Technology

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and NASA will jointly seek out input on how forecasts can reduce the adverse effects of geomagnetic storms faced by navigation systems. The MagNet: Model the Geomagnetic Field challenge calls for new forecast models that would help the government predict magnetic field changes and produce more accurate magnetic navigation, crowdsourcing initiative partner HeroX said Tuesday.

CPI Aerostructures will support a Wilder Systems-led project to demonstrate to the U.S. Army a manufacturing robot's ability to perform repetitive and complex mixed-stack drilling activities.

Aerojet Rocketdyne and the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory conducted hot-fire tests for an 18-foot air-breathing hypersonic engine built in support of the Medium Scale Critical Components initiative.

The U.S. Air Force and Kratos Defense and Security Solutions demonstrated the flight of an attritable XQ-58A Valkyrie unmanned aircraft system designed to require fewer maintenance costs compared to other models. The fifth demonstration of the Kratos-made aircraft took place at Arizona-based Yuma Proving Ground on Dec. 9 with Air Force Research Laboratory under the attritableONE program, Robins Air Force Base said Tuesday.

Northrop Grumman has made an investment in Deepwave Digital and partnered with the company to advance research-and-development work on artificial intelligence to enhance communications processing capability.

Lockheed Martin has demonstrated the use of Kubernetes-based processing aboard a U-2 Dragon Lady reconnaissance aircraft as a precursor to achieving real-time software deliveries during flights. The Kubernetes containerization technology test, conducted in November, supports an effort to create a secure software development environment that allows aircraft to accommodate software updates when airborne, Lockheed said Monday.

The Air National Guard has tapped Sierra Nevada Corp. to equip the security force's EC-130J Commando Solo aircraft with new Link 16 communications. The tactical datalink update would allow the military reserve's aircraft to communicate on the Link-16 network that provides situational awareness across the U.S. Air Force fleet and other users, SNC said Monday.

BAE Systems is looking to introduce miniature spectrometers for microsatellites to help the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration gather high-resolution weather and climate data, SpaceNews reported Monday.

Petko Stoyanov, chief technology officer for global governments at Forcepoint, wrote in an opinion piece published Monday on C4ISRNET that federal agencies looking to implement a zero trust architecture should enable behavioral analytics by consolidating identity platforms.

Small satellite maker Blue Canyon Technologies has wrapped up a critical design review of its X-SAT Saturn-class satellite bus for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's Blackjack program.

Carahsoft Technology has agreed to offer Opus Interactive's suite of hybrid and multicloud platforms and services to public sector customers through the former's Cloud Purchasing Program. "Opus Interactive's focus on compliance with FedRAMP and the latest regulatory mandates makes them a great addition to our cloud solutions portfolio under CPP,“ said John Lee, vice president of cloud services at Carahsoft.

The Intelligence Advanced Research Project Activity plans to host an event to inform industry about a new program that seeks energy-efficient computer systems for large-scale data analytics. IARPA said it wants to provide interested parties with details about the Advanced Graphic Intelligence Logical Computing Environment or AGILE program through a virtual proposer's event on Dec. 22.

AeroVironment has unveiled a new lightweight antenna add-on kit designed to expand the command-and-control range of unmanned aircraft systems to provide operators with increased operational capabilities. The company said Thursday its new Extended Range Antenna comes in a small scale in terms of size, weight and power and produces a narrowed beam width that extends C2 coverage by a maximum of 24.9 miles.

NASA has selected Astra Space, Relativity Space and Firefly Black to launch different types of small satellites under contracts with a combined value of $16.7M. The companies will send to space nanosatellites, CubeSats and other types of small satellites under the Venture Class Launch Services Demonstration 2 effort, the space agency said Saturday.

Julie McPherson, an executive vice president and head of digital solutions business at Booz Allen Hamilton, wrote in a guest piece published Friday on Nextgov that there are five rules technology leaders at federal agencies should consider to maintain the momentum in digital transformation to meet mission needs and one is planning for and harnessing failure to continuously improve a platform.