July 17 2023

QUICK HITS

• IRS puts modernization funds into cutting paper workload, beefing up enforcement: Replacing more than 200 outdated servers.

• Demanding a timeframe for the digital GI Bill platform: Concern mounts about the VA’s lack of a long-term deployment schedule.

• House narrowly passes defense bill: NDA passes largely along party lines.

DEFENSE & AEROSPACE

Space Force to select three providers of national security launch services.

Through its revised draft solicitation for its National Security Launch Program Phase 3, Space Force officials are increasing the number of heavy-lift launch providers from two to three, in a major departure from the first draft request for proposals, released in February. Read more.

Industry offers a wish list for commercial space legislation.

A hearing by the House Science Committee last week offered the industry an opportunity to weigh in on topics they believe should be included in a commercial space package that the committee is developing, from commercial human spaceflight safety to oversight of emerging space activities. One of the top issues is extending the current restriction on the FAA’s ability to regulate safety for people who fly on commercial spacecraft. Read more

Senators eye electronic warfare capability demonstration in western US.

The U.S. military would be required to test its electronic warfare and information influence prowess in a future, interstate experiment, if lawmakers get their way. Included in a Senate version of FY24 defense legislation is a provision for a “Western regional range complex demonstration,” in which multiple services would together evaluate capacities to communicate, gather intelligence, conduct offensive and defensive cyber operations, and jam and spoof. Read more.

ICYMI Snippets

• RFI: Space Force seeks tactical C2 cloud-based infrastructure.

• Marine Innovation Unit turns to reservists for technical solutions.

• RFI: Army looks for new situational awareness system.

• Effort to ban the Schedule F civil service protections gets renewed through NDAA.

• House and Senate appropriators cut NASA’s budget ~2 billion.

• Why military space matters.

Defense Contract Awards

• DLA adds DataPath (currently being acquired by Gilat) to $3.2B 'C5ISR' equipment vehicle.

• Accenture Federal Services wins $94M Army contract.

• Orbital Composites wins $1.7M Space Force contract.

Follow the Defense Leaders

• POTUS Nominee: Lt. Gen. James Mingus for Army’s next vice chief of staff.

• POTUS Nominee: Lt. Gen. Timothy Haugh for leader of Cyber Command and the NSA.

• Palantir gets former DOD Deputy CDAO.

Defense Job Openings

• The Army Corps of Engineers is hiring a Director of Contracting.

• Navy U.S. Fleet Forces Command is seeking a Senior Analyst for Civil Maritime.

• Naval Sea Systems Command is hiring a Distinguished Engineer/Scientist (SSTM for Naval Electromagnetic Environmental Effects).

• NASA is seeking a Systems Engineering and Integration Office Manager.

DAILY FUNNY

INTEL COMMUNITY

Senate Intel leaders: U.S. lacks strategic investments in emerging techs.

Top leadership of the Senate Intelligence Committee said that Congress has been making a “serious effort” to address emerging technologies – like artificial intelligence and quantum computing – but “whether it is enough is something that we really need to ask ourselves.” Read more

NSA working on new AI ‘roadmap’ as intel agencies grapple with recent advances.

The intelligence community is grappling, like many industries and society at large, with rapid advances in large language models and generative artificial intelligence over the past nine months. And despite intelligence agencies’ propensity for analyzing trends and forecasting future events, officials at the Intelligence and National Security Summit this past week largely agreed that the AI developments over the past nine months have been surprising. Read More

ICYMI Snippets

• Palantir expands Carahsoft partnership.

• Defense bill amendments target increased UFO transparency for public.

• Office of the Director of National Intelligence is hiring an Intelligence Community Architect and Director of Architecture & Integration Group.

• Why overcoming DHS customer service challenges matters for national security.
  

CIVILIAN

Microsoft email hack shows greater sophistication, skill of China’s cyberspies.

The hack of email accounts of senior U.S. officials including the commerce secretary is the latest feat from a network of Chinese state-backed hackers whose leap in sophistication has alarmed U.S. cybersecurity officials. The espionage was aimed at a limited number of high-value U.S. government and corporate targets. Though the number of victims appeared to be small, the attack—and others unearthed in the past few months linked to China—demonstrated a new level of skill from Beijing’s large hacker army. Read more.

