Leidos to Build New Manufacturing Facility in South Carolina; Jim Moos Quoted
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Leidos to Build New Manufacturing Facility in South Carolina; Jim Moos Quoted

Leidos is preparing to establish a new security systems manufacturing plant in North Charleston, South Carolina.

The $31.7 million, 150,000 square foot facility will mark Leidos’ third security systems manufacturing site in the United States and is expected to create up to 170 jobs, the Reston, Virginia-based enterprise announced on Thursday.

“This facility brings more manufacturing back into the U.S. and expands Leidos’ global security capabilities for the aviation and critical infrastructure markets. We’re thrilled to expand into the North Charleston area and look forward to making a positive impact in the community,” said Leidos Civil Group President Jim Moos.

Once completed, the installation will produce security systems to support the company’s Security Enterprise Solutions project, which includes a suite of entirely automated and integrated offerings for aviation, shipping ports, border crossings and critical infrastructure clients. SES systems detect threats by screening baggage, cargo and people at global checkpoints.

Designed to maximize production efficiency, quality and safety using manufacturing best practices, the new facility will allow Leidos to onshore more manufacturing and grow its critical capacity as its customer base expands. It will be located in Ladson Industrial Park and is planned to be fully operational by the first half of 2024.

“Leidos’ $31.7 million investment in their new facility here in the Lowcountry will lead to significant job growth and economic development,” said Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C.

“We congratulate them on their expanding operation and thank them for putting their faith in South Carolina,” she added.

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Accenture Federal Books $98M DHA Contract to Support Medical Common Operating Picture Platform; Kevin Heald Quoted
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Accenture Federal Books $98M DHA Contract to Support Medical Common Operating Picture Platform; Kevin Heald Quoted

Accenture’s public sector business has received a five-year, $98 million contract from the Defense Health Agency to support the Joint Medical Common Operating Picture.

Under the award, Accenture Federal Services will operate and improve the platform, which offers medical command and control situational awareness to the Department of Defense, combatant commands and the Armed Services, the Arlington, Virginia-based subsidiary announced on Thursday.

Kevin Heald, a managing director and national security portfolio lead at AFS, shared that a common operating picture is “arguably one of the most effective tools in creating a shared understanding of the battlespace.”

“Accenture Federal Services is honored to be tapped to lead data synchronization across multiple network domains and deliver near real-time collaboration and information sharing globally inside and outside the medical community,” said Heald.

The organization’s contracted responsibilities encompass cloud, cybersecurity, DevSecOps, agile software development, field service engineering, user adoption and training assistance across the military services.

“Accenture Federal Services is proud to partner with the Program Executive Office, Defense Healthcare Management Systems to optimize this mission-critical platform,” said Chris Van Berkel, an AFS managing director and military health lead.

“We look forward to providing a comprehensive picture into DoD medical assets and missions to increase visibility into unit health, equipment, and supplies and enable faster and more informed decision making,” he added.

This contract win follows a $24 million DHA award issued to AFS in May, under which the enterprise is also working on the MedCOP initiative by providing enterprise-wide, real-time medical situational information and driving collaboration between medical professionals.

Late last year, AFS received an additional health-related contract from the National Cancer Institute to provide an array of software engineering and information technology services in support of scientific, grants management and business applications and NCI clients.

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Lloyd Austin OKs Findings, Recommendations From DOD Security Review
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Lloyd Austin OKs Findings, Recommendations From DOD Security Review

Lloyd Austin, secretary of the Department of Defense and a 2023 Wash100 inductee, has concluded his assessment of findings and recommendations of a 45-day review of DOD’s security programs, procedures and policies across the areas of education and training, personnel security, physical security and information safeguarding and accountability.

The review showed that majority of DOD staff with access to classified national security information comply with security processes and acknowledge the significance of information security to meet the department’s missions and maintain national security, DOD said Wednesday.

Austin also released guidance on measures that DOD senior leaders should take in the near- and medium-term to improve accountability and protect CNSI from being compromised.

