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Former Red Hat Exec Tricia Fitzmaurice to Lead New Accounts as VP of Sales at Rancher Government Solutions
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Former Red Hat Exec Tricia Fitzmaurice to Lead New Accounts as VP of Sales at Rancher Government Solutions

Experienced government technology executive Tricia Fitzmaurice has joined Rancher Government Solutions, a company that provides open source and security-focused products to the public sector, as its vice president of sales.

At RGS, Fitzmaurice will be responsible for seeking new accounts and expanding the market impacts of the company’s Kubernetes, cloud and technology evolution services, the Reston, Virginia-based company said Monday.

Lynne Chamberlain, CEO of RGS, commented that Fitzmaurice’s addition to the company is well-timed with the company’s growth, as the organization underwent a rebranding and restructuring in 2021, changing from Rancher Labs to their current name and gaining new ownership under SUSE.

Chamberlain went on to say that Fitzmaurice’s reputation in the U.S. government and adjacent industries in addition to her track record, career history and unique insights are likely to propel RGS toward new successes while working to best satisfy clientele.

Fitzmaurice began her almost three-decade career as an account manager at IBM overseeing OCR services for businesses in the U.S. and Canada. Subsequently, she headed up government accounts at i2 Technologies and served in positions such as public sector senior account executive and director of national security programs, law enforcement and justice at Red Hat, where she worked for a total of eight years.

While at Red Hat, the executive collaborated with high-ranking government officials on information technology modernization and cloud migration initiatives. She also won honors at the company like Account Manager of the Year, Chairman’s Award Winner and Deal of the Year as well as earning placement in the President’s Club multiple times over.

Prior to coming aboard at RGS, Fitzmaurice was regional vice president of federal civilian agencies and national security programs at software company UiPath, where she was in charge of assisting government personnel with the implementation and adoption of automated technologies across enterprises.

Fitzmaurice is poised to share her expertise in secure supply chain operations and government mission execution in her new role at RGS.

“The work Lynne and the entire RGS team has put into ensuring the Rancher solution stack is supported with security and operational readiness as the highest priorities for our federal customers is extremely impressive,” Fitzmaurice remarked, adding, “I’m excited for the opportunity to join this very talented organization.”

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Vendors Demo VTOL Systems for Future Navy Expeditionary Combat Operations
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Vendors Demo VTOL Systems for Future Navy Expeditionary Combat Operations

More than a dozen vendors showcased a range of systems designed to provide vertical takeoff and landing capabilities to the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps during a two-week demonstration event held at an unmanned aircraft systems test site at the University of Maryland.

A team from the Navy and Marine Corps Small Tactical UAS Program Office subjected the VTOL systems, which represented different configurations, to standardized tests in a push to determine their potential applications in expeditionary combat operations, Naval Air Systems Command said Monday.

The Family of Small UAS team also assessed the systems’ range, endurance, electro-optical and infrared imagery quality, audibility and other set of capabilities.

The team seeks to use the performance data to identify systems that can be considered for operational testing and inclusion in the FoSUAS programs of record.

“We want to show off what is available right now for future procurements to our Navy expeditionary community,” said Col. Victor Argobright, program manager of PMA-263.

During the demonstrations, participating vendors engaged with representatives from various Navy components including the Naval Special Warfare Command and Naval Construction Force.

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Pentagon Seeks Information on Updated AI Talent Procurement Contract
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Pentagon Seeks Information on Updated AI Talent Procurement Contract

The Department of Defense is seeking information on potential industry sources capable of providing staffing support for its artificial intelligence, machine learning and data science initiatives.  

The Pentagon’s Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office, together with the Army Contracting Command-Rock Island, is exploring options for a new AI Talent blanket purchase agreement, according to a notice posted Thursday on SAM.gov.

AIT 2.0 seeks to address some roadblocks identified in the original BPAs awarded in September 2020 to scale up the procurement process for AI and data science staffing support.

CDAO determined that the labor pool established for the initial AIT contract does not provide enough scope to support the Pentagon’s all AI activities.

The $7.5 million call order ceiling of the existing contract has impaired orders from larger agencies and limits existing orders to less than five-year periods of performance.

In addition, AIT 1.0 is not a fully decentralized agreement, resulting in lengthy procurement timeline.

CDAO aims to remove these challenges by allowing DOD agencies to ask for any positions within the task scopes, eliminating limit on call order amounts and making AIT 2.0 fully decentralized from award.

