October 27, 2023

As demand for arms booms, a lack of modernization is stymying weapons production, and some small firms at the heart of the defense industry are having trouble seeing the upsides of automation and digitization. Small firms are operating on old systems, and the sheer number of small businesses is shrinking, too. Read more

BETA Technologies has delivered the aircraft to the Air Force whose founder and CEO said, “The involvement of the military massively augments our velocity on the commercial side because the military's expectation of an airplane is fundamentally the same as the FAA’s. They want a safe, reliable, repeatedly produced aircraft." Read more

The SDA can officially begin testing Link-16 signals in low Earth orbit, having just received approval from a key international regulatory body — although the agency remains caught up in a long-running DOD spat with the FAA. Read more

U.S. intelligence officials are saying that a "catastrophic motor failure" of a rocket launched by Palestinian militants caused a massive hospital blast at Gaza's Al-Ahli hospital last week. The story is interesting for the resources that intel used to develop their conclusions. Read more

The Army has updated its intelligence doctrine to outline steps to modernize its intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance capabilities, as well as develop deep-sensing technology like quantum computing. Read more

The federal government is aiming to award 13% of its contract spending to small disadvantaged businesses in FY24, the OMB has directed. The goal is to ultimately award 15% of procurement dollars to small biz by FY25. The EO also directed the SBA to annually set up agency-specific goals with other departments in furtherance of the governmentwide targets for small disadvantaged businesses. Read more

The VA has stated that it supports elements of a bill that would refine its process for firing employees accused of misconduct or poor performance. VA’s top human resources official told lawmakers that the department endorses core elements of the new legislature. Read more

An inspector general report four years in the making found that FBI officials nixed a plan to move its headquarters to suburban Washington, D.C., for actual, legitimate reasons, which included a budget shortfall for the expensive move, infrastructure concerns, lack of mass transit, among other reasons. Read more

An “unnamed buyer” is taking it on. (Oooh is it Elon Musk???) The sale of the Cybersecurity, Intelligence and Services division was disclosed in the company’s third-quarter results for 2023, when sales totaled $13.5 billion, a decline of 21% from the the same period a year earlier. Reuters on Oct. 24 named the prospective buyer as private-equity firm Blackstone. (Aw, shucks!) C4ISRNET could not independently verify the matter, and an RTX spokesperson declined to share additional information. Read more

CAE has agreed to sell its health care business unit to Madison Industries for approximately $226.3M as the Canadian aerospace and defense company seeks to focus on its core training and simulation markets. Read more

Plasma gasification guarantees energy security, cost savings, and environmental protection, all while maintaining readiness for uncertain conflicts. But does it have a long-term future in the eyes of industry and federal leaders? Read more

Peter Thiel’s spy-tech firm is the frontrunner for the UK’s National Health Systems's biggest ever contract, despite warnings from multiple data privacy campaigners. Here’s a fun fact: Thiel took the name for the company from the mystical “seeing stones” in Tolkein’s Lord of the Rings trilogy, in which the orbs are known for their potential to corrupt. Yikes, that doesn’t bode well. Read more

FIDO relies on a physical token attached to a device or “platform authenticators” that are embedded into laptops or mobile devices -- but are federal agencies and their security leaders ready to adopt it to enhance cybersecurity posture? Read more

TRIVIA ANSWER: A - A post office worker

10 USC, Subtitle A, Part II, Chapter 45, Sections 771 and 772 specify that only USPS letter carriers may wear the official uniform. It is illegal to wear one for a Halloween costume. A 1970 court case, Schact v. United States, carved out an exemption for “theatrical purposes.” Congress, operating on a slight lag, in 1990 changed Section 772 of the statute law to reflect the Court’s decision. There remains no Halloween costume exemption, so anyone dressing as Newman from “Seinfeld” does so at their own risk. (Source)

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