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New Missile Destroyer Christened at Keel Laying Ceremony
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New Missile Destroyer Christened at Keel Laying Ceremony

HII has laid the keel for the future USS Sam Nunn, an Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer, during a ceremony on Friday at the company’s Ingalls Shipbuilding division.

Naval Sea Systems Command said Friday the initials of both the ship’s namesake and sponsor were etched into the keel plate by a welder. 

Honoring Senator Samuel Nunn

The ship, also known as DDG 133, is named after former United States senator Samuel Augustus Nunn Jr. He represented the state of Georgia and also served as chairman of the United States Senate Committee on Armed Services and the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. Sen. Nunn attended the ceremony himself along with his daughter Michelle Nunn, the ship’s sponsor.

USS Sam Nunn’s Advanced Capabilities

The future USS Sam Nunn, which will be part of the DDG 51 Flight III destroyers, will feature advanced capabilities such as the AN/SPY-6(V)1 Air and Missile Defense Radar and enhanced electrical power capacity and cooling systems.

Aside from USS Sam Nunn, HII is also building USS Ted Stevens, USS Jeremiah Denton, USS George M. Neal and USS Thad Cochran.

“The future USS Sam Nunn and all who sail aboard her will honor the legacy of Sen. Nunn and his dedication to the men and women serving our country,” said Capt. Seth Miller, DDG 51 class program manager, Program Executive Office, Ships. “DDG 133 will be yet another player on the field providing the most advanced capability to our Navy and the nation.”

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Senators Propose Bipartisan Health Care Cybersecurity & Resiliency Act
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Senators Propose Bipartisan Health Care Cybersecurity & Resiliency Act

Four senators have introduced a bipartisan bill to improve cybersecurity in the healthcare sector and safeguard health data of Americans.

The proposed Health Care Cybersecurity and Resiliency Act of 2024 was developed by the lawmakers through a bipartisan healthcare cybersecurity working group that launched in 2023, Sen. Maggie Hassan’s office said Friday.

What Would the Bill Do?

The proposed measure would provide grants to health organizations to enhance cyberattack prevention and response, provide training to health entities on cybersecurity best practices and require the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, or HHS, to implement a cybersecurity incident response plan.

The legislation would offer best practices to rural health clinics and other providers on how to prevent cybersecurity breaches, improve resilience and coordinate with federal agencies.

The bill also seeks to improve coordination between HHS and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency to facilitate response to cyberattacks in the healthcare sector.

“Cyberattacks on our health care sector not only put patients’ sensitive health data at risk but can delay life-saving care,” Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La.“This bipartisan legislation ensures health institutions can safeguard Americans’ health data against increasing cyber threats.”

Cassidy, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee’s ranking member, introduced the bill with Sens. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., Mark Warner, D-Va., and John Cornyn, R-Texas.

Register here for the Potomac Officers Club’s 2024 Healthcare Summit on Dec. 11. Join this key event to explore the transformative trends and innovations shaping the future of the U.S. healthcare sector.

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GAO Says ONCD Should Lead Nat’l Quantum Cyber Strategy Efforts
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GAO Says ONCD Should Lead Nat’l Quantum Cyber Strategy Efforts

The Government Accountability Office recommends that the National Cyber Director take the lead in coordinating the U.S. strategy in quantum computing cybersecurity.

Lack of Coordinating Federal Agency

The government watchdog made the proposal in a recent report, released Thursday, where it was pointed out that within the next decade or two, a quantum computer may be developed that is capable of overcoming the cryptography being used to secure systems and data. Despite the threat posed by such a computer — known as a cryptographically relevant quantum computer, or CRQC — no single agency is tasked with coordinating the various efforts across the U.S. government that is being undertaken to build up a national strategy.

Strategy Objectives & Characteristics

According to GAO, a national quantum computing cybersecurity strategy would have three objectives, namely: the standardization of post quantum cryptography, or PQC; the migration of federal systems to PQC; and the preparation of all sectors for PQC. Such a strategy should also feature three desirable characteristics, namely: it offers a definition of the problem and a risk assessment; it articulates its purpose, scope and methodology; and it lists objectives, activities, milestones and performance measures.

GAO notes that due to the lack of a singular coordinating federal agency, these characteristics are not fully addressed in the multiple documents that comprise the emerging U.S. national strategy for quantum cybersecurity.

“If the [Office of the National Cyber Director] embraces this role and ensures that the strategy fully addresses the desirable characteristics, the nation will have a better-defined roadmap for allocating resources and holding participants accountable,” GAO said in its report.

