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General Dynamics Information Technology Secures $350M IDIQ DOS Contract to Support WHP; Paul Nedzbala Quoted
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General Dynamics Information Technology Secures $350M IDIQ DOS Contract to Support WHP; Paul Nedzbala Quoted
Paul Nedzbala
Paul Nedzbala

General Dynamics Information Technology (GDIT) has been awarded a $350 million, indefinite delivery indefinite quantity (IDIQ) contract by the U.S. Department of State (DOS) Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) to support its Western Hemisphere Program (WHP), the company reported on Thursday.

“GDIT’s work with the INL will deliver new technical capabilities to counter-narcotics trafficking, money laundering and other transnational criminal activities,” said Senior Vice President Paul Nedzbala for GDIT’s Federal Civilian Division.

GDIT has partnered with INL WHP to strengthen international counter-narcotic, anti-crime and foreign partner law enforcement capabilities. The contract includes a base period of one year with four 12-month options.

Under the contract, GDIT will deliver IT services designed to enhance INL’s counter-narcotic and anti-crime interdiction capabilities, increase DOS capacity to deploy new technology and improve information sharing among partners and regions.

Additionally, the company will expand the law enforcement capability of foreign government partners. With the contact, GDIT has expanded its expertise with federal agencies. The company has been a mission-integrated partner with the State Department for more than 20 years.

“Our solution will directly support INL’s critical mission to minimize the impact of international crime and illegal drugs, protecting both U.S. citizens at home and our partners abroad,” added Nedzbala.

About GDIT

The people supporting some of the most complex government, defense, and intelligence projects across the country. We deliver. Bringing the expertise needed to understand and advance critical missions. We transform. Shifting the ways clients invest in, integrate, and innovate technology solutions.

We ensure today is safe and tomorrow is smarter. We are there. On the ground, beside our clients, in the lab, and everywhere in between. Offering the technology transformations, strategy, and mission services needed to get the job done.

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Julie Dunne, Commissioner of GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service, to Give Keynote Address at Potomac Officers Club’s 2020 Procurement Virtual Forum on June 9th
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Julie Dunne, Commissioner of GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service, to Give Keynote Address at Potomac Officers Club’s 2020 Procurement Virtual Forum on June 9th
Julie Dunne
Julie Dunne

Julie Dunne, commissioner of the General Services Administration's Federal Acquisition Service, will serve as a keynote speaker during Potomac Officers Club’s 2020 Procurement Virtual Forum on Tuesday, June 9th.

Dunne took the helm of FAS in January 2020 and oversees the delivery of more than $65 billion of products and services that enable federal agencies to efficiently accomplish their missions while saving taxpayer dollars. 

Under her leadership, FAS will continue implementing previously announced plans for consolidating the 24 separate Multiple Award Schedules (MAS) into a single Schedule. MAS Consolidation is one of the four cornerstones of the Federal Marketplace (FMP) strategy, GSA’s plan to modernize and simplify the buying and selling experience for customers, suppliers, and acquisition professionals.

Dunne recently outlined the 2020 version of its Federal Marketplace Strategy detailing revisions in its policies, processes and technologies in Feb. 2020, noting that the agency has begun implementing changes related to the consolidation of multiple-award schedules in solicitations.

Dunne stated that GSA has also deployed robotic process automation in supply chain security efforts, with GSA’s Truman Bot already working on business procedures and automating administrative tasks involving MAS offerings. In addition, GSA has implemented a Prohibited Products Robomod that screens products, equipment and software for potential vulnerabilities.

“Both of these efforts greatly reduce the amount of time our employees spend on repetitive data entry and manual tasks so they can instead spend time negotiating better prices for federal agencies to create taxpayer savings,” Dunne said.

During her keynote address, she will discuss the short term and long term strategies, acquisition innovation initiatives, commercial items acquisition, workforce initiatives, technology modernization and collaboration between government and industry.

In addition to Dunne, the Procurement Virtual Forum 2020 will feature another keynote speaker,  Soraya Correa, chief procurement officer with the Department of Homeland Security.

Join the Potomac Officers Club for our 2020 Procurement Virtual Forum. Don’t miss out on the opportunity to hear public and private sector leaders discuss the shift in procurement regulations and how government business will adapt to the challenges ahead. 

Register here for Potomac Officers Club’s 2020 Procurement Virtual Forum on Tuesday, June 9th.

