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GSA’s New Federal Buying Advisory Panel to Convene Next Week; Robin Carnahan Quoted
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GSA’s New Federal Buying Advisory Panel to Convene Next Week; Robin Carnahan Quoted

The General Services Administration’s newly formed advisory body plans to discuss the role of climate and sustainability in government contracting at an open public meeting scheduled for Sept. 22nd.

GSA said Wednesday the Acquisition Policy Federal Advisory Committee will initially look into potential improvements in laws and processes to ensure the two key environmental issues are factored into federal acquisition programs.

The agency first announced its intent to assemble the panel in April and its Office of Government-wide Policy reviewed more than 100 nominations for committee membership from small businesses, public sector organizations, academic institutions and trade groups.

“As the federal government’s central buyer, it’s GSA’s job to be good stewards of taxpayer dollars and at the same time to use our buying power to help fuel American innovation and lighten the environmental footprint of what we buy,” GSA Administrator Robin Carnahan said.

Carnahan will speak at the web-based GAP FAC meeting.

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Maj. Gen. Francis Donovan Nominated to SOCOM Vice Commander Post
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Maj. Gen. Francis Donovan Nominated to SOCOM Vice Commander Post

Major Gen. Francis Donovan, director of the Office of Marine Corps Communication, has been nominated to serve as the U.S. Special Operations Command’s next vice commander.

Donovan will receive a promotion to the rank of lieutenant general alongside his forthcoming assignment, the Department of Defense said Friday.

He previously led the 2D Marine Division for two years and, before that role, served as assistant commanding general of Joint Special Operations Command.

The USMC officer also held a two-year stint as head of the Naval Amphibious Forces, Task Force 51/5, and commanded Marine Expeditionary Forces in reconnaissance platoon, battalion landing and expeditionary brigade operations.

In an overseas assignment, Donovan oversaw a Marine Corps Security Forces Detachment located in Crete, Greece. His other previous roles include leadership of a Fleet Anti-Terrorism Security Team platoon and a Marine Corps Recruiting Station in Eastern Pennsylvania.

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NASEM Report Assesses Potential Impact of Ligado System on DoD’s GPS Receivers
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NASEM Report Assesses Potential Impact of Ligado System on DoD’s GPS Receivers

The National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine has issued a report on Ligado Networks’ plan to deploy terrestrial services and its potential impact on the Department of Defense’s GPS capabilities and mission execution.

The NASEM study has found that Ligado’s network will interfere with DOD’s GPS receivers, DOD said Friday. According to the report, Ligado’s user terminals may also interfere with Iridium Communications’ satellite communications network.

The study also considers the Pentagon’s testing measure based on signal-to-noise ratio as a comprehensive approach to interference assessment.

DOD said it looks forward to collaborating with the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, the Federal Communication Commission and Ligado on the issue.

NASEM released the report in accordance with a provision of the fiscal year 2021 National Defense Authorization Act.

In April 2020, FCC approved Ligado’s application to use the L-band spectrum to field a low-power terrestrial network in support of 5G and internet-of-things services.

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3 Defense Associations Urge Congress to Consider Inflation in Continuing Resolution
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3 Defense Associations Urge Congress to Consider Inflation in Continuing Resolution

The National Defense Industrial Association, Professional Services Council and the Aerospace Industries Association have called on Congress to accelerate the completion of the defense appropriations bill for fiscal year 2023 and consider inflation when establishing the topline for a continuing resolution.

NDIA, PSC and AIA wrote a letter to House and Senate Appropriations Committee leaders on Monday asking Congress to authorize new starts and quantity increases to allow the Department of Defense and industry to respond to national security threats and meet requirements, NDIA said Monday.

David Norquist, president and CEO of NDIA and a two-time Wash100 Award recipient, said inflation will undermine the country’s national defense if left unaddressed and the associations look forward to working with Congress to take bipartisan measures to address the challenge.

The three associations also expressed support for a provision that would authorize the undersecretary for acquisition and sustainment at DOD to make adjustments to contracts in response to inflation.

PSC President and CEO David Berteau and Eric Fanning, president and CEO of AIA, also issued statements urging lawmakers to help mitigate the impacts of inflation. Fanning and Berteau are previous Wash100 Award winners. 

