Quick Hits

Save the date! GSA OASIS procurement is underway, and this is your chance to do a deep dive into the Draft RFP.

GovBrew is excited to sponsor this event on Tuesday, August 30th from 12:30 pm – 2:00 PM EST that will be a deep dive into understanding the GSA OASIS contract, including the scorecard and hidden surprises. This is a great time to ask questions.
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Senators want to block Ligado 5G application decision.

It sucks when Congress isn’t happy with your business plans. A bipartisan group of senators is urging the FCC to overturn a two-year-old decision establishing a new 5G network the lawmakers say could interfere with GPS. The bipartisan push against Ligado Networks comes as the company prepares to launch its terrestrial wireless network as soon as October. The FCC in 2020 granted Ligado’s application to do so. “We remain gravely concerned that the Ligado Order fails to adequately protect adjacent band operations — including those related to GPS and satellite communications — from harmful interference impacting countless military and commercial activities,” the senators wrote.
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Advisory Board sends critical infrastructure cyber recommendations to White House.

The National SecurityTelecommunications Security Committee unanimously voted yesterday to send its recommendations on IT systems security to the White House. The report focuses on security risks involved in the bringing together of operational technology and iT across digital systems. The Committee has consistently focused on mission commitments to security compliance and fortified critical infrastructure.
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ICYMI Snippets:

• The White House and NARA are reviewing the Dec. 31 deadline for federal agencies to transition to full electronic record keeping.
• Acquisition.gov went live with the Comparator tool. It allows you to view the FAR and up to two additional supplements side-by-side.

Top Defense & Aerospace

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Top Intel Community

Creating a Secure Kubernetes Deployment? Five Ways the New NSA Kubernetes Hardening Guide Can Help.

After NSA and CISA issued an updated Kubernetes Hardeing Guide, Rancher Government Solutions’ Andy Clemenko, a field engineer, writes about his experience hardening Kubernetes against some common attack vectors, including supply chain, malicious threats, and insider threats.
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IEW&S program exec gives insight into the portfolio.

Mark Kitz, Army’s program executive officer for Intelligence, Electronic Warfare and Sensors program (IEW&S), provides a reporter insight into the IEW&S’ portfolio in the DefenseScoop podcast.
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Brennan Center is suing DHS to uncover its use of social media surveillance tools.

The Bren­nan Center, a social justice organization, sued the DHS this past week to force the govern­ment to hand over records on its use of vari­ous social media surveil­lance tools. The agency has refused to comply with a FOIA request seek­ing docu­ments about products from three compan­ies: Shad­ow­Dragon, Logic­ally Inc., and Voyager Labs. Details about the agency’s use of social media tools are murky. Recent media cover­age and contract­ing data revealed last fall that ICE had purchased licenses for two Shad­ow­Dragon products — OIMon­itor and Social­Net — at least three times.
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ICYMI Snippets:

• DARPA’s Strategic Technology Office has awarded a contract to SpaceLink to participate in the Space-Based Adaptive Communications Node (Space-BACN) program designed to connect the proliferated space domain.

Top Civilian

NOAA is throwing out the farmer’s almanac and looking for next-gen water prediction capabilities.

The NOAA National Weather Service’s Office of Water Prediction is looking for IT expertise to improve its prediction and analysis of floods and water supply and quality in light of climate change, pollution, population growth, and our aging infrastructure. They are looking for companies that have the capabilities to deliver three improved or innovative National Water Model (NWM), flood inundation mapping (FIM) services and an enterprise hydrofabric solution. Turns out the Farmers Almanac doesn’t do the trick these days!
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New Bureau of Prisons leader focusing on employee wellness.

Sworn into her new job earlier this month, Colette Peters brings to her new job at the Bureau of Prisons more than 30 years of experience. She heads up the $8 billion DOJ organization with 35,000 employees, Peters formerly served as chief of the Oregon Department of Corrections, where she promoted a more humanizing form of incarceration and a focus on employee wellness.
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ICYMI Snippets:

• With renewed focus and attacks against it, the IRS is reviewing its security at faculities across the country.
• The majority of federal IT workers are concerned about IT system preparedness for office return.

GovCon M&A Corner

Guidehouse to buy Grant Thornton’s public sector advisory practice.

