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AFRL Details Funding Opportunity for Aeroscience Collaborative R&D
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AFRL Details Funding Opportunity for Aeroscience Collaborative R&D

The Air Force Research Laboratory has issued a broad agency announcement on a funding opportunity worth potentially $31.5 million to pursue aerospace system advancement.

An updated BAA posted Thursday on SAM.gov calls for interested parties to submit proposals for the Aeroscience Collaborative Research and Development program through Jan. 16.

The ACoRD program will involve efforts to transfer ideas, methods, tools and processes from the basic research and applications communities to the military laboratory environment; evaluate the performance of technologies; quantify integrated systems; and bring new platforms with accompanying analysis, modeling and simulation and experimental data to both commercial industry and the warfighter.

AFRL expects to issue a cost-plus-fixed-fee contract with an estimated base value of $17.5 million and two options totaling a combined $14 million.

Legislative Leaders Name Members of National Security Commission on Emerging Biotechnology
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Legislative Leaders Name Members of National Security Commission on Emerging Biotechnology

Leaders of the Senate and House Armed Services Committees have unveiled the full list of members appointed to serve on an intergovernmental panel tasked with providing recommendations related to advances in emerging biotechnology.

Jason Kelly, co-founder and CEO of Boston, Massachusetts-headquartered biotechnology company Ginkgo Bioworks, and Michelle Rozo, former director for technology and national security on the National Security Council, were respectively named chair and vice chair of the National Security Commission on Emerging Biotechnology, the HASC said Friday. 

The 12-member national security commission was established in the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2022 to review the impact of biotechnology and associated technologies on the Department of Defense’s current and future activities.

In addition to Kelly and Rozo, the appointed commissioners are: 

  • Paul Arcangeli, a former staff director for the HASC
  • Rep. Stephanie Bice, R-Okla.
  • Angela Belcher, head of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Department of Biological Engineering
  • Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif.
  • Dawn Meyerriecks, former deputy director of CIA for science and technology
  • Sen. Jose Padilla, D-Calif.
  • Eric Schmidt, former CEO of Google and chairman of the Defense Innovation Board
  • Alexander Titus, former assistant director for biotechnology at the Office of Under Secretary of Defense Research and Engineering
  • Sen. Todd Young, R-Ind.
  • Dov Zakheim, former undersecretary of defense and chief financial officer for the Department of Defense

The NDAA requires the commission to submit an interim report to Congress within one year of its establishment and provide final recommendations within two years.

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NATO’s Jens Stoltenberg: Ukraine Needs Long-Term Military Support
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NATO’s Jens Stoltenberg: Ukraine Needs Long-Term Military Support

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg advised Western countries to offer long-term support to Ukraine amid Russia’s unrelenting campaign against the Eastern European country, BBC News reported Monday.

“We need to provide support to Ukraine now, including military support, because that’s the only way to convince Russia that they have to sit down and negotiate in good faith and respect Ukraine as a sovereign independent nation in Europe,” Stoltenberg said.

“…What Ukraine can achieve around that table is totally dependent on the strength on the battlefield,” he added.

Stoltenberg told BBC Radio 4 that the partial mobilization initiative ordered by Russia in September “indicates that they are prepared to continue the war and also try to potentially launch a new offensive.”

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Omnibus Spending Bill Allocates $1.8B in Funding for VA EHR Deployment
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Omnibus Spending Bill Allocates $1.8B in Funding for VA EHR Deployment

The Department of Veterans Affairs will receive $1.8 billion in funding under the $1.7 trillion omnibus spending bill to support the rollout of its electronic health record system to facilities across the country in 2023, Nextgov reported Friday.

The Consolidated Appropriations Act, which President Biden signed into law Thursday, allows the continued deployment of the Cerner-designed EHR system at VA-run facilities.

VA is moving forward with the EHR deployment despite reported system outages, concerns about patient safety risks and cost overruns.

In early December, VA issued a presolicitation notice on a potential single-award contract to provide training and administrative space to support the department’s EHR modernization effort at the John J. Pershing VA Medical Center.

The draft solicitation was released less than two months after VA awarded Cerner a pair of task orders worth $956 million combined to continue to roll out the EHR system.

