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DARPA Unveils 5 Regional Commercial Accelerators to Help Scale Early-Stage Tech
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DARPA Unveils 5 Regional Commercial Accelerators to Help Scale Early-Stage Tech

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has selected five regional Commercial Accelerators from across the U.S. to rapidly commercialize and scale early-stage technologies for economic and national security.

DARPA said Thursday the Commercial Accelerators will work with DARPA-backed companies that develop early-stage tech platforms to help facilitate access to commercial talent and investor networks, provide additional training and mentoring support and leverage demonstration sites, laboratories and other unique regional capabilities.

The regional Commercial Accelerators are Austin-based Capital Factory, CIMIT at Massachusetts General Hospital, FedTech, SRI International and the Wireless Research Center of North Carolina.

“With these regional accelerators, we can ensure more DARPA-funded teams can recruit top talent, develop robust go-to-market strategies, raise capital, and scale operations, turning groundbreaking technology into high value for national, economic, and societal impact,” said Sha-Chelle Manning, chief of commercial strategy at DARPA.

DARPA expects the accelerators to help improve and scale the Embedded Entrepreneur Initiative pilot program, which offers funding to link a performer’s technical team to commercialization experts.

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Army’s G-Invoicing System Set to Go Live in November
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Army’s G-Invoicing System Set to Go Live in November

The U.S. Army expects to launch an online government invoicing platform in November to comply with the Department of the Treasury’s requirement to modernize the management of intragovernmental buy and sell transactions as part of efforts to improve the transparency and accuracy of sales and procurement.

“G-Invoicing is the future of intragovernmental transactions. Successful implementation of the tool will only occur through steadfast collaboration and mutual support across federal agencies,” Wes Robinson, deputy assistant secretary of the Army for financial operations and information, said in a statement published Thursday.

In fiscal year 2021, the Army purchased intragovernmental goods and services worth approximately $70.2 billion and recorded over $110 billion in revenue from the intragovernmental sale of goods and services. The service said intragovernmental transactions accounted for nearly 35 percent of its annual budget.

According to the Army, G-Invoicing has four key steps that are consecutive and must be met before transitioning to the next process or step: general terms and conditions, orders, performances and funds settlement.

The military branch noted that the G-Invoicing system implementation will require the Army to maintain consistent communication with trading partners to ensure that both parties monitor the changes associated with the implementation.

The Army highlighted the need to record lessons learned to enhance transaction processing and reporting and maximize G-Invoicing’s benefits.

“I am thrilled about this capability and strongly advocate for cross-agency collaboration to harness our collective experiences and lessons learned,” said Robinson. “Together, we are implementing a solution that will ensure the stability and advancement of our Army’s financial operations.”

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BluePath Labs Secures Contract for DOE Office Administrative Support Services
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BluePath Labs Secures Contract for DOE Office Administrative Support Services

Washington, D.C.-based management consulting company BluePath Labs will extend administrative support to the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management under an indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract with a potential $4.5 million value over a five-year period.

The contract permits EM to issue firm-fixed-price and time and materials task orders from Aug. 22, 2024 to Aug. 21, 2029, the DOE said Thursday.

In December 2021, BluePath Labs, an 8(a) certified Service Disabled Veteran owned small business, secured an IDIQ contract to provide business management, communications and analytical services also to EM. The contract, which supports the DOE office’s Washington headquarters and its unit at Germantown, Maryland, covers three years, with a potential value of $4 million.

BluePath Labs was also among the 14 companies that secured positions on a potential 10-year contract awarded in March for the development and operation of DOE data collection programs and systems. The award is valued up to $900 million, with other companies securing spots including Accenture’s Federal Services, Booz Allen Hamilton, Crown Consulting, Edgewater Federal Solutions, Peregrine Technical Solutions and Redhorse Corp.

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DOD Selects Anduril to Join 2nd Tranche of Replicator Initiative
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DOD Selects Anduril to Join 2nd Tranche of Replicator Initiative

The Department of Defense has selected Anduril’s Dive-LD autonomous underwater vehicles to participate in the second tranche of its modernization initiative dubbed Replicator, the DefenseScoop reported last week.

Anduril will join Replicator 1.2, an effort to advance industrial output capacity and the military’s implementation of autonomous systems in numerous combat environments.

Kathleen Hicks, deputy secretary of defense and a 2024 Wash100 Award recipient launched the first tranche of the initiative in August 2023. 

