October 02, 2023

QUICK HITS

• Congress averts shutdown with 45-day spending bill: bipartisan measure passed just hours before deadline.

• As Milley exits, ‘toothaches’ and challenges facing Brown’s first days as Joint Chiefs chair: Ukraine support contentious.

• Swamped with cybersecurity data, NGA hopes ChatGPT-like tools can help: Agency dealing with 70,000 new data points a second.

DEFENSE & AEROSPACE

Exemption given for Navy to build nuclear sub in stopgap funding bill.

Congress intends to give the Pentagon a carveout in a short-term funding bill that will allow the Navy to begin construction on a new ballistic missile submarine. Without that exemption, service leaders have expressed concern that congressional budget dysfunction could otherwise push the program behind schedule and create a nuclear deterrence gap in the years ahead. Read more

Navy’s 2-year-old robot task force eyes more AI.

Two years ago, the U.S. Navy’s Task Force 59 began its sprint toward a hybrid manned-unmanned fleet, bucking acquisition norms as it wrung out new ideas and new uncrewed systems and passed them to 5th Fleet operators. Now its concepts are spreading to other commands, even as TF59 continues to push new boundaries in AI and other technologies. Read more

Drones everywhere: How the technology revolution on Ukrainian battlefields is reshaping modern warfare.

Wearing video goggles, a Ukrainian trooper crouched on the top floor of a gutted high-rise and piloted a small drone into the nearby Russian-occupied city of Bakmut. With a swoosh, the first-person-view drone—which cost roughly $300 to assemble—sped after a target of opportunity, blowing up a pickup truck full of Russian troops. Read more

ICYMI Snippets

• Lawmakers, Army gonna fight over cuts to special operations forces.

• Space Development Agency funds demonstration of satellite laser links in degraded environments.

• NASA to probe quantum tech for sensing applications.

• How DOD can more effectively leverage venture-backed innovation.

• DLA limits federal telework to two days a week.

• Opinion: The demographic and fiscal time bombs ticking in the Pentagon.

Defense Contract Awards

• Lockheed wins $1.1B contract to design Navy’s Integrated Combat System.

• BAE Systems to supply Army with jam-resistant navigation tech.

• Six companies secure positions on $5B Army Power Stabilization Project in Puerto Rico.

• Computer World Services Wins $213M Contract for USAF Information Network Operations Support.

• Cybersecurity firm Xage gets $17M contract to protect Space Force networks.

• NASA selects SpaceX for rideshare launch of smallsat mission.

Follow the Defense Leaders

• ManTech names new Innovation & Capabilities SVP, Chief Innovation Officer.

• Leidos taps former Army PEO Chief of Staff to be VP.

• Blue Origin CEO replaced by former Amazon executive.

Defense Job Openings

• The Army is hiring a Deputy Director, Prevention, Resilience and Readiness Directorate.

• Office of the Secretary of Defense is hiring a Director, Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency.

• OSD is hiring a Foreign Relations and Defense Policy Manager.

DAILY FUNNY

INTEL COMMUNITY

Securing AI means preventing it from “learning, doing, and revealing the wrong thing.”

The National Security Agency is standing up an AI security center to maintain America’s advantages in that space by protecting the technology from cyber threats, according to Gen. Nakasone, NSA head. Read more

DIA looks to increase public info analysis.

The DIA is looking for a contractor to help manage multiple sources of publicly available information for analysis and research. Public information has become increasingly important for many of DIA’s mission and business functions, the agency said in a new request for information. Read more | Get the RFI

ICYMI Snippets

• DHS issues new IT plan to tackle workforce, AI and CX challenges.

• State Dept is looking for 1,000 translators and interpreters.

• Booz Allen taps Karna Desai to be Generative AI Co-Lead and Market Integration Lead for the National Security Sector.

CIVILIAN

GAO clobbers State Department for slow walk on cyber work.

According to a new GAO report, State Department has failed to fully implement its cybersecurity risk program, and there are a number of steps it needs to take to better secure its networks and systems Read more

GAO in ‘experimentation phase’ with AI model to query reports, inform its work.

An AI model currently being developed by the GAO could one day be used to do things like pull information from the watchdog’s extensive catalog of reports for Congress. GAO’s Innovation Lab has brought in a large language model that it’s looking to use to query its reports in a more “sophisticated way.” Read more

ICYMI Snippets

• Technology Modernization Fund announces $9M in new investments.

• Protest filed: Ernst & Young files protest for $5B+ FBI ITSSS-2 IDIQ.

• PMA Update: GSA’s Login.Gov reaches 38.8M users.

• OIG says CBP, ICE, and Secret Service did not adhere to privacy policies or develop sufficient policies before procuring and using commercial telemetry data.

Civilian Contracts Awards

• CGI Federal wins a 10-year Financial Management contract with U.S. Courts.

• MetaPhase, Sky Solutions, Coresphere, and I Tech AG win spots on $137M DHS FEMA Digital Workflow BPA.

• Maveris wins $331 VA cybersecurity ops center next-gen IT support.

• VA awards SDVOSB Mentor-Protege JV Clear Vantage Point Solutions $155M national safeguard initiative against veteran suicide contract.

Follow Civilian Leaders

• Treasury taps a new Deputy Assistant Secretary for Acquisition.'

• CDC Center for Forecasting and Outbreak Analysis selects new deputy director.

• CGI veteran appointed VP, Cloud Practice Lead at SAIC.

• RS21 adds VP of Federal Growth.

• ARA names new Chief Growth Officer.

• Industry veteran recruited to serve as CGO at IT Partners, Inc.

Civilian Job Openings

• FEMA is hiring a Deputy Assistant Administrator for Grant Programs.

• DOJ Office, Boards, Divisions is seeking a deputy executive secretary.

• USDA Agriculture, Rural Development is hiring a deputy administrator.

SHOWER THOUGHTS 🚿

Oktoberfest interesting read: See how beer evolved through history from Stone Age sludge to craft brews.

Beer is old, but we don’t know how old it is. Most of the earliest known cultures brewed it, and some scholars believe that it was the quest for beer, not bread, that motivated our hunter-gatherer ancestors to settle down and cultivate grain. Read more

Nicola Gratteri: The man on the kill list of Italy's most powerful mafia.

Italy's highest-profile mafia target only tells us where to find him 20 minutes before we meet. Nicola Gratteri, the prosecutor leading the country's fight against organized crime, has learned to live in constant danger - and too much advance warning leaves him exposed. Read more

Which companies own the most satellites?

Nearly 7,000 satellites orbit the Earth, serving vital functions such as communication, navigation, and scientific research. In 2022 alone, more than 150 launches took place, sending new instruments into space, with many more expected over the next decade. Read more

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