Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks said there’s no debating the “why” of zeroing in on AI — because it can give us better decision advantage, especially given our pacing challenge with competitors like China. But at least two key roadblocks are standing in the way of rapid, responsible AI development and advancements for the Pentagon.

Stay up to date with the latest AI advancements at the Potomac Officers Club’s 5th Annual AI Summit on March 21. Register here. 

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Scale AI and the Department of Defense's Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office have joined forces to establish a framework for testing and evaluating generative artificial intelligence. In a statement Tuesday, Alexandr Wang, founder and CEO of Scale AI, said, “Testing and evaluating generative AI will help the DOD understand the strengths and limitations of the technology, so it can be deployed responsibly.”

The Potomac Officers Club will host the 5th Annual Artificial Intelligence Summit on March 21. Click here to register!

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“The center of innovation does not reside at the Pentagon,” said William Bailey of the Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office, sharing that he is conscious that the breakneck speed of industry’s progress is not going to wait for some of the traditional partnership pathways.

He spoke during a panel discussion at Wednesday’s 10th Annual Defense R&D Summit, from the Potomac Officers Club. Browse upcoming events, like the March 5th Space Summit and the March 21st AI Summit!

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The Department of Defense has issued an Impact Level 5 provisional authorization for the cybersecurity testing offering from technology company Rebellion Defense. Rebellion Nova works to validate the security of a client's systems -- including zero trust architectures and software development environments -- and identify vulnerabilities by emulating the latest attacks used by adversaries, Rebellion Defense said Wednesday.

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Though venture capitalists have invested heavily into defense startups and these companies have expressed interest in pursuing more government contracts, these companies have not yet captured the attention of the Department of Defense. Defense spending trends continue to reflect a strong preference for more established contractors as in fiscal year 2023, startups only accounted for 1 percent of the $411 billion in contracts issued by the DOD.

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Draper will equip its unmanned autonomous systems with flight software and sensor-driven algorithms under a $26 million contract awarded through the Department of Defense's Joint Program Executive Office for Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Defense. The company said Wednesday that UAS software capability additions are meant to enable collaborative CBRN reconnaissance missions in degraded operating environments.

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The Department of Defense has awarded SkyWater Technology's subsidiary in Florida and the state's Osceola County a contract that would fund the tooling of the Center for Neovation semiconductor manufacturing facility. Work under the contract involves the acquisition and installation of equipment that would enable to use of Deca Technologies' fan-out wafer level packaging technology and the implementation of Deca's Adaptive Patterning design-during-manufacturing capability at the Florida fab, SkyWater said Wednesday.

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VivSoft Technologies has received a Strategic Fund Increase award to modernize the U.S. Air Force Unified Platform, which serves as a shared system for military cyber operations. Under the $15 million award, VivSoft said in a press release received by Executive Mosaic that it would develop and implement a set of UP capabilities -- collectively referred to as UPV1 -- that would containerize the UP data platform and provide Department of Defense users with zero trust access.

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RTX business Raytheon has been awarded a $155.7 million task order to supply a total of 53 Joint Standoff Weapon Air-To-Ground Missiles to the U.S. Navy and the government of Bahrain. The Department of Defense announced Friday that it ordered six units to replace missiles for use by the U.S. Navy as well as 47 missiles for the armed forces of Bahrain.

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Decision Lens will help the Office of the Secretary of Defense streamline its processes by modernizing the current manual approach to taking in and prioritizing more than 350 department projects. The company said Wednesday its software will be used by the Department of Defense's OSD Office of Innovation & Modernization for enabling automated project submission capability and facilitating submission and prioritization processes.

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James McHale, the Solutions Architect for Crowley Services has had a significant career and took on roles such as a Contracting Officer’s Representative for the U.S. Transportation Command.   You can gain valuable and fresh insights from his experience in the military and time spent in Afghanistan and Iraq, particularly in defense logistics and readiness.   […] More

The integration of the fifth-generation wireless technology standard has significantly expanded since the development of open radio access networks, said Carahsoft Sales Director Mark DeMerse. In an opinion piece published Thursday, he discussed the benefits of combining O-RAN and 5G networks to the Department of Defense and other federal agencies.

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