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DARPA Invites Small Businesses to Join Colorado ‘Spark Tank’ Event
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DARPA Invites Small Businesses to Join Colorado ‘Spark Tank’ Event

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is calling on small businesses, startups and other interested parties to participate in the Microsystems Technology Office Spark Tank, which will be held on July 24 and 25 in Aurora, Colorado.

The event provides an opportunity for organizations working on transformative advances in microsystems to engage with MTO leadership and program managers, DARPA said Tuesday.

Briefing Industry on DARPA’s Mission Priorities

MTO Spark Tank will provide insights into the office’s mission priorities, such as developing dual-use design technologies to bolster national security and disrupting current ecosystems by using differentiated microsystem manufacturing tools and strategies. It will also host one-on-one meetings with MTO program managers to explore research alignment and collaboration opportunities. In addition, the event will make it easier for first-time proposers to work with DARPA.

According to MTO Director Whitney Mason, the government will engage with new and non-traditional performers through the upcoming event and advance ideas that could “transform our microsystem-powered world.” She added that MTO Spark will serve as a venue “for fresh perspectives and groundbreaking concepts.”

Potential Funding for Short-Term Exploratory Projects

During the event, MTO will allow select participants to propose their concepts directly to program managers for potential funding of up to $400,000 for short-term exploratory efforts. The initiative intends to accelerate the evolution of innovative ideas into future DARPA programs.

For the project, MTO seeks revolutionary ideas that align with its core technical interests, such as unconventional computing to improve processing capabilities and developing electronic microsystems that integrate biological principles for superior sensing and computation capabilities.

Registration for MTO Spark Tank will commence on April 10 and will run until June 30.

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Bipartisan Congressional Group Introduces Bill to Protect Nuclear Assets
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Bipartisan Congressional Group Introduces Bill to Protect Nuclear Assets

A bipartisan group composed of U.S. Representatives Susie Lee, D-NV, Mark Amodei, R-NV, Seth Moulton, D-MA, and Chuck Fleischmann, R-TN, has introduced bicameral legislation aimed at strengthening the security of nuclear assets and facilities.

Congresswoman Lee said Tuesday the Nuclear Ecosystem Drone Defense, or NEDD, Act is intended to enhance the protection of the National Nuclear Security Administration and other nuclear assets and facilities under the Department of Energy against unmanned aerial systems.

Core Provisions of the NEDD Act

The bipartisan legislation aims to address the current lack of security measures for nuclear facilities against drones. It is meant to empower DOE to develop and deploy systems capable of defending the assets and facilities from drones. The NEDD Act would also authorize the department to safeguard a wider array of nuclear assets, including facilities and vehicles used for nuclear weapons. Furthermore, it enables the DOE to procure advanced UAS technology for enhancing counter-UAS systems.

“Unauthorized drones pose a serious threat to America’s nuclear resources related to national security, including at the Nevada National Security Site where we maintain America’s nuclear weapons ecosystem,” said Lee. “Our bipartisan NEDD Act bill will give the Department of Energy the tools it needs to defend all its nuclear and national security assets from unauthorized enemy drones,” she added.

“At present, the Department of Energy lacks the authority to intercept these drones and investigate their origins and intentions, allowing them to freely gather sensitive data for malign purposes,” said Amodei. “This bill empowers us to counter these threats in real-time and ensure they are not equipped to undermine our national security,” he added.

“As Chairman of Energy and Water Appropriations and Co-Chair of the Nuclear Security Working Group, it is my priority to ensure that our entire nuclear enterprise is protected throughout all stages of production,” said Fleischmann.

“Our adversaries should not be able to fly a drone over anywhere in this country that makes part of a nuclear weapon,” remarked Moulton.

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NOAA Seeks Info on Commercial Space Environmental Data
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NOAA Seeks Info on Commercial Space Environmental Data

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has started soliciting industry input on commercial satellite environmental data and related observational capabilities that are currently or planned to be launched into orbit from fiscal year 2026 through FY 2032.

According to a notice published Friday, NOAA’s National Environmental Satellite, Data and Information Service, or NESDIS, will accept comments and questions regarding the request for information through March 27.

Capability statements are due April 15.

According to NOAA, NESDIS will use the RFI responses to inform the commercial data program of industry capabilities for commercial weather data pilot projects, operational data purchases and other applications in the space and terrestrial weather areas.

