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GAO Urges NRC to Implement Cybersecurity, IT-Related Open Recommendations
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Addressing Nuclear Regulatory Commission CIO Scott Flanders, GAO identified six open recommendations for NRC.

The Government Accountability Office has called on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s chief information officer, Scott Flanders, to address open recommendations related to cybersecurity and IT acquisitions. 

In a letter addressed to Flanders, Nick Marinos, the congressional watchdog’s managing director for cybersecurity and IT, said it identified six open recommendations that fall under a pair of areas categorized as high risks: “ensuring the cybersecurity of the nation” and “improving IT acquisitions and management.”

According to GAO, implementing the open recommendations could improve NRC’s defense against threats and enhance its capability to manage critical systems, information and operations.

Recommendations to CIOs could also identify opportunities for critical systems, improve government IT and eliminate IT mismanagement. 

GAO’s Open Recommendations to NRC

One recommendation involves NRC’s implementation of event logging requirements as directed by the Office of Management and Budget. The letter revealed that, although NRC has made progress with the cybersecurity measure, the agency still needs to fully implement the requirement based on OMB’s guidance.

GAO also recommended that the NRC CIO develop guidance for establishing cloud service level agreements, or SLAs, with vendors. The SLAs should include clear performance metrics, continuous awareness of asset confidentiality and integrity, and detailed descriptions of roles and responsibilities. 

“In addition, we recommended that NRC complete annual reviews of its IT portfolio consistent with federal requirements,” Marinos wrote. “Until NRC implements this recommendation, investments with substantial cost, schedule, and performance problems may continue unabated without necessary corrective action.”

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Treasury to Award New Contract to GOAA for Deep Water Horizon Project Tracker Access, Support
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The Treasury-awarded GOAA contract will keep the Deep Water Horizon Project Tracker up to date

The Department of the Treasury’s Bureau of the Fiscal Service will award a firm-fixed-price contract to the Gulf of America Alliance, also known as GOAA, for access to and support of the Deep Water Horizon Project Tracker, or DWHPT.

The sole-source contract has a five-year period of performance, including four 12-month options, according to a special notice posted on SAM.gov Monday.

Deep Water Horizon Project Tracker Contract Details

Under the contract, GOAA will keep data on the DWHPT up to date by collecting information for funding programs and maintaining a database of project partners. The organization will also perform manual and automated quality assurance and submit quarterly reports on data updates.

Work on the contract is expected to create transparency and prevent duplicative efforts in the restoration of the Gulf of America about 15 years after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

GOAA, formerly known as the Gulf of Mexico Alliance, is a regional ocean partnership led by Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. Members include representatives from state and federal agencies, academia, industry, non-government organizations and local communities.

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Trump Nominates James Mazol, James Caggy for Defense Deputy Under Secretary, Assistant Secretary Roles
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James Mazol and James Caggy have been tapped by President Trump to occupy top positions at the Department of Defense.

President Donald Trump has nominated James Mazol and James Caggy to serve as the deputy assistant secretary and assistant secretary of the Department of Defense, respectively. The White House announced the nominations of Mazol, the senior adviser of the Office of the Undersecretary for Research and Engineering, and Caggy, the adviser for DOD’s Strategic Capabilities Office, on July 1.

Caggy could be the first assistant defense secretary for mission capabilities if he were confirmed by the upper chamber, according to Inside Defense. His new assistant secretary role was created through a 2023 memo issued by Deputy Defense Secretary and four-time Wash100 winner Kathleen Hicks.

Caggy said on LinkedIn that he was honored to be nominated.

“If confirmed, I’ll bring the same mission-first, bureaucracy-last mindset that’s driven me my entire career. Collaborating with all to deliver the best American capabilities for the Joint Force,” he said.

Career Backgrounds of James Mazol & James Caggy

Before Pentagon Chief Technology Officer Emil Michael assumed his post, Mazol served as the acting under secretary of defense for research and engineering.

Before that, he worked in the Senate for eight years, serving as a national security adviser and a policy director for two of the chamber’s committees.

