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BAE Systems, Boeing and Leidos Australia are among the companies set to exhibit at the Army Robotics Expo 2023. The event, which will be hosted by the Australian Army's Robotic and Autonomous Systems Implementation and Coordination Office, will bring together Australian industry and academia to demonstrate robotic and autonomous technologies with the potential for the joint land force. The expo will focus on robotic systems that can maximize soldier performance, improve decision-making, generate mass and scalable effects and enable force protection efficiency. It will be held from Aug. 29 to 30 at the Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre in Australia, the Australian Army said.

Lockheed Martin has completed the critical design review for the Space Development Agency's Tranche 1 Transport Layer integrated ground and space system, advancing to the program's production phase. The CDR included validation tests for supplier designs and a system optical communications terminal interoperability test. The program's integration and testing phase now begins at a new small satellite processing facility, Lockheed said Monday.

Immersive training platform manufacturer HTX Labs has entered into a strategic partnership with virtual reality training solutions provider Vinci VR. Under the partnership, Vinci's content team will use HTX Labs' EMPACT platform to create new simulations and VR training solutions. Specifically, Vinci will integrate its development solutions with EMPACT to create and deploy realistic, safe and immersive VR training. Work under the partnership is expected to enhance operational efficiency, optimize safety, reduce training costs and transform training methods, HTX Labs said Monday.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has projected the EG.5 variant to have caused 17.3 percent of COVID-19 cases nationwide as of Friday, more than any other group, up from 7.5 percent through the first week of July. EG.5 includes a strain with a subgroup of variants designated as EG.5.1, unofficially nicknamed "Eris." The next most common COVID variants are XBB.1.16 at 15.6 percent, XBB.2.23 at 11.2 percent and XBB.1.5 at 10.3 percent. Officials have noted that the symptoms and severity from the strain have been largely alike, though they said discerning changes in the virus has become increasingly difficult as surveillance has slowed, CBS News reported.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency is seeking assistance in developing the FEMA Data Exchange cloud-based delivery service in accordance with Agile-based performance metrics. According to a recent request for information, FEMA is also looking to implement artificial intelligence and machine learning in the enterprise data and analytics modernization project. Responses to the RFI are due Aug. 15, GovCon Wire reported Monday.

Lockheed Martin has completed delivery of the 10th F-16V Fighting Falcon to Greece. According to the company, the milestone was attained in cooperation with Hellenic Aerospace Industry about 11 months after the first two Hellenic Air Force F-16C/D Block 52+ Advanced aircraft to be upgraded to the F-16V standard were delivered to Greece in 2022. Lockheed is upgrading Greece's aircraft fleet under a $996.8 million Foreign Military Sales contract from the Department of Defense awarded in December 2018. Greece intends to extend the fleet's service life until 2048 through the F-16V program, Janes reported Monday.

The Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program has conferred the in process designation to Talkdesk CX Cloud, a cloud-based, artificial intelligence-powered contact center platform. Talkdesk CX Cloud has also been made available on the FedRAMP marketplace. The in process designation is given to products working toward full authorization under FedRAMP, a U.S. federal governmentwide compliance program that offers a standardized approach to evaluating the security of cloud products, Talkdesk said.

Globalstar plans to begin beta testing full Spot two-way global communications in the coming months. The satellite operator currently has a contract with MDA to build 17 extra spacecraft to be launched in 2025 to ensure that its constellation can meet the increased global demand for connectivity services. Its partner Apple contributed 95 percent of the cost needed to manufacture the satellites and, in turn, will get access to 85 percent of the fleet's capacity. Qualcomm will also integrate Globalstar's Band 53 spectrum into its chipsets, Advanced Television reported.

The University of Hawaii at Manoa John A. Burns School of Medicine will capitalize on $430,375 from the National Institutes of Health to conduct research into a protein potentially tied to a form of hereditary spastic paraplegia. Matthew Pitts, a cell and molecular biology researcher at JABSOM and study lead, said his team will seek to understand the role that selenoprotein I plays in neurodevelopment and neurodegenerative diseases. According to Pitts, animal models of selenoprotein I knocked out in their central nervous system recapitulated impaired growth and disrupted myelination of human patients. The NIH-backed research effort will run for two years, the university said Monday.

A U.S. Department of State spokesperson said the U.S. government will continue implementing existing sanctions against Russia and North Korea as concerns grow over the two countries' military cooperation. According to Matthew Miller, the U.S. government has clarified to Russia and North Korea that it is concerned about how North Korea is helping Russia's ongoing military aggression against Ukraine. Miller added that the United States will continue to condemn North Korea's nuclear and ballistic missile tests. Miller's comments come amid speculations that North Korea will increase its military support to Russia, Yonhap News Agency reported Tuesday.