The Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) proposed additional funding for the procurement of six more Lockheed Martin-built F-35 fighter jets in its markup of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for fiscal year 2022, Breaking Defense reported Tuesday.

The Senate panel’s NDAA markup would add $85 million in funds to procure one additional F-35A for the U.S. Air Force and $535 million for five more F-35C carrier landing jets used by the U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps.

SASC also proposed $1.7 billion to facilitate Block 4 upgrades of the Air Force’s 338 aircraft with the integration of the technology refresh 3 hardware; $246.6 million to buy additional ground support and spares for F-35B short takeoff/vertical landing jets used by the Marines; $175 million to purchase 20 F-135 power modules; and $20 million for the F-35 continuous capability and delivery initiative.

The committee would also transfer from the Department of Defense’s joint program office to the departments of the Air Force and Navy the acquisition authority for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program no later than Oct. 1, 2027. The Senate panel also requires DOD to submit to Congress a plan to facilitate the transition by Oct. 1, 2022.

The House passed the $778 billion FY 2022 NDAA in a 316-113 vote Thursday.

The State Department has released its strategy to further implement the use of data across its operations and workforce. The department said Monday that its Enterprise Data Strategy titled “Empowering Data-Informed Diplomacy” aims to equip personnel with data for decision making.

The strategy aligns with several efforts of the Biden Administration such as the memorandum on evidence-based policymaking and the executive order on improving the nation's cybersecurity.

State Department agencies will use the strategy to cultivate a data-centric culture, analytically augment decision making, establish mission-driven data management and improve enterprise data governance.

The strategy also helps the department meet several regulatory and congressional requirements related to enterprise data.

A team of General Atomics scientists collaborated with the San Diego Supercomputing Center and Canada-based technology company Drizti to create a process for simulating fusion reactor plasma in a cloud environment.

General Atomics said Monday the prototyping effort combined its CGYRO physics code with Microsoft's Azure platform and Drizti’s HPCBOX supercomputing as a service.

As part of the project, Drizti built a push-button function inside the Canadian company's technology to support fusion research work. The HPCBOX tool is designed to provide an HPC setup that includes Azure’s processing and networking features.

General Atomics noted that it is examining the feasibility of transitioning medium-scale fusion plasma simulations to the cloud-based supercomputing platform.

The San Diego-based energy and defense company hopes the approach it developed with SDSC and Drizti could help simplify the fusion reactor design process.

University of California San Diego established SDSC in 1985 under a cooperative agreement with General Atomics and the National Science Foundation.

The U.S. Navy conducted a demonstration in August to test the live-virtual-constructive capability of the Tactical Combat Training System Increment II in an operational environment.

The Naval Aviation Training Systems and Ranges program office, PMA-205, and Advanced Naval Technology Exercise-21 teams conducted the demonstration using F/A-18 and EA-18G aircraft, an operational destroyer, Joint Semi-Automated Forces System, Next Generation Threat System, a guided missile and an F/A-18 simulator through the Navy Continuous Training Environment, Naval Air Systems Command said Monday.

“On the surface side, ships have been using a training LVC mode for a while, networking back and forth to exercise coordinators running complex scenarios. Now aviation is part of the mix through validation of TCTS Inc. II as the host system connecting live aircraft into a LVC environment,” Capt. Lisa Sullivan, PMA-205 program manager, said of the demonstration.

Chuck Kaylor, the PMA-205 TCTS Inc. II team lead, said the event marked the first time the TCTS Inc. II pod flew on a fleet aircraft and was used to establish an LVC surface-to-air engagement, among other firsts for naval aviation training.

“TCTS Inc. II is a critical enabler of Navy LVC, helping to close competition gaps in both operational security and training capabilities for the high-end fight, and this event comes with TCTS II already in production and approximately one year prior to initial operational capability,” said Kaylor.

The Navy will use the demonstration results to determine how to improve the use of TCTS Inc. II and LVC in naval aviation training.

In June, Raytheon Technologies’ Collins Aerospace business achieved Milestone C for TCTS Inc. II, marking the transition of the system to the production phase.