Weekly GEOINT Community News

President’s Executive Order to Secure U.S. Infrastructure, L3Harris Selected by U.S. Air Force for Artificial Intelligence Contract, Parsons Wins Seat on Potential $249M U.S. Navy Contract, and More

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President’s Executive Order to Secure U.S. Infrastructure

President Donald J. Trump’s executive order on Strengthening National Resilience through Responsible Use of Positioning, Navigation, and Timing Services seeks to ensure that the nation’s critical infrastructures build in resilience against disruptions to GPS or any other single source of PNT. Under the Executive Order, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and other federal agencies will work with the private sector to identify and promote responsible methods of using PNT services—from GPS and other sources—that appropriately manage risks. These efforts will leverage the existing National Infrastructure Protection Plan and NIST Cybersecurity Framework. In addition, NIST will maintain its independent source of precision time and make it available for the public and private sectors to access in support of the needs of critical infrastructure owners and operators.

L3Harris Selected By U.S. Air Force For Artificial Intelligence Contract

L3Harris Technologies received a multimillion-dollar contract to develop a software platform that will make it easier for analysts to use artificial intelligence (AI) to identify objects in large data sets, for the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center. Automated searches using algorithms that can identify pre-loaded images of objects make pinpointing them easier. However, in order to train these algorithms, real images are often unavailable because they are either rare or do not exist. The L3Harris platform creates sample images used to train search algorithms to identify hard-to-find objects in the data, which will help make it easier for the military and intelligence community to adopt AI.

Parsons Wins Seat on Potential $249M U.S. Navy Contract

Parsons has been selected by the Naval Information Warfare Center Pacific as one of nine awardees for a potential $249 million indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity, multiple award contract to provide life-cycle services for software and hardware of new and existing command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance systems, and networks.

Lockheed Martin-Built GPS III Satellite Delivered to Cape Canaveral

The third Lockheed Martin-built GPS III space vehicle (GPS III SV03) shipped to Cape Canaveral on Feb. 5 from the company’s GPS III Processing Facility near Denver. In keeping with its tradition of nicknaming satellites after famous explorers, the GPS III team nicknamed GPS III SV03 “Columbus.” GPS III SV03 is the latest of up to 32 next-generation GPS III/GPS III Follow-On (GPS IIIF) satellites Lockheed Martin has designed and is building to help the Space Force modernize today’s GPS constellation with new technology and capabilities.

Northrop Grumman Licensed New Wet-Mateable Connector Technology

Northrop Grumman signed its first non-exclusive agreement to manufacture niobium-based connectors (NiobiCon™) specifically designed for harsh environments. NiobiCon™ is a new way of making electrical connections underwater that enables power transfer and data exchange without using seals, oil or moving parts. The technology was developed to address inefficient recharging of unmanned vehicles in underwater environments. When the niobium connector enters in contact with the water, it creates its own thin isolating layer, which gets scraped off when the connection is made. The layer instantly regenerates once disconnected.

Peer Intel

Dewberry promoted electrical engineer Michael McTavish to senior associate as part of the company’s ongoing expansion of architectural and engineering services. McTavish is the assistant business unit manager for the mechanical, electrical, plumbing, and structural group within Dewberry’s Midwest engineering group. He is also responsible for design quality standards and coordination between the firm’s engineering and architecture services.

SAIC appointed Scott Goldstein as the new vice president of its Engineering, Integration, and Logistics practice. In this capacity, Goldstein will set the growth strategy for the engineering practice, identify areas of investment for research and solution development, and collaborate with all of SAIC’s account leadership to help solve customers’ biggest challenges.

 

Featured Image: Lockheed Martin GPS III Processing Facility | Photo Credit: Lockheed Martin

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