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Army C5ISR Center to Host Industry Event in February
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The U.S. Army invites industry to take part in a virtual forum early next year to discuss contract opportunities in command, control, computers, communications, cyber, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance areas.

The Research and Technology Integration (RTI) directorate with the Army C5ISR Center will provide information on technology projects targeted over the next two years, the Army said Tuesday in a SAM.gov notice.

The industry event will take place virtually on Feb. 23rd and 24th, 2022. RTI’s technology interests include electro-optic/infrared sensors, radio frequency, networks, energy systems and cyber.

The directorate will also administer one-on-one sessions to gather information on new C5ISR technologies under development in the private sector.

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BigBear.ai Announces Third Quarter 2021 Financial Results; GovCon Expert Reggie Brothers Quoted
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BigBear.ai Announces Third Quarter 2021 Financial Results; GovCon Expert Reggie Brothers Quoted

BigBear.ai, a leading provider of artificial intelligence, machine learning, cloud-based big data analytics, and cyber engineering solutions, announced its 2021 third-quarter financial results on Wednesday. 

“BigBear.ai continues to build strong momentum through expanded customer engagements, additional contract awards, and additional investments aimed at accelerating commercial penetration,” said Dr. Reggie Brothers, BigBear.ai CEO and a 2021 Wash100 Award recipient. 

The company reported a gross margin of roughly 27 percent in the third quarter against the year-to-date projections with approximately $40 million in revenue from the quarter as well. Also, the company reached an adjusted gross margin of 49 percent in its analytics segment and 21 percent in its cyber and engineering segment. 

“Our record third-quarter revenue of $40.2 million represents an increase of approximately $4 million, or approximately 11%, over the second quarter of 2021, and reflects our recent contract wins,” GovCon Expert Reggie Brothers added. “Additionally, as the timing difference between our investments and the resulting revenue growth has continued to settle, we saw considerable EBITDA growth in the quarter.”

On Monday, BigBear.ai announced that GigCapital4 has filed its definitive proxy statement and set a date of Dec. 3, 2021, for its stockholder meeting in regards to the company’s pending business combination with BigBear.ai. The merger was originally announced in June 2021 and is expected to close following the stakeholders meeting.

“We are on track for the completion of our business combination with GigCapital4 and listing on the New York Stock Exchange later this year,” said Dr. Brothers. “This will enable us to further accelerate growth and ensure we are well-positioned to meet increasing demand from companies across virtually all verticals that need to optimize massive amounts of data to enable better decision making.”

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Mitre Engenuity Unveils Vision for Creation of National Semiconductor Technology Center; Laurie Giandomenico Quoted
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Mitre Engenuity Unveils Vision for Creation of National Semiconductor Technology Center; Laurie Giandomenico Quoted

A cross-industry alliance of semiconductor companies led by Mitre’s technology foundation has published a white paper outlining recommendations for the creation of a National Semiconductor Technology Center. 

Mitre Engenuity said Wednesday members of The Semiconductor Alliance worked together on the document, titled “American Innovation, American Growth: A Vision for the National Semiconductor Technology Center,” to call for the development of a resilient supply chain and facilitate innovation across the U.S. semiconductor ecosystem.

The white paper outlines principles for creating and governing an NSTC, proposes a plan on how the center can create value to the local semiconductor industry and provides a guideline for measuring impact and success.

Laurie Giandomenico, chief acceleration officer at Mitre and head of Mitre Engenuity, said a nationwide action is needed to address competition from international semiconductor manufacturers.

“It is not enough to lead the design of new chips, we must create incentives, stimulate investment, build the workforce, and lead technology advancements across the whole value chain,” Giandomenico.

Established in June, The Semiconductor Alliance seeks to design an implementation plan for government investments in semiconductor research and development allocated by the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act.
 

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Mieke Eoyang: Military Needs Industry to Support Allies’ Cybersecurity
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Mieke Eoyang: Military Needs Industry to Support Allies’ Cybersecurity

Mieke Eoyang, the deputy assistant secretary of defense for cyber policy, said the Pentagon needs the private sector’s help to bolster the cybersecurity of allies, Defense News reported Thursday.

Eoyang said partners from NATO, the Asia Pacific and Europe have been frequently requesting cybersecurity assistance.

The Defense Security Cooperation Agency, U.S. Cyber Command and regional commands are now in talks about how to jointly support the cybersecurity of allies.

The defense official said cybersecurity among allies is important because fighting as a united force requires participants to plan and train together, activities that can be compromised through cyber attacks.

Compromising coalition plans can cause problems that would affect combat ability, she noted.

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Tripwire Survey: Security Professionals Seek Government Guidance in Adopting NIST Standards; Tim Erlin Quoted
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Tripwire Survey: Security Professionals Seek Government Guidance in Adopting NIST Standards; Tim Erlin Quoted

A new survey from vulnerability management firm Tripwire showed that security professionals seek more guidance from the federal government to support the adoption of cybersecurity standards from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

 Tripwire said Tuesday it commissioned Dimensional Research to survey 306 security professionals working for the government and private sector and found that only 49 percent of non-governmental agencies have fully adopted the NIST standards.

About 24 percent of federal respondents also think they struggle to keep up with new cyber threats and breaches primarily due to a lack of leadership prioritization and resources.

“Generally, long-term enforcement and implementation of cybersecurity policy will take time, but it’s important that agencies lay out a plan and measure execution against that plan to protect our critical infrastructure and beyond,” said Tim Erlin, vice president of product management and strategy at Tripwire.

Both public and private sector security professionals also noted the importance of implementing zero trust framework to enhance cyber resilience, with 50 percent of respondents saying that integrity monitoring plays a key role in achieving an effective zero trust strategy.