NOAA’s documentation fended off $8B vehicle bid protest.

Two things collided in a protest involving an $8 billion contract vehicle: an agency’s documentation of its decision-making process and the protester’s apparently incomplete responses to parts of the solicitation. In a post-award protest, FedWriters complained that NOAA didn’t properly evaluate its proposal to win a spot on the ProTech 2.0 small business contract for professional services. Read more

Here’s where agencies are turning to automation to augment human work.

“AI is really good about identifying computer vision patterns and trends that usually humans are not really good at,” Taka Ariga, inaugural chief data scientist at GAO said. At GAO, using large language models to help the office’s existing audit methodology is a key task that requires training the algorithms correctly. Read more

ICYMI Snippets

• Warner says passport backlog ‘not sustainable,’ as State Dept aims for pre-pandemic processing times.

• A first look at Naval Oceanography’s new ‘North Star’ data strategy.

• Ohio congressman urges new FBI HQ in Alabama, not suburban DC.

• Senate Approps wants to claw back $290M of TMF funding.

• Stockholdings of federal executives would be easier to track under new bill.

• VA is exploring ownership of intellectual property, organizational conflicts of interest, and outside validation support.

• How NIST is helping to guide the government conversation on AI.

Civilian Contracts Awards

• HHS HRSA awards A P Ventures, LLC (an 8[a] company) a $4M VICP/CICP Injury Compensation System - Salesforce Implementation Task.

• FDA awards FCN, Inc. a $2M Cybersecurity Data Protections Catalog task.

• CDC awards Research Triangle Institute a $1M National Program of Cancer Registries Data Modernization Contract.

• Energy extends Hanford tank contract as next steps loom.

Civilian Job Openings

• The USDA Food and Nutrition Service is seeking a chief operating officer.

• EPA is hiring a Director of Water Division.

• Customs and Border Protection is seeking a Supervisory Border Protection Officer.

• National Nuclear Security Administration is hiring a Director Human Resources.

M&A CORNER

Mission1st, Swift Group move on acquisitions.

Mission1st, a SDVOSB, is looking to broaden its analytics and cloud consulting work across the federal landscape among other areas of technology services. Mission1st believes it has found a pathway to do that through its acquisition of Ardent Management Consulting. The Swift Group has acquired OPS Consulting to enhance its footing in DOD and IC communities. Read more.

Report: Private equity firms, defense companies vie for Ball Corp's aerospace unit.

Private equity firms Blackstone Inc. and Veritas Capital Fund Management LLC are competing against large defense companies to acquire the aerospace business of Ball Corp, according to people familiar with the matter. Defense firms BAE Systems, General Dynamics Corp and Textron Inc. have also expressed interest in the business, which could be worth over $5 billion, the sources said. Read more.

HawkEye 360 fetches $58M in new funding round.

Satellite constellation operator HawkEye 360, which has 21 satellites in orbit, has completed a new Series D-1 funding round that fetched $58 million from new and existing investors to support new product development and expansion efforts. Read more

SHOWER THOUGHTS 🚿

Commentary: Can we look beyond the hype on AI?

NIST may be in the perfect position to offer a blueprint for the uncharted world of artificial intelligence. The agency, which focuses on voluntary, stakeholder-driven measurement standards, is drilling in on the risks posed by the emerging technology in a series of guidance documents including the AI Risk Management Framework published earlier this year. Read more.

Why are most agency HQs are only one-quarter full post-pandemic?

A majority of major federal agencies are seeing their headquarter buildings at 25% of capacity or less, according to a new GAO report, while none are more than half full. Agencies are so far reluctant to adjust their real estate footprints despite a sharp reduction in building utilization as the agencies confront insufficient funding for change and a fear of a change in remote work policies. Read more

Here’s why there’s a growing problem with the Marshall Islands.

The US is in a renewal period right now as the Compact of Free Association (COFA) is re-negotiated, and three Freely Associated States (FAS)—Palau, Federal States of Micronesia, and the Marshall Islands—are re-examining the financial/services aspects of the pact. But the Marshall Islands is holding out, and there’s a wide chasm between what’s being offered and what the Marshall Islands want. This is going to have critical implications our strategic military foothold in the South Pacific, as tensions with China and Taiwan intensify. Read more

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