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NASA, HAARP Explore Asteroid’s Interior Through Experiment
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NASA, HAARP Explore Asteroid’s Interior Through Experiment

NASA and the High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program have completed an experiment aimed at understanding the interior of an asteroid in hopes of supporting efforts to develop a potential defense against near-Earth objects that could pose a risk to Earth.

During the study, HAARP transmitted long wavelength radio signals into space that bounced off the surface of 2010 XC15, the asteroid that passes by Earth at two lunar distances and is estimated to be about 500 feet across, the Geophysical Institute at the University of Alaska Fairbanks said Thursday.

“We will be analyzing the data over the next few weeks and hope to publish the results in the coming months,” said Mark Haynes, lead investigator on the project and a radar systems engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

“This shows the value of HAARP as a potential future research tool for the study of near-Earth objects,” Haynes added.

The Soccorro-adjacent University of New Mexico Long Wavelength Array and the Bishop, California-adjacent Owens Valley Radio Observatory Long Wavelength Array also participated in the experiment.

The University of Alaska Fairbanks is responsible for operating HAARP through an agreement with the U.S. Air Force.

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House Lawmakers Urge Senate to Ensure Regular Order by Passing Version of NDAA
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House Lawmakers Urge Senate to Ensure Regular Order by Passing Version of NDAA

U.S. House of Representatives Congressmen Jared Golden, D-Maine, and Don Bacon, R-Neb., said the Senate should complete its duties and be serious in ensuring national security by considering and passing its version of the National Defense Authorization Act.

Although the fiscal year 2023 NDAA was signed into law in December, the upper chamber did not advance a “fair and transparent process with the House” by failing to pass its version of the defense policy bill for the second consecutive year, Golden and Bacon wrote in an opinion piece published Monday on The Hill.

“Without a Senate-passed bill, members of the Senate and House are not appointed as conferees, leaving the bill to be negotiated exclusively by leadership and select staff behind closed doors,” they wrote.

“This procedure also manufactures an 11th-hour authorization for all funding and programs for our entire national security apparatus. It is irresponsible for Congress to wait until the last possible moment to provide for the common defense,” the lawmakers added.

Bacon and Golden, who serve as co-chairs of the For Country Caucus, said the Senate should pass the defense authorization measure on time and ensure regular order to enable the Department of Defense to better counter the threats posed by China and Russia and offer certainty to military personnel and their families.

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PV Puvvada, NetImpact CEO, Talks Top GovCon Tech Trends in Q&A
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PV Puvvada, NetImpact CEO, Talks Top GovCon Tech Trends in Q&A

NetImpact CEO and six-time Wash100 Award winner PV Puvvada recently participated in an interview with GovCon Wire, during which he discussed a variety of technology trends currently influencing the federal landscape.

The Q&A, which was published on Tuesday, tackled cloud migration, the importance of digital dexterity and emerging technologies.

Here is an excerpt from the interview with Puvvada:

“At its heart, the concept of digital dexterity is the ability of organizations such as government agencies — and more importantly its workforce — to be able to be more effective in using digital tools. This digitally dexterous state could enable employees to be more collaborative and be more analytical in the way they approach their work especially by unlocking the use of the data that is underlying all their processes. Digital dexterity unleashes employees’ creativity rather than frustrations.”

Visit GovCon Wire to read the full conversation with PV Puvvada.

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Lockheed Martin Finalizes $30B Contract for F-35 Aircraft Delivery with DOD; Bridget Lauderdale Quoted
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Lockheed Martin Finalizes $30B Contract for F-35 Aircraft Delivery with DOD; Bridget Lauderdale Quoted

Lockheed Martin and the F-35 Joint Program Office have finalized a $30 billion contract for the production and delivery of up to 398 F-35 aircraft.

The contract includes the U.S., its international partners and Foreign Military Sales aircraft in Lots 15 and 16, with the option for Lot 17, Lockheed Martin announced from Arlington, Virginia last week.

“Continuing to add new countries to our global F-35 fleet further validates the capability and affordability of this aircraft in providing 21st Century Security to nations and allies,” emphasized Bridget Lauderdale, vice president and general manager of Lockheed Martin’s F-35 program.