During her keynote at the National Defense Industrial Association Emerging Technologies for Defense Conference and Exhibition on Aug 7th, Hicks said, “Although we have lots more work to do, we are on track to meet Replicator’s original goal of enabling ‘multiple thousands in multiple domains in 18-24 months’ — that is, by the end of August 2025.”

According to Anduril’s website, the Dive-LD drone can “conduct missions for up to 10 days with an architecture that scales for multi-week missions.” PMS 394, the Navy’s program office for advanced undersea systems, proposed the underwater vehicle alongside several other technologies.

Sources say the Dive-LD systems are selling for around $2.5 million each.

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CDAO Issues Inaugural Industry Challenge to Develop Data Ontology for Enterprise Workflows
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CDAO Issues Inaugural Industry Challenge to Develop Data Ontology for Enterprise Workflows

The Department of Defense’s Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office has launched its initial industry challenge to develop a global logistics data ontology for the Maven Smart System, or MSS.

The first global information dominance experiments—a.k.a. GIDE—challenge seeks potential industry partners that can provide live logistics and sustainment data, curated digital insights and integrated applications, CDAO said in a Thursday post on Tradewinds Solutions Marketplace.

The requirements would be integrated into the MSS workflow through the Open Data and Applications Government-owned Interoperable Repositories, the office added, noting that Open DAGIR is a modern approach to scale data, analytics and artificial intelligence capabilities.

According to CDAO, it uses MSS as a common platform for the combined joint all-domain command and control workflows.

Through the new challenge, CDAO seeks enriched data objects in five categories, namely nodes, modes, resources, requirements and risk, which would be the model for integration with current workflows and decision support tools.

The same categories require a stable data ontology to facilitate engagement for human planners, the office stressed.

Interested parties are invited to submit proposals that can cover an entire task set or a single sub-task outlined under the three problem statements that the GIDE challenge aims to address.

Proposals will be accepted until September 7.

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Shield AI Demonstrates First Multi-Jet Autonomy Flights
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Shield AI Demonstrates First Multi-Jet Autonomy Flights

Shield AI, a venture-backed defense technology company, has conducted its first multi-jet autonomy flights, marking a significant development in its pursuit of global autonomy.

The company said Wednesday it achieved the milestone using two MQM-178 Firejets from Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, a technology, products, system and software company.

The flight tests were conducted using two autonomous agents controlled by Shield AI’s Hivemind AI Pilot. The agents managed to execute coordinated maneuvers and demonstrate operationally relevant collaborative behaviors.

Through the demonstration, Shield AI showcased the potential of future unmanned jets and drones that can be flown with all computing done onboard and in-air agent communication seamlessly integrated.

Brandon Tseng, president and co-founder of Shield AI, believes that AI pilots will be capable of flying autonomous systems in the near future and that the recently concluded flight tests is a major step in attaining that goal.

“In the next decade, AI pilots will command and maneuver all unmanned systems, enabling the US and our allies to deploy millions of intelligent, resilient drones,” said the former Navy SEAL. “These Firejet flight tests represent a key milestone on our journey to bring autonomy to the world. What’s awesome is that the algorithms are not limited to the number of aircraft. For test objectives and budgetary reasons, we limited the number of Firejets to 2, but it could have been 4, 8, 16, 32, and so on.”

This recent development follows several AI-piloted Firejet flight tests conducted earlier in the year, marking the sixth time an aircraft was flown using the Hivemind AI Pilot. The company also concluded the first Live Virtual Constructive integration last June. This simulation connected live platforms with virtual environments enabling dynamic interactions across different domains.

Shield AI and Kratos previously worked together on a similar project in 2023. It involved an AI pilot incorporated into the Kratos XQ-58 Valkyrie.

Catch government and industry speakers discuss international partnerships, coalition warfare and emerging technologies at the GovCon International Summit. Register here.

Shield AI Demonstrates First Multi-Jet Autonomy Flights
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DOJ Watchdog Issues Memorandum on FBI’s Media Storage Procedures
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DOJ Watchdog Issues Memorandum on FBI’s Media Storage Procedures

The Department of Justice has expressed concerns over how the FBI manages its electronic storage for media that may contain sensitive but unclassified—or SBU—information.

Michael Horowitz, the inspector general of the DOJ, said in a management advisory memorandum addressed to FBI Director Christopher Wray that media containing SBU information or classified national security information are not always accounted for. 

