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EXPANSIA Awarded $900M Air Force Contract for Multi-Domain Systems Innovation; Adam “AJ” Jarnagin Quoted
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EXPANSIA Awarded $900M Air Force Contract for Multi-Domain Systems Innovation; Adam “AJ” Jarnagin Quoted

Technology consulting firm EXPANSIA has landed a multiple-award, 10-year contract with a ceiling of $900 million from the U.S. Air Force alongside several other companies.

Under the indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract, EXPANSIA will be responsible for devising new approaches to equip multi-domain systems with capabilities necessary for rapid prototyping, testing and capability transition, the Nashua, New Hampshire-based company announced on Monday.

“We are laser-focused on developing solutions and enhancing the Air Force capabilities through bold innovation in the Air, Space, and Cyber, and ultimately all domains in an integrated, Joint strategy with the other DoD services like the Army and the Navy, and the U.S. Marine Corps,” said Adam “AJ” Jarnagin, CEO and founding partner of EXPANSIA.

The contract’s performance location will be determined at the direct order level. It is expected to run through December 2032.

“We are deeply honored to play a pivotal role in this strategic initiative, which will directly improve USAF mission readiness,” Jarnagin stated.

Earlier this year, EXPANSIA won a contract from the Air Force Rapid Sustainment Office to develop, integrate, test and evaluate the prototype for the AGORA Digital Marketplace for Advanced Manufacturing, a web-hosted platform designed to hold a centralized repository of data and processes to enhance Air Force mission readiness.

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DARPA, USGS Name Winners of Mineral Assessment Competition; Stefanie Tompkins, David Applegate Quoted
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DARPA, USGS Name Winners of Mineral Assessment Competition; Stefanie Tompkins, David Applegate Quoted

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the U.S. Geological Survey have announced the winners of a competition that examines technology platforms that use artificial intelligence and machine learning to help USGS automate the process of evaluating geologic maps of mineral deposits that are critical to the U.S. economy and national security.

The AI for Critical Mineral Assessment Competition launched in August comes with the Map Georeferencing Challenge and the Map Feature Extraction Challenge, DARPA said Friday.

DARPA and USGS worked with MITRE and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory to evaluate submissions of 18 teams from industry and academia.

Canada-based Unchartered landed the top spot in the Map Georeferencing Challenge. Jataware was awarded the second prize, and Team Ptolemy, which includes members from MIT, Pennsylvania State University and the University of Arizona, secured the third place.

A team from University of Southern California Information Sciences Institute and University of Minnesota received the top prize in the Map Feature Extraction Challenge. Team ICM from the University of Illinois and Unchartered took second and third places, respectively, in the challenge.

“Critical minerals are essential to the national security supply chain, and as such, the agency is approaching the need from multiple angles,” said Stefanie Tompkins, director of DARPA and a 2022 Wash100 awardee.

Tompkins added the agency’s collaboration with USGS focuses on the identification of existing domestic resources.

USGS Director David Applegate said the competition has provided an opportunity to work with AI experts and improve its approach to assessing critical mineral resources.

“It has already led to incredible time savings in how we prepare data in a machine-readable format,” Applegate added.

POC - 4th Annual Artificial Intelligence Summit

The Potomac Officers Club will hold the 4th Annual Artificial Intelligence Summit on Feb. 16. Click here to register for the in-person event at Hilton McLean.

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IARPA to Discuss Analytics Intelligence Program With Industry
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IARPA to Discuss Analytics Intelligence Program With Industry

The Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity will host a Proposers’ Day on Jan. 11 to explain the objectives and technical requirements of a new effort to facilitate artificial intelligence-based evidence analysis.

IARPA said Wednesday the Rapid Explanation, Analysis and Sourcing Online program aims to help intelligence analysts overcome data uncertainty and conflicts as they work on national security problems.

The agency plans to enlist industry to develop systems that will enable the automatic generation of feedback and improve analytical reasoning in critical government reports.

A resulting platform is intended to help intelligence analysts ensure they submit accurate and clear reports to the White House and policymakers in a timely manner.

IARPA to Discuss Analytics Intelligence Program With Industry

If you’re interested in AI advancements and programs across the government, sign up for the Potomac Officers Club’s 4th Annual Artificial Intelligence Summit, an in-person event that will feature DOD Chief Digital and AI Officer Craig Martell as the opening keynote speaker.

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15th FITARA Scorecard Launches With New Category for Federal Cybersecurity Progress; Chris DeRusha Quoted
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15th FITARA Scorecard Launches With New Category for Federal Cybersecurity Progress; Chris DeRusha Quoted

The 15th iteration of the Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act scorecard launches with a new category that evaluates agencies’ progress in cybersecurity and shows that the General Services Administration was the only agency to reach a grade of at least 90 percent in the FITARA scorecard’s new cybersecurity category, Federal News Network reported Thursday.