For his part, Caggy held two executive positions in Amazon Web Services prior to being part of the Office of the Secretary of Defense, including being the senior manager of DOD solutions. He also became an infantry officer in the U.S. Army. He started his career as the chief engineer of MAP Digital: Metameetings.

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Air Force Realignment Puts Aerial Networks Division Under C3BM PEO
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PEO for Command, Control, Communications and Battle Management to oversee Air Force Aerial Networks Division

The U.S. Air Force has repositioned the Program Executive Office for Cyber and Networks’ Aerial Networks Division, placing it under the service branch’s PEO for Command, Control, Communications and Battle Management, or C3BM. 

In the Air Force Materiel Command announcement of the realignment Monday, Maj. Gen. Luke Cropsey, C3BM’s program executive officer, called the division “absolutely core” to the future warfighting capability of the Air Force. “If we don’t figure this part of it out, and if we don’t keep pushing forward with the talent, the capabilities and the skill sets that this team brings to bear, we aren’t going to win the next one,” Cropsey, a Wash100 Award winner, remarked.

Air Force PEO Division Leadership Turnover

The realignment of the division was coupled with a turnover in its leadership to Col. Alan Louie from Col. Thomas Ward, whom Cropsey thanked for his past contribution to the team. The C3BM PEO also conveyed excitement for the “incredible wealth of experience and background” that Louie is bringing into the division.

Jeremy Thiele, acting PEO for the Cyber and Networks Directorate, cited the division’s previous accomplishments, including $900 million in annual acquisition, fielding and maintenance of critical communication capabilities for Air Force warfighters.

As an integrator within the Air Force, the C3BM PEO oversees the design and delivery of the DAF Battle Network connecting sensor, effector and logistics systems. An Air Force contribution to the Department of Defense’s Joint All Domain Command and Control approach, the network is designed to deliver better situational awareness and faster decision-making.

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Trump Signs ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’ Into Law
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President Trump has signed the One Big Beautiful Bill into law

President Donald Trump on Friday signed into law a massive budget reconciliation bill that includes $150 billion in additional funding for the Department of Defense and trillions of dollars in tax and spending cuts.

CBS News reported that the move came a day after the House voted 218-214 to pass the Trump administration-backed measure, also known as the “One Big Beautiful Bill.”

The Senate approved the bill on Tuesday in a 51-50 vote, with Vice President JD Vance breaking a tie.

In late June, senior Department of Defense officials and military leaders released DOD’s proposed $961.6 billion fiscal year 2026 budget, which includes $113.3 billion in mandatory funding through congressional reconciliation. According to a senior DOD official, the mandatory reconciliation funding would support shipbuilding, munitions production, missile defense and other Trump administration priorities.

One Big Beautiful Bill’s Provisions

The law includes funding for the Golden Dome missile defense system and modernization of the U.S. military.

The measure will allocate $12.5 billion in funding to modernize the country’s air traffic control system and permanently increase the child tax credit for more than 40 million families.

Other provisions in the bill are expanding domestic oil and gas production capacity; completing the border wall and hiring thousands of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol agents; reducing $1.5 trillion in spending; creating Trump Accounts for every American newborn; and implementing a tax deduction on Made in America auto loan interest.

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Former DLA Official Shawn Lennon Joins OUSDC as Assistant Deputy CFO
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Shawn Lennon, formerly of DLA, has assumed the post of assistant deputy CFO at the Office of the USD Comptroller.

Shawn Lennon, a former Defense Logistics Agency official, has been appointed as assistant deputy chief financial officer at the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense Comptroller. 

Department-Wide Experience

In a LinkedIn announcement last week, OUSDC said the previous experience that Lennon brings to his new role includes the Department of Defense-wide development and implementation of financial policies for compliance with federal accounting rules. He served in the DLA as deputy CFO and director of financial improvement and audit remediation for over three years, according to Lennon’s LinkedIn profile. 

During his DLA tenure, Lennon led in the adoption of innovative approaches to solve the complexities of financial management, OUSDC noted. The office expects that his executive leadership will be vital as its comptroller team pursues the accomplishment of a clean audit opinion by 2028. 

