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Richard DalBello: OSC to Set Up TraCSS Operations Centers in Maryland, Colorado
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Richard DalBello: OSC to Set Up TraCSS Operations Centers in Maryland, Colorado

Richard DalBello, director of the Office of Space Commerce at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said OSC has selected Colorado and Maryland to host the operations centers for its Traffic Coordination System for Space, or TraCSS, program, SpaceNews reported Friday.

NOAA will operate the primary operations center for the operational TraCSS platform at the David Skaggs Research Center in Boulder, Colorado, and a second center at another facility in Suitland, Maryland.

Sandy Magnus, the chief engineer for TraCSS, said during a panel at the 39th Space Symposium that the Suitland site will start operations first, as the Boulder facility will require some renovations to accommodate operations for the civil space traffic coordination system.

Once operational, the Boulder center will primarily oversee TraCSS operations while the Suitland facility will handle information technology and systems engineering support.

TraCSS aims to provide space situational awareness data and associated services to private and civil space operators.

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Sara Schwartzman Named Deputy Chief of NASA Science Mission Directorate’s Policy Branch
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Sara Schwartzman Named Deputy Chief of NASA Science Mission Directorate’s Policy Branch

Sara Schwartzman, formerly a policy analyst at NASA, has been appointed deputy chief of the Policy Branch in the space agency’s Science Mission Directorate, according to her LinkedIn post.

She will manage space policy and program analysis and strategic planning efforts in support of NASA’s Earth and space science initiatives in her new capacity.

Prior to her appointment, Schwartzman was a policy analyst within the Science Mission Directorate’s Policy Branch at NASA headquarters.

She joined NASA in 2022 as a program support specialist overseeing operational, administrative and financial portfolios in the Science Mission Directorate.

Before that, Schwartzman was a U.S. Senate bill clerk for seven years and advised Senate leadership on complex legislative policy, procedural issues and operational practices.

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CISA Zero Trust Expert Sean Connelly Leaving Agency for Private Sector
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CISA Zero Trust Expert Sean Connelly Leaving Agency for Private Sector

Sean Connelly, the senior cybersecurity architect and Trusted Internet Connections program manager at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, is leaving the agency after 11 years of service, Federal News Network reported Thursday.

Connelly’s last day at CISA is April 19.

His accomplishments at the agency include developing and releasing the TIC 3.0 update, the agency’s first zero trust model and its April 2023 update; co-authoring National Institute of Standards and Technology Special Publication 800-207, which tackles zero trust architecture; and launching the CISA Zero Trust Initiative Office.

Connelly is reportedly moving to IT security company Zscaler, where he is expected to work to help foreign governments adopt zero trust.

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MDA’s Lt. Gen. Heath Collins: FY2025 Budget Request Covers Japan Partnership to Develop Hypersonic Interceptor
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MDA’s Lt. Gen. Heath Collins: FY2025 Budget Request Covers Japan Partnership to Develop Hypersonic Interceptor

U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. Heath Collins, the director of the Missile Defense Agency and a 2024 Wash100 awardee, recently told lawmakers that his agency’s budget request for fiscal year 2025 covers a planned collaboration with Japan to develop the glide phase interceptor, a weapon meant to defeat hypersonic glide vehicles.

Collins explained during a House Armed Services Committee Strategic Forces Subcommittee hearing on Friday that the formal agreement on the collaboration is expected this spring, under which Japan will fund and develop propulsion elements and other key components.

The MDA director also said his agency intends to decide by the end of fiscal year 2024 on a single GPI interceptor design for continued development. RTX company Raytheon and Northrop Grumman are currently under separate MDA contracts to develop the GPI concept, according to a report by The Defense Post.

FY2025 will see GPI technology maturation and risk reduction work, Collins added.

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JHTO Selects Finalists for Hypersonic Prototype Development Challenge
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JHTO Selects Finalists for Hypersonic Prototype Development Challenge

The Department of Defense’s Joint Hypersonics Transition Office, in collaboration with the Naval Surface Warfare Center Crane Division, has selected the finalists for a two-phase challenge that aims to develop novel approaches to rapid development and flight testing of hypersonic prototypes.

L3Harris Technologies‘ Aerojet Rocketdyne subsidiary, Castelion Corporation, GoHypersonic, Northrop Grumman and Specter Aerospace will move forward to Phase II of the Hyper-AMPD! prize challenge to build a feasibility study on the white paper concepts they submitted for Phase I, NAVSEA said Friday.

JHTO is looking for novel ideas that can be developed and tested within 24 months to accelerate the integration of hypersonic weapons into the U.S. missile defense systems.

The office will select up to two winners of the challenge, which offers $500,000 in cash prizes.

“Submissions came from a wide range of idea generators, as well as created new partnerships in response to this challenge. It was incredibly difficult to narrow the selection for Phase II, but I am very excited to see the outcome of the feasibility studies over the coming months,” said Sarah Armstrong, Director of JHTO’s Systems Engineering Field Activity at NSWC Crane.