These include reinforcing existing security policies and practices to ensure compliance and accountability down to the department’s lowest levels; expanding the use of existing technical tools and systems to improve security clearance processes; and examining opportunities to tailor training, education and policies to better address current and evolving security needs.

The review was carried out by the undersecretary of defense for intelligence and security in collaboration with DOD’s chief information officer and the director of administration and management.

The Pentagon chief issued a list of follow-on actions that DOD component heads should implement to help ensure collective and individual accountability for CNSI, including the release of a plan of action and milestones ensuring all department personnel are included in designated security information technology systems by Aug. 31.

BARDA Posts Solicitation for Medical Countermeasure Other Transaction Prize Vehicle
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BARDA Posts Solicitation for Medical Countermeasure Other Transaction Prize Vehicle

The Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority within the Department of Health and Human Services has released a call for submissions for an other transaction prize vehicle to advance research and development of medical countermeasure technology in support of its Strategic Plan for 2022 to 2026.

BARDA is looking to partner with an organization to design, promote and administer prize competitions that aim to address health security problems, diversify the MCM research and development industry and develop technologies for future applications, according to a notice posted Friday on SAM.gov.

The selected organization will work with the government and other stakeholders to create incentive prize competitions, provide outreach to eligible participant communities and coordinate the awarding of cash prizes and other rewards to participants.

The Prize Vehicle will support national initiatives such as the National Biodefense Strategy and Implementation Plan and Project NextGen.

Interested parties have until July 31 to respond to the solicitation.

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CISA Pursuing Partnership, Launches Webpage for CyberSentry Program
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CISA Pursuing Partnership, Launches Webpage for CyberSentry Program

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency is pursuing vendors to help protect the national critical functions through CyberSentry, a public-private threat monitoring and detection program for U.S. critical infrastructure.

In a blog post published Thursday, Jermaine Roebuck, associate director for threat hunting at CISA, introduced a webpage for the program meant to integrate agency IT defense operations with that owned by industry partners.

The Biden administration requested $48.2 million in its 2024 budget for CyberSentry. Ever since the program began, it has been able to detect infection on human-machine interface equipment and unintentional exposure of partners’ networks to threats.

CISA was able to use CyberSentry for information sharing and adverse activity monitoring in situations such as the ransomware attack on the Colonial Pipeline, the largest refined oil system in the country. The threat detection tool was also used in warning partners who were impacted by the SolarWinds supply chain disruption.

The agency is committed to enlisting more partners to identify and track threat activity in healthcare, energy, banking, utilities, public safety and other NCFs.

Interested organizations may contact CISA’s CyberSentry Program Management Office.

Farooq Mitha: DOD’s Small Business Programs Office to Maximize Funding to Revive Initiatives
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Farooq Mitha: DOD’s Small Business Programs Office to Maximize Funding to Revive Initiatives

The Department of Defense Office of Small Business Programs will strengthen financial support of its projects, including the Rapid Innovation Fund and Project Spectrum, Farooq Mitha, director of the DOD’s Office of Small Business Programs, said in an interview with Forbes magazine, published Thursday.

Mitha discussed the unit’s small business strategy for 2023, as well as other opportunities and resources that small enterprises can use to grab a share of the defense contracting market.

DOD created a small business office in each service and branch within the agency, which exceeds 25 divisions. Mitha said that OSBP is working to make it easier for companies to communicate and partner with those branches.

The office established the business.defense.gov website, which integrates SB industry and government entities for information sharing and acquisition opportunities.

This year, OSBP will ramp up activities of the Rapid Innovation Fund to increase the commercialization rate of technologies or prototypes developed from DOD’s small business contracts, Mitha explained. The program had a 60 percent commercialization rate for eight years before it stopped receiving funding in 2019, and OSBP intends to revive it by taking advantage of the budget earmarked by the Biden administration.

Under his leadership, Project Spectrum will also become a one-stop cybersecurity shop for SBs, helping them protect intellectual property and sensitive government data.

