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Department of the Air Force Unveils Tool to Advance Responsible Experimentation With Generative AI; Venice Goodwine Quoted
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Department of the Air Force Unveils Tool to Advance Responsible Experimentation With Generative AI; Venice Goodwine Quoted

The Department of the Air Force has launched an experimental bridge that allows service personnel and civilian employees to leverage generative artificial intelligence on the Non-classified Internet Protocol Router Network as they continue to explore new industry platforms.

NIPRGPT functions as an AI chatbot that enables users to have human-like conversations to perform correspondence and other tasks within a secure operating environment and is part of the Dark Saber software platform built at the Air Force Research Laboratory Information Directorate in New York, the Air Force said Monday.

The tool offers user feedback opportunities to help establish governing policies and provides the department with an opportunity to advance real-world testing, focusing on resource utilization, computational efficiency and security compliance, among other key metrics.

“Our recent GenAI Roundtables with industry and academia have shown us this is an actively growing field,” said Venice Goodwine, chief information officer at DAF and a 2024 Wash100 awardee.

“Now is the time to give our Airmen and Guardians the flexibility to develop the necessary skills in parallel. There are multiple modernization efforts going on right now across the federal government and within the DAF to get tools in the hands of the workforce. This tool is another one of those efforts,” added Goodwine.

POC - 2024 Air Force Summit

Goodvine will be one of the keynote speakers at the Potomac Officers Club’s 2024 Air Force Summit on July 23. Register here to know about important updates on cutting-edge technology adoption, modernization initiatives and more.

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Maj. Gen. Steven Butow Named DIU Military Deputy Director
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Maj. Gen. Steven Butow Named DIU Military Deputy Director

Maj. Gen. Steven Butow, commander of the California Air National Guard, will assume the role of military deputy director of the Defense Innovation Unit on June 1.

In this capacity, he will oversee more than 75 servicemembers to drive DIU’s strategic vision to advance innovation in support of the joint force, combatant commands, allies and other partners worldwide, DIU said Monday.

“As a member of the reserve component, Major General Bucky Butow possesses the dual fluency as both an experienced military leader and technologist with significant experience working with the commercial technology sector,” said DIU Director Doug Beck.

Beck added that Butow’s experience in integrating and deploying new commercial technologies and helping lead the Department of Defense’s use of commercial space tech platforms will help build asymmetric advantage for the joint force and allied warfighters.

He will continue to lead the California Air National Guard as he performs a dual-status tour at DIU.

In 2015, Butow joined DIU as the West Coast Military Lead. After a year, he took on the role of space portfolio director at the DOD organization.

His military career included time as commander of the 129th Rescue Wing at Moffett Field in California, deputy director of the Joint Search and Rescue Center for U.S. Central Command and chief of personnel recovery for U.S. Air Force Central.

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GovCon Index Continued Downward Trend Last Week
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GovCon Index Continued Downward Trend Last Week

Executive Mosaic’s GovCon Index closed with an average of $4,953.15 last week, a 0.92% decrease that carried GovCon Index into its second consecutive week of losses.

GovCon Index is an aggregate index that offers users a look at real-time stock market data from 30 notable government contracting companies. With this information, individuals can observe the performance of each tracked company and strengthen their understanding of the most notable trends in today’s GovCon market.

Despite last week’s decline, multiple contractors recorded significant growth. Palantir claimed first place last week, rising by 7.52%, and Boeing (+7.11%) also showed success.

GovCon Index finished out the week in negative territory, falling by 0.37% on Friday.

For more information on daily GovCon Index performance, check out last week’s market reports  Click here to view the full list of tracked companies.

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Cornell University’s Jonathan Lunine Appointed Chief Scientist at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
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Cornell University’s Jonathan Lunine Appointed Chief Scientist at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

NASA has named Jonathan Lunine, the David C. Duncan professor in the physical sciences at Cornell University, as chief scientist of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

An astrophysicist and planetary scientist and a member of the National Academy of Sciences, Lunine also currently serves as chair of Cornell’s Department of Astronomy, NASA said Thursday.

Lunine has worked with JPL on multiple occasions, including as co-investigator on the Juno mission and the Mapping Imaging Spectrometer for Europa on the Europa Clipper mission, and as guest investigator for the ultraviolet spectrometer on the Voyager 2 Neptune flyby.

In his new role, Lunine will oversee JPL policy and priority formulation, guide JPL-managed NASA missions as well as research and development efforts and facilitate collaboration with various stakeholders.

As part of his JPL posting, Lunine will also serve as planetary science professor at the Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences at California Institute of Technology, of which he is an alumnus.

Lunine’s appointment goes into effect on Aug. 16.

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FAA Adds Sierra Space, Virgin Galactic to Space Launch & Reentry Tracking Tool; Timothy Arel Quoted
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FAA Adds Sierra Space, Virgin Galactic to Space Launch & Reentry Tracking Tool; Timothy Arel Quoted

The Federal Aviation Administration announced that it will receive space vehicle launch and reentry flight data from Virgin Galactic and Sierra Space through the Space Data Integrator platform.

FAA said Friday SDI is a tool that helps the agency safely manage air traffic during space operations and enhance situational awareness by receiving vehicle telemetry data from commercial space operators.

The two companies will join SpaceX in transmitting SDI data to the agency.

According to FAA, approximately 70 percent of commercial space operations in U.S. airspace have transmitted telemetry data to SDI since the platform’s launch in 2021.

“We’ve made significant progress in reducing how long airspace is closed for space operations, and the SDI tool is the foundation for future improvements to drive it down even more while also ensuring safety,” said Timothy Arel, chief operating officer of the FAA’s Air Traffic Organization.

FAA noted that SDI enables the agency to respond to an anomaly and reopen airspace within three minutes following a launch or reentry mission.