Veritas Capital portfolio company Guidehouse has signed an agreement to acquire Grant Thornton LLP’s Public Sector Advisory practice in a move that bolsters Guidehouse’s government footprint and capabilities. Grant Thornton is experienced in providing governments of all levels with solutions in areas including finance, human capital management, IT, data analytics and performance management. Our only question is, who’s next in this rollup?
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IQ Business Group purchases a stake in Mint Group’s US subsidiary.

The IQ Business Group acquired a strategic equity stake in Mint Management Technologies LLC, a part of the global technology innovator and software service provider, Mint Group. IQBG and Mint established an extensive partnership in January 2018 to provide information governance, compliance and records management solutions on the Microsoft 365 platform.  Over the years, this relationship has supplemented and strengthened the respective services provided by each company in the Microsoft landscape.
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ICYMI Snippets:

• Guidehouse launches Guidehouse Digital.

Follow the Leaders

• George Waddington took a position as Deputy Chief Information Officer at the US Department of Veterans Affairs.
• Harris Quddos was named Chief Information Officer in the office of DOD Inspector General.
• Brooke Jordan took a position as Lead of Stakeholder Engagement at the US Department of Veterans Affairs
• Grant Wyman accepted a position as Chief Information Officer at the US Coast Guard Academy.
• Richard Mortellaro named President, CEO of Eutelsat America Corp.
• Johnnie Sharp, Jr. named the Assistant Director of the FBI’s IT infrastructure division.
• Aderonke Adeniji named new Deputy Chief Information Security Officer at House of Representatives.
• CNSI has named Brian Wilbon as Vice President of the Division of Innovation and Market Research, and Trish Hunter was named Vice President of Capture.
• Brett Basler was named Chief Information Officer/G6 at the Army National Guard

Follow the Job Openings

• The Air Force/Air National Guard is looking for a Director of Inspections.
• The Department of Homeland Security is seeking an Associate Director, a 1 year assignment that has the flexibility to be done remotely.
• A Director, Enforcement is being sought for the Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration.
• The Department of Homeland Security is also seeking a Director for the Office of Budget.
• The US Courts Judicial Branch is seeking a Director of Information Technology.

Contract Awards

USAF awards 5 companies up to $4.9 billion to prototype next-gen engines.

The project is to develop prototypes of an adaptive engine for its next-generation fighter jets. The lucky winners were: General Electric; Pratt & Whitney; Boeing; Lockheed Martin; and Northrop Grumman, each an IDIQ contract worth up to $975 million to carry out the prototype phase of the Next Generation Adaptive Propulsion program. The awards mark a broadening of the adaptive engine market, which until now has been dominated by GE Aviation and Raytheon Technologies-owned Pratt & Whitney. Those companies have been developing engines under the Adaptive Engine Transition Program, which the Air Force has pursued as a way to produce a new replacement engine for the F-35 joint strike fighter.
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Radiance Technology wins NOVASTAR contract worth $4.8 billion.

Radiance Technologies has been awarded a prime contract with the National Air and Space Intelligence Center (NASIC) to provide scientific and technical intelligence support services under the NOVASTAR program. The multiple-award, IDIQ contract has a shared ceiling value of $4.8B. NOVASTAR involves research, development, sustainment, and production across all of NASIC’s missions and disciplines for USAF, DOD, and national level intelligence efforts, supporting the creation, evaluation, and analysis of intelligence data on foreign developments in current and future weapon systems, subsystems, and technologies. Cha-ching, cha-ching!
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Leidos wins NAVSEA award to design medium unmanned undersea vehicle.

Underwater drones? That’s cool! The U.S. Naval Sea Systems Command has awarded Leidos (with team member L3Harris Technologies & others) a contract to design and build a medium-size unmanned undersea vehicle. This was a $358M single award contract. The medium unmanned undersea vehicle will support intelligence preparation of the operational environment and provide submarine-based autonomous oceanographic sensing and data collection for the Navy. The vehicle will also provide surface-launched and recovered mine countermeasures.
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ICYMI Snippets:

• NuAxis was awarded a $4M contract to provide program management engineering services with the IRS.
• BDR Solutions, Inc. is excited to announce their $84M award on the VHA Supply Chain & Logistics, P&LO Support Services contract.
• BlueHalo wins $24M DOD contract for Titan C-UAS system.

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