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Senate Bill to Give Pentagon Weapons Procurement Authority to Support Ukraine
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Senate Bill to Give Pentagon Weapons Procurement Authority to Support Ukraine

A pair of bipartisan Senate lawmakers has introduced an amendment to the fiscal year 2023 National Defense Authorization Act that would allow the Department of Defense to procure high-priority weapon systems to support the Ukrainian military, DefenseNews reported Tuesday.

Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Jack Reed, D-R.I., and Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., the panel’s ranking member, proposed the legislation to give DOD the authority to award multi-year contracts to replenish the weapon stockpiles provided to Ukraine.

Pentagon would be permitted to buy certain munitions manufactured by defense contractors including BAE Systems, Lockheed Martin and Raytheon Technologies over fiscal 2023 and 2024.

The legislation also aims to ease several legal restrictions on defense procurement through fiscal 2024, waive the certified cost or pricing data requirement and grant special emergency procurement authorities reserved for acquisitions supporting contingency operations.

Reed and Inhofe has opened the deliberation on the FY 2023 NDAA that would authorize $817 billion for DOD and $29 billion for the Department of Energy’s national security programs.

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Former Joint Chiefs Chairman Michael Mullen and Six Others Join Defense Innovation Board
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Former Joint Chiefs Chairman Michael Mullen and Six Others Join Defense Innovation Board

Gen. Lloyd Austin, secretary of defense and 2022 Wash100 Award winner, hosted the inaugural meeting of the Defense Innovation Board (DIB) on Monday featuring seven new board members, including former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Michael Mullen.

Mullen served as the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff between 2007 and 2011 with great praise for his bold and original thinking in the work of strengthening the U.S. military and creating a fantastic reputation as an “honest broker” by policymakers and senior military officers.

In addition, Mullen also served as the 28th chief of Naval Operations with the U.S. Navy from July 2005 to Sept. 2007. He was only the third officer in Navy history to be appointed to four different four-star assignments. He retired from the Navy after over 42 years of service in 2011. 

As a DIB member alongside some of the most significant leaders of consequence, Mullen will work to reinforce Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s top priorities to defend our nation through innovation and modernization of the Department of Defense under the leadership of DIB Board Chair Michael Bloomberg.

The following six executives have also joined the Defense Innovation Board:

 

 

  • Dr. Gilda Barabino, President at Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering

 

  • Reid Hoffman, Co-Founder of LinkedIn, Co-Founder of Inflection AI, Partner at Greylock
     
  • Ryan Swann, Chief Data Analytics Officer at Vanguard
     
  • William “Mac” Thornberry, Former Chairman of the Armed Services Committee in the U.S. House of Representatives and Member of the Board of Directors at CAE 

 

The inaugural DIB meeting on Monday was a closed session for its members to discuss the highest priorities and challenges facing our national security and other critical areas to begin leveraging the collective experience of the board to provide an edge in technology and innovation moving forward. 

The Defense Innovation Board was created in 2016 to play a significant role in the development of innovation, technology, talent, and best practices from the commercial sector, and to build a culture of innovation and experimentation in DoD.

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Army to Discuss EW Software Requirement With Potential Offerors
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Army to Discuss EW Software Requirement With Potential Offerors

The U.S. Army will host an industry day on Nov. 10 as a prelude to a request for proposals for the service branch’s Electronic Warfare Planning Management Tool development project.

A notice posted Monday on SAM.gov indicates the service expects to commence the solicitation process in the second quarter of 2023 among prime vendors under the Responsive Strategic Sourcing for Services contract vehicle.

The Army previously worked with an unnamed original equipment manufacturer to develop EWPMT software and tested the platform during the government’s 2021 fiscal year.

All service units then deployed the original version in FY 2022 to plan and manage EW missions.

The forthcoming procurement effort is for work to further develop the software based on the baseline technology. Other services listed in the notice include integration, testing, maintenance and configuration management.

Interested participants should register by Nov. 4 to attend the event virtually or in person.

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NIST Names 4 New Awardees to Operate Manufacturing Extension Partnership Centers
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NIST Names 4 New Awardees to Operate Manufacturing Extension Partnership Centers

The National Institute of Standards and Technology has selected four organizations to run manufacturing extension partnership centers in four states under separate cooperative agreements.

NIST said Monday the awards, which have a cumulative value of nearly $19.8 million, include a cost-share requirement and an initial performance period of five years maximum.

