WASHINGTON. Protecting the joint force by being vigilant within the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) cyber battlespace is the top issue facing the DoD and the wider defense community, stated Air Force Lt. Gen. Robert J. Skinner, who serves as both the director of Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) and commander of the joint headquarters for DoD's Information Network (DODIN).

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) experts on open architectures and modular open system approach (MOSA) strategies from Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) PMA-209, Army DEVCOM C5ISR Center, PEO Aviation, and the Air Force ACC will gather on the "You Had Me at Title 10 (MOSA) – Leading Open Standards (FACE, HOST, CMOSS, SOSA) Charge Forward" panel at the MOSA Industry and Government Summit and Expo on June 17 at 1 pm EDT at the Gaylord National Hotel & Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland.

ARLINGTON, Va. Uncrewed aerial system (UAS) manufacturer AeroVironment (AV) reports that its Switchblade 600 loitering munition system has been selected for Tranche 1 of the first iteration of the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) Replicator initiative, the U.S. government's drive to field thousands of autonomous systems across multiple warfighting domains.

ARLINGTON, Va. The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) reports that it accomplished full-scale, in-water testing of the Manta Ray prototype uncrewed underwater vehicle (UUV) -- built by Northrop Grumman -- during February and March 2024. 

ALPHARETTA, Ga. Energy-storage provider Stryten Energy reports that it received a contract award from the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) Family of Advanced Standard Batteries (FAStBat) project to develop and evaluate a prototype 6T lithium-ion battery and potentially extend the technology to other cross-service platforms.

XPONENTIAL 2024 -- SAN DIEGO. Association for Uncrewed Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) officials announced during a keynote address at XPONENTIAL 2024 that the entitiy has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) as a way to create a process for uncrewed systems manufacturers holding Green UAS [uncrewed aerial system] certification to share their data directly with DIU, with the aim of potentially including "Green-Certified" components on the DIU’s Blue UAS Framework list.

AUBURN, Ala. Auburn University Research and Innovation Campus (AURIC) is slated to become a technical-support base location for the U.S. Space Development Agency (SDA).