Air Force Magazine
Here's a look at how the Defense Department is being impacted by and responding to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Nextgov
The Defense Department’s High Performance Computing Modernization Program, or HPCMP, has been in operation for nearly two decades, delivering supercomputing capabilities and computational science expertise to advance the agency’s mission and help solve some of its most crucial challenges. Defense officials are now turning HPCMP’s supercomputing resources to overcome one of the most daunting challenges of the century: defeating the novel coronavirus pandemic.
USAF release
Air Force doctors Maj. Evan Fisher, Chief of Nephrology, and Maj. Matthew Koroscil, a Pulmonary and Critical Care Specialist at the Wright-Patterson Medical Center, are leading the way in coordination with the Dayton, Ohio medical community on a new drug protocol for COVID-19 patients. Their work on the project allowed Premier Health’s Miami Valley Hospital to potentially lead the country in administration of the Mayo Clinic approved plasma protocol.
USAF release
Engineers at Arnold Air Force Base have researched the use of a Cross-Domain Solution, or CDS, interface to allow plant operations systems outside of the plant control room to remain unclassified during classified test programs.
USAF release
The commander of the Air Force Technical Applications Center, the organization charged with monitoring nuclear activity around the world, has made it his priority to ensure his workforce is doing all they can to make AFTAC a “hard target” while also flattening the COVID-19 curve.
Inside Defense
The Pentagon will soon be awarding $133 million to U.S. companies to produce 39 million N95 masks over the next 90 days as part of its first Defense Production Act action to respond to the COVID-19 outbreak.
Newsweek
Around 580 crew members on board the USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier have contracted coronavirus, prompting the ship to be evacuated. The U.S. Navy announced on Sunday that 3,967 sailors had been taken off the aircraft carrier in Guam, where it is docked. Those who have been evacuated have been put into isolation for 14 days in local hotels and other nearby facilities.
Space News
U.S. Space Force missile warning satellite, six years in the works, is nearly completed. The company that developed the sensor, L3Harris, received a $9.3 million contract on April 6 to maintain and prepare the satellite for launch in 2021.
Breaking Defense
"Unless DOD puts the C2 back into JADC2, the multi-billion dollar effort meant to transform how America fights may well create the kind of brittle, centralized hierarchy the U.S. military is supposed to avoid,” write Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments Senior Fellows Bryan Clark and Dan Patt.
Air Force Magazine
The Air Force and U.S. defense establishment are breaking down barriers and injecting speed, innovation, and creativity into the procurement system. Check out our new page to learn more about these efforts.
C4ISRNET
The Federal Communications Commission is poised to approve a draft order that would reallocate a specific portion of the radio spectrum for broadband communications, overruling a decade of strong objections from the Department of Defense. Senior Pentagon leaders warn that such a move will lead to “unacceptable” harm to the GPS system by creating new interference that could disrupt satellites critical to national security.
Military.com
The families of four U.S. Marines who died in a 2018 CH-53E Super Stallion heavy-lift helicopter accident have filed a lawsuit March 31 alleging that two companies were responsible for the faulty aircraft component that caused the fatal crash.
Task and Purpose
The United States has spent upwards of $6.4 trillion on the post-9/11 wars, from outright appropriations funding to health care costs for veterans of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. But as the Global War on Terror enters its 19th year, new research underscores how different states are bearing the human costs of the forever wars.
Reuters
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on April 13 that his country welcomes an apparent agreement among Iraq’s Shia, Sunni, and Kurdish groups to form a new government, adding it would need to be capable of confronting the coronavirus pandemic, helping the economy and bringing arms under control.
One More Thing
Las Vegas Review-Journal
The Air Force’s Thunderbirds gave residents a reason to head outside and cheer for the first time in weeks when the fighter jets performed a flyover April 11 above every hospital in the Las Vegas Valley. The sky-high honor began at 2:30 p.m. local time and was intended to recognize first responders, health care professionals, and other workers battling the coronavirus pandemic, Nellis Air Force Base officials said April 10.
