DARPA, Air Force Leaders Preview Future Opportunities
NAVSEA Announces Forthcoming BAA for the Naval Engineering Education Consortium (NEEC)
Air Force Research Lab Competing $96M Engine Technology Contract
IARPA to Release BAA for Securing Compartmented Information with Smart Radio Systems (SCISRS)
Air Force Hyperspace Challenge Accelerator Now Accepting Applications for 2020 Cohort
DHS SVIP Industry Day Introduces COVID-19 Funding Opportunities for Start-up Companies
DARPA Releases SBIR/STTR Opportunity for Cryptography for Hyper-scale Architectures in a Robust Internet of Things (CHARIOT)
Army Releases Special Program Awards for Required Technology Needs (SPARTN)
Air Force SBIR and STTR Programs Release CSO Topics
DARPA Releases AI Opportunity for Recovery of Symbolic Mathematics from Code (ReMath)
Space Force Announces Space and Missile Systems Center Pitch Day for Spring 2021
WHAT WE'RE READING
We Need to Reorganize More than the Military
AI Sweeps Top F-16 Pilot in DARPA Dogfight Simulation
Updated Acquisition Framework Misses the Mark for Biotechnology
NATIONAL SECURITY NEWS
Homeland Security Advisory Council Establishes Academic Institutions Subcommittee, Releases Biotechnology Recommendations
The Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf tasked the Homeland Security Advisory Council (HSAC) on August 17 to start a new Academic Institutions Subcommittee. This Subcommittee will review and deliver recommendations in 180 days on critical homeland security issues related to academia including international students, academic research and faculty exchanges, student and recent graduate student recruitment, campus resilience, and homeland security academic programs.
In a memo to HSAC, Secretary Wolf charged the Academic Institutions Subcommittee with assessing:
- The threat of malign foreign influence and interference in U.S. academic institutions
- The openness of academic research and the exchange of ideas between institutions of higher education and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), including DHS research programs
- Promotion of campus resilience resources to address a range of threats or hazards affecting institutions of K-12 and higher education
- International student engagement as it relates to immigration and processing student nonimmigrant applications and Optional Practical Training requests
- The number of student visa recipients who violate their status
During its August 18 meeting, HSAC received reports from several new subcommittees established in 2020, including the subcommittees on Economic Security, Information and Communications Technology Risk Reduction, Biometrics, and Building Youth-Focused Engagements. In its report, the Economic Security Subcommittee said DHS, specifically the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), should develop a whole-of-government supply chain intelligence capability to bring together various federal efforts to assess and address risks to the supply chain and specifically Chinese threats to U.S. Intellectual Property.
The Emerging Technologies Subcommittee released its Final Report on Biotechnology, which recommended DHS:
- Establish a task force to monitor developments in gene editing technology like Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR) and its applications;
- Develop a capability to detect the use of CRISPR; and
- Monitor and develop capabilities to prevent the use of CRISPR technology for unwanted gene modifications.
The HSAC also added three new members: John Clark, former director of the U.S. Marshals Service; Sharon Cooper, a developmental and forensic pediatrician on the faculty at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences in Bethesda, MD; and Daniel Kaniewski, former Deputy Administrator for Resilience at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). More information about the HSAC, including meeting minutes and links to subcommittee reports, is here.
DARPA Microelectronics Summit Highlights Early Successes in Leading-Edge Secure Devices and Workforce Development for National Security
DARPA’s $1.5 billion Electronics Resurgence Initiative (ERI) is yielding “outstanding progress” and “first of their kind” accomplishments to advance microelectronics at its halfway point, according to the chief of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Speaking at the third ERI Summit and Microsystems Technology Office (MTO) Symposium on August 18-20, Dr. Peter Highnam, DARPA Acting Director, noted that DARPA’s effort to ensure DOD has ready access to leading edge secure microelectronics devices has already produced results including:
- The first integration of photonics with state-of-the-art Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA)
- The first 3D processor made in a domestic foundry
- A three orders-of-magnitude improvement in performance to radar processing
The ERI Summit and MTO Symposium, held virtually, brought together electronics leaders and stakeholders from academia, government, and industry to foster collaboration and share progress on DARPA’s electronics efforts. Dr. Mark Rosker, Director of MTO, highlighted the office’s focus on 5G and next generation communications; microelectronics security; artificial intelligence (AI), autonomy, and processing; and heterogeneous 3D microsystems design, fabrication, and packaging. DARPA program managers and researchers from universities, industry, and government described state-of-the-art capabilities in areas like heterogeneous integration, advanced packaging, and 3D system-on-a-chip manufacturing in the United States, as well as education and workforce development efforts to ensure the U.S. has the domestic workforce and an asymmetric advantage against global competitors.