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NIWC Atlantic Awards CACI $123M Task Order for Defense Health Readiness Engineering Support; CEO John Mengucci Quoted
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NIWC Atlantic Awards CACI $123M Task Order for Defense Health Readiness Engineering Support; CEO John Mengucci Quoted

CACI International has secured a task order worth $123.4 million from the Naval Information Warfare Center Atlantic for technical services supporting health processes for multiple service branches in the U.S. defense community.

Through the Seaport-Next Generation contract vehicle task order, CACI’s team will perform defense health readiness engineering support activities including testing, training, cybersecurity and fleet support for the U.S. Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force, the Reston, Virginia-headquartered company said Tuesday.

According to John Mengucci, CEO and president of CACI, the work is a continuation of an ongoing partnership between CACI and NIWC, not to mention the Navy more broadly, with whom the company has collaborated for over two decades.

Mengucci, a three-time recipient of the Wash100 Award, also asserted that the task order is an indication of the U.S. military’s trust in CACI’s enterprise technology capabilities. With this contract award, Mengucci says, they will be able to continue helping to evolve, implement and maintain healthcare records for “the fleet, expeditionary forces, airmen and their partners.”

The new task order builds on CACI’s prior contract with NIWC Atlantic, which saw the company provide over 3,000 implementations for the Theater Medical Information Program, impacting the Navy, Marine Corps and the Air Force. Their agile methodologies will be utilized for NIWC Atlantic’s network of health information tools that harness software and hardware to reach military personnel in various domains.

CACI’s modernization-minded efforts under the task order will cover the full lifecycle of requirements for the NIWC’s health technology system, such as engineering and integration, planning, release management and reporting for both TMIP and Joint Operational Medicine Information Systems.

The NIWC task order comes on the heels of CACI’s July win of a $557.8 million task order from the U.S. Navy to assist Naval Surface Warfare Center Crane and the Navy Digital Integration Support Cell with digital modernization.

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CGI Federal Releases Sunflower Work Management for Web-Based Business Facilitation; John Owens Quoted
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CGI Federal Releases Sunflower Work Management for Web-Based Business Facilitation; John Owens Quoted

The government-facing arm of information technology consulting company CGI has debuted a program called Sunflower Work Management that has been made with the federal civilian sector in mind.

Sunflower Work Management is a human-focused, enterprise business management software intended to enable ease of access to projects and funds, with a basis in the cloud and featuring a mobile component, the Fairfax, Virginia-based subsidiary said Tuesday.

John Owens, senior vice president and enterprise solutions group leader at CGI Federal, enumerated the tool’s functionalities, namely, complex business process facilitation, asset status confirmation and asset deployment. Owens said the handling of assets Sunflower accommodates is a good fit for “mission-critical situations.”

The layout of Sunflower Work Management utilizes dashboards, metrics and reports to help users glean management and operational information about business processes. It makes the facilitation of individualized work procedures possible so that users can conduct asset maintenance, inspections and shipping and additionally, confirms that organizations are abiding by ISO 55000, the global standard in asset management.

CGI Federal’s newest program is meant to assist businesses in maximizing value from assets. It is compatible with and integration-ready for the company’s other Sunflower products as well as its Momentum line. The Sunflower arsenal is designed to help public and private organizations—including higher education entities, research hubs and federal agencies—resolve global asset management needs.

Last month marked CGI Federal’s successful upgrade of its ERP application, Momentum, for almost 20 federal government agencies so that their systems comply with guidelines set by the U.S. Treasury Government-Invoicing architecture.

In April, Stefan Becker, senior vice president and business unit leader at CGI Federal, engaged in an Executive Spotlight with ExecutiveBiz. He spoke about the direction and focuses of the company and how they communicate with federal agencies.

“From my vantage point, agencies are increasingly focused on improving business processes and enabling greater collaboration and data sharing, as well as increasing efficiency within the agency through advanced technology and automation,” Becker noted. The new Sunflower program seems to reflect as well as provide further tools to complete this mission.

