NewsBrief October 18, 2019

Army wants to spend nearly $1B on cloud, data by 2025

(FCW) The Army plans to invest almost $1 billion in cloud, data and artificial intelligence over the next five years but will put it all on hold if Congress doesn’t reach a funding deal or if the Pentagon’s $10 billion cloud buy is delayed. “The intent is to move the Army from the industrial-age processes to the information age of leveraging data as a strategic asset and utilizing private sector technology,” Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy said in prepared opening remarks at the Association of the U.S. Army’s annual conference Oct. 14. “We will manage big data, employ AI-enabled tools in earnest without sacrificing cyber security or resilience. We intend to invest over $700 million” across the 2021-2025 Future Years Defense Program, he said. Read More

Federal CIO Kent: AI creating more jobs than it’s taking over

(Federal News Network) The Trump administration, as part of its strategy on artificial intelligence, has spent a considerable amount of time identifying jobs that become obsolete with the rise of automation. As part of that effort, agencies have also looked at predicting what new career paths automation might create in the years ahead. But now some officials say fear over automation-related job security might have gone too far. Federal Chief Information Officer Suzette Kent, who has overseen some of the administration’s reskilling pilots, like the Federal Cyber Reskilling Academy, said some of these anxieties about automation aren’t new. Read More

The Patent Office Is Hunting for an Artificial Intelligence Expert

(Nextgov) The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office recently launched a recruitment effort to hire its first-ever senior-level artificial intelligence expert to advance the agency’s applications of the emerging technology and provide technical expertise to keep employees on the leading edge. In a conversation with Nextgov, USPTO’s chief information officer provided a look inside the search to fill the new role and explained how it all fits into the agency’s broader vision around modernization. “We need to figure out how we can use those algorithms to the best of our abilities,” CIO Henry “Jamie” Holcombe said Friday. “We’ve seen an explosion in AI submissions and so AI is now maturing to a point to where it actually can be used—we don’t want it to be a buzzword.” Read More

Use of Artificial Intelligence Poised to Grow in State Government, Survey Finds

(Route Fifty) Artificial intelligence is seen as the emerging technology with the most potential by state chief information officers, yet basically none say AI is widely deployed in their state, according to a new report. The findings detailed in a report from the National Association of State Chief Information Officers, Center for Digital Government and IBM underscore the lengths states have to go to realize the potential of artificial intelligence in state government. Read More

DISA Wants a Pentagon-Wide Identity Management System

(NextGov) The Defense Department wants to stand up a system for managing the digital identities of every one of its personnel, and it’s looking to the security community for help. On Friday, officials at the Defense Information Systems Agency announced it was looking to create a system that would let the Pentagon oversee the digital credentials and online activity of the people who use its IT infrastructure. The tech, called the Enterprise Identity Service, would store the usernames and passwords for employees, vendors and other authorized users in a single record, which they could then use to access the networks and platforms they need for their jobs. Read More

Hypersonics: Lockheed Says Supply Chain Is ‘The Test’

(Breaking Defense) AUSA: The idea of a weapon that flies faster than five times the speed of sound is still something of a wonder. But one of the top industrial experts in hypersonics, Lockheed’s Eric Scherff, says the biggest test to producing and deploying offensive hypersonic weapons will not be the technology for ultra-high-speed itself, which has been demonstrated and proven, but the supply chain required to build those weapons in quantity. Industrial base issues have afflicted some of the biggest and most important Pentagon programs, including the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) and the Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM), as Breaking D readers know. Read More

Managing your external supply system for innovation

(McKinsey & Company) When it comes to innovation, there’s too much to do and too little time to act. Across sectors, companies are experiencing a significant rise in demand for innovative products and services. Customers want products that perform better, offer new features, and are thoroughly tailored to their individual needs. As a result, product lifecycles are shrinking, while complexity increases. Meanwhile, novel and disruptive business models are radically changing the capabilities and technologies companies need to compete. Globalization exacerbates these challenges, creating the need for products and variants that comply with different local regulations and meet specific local market requirements. Read More

Raytheon’s Pitch For Precision Strike, The Post INF Missile

(Breaking Defense) AUSA: It’s one of the Army’s top priorities, the Precision Strike Missile, a weapon to replace the venerable ATACMS missile built by Lockheed. Lockheed is competing for the prize, and it’s the incumbent, which can be a powerful factor in winning a competition. Raytheon, maker of the Patriot, SM-3 and SM-6 missiles, is driving hard to provide a longer range missile now that the US has withdrawn from the Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) and the Army hopes to buy a missile with a range of up to 800 kilometers. The INF Treaty limited ballistic missiles to a range of less than 500 km. Read More

USMC Tests Radar Systems With New Raytheon-Made Tech

(ExecutiveGov) The U.S. Marine Corps demonstrated integrated operation between its radar systems and technology based on an Israeli air defense platform in August, Marine Corps Times reported Thursday. The Ground/Air Task-Oriented Radar or G/ATOR performed alongside SkyHunter, a Raytheon-made air defense system based on Israel’s Iron Dome technology. Barb Hamby, a USMC spokesperson, said the service branch demonstrated its systems’ joint operation with other technologies during a live-fire exercise. Read More

NASA Highlights Science on Next Northrop Grumman Mission to Space Station

(NASA) Northrop Grumman is targeting Saturday, Nov. 2, at 9:59 a.m., for the launch of its Cygnus spacecraft on an Antares rocket from pad 0A at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Virginia. Jennifer Buchli, deputy chief scientist for the International Space Station Program Science Office at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, and Michael Roberts, interim chief scientist for the ISS U.S. National Lab, will provide an overview of the research and technology aboard the Cygnus spacecraft. Read More