The U.S. Air Force and its Indian equivalent have signed a partnership to jointly develop air-launched unmanned aerial vehicles.

The partnership supports the U.S.- India Defense Technology and Trade Initiative, which aims to promote cooperative research, technology exchanges and co-development between the two countries.

The initiative seeks to modernize the militaries of both countries through collaborative pursuits, which will include projects on avionics systems, launch technologies, propulsion, payload power and small UAVs. The two countries share a common goal of promoting freedom in the Indo-Pacific region, Seybolt noted.

“This co-development agreement further operationalizes India’s status as a major defense partner and builds upon our existing strong defense cooperation," said Kelli Seybolt, deputy undersecretary of the Air Force for international affairs.

Brig. Gen. Brian Bruckbauer, who leads the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center's Air Force Security Assistance and Cooperation directorate, signed the agreement in behalf of the U.S., opposite Air Vice Marshal Narmdeshwar Tiwari who represented India.

The House Oversight and Reform Committee (HORC) has included in its markup of fiscal year 2022 budget reconciliation package an amendment that would allocate $3 billion in funds for federal information technology modernization efforts.

Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Virginia, proposed the amendment that would set aside $2 billion for the General Services Administration’s (GSA) Federal Citizen Services Fund and $1 billion for the Technology Modernization Fund.

The measure would also earmark $350 million for the Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) IT oversight and reform account, which is used to help fund the U.S. Digital Service’s staffing requirements.

“The fate of the world’s largest economy rises and falls with the ability of government IT systems to deliver in an emergency and as we recover into the future. And that should galvanize us all,” Connolly said in a statement.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is investing $30 million in 13 projects that aim to conserve and sustain the supply of materials needed for clean energy systems. 

Universities and national laboratories lead these projects to develop technologies that diversify, recycle and provide alternatives for rare-earth (REEs) and platinum group elements (PGEs), DOE said Thursday.

REEs and PGEs generally support a variety of clean energy applications, such as rechargeable batteries and emission regulation systems.

These elements include cobalt, neodymium and platinum, which are critical for electric vehicle batteries, windmills and fuel production systems, respectively.

“Expanding electric vehicle infrastructure, hardening our nation’s electrical grid and powering our economy with millions of clean energy jobs all rely on securing supply chains of critical materials like cobalt and platinum,” said Jennifer Granholm, secretary of energy.

U.S. Army Gen. James Dickinson, who leads U.S. Space Command, said soldiers must be ready to operate without the help of space systems in case of enemy-caused disruptions, DOD News reported Thursday.

He said at the 2021 Fires Conference that training centers now teach soldiers how to perform missions in degraded environments where satellite communications, surveillance and GPS navigation are denied. This approach helps soldiers practice relying on older methods to fulfill missions in such scenarios.

"I think they are creating those effects at the National Training Center, at combat training centers, so that you get a feel for what that's like and having to go back to like an M2 aiming circle or even a lensatic compass and a map, if you have to," he stated at the event that took place at Fort Sill, Oklahoma.

The General Services Administration is seeking input from learning content providers in the business and academic sectors for the development of a tool that could give federal workers access to educational materials and help them identify gaps in their knowledge.

Interested education providers have until December 16 to express their interest in offering pay-for-access training content for a pilot program that will involve financial management staff members across the federal government, GSA said Thursday.

The agency noted that content for the effort should cover technology, data and financial management skills across 54 competency areas.

Roughly 140,000 members of the federal financial management workforce will serve as a test population in the two-year technology pilot, which will offer graduate and undergraduate-level training content that uses different modalities and delivery models.

Providers will work with the Office of Management and Budget and the Federal Chief Financial Officers Council, along with the 24 biggest federal agencies, through the initiative deemed by the Biden-Harris administration as a top priority. 

GSA indicated that if the limited-in-scale approach would become successful in drawing effective and affordable content, the model would be applied to bigger units in the federal workforce composed of 2.1 million employees.