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Deloitte Releases Midyear Aerospace and Defense Industry Outlook to Report Effects of COVID-19
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Deloitte Releases Midyear Aerospace and Defense Industry Outlook to Report Effects of COVID-19

Deloitte has recently released its Midyear Aerospace and Defense Industry Outlook that has analyzed the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the commercial aerospace, defense sectors and Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activity, the company reported on Thursday.

Commercial aerospace has experienced a drastic decrease in demand for passenger travel and changing customer behaviors with the recent distancing restrictions, which could result in a higher demand for narrow-body aircraft. The impact of COVID-19 has also affected the commercial aerospace manufacturing supply chain, particularly for mid-to-lower-tier suppliers.

Deloitte has reported that the defense sector has remained stable and military projects have held strategic priority as the federal government continues to strengthen the defense industrial base (DIB).

The company noted that while the defense sector’s rate of growth may decrease in 2020, companies were largely insulated from large-scale disruption by steady defense budgets and beneficial policy decisions by the Department of Defense (DoD). While the sector has experienced temporary disruptions to defense supply chains, delays are expected to be minor.

In addition, M&A activity is expected to decrease as companies focus on liquidity as opposed to expansion. Deloitte’s report noted that companies are likely to become cautious within M&A. New policies that have restricted foreign investment in key components of the defense industrial base (DIB) could prevent international M&A deals in the near term.

To combat the challenges the COVID-19 pandemic has posed, Deloitte stated that digital technologies were identified as the most important factor to combat fallout. These technologies will enhance productivity, efficiency and workplace safety.

Advanced technologies are expected to drive survival and recovery of companies and enable them to better position themselves by accelerating the adoption of advanced robotics and automation, which will make the manufacturing process more efficient as companies operate with reduced workforces.

About Deloitte

Deloitte provides industry-leading audit, consulting, tax and advisory services to many of the world’s most admired brands, including nearly 90% of the Fortune 500® and more than 7,000 private companies.

Our people work across the industry sectors that drive and shape today’s marketplace — delivering measurable and lasting results that help reinforce public trust in our capital markets, inspire clients to see challenges as opportunities to transform and thrive, and help lead the way toward a stronger economy and a healthy society.

Deloitte is proud to be part of the largest global professional services network serving our clients in the markets that are most important to them. Now celebrating 175 years of service, our network of member firms spans more than 150 countries and territories.

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PSC Letter Urges Congress to Extend CARES Section 3610; David Berteau Quoted
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PSC Letter Urges Congress to Extend CARES Section 3610; David Berteau Quoted

The Professional Services Council (PSC) has published a letter to Congress, requesting an extension of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act designed to assist the federal contractor community during the COVID-19 crisis, PSC reported on Thursday.

“When the CARES Act was enacted, there was no clear estimation or understanding of the duration or magnitude of the impact of COVID-19. Today, it is apparent that COVID-19’s impact will clearly extend beyond September 30, 2020, and it is not possible to predict how long such authority will be needed,” said David Berteau, PSC president and CEO and two-time Wash100 awardee. 

PSC requested an extension of Section 3610 of the CARES Act to continue until Dec. 31 2020, or the expiration of the coronavirus public health emergency, whichever comes later. Section 3610 will reimburse contractors with employees who have been denied access to government-approved facilities and who are unable to telework because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The letter added that Section 3610 enables companies to retain skilled workers and key personnel, many with high-level security clearances. PSC noted that without the ability to sustain the contracts, there could have negative impacts on the federal agencies. 

“PSC believes that a top legislative priority must be extending this government-wide authority granted under Section 3610 during the emergency,” Berteau added. 

PSC’s letter follows Berteau’s statement on the effects of COVID-19 on the workforce that was released in April 2020. He mentioned the contractors’ observations on the pace of solicitations for future work and evaluation process during the pandemic.

When asked about the lessons that agencies and contractors can take from the current situation, Berteau said “there are some huge lessons about how we can recruit and retain the workforce that is more agile, more remote.”

Berteau also cited the need for the government to shift its focus from input to results. “I think one of the great lessons of this is we can focus a lot more on the results and outcomes and let’s build procurements and let’s manage the contractors in such a way that we focus on results, that has to be done at the solicitation end, at the evaluation end, at the award end and at the performance end,” he stated. 

About PSC

PSC is the voice of the government technology and professional services industry. PSC’s more than 400 member companies represent small, medium and large businesses that provide federal agencies with services of all kinds, including information technology, engineering, logistics, facilities management, operations and maintenance, consulting, international development, scientific, social, environmental services, and more. Together, the trade association’s members employ hundreds of thousands of Americans in all 50 states.

