The U.S. Navy started construction on a land-based test site at Naval Surface Warfare Center Philadelphia to speed up development of its new weapons elevators, a project that saw a delay due to technical issues, USNI News reported Friday. Capt. Danny Hernandez, spokesperson for Navy acquisition chief James Geurts, said the service aims to complete the facility in 2020.

The site will support tests of the Advanced Weapons Elevators, which are under installation and certification process aboard the USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier. The Navy originally planned to complete development of all the 11 AWEs in June. However, work is expected to continue through October as only two of the systems have been certified for use.

“AWE is a first-of-kind developmental system without a land-based prototype,” Hernandez said. “The shipboard AWEs have been test beds for discovering many of the remaining developmental issues that have delayed the scheduled turnover to the crew.”

Some issues that delayed the project include physical adjustments and software refinement for AWE’s weapons movement.

Representatives Jim Langevin, Frank Lucas, Anthony Gonzalez, Elise Stefanik and Mikie Sherrill unveiled a bipartisan legislation that seeks to protect academic research from foreign espionage. The Securing American Science and Technology Act of 2019 will require the director of the Office of Science and Technology and Policy to create an interagency committee to assess security functions for funded research efforts and build a protocol to respond to security concerns, the office of Jim Langevin said Thursday.

The bill is also intended to promote a collaborative dialogue between academic institutions and government agencies to streamline policies and prevent potential espionage.

“The Securing American Science and Technology Act will better coordinate federal efforts to protect our universities while also taking steps to protect the important academic and cultural contributions that international students bring to our country,” said Langevin.

Army Undersecretary Ryan McCarthy said the service will reprogram $10 billion to fund other modernization priorities in its program objective memorandum for fiscal year 2021 through FY 2025, Defense News reported Friday. The service will free up funds through another round of a review process called “night court.” The Army announced that it used the process to shift up to $30 billion in funds toward other modernization initiatives in February.

“We are about to slap the table on the [program objective memorandum] here by no later than the middle of June,” McCarthy told reporters Wednesday during a media roundtable. “Every dollar counts in this environment,” McCarthy said. “And so what we’ve done is we’ve realized that it’s not a sustainable model to have the entire Army leadership hunkered down every summer, but should delegate to the appropriate echelon of authority.”

The General Services Administration’s Office of Inspector General provided six recommendations addressing the agency’s management concerns for fiscal year 2019. OIG said in an audit report that GSA should create a control to validate upcoming termination rights for leases, implement a timely execution method and quantify potential losses in line to vacant spaces.

Additionally, the office recommended GSA establish a control to pass through recoveries, reimburse tenant agencies for overpayments and collaborate with the office of the chief financial officer to rectify accounting inaccuracies. OIG found that GSA is facing concerns in reporting contract modification metrics, meeting customer requirements, loss of veteran expertise and legislation that restricts money spending.

The findings also stated that GSA’s environment may face potential cyberattacks. On a separate audit, OIG recommends that the Federal Risk Authorization Management Program’s program management office needs to develop a reinforced mission structure to meet its mission objectives.

The Federal Aviation Administration is accepting public feedback on a proposal to revise policies on commercial launch operations through July 30, Space News reported Thursday.

Wayne Monteith, associate administrator of commercial space transportation at FAA, said that the agency extended the June 14 deadline after space industry entities expressed concerns over the sufficiency of a 60-day comment period during a Commercial Space Transportation Advisory Committee meeting in Washington, D.C. 

Monteith noted that while FAA is open to input on revised launch regulations, the agency follows “very direct rules” on establishing policies that restrict alternative suggestions.

“We will be reorganized before the end of the year with new staff that has the right skill sets so that we have some period, multiple months, to prepare for the new rule,” he added.