According to FNN, 14 agencies scored above 80 percent. The departments of Justice and Health and Human Services recorded 88 percent each, while the Department of Education received a grade of 87 percent.

The Department of the Interior got the lowest score at 68 percent.

Chris DeRusha, federal chief information security officer and a previous Wash100 awardee, told the House Oversight and Reform Committee’s government operations subpanel that the Office of Management and Budget on Wednesday unveiled cyber metrics on the Performance.gov site.

“The metrics that we put up and performance.gov yesterday are a good representative sample where we’ve been focused in [cyber] executive order implementation,” he told the subcommittee during a hearing Thursday.

DeRusha cited as an example the metrics’ protect category, which he said focuses on four factors including smart patching, multifactor authentication and encryption.

“For us, we’ve been really focused on ensuring that we’re putting the most attention and understanding where there may be gaps in implementation, and opportunities for new policy interventions,” he added.

The U.S. Agency for International Development is the only agency that received an A rating in the scorecard, according to the report.

Seven agencies showed improvement in their letter grades, while 17 agencies maintained their scores. None of the 24 agencies received a D or an F grade.

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GAO: Federal R&D Obligations Rose by 30% Between FY 2012 and FY 2021
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GAO: Federal R&D Obligations Rose by 30% Between FY 2012 and FY 2021

The Government Accountability Office analyzed the National Science Foundation’s data on federal agencies’ annual research and development spending and found that federal R&D obligations increased by about 30 percent from $138.5 billion in fiscal year 2012 to approximately $179.5 billion in FY 2021.

The departments of Defense and Health and Human Services accounted for 77 percent of the total R&D funding in FY 2021, GAO said in a report published Thursday.

According to the report, the COVID-19 stimulus funding has made HHS a major funder of development efforts with development initiatives accounting for nearly 40 percent of the department’s R&D spending in FY 2021.

In FY 2021, industry and academic institutions received almost $90 billion in external R&D obligations.

The GAO report also provided details on program areas, participating agencies and funding levels of four multiagency initiatives that were organized to coordinate R&D investments in the areas of nanotechnology, networking and information technology, quantum information science and global change research.

“Funding for these initiatives increased over the previous decade, and accounted for roughly $14 billion in fiscal year 2020, just under 9 percent of the total federal R&D budget,” the report reads.

DIA CIO Doug Cossa Discusses Efforts to Expand Allies’ Access to Top-Secret Information
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DIA CIO Doug Cossa Discusses Efforts to Expand Allies’ Access to Top-Secret Information

Doug Cossa, chief information officer of the Defense Intelligence Agency, revealed that the agency is leading an effort to build a simplified but secure digital network to facilitate the sharing of top-secret information with foreign intelligence authorities, Government Executive reported Thursday.

In his keynote speech at the Department of Defense Intelligence Information System Worldwide Conference, Cossa discussed ongoing collaborations with other relevant agencies to update and implement IT systems to achieve the so-called capability delivery pipeline.

“It has become commonplace where we develop everything in a no-foreign environment, and that model needs to flip,” Cossa said. “The capability delivery pipeline that we’re developing in DIA is that one front door, that one shared environment to where we can overlay those standards for cybersecurity, for interconnectivity across agencies, across the community, across the IC and DOD and across our federal partners.”

DIA plans to modernize the top-secret Joint Worldwide Intelligence Communications System by securing it with zero-trust architecture and adding autonomous features. It will also expand Torch, a collaborative tool with e-mail, chat and search functions as well as data warehouses for the Five Eyes, an alliance composed of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the U.K. and the U.S. Cossa intends to open its access to more international partners outside the group.

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Raytheon Showcases FlexLink Open-System Radio Technology in Project Convergence Demonstration; Phil Jasper Quoted
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Raytheon Showcases FlexLink Open-System Radio Technology in Project Convergence Demonstration; Phil Jasper Quoted

A Raytheon Technologies business has demonstrated FlexLink Adaptive Connectivity Solution, an open-system radio technology aimed at furthering the Department of Defense’s Joint All Domain Command and Control objectives.

During the U.S. Army’s Project Convergence exercise, Collins Aerospace‘s FlexLink showed success in connecting defense networks and simplifying U.S. Army interoperability and cross-platform communication, the Arlington, Virginia-based organization announced on Thursday.

“Providing resilient communications across networks is key for reducing decision-making time and supporting effective operations in any highly contested environment,” said Phil Jasper, president of mission systems for Collins Aerospace.

In conducting the test, FlexLink was installed on Army UH-60M helicopters and was able to create a joint command and control network at distances of over 200 nautical miles. The presentation connected four joint service and coalition networks, all of which operate at different security levels using a multi-level security cross domain solution to enable integrated communication across the battlespace.

“We demonstrated that our ready-now open systems radio can be integrated with existing platforms,” Jasper stated.

The technology is the first open-systems radio prototype to be integrated into Army platforms and was designed with modular, open systems architecture to ensure that capabilities may be added or updated efficiently and cost effectively.

