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Hope Damphousse Named VP of Strategic Operations With Ball Aerospace; President David Kaufman Quoted
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Hope Damphousse Named VP of Strategic Operations With Ball Aerospace; President David Kaufman Quoted

Hope Damphousse, who previously acted as a legislative advisor to U.S. Senator Robert Bennett of Utah and U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, has been appointed the new vice president of Strategic Operations with Ball Aerospace, effective immediately.

“Hope is a respected leader with an impeccable record of solving complex challenges through strong, collaborative relationships, trusted communications and a passion and dedication for mission success,” said David Kaufman, president of Ball Aerospace.

Damphousse will be responsible to lead the company’s office in Washington DC while guiding public policy, regulatory and government relations activities; and lead Ball Aerospace’s strategic planning and partnerships.

Hope Damphousse first joined the company back in 2008 while delivering for its strategic operations business in a variety of positions and work. Most recently, she served as senior director for the business unit and managed government relationships and agendas to drive business priorities forward.

“She brings extensive government and legislative affairs experience to her new role as the company’s senior executive in the Washington, D.C. area,” Kaufman continued. “We are thrilled to have her in this role.”

About Ball Corporation

Ball Corporation (NYSE: BALL) supplies innovative, sustainable aluminum packaging solutions for beverage, personal care and household products customers, as well as aerospace and other technologies and services primarily for the U.S. government. Ball Corporation employs 24,300 people worldwide and reported 2021 net sales of $13.8 billion.

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2022 GAUGE Report Highlights Critical Impact of Hybrid Workforce Changes; GovCon Expert Rich Wilkinson Quoted
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2022 GAUGE Report Highlights Critical Impact of Hybrid Workforce Changes; GovCon Expert Rich Wilkinson Quoted

Unanet announced on Tuesday that the company has released the 2022 GAUGE Report detailing the survey results of nearly 1,200 respondents from across the federal landscape and government contracting (GovCon) sectors to discuss the latest business challenges facing our industry today.

Visit here to read and download the full 2022 GAUGE Report.

The 2022 Gauge Report, written by Unanet and CohnReznick LLP as joint authors for the sixth consecutive year, found that the most significant concerns and challenges are stemming from the impact still being felt from recent workforce and hybrid work changes as well as how GovCon executives are addressing additional labor shortages and challenges in technology use.

“Allocations for federally funded work are at an all-time high, meaning GovCons have reason to be upbeat about their own economic stability, but resources to service government contracts are more scarce, and that conundrum has leaped to the top of the list of what keeps business leaders up at night,” explained GovCon Expert Rich Wilkinson, senior director of GovCon Industry Marketing for Unanet.

According to the 2022 Gauge Report results, roughly 21 percent of companies have made critical changes in their hiring and talent retention strategies. In addition, nearly 70 percent of companies are offering both full-time and hybrid work-from-home arrangements.

“This offers a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reimagine the government contracting industry workplace and workforce,” GovCon Expert Rich Wilkinson continued. “Everything from who, how, when, and where is on the table for change in a way like never before.”

CohnReznick Partner Christine Williamson emphasized that this year’s Gauge Report is meant to shed a spotlight on the latest federal workforce trends and challenges, including talent needs, skills composition, costs, strategy and policies.

She also mentioned that the GovCon industry has been actively re-imagining and addressing these challenges to drive efficiency and more business to offer a more positive experience for the people working at these organizations as well as customers.

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AFRL’s CubeSat Completes Missions, Performs Extended Operations in GEO
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AFRL’s CubeSat Completes Missions, Performs Extended Operations in GEO

The Air Force Research Laboratory’s small satellite is carrying out extended operations after completing its mission to assess the survivability and performance of commercial-off-the-shelf technologies in the geosynchronous Earth orbit.

The 12-unit CubeSat, dubbed Ascent, was developed as part of the Small Satellite Portfolio within the AFRL Space Vehicles Directorate and launched to GEO in December 2021, AFRL said Tuesday.

“Now that we have data that proves the effectiveness in that region, we will be monitoring for trends in spacecraft health over time, continuing nominal operations, and exploring options to transfer to another agency as a training or demonstrations asset,” said Capt. Sunderlin Jackson, program manager of Ascent.

Fifteen researchers from AFRL contributed to the Ascent program, which has $10 million in funding.

Ascent is the first CubeSat flown by AFRL to the GEO space environment.

