Coast Guard Commissions First Polar Icebreaker in 25 Years to Increase America’s Presence in the Arctic
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Troy Edgar, DHS deputy secretary. Edgar speaks about USCGC Storis

The U.S. Coast Guard has commissioned the medium polar icebreaker USCGC Storis to increase the nation’s presence in the Arctic.

Troy Edgar, deputy secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, attended the new ship’s commissioning ceremony in Juneau, Alaska.

“The commissioning of Storis marks a new beginning for the U.S. Coast Guard,” Edgar said.

“The new investment will lead to a USCG that is better equipped to protect our national interests, support our maritime communities and stand alongside our allies,” he added.

Coast Guard Commissions First Polar Icebreaker in 25 Years to Increase America's Presence in the Arctic

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Coast Guard Adds New Icebreaker to Fleet

Storis, formerly oilfield supply ship Aiviq, was acquired by the Coast Guard in December 2024 and is America’s first icebreaker in 25 years. It is the second vessel in Coast Guard history to be named Storis. The first Storis ship was dubbed the “Galloping Ghost of the Alaskan Coast” and served in the Arctic for 64 years.

The new USCGC Storis measures 360 feet long. It will house a hybrid crew of military and civilian mariners.

Icebreakers are vital to the Coast Guard’s mission in the increasingly contested Arctic region. Adversaries are interested in it because of its potential for trade route traffic, oil and gas, critical minerals, and fishing.

“The commissioning of USCGC Storis immediately strengthens our ability to control, secure, and defend the U.S. border around Alaska and maritime approaches in the Arctic,” stated Adm. Kevin Lunday, acting commandant of the Coast Guard. “Storis is the first step of a historic investment in the Coast Guard to add critical capacity to our polar icebreaker fleet to protect U.S. sovereignty and counter malign influence throughout the Arctic.”

 Storis will be homeported in Seattle, Washington, while upgrades are underway at a proposed pier in Alaska.

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DARPA Announces AI Cyber Challenge Winners
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Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency logo. DARPA unveils AI Cyber Challenge winners.

Team Atlanta has claimed the top spot in the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s AI Cyber Challenge, or AIxCC, securing $4 million in prize money for its artificial intelligence-driven cyber reasoning system.

The team, including experts from Georgia Tech, Samsung Research and the Korea Advanced Institute of Science & Technology, outperformed six other finalists in the two-year competition aimed at creating AI systems capable of autonomously detecting and patching vulnerabilities of open-source software, particularly those used in critical infrastructure, including financial systems, public utilities and the health care ecosystem, DARPA said. The agency partnered with AI industry leaders Anthropic, Google, Microsoft and OpenAI to provide competitors with technical support and large language model credits.

“Finding vulnerabilities and patching codebases using current methods is slow, expensive, and depends on a limited workforce – especially as adversaries use AI to amplify their exploits,” DARPA Director Stephen Winchell explained. “AIxCC-developed technology will give defenders a much-needed edge in identifying and patching vulnerabilities at speed and scale.”

DARPA Accelerating Adoption of Cyber Reasoning Systems

Second-place winner Trail of Bits, a New York City-based small business, took home $3 million, while third-place winner Theori, comprising AI researchers and security professionals in the United States and South Korea, received $1.5 million. Other finalists are  all_you_need_is_a_fuzzing_brain, Shellphish, 42-beyond-bug and Lacrosse.

The agency will make all seven cyber reasoning systems available as open-source software under a license approved by the Open Source Initiative. On Friday, DARPA released four of the seven AI-powered systems, with the remaining set to be available in the coming weeks.

DARPA and its partner, Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health, added $1.4 million in prizes for the competing teams to integrate AIxCC technology into real-world critical infrastructure software and accelerate the adoption of the systems.

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FCC Names Andy Hendrickson as Office of Engineering and Technology Head
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Andy Hendrickson. The official has been appointed chief at the Federal Communications Commission's Office of Engineering Tech

The Federal Communications Commission has appointed Andy Hendrickson as the chief of its Office of Engineering and Technology. Hendrickson is transitioning from his former post of chief technology officer at the FCC’s Enforcement Bureau, the commission said Thursday.

