/
IT Modernization CoE Bill Signed Into Law; Sen. Rob Portman Quoted
Published on
IT Modernization CoE Bill Signed Into Law; Sen. Rob Portman Quoted

President Trump has signed into law a bill that aims to help the U.S. government implement the latest advancements in information technology. Portman introduced the bill alongside Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H.

The IT Modernization Centers of Excellence Program Act tasks the General Services Administration's (GSA) Centers of Excellence (CoE) to make efforts that bolster the federal government's overall IT expertise, the office of Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, said Thursday. 

“As technology continues to change and advance, it’s important that the federal government understands the significant impacts it will have on our country, economy and society,” Portman said.

He said the bill will help the government obtain the expertise and tools needed to plan through these technology impacts across years to come. The new law follows and builds on the Artificial Intelligence in Government Act that formally directs the establishment of an AI CoE.

/
SAIC Reports Q3 FY 2021 Financial Results; Nazzic Keene Quoted
Published on
SAIC Reports Q3 FY 2021 Financial Results; Nazzic Keene Quoted

Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) has announced results for the third quarter ended October 30, 2020, the company reported on Friday. SAIC has estimated that the third quarter program impact from the COVID-19 pandemic to be approximately $60 million of revenue and $9 million of adjusted EBITDA. 

The impacts were driven by reduced volume in SAIC’s supply chain business, lower FAA training service revenues,and uncertain profit recovery on ready-state labor. Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, SAIC has operated as an essential business, continuing to operate in a resilient market and business model.

“SAIC’s third quarter results reflect strong financial performance and momentum with the second straight quarter of highest book-to-bill and backlog in our seven-year history," said SAIC CEO and 2020 Wash100 Award recipient, Nazzic Keene.

SAIC’s revenues for the quarter increased $188 million, compared to the prior year quarter due to the acquisition of Unisys Federal, revenue on new contracts primarily supporting the U.S. Air Force and increased volume on existing programs.

The company’s operating income as a percentage of revenues of 6.1 percent, increased from 5.8 percent in the comparable prior year period due to the acquisition of Unisys Federal, lower acquisition and integration costs and lower indirect costs. 

SAIC’s net income attributable to common stockholders for the quarter increased $5 million as compared to the same period in the prior year primarily due to increased operating income, partially offset by higher interest expense. Adjusted EBITDA as a percentage of revenues for the quarter increased to 9.0 percent of revenues from 8.3 percent of revenues in the prior year quarter driven by the acquisition of Unisys Federal and lower indirect costs. 

Diluted earnings per share for the quarter was $1.02 compared to $0.94 in the prior year quarter. Adjusted diluted earnings per share(1) for the quarter was $1.62 compared to $1.39 in the prior year quarter. The weighted-average diluted shares outstanding during the quarter increased to 58.7 million from 58.3 million during the prior year quarter.

"We have also taken strategic, organizational, and leadership steps recently that are foundational to the long-term success of SAIC. We are making great progress in the execution of our strategy and are moving forward,” Keene added. 

//
Janes Enters Agreement to Acquire Global Platforms and Systems from Avascent
Published on
Janes Enters Agreement to Acquire Global Platforms and Systems from Avascent

Janes has entered an agreement to acquire Avascent’s defense market analytics business, Global Platforms and Systems (GPS), to support the company’s industry intelligence solutions and enhance the offering it provides to customers. Janes expects completion of the acquisition in January 2021 subject to customary conditions.

“I’m delighted to announce the acquisition of GPS from Avascent – it’s a great addition to our portfolio of trusted open-source defence intelligence solutions and allows us to enhance our position as the leading provider of defence market forecasts worldwide,” said Blake Bartlett, CEO at Janes. 

With the acquisition, Janes will further its momentum since becoming an independent business, Bartlett added. Additionally, the purchase will expand Janes’ objective open-source intelligence and analytics to support defense and security markets. 

Avascent will complement Janes’ capabilities across its ecosystem of connected data, which will help customers leverage and structure data to support analytics within the national security environment.

The terms of acquisition between Janes and Avascent has included a collaboration agreement, which the two firms can enact to pursue opportunities where their joint capabilities will provide clients with additional insights on defense and security matters.

“In Janes, we have found a partner that can take the GPS business to the next level while we continue to focus and invest in our core strategy consulting business,” said Steve Irwin, president of Avascent. Clients who have wanted closer integration between GPS and other data resources can now look forward to the prospect of more powerful tools to support their strategy, corporate development and business development efforts.”

