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BWXT Divests U.S. Nuclear Services Portfolio to Framatone; Rex Geveden Quoted
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BWXT Divests U.S. Nuclear Services Portfolio to Framatone; Rex Geveden Quoted

BWX Technologies (BWXT) has completed the process to divest its United States-based commercial nuclear services business to Framatome, the company reported on Tuesday.

“Adding a premier nuclear-qualified manufacturing facility to our footprint also enables expansion into space and defense microreactors,” said Rex Geveden, BWXT’s president and chief executive officer.

In a cashless transaction, BWXT will receive a 118 thousand square-foot manufacturing facility and the associated 11 acres of land from Framatome. BWXT will also transition certain contracts, equipment and intellectual property to the company.

BWXT will assume occupancy and ownership of the Framatome facility located near one of BWXT’s Virginia manufacturing sites. BWXT’s Canadian-based nuclear manufacturing and services business is not part of this transaction and will continue its work in North America and overseas.

BWXT has a proven track record of providing maintenance, field service, inspection and plant refurbishment, assisting our customers in meeting their challenging business needs within the company’s nuclear services division.

The company has worked to ensure that all of its projects are aligned with our customers’ goals to increase safety, improve plant productivity and availability, and extend plant equipment life. BWXT has extensive experience in managing projects involving the primary and secondary systems of nuclear plants and reactors.

BWXT’s projects have drawn upon the company’s solutions and have delivered a multi-disciplinary approach with custom engineering capabilities, quality control, research and development and field service personnel.

“This strategic divestiture implies a sharper focus on our core government nuclear manufacturing and site operations businesses,” added Geveden.

About BWXT

At BWX Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: BWXT), we are People Strong, Innovation Driven. Headquartered in Lynchburg, Va., BWXT provides safe and effective nuclear solutions for national security, clean energy, environmental remediation, nuclear medicine and space exploration.

With approximately 6,600 employees, BWXT has 12 major operating sites in the U.S. and Canada. In addition, BWXT joint ventures provide management and operations at more than a dozen U.S. Department of Energy and NASA facilities

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QTS Announces Upsize and Pricing of Forward Common Stock Offering
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QTS Announces Upsize and Pricing of Forward Common Stock Offering

QTS Realty Trust has announced the upsize and pricing of an underwritten public offering of 4.4 million shares of its Class A common stock offered by the forward purchasers or their affiliates in connection with the forward sale agreements at a public offering price of $64.90 per share, the company reported on Tuesday. 

The offering was upsized from the previously announced offering size of 4 million shares of common stock. The forward purchasers or their affiliates have also granted the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase an aggregate of up to an additional 660 thousand shares of common stock.

QTS has entered into separate forward sale agreements with each of Bank of America Securities and Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC or their affiliates, with respect to 4.4 million shares of the company's common stock covered by the offering. 

The forward purchasers or their affiliates are expected to borrow from third parties and sell 4.4 million shares of QTS’ common stock to the underwriters in connection with the forward sale agreements. The company expects to physically settle the forward sale agreements in full and receive proceeds by June 30, 2021.

QTS will not initially receive any proceeds from the sale of shares of its common stock offered by the forward purchasers or their affiliates to the underwriters, except in certain circumstances described in the prospectus supplement relating to the offering. 

The company has projected that net proceeds to it, after deducting the underwriting discounts and commissions and other estimated offering expenses, will be approximately $273.6 million, assuming full physical settlement of the forward sale agreements, and excluding the option to purchase additional shares.

When drawn, QTS will use the net proceeds of the offering to repay a portion of the amounts outstanding under the company's unsecured revolving credit facility, for capital expenditures, including the development of properties in the company's portfolio, and for other general corporate purposes.

About QTS

QTS Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE: QTS) is a leading provider of data center solutions across a diverse footprint spanning more than 7 million square feet of owned mega scale data center space throughout North America and Europe. 