As OET head, Hendrickson will serve as FCC’s principal technical adviser on spectrum policy, equipment authorization and keeping regulatory standards apace with the rapid changes in the communications sector, FCC noted.

According to his LinkedIn profile, Hendrickson joined the FCC Enforcement Bureau as CTO in October 2024, taking the task of guiding field operations. In his previous role, he also provided the commission’s Office of the Field Director with advice on emerging technologies, enforcement issues, cybersecurity and artificial intelligence.

Hendrickson’s Private Sector Experience

Hendrickson brought to FCC over 20 years’ experience in telecommunications and digital infrastructure networks. Before joining the commission, he had a stint of more than nine years at Verizon, where he served last as senior director of the company’s cloud platform and contributed to the rollout of the Verizon 5G network. He also previously served as a solution architect at Esri for over six years, preceded by more than eight years’ prior work at Verizon Wireless as manager of spatial data analysis and geographic information systems. 

In addition, he was a part-time lecturer on environmental geomatics at Rutgers University, where he obtained dual degrees from its Schools of Environmental and Biological Sciences and Communication and Information.

FCC Chairman Brendan Carr conveyed delight in Hendrickson taking the role as OET chief.

“As the FCC’s Build America Agenda ramps up, our work will benefit greatly from Andy’s understanding of both the technical foundations and real-world impact of our decisions,” Carr said.

He also thanked Ira Keltz, who had served as acting OET chief before Hendrickson’s appointment and will return to his post as the FCC unit’s deputy chief.

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Trump Orders Federal Grantmaking Process Overhaul
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White House logo. Trump ordered the overhaul of the federal grantmaking process.

President Donald Trump has issued an executive order aimed at overhauling the federal government’s grantmaking process.

New EO to Prevent Tax Dollars Wastage

According to the president Thursday, the new EO aims to end “offensive waste of tax dollars” by establishing a new review process to determine whether grants prioritize national interest. Under the presidential directive, each federal agency will have a senior political appointee tasked with evaluating every funding opportunity announcement and grant award to ensure it will benefit Americans and align with agency priorities.

The EO permits the termination of grants that are not consistent with agency priorities, national interests and policy objectives. It is also intended to prevent grant duplication by enhancing interagency coordination.

Furthermore, the new directive is meant to streamline the grantmaking process by requiring agencies to simplify funding opportunity announcements. It also mandates federal agencies to not only prioritize universities and nonprofit organizations, especially those that have repeatedly received awards in the past.

Enforcing Accountability

The new EO also calls for enhanced accountability in the grantmaking process. The appointees and subject matter experts will conduct annual reviews of discretionary awards to assess their progress and ensure they stay aligned with agency priorities.

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DISA Official Offers New Information on JWCC-NEXT
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John Hale, chief of product management and development at DISA. Hale provides new updates on JWCC initiative

The next Joint Warfighting Cloud Computing, or JWCC, contract might be open to more cloud service providers, according to the official overseeing the acquisition effort. In an interview with John Hale, chief of product management and development at the Defense Information Systems Agency, shared that the Department of Defense is integrating learnings from the current JWCC vehicle as it develops its next acquisition strategy.

Update on Next JWCC Contract

Some of the major changes in the upcoming contract, according to Hale, are related to access to third-party vendors included with large hyperscale providers.

“What we have learned as mission partners move to a particular hyperscale provider, they don’t just want that capability provided by that provider, they want all of the ancillary services that are provided as part of that ecosystem,” Hale shared with Federal News Network. “So how do we get to that, and how do we provide that capability to a warfighter, rather than have them to do separate contracts for that kind of stuff? That’s where we’re trying to make the changes to get to that.”

The official also revealed that DISA plans to issue the proposal solicitation for JWCC-Next in the second quarter of fiscal 2026. The agency expects awards to be made in early 2027.