However, 83 percent of respondents still expect that cyber attack vectors, such as ransomware, will evolve despite efforts to secure systems.

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Raytheon Intelligence & Space Wins U.S. Army Contract for IFF Surveillance Capabilities; Denis Donohue Quoted
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Raytheon Intelligence & Space Wins U.S. Army Contract for IFF Surveillance Capabilities; Denis Donohue Quoted

The U.S. Army has tapped Raytheon Technologies’ intelligence and space business to improve its Mode 5 and ADS-B surveillance capabilities for use with the Army’s Identification Friend or Foe technologies. Work is expected to be completed in 2026.

As part of the potential five-year, $17.5 million indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract, Raytheon Intelligence & Space will deliver a range of products and services including digital control panels, APX-119 transponders, KIV-77 crypto modules, personality modules, mounting trays and crypto simulators for the Army’s Foreign Military Sales platforms, the company said Monday.

Denis Donohue, vice president of communications and airspace management systems for Raytheon Intelligence & Space, said the contract allows the company to deliver “critical” surveillance capabilities to the military in their mission to strengthen national security.

“It is our priority to help ensure our nation’s warfighters are properly equipped with increased situational awareness and stronger security functions,” Donohue stated.

Raytheon’s work under the contract is expected to improve the Identification Friend or Foe’s ability to identify aircraft, vehicles or forces as friendly, neutral or enemy through its air traffic control interrogation systems.

Recently, Raytheon Intelligence & Space opened a new manufacturing facility in McKinney, Texas to foster accelerated business unit expansion, enhance agility and meet increased customer demand.

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Hermeus Unveils Full-Scale Autonomous High-Speed Aircraft Model
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Hermeus Unveils Full-Scale Autonomous High-Speed Aircraft Model

Venture-backed startup Hermeus revealed a full-scale prototype of its hypersonic aircraft to a group of people from the government and business sectors last week.

The Quarterhorse prototype unveiling event sought to highlight the company’s progress in developing hardware designed to support high-speed flight, Hermeus said Tuesday.

For the showcase, the company set the aircraft engine to full afterburner while in a static position.

Hermeus announced a $60 million award from the U.S. Air Force’s AFWERX Strategic Funding Increase program in August to demonstrate Quarterhorse’s turbine-based combined cycle engine through a flight test.

The company based its proprietary TBCC engine on General Electric’s J85 turbojet.

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Jen Easterly: Hackers Could Back Cyber Defense Efforts
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Jen Easterly: Hackers Could Back Cyber Defense Efforts

Jen Easterly, director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, said she wants the community of private hackers to play a role and help strengthen U.S. cyber defense initiatives, Wired reported Wednesday.

“We want to ignite the power of hackers and researchers and academics because, at the end of the day, the world is full of vulnerabilities, and I feel the offense is dominating the defense,” Easterly told the publication in an interview.

“So I want to make sure we are tapping into the brilliance and the goodness of those communities to help us identify and close those vulnerabilities,” she added.

Easterly also highlighted the importance of having “adversarial empathy” to understand how threat actors operate and the need for the government to partner with the private sector to “create a common picture of the operating environment” and prepare for future attacks.

CISA issued Friday a Federal Register notice announcing the establishment of a new cybersecurity advisory committee that will offer recommendations with regard to the development and implementation of programs and policies in support of the agency’s mission.

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University-Affiliated Space Dynamics Lab Gets $1.3B in Sensor R&D Contracts From MDA, USAF
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University-Affiliated Space Dynamics Lab Gets $1.3B in Sensor R&D Contracts From MDA, USAF

Space Dynamics Laboratory (SDL), a nonprofit research unit of Utah State University, will explore sensor systems under a pair of contracts worth $1.31 billion combined from the U.S. Air Force and the Missile Defense Agency (MDA).

SDL will develop engineering support and capability for the Air Force Research Laboratory’s space vehicles directorate through the Space & Nuclear Advanced Prototypes, Experiments & Technology (SNAPET) program.

The five-year, $1.01 billion SNAPET contract will include system development and validation, modeling, simulation and data analysis work.

For the MDA contract, valued at $300 million over seven years, the university-affiliated research organization will develop and engineer sensors for space applications. Both awards use an indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity type of procurement.

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PAWR Program Launches Wireless Testbed for Advanced Drone Research; Ismail Guvenc Quoted
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PAWR Program Launches Wireless Testbed for Advanced Drone Research; Ismail Guvenc Quoted

A National Science Foundation-funded initiative has announced the general availability of a wireless testbed for network communications and unmanned aerial systems experimentation.

The Platforms for Advanced Wireless Research (PAWR) Program Office said Tuesday that the Aerial Experimentation and Research Platform for Advanced Wireless (AERPAW) testbed is now available for drone flight demonstration and software-defined radio experiments in Raleigh, North Carolina.

The testbed comprises two fixed network nodes deployed at North Carolina State University’s Centennial Campus and a tower with a fixed node at Lake Wheeler Field Laboratory, along with two aerial-mounted nodes on custom drones and one mobile node on a ground-based rover.

“The AERPAW platform uniquely combines programmable wireless networking with custom drones to enable research into both airspace operations and wireless connectivity through 4G, 5G, and beyond,” said Ismail Guvenc, the testbed’s principal investigator and engineering professor at NC State.

The NSF-funded PAWR program, co-led by US Ignite and Northeastern University, also operates the POWDER testbed in Salt Lake City, Utah, and the COSMOS project in West Harlem, New York City.

It is working on a fourth testbed, dubbed ARA, in Ames, Iowa, for rural broadband connectivity.

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