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Army PEO EIS Adopts Agile Approach to Software Development
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Army PEO EIS Adopts Agile Approach to Software Development

The U.S. Army Program Executive Office Enterprise Information Systems is increasingly adopting Agile methodologies in a push to align with the service branch’s vision to enable more efficient delivery of software capabilities to the warfighters.

Speaking at a recent digital transformation forum, EIS Program Executive Officer Ross Guckert highlighted the importance of implementing Agile and DevSecOps approaches to addressing soldiers’ specific needs and requirements.

The office’s Agile and DevSecOps implementation is founded on several key pillars including workforce development, contracting management, distributed testing, funding and continuous authority to operate.

PEO EIS also establishes a global cloud environment, automates data migration, conducts rapid prototyping and technology demonstrations and collaborates with industry partners to advance its Agile and DevSecOps efforts.

According to Guckert, Agile approaches will be incorporated into the Army’s forthcoming solicitation for the Enterprise Business Systems – Convergence program, which aims to streamline and standardize the service branch’s business operations.

Bonnie Jenkins Announces Members of International Security Advisory Board
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Bonnie Jenkins Announces Members of International Security Advisory Board

Bonnie Jenkins, undersecretary of state for arms control and international security, has announced the members of an advisory board that provides independent insight and advice on matters related to arms control, critical infrastructure, cybersecurity and national security of emerging technologies.

The 22 members of the International Security Advisory Board will initially focus on areas including the threat to international security posed by climate change and scarcity of resources, the State Department said Tuesday.

The members are:

  • Daniel Byman, professor at Georgetown University’s Walsh School of Foreign Service
  • Edwin Dorn, professor emeritus at the University of Texas at Austin
  • Julie Fischer, technical director for global health at CRDF Global
  • James Goldgeier, visiting fellow at Stanford University’s Center for International Security and Cooperation
  • Sherri Goodman, secretary general of the International Military Council on Climate and Security
  • Gigi Kwik Gronvall, associate professor in the Department of Environmental Health and Engineering at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
  • Gregory Hall, associate professor at the University of Kentucky’s Patterson School of Diplomacy and International Commerce
  • Eboni “Nola” Haynes, professor of international relations at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service
  • Michael Horowitz, director of the Emerging Capabilities Policy Office in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy
  • Heather Hurlburt, chief of staff to the U.S. Trade Representative Ambassador Katherine Tai
  • Shirley Ann Jackson, president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
  • Laura Kennedy, elected member of the American Academy of Diplomacy
  • Susan Koch, a distinguished research fellow at the National Defense University Center for the Study of Weapons of Mass Destruction
  • Edward Levine, member of the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation board of directors
  • Jeffrey Lewis, professor at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies
  • Jamie Morin, vice president of defense systems operations at the Aerospace Corporation
  • Eric Rosenbach, co-director of the Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
  • Ian Simon, senior adviser for pandemic preparedness for the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
  • Lyric Thompson, vice president of policy, advocacy and strategy at the International Center for Research on Women
  • Paul Walker, vice chair of the Arms Control Association board of directors
  • Heather Williams, senior fellow in the International Security Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies
  • Jon Wolfsthal, senior adviser for policy and advocacy at Global Zero

ISAB makes recommendations to the secretary of state through the undersecretary for arms control and international security.

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Heritage Foundation Assesses Status of US Military Power With 2023 Index
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Heritage Foundation Assesses Status of US Military Power With 2023 Index

The Heritage Foundation’s 2023 Index of U.S. Military Strength has assessed the global operating environment as “favorable” to U.S. interests, which means that the country can project military power to defend its vital interests in Europe, Asia and the Middle East without significant opposition.

Amid the regional threats posed by China and North Korea, the 2023 Index gave the Asian operating environment an overall score of “favorable” to U.S. interests in terms of the presence of U.S. military personnel, alliances, military infrastructure and overall political stability, the foundation said Tuesday.

The Index classified the threats from Russia and China as “aggressive” in behavior and “formidable” when it comes to capabilities.

The Washington, D.C.-based think tank also gauged the status of U.S. military power in terms of capability, capacity and readiness and overall, rated the country’s military posture as “weak.”

“The 2023 Index concludes that the current U.S. military force is at significant risk of not being able to meet the demands of a single major regional conflict while also attending to various presence and engagement activities,” the report reads.

The 578-page report attributed the score to several factors, including underfunding, poor discipline in program execution and shifting security policies.

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GSA, DAU Develop Tool to Facilitate Comparison of Acquisition Regulations
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GSA, DAU Develop Tool to Facilitate Comparison of Acquisition Regulations

The General Services Administration and the Defense Acquisition University have collaborated to develop an acquisition regulation comparator that could enable Acquisition.gov users to compare up to three acquisition regulations by providing them side-by-side view of multiple regulations. 