Before his DLA stint, Lennon had served for 10 months as deputy director for revolving funds at the OUSDC/CFO, with a prior 10-month work also as senior budget analyst at the Office of the Secretary of Defense.

US Army Civilian Work

Lennon began his career in government service in 2006 as a budget analyst and later as financial management analyst in the U.S. Army, where he served for over nine years. After a subsequent nine-month work as an accountant at the Defense Secretary’s Office, the Army again took him in as director of working capital fund audit readiness, a role he held for more than four years.

He holds an executive master’s degree in public administration from the Syracuse University’s Maxwell School, as well as a master’s of business administration from the university’s Martin J. Whitman School of Management. He graduated with a bachelor of science degree in entrepreneurship/entrepreneurial studies from Fairleigh Dickinson University.

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NASA Releases RFI for JPL R&D Center Operation, Management Follow-On Contract
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The NASA Office of JPL Management and Oversight issued an RFI for FFRDC JPL operation and management support

The NASA Office of JPL Management and Oversight, NOJMO, has issued a request for information for potential contractors capable of operating and managing the Federally Funded Research and Development Center at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Get the scoop on top space defense priorities from leaders like Gen. Michael Guetlein and Lt. Gen. Heath Collins at the 2025 Air and Space Summit on July 31! Only from Potomac Officers Club, the capital region’s leading GovCon networking organization.

NASA FFRDC Operation & Maintenance Contract Scope

According to the notice posted on SAM.gov Thursday, the contractor will provide project management services to support NASA in advancing research and development capabilities to meet agency needs. The contractor will collaborate with the on-site NOJMO and NASA sponsors to create task plans to facilitate science, research, technology, and mission development and operation of advanced science and exploration concepts and capabilities.

The contract will cover the management of deep space and Earth-orbiting missions and instruments for science and exploratory purposes. The services will include mission concepts, design work, project management, systems engineering and operational support for missions involving deep space communication and navigation, integration of radioisotope power systems, planetary entry, descent and landing, surface mobility, and survival in extreme environments.

The contractor will also support advanced Earth, planetary and astrophysical remote sensing, and space research and technology development. The project will cover the operation of spacecraft sent as orbiters to the Moon or other planetary bodies, robotic landers, rovers and scientific observatories.

Interested parties have until July 18 to submit their responses.

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SEC, USPTO Advance Digital Modernization With Cloud & AI
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SEC and USPTO are moving forward with their digital modernization intiatives

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and the Securities and Exchange Commission are moving forward to the next phase of their digital modernization initiatives, Federal News Network reported Thursday.

The agencies have progressed beyond initial efforts to migrate to the cloud that started five years ago. They are now leveraging cloud services to boost their IT modernization strategy, particularly on initiatives directly impacting their core missions and operational efficiency.

SEC’s Digital Transformation Initiative

According to SEC Chief Information Officer Dave Bottom, the agency prioritizes three key areas for adopting new and enhanced services. It moved its enterprise data warehouse to an enterprise data platform on Amazon Web Services and into Microsoft Office 365 for collaboration and access capabilities.

The SEC also prioritizes using software-as-a-service before building customized software and hosting it on-premises. The commission created a $250 million blanket purchase agreement, awarded to four firms in 2023, for acquiring digital services. The SEC CIO also stressed that the agency depends less on data centers since migrating to the cloud and modernizing its infrastructure.

USPTO’s Cloud Migration Efforts

The USPTO utilizes generative artificial intelligence to modernize its code, resulting in less latency in infrastructure and culture. USPTO CIO Jamie Holcombe said the agency is using AI to refactor old code and translate it for optimal cloud performance. It uses a 30-60-90-day pilot “fail fast” approach, in which the code modernization project will be terminated if there is no progress after 30 days. The GenAI has translated 80 percent of its old code after a 90-day pilot. The remaining 20 percent still require expert review to proceed with optimization.

USPTO developers are also leveraging AI on small code snippets and applying the lessons learned to further code refactoring. They are using GenAI to generate standard, repetitive code structures and identify memory leaks and other issues. The agency is also converting old Oracle stored procedures into Python and other scripting languages to enable the transition to the cloud and leverage cloud-native services like AWS, Google Cloud Platform, or Azure.

