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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.

POC - 2024 Healthcare Summit

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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GlobalFoundries Wins $1.5B for Semiconductor Facilities
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GlobalFoundries Wins $1.5B for Semiconductor Facilities

The U.S. Department of Commerce has selected GlobalFoundries to receive up to $1.5 billion in direct funding under the CHIPS Incentives Program’s Funding Opportunity for Commercial Fabrication Facilities intended to bolster the semiconductor supply chain by supporting multiple of the company’s sites across the northeast U.S.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology said Wednesday the CHIPS investment is intended to boost U.S. competitiveness in the semiconductor industry by enhancing GF’s manufacturing facilities in New York and Vermont. 

CHIPS Investment Meant to Boost Production, Employment Rate

The $1.5 billion fund will be included in GF’s planned $13 billion investment over the next 10 years or so for the modernization of the company’s existing sites in New York and Vermont. In addition, GF will build a new facility in New York. These facilities manufacture current-generation chips utilized for critical industries such as automotive, smart mobile, aerospace, defense and communications semiconductor technologies.

Aside from strengthening the nation’s supply chain resilience, the investment is expected to generate around 9,000 construction and 1,000 manufacturing jobs. It will also support the Upstate New York Investing in America Workforce Hub, which aims to train New Yorkers for jobs in the semiconductor supply chain.  

“By investing in GF’s domestic manufacturing capabilities, we are helping to secure a stable domestic supply of chips that are found in everything from home electronics to advanced weapons systems,” said U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo. 

Thomas Caulfield, president and CEO of GF, stated, “GF’s essential chips are at the core of U.S. economic, supply chain and national security. We greatly appreciate the support and funding from both the U.S. government and the states of New York and Vermont, which we will use to ensure our customers have the American-made chips they need to succeed and win.” 

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CBO Projects 11% Increase in Defense Costs by 2039
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CBO Projects 11% Increase in Defense Costs by 2039

The Congressional Budget Office analyzed the Department of Defense’s plans between 2025 and 2029 as outlined in the 2025 Future Years Defense Program, or FYDP, and projected that defense costs under such plans would increase by 11 percent to $965 billion in 2039.

According to a CBO report published Wednesday, 64 percent of the cost increase would occur in operation and support.

Of the $99 billion increase in annual costs that CBO projects over a decade starting 2029, 32 percent would be for weapon systems development and procurement and 4 percent would be for infrastructure.

According to the 2025 FYDP, the defense budget would rise to $866 billion by 2029, reflecting a 1.9 percent increase from 2025.

CBO noted that the total costs of DOD’s plans between 2025 and 2029 would be about 4 percent or $154 billion higher than the department indicated in the 2025 FYDP.

From 2025 through 2039, the total costs would be approximately 5 percent or $677 billion higher than DOD stated in the current FYDP.

According to the report, DOD would need to reduce its plans or seek larger budgets to accommodate the higher costs.

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CISA Red Team Exercise Offers Ways to Tighten Infrastructure Cybersecurity
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CISA Red Team Exercise Offers Ways to Tighten Infrastructure Cybersecurity

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has issued an advisory on learnings from a red team cyberattack exercise and recommendations on countermeasures against the malicious activities simulated in the assessment. The exercise was conducted upon the request of a critical infrastructure organization, which also coordinated the release of the assessment, CISA said Thursday. 

Titled “Enhancing Cyber Resilience: Insights from CISA Red Team Assessment of a U.S. Critical Infrastructure Sector Organization,” the 36-page advisory reported that the assessed organization lacked sufficient technical controls for preventing and detecting malicious activity. It was heavily dependent on host-based endpoint detection and response and had insufficient network layer protection, the exercise showed. 

Software Security Challenge

Another learning from the red team activity highlighted the need for continuous staff training and support resources for implementing secure software platforms and detecting malicious activities.

The CISA advisory also lined up mitigation measures that software manufacturers should take to address the cybersecurity risks and challenges facing critical infrastructure owners and operators as demonstrated in the red team exercise. 

The remedies that the agency suggests include software manufacturers’ adherence to CISA’s Secure by Design principles and embedding security into software architecture in the product’s entire development lifecycle. 

To mitigate vulnerability to cyberattacks, the CISA document also recommends eliminating default passwords and mandating multi-factor authentication for privileged users.

US Warns Against Russia-Backed Sabotage Attacks in Europe
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US Warns Against Russia-Backed Sabotage Attacks in Europe

Joint security guidance from various U.S. agencies warned American companies about Russia’s recruitment of criminals to launch sabotage attacks against Europe’s defense industrial base, military installations, logistics facilities and public utilities to undermine allied support for Ukraine.

Authored by the National Counterintelligence and Security Center, the FBI and several Department of Defense agencies, the advisory published on Thursday by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence encouraged U.S. companies, particularly those supporting entities involved in the Ukraine conflict or other ongoing geopolitical conflicts, to remain vigilant and enhance their security efforts to defend against potential Russian sabotage activity.

Attacks on Behalf of Russia, Belarus

The guidance, titled Safeguarding the U.S. Defense Industrial Base and Private Industry Against Sabotage, cited recent arson and sabotage attacks that targeted a Ukraine-linked business in London and various infrastructure in Poland on behalf of Russia and Belarus to highlight threats posed by the engagement of the Russian intelligence services with criminals.

To secure the U.S. defense industrial base from such attacks, the document provides indicators of potential sabotage activity, mitigation steps and information on where to report incidents.

Protection Against Acts of Sabotage

Potential sabotage indicators include explicit or implied threats to facilities or personnel; online posts by individuals noting their intent to commit violence; and drone or small unmanned aircraft systems operating near facilities, staff or systems or employees who bring unauthorized cameras, tools or software into the workplace.

U.S. companies are advised to engage with law enforcement and intelligence agencies to be informed about potential threats and best security practices; enhance security posture by providing regular training on security awareness and ensuring physical security, cybersecurity monitoring and surveillance of key system nodes; and improve the security of the supply chain to deter and mitigate sabotage attacks.

The entities are encouraged to report suspicious activities to the FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.

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