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KBR Wins Contract by Kutch Specialities to Provide Nitrobenzene Solutions; Doug Kelly Quoted
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KBR Wins Contract by Kutch Specialities to Provide Nitrobenzene Solutions; Doug Kelly Quoted

KBR has been awarded a contract for its proprietary Plinke Adiabatic Nitrobenzene solutions by Kutch Specialities Pvt Ltd, India to provide engineering design, equipment and advisory services for grassroots nitrobenzene projects, KBR reported on Thursday.

“This contract reinforces KBR’s process leadership in purification, concentration and processing of strong inorganic acids,” said Doug Kelly, KBR president, Technology Solutions. “We are proud to work with Kutch Specialities Pvt Ltd to achieve its business expansion goals safely, reliably and efficiently.”

KBR’s patented equipment design and material selection will support plant availability and reliability. The solution will produce a high purity nitrobenzene with a focus on high energy efficiency and environmental sustainability. Nitrobenzene can be used to produce polyurethane foams, rubber chemicals, dyes and pharmaceuticals.

KBR developed the proprietary process for adiabatic nitration of benzene to nitrobenzene through its experience in re-concentration of sulfuric acid. The company has offered an integrated unit with both nitration and spent acid processing.

The energy released during the chemical reaction of benzene to nitrobenzene is kept within the process. KBR’s PLINKE modular reactor is highly efficient and its small size results in small plot-plan requirements and low investment costs.

The PLINKE adiabatic nitrobenzene process has been derived from operating steps, including nitration, product separation, washing, Sulfuric Acid re-concentration, Benzene recovery and waste gas treatment. The diluted Nitric Acid of any concentration between 50 percent and 68 percent HNO3 can be used in the process.

“Our proprietary process for adiabatic nitration offers high energy efficiency, excellent product quality and highly reliable sulfuric acid recovery process,” KBR stated.

About KBR, Inc.

KBR is a global provider of differentiated professional services and technologies across the asset and program life cycle within the Government Services and Energy sectors. KBR employs approximately 37,000 people worldwide (including our joint ventures), with customers in more than 80 countries and operations in 40 countries, across three synergistic global businesses: Government Solutions, Technology Solutions, Energy Solutions.

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Frequently Asked Questions in New OMB Guidance Address Acquisition Efficiencies
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Frequently Asked Questions in New OMB Guidance Address Acquisition Efficiencies

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has issued additional guidelines to help ensure the resiliency of the federal acquisition workforce and contractors during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Michael Rigas, acting deputy director for management at OMB, issued on Tuesday a memo that includes a set of frequently asked questions meant to provide additional guidance and examples from agency activities to assist acquisition professionals as they deal with the impacts of the pandemic.

The questions address acquisition efficiencies, ways to track procurement activities and paid leave for contractor employees under Section 3610 of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act, among others.

OMB presented several examples of remote strategies to support acquisition work, including virtual industry days, virtual requirements development, video proposals, virtual technical demonstration, remote peer reviews, virtual inspection and remote technical evaluation and source selection.

OMB listed other category management tools and resources that could help agencies identify contract platforms for goods and services to meet the requirements in responding to the pandemic and addressed the use of purchase cards when making open market purchases.

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Federal CISOs on Addressing Telework-Related Cybersecurity Challenges
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Federal CISOs on Addressing Telework-Related Cybersecurity Challenges

Chief information security officers at federal agencies are working to address cybersecurity challenges related to having a remote workforce during the COVID-19 pandemic, Federal News Network reported Wednesday.

Venice Goodwine, CISO at the Department of Agriculture, discussed the need for CISOs to address the issue of data access and the role of zero trust in addressing the visibility question.

“The data is my new perimeter,” Goodwine said Tuesday at the Splunk Cloud Virtual Summit. “And so as a CISO you start to look within your toolbox and really understand what do I have in my toolbox to use, based on the investments I’ve made, that will give me the answer to that question: who is accessing my data? How are they accessing my data? Where is my data moving to?”

The Department of Education conducted a five-day sprint to identify alternative authentication processes in response to the closure of its badging stations for personal identity verification during the pandemic.

“So the disruption has been overwhelmingly positive for us, because it’s forced us to think outside of tradition, it’s forced us to think outside of status quo. And frankly, in many cases, we’re not going to go back to the prior ones,” said Steven Hernandez, CISO at the Department of Education.