According to the memorandum, the FBI requires field offices to extract hard drives from top secret computers for destruction. However, the law enforcement agency fails to track the internal hard drives and cannot ensure that the components were destroyed.

Horowitz also pointed out that components removed from computers and servers for disposal do not have the appropriate classification label needed to identify classification levels, which is against DOJ and FBI policies.

The physical security of media storages also causes concern. Horowitz recounted an incident in which a pallet of extracted internal hard drives was left in storage for 21 months, with its wrapping torn open. 

The IG recommends that the FBI update its procedures to ensure that electronic media storage containing sensitive or classified material are labeled appropriately, stored securely and always accounted for. The FBI agreed with the recommendations.

Get an update on the U.S. Intelligence Community directly from IC leaders at the Potomac Officers Club’s 2024 Intel Summit on Sept. 19. Register here.

DOJ Watchdog Issues Memorandum on FBI's Media Storage Procedures
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NSA & Partners Issue Cyber Information Sheet on Threat Detection
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NSA & Partners Issue Cyber Information Sheet on Threat Detection

The National Security Agency has released a cybersecurity information sheet outlining the best practices for event logging and threat detection in cloud services, enterprise networks, mobile devices and operational technology networks.

The CSI was published in collaboration with other federal agencies, such as the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, and international partners, led by the Australian Signals Directorate’s Australian Cyber Security Centre, NSA said.

“Best Practices for Event Logging and Threat Detection” is designed to help organizations’ IT and cyber personnel defend against threat actors that use living-off-the-land techniques.

“Implementing and maintaining an effective event logging solution improves the security and resilience of systems by enabling network visibility and quicker incident response,” NSA Cybersecurity Director Dave Luber said in a statement.

He noted that organizations must bolster their resilience against advanced attack strategies in today’s cyberthreat environment.

In the publication, the NSA details the important considerations when applying logging best practices, namely enterprise-approved logging policy, centralized log access and correlation, secure storage and log integrity, and detection strategy for relevant threats.

Public and private sector organizations are advised to review the guide and execute its recommended actions, which can help identify malicious activity, behavioral anomalies, and compromised networks, devices or accounts.

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Mike Horton Appointed Acting Chief AI Officer at Department of Transportation
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Mike Horton Appointed Acting Chief AI Officer at Department of Transportation

Mike Horton has been chosen as the acting chief artificial intelligence officer at the U.S. Department of Transportation, according to a post the executive shared on LinkedIn.

As the acting CAIO, Horton is charged with supervising the department’s AI use and fostering AI innovation. His other responsibilities include ensuring compliance with federal guidelines and regulations through risk assessment of AI applications, establishing and updating processes for measuring, monitoring and evaluating AI applications’ performance and utilizing a specific program for AI risk management.

Horton has been with USDOT for over five years. He joined the department in 2019 as team lead of the Federal Aviation Administration Human Capital Data Analytics and Systems. He then became deputy chief data officer in 2023, overseeing all the non-geospatial divisions within the Office of the Chief Data Officer.

As an educator, Horton was an adjunct professor at George Mason University and Saint Joseph’s University’s Erivan K. Haub School of Business. He currently teaches part-time at Northeastern University.

The AI governance professional served as a senior analyst, researcher and data engineer for the Office of Financial Research of the Department of the Treasury. He was also an analyst, researcher, investigator and data scientist for the Employee Benefits Security Administration of the Department of Labor.

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NSF to Host Workshop on Open-Source Software Ecosystem for Future Wireless R&D
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NSF to Host Workshop on Open-Source Software Ecosystem for Future Wireless R&D

The National Science Foundation will hold a workshop on Sept. 25 to examine the open-source software—or OSS—ecosystem that supports future wireless and spectrum research and development and identify opportunities to advance collaboration between R&D institutions and OSS communities to promote open-source platforms needed to drive wireless innovation.

According to a Federal Register notice published Wednesday, the workshop will be held at the Networking and Information Technology Research and Development National Coordination Office in Washington, D.C.

The event will also explore the objectives and limitations facing the diverse communities that play a role in shaping the direction of key OSS projects.

According to NSF, workshops sessions will address the current state of the wireless OSS ecosystem, emerging security and resilience requirements, transparency and confidence in OSS supply chains, and perspectives of researchers and experimenters on leveraging OSS to back wireless and spectrum R&D efforts.

Registration for the event will close on Sept. 24.

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