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Trump Eyes Defense Investors for Deputy DOD Secretary
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Trump Eyes Defense Investors for Deputy DOD Secretary

President-elect Donald Trump is considering Trae Stephens, a partner at venture capital firm Founders Fund, and Stephen Feinberg, co-chief executive of investment firm Cerberus Capital Management, for the deputy secretary role at the Department of Defense, The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday.

According to WSJ, the potential appointment of a defense tech startup investor as deputy DOD secretary would benefit new companies that have entered the military market but struggled to do business with the Pentagon.

The deputy secretary role is the second highest-ranking civilian position within DOD responsible for the defense budget and other daily operations.

Who Are the Candidates?

According to the report, Stephens co-founded Anduril Industries. He is a venture capitalist and a frequent public speaker who talks about the value of building for national security.

Stephen Feinberg previously led the intelligence advisory board during the first Trump administration. According to associates, the billionaire investor invested in hypersonics to help the U.S. regain an edge against competitors.

The publication noted that the incoming administration is considering other candidates for the deputy secretary position, including those from inside the Pentagon.

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Unanet, GovPro AI to Improve RFP Response Processes Via Acquisition
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Unanet, GovPro AI to Improve RFP Response Processes Via Acquisition

Unanet has agreed to acquire GovPro AI, an artificial intelligence writing platform, to streamline request for proposal, or RFP, response processes throughout the government contracting industry.

Using GovPro AI’s proposal platform, Unanet aims to minimize the financial and logistical demands of replying to complicated RFPs, Unanet announced Friday. According to industry authorities, the price tag of responding to one RFP can be between $50,000 and $100,000.

Craig Halliday, CEO of Unanet and a 2024 Wash100 awardee, said, “Unanet’s commitment is to empower our customers’ business success with modern, purpose-built technology and people-centric service.”

Unanet to Leverage GovPro AI’s Proposal Platform

GovPro AI’s platform reportedly offers the capability to develop an advanced first proposal draft, commonly called the ‘pink team’ draft, in response to any federal government RFP in just a few hours.

Unanet plans to release GovPro AI’s platform throughout the architecture, engineering and construction, or AEC, markets in 2025. Steve Karp, chief innovation officer at Unanet, said, “Unanet is continuing to deliver on its promise to solve real business challenges for our customers.”

“In addition to helping customers across the GovCon and AEC industries respond to RFPs more efficiently, GovPro AI’s technology and team will accelerate Unanet’s broader AI strategy via thought leadership, new technologies, and class-leading R&D methodologies that will benefit all our customers,” Karp continued.

Unanet’s Recent Work With AI

The GovPro AI acquisition is the latest in Unanet’s efforts to leverage AI to improve government contracting processes. In May, Unanet unveiled a portfolio of AI-powered financial automation tools to help customers advance accounts payable processes and improve spending management and tracking.

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Shawn Lennon Says DLA Eyeing AI to Achieve Clean Audit Opinion
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Shawn Lennon Says DLA Eyeing AI to Achieve Clean Audit Opinion

Shawn Lennon, deputy chief financial officer at the Defense Logistics Agency, said the agency is exploring ways to harness artificial intelligence to advance its efforts to achieve a clean financial audit.

He noted that DLA Finance has had success with bots, robotic process automation and other technologies and it plans to build on that with AI tools.

Using AI to Detect Errors, Generate Insights

According to Lennon, DLA aims to collect data from its business systems and use AI to help detect errors, glean insights and propose measures to improve data quality and financial reporting.

“We’re also looking at using AI to reconcile DLA’s inventory in the Warehouse Management System with our financial records,” Lennon stated.

“Today, we’ve got many people manually reviewing error transactions, trying to figure out what went wrong, why, and the potential solution. It’s too much for us to keep up with,” he added.

Working With DLA Information Operations

DLA Finance is working with the agency’s Information Operations team to advance responsible AI adoption and fund use cases.

“We need to determine how we’re going to prioritize what we do with AI and establish processes for approving and testing AI – all the stuff that comes along with any new technology,” Lennon said.

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GAO Releases Report on Review of DOE Acquisition Planning
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GAO Releases Report on Review of DOE Acquisition Planning

Some offices within the Department of Energy as well as the National Nuclear Security Administration do not always seem to review lessons learned from previous acquisitions when planning new ones, according to a recent report by the Government Accountability Office.