Michael Kratsios, White House Chief Technology Officer and Acting Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering (USD(R&E)), noted that DOD has made microelectronics one of its highest priority technology efforts, as the semiconductor industry is at the root of the nation’s economic strength and national security. Beyond microelectronics, Kratsios highlighted the ever-growing importance of AI, 5G, quantum computing, and autonomous vehicles. DOD is employing a quantifiable assurance strategy for securing the microelectronics supply chain based on the “zero trust” technology used in the cybersecurity sector, Kratsios said. Ellen Lord, Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment (USD(A&S)), stated that the U.S. microelectronics industry is at an “inflection point,” and that the reliance on overseas manufacturers for microelectronics poses a threat to national security. Lord emphasized that public-private partnerships with industry are essential to onshoring U.S. microelectronics manufacturing.
For more information on the DARPA ERI Summit and MTO Symposium, check here.
Trump Administration Releases its FY 2022 R&D Budget Priorities; Deprioritizes Military Capabilities for Pandemic Response and Future Industries
The White House released its
annual memorandum on priorities for research and development (R&D) for fiscal year (FY) 2022, offering a forecast of federal agencies’ science and technology (S&T) investments in the next President’s budget request. For the first time in the Trump Administration, the memo does not list national security and advanced military capabilities as the top R&D priority. Due to the public health and economic impacts of COVID-19, public health and biotechnology has been elevated from the fourth priority last year to the first this year. Industries of the Future remains the second priority, and “American security” fell to third place. Within American security, issues related to resilience and in particular capabilities to anticipate, prevent, respond, and recover from “physical threats and natural disasters,” “infectious diseases and other biological threats,” and “extreme terrestrial and space weather events” were prioritized. A comprehensive analysis of the Trump Administration’s FY 2022 R&D priorities can be found
here.
However, it should be noted that these priorities, developed jointly by the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), may change should there be a new administration in January. Were former Vice President Joe Biden to be elected in the November presidential election, his incoming administration would be responsible for releasing an FY 2022 budget request and would have different funding and budget priorities compared to the Trump Administration.
DARPA Welcomes New Director
The Department of Defense
announced that Dr. Victoria Coleman will become the new director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Coleman is a member of the Defense Science Board (DSB) and was the founding chair of the
DARPA Microsystems Exploratory Council. She has served in a number of executive roles in the tech sector, including with Yahoo!, Intel, and Atlas AI. Her previous work includes key technologies such as “artificial intelligence, microelectronics, and design and development of mobile devices and other consumer electronics products.” Coleman will replace Stephen Walker, who resigned in January 2020. Dr. Peter Highnam, who served as the Acting Director in the interim, will return to his role as the Deputy Director of DARPA.
VIEW FROM THE HILL
SASC Highlights Recommendations of the Cyberspace Solarium Commission in August Hearing
Congress continues to push the federal government to take comprehensive actions to strengthen U.S. posture and security in cyberspace. The Senate Committee on Armed Services (SASC) used an August 4
hearing to bring further attention to the recommendations of the Cyberspace Solarium Commission (CSC). The CSC was established in the fiscal year (FY) 2019
National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) to create a bipartisan, intergovernmental body tasked with developing a consensus on a strategic approach to defending the U.S. in cyberspace.
The Committee heard testimony from members of the CSC, including Senator Angus King (I-ME), Representative Michael Gallagher (R-WI), and Brigadier General John C. Inglis. A major part of the hearing centered around the CSC’s recommendation to establish a National Cyber Director, who would coordinate all cyber security issues between each of the seven agencies who have their own cyber center. Some SASC members were unsure how this would impact cyber operations, expressing concern that adding another position would further complicate the bureaucracy, but the panelists argued that the National Cyber Director would focus on planning, oversight, and policies around cyber and would not be involved in the chain of command for cyber operations.
