May 6, 2024

Lockheed plans to buy Terran Orbital, OMB standardizing fed websites, DIA data literate workforce, new IDOPACOM commander, USMC anti drone sensors

Author

GovBrew
May 06, 2024

QUICK HITS

  • AbilityOne program sees overhaul: The program that provides contracts for workers with disabilities opens to competition.

  • US updates int’l cybersec blueprint for the first time in 13 years: It will unveil the new cyberspace strategy tomorrow.

  • House panel passes bills to modernize, digitze Congress' work: The two bills will now head to the House floor for further consideration.

  • Celebrating our civil servants: POTUS kicks off Public Service Recognition Week, highlighting the work of federal employees.

  • New small business alliances made: The SBA mentor-protege program lists 20 new partnerships.

DEFENSE & AEROSPACE

US 'extremely concerned' about Russia's potential nuclear space weapon.

"The United States has been aware of Russia's pursuit of this sort of capability dating back years, but only recently have we been able to make a more precise assessment of their progress," said a State Department secretary. The concern is that Russians use nuclear weapons to destroy satellites. Read more

USMC wants to 'litter the battlefield' with anti-drone sensors.

“In the next twelve months, there’s going to be systems out there fielded to this at a basic level,” said the C-UAS Capabilities Integration Officer. Such scanners typically check for radio signals sent to and from drones. Some also use auditory cues to identify drones. Read more

Air Guardsmen would rather stay in National Guard than move to Space Force.

According to a new internal survey from the Air National Guard, most National Guard professionals who perform space missions would rather retrain or retire than join the Space Force: up to 86% of all Guard space personnel say they will stay in the National Guard and retrain instead of switching over to an active service branch. Read more

ICYMI:

Defense Contract Awards

Follow the Defense Leaders

Defense Job Openings

  • The Army is looking for a Director of its executive business operations division.

  • Naval Intelligence Command needs a new Director, Information Warfare Future Capabilities.

  • USAF Air Education and Training Command seeks Provost, Chief Academic Officer.

  • ONR is looking for a Superintendent, Optical Sciences Divison.

FUNNY

INTEL COMMUNITY

DIA leader says agency aims to create "data-literate" workforce.

One of DIA's top leaders says the agency aims to create a “data-literate” workforce to analyze the growing hoard of information, adding that middle management is preventing the intelligence community from harnessing more advanced data analysis. Read more

Amendment to FAA bill shows not all lawmakers love TSA facial recognition.

Lawmakers are seeking to stem the tide of progression that TSA's facial biometrics have been experiencing with a new amendment; the changes would pause the additional rollout of the technology until lawmakers have more time to review TSA's facial biometrics program. Read more

ICYMI:

CIVILIAN

OMB is trying to get a standardized handle on 10,000 federal websites.

Over the last six months, agencies inventoried over 10,000 public-facing federal websites and identified the ones with the most user traffic. Now, the Federal CIO believes that the inventory and strong encouragement in the Digital Experience memo to use the U.S. Web Design System standards will agencies a better idea of their entire ecosystem and what they need to do to secure it. Read more

NASA chief says JPL layoffs add up to "decades of experience" lost.

NASA's administrator told lawmakers during a House Science, Space, and Technology Committee hearing that his agency was forced to lay off a portion of its workforce at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and that much of the blame for that move falls on Congress. Read more

With FTC’s looming non-compete ban, agencies should rethink key personnel requirements.

Consider the following scenario. Suppose a contractor submits with its proposal a required letter of commitment for a named key person to serve as the program manager. Despite signing a commitment letter, the key person resigns from his role with the contractor to take a higher-paying job. All of this occurs after proposal submission and prior to award, but the company does not tell the agency. Under GAO protest decisions, this would likely upend the contractor’s bid (as it has many times in the past) because the key person will likely be deemed unavailable, thereby triggering GAO’s notice requirement. Read more

ICYMI:

Civilian Contracts Awards

Follow Civilian Leaders

Civilian Job Openings

  • Institute of Education Sciences seeks a Deputy Director, Administration & Policy.

  • NASA HQ is looking for a Director for Space Sustainability.

  • NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center seeks Associate Director, Explorers & Heliophysics.

  • NARA needs a Director, Exhibits and Visitor Services Office.

M&A CORNER

Bcore acquires 2 Twelve Solutions.

Bcore has announced its acquisition of 2 Twelve Solutions; the acquisition signals an expansion in Bcore’s operational capabilities to position the company to offer new solutions and industry insights by adding 2 Twelve’s End-To-End Engineering Labs. Read more

Lockheed drops plans to buy Terran Orbital.

Lockheed Martin has dropped its plans to buy small satellite manufacturer Terran Orbital for more than $500M; the aerospace and defense contractor said in a statement, “We are committed to supporting Terran Orbital and other essential suppliers in the defense industrial base, as we maintain our momentum to deliver the best solutions to our customers for decades to come." Read more

SHOWER THOUGHTS 🚿

Is it time to refactor legacy code into new languages to improve national security?

In this commentary, GitLab's Federal CTO argues that developers, software manufacturers, and federal IT leaders must start thinking proactively together to refactor legacy code into memory-safe programming languages to eliminate an entire class of vulnerabilities. Read more

Is Australian quantum computing going to break today's toughest codes?

The specter of a quantum computer powerful enough to break today’s toughest codes has haunted militaries for years; earlier this week, the Australian government inked a $620M contract to create a building-sized device in Brisbane that just might be powerful enough to break the modern public-key encryption schemes that protect personal data and national secrets. Read more

Were Boeing’s problems really as bad as the news makes them out to be?

Boeing went under the magnifying glass at two Senate hearings examining allegations of deep-seated safety issues plaguing the once-revered plane manufacturer. Witnesses, including two whistleblowers, painted a disturbing picture of a company that cut corners, ignored problems, and threatened employees who spoke up. The first April 17 hearing, held by the Senate Commerce Committee, questioned aviation experts who put together an FAA report about corporate reforms following the deadly 2018 and 2019 737 MAX crashes that killed 346 people. The second hearing focused on two whistleblowers who claimed the company new about defective parts and assembly problems. Read more

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