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Syneren Awarded WHS Contract for Defense Tech Security Administration Support Services
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Syneren Awarded WHS Contract for Defense Tech Security Administration Support Services

Syneren Technologies will provide the Defense Technology Security Administration Information Technology Enterprise and its users with a range of services under a potential $31.1 million contract from the Washington Headquarters Services.

The Department of Defense said Friday Syneren was initially awarded an $11.9 million indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for basic services, enhanced IT surge capabilities and training, as well as program, service and enterprise IT management.

Efforts are aimed at ensuring user satisfaction and compliance with applicable federal laws and regulations. The contractor will perform work at the Mark Center in Alexandria, Virginia, through April 16, 2025.

Syneren provides digital transformation services in support of government and industry customers. Its offerings cover hardware and systems engineering, health IT, software development, data analytics, artificial intelligence/machine learning, robotic process automation, IT systems support, cybersecurity, enterprise architecture, independent test evaluation and program management.

Gen. Timothy Haugh Highlights USCYBERCOM Efforts to Counter Adversarial Threats
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Gen. Timothy Haugh Highlights USCYBERCOM Efforts to Counter Adversarial Threats

Gen. Timothy Haugh, commander of U.S. Cyber Command and director of the National Security Agency, said CYBERCOM is optimizing its force and operations to stay ahead of adversaries like China and Russia in the cyber domain.

According to Haugh, China and Russia have integrated cyberattack capabilities into military planning and operations to gain a warfighting advantage and are increasingly using social media and state-sponsored disinformation sites to cause confusion and spread false narratives.

“We are particularly concerned with adversaries probing and exploiting our military and intelligence networks, compromising the U.S. defense industrial base networks in order to steal weapon system technology and accessing or attempting to compromise U.S. critical infrastructure,” the 2024 Wash100 awardee said.

To counter China’s cyber operations, USCYBERCOM aims to support U.S. Indo-Pacific Command by providing mission-critical tools needed to defend its area of responsibility.

“Additionally, we work daily to counter PRC-based cyber threats to our homeland, allies, and partners,” Haugh said.

Haugh also highlighted USCYBERCOM’s partnerships with U.S. European Command to “support Ukraine’s independence and the success of its resistance to the Russian invasion.”

POC - 2024 Cyber Summit

The Potomac Officers Club will host the 2024 Cyber Summit on June 6 to hear from government and industry experts about the dynamic and ever-evolving role of cyber in the public sector. Register here!

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FY2025 Update to Strategic Management Plan Includes Performance Metrics for Military Departments
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FY2025 Update to Strategic Management Plan Includes Performance Metrics for Military Departments

The Department of Defense has released the updated version of the Fiscal Years 2022 – 2026 DoD Strategic Management Plan, with approval from Deputy Secretary of Defense and 2024 Wash100 winner Kathleen Hicks.

The DOD said Friday that the SMP serves as its framework for the management of its goals under the 2022 National Defense Strategy and is updated yearly to report progress on near-term and long-term objectives.

The SMP update for fiscal year 2025 focuses on five strategic priorities: workforce cultivation; the transformation of the foundation of the future force; making correct investments in technology; defense ecosystem resilience; and addressing institutional management priorities.

Unique to the FY2025 are the outcome-driven performance goals and measures for military departments. The purpose of these measures are to ensure accurate representation of the contribution of the military departments to strategic priorities and objectives.

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DARPA Solicits Proposals for Structures Uniquely Resolved to Guarantee Endurance Program
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DARPA Solicits Proposals for Structures Uniquely Resolved to Guarantee Endurance Program

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has begun seeking proposals for a new program that aims to explore methods to predict the life of unique machine parts based directly on data captured during additive manufacturing.

A notice posted Friday on SAM.gov states that the Structures Uniquely Resolved to Guarantee Endurance, or SURGE, program seeks to develop and test model-based hardware life prediction methods that can be transferable across disparate materials, machines and geometries.

SURGE will converge existing process modeling, sensing technologies and microstructure-based fatigue life methods to predict the useful life of metallic parts produced using additive manufacturing during the production phase.

The program has a two-year Phase 1 base period and an option for a two-year Phase 2 effort.

The selected contractors will develop and validate their methods during Phase 1 and apply developed methods to complex parts and demonstrate transferability in Phase 2.

Responses are due July 1.

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GovCon Index Dropped for 2nd Consecutive Week
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GovCon Index Dropped for 2nd Consecutive Week

Executive Mosaic’s GovCon Index dropped by 2.42% last week, closing with an average of $4,780.55.

GovCon Index is an aggregate index that tracks data from 30 key government contracting companies in real time. Users can leverage this information to make their own assessments of how each organization is performing and evaluate the overall financial state of the GovCon industry.

Kratos Defense & Security Solutions (+ 2.25%), Mercury Systems (+1.15%) and Northrop Grumman (+0.35%) were the only three companies tracked by GovCon Index that rose last week.

Though GovCon Index began the week with slight gains, it decreased by 1.09% on Tuesday and slipped further on Wednesday. A small rise on Thursday pointed to a potential rebound, but on Friday, the GovCon Index fell once again.

To view last week’s market reports and get an in-depth look at daily GovCon Index performance, click here. You can find the full list of tracked companies here.

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