The Commission had a total of 80 recommendations in its March 2020
report, and a total of 29 of those recommendations are in either the House or the Senate versions of the NDAA. Along with the establishment of the Office of the National Cyber Director within the Executive Office of the President, some amendments recommended by the CSC that appear in the House or Senate NDAA include provisions that would:
- Authorize the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) to provide shared cybersecurity services to smaller agencies to assist in meeting Federal Information Security Modernization Act requirements
- Require the Secretary of Homeland Security to develop a strategy to implement authentication standards across U.S.-based email providers
- Create a Joint Cyber Planning Office at CISA to coordinate cybersecurity planning and readiness across government and critical infrastructure owners and operators
Congress has taken the Commission’s findings seriously and has included provisions that would extend the Commission’s duration in the FY 2021 NDAA, so that the Commission could continue to monitor for new cyber policy issues that the federal government should address.
FUNDING AND ENGAGEMENT OPPORTUNITIES
DARPA, Air Force Leaders Preview Future Opportunities
Leaders of two military research organizations offered glimpses of forthcoming funding and engagement opportunities during two online events in late August. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR) increased their efforts to connect with university research officials and faculty this summer by hosting interactive summits on Zoom and Twitter.
During an August 25 DARPA event intended for Vice Presidents and Vice Chancellors for Research and their research development staffs, the DARPA office directors described their portfolios, urged participants to reach out to program managers with new ideas, and encouraged researchers to consider a term assignment as a DARPA program manager. Dr. Valerie Browning, Director of DARPA’s Defense Sciences Office (DSO), said the agency’s annual Young Faculty Award (YFA) program topics for 2021 would be published in September 2020. The YFA program is highly competitive and offers two-year awards to help develop future DARPA principal investigators and program managers, she said. DARPA leadership stressed that to be successful at DARPA, researchers have to address hard technological problems as well as military mission needs. Lewis-Burke also learned from an Office of Naval Research (ONR) program manager that the ONR Young Investigator Program (YIP) solicitation is expected to be released within the next month.
Dr. Bill Scherlis, Director of the Information Innovation Office (I2O), said the office is currently developing a soon-to-be released I2Exploration (I2E) program modeled after DARPA’s existing
Artificial Intelligence (AI) Exploration (AIE) and
Microelectronics Exploration (µE) programs. These Exploration programs constitute a series of high-risk, high payoff, short-term projects where researchers work to establish the feasibility of new AI and microelectronics concepts, respectively, within 18 months of award. DARPA uses streamlined contracting procedures and funding mechanisms to move these efforts from proposal to project kick-off within three months of an opportunity announcement. DARPA issued a new program announcement for the AIE program in August
here.
On the same day as the DARPA summit, AFOSR’s new Director Dr. Shery Welsh hosted a one-hour “#Basic Research Chatter” on
Twitter during which researchers could directly post questions. In response to a question regarding the implementation of the Air Force’s S&T 2030 strategy, Welsh said AFOSR is working to accelerate the strategy focused on transitioning game-changing capabilities from basic research to the lab to the field and is “expanding the Center of Excellence program.” Welsh also said AFOSR is planning a virtual roadshow this fall for Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Minority-serving Institutions (HBCU/MI). AFOSR will host its next #BasicResearch Chatter on September 22, 2020, highlighting its Asian Office of Aerospace Research and Development.
Lewis-Burke learned that DARPA’s Biological Technologies Office (BTO) plans to host a Biotech Summit in 2021, following the cancellation of the 2020 Biotech Summit planned for June 3-4 in Chicago due to COVID-19 concerns. According to BTO’s acting director, the office intends to host the in-person conference in Chicago but may opt for a virtual event depending on the ongoing pandemic. As previously reported by Lewis-Burke, the BTO Biotech Summit will bring together members of the broader biotechnology research community, including industry, academia, and government, and offer an opportunity for one-on-one sessions with program managers during the second day of the event.
NAVSEA Announces Forthcoming BAA for the Naval Engineering Education Consortium (NEEC)
The Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) announced its plans to release a broad agency announcement (BAA) in September for naval technology challenges following its virtual National Capital Region Tech Bridge University Day held on August 5, 2020. The University Day highlighted its NavalX Tech Bridges, which are innovation collaboration clusters throughout the nation linking academia, small businesses, and non-profits to Navy partners. The University Day also provided an overview of the Naval Research Lab (NRL), Naval Surface Warfare Centers (NSWCs), and the Naval Engineering Education Consortium (NEEC). Through the NEEC, NAVSEA seeks to establish relationships between Naval engineering colleges, universities, and academics, as well as partner/mentor relationships between students and researchers at NAVSEA.