Benefits of Applying Lessons Learned

Lessons learned is one of the 10 acquisition planning practices that GAO said Thursday it had assessed during its review of 20 DOE contracts from fiscal years 2017 through 2022. According to GAO, reviewing and using knowledge gained from prior contracts, as well as enacting a process that would put those lessons into effect, would help the DOE avoid past mistakes and improve the planning of future acquisitions.

Rationale for the Review

GAO carried out the review in light of congressional and industry concerns regarding inadequate contract management at the DOE as manifested by the prolonged nature of some the agency’s acquisitions as well as the sudden cancellation of some awards.

GAO Recommendations

To address the issue of lessons learned, GAO recommended that policies be formulated by the DOE and the NNSA to make sure that acquisition offices consistently document the lessons learned they may have identified during the planning of acquisitions.

It was also recommended that the DOE’s Acquisition Guide be revised to give contracting officials instructions on what information they must include in the contract file to show which and how prior lessons learned were taken into consideration during acquisition planning. The guide should also be revised to update the source evaluation board lessons learned process so that it incorporates leading practices.

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Sierra Lobo Awarded NASA Stennis Test Operations Contract
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Sierra Lobo Awarded NASA Stennis Test Operations Contract

Sierra Lobo has secured a three-year NASA contract to provide test operations support and technical system maintenance services for the agency’s Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi.

The space agency said Thursday the $47 million NASA Stennis Test Operations Contract has a one-year base term, which is set to kick off on July 1, 2025, and two option years.

The fixed-price contract includes technical systems maintenance and operations support for high-pressure gas, high-pressure industrial water and cryogenic propellant storage support areas.

The vendor will also provide fabrication, machining, welding and component processing capabilities under the contract.

Previously Awarded NASA Contract

In February, Sierra Lobo won the $282.1 million Space Flight Systems Development and Operations Contract III to support NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland.

Under the cost-plus-fixed-fee contract, the company will provide space flight hardware design, software development and technology testing and demonstration support.

The Fremont, Ohio-based company provides specialized space and aerospace test, evaluation and engineering support for government and industry customers. It offers research and development services through its Technology Development and Engineering Center in northern Ohio.

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Army Expands Project Athena With #CalibrateAI
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Army Expands Project Athena With #CalibrateAI

The U.S. Army is integrating #CalibrateAI into Project Athena, an initiative focused on leveraging commercially available generative artificial intelligence tools.

The Army said Tuesday the #CalibrateAI initiative, overseen by the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army for Data, Engineering and Software, under the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics and Technology, aims to enhance military operations through the use of generative AI.

What Is Project Athena?

The Project Athena initiative, spearheaded by the Army chief information officer and the Office of Enterprise Management, examines generative AI tools and platforms to determine their features, use cases and costs, as well as develop cost mitigation strategies and understand the value of various deployment architectures.

The initiative, which runs until April 2025, involves soliciting AI prompts and developing curated library collections. These collections are utilized by AI platforms for grounding answers in Army language, facts and referenced documents. This is done to provide accurate and reliable AI-generated content.

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VA Seeks Solution to Modernize Human Capital Management Functions
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VA Seeks Solution to Modernize Human Capital Management Functions

The Department of Veterans Affairs is requesting information on qualified vendors that can support efforts to modernize the agency’s human capital management capabilities.

Through this market research, VA is looking to procure subscription licenses for a cloud-based platform solution that can be continuously modernized and enhanced to advance the department’s goal of automating its HCM functions, according to a Wednesday notice on SAM.gov.

Meeting Baseline HR Requirements

The government requires an advanced solution that can satisfy the baseline human resources requirements, keep pace with evolving business operational demands and improve the overall user experience. The HCM technology must also seamlessly function with a constantly changing HR regulatory and policy environment.

In addition, VA expects the potential contractor to deploy a platform that meets the employee lifecycle management functions of agency offices. Specifically, the desired solution should provide a single portal for employee-facing information, engagement and services.

Modern Talent Acquisition Capabilities

VA envisions that the solution will improve its human capital lifecycle management approach and enable the department to better compete with new recruitment and talent acquisition capabilities currently used across the public and private industries. Interested parties are invited to submit capability statements by Dec. 12.

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Join the Potomac Officers Club’s 2024 Healthcare Summit on Dec. 11 to explore the innovations shaping the future of the healthcare sector. Register now to attend the event and engage with industry luminaries, thought leaders and experts.

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