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Artemis II SLS Mission Flight Software Passes 1st Phase of Qualification Testing
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Artemis II SLS Mission Flight Software Passes 1st Phase of Qualification Testing

NASA software engineers have so far completed 58,000 test cases as part of formal qualification of the flight software to be used on the Artemis II Space Launch System.

Formal qualification testing is being conducted at the Marshall Space Flight Center’s Software Development Facility in Huntsville, Alabama, NASA said Tuesday.

Test cases involve simulations of normal and off-nominal scenarios on the SLS rocket and its surrounding environment. The SDF team performed 58,000 cases, which are part of 179 test procedures, over a two-week period to make sure that the software met flight requirements.

The next and final phase of trials will begin in July, while integrated system testing of the SLS software and avionics hardware will commence in the fall.

“The SLS flight software team integrated operational improvements and new test scenarios in preparation for Artemis II based on lessons learned from the successful launch of Artemis I in November 2022,” said Dan Mitchell, NASA’s lead engineer for the SLS integrated avionics and software.

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Defense Acquisition University Upskills DOD Workforce on AI & Data Analytics
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Defense Acquisition University Upskills DOD Workforce on AI & Data Analytics

The Defense Acquisition University is looking to upskill over 3,000 military and civilian professionals on artificial intelligence and data analytics to support the Department of Defense’s technology acquisition initiatives, Federal News Network reported Tuesday.

David Pearson, director of the DAU’s Engineering and Technology Center, said the university is working to tailor its data and AI skills training courses to an acquisition professional’s specific role and career trajectory.

“The emerging technology that’s going to be driving the performance of our defense systems that we send out to the field increasingly rely upon those who have the technical skills to properly manage and acquire them in the future,” Pearson said.

DAU is partnering with online course provider Coursera to offer training courses to defense acquisition workforce members from top universities and industry leaders.

The university is also adding DOD-specific context to its commercial training courses and is collaborating with the Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office to address the future skills requirements of the Pentagon’s acquisition workforce.

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Hughes Delivers Jupiter 3 Communications Satellite to Cape Canaveral
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Hughes Delivers Jupiter 3 Communications Satellite to Cape Canaveral

Hughes Network Systems has shipped Jupiter 3, an ultra-high-density communications satellite manufactured by Maxar Technologies, to Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida in preparation for its launch on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket.

Dubbed EchoStar XXIV, the Ka-band spacecraft is set to deploy to the geostationary orbit and expand Hughes’ high-speed internet plans across the Americas region, the company said Friday.

Upon deployment, Jupiter 3 will provide HughesNet Fusion internet services that deliver more capacity than traditional broadband satellites to customers in the U.S. and Latin America.

“Doubling the capacity of our satellite fleet with an additional 500 Gbps, JUPITER 3 will enable us to serve more customers, especially where cable and fiber can’t, so they can do everything they want—including work at home, study online, play games, engage in their communities, and stay in touch with family and friends,” said Hamid Akhavan, CEO of Hughes’ parent company EchoStar.

The satellite will also support enterprise networking, in-flight Wi-Fi and cellular backhaul for mobile network operators.

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Former White House Staffer Christian Tom Named Office of Digital Strategy Director
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Former White House Staffer Christian Tom Named Office of Digital Strategy Director

Christian Tom, former special assistant to the president and deputy director of digital strategy, has been appointed head of the White House’s Office of Digital Strategy.

Tom will also serve as an assistant to the president and oversee the Biden administration’s online communications with digital influencers and creators and overall digital strategy.

“Christian is an innovator. He helped develop a first-of-its-kind digital strategy in 2020 — one that has continued to be a key part of this Administration’s approach to reach Americans in new, creative, and authentic ways,” Biden said in a statement published Friday.

Tom previously worked as head of digital partnerships during Biden’s presidential campaign and digital director of the presidential inaugural committee.

He worked at the White House from Jan. 2021 until his resignation in Aug. 2022 to join the digital governance organization McCourt Institute as head of Americas.

Biden also tapped Patrick Stevenson to serve as deputy assistant to the president and senior digital strategy adviser and Tericka Lambert as deputy assistant to the president and deputy director of digital strategy.

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