The NEEC BAA is expected to be released on
www.grants.gov on
September 7, 2020, with awards ranging from $100,000 to $150,000 per year for a total of three years. Following the BAA release, the Navy will host a NEEC-specific Tech Bridge session on
September 14, 2020. The FY 2019 NEEC BAA included research topics such as:
- Machine Learning Systems for Wireless Cyber Environments: Methods to evaluate the readiness of machine learning systems in environments with adversarial RF signals
- Big Data analysis tool development: “data classification, clustering, dimensionality reduction, predictive analysis, and visualization to include forensic and streaming data analysis”
- Emerging software development: Scalable Linux and real-time visualization support for cyber security; software metrics, certification, and verification; automated testing; multicore hardware; and model-based development
- Modeling and simulation development of methods for aggregating data across higher and lower-level simulations, tools to link simulation results to mission effectiveness, and Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) methods and tools
- Cyber and Cyber-Warfare Research and Development: "Innovative cyber-warfare and information-assurance tools specifically with respect to evaluation and visualization to aid in testing software systems during and after development.” Tools developed would evaluate software systems with respect to vulnerabilities, unexpected responses or choices, and other details that would impact a system.
The full presentation from the University Day, which includes links to engagement and funding opportunities, as well as a list of past awardees from fiscal year (FY) 2016 through FY 2019, can be found
here.
Air Force Research Lab Competing $96M Engine Technology Contract
The Air Force Research Lab (AFRL) announced their intention to award two, multiple-award fair opportunity Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contracts, and six initial task order awards for The Research Enabling Procurement for Aerospace Systems (REPAS) program. The $96 million contract will go towards the efforts of advancing propulsion mechanization for warfighting technology. Components of the opportunity includes:
- Component design and development
- Subsystem integration
- Bench, rig, and engine testing
The contract will require the ability to operate at SECRET classification (DD254 required) and Military Critical Technical Data certifications. It is required by contract that eligible applicants must create a team involving a prime contractor or a small business. Full proposals are due by
October 5, 2020 at 3:00 PM ET. The full broad agency announcement (BAA) can be found on
www.beta.sam.gov under solicitation number “FA8650-20-S-6004”.
IARPA to Release BAA for Securing Compartmented Information with Smart Radio Systems (SCISRS)
The Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA) has released its draft broad agency announcement (BAA) for the Securing Compartmented Information with Smart Radio Systems (SCISRS) Program, following a Proposers Day on August 20. The goal of the SCISRS program is to “develop smart radio techniques to automatically detect and characterize radio frequency (RF) anomalies in complex RF environments.” IARPA intends for the methods produced be adaptable to numerous RF hardware so that information and data can be stored in remote locations or “in the wild.” The draft of the SCISRS BAA can be found on
www.beta.sam.gov by searching for “IARPA-PRS-20-03.”
Air Force Hyperspace Challenge Accelerator Now Accepting Applications for 2020 Cohort
The Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) and CNM Ingenuity is now accepting applications for the Hyperspace Challenge through September 10, 2020. The challenge, created to foster networking and relationships between space technology startups and government and military agencies, announced this year’s theme as Trusted Autonomy. Chosen applicants will work to address the difficulties that comes with developing a highly autonomous, on-orbit operational spacecraft, including:
- Next-Level Autonomy in Remote Environments
- Automatic Hazard Detection and Avoidance
- Preventing and Adapting to Autonomy Failures
- Adopting State-of-the-Art Machine Learning for Space Vehicles
- Enhancing Spacecraft Autonomy with Resilient Computing Solutions
Chosen applicants will be announced in late September with the program’s official start date set as the beginning in October. After three months of working one on one with government customers and experts, companies will present their ideas at the Space Startup Summit on December 3, 2020 for the chance to win a cash prize. More information and how to apply for the Hyperspace Challenge can be found here.
DHS SVIP Industry Day Introduces COVID-19 Funding Opportunities for Start-up Companies
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS)
Silicon Valley Innovation Program (SVIP) introduced a new topic call for funding opportunities related to COVID-19 during an industry day on August 18. Only small companies with less than 200 employees and entities with no US Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR)-based contracts, federally-awarded grants totaling more than $1 million dollars in the last 12 months, or Cost Accounting Standards Contracts with the US government are eligible to apply. Universities may serve as partners on applications, teams must make it clear to SVIP that the start-up is the project lead. The purpose of the DHS SVIP program is to allow small businesses, especially those without prior government contracts, to contract with DHS to help solve complicated technical use cases.