/
Allison Robertson of Chenega Corp Receives NCMA Advancing Professionals Award
Published on
Allison Robertson of Chenega Corp Receives NCMA Advancing Professionals Award

Allison Robertson, Vice President of Business Services, Chenega Corporation, has received the Advancing Professionals Award by the National Contract Management Association (NCMA), during the association’s annual Government Contract Management Symposium.

NCMA has recognized Robertson for excellence and innovation in the field of Contract Management, the company told ExecutiveGov on Friday.

Allison Robertson
Allison Robertson, Vice President, Business Services, Chenega Corporation

With Chenega Corporation’s Security Strategic Business Unit, Robertson completed the application review process, including her professional achievements, activities and milestones that have proved her excellence in the field.

She has overcome challenges, while maintaining a growing base of Contracts for the company, to include organizational changes within the Human Resources and Procurement Departments also under her purview. Robertson has also demonstrated strong leadership within the company and field of Contract Management, and has had a large impact on the future of the profession.

With nearly 20,000 members, the National Contract Management Association is the world’s leading resource for professionals in the Contract Management field. This award recognizes rising stars and top performers coming into their own as leaders in contract management and in NCMA.

/
Northrop Grumman Completes Initial Development MQ-4C Triton NITE
Published on
Northrop Grumman Completes Initial Development MQ-4C Triton NITE

Northrop Grumman Corporation has completed initial development of the MQ-4C Triton Network Integration Test Environment (NITE), the company reported on Thursday. The Triton NITE is located at Royal Australian Air Force Base Edinburgh in South Australia.

“Construction of the test environment was completed in close partnership with the Chief Information Officer Group (CIOG) and will significantly flatten the learning curve to more efficiently integrate Triton into the joint force,” said Chris Deeble, chief executive, Northrop Grumman Australia. 

With the completion, CIOG will begin development of the Triton network design for Australia and test basic Triton network configuration settings. Northrop Grumman will develop NITE in three phases, moving from basic continuity testing between distributed environments to an advanced integrated capability development environment.

“Completion of Phase 1A is also an important milestone for Northrop Grumman in Australia, highlighting our ongoing commitment to supporting the Australian Defence Force with world-leading technology,” Deeble added. 

Australia expects to receive its first ground control station in early 2022 and its first of six to seven Triton air vehicles in 2023. Northrop Grumman initiated the build of the first Australian Triton in October.

“With Air Force embracing leading edge technology in the form of the remotely piloted MQ-4C Triton, there is now a reliance on assured data flows between the air vehicle and those who operate it on the ground and disseminate what we see,” said Air Commodore Leon Philips OAM, director general, CIOG. 

About Northrop Grumman

Northrop Grumman solves the toughest problems in space, aeronautics, defense and cyberspace to meet the ever evolving needs of our customers worldwide. Our 90,000 employees define possible every day using science, technology and engineering to create and deliver advanced systems, products and services.

/
GAO Launches Presidential and Congressional Transition Webpage; Gene Dodaro Quoted
Published on
GAO Launches Presidential and Congressional Transition Webpage; Gene Dodaro Quoted

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has unveiled a transition webpage to inform incoming administration officials and lawmakers of major federal challenges and suggest ways on how to address them. 

The Presidential and Congressional Transition webpage includes links to several GAO resources, including priority recommendations, annual report on opportunities to reduce duplication, overlap and fragmentation, annual report on fiscal health and the high risk list areas across the federal government vulnerable to fraud, waste and abuse, the congressional watchdog said Tuesday.

“GAO is pulling together this information and our priority recommendations so that new and returning lawmakers and Presidential appointees can tackle critical challenges facing the nation, including the coronavirus pandemic,” said Gene Dodaro, comptroller general of the U.S. and head of GAO. “We believe that lawmakers and appointees will find our transition webpage helpful in prioritizing policy matters and developing oversight agendas.” 

The webpage has a find-an-expert tool that can link users to the agency’s audit staff to ask questions or get a full briefing and provides users access to Key Issues pages and allows them to explore issues by agency or by topic.

/
NIST Studies Performance of Algorithms Created After Pandemic’s Arrival in Recognition of Masked Faces
Published on
NIST Studies Performance of Algorithms Created After Pandemic’s Arrival in Recognition of Masked Faces

A National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) study has found that face recognition algorithms developed after the COVID-19 pandemic’s onset have exhibited better performance in identifying masked faces than software created before the pandemic. 

“Some newer algorithms from developers performed significantly better than their predecessors. In some cases, error rates decreased by as much as a factor of 10 between their pre- and post-COVID algorithms,” Mei Ngan, one of the authors of the NIST study, said in a statement published Tuesday.