In addition, the agency is testing agentic AI for customer service to reduce the need for an answering desk. USPTO also aims to create a “culture of acceptance” with risks, failures and learning.

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Air Force Pilots Test Operating Drones in Aerial Combat
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A Florida-set demonstration by the U.S. Air Force tested the capabilities of a XQ-58A Valkyrie drone recently.

The U.S. Air Force demonstrated the capabilities of the XQ-58A Valkyrie drone in paired human–machine air combat in a recent training exercise at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida. The test involved pilots of an F-16C Fighting Falcon and an F-15E Strike Eagle, who each controlled flying Valkyrie autonomous collaborative platforms, or ACPs, the Air Force Research Laboratory said Thursday.

Air Force Pilots Test Operating Drones in Aerial Combat

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Drone Advantages in Affordability, Flexibility 

AFRL considers the demo as pivotal for integrating ACPs in air combat to lessen pilot workload and enhance situational awareness for mission success. With their semi-autonomous features, ACPs offer affordability and runway flexibility in high-risk environments, the lab noted. The platforms can also serve as force multipliers that enable their operators to retain strategic controls, AFRL added.

Gen. Kenneth Wilsbach, Air Combat Command chief, said the ACP test focuses on U.S. warfighters’ needs in evolving, complex battlefields requiring sharper combat capabilities to maintain air superiority.

“We are committed to innovation and integrating ACPs through these kinds of demanding, operator-driven evaluations that allow us to learn rapidly and enhance our human–machine teams,” the Air Force official stressed.

Companies With Stakes in ACPs 

Kratos Defense & Security Solutions developed the experimental XQ-58A Valkyrie in partnership with AFRL, with an initial test conducted in August 2023. The lab provided the artificial intelligence software to enable the drone to operate alongside manned jetfighters for a variety of missions, such as surveillance and electronic warfare.

In January 2024, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Anduril and General Atomics were also awarded Air Force contracts to design and build a next-generation fleet of unmanned aerial vehicles designed to fly in coordination with crewed platforms.

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Space Systems Command Opens MEO Space Operations Center to Strengthen Missile Tracking
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Space Systems Command's MEO Space Operations Center in Colorado will enable missile defense

The U.S. Space Force’s Space Systems Command has established a new facility for monitoring space-based sensors in medium Earth orbit.

The MEO Space Operations Center, also known as MSOC, is located at the Boulder Ground Innovation Facility, or BGIF, in Colorado and is expected to enhance missile warning and threat response for the joint force, Space Force said.

SSC’s Strategic Missile Warning, Ground and Integration Interim Overhead Persistent Infrared Tools, Applications and Processing Laboratory is also housed at BGIF. 

How Will MSOC Strengthen Missile Defense?

The MSOC will serve a critical role in SSC’s Resilient Missile Warning and Tracking program, which will detect airborne threats.

“The MSOC is the heartbeat of Resilient Missile Warning and Tracking,” according to USSF Col. Ray Imbo, materiel leader for the program’s ground system. “Today’s threats are designed to evade detection across multiple domains, and this system ensures we can track advanced threats, including hypersonic missiles, through all phases of flight.”

Space Systems Command Opens MEO Space Operations Center to Strengthen Missile Tracking

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Imbo added that MSOC will close the capability gaps of the current missile warning enterprise by providing real-time tasking, antenna scheduling and cross-domain data fusion.

SSC’s Missile Warning Program Updates

The Resilient Missile Warning and Tracking program recently moved on to Epoch 2, with BAE Systems receiving a contract valued at $1.2 billion to develop 10 missile-tracking satellites. The company is expected to make the delivery beginning in fiscal 2029. 

Lt. Col. Brandon Castillo, materiel leader for SSC’s Epoch 2 program office, shared that the satellites will strengthen the resilience of the missile warning and tracking satellite architecture and deliver accurate information about threats in real time to decision-makers.

Epoch 1 satellites built by Boeing subsidiary Millennium Space Systems will be launched starting in late 2026.

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