Applicants can apply to any of the following use cases under the COVID-19 topic call:
- Creation of a test and validation service for contact tracing applications
- Creation of video analytic solutions to contribute to the development of self-screening checkpoints
- Development of tools to disinfect surfaces quickly and effectively in a variety of public environments (ex: TSA checkpoints)
- Development of tools to collect and integrate authoritative open-source information
- Creation of technologies to help screen DHS employees and guests for COVID-19 that are not fever-based and can catch asymptomatic carriers
Upon invitation by SVIP, applicants will be asked to present a 15-minute pitch and will be notified within 48 hours if the project was selected to receive funding. Proposers may be able to receive contracts of up to $800,000 over two years to develop their marketable idea. During the industry day, SVIP representatives emphasized that contractors with SVIP do not give up their intellectual property for solutions presented to DHS, nor are they pushed into pivoting into government-only work. Instead, SVIP works with companies to turn marketable ideas into solutions for DHS while also helping them commercialize. Applications are due on
September 30, 2020 at 3:00 PM ET. The full solicitation is available
here.
DARPA Releases SBIR/STTR Opportunity for Cryptography for Hyper-scale Architectures in a Robust Internet of Things (CHARIOT)
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Small Business Programs Office (SBPO) issued a Direct to Phase II (DP2) SBIR/STTR Opportunity (SBO) to explore encryption technology prototyping in connection to DARPA’s “Open, Programmable, Secure 5G” (OPS-5G) program. The Cryptography for Hyper-scale Architectures in a Robust Internet of Things (CHARIOT) seeks prototyping of “fast, efficient, and quantum-resistant” encryption technology.
DARPA will accept DP2 proposals for costs of up to $2,250,000. Responses must be submitted through the SBIR/STTR BAA website by
September 29, 2020 at 12:00 PM ET. Full eligibility criteria for entities interested in applying is available in the SBIR/STTR BAA on
https://beta.sam.gov under solicitation number HR001120S0019. The website for proposal submissions can be found at
https://www.dodsbirsttr.mil/submissions/login. The CHARIOTS opportunity can be found on
https://beta.sam.gov under solicitation number “HR001120S0019-21.”
Army Releases Special Program Awards for Required Technology Needs (SPARTN)
The Army introduced in late August a new funding opportunity program known as Special Program Awards for Required Technology Needs (SPARTN) as a joint effort between the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics, and Technology (ASA(ALT)) Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) team and the Army Applications Lab (AAL) at Army Futures Command. SPARTN leverages SBIR funding to engage a group of solvers, primarily from small business, that act as a cohort to address critical Army needs. Up to 15 companies per SPARTN problem could receive a contract up to $200,000 for a four-month period of performance and can join an 18-week AAL cohort to work with Army decision-makers and end users. Following a concept demonstration for Army users, up to five companies per topic could receive up to $1.5 million for a 9 to 24-month period of performance. The program includes potential access to higher-value contracts via SBIR, other government funds, and private investment, with the goal of transitioning technologies to Army programs of record.
The first topic, which opens September 18, 2020, is called “Fire Faster” and is focused on developing alternative cannon reloading approaches for the Self-Propelled Howitzer Systems (SPHS) to support high, sustained rates of fire and technologies that would optimize the ammunition handling process. The full announcement is available at beta.sam.gov under “AAL-SPARTN-SBIR-BAA-20-5.” Responses are due by
12:00 p.m. EDT on October 8, 2020. More information about the program is available at
https://aal.army/spartn/. An informational webinar on the Fire Faster challenge will be held on September 3, 2020 from 1:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. EDT. Registration information is available
here. A separate informational webinar on the SPARTN program will be held on September 8, 2020 from 2:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. EDT. Registration is available
here.
Air Force SBIR and STTR Programs Release CSO Topics
The Air Force (AF) Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Programs released respective Commercial Solutions Openings (CSO), outlining priority technology areas on August 27. Each CSO includes eight topic areas, as well as a “Blue Sky” category for proposed solutions that do not fit in one of the listed technology areas. Topics include:
- Aerospace Systems Technology
- Materials and Manufacturing Technology
- Directed Energy Technology
- Human Performance, including Medical Technologies
- Sensors Technology
- Munitions Technology
- Information Technology
- Space Vehicles Technology
Details on each topic are outlined in the
SBIR and
STTR CSOs. Proposals for both are due no later than noon Eastern Time on October 22, 2020. Additional information on DOD SBIR programs and the submission portal is available
here. Further, the Air Force provides related resources and engagement opportunities through
AFVentures, the “collaboration between Air Force Acquisition, AFWERX, and AF SBIR/STTR” to communicate and work with private innovators and investors.
