Accenture Federal Services has selected FSS Government Solutions as its 2023 Small Business of the Year, AFS announced from its Arlington, Virginia headquarters on Wednesday.

FSS, a woman-owned information technology and project management consulting firm, is based in Annapolis, Maryland. The company offers project, program and portfolio management and technology and security support as well as financial, training and recruiting services.

John Goodman, CEO of AFS and six-time Wash100 Award winner, said that the company’s “trusted relationship” with FSS has endured for close to 10 years and represents its “steadfast commitment” to partnering with small businesses.

The chance to team with AFS, said FFS President and Owner Mary Fran Ebersole, has been an “incredible opportunity” for the woman-owned small business in its efforts to expand.

FSS Executive Vice President Keith Ebersole echoed these sentiments, emphasizing that AFS has “consistently demonstrated its commitment to supporting small businesses.”

Elaine Beeman, who serves as AFS’ chief leadership officer and leads the company’s civilian portfolio, emphasized FSS’ strong understanding of cloud and Pegasystems, which she said has “been instrumental” to AFS’ work to provide public sector customers with “meaningful innovation.”

“FSS has been pivotal to helping us provide mission-critical systems support for a number of our valued clients, including the Social Security Administration,” said Beeman.

“This partnership demonstrates the best of what’s possible when large and small businesses successfully unite to get the job done. I’m thrilled to recognize FSS with this annual award,” Goodman remarked.

AFS introduced its Small Business of the Year award in 2013 to “show its dedication and appreciation to the small business community across the country.” The recognition is intended to highlight small businesses that exhibit impressive program management skills.

BWX Technologies has been chosen under a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency program to provide its reactor and fuels for the first demonstration spacecraft that uses nuclear thermal propulsion.

The company’s subsidiary, BWXT Advanced Technologies, will collaborate with team lead Lockheed Martin to finalize and deliver the fueled nuclear reactor for the Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Operations, BWXT announced from its Lynchburg, Virginia headquarters on Wednesday.

BWXT Advanced Technologies President Joe Miller said that this selection reflects the organization’s ability to design and deploy nuclear reactors and fuel at an “unmatched” scale.

“This partnership with Lockheed Martin working for DARPA adds another important dimension to BWXT’s already-impressive line-up of nuclear reactor designs for commercial and defense applications,” he added.

As a collaborator, BWXT will support the launch of the DRACO spacecraft, which DARPA has planned for 2027. DRACO is designed to launch from earth by a conventional rocket with the reactor turned off, aligning with launch safety protocols. Once launched, the reactor will be powered on.

With the reactor’s propulsion-enabling energy, DRACO will be equipped to navigate through space at high speeds with agility over lengthy periods of time. The technology uses High Assay Low Enriched Uranium fuel to quickly heat super-cold gasses — such as liquid hydrogen — for safety and reliability. This process causes a quick expansion of the gas, creating thrust to propel the spacecraft more efficiently than chemical combustion engines.

“These more powerful and efficient nuclear thermal propulsion systems can provide faster transit times between destinations. Reducing transit time is vital for human missions to Mars to limit a crew’s exposure to radiation,” said Kirk Shireman, vice president of lunar exploration campaigns at Lockheed Martin Space.

Shireman said that the system is a “prime technology” to take humans and materials to the moon.

“A safe, reusable nuclear tug spacecraft would revolutionize cislunar operations,” he added.

The team will carry out the work primarily at BWXT’s Mt. Athos Road complex located near its Lynchburg headquarters.

The Defense Logistics Agency is developing a new strategy to protect U.S. troops and federal partners against disruptions caused by security vulnerabilities in the Department of Defense supply chain.

DLA said Monday it is developing and refining protective measures covering DLA systems and data; suppliers with access to controlled unclassified information, export control data and other DLA data; critical supplier operations; and other suppliers and systems involved in the DOD supply chain, DLA said Monday.

Peter Battaglia, director of DLA Logistics Operations’ Mission Assurance Directorate, said additional measures are needed to safeguard DLA’s technical quality data shared with defense suppliers.

“Say we’re providing our logistics data to one of the contract service suppliers that we operate with. We’re determining measures we can take to ensure they’re not going to lose our data, be it through malicious data breaches or inappropriate internal management,” he said.

The forthcoming strategy will also cover behavior-based security monitoring and cybersecurity expectations for suppliers that provide fuel and other critical items to the U.S. military.

Battaglia expects the strategy to be shared with major subordinate commands for feedback later this year.