April 8, 2024

Happy Solar Eclipse Day. If you are going to watch the eclipse today, be on the lookout for other cool phenomena, such as the “Purkinje Shift,” “Bailey’s Beads,” and the “Devil Comet.” Scroll down to the bottom of the newsletter for a list of articles, podcasts, and videos for you to enjoy.

—The GovBrew Crew

QUICK HITS

• The not-so-smooth operators in Army psyops: One report suggests psychological operations are understaffed and ineffectual.

• FedRAMP roadmap details modernization plans: Gov't must “scale and automate our own processes beyond where they’re at now.”

• Raytheon spins off national security cyber business: Meet Nightwing, a new intelligence services company 40 years in the making.

• There was a 13% increase in federal contracts awarded to WOSBs: 13,707 woman-owned small businesses received $25.49B in FY23.

DEFENSE & AEROSPACE

Tech's relationship with DOD at SXSW hits new strides and a few snags.

Signs of new interest from the tech industry in a relationship with the DOD are becoming clearer; there’s been a notable tide change in how Silicon Valley sees and talks about national security. This was all too apparent at Austin’s South by Southwest festival, where DOD had a presence with “dodXtech” and Army sponsoring the festival. Was DOD’s attempts to be cool with tech-savvy youth met with protests or acceptance? Read more

Operational safety was the buzzword as USA and China military officials met to collaborate.

The two-day discussions, held in Honolulu, marked the resumption of the Military Maritime Consultative Agreement Working Group, a series of annual operational safety dialogues. This year's discussions included representatives from USINDOPACOM, USPACFLT, and USPACAF, who met with their counterparts from China's People's Liberation Army. Read more

DOD wants national security space policy to take center stage.

The DOD has traditionally moved far too slowly when it comes to space innovation; now the assistant secretary of defense for space policy wants space policy in national security to go from a “hobby shop” to center stage. Read more

ICYMI:

• Sources Sought: USAF seeks commercial tradecraft analytic support.

• RFI: DOD seeks applications from private industry, R&D firms for Thunderstorm 24-3.

• Pentagon may need to prolong the life of its legacy ballistic missile submarines.

• Israel's UVision is cranking out record numbers of Hero-120 loitering munitions.

Defense Contract Awards

• Six businesses win spots on potential $2B Navy Global Contingency Services Multiple Award Contract III IDIQ contract.

• L3Harris won a $155M Army mobile communications contract.

• Air Force awards Oddball a BEAM SBIR Phase III contract.

• KBR Wyle Services awarded a $99M Air Force Space Domain Awareness, Battle Management Command and Control contract.

Follow the Defense Leaders

• Former ZeroFox SVP appointed VP and general manager of homeland security at GDIT.

• COre4ce taps entrepreneur, business leader as CEO, managing partner.

• Trabus Technologies appoints its new chief growth officer.

Defense Job Openings

• Army seeks new Director of Ceremonies and Outreach.

• HQ USAF and Support Elements seek Executive Support Officer.

• SECNAV is looking for a Special Assistant (Administration).

LEARN

INTEL COMMUNITY

Technology for border security got a 23% increase.

Congress recently approved a funding boost to purchase new border security technology. The recent bipartisan government funding bill included a 23% increase in funding to purchase and deploy next-generation technology to help strengthen border security, combat human trafficking, and prevent illegal drugs from crossing the border. The funding will help purchase new surveillance towers, new tunnel detection technology, mobile surveillance technology, and more. Read more

ICYMI:

• Bunches of places declared States of Emergency in anticipation of the solar eclipse, as 4 million people hit the road for viewing parties.

• A 'Personnel Vetting Qestionnaire' could replace the SF-86 one day soon.

• NSA names new director of cybersecurity to oversee its Cybersecurity Directorate.

• DIA seeks Deputy General Counsel, Acquisition and Fiscal Law.

CIVILIAN

State Dept stretched ‘in unprecedented ways’ with 13% staffing gap.

A top State Department official says recent budget cuts are putting more strain on an already overburdened workforce; the DOS is in a 'tough position' with a 13% staffing gap, despite Congress' recent approval of a $56.7B budget for the Department for the rest of this year. Read more

GSA’s latest 10x projects don't shy away from a big AI bent.

Artificial intelligence played an outsized role in the latest round of submissions to the GSA's 10x technology investment program, as GSA recently announced the 16 ideas it has selected to fund. Read more

NWS attributes six-hour weather data outage to circuitry troubles.

A six-hour outage took key weather information updates offline for about six hours earlier this week after an "intermittent hardware failure" impacted a circuit in a College Park, Maryland data center. Read more

ICYMI:

• USAID RFP Update: Program Cycle Support (SB set-aside).

• Agencies want singular section of acquisition regulations focused on IT risks.

• CDC's use cases for generative AI include school closure tracking, website updates.

Civilian Contracts Awards

• Tetra Tech secures $439M USAID contract for Ukraine SPARC support.

• SAIC wins $494M NASA SMAEC III IDIQ.

• STC wins NOAA ProTech Satellite Office of System Architecture and Engineering User Engagement Support.

• Trilogy and Knowesis were awarded a VHA Health Outcomes Military Exposure (HOME) professional support services contract.

Follow Civilian Leaders

• 20-year information security leader appointed as Executive Director at ManTech.

• Former partner at McKinsey & Company appointed EVP, civilian business at SAIC.

• 20-year BD leader joins Precision Talent Solutions as business development director.

• Concurrent Technologies Corp. promotes two executive directors to VP roles.

Civilian Job Openings

• TSA seeks Assistant Federal Security Director for Mission Support.

• Federal Student Aid needs a Chief Financial Officer.

• NASA HQ is looking for an Administrative Manager.

SHOWER THOUGHTS 🚿

On its 40th birthday, is it time to ask whether the FAR's gone too far?

The FAR’s empowering principles, in theory, provide the acquisition team with a flexible framework supporting efficient and effective competition for customer agency mission requirements. But does the “theory” jibe with reality or has the FAR gone too FAR? Read more

Can automation help federal employees without replacing them?

Cyber experts from the DOE and GSA say AI isn't replacing the cybersecurity workforce any time soon; from a workforce standpoint, they don't think that the worst fears of AI replacing humans won’t be realized. But how can they be sure that automation won't be snuffing out people's jobs? Read more

All things eclipse-y!

Here are some science articles and podcasts to check out while you are en route to your viewing location this morning:

• (Article) Naked Scientists: Eddington’s Eclipse Experiment: 1919 and 2017.

• (Podcast) BBC’s In Our Time: Eclipses.

• (Article) BBC: How Eclipses Have Shaped History.

• (Video) JILA Science: Testing the Physics of Solar and Stellar Flares with Extreme UV Observations and Radiative MHD Simulations.

• (Article): How to photograph a solar eclipse. (and guide)

• (Video): Be Smart: Why the 2024 Solar Eclipse is Such a Big Deal.

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