DARPA Releases AI Opportunity for Recovery of Symbolic Mathematics from Code (ReMath)
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) issued an Artificial Intelligence Exploration (AIE) Opportunity for its Recovery of Symbolic Mathematics from Code (ReMath) program. The ReMath AIE program is seeking proposals that will discover whether recent advances in AI can recover mathematical structures implemented in software into their natural mathematical forms of symbolic expression. Proposals should aim to enable future analysis and testing advances of cyber physical systems. The 18-month program will consist of two phases, and awards of up to $1 million will be made as Other Transaction (OT) prototype projects. Proposals are due by
September 18, 2020 at 12:00pm ET. The full solicitation can be found on
www.beta.sam.gov under notice ID “DARPA-PA-20-02-01.”
Space Force Announces Space and Missile Systems Center Pitch Day for Spring 2021
The United States Space Force (USSF) Space and Missile Systems Center (SMC) plans to host an in-person
Pitch Day in Spring 2021 in Los Angeles, contingent on the status of the coronavirus pandemic. The Spring 2021 Pitch Day will focus on challenges unique to SMC, which functions as USSF’s primary space systems development and acquisitions arm. Following a model pioneered by the Air Force, USSF Pitch Days allow proposers to promote novel and innovative technologies directly to acquisition officials. The technology focus areas of the Spring 2021 Pitch Day include innovation in early missile detection and warning; space situational awareness; data mining; artificial intelligence; and other topics critical to space technologies. Pitch Day proposals, which are submitted through the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) mechanism, can be found
here under topic “AF203-CSO2”. Proposals are due
October 27, 2020.
WHAT WE'RE READING
We Need to Reorganize More than the Military
In a
Defense One op-ed, Steve Ferenzi and Keith Weber discuss what actions the government must take to redevelop U.S. defense and diplomacy to meet challenges from China and Russia. Former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has argued that U.S. foreign policy is over-reliant on the military, with ambassadors and legislators expressing the need to integrate all foreign policy tools beyond just a military response. The authors call for diplomacy and intelligence to be re-integrated with military power and propose “a network of integrated regional commands coordinated and facilitated from the president’s National Security Council (NSC).” This would be like the integrated model of the military’s 11 combatant commands, but with a more comprehensive approach. Recommendations to reorganize the diplomacy-military imbalance include:
- Creating an NSC China–Russia Task Force, focusing on their competition campaign activities;
- Aligning the geographic combatant command boundaries of the Department of Defense (DOD), the Department of State (DOS), and all other agencies and intelligence communities; and
- Creating regional ambassadors-at-large to coordinate regional efforts. These ambassadors would report to the NSC.
To operate at the same level and succeed against adversaries such as China and Russia, the authors argue that DOD must discontinue its control of foreign policy. Read more
here.
AI Sweeps Top F-16 Pilot in DARPA Dogfight Simulation
As reported by
Breaking Defense, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) held a three-day simulated aerial dogfight contest between one of the Air Force’s best F-16 fighter pilots and an Artificial Intelligence (AI) “pilot” system. The contest had five separate games with the AI pilot sweeping all five with DARPA’s Justin Mock saying that the AI had “superhuman aiming ability.” The AI pilot system, created by a small, female and minority-owned company called
Heron, beat eight other AI pilot systems in the semi-finals prior to this competition, including one created by Lockheed Martin. The competition was created for DARPA’s ongoing Air Combat Evolution (ACE) program, which seeks to develop unmanned systems that can engage in individual tactics, such as maneuvering and shooting targets, allowing for a pilot to manage other aspects of a mission. DARPA intends to have other Air Force pilots compete against the AI pilot to further test its capabilities. Read more
here.
Updated Acquisition Framework Misses the Mark for Biotechnology
National Defense discusses how the Department of Defense’s (DOD) updated “Adaptive Acquisition Framework,” is missing a major strategic initiative: Biotechnology acquisition. Instead, the author suggests the framework was updated to allow for the rapid prototyping of “software-intense systems” such as cyber and artificial intelligence. To adequately capitalize on this emerging national defense priority, the author argues that DOD should continue to reform its acquisition frameworks to help the Department expand its partnerships and collaborations with the biotechnology industry, in order to better integrate biotechnology into future operations. Read more
here.