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Sen. Elizabeth Warren Wants Pentagon to Shed Light on Increased Progress Payment Rates
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Sen. Elizabeth Warren Wants Pentagon to Shed Light on Increased Progress Payment Rates
Sen. Elizabeth Warre
Sen. Elizabeth Warre

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) has asked the Department of Defense (DoD) to answer some questions about the increased progress payment rates for contractors.

DoD released a memo in March that increases the progress payment rates to 90 percent for large businesses and to 95 percent for small businesses in an effort to ensure cash flow into the industrial base during the coronavirus pandemic.

Warren wrote an April 30 letter to Ellen Lord, defense undersecretary for acquisition and sustainment and a 2020 Wash100 Award winner, airing her concerns over the progress payments policy change.

“I am concerned that the change to the progress payments policy may be a cash subsidy that largely benefits big defense companies that can better withstand the economic shock caused by coronavirus … while leaving smaller, less financially resilient companies in the supply chain behind,” she wrote.

“Furthermore, I am skeptical as to whether large defense contractors will share these extra funds with their smaller supply chain partners in a timely fashion, and whether the Department will hold these industry giants accountable if they fail to do so.”

The lawmaker wants DoD to provide information on analyses conducted to determine if the increased progress payments are needed for national security purposes, metrics and reporting the department is requiring to assess how much funds are flowing from prime contractors to subcontractors and measures being implemented to ensure that large contractors support small vendors using the progress payments.

Warren asked Lord’s office to submit responses by May 15.

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DoD Officials Testify Before Senate Panel Over FCC Decision on Ligado Application
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DoD Officials Testify Before Senate Panel Over FCC Decision on Ligado Application
DoD Officials Testify Before Senate Panel Over FCC Decision on Ligado Application

Officials with the Department of Defense (DoD) appeared Wednesday before the Senate Armed Service Committee to oppose the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) approval of Ligado’s application to use the L-band spectrum to field a 5G network, citing its potential risk to GPS networks, CNBC reported Wednesday.

“Ligado and 5G simply do not go together. It is clear to the DoD that the risk to GPS far outweighs the benefits of this FCC decision and the FCC needs to reverse their decision,” said Dana Deasy, chief information officer of DoD and a 2020 Wash100 Award winner.

Gen. John Raymond, chief of space operations within the Space Force and a 2020 Wash100 Awardee, also responded to the Senate panel’s question about the significance of GPS to military operations. “It’s the DNA of our way of war. It’s systemic in everything that we do,” he said.

Michael Griffin, undersecretary of defense for research and engineering and a two-time Wash100 Award recipient, also joined Deasy and Raymond during the Senate committee hearing.

About Wash100

This year represents our sixth annual Wash100 Award selection. The Wash100 is the premier group of private and public sector leaders selected by Executive Mosaic’s organizational and editorial leadership as the most influential leaders in the GovCon sector. These leaders demonstrate skills in leadership, innovation, achievement, and vision.

Visit the Wash100 site to learn about the other 99 winners of the 2020 Wash100 Award. On the site, you can submit your 10 votes for the GovCon executives of consequence that you believe will have the most significant impact in 2020.

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Jennifer Santos: DoD Sees Uptick in Adversarial Capital in US Tech Firms
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Jennifer Santos: DoD Sees Uptick in Adversarial Capital in US Tech Firms
Jennifer Santos
Jennifer Santos

Jennifer Santos, deputy assistant secretary of defense for industrial policy, said the Department of Defense (DoD) has witnessed a rise in “adversarial capital” in U.S. technology companies, including small drone providers, during the coronavirus pandemic, C4ISRNET reported Wednesday.

“In general terms, there has been of an uptick, but it’s always been pretty high,” Santos said Wednesday during the C4ISRNET Conference.

She noted about the dominance of foreign companies in the small unmanned aerial systems sector and said that Chinese companies control 97 percent of the market.

Santos said DoD has seen an increase in the number of shady foreign investments it is monitoring since expanding reviews of such investments in February through the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States.

“We simply cannot afford during this period of economic uncertainty the loss of American know-how in critical tech,” she added.

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Marine Corps Receives Lockheed-Made Helicopter Training Tool
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Marine Corps Receives Lockheed-Made Helicopter Training Tool
Marine Corps Receives Lockheed-Made Helicopter Training Tool

Lockheed Martin has delivered a new training device for the U.S. Marine Corps intends to use with the CH-53K King Stallion helicopter. The Containerized Flight Training Device is designed to simulate operational environments with a realistic cockpit display, Naval Air Systems Command said Friday.

The program office for H-53 heavy-lift helicopters received the device on April 14. Lockheed partnered with Veraxx to develop the CFTD technology that also allows for integrated use with other simulator systems.

