief analytics officer and acting director of the Army People Analytics, said the service uses artificial intelligence in a number of ways and one is using natural language processing and optical character recognition to process large volumes of paper documents to collect data and further develop algorithms.

She told Forbes in an interview published Saturday how the Army uses AI to support its talent management efforts.

“We’re also reading in and batching tons of occupational survey information to develop robust job competency models we can use to make recommendations in our marketplace,” Saling said. “On the other end, we’re leveraging machine learning models to predict attrition and performance for targeted retention incentives.”

Saling discussed how the Army uses robotic process automation in talent management and personnel processes and how it works to identify problem areas through process and data mapping before kicking off cognitive technology and automation projects.

She cited the “availability of good data” as one of the challenges when it comes to advancing AI and machine learning in the public sector.

Saling also talked about the Studies to Assess Readiness and Resilience in Service members or the STARRS program and the AI Scholars education initiative established by the Army AI Integration Center.

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Air Force Squadron Undergoes Rescue Training for Commercial Spaceflight Missions
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Air Force Squadron Undergoes Rescue Training for Commercial Spaceflight Missions

The U.S. Air Force conducted a five-day training of 38th Rescue Squadron members to prepare them for potential urgent response operations in support of Boeing and SpaceX missions under NASA's Commercial Crew Program.

The 38th RSQ Blue Team learned how to land in the ocean with water gear and familiarize themselves with different boat packages that will carry materials necessary to perform emergency response work if astronauts need to be extracted from space capsules in the Atlantic or the Pacific Ocean, USAF said Monday.

Crewed space vehicles are designed to separate from rockets if a malfunction transpired after liftoff, and the goal of the squadron is to act as the on-site rescue team for the astronauts in the event of a launch failure.

USAF noted that routinary exercises will help increase the crew men's proficiency level and consequently give security to spacecraft crew members as they perform off-the-coast launches.

SpaceX aims to launch the company's third crewed operational flight of its Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station on Oct. 31st.

Boeing postponed a second uncrewed flight demonstration that was scheduled for Aug. 3rd in order to fix issues with its Starliner spacecraft's propulsion system.

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Johns Hopkins APL Receives Task Order to Support Space Systems Command Program
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Johns Hopkins APL Receives Task Order to Support Space Systems Command Program

The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (JHU APL) will help Space Systems Command understand space, air and surface domain events under a $26.75 million task order.

APL's program technical direction agents will perform work for the command at Los Angeles Air Force Base and explore approaches to safeguard U.S. space systems, the Department of Defense said Monday.

The task order is part of an indefinite-quantity/indefinite-delivery contract the Space and Missile Systems Center awarded in 2018. The original sole-source IDIQ award had a $93 million ceiling and covers systems engineering, specialized research and development and technical support services.

In December 2020, the center raised the potential value of APL's contract to $486 million through the award of a bilateral modification.

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US, South Korea Formalize Space Security Partnership
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US, South Korea Formalize Space Security Partnership

The U.S. Space Force entered into a memorandum of agreement with the South Korean air force to strengthen the two countries’ space security cooperation and create a joint space policy consultative body, SpaceNews reported Monday. 

Gen. Park In-ho, chief of staff for South Korea's air force, and Gen. John “Jay” Raymond, USSF's chief of space operations and a 2021 Wash100 Award recipient, signed the agreement at a bilateral meeting that took place Friday at Peterson AF Base in Colorado.

Under the MOA, the two agencies established a foundation to further improve military cooperation in space policy, space data sharing and technological support.

Park also met with Gen. James Dickinson, commander of the U.S. Space Command, to discuss missile defense and space capabilities and space surveillance data sharing for the expansion of bilateral space domain recognition.

The South Korean defense acquisition program administration released a roadmap on Aug. 19 indicating the country's plan invest $13.6 billion in space defense efforts.

This comes after the United States terminated in May the 42-year-old restriction imposed on South Korea to develop ballistic missiles that can go beyond the reaching targets at the Korean Peninsula.