The University of Louisville Research Foundation was awarded $6.2 million to operate the MEP center in Kentucky, while Lake Area Technical College received $3.5 million to support small and medium-sized manufacturers in South Dakota. Both institutions are new members of the MEP National Network of centers.

The University of Rhode Island Research Foundation and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln have nearly 10 years experience operating MEP facilities. They received $6 million and $3.9 million, respectively.

Mojdeh Bahar, NIST associate director for innovation and industry services, said MEP centers will work to “help manufacturers address challenges and leverage opportunities in the critical areas of supply chain, workforce, technology innovation and much more.”

She added the agency’s Job Quality Toolkit will serve as guide for the facilities to create high-quality job opportunities.

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US Advances B-52 Bomber Upgrade to Provide Deterrent Against Potential Adversaries
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US Advances B-52 Bomber Upgrade to Provide Deterrent Against Potential Adversaries

The U.S. is pursuing the upgrade of Boeing-built B-52 Stratofortress bombers to keep the aircraft operational into the 2050s and U.S. Air Force leaders and military experts said the revamp is key to delivering an effective deterrent against potential adversaries such as Russia and China, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday.

According to the Department of Defense’s budget documents, the strategic bomber upgrade could cost $11.8 billion.

In September 2021, Rolls-Royce won a potential $2.6 billion contract to provide F130 replacement engines for the Air Force’s fleet of B-52H aircraft.

Boeing and Rolls-Royce are adopting digital design techniques to facilitate the integration of new engines and other components into B-52s.

“By transitioning a legacy aircraft into a digital environment, we’ve been able to mitigate risk much earlier in the design and development process,” said Jennifer Wong, B-52 program manager at Boeing.

Raytheon Technologies is also supporting the plane’s upgrade by equipping the bomber with new radars.

B-52H is a long-range, heavy bomber that can conduct strategic attack, offensive counter-air and maritime, air interdiction and close-air support missions and transport nuclear or precision-guided conventional ordnance. The aircraft can fly at altitudes of up to 50,000 feet and high subsonic speeds.

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Bill to Provide AI Training for Federal Acquisition Workforce Signed Into Law
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Bill to Provide AI Training for Federal Acquisition Workforce Signed Into Law

President Biden on Monday signed into law a bill that would establish a training program on artificial intelligence for federal procurement officials.

Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., introduced the Artificial Intelligence Training for the Acquisition Workforce Act, which was co-sponsored by Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, and passed the House in September.

The legislation directs the Office of Management and Budget to develop and provide an AI training program for acquisition personnel of executive agencies to help ensure that officials are informed of the capabilities and risks associated with AI.

The training program should offer introductory concepts relating to technological features of AI systems, provide ways to mitigate risks posed by AI and discuss future AI trends, including those with implications for national security and innovation.

Under the measure, OMB must update the AI training program at least every two years and come up with an approach to measure the participation of the acquisition workforce in the program.

The office should also receive and consider feedback and other insights from training program participants.

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White House Eyes Guidance in Anticipation of ‘Potential Narrowing’ of Injunction on Federal Contractor Vaccine Mandate
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White House Eyes Guidance in Anticipation of ‘Potential Narrowing’ of Injunction on Federal Contractor Vaccine Mandate

The Office of Management and Budget and the Safer Federal Workforce Task Force will release at least three guidance documents to agencies once a federal appeals court ruling that partially lifts the ban on the White House’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for federal contractors takes effect on Tuesday, Oct. 18, Federal News Network reported Monday.

In August, the appeals court overturned a lower court decision that imposes a nationwide injunction on the vaccine mandate.

According to a notice issued Friday, OMB will issue an initial notification to agencies to ensure their compliance with applicable injunctions and whether they should include contract clauses implementing the mandate in future solicitations and contracts.

The task force will release updated guidance on COVID-19 safety protocols for covered contractor and subcontractor workplace sites after the issuance of the initial notification. The OMB director will assess the guidance to determine whether it promotes federal contracting efficiency and economy.

OMB will then publish guidance on considerations and timing for providing written notice to contractors regarding the enforcement of contract clauses implementing the vaccine mandate.

OMB called on federal agencies not to take any measures to enforce the vaccine mandate until all the guidance documents are issued.

Stephanie Kostro, executive vice president for policy at the Professional Services Council, said such steps from OMB could result in some agencies requiring federal contractors to comply with the vaccine mandate and that there are some details that need clarification.

“It’s not clear what the next steps are and what contractors should do as a result … There’s a lot of wiggle room in what it means for contractors,” Kostro said.

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