Jim Evangelos, deputy director of standards at the Joint Tactical Networking Center, has said he seeks to leverage modular open systems to develop modern tactical radios, Federal News Radio reported Tuesday.

Evangelos plans to make the next generation of tactical radio systems interoperable across the U.S. military as they are used similarly as software applications.

However, he explained that vendors currently do not see profit from an open systems architecture.

A working group within the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense seeks to incorporate modular open systems in the contracting language to encourage private companies to invest in the technology.

“And what drives all of this at the end of the day is cost,” Evangelos said.

He added that reusing the same components would reduce efforts for developing software, as well as decrease costs of large complex systems.

The Department of Energy has recently earmarked $5.8M to fund research and development initiatives in a bid to design technologies aiming to boost the resilience of the nation’s power grid. 

The DOE said Tuesday the funding opportunity announcement, which supports the department’s Office of Electricity Transmission Reliability program, seeks to invest in applications that leverage artificial intelligence, machine learning and big data platforms to secure grid and grid sensor health.

Specifically, the DOE will provide funding allocation to support projects that aim to create tools and mechanisms that sustain grid analytics and scaling; grid asset management and automated controls that can help system operators prevent grid outages, maintain operations and address costs.

Interested private sector parties may submit proposals until Nov. 9.

 

 

The Department of Energy has awarded 85 research contracts worth a total of $218M to academic institutions and the department’s national laboratories to conduct studies in quantum information science.

The department said Monday the contract awards align with the Trump administration’s plan to advance research in quantum computing, which could lead to innovations in computer and information processing and other technologies.

The awards cover various assignments such as developing systems for modern quantum computers, identifying new materials that possess special quantum elements and determining the purpose of QIS in understanding cosmic phenomena. 

Energy Secretary Rick Perry said investing in quantum computing research will allow the U.S. to become leaders in the field.

The Advanced Scientific Computing Research, Basic Energy Sciences and High Energy Physics programs of the DOE’s Office of Science are managing the contract awards.

The U.S. Army is mulling plans to allocate $31.6B in fiscal 2020 funds to help the service branch update its combat vehicle and helicopter fleets, Bloomberg Government reported Monday.

The Office of the Secretary of Defense would still have to give its approval of the service’s budget request before the funding request can be included in the official Defense Department fiscal 2020 budget proposal in February, the report said.

The Army is considering the appropriation of an additional $7.5B for research and development efforts for the next five years, which includes funding for the Army Futures Command in Austin, Texas.

The service branch also wants to give $2.36B to its Future Vertical Lift program and $1.2B to R&D efforts on its next-generation combat vehicle.

In addition, the Army wants to allocate $3.8B for procurement of the next-generation combat vehicle over a five-year period, and $1.4B and $1.3B for upgrades to General Dynamics‘ Abrams tank and Stryker combat vehicle, respectively.

The report said the DoD will be subjected to budget caps for fiscal 2020 and 2021.

Department of Homeland Security official Kshemendra Paul has said the department will focus on setting requirements for end-to-end automation across the development, security and operations workflow for cloud migration operations, Federal News Radio reported Monday.

Paul, cloud action officer and deputy director for strategy and mission with DHS, explained during a Red Hat Open First event that the department seeks to leverage various managed services or the Cloud Factory first before managing policies for moving applications to the cloud.

He added that DHS will be able to use Cloud Factory after it passes an Authorization to Operate process, which will be conducted in late 2018.

After leveraging Cloud Factory, DHS will direct its cloud steering group to speed up the department’s effort to migrate to the cloud.

The group will tackle concerns on the design of the future-state security architecture, its potential for streamlining ATO and the possibility of using existing projects to generate progress in cloud migration processes.

The U.S. Navy is looking to reevaluate its structure next year for a potential long-term reorganization of budget, National Defense Magazine reported Monday.

The service branch’s 2019 force structure assessment will focus on the fleet’s composition and determine the need in adjustments for each type of ship, said  Vice Adm. William Merz, deputy chief of naval operations for warfare systems.

The upcoming assessment follows a previous 2016 iteration that indicated an annual need for $20B in funds to increase the fleet’s size to 355 ships.

“We’re still very committed to that [355 ship] number, but we’re only committed to the point where it’s the right mix of ships,” Merz said.

Bryan Clark, an analyst at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, said that the upcoming study may not significantly change the number of sought ships, but may likely augment the projected fleet composition.

The National Science and Technology Council recently released a document describing the government’s strategy to maintain and expand U.S. leadership in quantum information science.

The document, entitled “National Strategic Overview for Quantum Information Science,” identifies QIS as the field in which the next technological revolution will take place, and through which the U.S. “can improve its industrial base, create jobs, and provide economic and national security benefits.”

In pursuit of the national QIS strategy, the document proposes several recommendations grouped under six categories, namely: approaching QIS from a scientific perspective; creating a future workforce that is knowledgeable in QIS; fostering deeper connections between government, the QIS industry and other partners; providing infrastructure necessary for QIS R&D; pursuing economic growth and preserving national security; and promoting international cooperation in the field of QIS.

The NSTC document also acknowledges that the growth of QIS in the next ten years will likely bring about various challenges and underscores the need for the U.S. to “improve our capacity for cutting edge research and development, expand the QIS-literate workforce, and seamlessly coordinate between government, academic and private sector players.”