Under the award, Lockheed Martin will provide 145 aircraft for Lot 15, 127 for Lot 16 and up to 126 for the Lot 17 option, which includes the first F-35 aircraft for Belgium, Finland and Poland.

These aircraft will be the first to contain Technical Refresh-3, a modernized hardware necessary for utilizing Block 4 capabilities. The technology is equipped with a novel integrated core processor with strong computing power, a panoramic cockpit display and an improved memory unit.

Aircraft provided under the agreement will expand the global F-35 fleet, which reached 894 vessels following 141 deliveries in 2022. 

In the same year, Finland, Germany and Switzerland signed Letters of Offer and Acceptance to progress their procurement of F-35 aircraft.

“The F-35 is the world’s premier multi-mission, 5th-generation weapon system, and the modernized Block 4 capabilities these new aircraft will bring to bear strengthens not just capability, but interoperability with our allies and partners across land, sea, air and cyber domains,” said U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. Mike Schmidt, program executive officer of the F-35 Joint Program Office.

With participants across 17 countries, the F-35 program has trained nearly 2,000 pilots and more than 13,000 maintenance personnel. The fleet holds a total flight time of over 602,000 cumulative hours.

Lockheed Martin Finalizes $30B Contract for F-35 Aircraft Delivery with DOD; Bridget Lauderdale Quoted

Lockheed Martin is sponsoring GovCon Wire’s 2023 Space Acquisition Forum, which will bring experts in the field together to address global challenges, technological developments, emerging best practices and new threats within the space acquisition on January 18. To learn more about the virtual event and register to attend, please visit GovCon Wire’s events page.

DOD to Establish Digital Academy to Expand Cyber Workforce
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DOD to Establish Digital Academy to Expand Cyber Workforce

The Department of Defense will establish a digital academy to close the cybersecurity skills gap in the U.S. military under the recently signed defense authorization bill for fiscal year 2023, Federal News Network said Friday.

The newly minted Department of Defense Cyber and Digital Service Academy will provide scholarships to university students in exchange for five years of service in a civilian position focused on digital technology and cyber at the Pentagon. 

Under the program, DOD will promote cyber and digital service training in higher education by providing free tuition, books, laboratory expenses and other school fees.

Academy participants will also receive financial assistance for completing their internships while earning their degrees. 

Failing to complete the required service commitments will result in reimbursing the government.

The 2023 National Defense Authorization Act also outlines a plan for creating a consortium of universities that will be tasked with advising the secretary of defense on matters related to cybersecurity.

The defense authorization bill, signed into law on Dec. 23, allocates nearly $817 billion to DOD, $30.3 billion for national security programs in the Department of Energy and the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board and $378 million for other defense-related activities.

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Peraton Books $2.3B DCSA Award for Background Investigation Services; Stu Shea Quoted
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Peraton Books $2.3B DCSA Award for Background Investigation Services; Stu Shea Quoted

Peraton has won a $2.25 billion contract from the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency for background investigation field work services.

Under the five-year contract, Peraton will be responsible for supporting multiple different types of government background verifications through the provision of these services, the Reston, Virginia-based organization announced on Tuesday.

“As the incumbent for this contract and bringing over 19 years of experience as the leading industry provider, Peraton is proud to continue our relationship with the largest cleared network of nationwide background investigator services,” said Stu Shea, the company’s chairman, president and CEO and a six-time Wash100 Award winner.

“This award is a testament of our continued partnership to enhance DSCA’s mission success and provide comprehensive background investigation support services,” he added.

Specific government suitability determinations expected to be impacted by Peraton’s work include those regarding government employment, government contract personnel assignments, U.S. Armed Forces personnel acceptance and trusted access permission for federal facilities, information and information systems.

These duties will support DCSA’s role as the federal government’s primary investigative service provider. The agency performs over two million investigations each year for civilian and military applicants and employees, which includes contractors and consultants.

DCSA awarded CACI a parallel contract amounting to the same value and operating within the same time frame. Both are firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity awards expected to be completed in December 2027.

Peraton has previously worked with DCSA. In 2021, the company took over a $500 million contract originally awarded to its subsidiary, Perspecta, to build a modernized, central platform intended to enhance the background investigation process.

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