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- August 5, 2024
August 5, 2024
GSA AI hackathon, Copyright Office needs digital replica law, prisoner swap, Army’s assault rotorcraft moves forward, DOD SBIR STTR news
GovBrew
August 05, 2024
QUICK HITS
DOD SBIR/STTR news: They will launch a standard RFP schedule starting Oct 2; schedule updated on first Weds of each month.
Flash Report: The Committee on House Admin released the AI Strategy and Implementation report.
Legal battle over Chevron deference: Senators looking to re-establish agencies’ legal deference when interpreting federal statues.
Happy birthday, Coast Guard! It’s their 234th birthday.
DEFENSE & AEROSPACE
Army’s planned assault rotorcraft moves forward to engineering.
The Army’s future rotorcraft program is now in the engineering phase for six prototypes of its new Future Long Range Assault Aircraft, or FLRAA. The service announced that the program had cleared Milestone B—that is, to move from the risk assessment phase to engineering and manufacturing development. Read more
Air Mobility Command tries AI to speed up airlift planning.
Flying troops and supplies around the world takes complex planning that juggles dozens of variables. How many transport planes, of what types, will it take to move a given unit the desired distance? How much gas will those planes burn? Where should they refuel along the way? Two years ago, Air Mobility Command started looking at AI to help with logistics. Last month, after two years and $7.5 million in SBIR contracts, DEFCON AI delivered version 1.0 of the software. Read more
Senate adds $1B to complete FY24 attack sub buy, funds $37B shipbuilding budget.
A Senate FY25 appropriations bill includes $1B to complete the purchase of two attack submarines that were appropriated in FY24. Included in the bill is a $3.69B line item for cost-to-complete money for previously appropriated ships. However, the Navy and shipbuilder General Dynamics Electric Boat still haven’t agreed to terms and have not signed a contract. Advanced procurement was held up for a year over an indemnification disagreement over the risk of a catastrophic disaster from a Tomahawk missile accident. Read more
ICYMI:
DOD R&D chief defends RDER experimentation after Senate blasts the program.
New tech will make tomorrow’s wars more dangerous to troops.
USS Abraham Lincoln heads to Middle East following Iranian threats.
Listen: Takeaways from the Farnborough Int’l Airshow.
Rafael hopes to take Israel’s maritime Iron Dome global.
Defense Contract Awards
Awardees are being named for the $1.8B OUSD Personnel & Readiness MATOC.
Bechtel awarded $447M Navy contract for nuclear propulsion components.
SRI International wins $126M DLA Microcircuits Remanufacturing contract.
Clear Ridge Defense won a $113M Marine Corps contract to support cyberspace operations.
Follow the Defense Leaders
The Senate confirmed the first-ever DOD cyber policy chief.
DHA IT Chief takes new role within the IOD.
General Dynamics Electric Boat names former CFO as President.
Ursa Major names former Maxar Tech Pres/CEO as its CEO.
Defense Job Openings
USAF is seeking an Exec. Director DOD Cyber Crime Center (DC3).
USAF is seeking a Deputy Chief of Space Ops for Cyber & Data.
NAVSEA needs a Distinguished Scientist/Engineer for Energetic Sys.
Army AFC is seeking a Senior Scientific Technical Manager.
FUNNY
INTEL COMMUNITY
NCSC releases 2024 National Counterintelligence Strategy.
The 2024 strategy has three key pillars: outmaneuver and constrain FIEs, protect U.S. strategic advantages and invest in the future. Each pillar has specific strategic goals. For the first pillar, goals include detecting, understanding and anticipating foreign intelligence threats and combatting foreign intelligence cyber activities. Read more
An assassin, a Putin foe’s death, secret talks: Here’s how a sweeping US-Russia prisoner swap came together.
The latest exchange that included both Paul Whelan and Vadim Krasikov was no small thing. It required the U.S. to regroup after the unexpected death in February of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who’d been seen as a cog in a potential exchange. It depended on the willingness of Germany to release a Russian who just five years earlier had committed a cold-blooded killing on its soil, and for other European countries to give up prisoners. It forced Russia to part with Americans, including WSJ reporter Evan Gershkovich, it had stockpiled as trade bait. Read more
Related: Here are the Americans who are left behind in Russia following the swap.
ICYMI:
Russia’s low-intensity conflict: prisoner swaps and cybercrime tactics.
State Dept. awards JSSA Inc. a CM Infrastructure Support award.
USCIS has named a new Deputy Chief.
DIA is hiring a contract specialist.
DIA is looking for a counterintelligence agent.
DIA is seeking an IT specialist (InfoSec)(STEM).
CIVILIAN
US Copyright Office cites ‘urgent’ need for digital replicas law.
The U.S. Copyright Office issued a recent report that says Congress should “establish a federal right that protects all individuals during their lifetimes from the knowing distribution of unauthorized digital replicas.” The director of the Copyright Office and Register of Copyrights said the office believes “there is an urgent need for effective nationwide protection against the harms that can be caused to reputations and livelihoods.” Read more
Here’s how GSA’s AI-themed hackathon went…
On a normal day at the GSA, staffers interested in using AI-based platforms must submit a request and wait for approval to proceed. Last week, those platforms were freed during the agency’s inaugural AI hackathon, a three-city competition that saw public and private sector participants attempt to “hack” federal agency websites and build out solutions for prizes. Read more
VA launches revamped burn pit registry with automatic enrollment.
The upgraded database of veterans exposed to toxic pollutants and trash burn pits came after “extensive feedback” showed the platform was difficult for many retired service members to navigate. The department said the modernization effort came after “extensive feedback” from veterans demonstrated that “the burden of entry to participate in the program was too great.” Read more
ICYMI:
Here’s the software you can’t use at NASA.
Dept of Education offers guidance on developing AI for the classroom.
Eyebrow-raising AI amendment passes Senate Commerce Committee.
Senate Appropriations approves $25M for TMF for FY25.
Senate panel outpaces House in tech spending plans, including TMF.
Civilian Contracts Awards
SSA selects Accenture to lead $81M AI Modernization effort.
8(a) SDVOSB Lucidus Solutions wins two big DOT NHTSA Cybersecurity Support Services contracts.
iTech AG won a $253K FEC ServiceNow support contract.
Deloitte won a $24M IRS W&I Initiative 1.2 PMO Support contract.
Follow Civilian Leaders
CISA names its first Chief AI Officer.
IRS taps Enterprise Ops leader to drive server build branch.
Civilian Job Openings
National Cemetery Admin is seeking a Chief of Operations.
Dept of State wants a Supervisory IT Specialist.
The VA is hiring an Executive Director Enterprise Program Integration Office.
The VHA needs a CFO.
SHOWER THOUGHTS 🚿
Who were the career feds that were behind last week’s prisoner exchange?
Last year, one Federal News Network journalist interviewed two Sammies award winners from the DOS—both under the age of 35—who had negotiated a complex prisoner exchange involving Venezuela. Consider that pressure cooker: dealing with families, Congress, and sometimes nasty foreign governments all while Americans are stuck in foreign prisons. Sometimes, feds contend with their own agency leadership and argue publicly over operation and funding of agencies—and they don’t go to prison for it. Read more
Intel was once a Silicon Valley leader…how did it fall so far?
Intel stock is tumbling amid news that the company will lay off 15 percent of its staff after a steep decline in revenue and billions in losses in its chip foundry business. It’s the largest drop for the company in half a century; at Friday’s closing bell, shares were trading at $21.48 — a price not seen since 2013. Is it just steep competition that is causing the decline? Read more
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