Scope of Requested Information

According to the RFI, NOAA intends to reinforce current capabilities with commercially provided space-based data. It is interested in product areas listed in the NESDIS Level Requirements document, such as atmospheric temperature, tropical cyclone characteristics, fires, ionosphere and magnetosphere.

The agency is also interested in Global Navigation Satellite Systems, or GNSS, radio occultation capabilities, particularly in low latency, highly accurate GNSS RO-derived ionospheric products such as scintillation and total electron content. It intends to collect these data from various orbits and local time windows.

The notice states that NESDIS acquires GNSS-RO data through the Radio Occultation Data Buy 2, or RODB-2, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract vehicle.

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Mary Beth Morgan Appointed as New DSCA Deputy Director
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Mary Beth Morgan Appointed as New DSCA Deputy Director

Mary Beth Morgan has been appointed as deputy director of the Defense Security Cooperation Agency, bringing over two decades of expertise and experience in federal government service.

Morgan has served at the Department of Defense for more than 18 years and held several high-level positions, the DSCA said Friday. In her new role, Morgan will oversee the agency’s various programs and work with stakeholders to synchronize DSCA activities with foreign policy and national security objectives.

Morgan’s Career Highlights

Morgan was the deputy assistant secretary for homeland defense integration and defense support of civil authorities within the Office of the Secretary of Defense, where she developed and implemented the DOD’s homeland defense and defense support of civil authorities plans and programs.

Earlier, the new appointee served as the principal director for East Asia in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Indo-Pacific Security Affairs, where she advised senior DOD leaders on formulating and executing defense strategies and bilateral security relations for the East Asia region.

Before her stint with the Defense Department, Morgan was director for Korea and Taiwan affairs at the U.S. Department of Commerce’s International Trade Administration. She worked to enhance market access to U.S. industries and ensure partner compliance with bilateral and multilateral trade agreements.

Morgan earned a master’s in public administration and a bachelor’s degree in international affairs from George Washington University. She also holds a master’s in national security strategy from the National War College.

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Defense Logistics Agency Is Working to Advance AI Adoption
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Defense Logistics Agency Is Working to Advance AI Adoption

The Defense Logistics Agency now has over 55 artificial intelligence models in various phases of production, testing and use and is expected to further advance AI adoption. 

Established in June 2024, the AI Center of Excellence within DLA Information Operations oversees efforts to explore how AI technologies could improve processes.

Ruksana Lodi, AI officer at DLA, said her team is developing AI guidance, standardizing processes and prioritizing use cases that support the agency’s strategic goals.

Creating a Unified AI Ecosystem

According to Lodi, her team is helping DLA streamline its use of AI to establish a unified AI ecosystem to achieve efficiency while preventing duplication.

“If you go out and find a tool on your own and buy it, and then I do the same, we would end up with many tools that may have the same functionality,” she said.

She noted that her team is also working to ensure the interoperability and security of AI tools.

“The goal is to ensure that AI-driven decisions don’t compromise security, quality or operational efficiency, ultimately protecting both the agency and the warfighter,” Lodi said.

Potential AI Use Cases

In the business decision analytics field, Lodi’s team is exploring a collection of AI models that could perform tasks like evaluating supplier risks.

One of the AI tools automates the identification of companies that could potentially supply overpriced or counterfeit items by examining past performance, supplier behaviors and patterns of fraudulent activity.

Lodi noted that such assessments help DLA avoid unreliable suppliers and reduce the likelihood of defective components being used on critical defense platforms.

DLA Eyes Clean Financial Audit With AI

In November, Shawn Lennon, deputy chief financial officer at DLA, announced that the agency is exploring ways to harness AI to advance its efforts to achieve a clean financial audit.

According to Lennon, DLA aims to collect data from its business systems and use AI to help detect errors, glean insights and propose measures to improve data quality and financial reporting.

“We’re also looking at using AI to reconcile DLA’s inventory in the Warehouse Management System with our financial records,” he said.

Join the Potomac Officers Club’s 2025 Artificial Intelligence Summit on March 20, and hear from industry luminaries, government officials and other experts as they discuss cutting-edge innovations and trends in the field. Register now!