Hale explained that the agency does not want an overlap between the ongoing and upcoming contracts. The current JWCC contract will expire in 2031 if all options are exercised. 

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PEO Enterprise Awards Salesforce Software ELA to Computable Insights
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PEO Enterprise logo. Computable Insights has secured an ELA from the Army's PEO Enterprise and Contracting Command.

The U.S. Army’s Program Executive Office Enterprise and Contracting Command – Rock Island have awarded Computable Insights with an enterprise license agreement, or ELA, which seeks to improve Army efficiency by centralizing all Salesforce software license and support orders. The PEO Enterprise plans to announce more ELA contract awards in the following months, the Army said Friday.

PEO Enterprise ELA Details

Through the Salesforce ELA, which was awarded on July 31, Army customers can quickly and cost-effectively get Salesforce licenses at pre-negotiated rates that leverage the Army’s purchasing power and economies of scale. The licenses will eventually be offered through PEO Enterprise’s digital marketplace, which is currently being created. The new ELA is the first to go through a full management cycle, including a detailed tracking of every license.

The Accessions Information Environment, or AIE, which is one of PEO Enterprise’s programs, is expected to benefit from the ELA, since it uses Salesforce’s Government Cloud to improve how the Army recruits, signs up and manages soldiers. 

Army Contract Terms

Last month, Computable Insights, a subsidiary of Salesforce, secured a $99.6 million fixed-firm price contract to provide Salesforce software licenses under an ELA. The work will be conducted at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, and will be performed through June 26, 2030. The contracting activity is the Army Contracting Command. At the time of the award, $9 million was obligated. Only one bid was received.

PEO Enterprise’s Andi Fehl, Bill Hepworth Share Thoughts

Commenting on the contract, ELA Program Manager Andi Fehl said it was the first one that was negotiated from scratch since PEO Enterprise took over the ELA program from the Office of the Chief Information Officer last year.

“We’re working with the OCIO to look across the board at where we can consolidate contracts to realize cost avoidance,” Fehl remarked.

PEO Enterprise Program Executive Officer Bill Hepworth called the ELA a “huge breakthrough.”

“The Digital Market team will monitor and track the licenses to make sure we have absolute maximum efficiency in the way we buy software, which frees up more manpower to go do the actual building and construction at a faster clip, serving the commands and soldiers,” Hepworth said.

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Bipartisan Bill Aims to Prevent Adversaries From Accessing US Tech
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BIS logo. Reps. Crow and Kean proposed a bipartisan bill to keep adversaries from availing U.S. technology.

Reps. Jason Crow, D-Colo., and Tom Kean, Jr., R-N.J., have proposed the BIS IT Modernization Act, a new legislation aimed at preventing foreign adversaries from having access to commercial dual-use U.S. technologies.

Crow’s office said Friday the new bipartisan bill is intended to modernize the Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security IT systems. This will enable federal agencies to leverage advanced tools for a more effective and efficient way to monitor the flow or export of sensitive technologies, used for commercial and military applications, including weapons systems. The particular objective is to keep these technologies from getting in the hands of Russia and China.

Remarks From Reps. Crow & Kean

“Protecting the U.S. from foreign threats is not a partisan issue. Our bipartisan bill helps keep us safe by making it harder for critical U.S. technologies, like chips and advanced computer software, from falling into the hands of America’s adversaries,” said Crow.

“As America’s adversaries, like China and Russia, become more brazen and aggressive, it is more important than ever to strengthen our export controls and sanctions enforcement to protect our national security. The bipartisan BIS IT Modernization Act is a critical step to ensure the Bureau of Industry and Security has the modern tools it needs to keep American technology out of the hands of those who seek to use it against us and our allies,” said Kean.

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Navy Issues Guidance on Adaptive Roadmaps for Capability Investment Decisions
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Justin Fanelli, chief technology officer at the Department of the Navy. Fanelli promotes the use of adaptive roadmaps

The Department of the Navy has issued guidance for the use of adaptive roadmaps for investment decisions and to enhance the process of delivering new capabilities that support warfighters.

