QUICK HITS
SBA 7(a) tightens up: Five changes effective October 1 that shift underwriting toward historical cash flow and buyer equity.
8(a) overhaul effective September 10: SBA replaces racial presumption with race-neutral self-certification and evidence standard.
Right-sizing small business: SBA's new approach collapses NAICS codes but…will it get the balance right?
[Watch] Feinberg memo and TechNet Augusta: What industry needs to know about new Pentagon contractor requirements.
DEFENSE & AEROSPACE
USSF gets a $71B FY27 budget, nearly double last year, driven by Golden Dome and launch surge.
The USSF just asked Congress for a whopping $71 billion in FY27, an 80% increase over current spending. R&D alone tops $40 billion, more than the service's entire FY26 budget, while procurement jumps to $19 billion, five times last year's request. The biggest driver: missile warning and tracking at nearly $5 billion.
Before the Iran war, Army NETCOM transferred network and C2 services between theaters for the first time.
USA NETCOM transferred network and C2 services from Southwest Asia to Europe for the first time ahead of the Iran conflict, creating a backup “digital passage of lines” so another theater could assume critical network workloads if Middle East infrastructure was attacked. The exercise validated the Army Unified Network concept and is now informing similar resiliency efforts in Europe and the Pacific as NETCOM works to make network services more seamless, secure and globally portable.
Army's Golden Dome role: Congressional report outlines how land-based systems fit within the missile defense architecture.
The Congressional Research Service released a focused report on the Army's role in Golden Dome, the integrated homeland air and missile defense system managed by DOD. The USASMDC serves as operational lead under NORTHCOM. Trump wants it fully operational before the end of his term. Gen. Guetlein estimates that the system will cost $185 billion through 2035. CBO estimates $1.2 trillion over 20 years.
ICYMI:
Valiant Shield and RIMPAC 2026: B-2 bombers, kamikaze drones, and HIMARS put anti-ship capabilities on full display.
One year in, the counter-drone task force still has significant ground to cover.
GAO to Army on NGC2: Develop a detailed fielding schedule and cost estimate before the 2032 goal slips away. (See chart below)
Strategic Capital Initiative launches: Army teams with FedEx Dataworks to overhaul domestic logistics and industrial base.
Defense Contract Awards
Follow the Defense Leaders
DOD has a new CIO.
A Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Navy for the newly launched defense industrial base has been appointed.
Quantum Sky a former CBRE Gov & Def Services CGO as its new CGO.
Defense Job Openings
CHART
GAO. “Army Modernization: Better Schedule and Cost Information Needed to Support Scaling Battlefield Network.” GAO-26-108019. August 20, 2026. (Source)
INTEL COMMUNITY
Never sold to SOCOM before? The command wants to talk to you.
SOCOM is actively reaching out to companies that have never done business with the command, launching a market research effort aimed at identifying non-traditional vendors with capabilities in autonomy, AI, counter-UAS, and other priority areas. The initiative is part of a broader push to pull commercial innovation into special operations faster. Interested companies can submit capability statements through a new portal.
Hegseth at STRATCOM: Secretary pushes Arsenal of Freedom as nuclear and industrial base priorities take center stage.
SecDef visited STRATCOM at Offutt AFB to reinforce the nuclear mission, then traveled to Oshkosh, Wis., to thank defense workers and push the Arsenal of Freedom message. His plea to industry: give us speed, scale, and stable demand signals in return for long-term contracts. He wants to expand the DIB beyond five major primes, promising that the $1.5T FY27 budget will back it up.
ICYMI:
Kryptonite Panda and beyond: NSA’s deputy director details four ways the agency is countering China's intelligence threat.
NATO needs a cross-border review process before the next investment wave locks in new infrastructure vulnerabilities.
The cost of complacency: Why underestimating China's military poses a serious risk to U.S. defense planning.
BAH secured a $35M USTRANSCOM TRAC2ES Enhancement, Sustainment, and Modernization contract.
HallieMorgan won a $10M Secret Service IT Support deal under GSA MAS.
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CIVILIAN
Space transportation policy calls for integration with air traffic control modernization.
The W.H.’s new space transportation policy directs DOT, working with DOD and NASA, to integrate rocket launches and reentries into FAA’s ongoing air traffic control modernization while designating priority launch corridors within 180 days. The strategy aims to support more than 1,000 U.S. launches and reentries by 2030, expanding launch infrastructure and commercial access to federal ranges as space traffic grows.
Login-dot-gov explores more device fingerprinting to combat fraud.
GSA is seeking industry input on expanded device fingerprinting for Login.gov to better detect account takeovers, synthetic identities, bots, proxy abuse and emerging agentic-AI threats as fraud attempts grow in volume and sophistication. The proposed capability would generate real-time risk signals during account creation and sign-in and identify returning devices even when users try to mask themselves with VPNs, incognito browsing, cookie clearing or browser tampering.
DOE puts $500M behind critical minerals and battery supply chain projects.
DOE's new Office of Critical Minerals and Energy Innovation selected seven projects for a $500M investment to expand domestic critical mineral processing, battery manufacturing, and recycling capacity. Projects include Nth Cycle's black mass refining facility, Princeton NuEnergy's cathode material recovery demonstration, and Arcanum Ventures' battery-grade electrolyte production. The investments aim to reduce U.S. dependence on foreign mineral sources.
ICYMI:
GSA and Treasury move on post-quantum cryptography as agencies face a 120-day PQC migration plan deadline.
DOE and SBA sign agreement to steer private capital toward small energy and advanced tech businesses.
NASA's $4B Roman Space Telescope launches Sunday on a Falcon Heavy to probe dark energy and dark matter.
Flipping the script on AI: DOT and USDA see Mythos as a cyber tool, not just a cyber threat.
Civilian Contracts Awards
Follow Civilian Leaders
Guidehouse named its Health Growth Lead.
NVIDIA selected a Public Sector VP.
GSA is reinstating a FedRAMP director and has tapped the Treasury CIO to fill three roles.
Civilian Job Openings
M&A CORNER
Elastic acquires Deductive AI to automate production incident investigation.
Elastic completed its acquisition of Deductive AI, an AI-powered investigation platform that goes beyond summarizing alerts to actually conducting root cause analysis. Deductive AI's engine gathers evidence, tests hypotheses, and reasons across code, telemetry, and organizational knowledge, then learns from each investigation to improve the next.
NexTech Solutions acquires Boomslang Aerospace to expand counter-UAS capabilities.
NexTech Solutions acquired Boomslang Aerospace, adding the company's UAS and counter-UAS technology, including the Mongoose C-UAS system, to its existing modular C-UAS architecture. The deal marks NTS's fifth acquisition since Clairvest made a strategic investment in the company in 2023.
ICYMI:
Ursa Major plans to go public through a $2.3B merger with Bleichroeder Acquisition Corp. III, a SPAC that will be renamed Inflection Point Mach X Bleichroeder Corp. (Nasdaq: IPXX).
SHOWER THOUGHTS 🚿
Mecca Joint Defense Agreement: Did Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Pakistan sign an Islamic pact to end dependence on U.S. security? SOURCE↗︎
Will you eat a “plastic” cookie? SIU researchers convert recycled plastic into edible bites using yeast and a 3D food printer. SOURCE↗︎
Operation Epic Vigilance: Navy orders troops and families to wipe Navy affiliations from social media. SOURCE↗︎
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