POC - 2025 Artificial Intelligence Summit
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Young Bang Has Left DOD—Now He Wants to Talk Candidly About AI
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Young Bang Has Left DOD—Now He Wants to Talk Candidly About AI

Young Bang is an established name in the world of artificial intelligence. A former U.S. Department of the Army executive, he spearheaded a number of successful emerging technology initiatives in his nearly three years at the Pentagon. Bang has also been a reliable and noted private sector innovator, with a significant portion of his career spent leading the development and testing of new technologies within industry.

Thus, Bang knows both sides of the government contracting equation well and can break down federal concepts and processes for an industry audience and vice versa. He’s a legendary public speaker and will bring that finesse to the Potomac Officers Club’s 2025 AI Summit this Thursday, March 20! Be sure to grab one of the final remaining tickets so you can hear Bang’s remarks and engage with him in Q&A.

Bang’s Credentials

After attending West Point for college, Bang spent five years as a captain in the Army, firmly laying a defense foundation for the rest of his career. He then spent time in telecommunications, before making a real name for himself in the consulting world: a year as a solution architect at KPMG followed by over a decade and a half at Booz Allen Hamilton.

Booz Allen is the lead platinum sponsor of the AI Summit and will be hosting a panel session on “The Impact of AI on National Security and Economic Growth” featuring, among others, the acting chief technology officer of the Navy. Don’t miss out!

He concluded his time at Booz as a senior vice president with work in AI, data science, machine intelligence, and immersive tech like virtual reality and augmented reality, and parlayed the immense progress and expertise he amassed at the company into his work as principal deputy assistant secretary of the Army for acquisition, logistics and technology. He was appointed to the latter position in early 2022.

AI Initiatives at the Army

#DefendAI

In his time with the service branch, Bang helped institute it as the first military component to write an AI program of record into its five-year budget. He told the Warrior Maven publication in fall 2024 that he set in motion a 100-day AI risk assessment activity and a 500-day project as a follow-up to further deepen AI proliferation. This initiative is dubbed “#DefendAI” and it’s geared toward producing AI algorithms that can be utilized by the Army and broader DOD to complete defense goals.

SBIR Funding

Bang’s work and enthusiasm for AI has helped juice funding via the Small Business Innovation Research initiative for AI. The branch projected over $105 million in AI funding for fiscal year 2025.

Bang’s New Venture

Earlier this month, Bang made his first post-Army maneuver: an appointment as chairman of the strategic advisory board at Safe Pro Group, an AI maker. He is expected to facilitate dialog between the industrial base, integrators and government clients regarding the company’s flagship Safe Pro Object Threat Detection—a.k.a. SPOTD—product. We’ll surely hear about this new venture in his keynote address at the 2025 AI Summit on Thursday, March 20 in Tysons Corner, Virginia. Register now to learn more!

Young Bang Has Left DOD—Now He Wants to Talk Candidly About AI
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NRO Launches R&D Demonstrator Payload
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NRO Launches R&D Demonstrator Payload

The National Reconnaissance Office has deployed a research and development demonstrator from Space Launch Complex-4E at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on March 15.

Launching Payloads Via Rideshare Mission

NRO said Saturday the payload was launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket as part of the Transporter-13 rideshare mission. This marked the second Second R&D mission launched by NRO in 2025. The Otter R&D payload was launched aboard SpaceX’s Transporter-12 rideshare mission in January.

The R&D demonstrator includes two 6U CubeSats intended for an NRO experimental technology research mission. It was designed and operated by the agency’s Advanced Systems & Technology directorate.

Aaron Weiner, director of NRO’s AS&T, remarked, “The NRO’s commitment to demonstrating experimental technology in orbit allows us to stay at the forefront of innovation. Through efforts like this, AS&T is posturing the NRO to maintain its advantage in delivering space-based intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance systems that are responsive to future national security challenges.”

The agency has consistently fulfilled the needs of the U.S. intelligence, military, civil and allied partners for over 60 years. This includes space-based intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, or ISR, systems. NRO is developing advanced systems to safeguard data and expedite its delivery.

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Army’s C2 Initiative Demonstrates Capabilities at Project Convergence
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Army’s C2 Initiative Demonstrates Capabilities at Project Convergence

The U.S. Army’s Next Generation Command and Control, or NGC2, has managed to integrate advanced capabilities into realistic scenarios at Project Convergence Capstone 5, a.k.a. PCC5, an experimentation event at the National Training Center.

