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3rd Joint Polar Satellite System Spacecraft Now Operational
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3rd Joint Polar Satellite System Spacecraft Now Operational

The NOAA-21 satellite is now operational, joining the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership satellite and NOAA-20 as part of the Joint Polar Satellite System.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Wednesday that NOAA-21 will help improve the agency’s weather forecasts by providing global data for the numerical weather prediction models of the National Weather Service.

The spacecraft will also work to detect wildfires, volcanic eruptions, fog and Arctic sea ice with the use of its Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite payload.

NOAA-21 is the third of five planned satellites for JPSS. The program’s spacecraft are designed to have an operational lifespan of seven years.

The JPSS program is funded by NOAA.

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DOE Seeks Disruptive Energy Concepts Through ARPA-E’s SPARKS Program
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DOE Seeks Disruptive Energy Concepts Through ARPA-E’s SPARKS Program

The Department of Energy will support the development of innovative energy concepts that could foster the adoption of clean energy platforms, increase energy independence and improve the country’s economic and energy security through a new funding opportunity.

The Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy said Tuesday it will manage the Spurring Projects to Advance energy Research and Knowledge Swiftly, or SPARKS, program and provide up to $10 million in funding over a period of 18 months to explore new concepts that could potentially lead to transformational changes in energy technology.

The SPARKS program will support projects in the form of exploratory research or analyses that could deliver the agency information able to advance the development of focused technology initiatives.

ARPA-E provided a list of key technical categories that applicants can use to classify their proposed technologies: grid; transportation; buildings and construction; electricity generation and storage; carbon capture, sequestration and utilization; industrial efficiency and decarbonization; and other energy technologies.

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DOD, Indian Counterpart Participate in Investor Strategy Session to Drive Defense Innovation
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DOD, Indian Counterpart Participate in Investor Strategy Session to Drive Defense Innovation

The U.S. Department of Defense and India’s defense ministry took part in the India-U.S. Defense Acceleration Ecosystem’s (also known as INDUS-X) inaugural investor strategy session to discuss the need to leverage private capital in support of defense startups and innovation efforts.

Douglas Beck, director of the Defense Innovation Unit and senior adviser to the U.S. secretary of defense, joined Vivek Virmani, chief operating officer of the Innovations for Defence Excellence, or iDEX, during the INDUS-X investor session to talk about the importance of equipping the armed forces of the U.S. and India with the capabilities they need to defend the Indo-Pacific region.

During the event, DIU and iDEX launched a monthly education series to enable government and private sector leaders to meet with startups from both countries to discuss investor pitches, technology and business development and regulations.

Through the INDUS-X Gurukul Education Series, DIU and iDEX will inform startups of opportunities and programs under the defense acceleration ecosystem and other areas of interest included in the INDUS-X fact sheet and the U.S.-India initiative on Critical and Emerging Technology.

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CBO Debuts Updated Interactive Force Structure Tool
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CBO Debuts Updated Interactive Force Structure Tool

The Congressional Budget Office has released its updated online tool designed to help users see the effects of a potential increase or decline in the annual defense budget on the size and structure of the U.S. military.

The new version of the CBO’s interactive force structure tool comes with updated costs and numbers of personnel as outlined in the Department of Defense’s budget request for 2024, the agency said Wednesday.

According to the CBO, the tool provides users information on major combat units that comprise the armed forces.

The agency said users can visualize how a change to the number of special forces or ships would affect defense spending.

With the updated interactive tool, the CBO has separated the U.S. Army’s field artillery brigades from air defense brigades and the U.S. Navy’s amphibious assault ships from other amphibious vessels to enable users to analyze possible changes to the armed forces and explore policy alternatives.

HII Opens Norfolk Campus for Newport News Shipbuilding
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HII Opens Norfolk Campus for Newport News Shipbuilding

HII held an event on Nov. 6 marking the opening of a new site in Norfolk, Virginia, to be used in support of its Newport News Shipbuilding business.

HII said Wednesday that the opening of the Newport News Shipbuilding Norfolk Campus was attended by company, U.S. Navy and city officials and the leadership of Fairlead, which leased the property for the new NNS site.

Though its opening took place only recently, the Newport News Shipbuilding Norfolk Campus has been in operation for several months, producing steel panels for the upcoming Gerald R. Ford-class aircraft carrier USS Enterprise.

The Norfolk campus is also expected to benefit NNS’ Newport News shipyard, freeing up space for other operations like submarine construction.

The new campus is the result of investment by HII and funding by the Navy. Program Executive Officer for Aircraft Carriers Rear Adm. Casey Moton said during the opening ceremony that the facility demonstrates “what can be accomplished when the Navy-industry team comes together.”

Les Smith, vice president for the Enterprise, Doris Miller and future aircraft carrier programs at NNS, said the new facility “is a prime example of how we’re innovating, thinking differently and improving efficiency when it comes to building the aircraft carriers our nation needs.”

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Biden Administration Unveils ‘Better Contracting Initiative’
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Biden Administration Unveils ‘Better Contracting Initiative’

The Biden administration has introduced a four-pronged strategy designed to improve the performance of federal contracts and save the government more than $10 billion annually.

The Better Contracting Initiative, or BCI, directs the Office of Management and Budget to create a centralized data management framework for sharing product prices and other market intelligence and supply chain data, the White House announced in a statement on Wednesday.

OMB is expected to publish a guide in the coming months for high priority acquisition requirements. The agency will also conduct workshops to identify and rank the needs of procurement, IT, supply chain and other branches in government offices.

