• Quantum Cybercomputing bill advances: Bill will require OMB to prioritize federal agencies’ acquisition of and migration to IT systems with post-quantum cryptography, among other things.
• Agencies slow to adopt disruptive and transformative technologies: Tell me something I don’t know already, annual Deloitte report.
• Pentagon AI Chief: Organizations need to understand data better: Craig Martell offers insights about where DOD will be going with AI in the next few months.
• COFC: Agencies don’t have unlimited discretion to cancel solicitations: COFC decision comes in response to Army award protest.

DEFENSE & AEROSPACE

ICYMI Snippets

• The DOD Space Development Agency has issued a broad agency announcement for technologies and emerging capabilities.
• After a five-year contracting odyssey leading to last week’s contract awards, Joint Warfighting Cloud Computing officials plan to accept task orders in about 10 days.
• NASA’s historical uncrewed Artemis I mission ends with Orion splashdown.

Defense Contract Awards

• Carahsoft won a DOD enterprise software initiative BPA.
• Riverside Research won a five-year, $49.5M AFRL contract
• A giant list of companies all won $900M IDIQ contracts for the development of innovative approaches that bring multi-domain systems capabilities, an USAF contract.
• SAIC won a $350M Navy contract for INSEA functions for afloat and ashore tactical networks.

Defense Job Openings

• DOD is hiring a principal deputy assistant secretary of defense for readiness.
• Defense Threat Reduction Agency is hiring a director, Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction Technologies department, part of the R&D directorate.

INTEL COMMUNITY

NDAA requires intelligence agencies to study creation of cyber collaboration program.

Under the NDAA for FY23, key federal agencies in charge of intelligence and cybersecurity will be required to study the creation of a new cyber information collaboration environment to enable government and industry to better mitigate malicious cyber activity by April 30, 2023. Read more

NCSC Director Orlando addresses current threat landscape.

If you’re interested in learning about the current threat landscape, including nation-state targeting of U.S. emerging technology sectors, watch “Espionage Redefined,” a keynote address by Michael J. Orlando, director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center, at the Cypher Brief Threat Conference.

ICYMI Snippets

• Have you caught the updates to the CISA Threat Intelligence Enterprise Services (TIES) RFI? The new deadline is Dec. 16.
• NGA posts the Geospatial-Intelligence Tradecraft Learning Support Services (GTLSS) RFI. Responses are also due Dec. 16. It’s gonna be a busy week for proposal writers!

CIVILIAN

VA goes on an employee shopping spree in Silicon Valley.

VA’s sexy new Club Fed: a new, special federal IT worker pay scale, remote work, and the opportunity to turn around a troubled Oracle Cerner deployment, more than two years into its genesis. VA is in the midst of hiring 1,000 more workers for its Office of Information and Technology, with a focus on software development, project management, and cybersecurity. Read more

DHS urged to improve customer experience: Can’t y’all just be more approachable, please?

Whether interacting with the public at airport security screenings or while processing immigration benefits, DHS can improve its customer experiences through the use of more flexible staffing models and the use of digital technology, according to a report from the Homeland Security Advisory Council. The report reflects a White House CX priority for federal agencies. Read more

ICYMI Snippets

• USA gets 1 million more naturalized citizens in FY22, thanks to USCIS finally getting through its backlog. They’ve reported a 62% reduction in its backlog of naturalization applications.
• GAO Innovation Lab is developing distributed ledger technology, conducting and recording transfers of digital assets without a central authority, for grant tracking.
• Sam.gov is looking for site usability testers. Sign up here.

Civilian Job Openings

• USDA Farms Production and Conservation Business Center is hiring a Civil Rights Director.
• DOJ is hiring a Deputy Director for Public Affairs for the Offices of Boards and Division.
• Census Bureau is hiring for a Chief, Economy-wide statistics division.

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M&A CORNER

DLH acquires federal IT services contractor GRSi.

DLH Holdings has purchased Grove Resource Solutions Inc., a federal IT services contractor, for $185 million. The acquisition expands the company’s cybersecurity and modernization capabilities. Read more

RTS Ventures invests in EpiSci.

RTS Ventures, Raytheon Technologies’ venture capital arm, has made a minority investment in autonomous solutions company EpiSci, as Raytheon tries to assert itself in rapidly deployable, hardware-agnostic, AI technology. Read more

Booz Allen and C3 AI announce strategic partnership.

With a focus on helping federal agencies meet their most complex enterprise AI needs, Booz Allen Hamilton and C3 AI announced a strategic partnership. Read more