The memo was signed by Justin Fanelli and Elizabeth Caswell, the department’s chief technology officer and acting chief services and infrastructure officer, respectively.

Navy Issues Guidance on Adaptive Roadmaps for Capability Investment Decisions

Fanelli is one of the guest speakers at the Potomac Officers Club’s 2025 Navy Summit on Aug. 26. Register for the in-person GovCon networking event here.

What Are Adaptive Roadmaps?

According to the memo, adaptive roadmaps aid in strategic and data-driven investment decisions for emerging technologies to enhance mission effectiveness across DON.

Roadmaps must be developed throughout the lifecycle of a capability to guide whether a proposed solution should transition from concept to divestment.

There are three core artifacts of a roadmap per the new guidance: technical investment horizon charts; execution schedules; and doctrine, organization, training, materiel, leadership, personnel, facilities and policy, or DOTMLPF-P.

Roadmaps must also include key elements, such as a clear vision and strategy, themes and goals, time horizons, prioritizations based on value and impact, feedback, and reviews and updates.

The memo advised the use of adaptive roadmaps together with investment horizons charts, world class alignment metrics, structured divestment approach and other best practices to rationalize the adoption of new technologies.

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White House CIO Gregory Barbaccia on Federal Digital Transformation
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Gregory Barbaccia. The federal CIO called on federal agencies to modernize and "re-engineer how work is done."

Gregory Barbaccia, federal chief information officer and a 2025 Wash100 awardee, has shared his insights on how the federal government should advance digital transformation.

“I notice a lot of the government considers itself to be ‘digital,’ but in reality, we’ve only digitized, not transformed. Sure we went 0-1, but that should have just been the beginning,” Barbaccia wrote in a LinkedIn post.

He noted the lack of automation and that workflows remain unchanged despite the replacement of paper ledgers with spreadsheets.

“Files are shared over email instead of through real-time collaboration tools,” he added.

Advancing Digital Transformation in Federal Government

In his post, Barbaccia called on federal agencies to modernize and “re-engineer how work is done.”

The federal CIO suggested several measures, such as automating repetitive tasks; making data actionable; enabling faster, more collaborative decision-making; and adapting behaviors.

“If we’ve only changed the medium and not the actual process then transformation hasn’t occurred. It’s not enough to change the platform. You have to change the practice. Stay tuned,” Barbaccia added.

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FCC Reforms Seek to Advance Ground-Station-as-a-Service Business Model
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Brendan Carr. The FCC chairman said the new rules will eliminate unnecessary paperwork and advance the GSaaS business model.

The Federal Communications Commission has adopted new rules that seek to eliminate unnecessary paperwork and address regulatory barriers to the ground-station-as-a-service, or GSaaS, business model as part of efforts to drive innovation in the U.S. space economy.

FCC said Thursday the new rules establish a process for ground station operators to secure a baseline license without first identifying a satellite point of communication.

A simple FCC notification will be required for each new point of communication. According to FCC, the change would eliminate nearly half of earth station modification applications.

“Making the smallest change to a satellite system or earth station can require a new FCC approval. So, the Order we adopt today will eliminate FCC approval requirements for a range of routine changes that pose no risk to the public,” FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said in a statement published Thursday.

“Through these and other streamlining improvements, the FCC will hold itself accountable to more predictable timelines, such as a 30-day shot clock for earth station renewal applications,” he added.

What Is Ground-Station-as-a-Service?

The FCC reforms will also help advance the GSaaS business model, which allows multiple satellite systems to share the same ground station. The model also gives satellite operators the ability to transmit and receive signals without the need to establish their own ground infrastructure.

“This neutral-host infrastructure model has already proven to be successful in the wireless industry. By sparing companies the time and money to build their own bespoke infrastructure, we believe Ground-Station-as-a-Service can provide a similar boost for space startups,” Carr noted.

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