Under the BCI, the General Services Administration will be authorized to lead the negotiation of IT software licensing agreements to help control price variance. GSA will also sponsor acquisition workshops and cooperate with other departments’ procurement teams to deliver similar training.

The White House noted that the initiative will foster competitive equality by giving buyers options for considering small business set-aside contracts.

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DOD CIO Eyes DevSecOps Guidance Update; Rob Vietmeyer, Aaron Weis Quoted
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DOD CIO Eyes DevSecOps Guidance Update; Rob Vietmeyer, Aaron Weis Quoted

The Department of Defense’s Office of the Chief Information Officer is considering an update to DOD’s DevSecOps guidance in light of recent cyber attacks, The Cyber Edge reported Wednesday.

“We published more than a year ago some DevSecOps guidance where we identified a set of required and preferred activities for what should be incorporated in the DevSecOps pipeline,” Rob Vietmeyer, chief software officer for the deputy CIO for information enterprise within the Office of the DOD CIO, said during a panel discussion at a Honolulu conference this week.

“We’re now re-looking at that given the some of these attacks and trying to update our guidance to help people navigate through some of these mechanisms because it is a complex environment right now,” he added.

Aaron Weis, managing director of Google Public Sector and a four-time Wash100 awardee, joined Vietmeyer during the panel discussion, citing the limitations of the risk management framework when it comes to addressing cyberthreats.

“RMF is proof positive of why this kind of mindset shift, in terms of left of boom, intercepting these bad code injections into a pipeline are so critical. And it’s never going to be addressed through RMF, right? There’s no amount of spreadsheets and checklists that are going to overtake the dynamic nature of the problem that we’re trying to solve for,” said Weis, who is also former CIO of the Department of the Navy.

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Guidehouse Books FBI Contract for IT Support; John Saad Quoted
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Guidehouse Books FBI Contract for IT Support; John Saad Quoted

Guidehouse has been selected to provide the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Office of Chief Information Officer with information technology services.

Under a five-year contract, Guidehouse will assist the office with various IT operations, processes and systems, the McLean, Virginia-based consulting firm announced on Thursday.

“Guidehouse looks forward to continuing our partnership with the FBI and expanding our support to the OCIO and its important role in the organization,” said John Saad, partner and defense and security segment leader at the company.

For more than 17 years, Guidehouse has worked with the bureau in a wide variety of areas, including cybersecurity, data governance and data analytics, among multiple others.

“Our team will continue to bring IT thought leadership, leading practices and consultants that are passionate about the FBI’s public safety mission,” Saad added.

Guidehouse’s contracting responsibilities include implementing IT resources that are customer-centric, boosting operational agility and improving business functions while setting up FBI technology for the future. The company will also help secure, assess and maintain the agency’s cybersecurity program and IT systems to promote public trust in the organization.

In support of FBI transformation goals, Guidehouse will oversee strategic IT roadmaps, tackle agency-wide IT challenges and define enterprise technology standards to drive interoperability of enterprise services.

This contract follows the firm’s win of an $89.9 million U.S. Army award for financial operations modernization. Issued in September, the contract aims to improve the Army Working Capital Fund’s audit readiness.

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DISA Exceeds Small Business & HUBZone Contract Award Goals for FY 2023
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DISA Exceeds Small Business & HUBZone Contract Award Goals for FY 2023

The Defense Information Systems Agency exceeded its goal to award 25 percent of contracts to small businesses in fiscal year 2023.

DISA announced Monday that it granted $1.86 billion in contracts directly to SBEs, representing 29.25 percent of its contract awards for the period.

The agency highlighted its record-setting sum awarded to historically underutilized business zone, or HUBZone companies, which reached $283 million or 4.4 percent this year.

DISA implemented a “small business first” policy that includes quarterly forecasting of acquisition opportunities with a value greater than or equal to $5 million for the next three years. The agency’s Office of Small Business Programs, or OSBP, also publishes monthly acquisition decisions, new opportunities and comparisons of forecast and actual data on the DISA website.

“Not only are America’s nearly 30 million small businesses the engine of our economy, but they also provide critical goods, services and technologies which actively contribute to the health of the manufacturing and defense industrial base,” said Carlen Capenos, director of OSBP. “DISA supports our small businesses with its ‘Small Business First’ policy and considers each requirement first for small business.”

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Raylene Yung Appointed Chief of Staff at DOE Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations
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Raylene Yung Appointed Chief of Staff at DOE Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations

Raylene Yung, formerly executive director of the General Services Administration’s Technology Modernization Fund Program Management Office, has been appointed chief of staff at the Department of Energy’s Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations.

DOE said Tuesday Yung is among the six new appointees to its senior leadership team to support agency-wide efforts to achieve the Biden administration’s climate and energy goals.

Before joining DOE, Yung oversaw the $1.2 billion TMF initiative that supports the information technology modernization efforts across the federal government and served as co-founder and CEO of the U.S. Digital Response.

The Biden administration also appointed Rafael Cestero as special assistant for advance at the Office of Scheduling and Advance, Rebecca Kasper as chief of staff at the Loan Programs Office, Lila Nojima as attorney-adviser at the Office of the General Counsel, Andrea Piccardo as special assistant to the White House Liaison at the Office of the Secretary and Usha Sahay as chief speechwriter at the Office of Public Affairs.

Two current appointees received promotions: Julius Goldberg-Lewis was named chief of staff at the Office of Technology Transitions and Frances Swanson was assigned special adviser at the Office of the Under Secretary for Infrastructure.

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