US, South Korea Formalize Space Security Partnership

GovCon Wire, sister site of ExecutiveGov, will host a virtual event on Sept. 14 about acquisition reform and modernization initiatives in the space domain. Visit the GCW Events page to register for the Space Acquisition Forum.

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John Porcari Named Port Envoy to White House’s Supply Chain Disruptions Task Force
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John Porcari Named Port Envoy to White House’s Supply Chain Disruptions Task Force

John Porcari, former deputy secretary and chief operating officer at the U.S. Department of Transportation, has been appointed as port envoy to a task force formed by the White House to help the government address domestic supply chain challenges to economic recovery.

He will be part of the Supply Chain Disruptions Task Force and will coordinate with stakeholders to tackle shipping backlogs caused by congestion at U.S. ports, DOT said Friday.

Porcari worked at DOT from 2009 to 2013 after his prior role as secretary of Maryland's Transportation Department. His private sector career included leadership roles at WSP USA, Axilion and 3P Enterprises.

The White House formed the task force group in June to address demand-supply mismatch in different sectors such as construction, semiconductor, transportation and agricultural industries.

DOT leaders and trade organizations have engaged in discussions to identify possible strategies for addressing cargo movement challenges and bolstering data-sharing efforts.

The Federal Railroad Administration pledged $362 million for congestion reduction projects via the Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements Grant Program.

Additionally, the Biden administration aims to raise as much as $17 billion for port infrastructure modernization work.

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Federal Acquisition Security Council Issues Final Rule on Supply Chain Risk Info Sharing
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Federal Acquisition Security Council Issues Final Rule on Supply Chain Risk Info Sharing

The Federal Acquisition Security Council (FASC) has released a final rule to facilitate the sharing of information on supply chain risks and exercise its authority to recommend issuance of orders requiring the removal of IT products and services from executive agency information systems or exclusion of covered articles from future procurements.

FASC in an interagency council that was formed in compliance with the Federal Acquisition Supply Chain Security Act of 2018 to help address vulnerabilities in information and communications technology and services supply chains, according to a Federal Register notice posted Thursday.

The council is chaired by a senior-level Office of Management and Budget (OMB) official and consists of representatives from the General Services Administration, Office of the Director of National Intelligence and departments of Homeland Security, Justice, Defense and Commerce.

DHS, acting through the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), will serve as the council’s information-sharing agency, which will standardize processes for submitting and distributing supply chain data and facilitate the operations of a supply chain risk management task force.

The rule also outlines processes how federal and nonfederal entities can submit supply chain risk data to the FASC and how the ISA can facilitate information sharing in support of supply chain risk analyses.

The final rule is set to take effect Sept. 27th.

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Noblis MSD Awarded $72M IDIQ Navy Contract to Enhance the Operability of Naval Surface Ships; Glenn Hickok Quoted
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Noblis MSD Awarded $72M IDIQ Navy Contract to Enhance the Operability of Naval Surface Ships; Glenn Hickok Quoted

Noblis MSD, a subsidiary of Noblis, has been awarded a potential five-year, $72 million indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity (IDIQ), multi-award contract from the Naval Surface Warfare Center Philadelphia Division to enhance the operability of naval surface ships through system modernization and sustainment.

"The Noblis MSD team has a long-standing relationship with the Navy and unique experience with this program," said Glenn Hickok, president of Noblis MSD. "We look forward to building on this experience to help the Navy achieve critical modernization and security goals."

Under the NSWC IDIQ contract, Noblis MSD will compete for task orders to deliver engineering, logistics, cyber security and waterfront training to help enhance ship operability. This work will be performed in Philadelphia and at various Naval ports.

As a system developer through lifecycle maintenance, Noblis MSD provides engineering, enterprise transformation and program management, to help clients design solutions for operations and maintenance.

"I'm especially excited about this contract," said Eric Schneider, director, Navy Strategy, Noblis MSD. "It's an opportunity to fully combine Noblis MSD's deep mission and system knowledge with Noblis' world-class Cyber, Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence solutions to further advance this mission."

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