October 13, 2023

Secret CIA histories, 688B tax gap, Learn how to use GPT, New VA chief of staff, Quadrupling NRO sats, DISA RFI, HUBZone fraudsters

October 13, 2023

QUICK HITS

  • SBA turning up the heat on HUBZone fraudsters: The agency will take five steps as part of a renewed effort to root out bad actors.

  • The Inflation Reduction Act, two years later: The White House is still working to add more staff and upgrade its IT infrastructure.

  • How to operationalize AI: Strategies to make it work for your company and its most critical missions.

  • 4 dozen SB alliances formed to lead IT firms across FedCiv, DOD: Some striking new partnerships are heading into FY '24.

TRIVIA

PRESENTED BY ROGUE

GovCon GPT Master Class

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2. Modules include step-by-step instructions, all the prompts, and practical exercises.

3. All content is Creative Commons-BY license, so you are welcome to use/reuse for private or commercial purposes.

"AI won't take your job. Someone who uses AI will."

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DEFENSE & AEROSPACE

“Let’s be friends!” Space Force pushing for collaboration in military space programs.

Strengthening ties with foreign allies has been a key USSF priority, whose leaders stress that securing outer space requires global cooperation. To that end, the United States has signed numerous intelligence-sharing and data-exchange agreements with partner nations worldwide. However, collaboration has not usually applied to the acquisition of satellites or other space systems. Read more

Climate change and cyber vulnerabilities are shaping the future of homeland defense.

Climate change, cyber vulnerabilities, and malign state and non-state actors abroad are posing threats that challenge U.S. homeland defense, challenging the nation's ability to demonstrate resilience in the face of these threats. Read more

Army is ready to cut costs on hypersonic missile parts.

The army is looking for new ways to start cutting costs related to its hypersonic missiles, but one official has outlined several supply chain issues and limitations that are currently standing in the way. Read more

ICYMI:

Defense Contract Awards

Follow the Defense Leaders

Defense Job Openings

INTEL COMMUNITY

Analysts are questioning NRO's satellite production ramp-up.

Aerospace industry analysts are wondering how the NRO is going to successfully pull off an ambitious quadrupling in the production of its satellites in the next decade and whether a ten-fold increase in signals and imagery collection will matter if AI capabilities aren't ready. Read more

Here’s what went wrong with Israel's intelligence (according to a counterterrorism expert).

There's no question that Israel possesses highly sophisticated intelligence capabilities; and so as details unfold about the full extent of Hamas’ unprecedented and surprise attack on 20 Israeli towns and several army bases, the question lingers: How did Israel fail to piece together clues about this large-scale and highly complex plot in advance? Read more

ICYMI:

  • With new intel doctrine, Army pivots to ISR modernization.

  • Watch: Ex-CIA director warns about potential Israel-Hamas 'end result'.

  • Old news but interesting: CIA acknowledges that backing a 1953 Iranian coup was undemocratic.

CIVILIAN

IRS finds $688B 'tax gap' between what taxpayers owe and pay.

The IRS is seeing a growing disparity between the taxes it’s supposed to receive each year, and the amount it actually collects. The agency announced that the “tax gap” between what taxpayers owe, and what they voluntarily pay the federal government is now approximately $688B annually. Read more

Labor Dept. efforts to modernize state UI systems are trending.

The DOL awarded the last $204M of grant money for unemployment insurance modernization late last month to move to the cloud and more modular technology that’s adaptable to change. Of the $2B initially allocated for the department’s jobless aid modernization and fraud prevention under the American Rescue Plan Act, about $800M was set aside for grants. Read more

Contractor issues put NASA behind schedule, over budget on robotic spacecraft.

NASA wants to use robotic spacecraft to repair a range of in-orbit satellites, but the agency's initiative to build such a spacecraft, which is called On-orbit Servicing, Assembly, and Manufacturing 1 or OSAM-1, is running late and is totally going to blow it’s $2B budget. Read more

ICYMI:

Civilian Contracts Awards

  • CMS chooses iTech AG to Support CMS CCQS under $75M BPA.

  • VA awards RB Consulting $5M program and project management support services contract.

  • VA TAC awards Client First Technologies a $10M OSS Program Management, Strategic Planning & Analysis contract.

Follow Civilian Leaders

Civilian Job Openings

M&A CORNER

Comtech to sell Power Systems Tech product line to Stellant.

Stellant Systems, a portfolio company of Arlington Capital Partners, has agreed to acquire the power systems technology product line of Comtech Telecommunications for $40 million. Stellant aims to integrate the PST product line into its radio frequency amplification product portfolio to provide customers with expanded amplification options, including vacuum tube and solid state. Read more

SHOWER THOUGHTS 🚿

How did a New York Times reporter really get the Pentagon Papers?

On the night of March 23, 1971, New York Times reporter Neil Sheehan excitedly called Max Frankel, the Times’s Washington bureau chief, to give him the news he had been waiting weeks to hear. “I got it all,” Sheehan told Frankel. The Pentagon Papers were proof that the government had been lying to the American people about the Vietnam War. Read more

Did we just dig up the most perfectly preserved dinosaur?

(Your kids are going to love this.) Feast your eyes on what appears to be the most perfectly preserved dinosaur of all time; it’s an extraordinary example of good geologic luck and an exciting scientific discovery that will hopefully lead to great research and knowledge of our dinosaur past. It even has its skin intact! Read more

How do you undermine extremists like ISIS with the power of a narrative?

The most effective way to manipulate a foundational cultural narrative is to insert a manipulating story; there are those who are actively trying to undermine the capacity of extremists like ISIS and their ability to recruit with the power of narrative. Read more

TRIVIA ANSWER: B - 300

The organization suffered its first casualties in 1962 when volunteers Larry Radley and David Crozier were killed in a plane crash in Colombia. Since then, around 300 other volunteers have died on duty from car crashes, accidents, sickness, drowning, animal attacks, and violent crime. While certain hazards are unavoidable, the Peace Corps often evacuates volunteers from unstable or potentially dangerous parts of the world. In recent years, security concerns have seen it suspend operations in Kazakhstan, Niger, Honduras, Jordan and El Salvador. 4% of the Peace Corps staff work in northern Africa and the Middle East. (Source)

Learn more about the individual volunteers who have died while in service to their country: https://fpcv.org/fallen-pcvs/

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