Through its software-defined data center platform, QTS is able to deliver secure, compliant infrastructure solutions, robust connectivity and premium customer service to leading hyperscale technology companies, enterprises, and government entities.

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DoD to Use CARES Act Funds to Apply AI in COVID-19 Vaccine Testing
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DoD to Use CARES Act Funds to Apply AI in COVID-19 Vaccine Testing

The Department of Defense (DoD) plans to use funds allocated under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act to develop artificial intelligence-based models to accelerate screening and testing of vaccines, antibody-based treatments and other drug candidates for COVID-19, Bloomberg Government reported Monday.

The Pentagon plans to shift $3.8 billion in funds for the Defense Health Program to its research and development accounts to support the AI initiative, according to the department’s spending plan for $10.5 billion in emergency funds under the CARES Act.

The congressional report also outlined how DoD plans to spend $688 million to address the economic impacts of COVID-19 on the defense industrial base, including shipbuilding, aircraft propulsion, microelectronics and space launch.

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GAO: DHS Needs to Take Additional Steps in Transition to Agile Software Development
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GAO: DHS Needs to Take Additional Steps in Transition to Agile Software Development

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has recommended that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) fully implement leading practices for adopting Agile software development to improve the process of acquiring information technology systems.

GAO said in a report published Monday that DHS fully implemented the practice of planning for organizational change as part of its transition to Agile development, but partially executed the two practice areas – the need to implement and measure the impact of undertaking a significant change.

Of the 202 activities related to 18 Agile action plans, DHS completed 134 activities but pushed back approximately 34 percent of activities to a later date.

The congressional watchdog offered 10 recommendations for DHS to carry out, such as establishing Agile training requirements for senior stakeholders, measuring results in relation to Agile adoption, developing a set of core performance metrics and creating new guidance on Agile methodologies.

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Aaron Weis Offers Update on Navy’s Cybersecurity, IT Modernization Effort
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Aaron Weis Offers Update on Navy’s Cybersecurity, IT Modernization Effort

Aaron Weis, chief information officer of the U.S. Navy and a 2020 Wash100 Award winner, told C4ISRNET in an interview published Monday that the service has made progress in two areas when it comes to strengthening its cybersecurity posture and one of those is from a “defend” perspective.

He cited the need to change the service’s perspective on cyber defense.  “I talk a lot about moving from this culture of security by compliance to a culture where we have security as a constant state of readiness, where we’re always assessing our own readiness from a cybersecurity perspective,” Weis added.

He commented on the Navy’s complete reassessment of its risk management framework. “They’re refining and retuning RMF to be more responsive to reflect current state and to be able to be a more consistent indicator of risk management versus the one and done,” he said of the Navy.

Weis also offered updates on the service’s identity management pilot in conjunction with the Navy’s Enterprise Resource Planning system as well as on software-defined networking initiative and logistics effort, particularly the log IT systems portfolio.

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AFRL Modifies Existing Gas Detector Program to Address COVID-19
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AFRL Modifies Existing Gas Detector Program to Address COVID-19

Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity and the University of Michigan have partnered to develop a tool that could identify the relation the acute respiratory disease syndrome present in COVID-19.

AFRL's Materials and Manufacturing Directorate provided researchers to support IARPA's Molecular Analyzer for Efficient Gas-phase Low-power Interrogation program, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base said Friday.

The resulting product would be able to support civilian, industrial, military and now, COVID-19 assessment activities. MAEGLIN's gas sensor can be used to examine exhaled air from COVID-19 patients.

MAEGLIN originally aimed to produce portable technology that detects nuclear presence, pollution, chemical weapons, drugs and other dangerous materials via ultra-low-power chemical analysis.

The pandemic and MAEGLIN's potential to address the issue prompted AFRL to augment the program to accommodate COVID-19-related applications.

"The technology showed promise for medical applications, and we saw an opportunity to use it for urgent needs during the global pandemic," said Robert Bedford, a researcher with AFRL.