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Rear Adm. Nancy Hann Selected to Serve as NOAA Deputy Undersecretary of Operations
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Rear Adm. Nancy Hann Selected to Serve as NOAA Deputy Undersecretary of Operations

Rear Adm. Nancy Hann, director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Office of Marine and Aviation Operations, or OMAO, and Commissioned Officer Corps, has been appointed to serve as the agency’s deputy undersecretary for operations.

She will be promoted to the rank of vice admiral and assume her new role in August, succeeding Benjamin Friedman, who is retiring from the position after eight years to join the SUNY Research Foundation as chief operating officer, NOAA said Friday.

Hann has held various leadership positions at NOAA, including as OMAO chief of staff, OMAO deputy director for operations, deputy director of the NOAA Corps and commanding officer of the NOAA Aircraft Operations Center.

NOAA Administrator Rick Spinrad said Hann is an “experienced and well-respected leader with an impressive resume of accomplishments” and he looks forward to working with her as a key member of his management team to advance NOAA’s mission.

Rear Adm. Chad Cary has been nominated to lead the NOAA Corps and OMAO, pending Senate confirmation.

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DTRA to Open New Facility on Kirtland Air Force Base
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DTRA to Open New Facility on Kirtland Air Force Base

The Defense Threat Reduction Agency will open a 76,000 sq. ft. multi-use building on Kirtland Air Force Base to house over 300 agency employees currently in Albuquerque and at Eglin AFB.

DTRA said its Albuquerque Office will hold a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new facility on June 12 and the agency expects it to be fully operational in the second half of 2024.

The building has a seismic laboratory, meeting rooms, administrative offices and unclassified and classified work spaces and incorporates new Department of Defense high performance and sustainable building requirements.

It will support more than 300 DOD civil servants and uniformed service members, providing them with specialized research and development offices in one location.

“This will have a tangible impact on our DTRA teammates and missions,” said Gary Hook, chief of (R&D) Test and Assessment Department at DTRA. “We have some very unique testing facilities around here, we work very closely with the Department of Energy labs, the services and academia, and we’re excited to have a new, modern, secure and efficient place to carry out our mission.”

The facility was built by Hensel Phelps Construction, with initial design from Jacobs Engineering.

DOJ OIP Reports Government Hits Milestone in FOIA Implementation
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DOJ OIP Reports Government Hits Milestone in FOIA Implementation

The Department of Justice’s Office of Information Policy has revealed that the government received approximately 1.2 million requests under the Freedom of Information Act, or FOIA, during fiscal year 2023, a 29 percent increase from the number of requests received in the prior year.

OIP said in its Summary of Annual FOIA Reports for FY 2023 that the government collectively processed over 1 million requests, which is an increase of nearly 28 percent from FY 2022, and the total number of backlogged requests decreased by 2.84 percent to 200,843.

The departments of Homeland Security, Justice, Veterans Affairs and Defense and the National Archives and Records Administration received the vast majority, or 82 percent, of all government-wide FOIA requests made in FY 2023.

DHS received the highest number of requests with 580,205, followed by DOJ with 144,065, VA with 72,403, NARA with 66,064 and DOD with 55,731. Collectively, other agencies received 203,743 FOIA requests.

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DHA Director Lt. Gen. Telita Crosland Welcomes Staff of Newly Created R&D Organization
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DHA Director Lt. Gen. Telita Crosland Welcomes Staff of Newly Created R&D Organization

U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Telita Crosland, director of the Defense Health Agency, welcomed the employees of the newly established DHA Research and Development organization during an event at Fort Detrick in Maryland, DVIDS reported Thursday.

DHA Research and Development is led by Brig. Gen. Edward Bailey, who also oversees the agency’s Research and Engineering Directorate, and has more than 1,500 scientists, acquisition experts, program managers and support staff at offices and laboratories worldwide.

The newly created organization includes the Army’s Medical Research and Development Command, which was transferred to DHA in accordance with the National Defense Authorization Act.

“You know how your mission set gets after improving health and building readiness or the capability of the force. Whether it’s what you do connecting with the FDA, or in product development, or fielding and equipping—all feeds into the National Defense Strategy. Which includes improving clinical readiness—work that supports combat care. If you think about what the technology you are developing is going to do for increasing frontline clinical capabilities, that’s critical to growing and increasing clinical readiness in a demonstrable way,” Crosland, a 2024 Wash100 awardee, told personnel of the new DHA organization.

DHA Research and Development also includes medical research labs conducting studies on military infectious diseases, military chemical and biological defense, combat casualty care and other biomedical research areas.

New Small Business Administration Rule to Prohibit SDVOSBs From Self-Certifying to Receive Prime, Subcontracts
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New Small Business Administration Rule to Prohibit SDVOSBs From Self-Certifying to Receive Prime, Subcontracts

The Small Business Administration has issued a direct final rule that requires service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses to register with the SBA Veteran Small Business Certification Program in order to receive prime or subcontracts that would be counted toward an agency’s or prime contractor’s SDVOSB participation targets.

The final rule, which goes into effect on Aug. 5, implements section 864 of the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act, according to an issuance posted Thursday on the Federal Register.

SDVOSBs not registered with the VetCert program but meet eligibility requirements were previously allowed to self-certify in order to receive prime or subcontracts that were not sole-source or SDVOSB set-asides but would be credited to the awarding agency’s or prime contractor’s SDVOSB participation goals.

Once the rule takes effect, SDVOSBs will have up to Dec. 22 to file an application for certification with SBA. While waiting on the SBA’s decision, applicants will be allowed to continue self-certifying to receive contracts.

Beyond Dec. 22, SDVOSBs that are not registered with VetCert or have not filed for certification will no longer be allowed to self-certify.

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