FlexLink is said to provide resilient network connectivity and assured positioning, navigation and timing to connect the battlespace across numerous DOD communication networks including advanced tactical datalinks, legacy narrowband line-of-site, both wideband and narrowband SATCOM, high frequency, commercial mesh networking waveforms and new directional line-of-site resilient capabilities.

The demonstration marks a milestone in the Army’s Project Convergence initiative, which is the branch’s portion of the DOD JADC2 strategy. 

Two other Raytheon Technologies businesses, Raytheon Intelligence & Space and Raytheon Missiles & Defense, participated in Project Convergence exercises alongside Collins Aerospace. Capabilities demonstrated by the group include intelligent gateway technologies, zero trust cybersecurity offerings and the improved Multi-Functional Lightweight Command Launch Unit.

Raytheon has participated in a number of recent efforts to support the JADC2 program. In August, the company reached initial operating capability for an updated beyond line-of-sight communications system designed to provide secure data sharing technology to the Air Force.

Earlier this week, the branch selected Raytheon Intelligence & Space to develop a Common Tactical Edge Network to bolster its advanced battle management system. CTEN will allow operators to enable distributable battle management command and control in contested environments, which aligns with DOD goals for JADC2.

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GSA, USSOCOM Issue RFI for Enterprise Development, Application & Training Service Requirement
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GSA, USSOCOM Issue RFI for Enterprise Development, Application & Training Service Requirement

The General Services Administration and U.S. Special Operations Command have started soliciting industry feedback to help inform the development of an acquisition strategy for a contract that USSOCOM can use to procure enterprisewide information technology platforms and services.

GSA and USSOCOM expect to award a potential 10-year, $500 million contract in support of the command’s Enterprise Development, Application and Training service delivery environment, which is composed of integrated IT systems designed to integrate applications, information and processes throughout the command’s operations worldwide and across the Department of Defense’s organizational boundaries, according to a notice published Wednesday.

According to the statement of objectives, USSOCOM wants an umbrella contract that would support project requirement documents for services at global sites and back the implementation of new technology projects and development of enterprise architecture products.

Through the contract, USSOCOM plans to acquire data science and IT-related training assistance and services to come up with a “new technology pipeline” and support the development and maintenance of applications and databases on the cloud, containerized environment, mobile and other platforms to meet network standards.

Interested stakeholders could share their insights on a list of statements and questions, including plans to restrict the competition to 8(a) companies and potential impact of cybersecurity and supply chain risk management on the requirement.

Responses to the RFI are due Dec. 21.

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Jay Bonci: Air Force Looks at DOD’s Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability Contract
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Jay Bonci: Air Force Looks at DOD’s Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability Contract

Jay Bonci, chief technology officer at the Department of the Air Force, said the department is looking at the recently awarded Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability contract and what it could mean for its cloud adoption efforts as it aims to become “a cloud-first place” in the near future, Defense News reported Thursday.

Bonci cited JWCC saying the department has “some feelers out now to understand how they want to administer it, being IDIQ-based versus, sort of, reseller-based.”

On Dec. 7, the Pentagon awarded Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, Google and Oracle spots on the potential $9 billion JWCC indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract, which will help facilitate the procurement of enterprisewide cloud service offerings across all classification levels and security domains.

Bonci shared his thoughts on the Cloud One platform and its successor, Cloud One Next, and noted that the department is examining a couple of economic models as it continues to scale and bring more applications to the cloud.

“Really, the focus is going to be on adoption,” he added.

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HII Mission Technologies’ Jerome Thomas Talks Navigating Change With Potomac Officers Club
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HII Mission Technologies’ Jerome Thomas Talks Navigating Change With Potomac Officers Club

In the government contracting landscape, policies, technologies, capabilities and missions are constantly evolving. To succeed in GovCon, executives within the market must not only embrace this state of flux, but harness it to drive innovation and differentiation in an increasingly competitive environment.

The Potomac Officers Club recently spoke with Jerome Thomas, general manager and director of programs at HII Mission Technologies, who highlighted the importance of finding solid footing in an ever-changing world. 

This excerpt from his Executive Spotlight interview sheds light on some of the tactics and approaches Thomas uses to overcome GovCon challenges:

“According to Heraclitus, ‘The only thing that is constant is change.’ Over the course of my career, I have been faced with constantly changing challenges in technology, requirements, contracts, designs, resources, funding, work scopes and schedules that have all become the usual. I have found that embracing change and forming teams and alliances are key to overcoming those challenges. In these situations is where true innovation and problem-solving occur to complete the mission and deliver a quality product to our federal customers.”

Read Jerome Thomas’ full Executive Spotlight interview here to find out which executives have inspired him most throughout his career.

Do you want to be featured in an Executive Spotlight interview? Check out the Potomac Officers Club’s membership options and benefits here.

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