The study evaluated the performance of 65 post-COVID-19 algorithms in addition to previous software tested on masked faces and employed the same set of 6.2 million images to test the ability of the algorithms to conduct “one-to-one” matching or comparison of two different pictures of the same individual.

“In the best cases, software algorithms are making errors between 2.4 and 5 percent of the time on masked faces, comparable to where the technology was in 2017 on non-masked photos,” Ngan added.

///
Hon. Ellen Lord: US Should Boost Collaboration With Allies to Address ‘Adversarial Capital’
Published on
Hon. Ellen Lord: US Should Boost Collaboration With Allies to Address ‘Adversarial Capital’

Hon. Ellen Lord, undersecretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment and a four-time Wash100 Award winner, said “adversarial capital” continues to pose a threat to the defense industrial base (DIB) and the U.S. government should strengthen collaboration with industry groups and allied countries to avoid investments from foreign adversaries, FedScoop reported Thursday.

“They have bought critical national assets, whether that be in terms of intellectual property or whether that be technology development,” Lord said Thursday during a virtual event. “When we work with our partners and allies that’s an even stronger position” to steer clear of such investments. 

She noted that coordinating with other countries is vital because China and other adversarial nations invest from shell companies to conceal the origin of their investments.

“Our adversaries are pretty smart, and they can often go to another country and have a shell organization,” she added.

Since the onset of COVID-19 in early 2020, the Department of Defense (DoD) noted that the majority critical supplies for the nation are developed overseas, exposing vulnerabilities within the U.S. Defense Industrial Base (DIB). 

“We also identified where we had vulnerabilities and fragility in the industrial base — and a lot of that was where we had 100 percent dependency offshore, and especially when we were relying on nations who aren't particularly our partners and allies for critical items," Lord added. 

As a result of COVID-19, DoD worked to further bolster its health and national defense. "We, therefore, were able to move out and make some investments in industrial capacity and throughput," Lord added.

There were two areas identified as being critical: rare earth minerals and microelectronics, which are both essential for weapon systems and the nation at large. Lord said the U.S. has some capacity for mining rare earth minerals domestically, but the U.S. depends mostly on China for processing.

To combat this, Lord added that the DoD will re-shore capability for the processing of rare earths, and develop a strategy to bridge programs of records and legacy systems.

Hon. Ellen Lord: US Should Boost Collaboration With Allies to Address 'Adversarial Capital'

Join Potomac Officers Club for its 5G Summit on Jan. 7th, 2021 to learn about the impact that innovative technologies and 5G integration have on the private and public sectors, the steps the federal agencies have taken to remain up to speed with the rapid advancement of technology, and the future programs, plans and priorities as the nation aligns with emerging technology.

Hon. Ellen Lord, undersecretary for acquisition and sustainment at the Department of Defense (DoD) and four-time Wash100 Award recipient, will be featured as the keynote speaker.

Don’t miss out on this must see event! Register here for Potomac Officers Club's 5G Summit on Jan. 7th, 2021. 

//
DOE Unveils Funding Effort for High-Energy Density Plasma Research
Published on
DOE Unveils Funding Effort for High-Energy Density Plasma Research

The Department of Energy (DOE) intends to award $9 million in funds to support the exploration of high-energy density laboratory plasmas (HEDLP).

Chris Fall, director of DOE's office of science, said in a statement published Wednesday HEDLPs could allow inertial fusion energy and have potential applications in medicine, industry and national security. 

Nonprofit research institutions, universities and businesses are eligible to apply for the funding opportunity. DOE will pick the awardees through a competitive peer review process.

The department will obligate funding from fiscal year 2021 funds across a three-year period. Researchers observe the behavior of matter in harsh environments through the study of HEDLPs. 

//
Core Stages for Crewed NASA Artemis Missions Now Under Production
Published on
Core Stages for Crewed NASA Artemis Missions Now Under Production

NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility has commenced the production of the rocket core stages for both the second and third Artemis missions. These stages bring propellant tanks, RS-25 engines and avionics wiring to the Space Launch System (SLS)that serves as the launch vehicle for both of the upcoming missions, NASA said Thursday.

The facility has already built Artemis II's main core stage structures and is now working to assemble the engine section. Michoud personnel are now installing and testing the core stage's subsystems. As for Artemis III, core stage structures are now in the welding process.

The space agency launched the Artemis program to revive manned space exploration. Artemis II, the program's first crewed mission, will have astronauts demonstrate a lunar flyby in preparation for Artemis III's planned lunar landing.

Artemis II and Artemis III are planned for launch in 2023 and 2024, respectively. Astronauts will fly aboard the Orion spacecraft for both missions.

1 … 1,223 1,224 1,225 1,226 1,227 … 2,604