Acquisition personnel were required to open multiple tabs and see each regulation individually before the ARC tool was implemented, according to a GSA blog post published Tuesday.

With the ARC, users can now compare specific sections of other agencies’ regulations, assess how supplemental regulations are being implemented by agencies and find examples that could be used to guide others in implementing regulations.

GSA said there are 32 regulations that have been integrated into the ARC, including the Federal Acquisition Regulation used by all executive agencies.

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NIST-Lightcast-CompTIA Report Shows Cybersecurity Labor Demand Growth Over 12 Months
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NIST-Lightcast-CompTIA Report Shows Cybersecurity Labor Demand Growth Over 12 Months

The demand for cybersecurity professionals in the U.S. grew 2.4 times faster in the last 12 months than the rate across the national economy, according to data analyzed by the CyberSeek platform from a partnership between the National Institute of Standards and Technology, Lightcast and the Computing Technology Industry Association.

CompTIA released the findings of the study Monday that showed 769,736 new job openings from September 2021 to September 2022 focused on or requiring skills in internet security and postings in the third quarter of the current calendar year were 30 percent higher compared to the same period a year ago.

Meanwhile, supply and demand ratio indicated that for every 100 job posts, there were 65 of those professionals in the labor market, most of them already employed.

IT security skill requirements significantly expanded in the past year amid the emergence of more job specializations, CompTIA reported.

“The data should compel us to double-down on efforts to raise awareness of cybersecurity career opportunities to youth and adults, especially during Cybersecurity Career Awareness Week which is an international campaign to inspire individuals to explore the variety of types of cybersecurity-related roles that are needed in both the public and private sectors,” said Rodney Petersen, director of the National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education.

CyberSeek functions as an analytics tool designed to help stakeholders examine supply and demand data in the job market.

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Heidi Shyu: DoD Keeps Abreast of Hypersonic Tech Despite Workforce Challenges
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Heidi Shyu: DoD Keeps Abreast of Hypersonic Tech Despite Workforce Challenges

Heidi Shyu, undersecretary for research and engineering at the Department of Defense, said every service branch under DOD is developing hypersonics weapons in order to keep up with the accelerating pace of the technology’s adoption by governments such as Russia and China.

She told The Hill editor-in-chief Bob Cusack at a Raytheon Technologies-sponsored event Tuesday the department agency is heavily invested in hypersonics training and fielding efforts, and is in fact on track for deployment in the mid-2020s.

“It is important to keep abreast of what’s going on in hypersonics, but it’s equally important to keep abreast of many different technology area that’s important to us as well,” Shyu said during the Q&A session.

Shyu, a 2022 Wash100 Award winner, noted the Pentagon plans to spend a significant portion of its fiscal 2023 budget to increase testing capability.

When asked about the obstacles currently facing hypersonics, she cited staffing as a major concern especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. She cited various programs the department created to boost recruitment, such as the SMART scholarship program, Special Immigration Visa for post-doctorate graduates, as well as projects that promote science, technology, engineering and mathematics in higher education.

The DOD official added that one of the department’s commitments moving forward is to collaborate with commercial companies to help scale up production while lowering the cost of developing and testing hypersonic and other defense weapons.

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US Chamber of Commerce Report: Government Digitization Could Generate $1T Annually
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US Chamber of Commerce Report: Government Digitization Could Generate $1T Annually

A U.S. Chamber of Commerce report has found that the federal government uses 9,858 unique forms and handles more than 106 billion forms on an annual basis to process government services requests of U.S. citizens.

The report titled Government Digitization: Transforming Government to Better Serve Americans showed that the public spent 10.5 billion hours on government paper forms in 2021 and the cost to citizens of using such forms reached $117 billion.

The document also listed areas where agencies can prioritize digitization: individual income tax return; health records; passport applications and renewals; social security applications; and green card applications.

According to the report, government digitization could generate approximately $1 trillion annually worldwide and help agencies eliminate waste, reduce costs, enhance efficiency, build up resilience and improve the ability to serve Americans.

“Increased government digitization doesn’t just mean saved time and money, it also means providing greater accountability and access to underserved communities when it comes to utilizing government services,” said Jordan Crenshaw, vice president of the Chamber Technology Engagement Center at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

The report offers recommendations for Congress to advance government services digitization, such as using its oversight authority to determine barriers to government modernization and continuing to appropriate funding for the Technology Modernization Fund.

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