The Center for Naval Aviation Technology Training plans to gather CFTD and other upcoming training devices for the helicopter. Succeeding devices, the Helicopter Emulation and Composite Maintenance Trainers, will follow CFTD as part of a new set of CH-53K training tools this year.

USMC expects the helicopter to achieve initial operational capability in 2023 or 2024.

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DARPA Science Office to Host Proposer’s Webinar in June
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DARPA Science Office to Host Proposer’s Webinar in June
DARPA Science Office to Host Proposer’s Webinar in June

An office within the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) will sponsor a webinar event that aims to engage with industry on certain scientific and technical interests.

The Defense Sciences Office (DSO) invites potential proposers to take part in the Discover DSO Day or D3 webinar from June 24 to 25 and learn more about DSO's areas of interest, DARPA said Monday.

“The goal of D3 is to familiarize attendees with DSO’s mission, provide an overview of the latest office-wide broad agency announcement solicitation scheduled for release in June and facilitate dialogue between our program managers and participants,” said Valerie Browning, director at DSO.

DSO's highlighted topics include computation, mathematics, sensor limits, complex social systems and emerging technologies. The science-focused office works to pursue research across a wide range of technical disciplines.

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David Lewis, Ellen Lord Talk DoD Efforts to Ensure Industrial Base Stability
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David Lewis, Ellen Lord Talk DoD Efforts to Ensure Industrial Base Stability
David Lewis, Ellen Lord Talk DoD Efforts to Ensure Industrial Base Stability

Vice Adm. David Lewis, director of the Defense Contract Management Agency and former 2018 Wash100 Award winner, said his office is working to support affected contractors amid the current health crisis, DoD News reported Tuesday.

Lewis noted that DCMA is increasing progress payment rates to 90 percent and 95 percent for large firms and small businesses, respectively. The move has generated over $3.3 billion in the defense industrial base, he said.

"There are about 1,500 contracts that [DCMA] pays every couple of weeks based on the progress that they've done," added Lewis. "They don't have to deliver a product. It's such an expensive thing that we pay them incrementally as they build it."

Lewis’ comments come after Ellen Lord, undersecretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment and fellow four-time Wash100 Award winner, announced that the Department of Defense (DoD) is monitoring the industrial base to ensure their capacity to “maintain readiness and drive modernization".

According to Lord, the DoD is working with prime contractors in efforts to accelerate supplier payments. She also commended Lockheed Martin in its efforts to expedite $450 million in payments to the company's supply chain.

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DoD Removes CMMC Requirement for COTS Suppliers; Katie Arrington Quoted
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DoD Removes CMMC Requirement for COTS Suppliers; Katie Arrington Quoted
Katie Arrington
Katie Arrington

The Department of Defense (DoD) has revised the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) program to remove the certification requirement for suppliers of commercial-off-the-shelf products, FedScoop reported Tuesday.

The CMMC website previously stated that all DoD contractors must achieve certification regardless of whether they process controlled unclassified information or not.

Katie Arrington, chief information security officer for defense acquisition and sustainment and 2020 Wash100 Award winner, told the publication in an email that the revision serves as “a clarification based on the existing rule.”

Arrington’s comments come after the DoD selected the National Institute of Standards and Technology to develop requirements for independent assessors responsible for vetting contractors.

The DoD intends to require contractors to meet five levels of cybersecurity maturity as part of the CMMC program. Plans are in place to integrate the framework into all defense contracts by 2026.

According to FedScoop’s report, the recent revision took place between March 19 and April 11.

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CISA, UK Counterpart Release Updated COVID-19 Cybersecurity Advisory
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CISA, UK Counterpart Release Updated COVID-19 Cybersecurity Advisory
CISA, UK Counterpart Release Updated COVID-19 Cybersecurity Advisory

The U.S. and U.K. have issued an updated joint statement warning the public of advanced persistent threat groups seeking to exploit the COVID-19 pandemic to enact cyber crimes.

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and U.K. National Cyber Security Centre cited updates to ongoing APT activities that frequently target organizations involved in COVID-19 response including local governments, pharmaceutical companies, academic institutions and international healthcare bodies.

CISA and NCC noted that APT groups tend to collect personal information, intelligence and intellectual property that “aligns with national priorities” including COVID-19 research.

The joint statement comes after both agencies released an advisory in April calling on the public to remain vigilant of malicious actors that conduct crimes such as phishing scams to exploit public anxieties over the pandemic.

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