• • IT spend reporting requirements aren’t budging past halfway point: Agencies failed to disclose ~$31B in 2021 investments under the OMB Technology Business Management framework, says a GAO report. Read more.

• • Public sector doubles down on prioritizing technical standards: Public sector leaders say the White House should make global technical standards work a priority for international policy. Read more.

• • SBIR/SBTT award timeliness has lots of room for growth: Agencies participating in the SBIR and SBTT programs help bring new tech to market, but they don’t always make their awards on time. Read more.

• • Protests incoming! CIOSP4 notifications have arrived, and lots of well-qualified companies are surprised to discover they’ve been excluded. Read more. Plus….GSA hit with more protests over Polaris IT contract.

• Winning work that matters at CMS, CDC and benefitting from protégé/mentorships. Rohan Bhobe, CEO of Nava, offers advice to small businesses. Read more.

DEFENSE & AEROSPACE

ICYMI Snippets

• As war in Ukraine drags on, DOD needs to rethink how it purchases weapons.
• DOD announced an additional $625M package in security assistance headed to Ukraine.
• Army not budging on weight tables even after body composition study.

Defense Contract Awards

• Leidos awarded $1.5B Sentinel TO to support the DOD.
• ManTech snags $337M Navy training environment contract.
• Empower AI awarded $14M Army engineering contract.
• DIU awards Nauticus Robotics to develop amphibious, mine-hunting drone.

Follow the Defense Leaders

• Rear Adm. Doug Small assigns new NAVWAR Chief Engineer.
• Lockheed Martin names its new Global Business Development & Strategy SVP.
• AE Industrial Partners adds longtime tech and govt. leader as Operating Partner.

Defense Job Openings

• DSCA is hiring for a Chief Academic Officer to manage its accreditation program.
• USCYBERCOM needs a Supervisory Cyber Operations Plans Analyst.

INTEL COMMUNITY

CISA reluctant to publicly comment on upcoming performance goals.

CISA’s commitment to transparency is clashing with its promise to keep stakeholder feedback on baseline security measures for critical infrastructure companies private. A former DHS chief said that while “it would be consistent with CISA’s commitment to transparency to make the comments public,” not making it clear at the outset that those comments would be public “could be tricky.” Read more

No matter their scale, NGA maps have a huge impact.

NGA’s partners are always hard at work keeping up with a constant demand for digital and printed maps. As requirements arise, NGA’s partners reach out to the Office of Geography in the Foundation GEOINT Group to produce more maps. The Office makes maps that range widely in scale and, despite their differences in size, they all show a huge amount of complex information. Read more

NGA to host Industry Strategy Summit 2022 on Oct. 25.

Please join NGA executives VADM Trey Whitworth, Phil Chudoba, Kelly Pickering, Sue Pollmann, and others for the NGA Industry Strategy Summit 2022, being held virtually on October 25, 2022 starting at 9:30 a.m. EST. This unclassified virtual Summit is designed to give members of industry, academia, non-profits and other government elements, insight into NGA’s strategic thinking, and how the agency plans to develop its future operational environment – including the architectures and tools that support it.  Read more

ICYMI Snippets

• Maiden flight for Amazon’s Project Kuiper satellites has been announced.
• Is the government keeping track of deaths in custody?
• DIU accelerating PAI-based solutions to identify adversarial influence networks.
• DISA says adversaries most commonly target American men with sexual advances.

IC Contract Awards

• HII secures $76.7M USAF electronic warfare research and analysis TO.

Follow IC Leaders

IC Job Openings

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CIVILIAN

Not again! VA delays all future EHRM deployments until June 2023.

In a statement announcing the delay, the department said it was pushing back the rollout to “address challenges with the system and make sure it is functioning optimally for veterans and for VA health care personnel.” According to the VA, a subsequent investigation at the five hospital locations where the system is deployed identified a range of additional technical and system issues including “challenges with performance, such as latency and slowness, problems with patient scheduling, referrals, medication management and other types of medical orders.” Read more

IRS seeks tool to help automate solicitation evaluation (a RFI).

The IRS wants an automated tool for evaluating solicitations to improve the efficiency of its procurement teams. Vendors are encouraged to submit their technical capabilities and Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program-certified, commercial-off-the-shelf offerings — especially cloud solutions. Read more

OPM is seeking a background investigation search tool (a RFI).

OPM’s OIG is looking for an online tool to facilitate searches for background information about the people and businesses it investigates. Specifically, the OIG is looking for “an online investigative platform” that can “provide web-based online search and retrieval service that provides vital public and private information on individuals and businesses.” OIG plans to use the platform to conduct investigative, medical sanctions and debarment research. Read more

ICYMI Snippets

• The FCC moves to limit the number of spam and scam texts. Hooray, said anyone with a phone. Messages to be blocked “at the network level.”
• Retirees set to receive the highest COLA in decades, but some will get less than others.
• Will workforce provisions make it into the NDAA as amendments…or not?

Civilian Contracts Awards

• DLH wins $650M IDIQ contract to innovate VA Health Care.

Follow Civilian Leaders

Civilian Job Openings

• GAO is seeking an Information Technology Auditor.
• Treasury is seeking a Chief Diversity Officer.
• CDC is seeking a Director for the Center for Global Health.
• Dept. of Commerce’s National Security Solutions and Services Division is seeking a Division Chief.

M&A CORNER

Enlightenment Capital-backed Boecore buys Ascension Engineering Group.

Enlightenment Capital, an aerospace, defense, government & technology investment firm, announced it has acquired Boecore, a technology solutions provider within the space, missile defense, hypersonics, and strategic deterrent mission areas. Boecore will serve as Enlightenment’s latest platform company, as the firm builds a premium provider of emerging space and strategic defense technologies. Read more

SilverEdge buys QVine.

SilverEdge is backed by Godspeed Capital Management LP, a lower middle-market defense and government services, solutions and technology-focused private-equity firm. QVine provides DevOps engineering, SysOps administration, solutions architecture and SaaS solutions to intelligence community customers. Its solutions focus on artificial intelligence and machine learning, data visualization, open-source collection and analysis, and cross-domain solutions. Read more

Veritas Capital to acquire CAES Space Systems.

Veritas Capital, a leading technology and government investment firm, announced today that an affiliate of Veritas has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire CAES Space Systems, a leading independent supplier of high-reliability electronic solutions for space, defense, healthcare and industrial applications, from CAES. Read more

Federal judge refuses to stop Booz Allen’s planned EverWatch buy.

In a move that has Big Business cheering and Small Biz jeering, a federal judge in Maryland refused to grant a preliminary injunction that the Department of Justice requested to halt Booz Allen Hamilton’s planned acquisition of EverWatch over competition-related issues. Judge Catherine Blake declined to grant the injunction and her full opinion with regard to the ruling is under seal, according to a docket at the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland.  Read more