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DOE Unveils Funding Opportunity for Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Tech Projects
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DOE Unveils Funding Opportunity for Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Tech Projects

The Department of Energy has earmarked $30M in funds to support the development of technologies that will work to grow hybrid small-scale solid oxide fuel cell systems.

DOE said Friday it aims to commercialize the systems for power generation and hydrogen production via the use of solid oxide electrolyzer cell technologies.

The department is looking for proposals that cover cleaning processes for coal-derived syngas, small-scale distributed power generation SOFC systems and hybrid platforms that employ solid oxide technologies.

Steven Winberg, assistant secretary for fossil energy at DOE, said the effort will potentially help the department achieve global emission standards.

DOE also seeks to utilize syngas from gasification facilities in the assessment of SOFC platforms as part of the initiative.

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Rep. Jim Langevin: US Needs Nat’l Cyber Director to Prevent Major Attacks
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Rep. Jim Langevin: US Needs Nat’l Cyber Director to Prevent Major Attacks

Rep. Jim Langevin, D-R.I., has said that a national cyber director at the White House is crucial to ensuring that federal agencies are taking appropriate measures to defend their systems, Fifth Domain reported Saturday.

Langevin, a commissioner on the Cyberspace Solarium Commission, said at recent German Marshall Fund webinar that the commission’s recommendation for a national cyber head can help prevent major cyber breaches like the attack on the Office of Personnel Management’s systems in 2014.

According to Langevin, there could be some challenges with approving the cyber director position after the White House eliminated the post in 2018.

“You have all these different departments and agencies — cybersecurity is not their primary mission,” he noted.

The Senate-confirmed national cyber director would be responsible for cyber-related budgetary and policy concerns across federal agencies. The position also entails the execution of a national cyber strategy, crisis response and defensive cyber activities, according to the report.

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AFGSC Inaugurates STRIKEWERX Collaborative Hub
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AFGSC Inaugurates STRIKEWERX Collaborative Hub

The Air Force Global Strike Command has formally opened the STRIKEWERX collaborative hub during a virtual ribbon-cutting event at the Cyber Innovation Center in Louisiana.

The facility will enable startup companies, academia and the U.S. Air Force leaders to address the service branch's various gaps, concerns and requirements, USAF said Friday.

“We want to transmit to the outside world where we need help and create a forum where we can have smart people come in and help us solve problems quickly,” said Gen. Tim Ray, AFGSC commander.

As a precaution in line with the COVID-19 pandemic, AFGSC postponed the original inauguration and opted for a virtual event with limited attendance.

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Army’s Bruce Jette, John Murray on Meeting Missile Defense Program Goals
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Army’s Bruce Jette, John Murray on Meeting Missile Defense Program Goals

Bruce Jette, head of the U.S. Army’s procurement office and 2020 Wash100 Award recipient, has said the service branch is on track to achieve modernization goals despite schedule delays, the Army News Service reported Friday.

Jette, who serves as assistant secretary of the Army for acquisition, logistics and technology, noted that the service is working with industry partners and “making adjustments as necessary” to achieve milestones in programs such as the Integrated Air and Missile Defense Battle Command System (IBCS).

IBCS is a command-and-control system designed to operate with weapons systems and sensor networks for air and missile defense. A limited-user test for the technology was initially scheduled for mid-May at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.

According to Jette, the Army also expects to receive indirect-fire capabilities such as the Iron Dome missile defense platform by December and February.

Gen. John Murray
Gen. John Murray

Gen. John Murray, commanding general of the Army Futures Command (AFC) and fellow 2020 Wash100 Award winner, said the Army is additionally on track to achieve program milestones for the Interim Maneuver Short-Range Air Defense system (IM-SHORAD), which is intended to be mounted on Stryker A1 combat vehicles.

IM-SHORAD is scheduled to enter the initial acquisition phase by the second quarter of fiscal 2023.

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