What Is the Next Generation Command and Control?

NGC2 is an Army initiative designed to deliver an integrated information network that would enable commanders and soldiers to access more comprehensive battlefield data for rapid communication and enhanced decision-making, the Army said Monday.

The initiative aims to provide tactical units an advantage over enemy forces by utilizing a lighter and more mobile network and C2 equipment to operate more rapidly and more dispersed.

The results of a year-long PCC5 lab and field experimentation have allowed the Army to evaluate the initiative’s progress to move forward to the prototyping phase. Some of the technologies being experimented at PCC5 include the use of applications, data infrastructure, software and hardware like tablets and mobile phones. These experimental technologies were integrated into tactical vehicles and evaluated.

Those involved in PCC5 have stressed that the technologies showed promise as they provided faster communications, more complete data transition and smaller form factors.

“What we’re trying to do is take these emerging technologies where we can get this data better and faster to execute,” said Lt. Col. Tad Coleman, commander of the 2-37 Armor Battalion. “The technology in Next Generation C2 is the stuff a majority of people are seeing and already doing (in their daily lives). It’s just that now, it’s at the fingertips of the commander,” he added.

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LANL’s Project GeoForce Approved for Military Marketplace
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LANL’s Project GeoForce Approved for Military Marketplace

A consortium led by Los Alamos National Laboratory received pre-approval from Tradewinds Solutions Marketplace for its Project GeoForce.

The LANL said Monday the Project GeoForce is now primed for rapid deployment on U.S. military bases. The national laboratory collaborated with Anthem Energy Partners, New Era Advisors, Homestead Resources, Texas A&M University and Power Planet on the project, which is intended to deliver readily available geothermal energy services to the government.

What Technologies Underlie GeoForce?

LANL is responsible for the project’s modeling software, the Geothermal Design Tool. The GeoDT streamlines prospecting and evaluation of geothermal sites while enabling users to assess their potential economic viability.

“Our team is deploying Los Alamos’ GeoDT and Fracture Caging technology to generate no less than 25 megawatts at a price less than 8 cents per kilowatt-hour from unconventional hot dry rock geothermal resources,” said Luke Frash, Project GeoForce lead at Los Alamos. “This opportunity allows us to help a wider audience secure access to affordable energy.”

“The U.S. Air Force leveraged the Tradewinds solicitation process to quickly collaborate with innovative American companies to build resilient, next-generation geothermal technologies at our bases, using private capital instead of taxpayer dollars,” said Kirk Phillips, director of the Air Force Office of Energy Assurance.

Geothermal energy is a cost-effective energy resource that remains underutilized as it comprises only 0.4 percent of the country’s total energy output in 2023, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

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AFWERX, SpaceWERX Launch Manufacturing Challenge to Boost DIB
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AFWERX, SpaceWERX Launch Manufacturing Challenge to Boost DIB

AFWERX shared on LinkedIn Friday that it has collaborated with SpaceWERX to launch a Manufacturing Challenge aimed at accelerating the development of technologies and bridging gaps in the defense industrial base.

Enhancing National Security Through Innovative Partnerships

The innovation arms of the Department of the Air Force and the U.S. Space Force intend to bolster national security and meet evolving operational demands by encouraging partnerships between small businesses and the defense manufacturing ecosystem.

The initiative will involve a couple of two-day workshops intended to address challenges in aerospace production. The first workshop will be held from April 1 to 2 and will focus on advanced materials, additive manufacturing, composite structures, semiconductor innovations and other physical components of aerospace production. The second workshop, held on April 3 to 4, will involve systems integration, electronic subsystems, radiation-tolerant electronics and space power and propulsion.

The Manufacturing Challenge aims to support the U.S. industrial base and strengthen national security by enhancing transitions between commercial and defense manufacturing. It utilizes the Small Business Innovation Research program to fund innovative projects.

“We need to rethink how we manufacture, how fast we produce and how quickly we can pivot,” said Col. Elliott Leigh, AFWERX director and DAF chief commercialization. “We can’t just go to war with a few hundred advanced systems — we need thousands, even tens of thousands. The ability to produce at scale is critical,” he added.

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