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U.S., U.K. Armies Sign Agreement for Technological Cooperation; Ryan McCarthy Quoted
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U.S., U.K. Armies Sign Agreement for Technological Cooperation; Ryan McCarthy Quoted

The U.S. and U.K. governments have agreed to support each other's ground forces through the development of technologies that address common challenges.

The partnership will focus on efforts to develop digital infrastructure, long-range precision fire, soldier lethality, future vertical lift and positioning, navigation and timing technologies, the U.K. said Tuesday.

Ryan McCarthy, U.S. Army secretary and 2020 Wash100 Award recipient, and James Heappey, U.K. armed forces minister, signed the agreement.

"This partnership allows costly and complex problems to be distributed and helps protect the industrial base through enabling faster innovation and cost-sharing towards achieving our modernization priorities," McCarthy said.

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NSWC Carderock, UDC Ink Education Agreement
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NSWC Carderock, UDC Ink Education Agreement

The Naval Surface Warfare Center Carderock Division entered into a five-year agreement with the University of the District of Columbia to deliver guidance, research opportunities and internships in the areas of material science, nanotechnology, additive manufacturing and robotics.

The partnership aims to expose graduate students to NSWC Carderock’s equipment, facilities and research projects in line with surface warfare science, the Naval Sea Systems Command said Tuesday.

NSWC Carderock conducts research efforts in various areas such as hydrodynamics, material technology and silencing systems.

The center has also formed partnerships with other educational institutions to market careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

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DOE Seeks Input on Draft Roadmap for Energy Storage Effort
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DOE Seeks Input on Draft Roadmap for Energy Storage Effort

The Department of Energy has issued a request for information to seek feedback on a draft roadmap of an initiative meant to speed up the development and commercialization of energy storage technologies.

DOE said Tuesday it aims to sustain energy storage exports and usage by 2030 through a secure domestic manufacturing base and supply chain as part of the Energy Storage Grand Challenge.

The draft roadmap contains planned activities on five tracks including workforce development, technology transition and development. The outline also determined six use cases, which will be utilized to create technology-neutral functional requirements.

Stakeholders have until August 21 to submit their responses to the notice.

DOE noted it invested more than $1.2B from fiscal year 2017 to 2019 to support energy storage research and development efforts.

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Maj. Gen John Morrison Receives Nomination for New Army IT Role
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Maj. Gen John Morrison Receives Nomination for New Army IT Role

Maj. Gen. John Morrison, former chief of staff at U.S. Cyber Command (USCYBERCOM), has received a nomination for Army deputy chief of staff G-6, a high-level role focused on information technology, C4ISR reported Tuesday.

His nomination comes as the Army restructures its chief information office and splits the old CIO/G-6 role into two. Morrison's potential role will tackle the Army's network communication challenges and his counterpart, the CIO, will advise the Army secretary on information-related matters.

Morrison began his duties as USCYBERCOM chief of staff in June 2019. The officer joined the military in 1986 and went on to serve in various operations such as those in Saudi Arabia and Germany. He also served as U.S. Army Center of Excellence's commanding general.

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ARCYBER’s Stephen Fogarty on Key Factors to Command-Centric Network Ops
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ARCYBER’s Stephen Fogarty on Key Factors to Command-Centric Network Ops

Lt. Gen. Stephen Fogarty, commander of the U.S. Army Cyber Command (ARCYBER), has said that data security and effective management are key contributors to the efficiency of a command-centric network, AFCEA reported Tuesday.

Fogarty said in a prerecorded address for an AFCEA event that successful operations against peer and near-peer adversaries largely depend on leaders’ “timely access to reliable data that can be shared whenever and wherever needed.”

He added that emerging concepts such as machine learning and artificial intelligence will help quicken the pace of decision-making while hybrid cloud-based systems can support missions by optimizing the storage and security of actionable data.

“In a very real sense, in all-domain operations, the network is another weapon the commander’s arsenal, and data will be the ammunition for the commander,” said Fogarty. “Our commanders must be able to see the adversary and see themselves in real-time in cyberspace with the same level of confidence that they have in the land domain."

According to Fogarty, effective network infrastructure requires a balance between the need for usable data and risk mitigation through zero-trust security concepts.

Speaking on the Army’s efforts to establish command-centric network capabilities, Fogarty said the service’s Enterprise Information Technology as a Service (EITaaS) pilot program benefits from the “unique opportunity” of working with companies such as Microsoft, AT&T and Verizon.

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