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Unanet ERP Program Adopted by McHenry Management Group
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Unanet ERP Program Adopted by McHenry Management Group

Systems and maintenance engineering company McHenry Management Group has chosen Unanet’s government contracting enterprise resource planning platform for its financial and task administration.

Unanet GovCon ERP is positioned to assist TMMG with organizing its design and development projects for federal government agencies and service branches such as the Department of the Navy and the U.S. Coast Guard, the Dulles, Virginia-headquartered company said Monday.

“We saw more than 30% growth in our firm in one year, and we knew we needed to enhance our reporting capabilities with Unanet in order to navigate our company,” explained Jeffrey Estes, chief financial officer of TMMG. Estes was the figure who propositioned the company to go with Unanet’s software when he discovered they would be sunsetting their legacy ERP program.

Estes additionally noted that Unanet GovCon ERP’s reporting features will enable TMMG to better train its project managers, ultimately helping to increase revenue. Using the program, the PMs will ideally make informed financial decisions that could expand upon and grow individual contracts.

TMMG operates with a staff of over 200 team members who are working on contracts that demand asset, life cycle management, industrial operations and program management at an international scale. An execution plan for the integration of the Unanet platform is already underway and their team is reportedly responding positively.

In February, Unanet CEO Craig Halliday sat down for an Executive Spotlight interview with GovCon Wire, wherein he discussed the company’s expansion, acquisitions and mission.

“The sense of positive momentum here at Unanet is palpable among our GovCon and AEC customers, because of all the things we’re doing to strengthen our ERP and CRM solutions, and within our own workforce,” Halliday remarked.

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SEC Adds 2 New Offices to Corporation Finance Division; Renee Jones Quoted
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SEC Adds 2 New Offices to Corporation Finance Division; Renee Jones Quoted

The Securities and Exchange Commission is setting up two new offices under the Division of Corporation Finance that will be tasked with reviewing filings by crypto assets and life sciences companies.

SEC said Friday the Office of Crypto Assets and the Office of Industrial Applications and Services are expected to be established in the fall and will join the seven existing offices that support the division’s Disclosure Review Program.

The commission assigned filings related to cryptocurrencies and other digital assets to the Office of Crypto Assets and designated the Office of Industrial Applications and Services to oversee non-pharma, non-biotech, and non-medicinal products companies assigned to the Office of Life Sciences.

“The creation of these new offices will enable the DRP to enhance its focus in the areas of crypto assets, financial institutions, life sciences, and industrial applications and services and facilitate our ability to meet our mission,” said Renee Jones, director of the Division of Corporation Finance.

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Commerce, Pentagon Sign Agreement to Coordinate Commercial Space Traffic Management; Rick Spinrad Quoted
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Commerce, Pentagon Sign Agreement to Coordinate Commercial Space Traffic Management; Rick Spinrad Quoted

The departments of Commerce and Defense have entered into an agreement on achieving basic space situational awareness and coordinating civil and commercial space traffic management.

The Department of Commerce said Friday it will work with the Pentagon to implement provisions of the National Space Council’s Space Policy Directive 3 that mandates the provision of federally supported basic SSA data and STM services to the commercial and public sectors.

“Establishing and maintaining coordinated SSA and STM technology, data, and services for civil and commercial entities is the foundation of the Department of Commerce’s efforts to ensure the continued safe and sustainable growth of the commercial space industry,” said Rick Spinrad, undersecretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere.

The SPD-3, issued in 2018, also directs the transfer of STM responsibilities including the issuance of satellite collision warnings to civilian and commercial operators from DOD to the Office of Space Commerce.

Spinrad signed the memorandum of agreement together with John Plumb, assistant secretary of defense for space policy, and officials from the U.S. Space Force and U.S. Space Command.

Navy’s Future USNS Apalachicola Completes Acceptance Trials, Unmanned Logistics Prototype Tests
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Navy’s Future USNS Apalachicola Completes Acceptance Trials, Unmanned Logistics Prototype Tests

The U.S. Navy’s future expeditionary fast transport ship has passed its acceptance trials and unmanned logistics prototype tests conducted by the service branch and its manufacturer Austal USA.

Naval Sea Systems Command said Friday the future USNS Apalachicola (EPF 13), which is scheduled to be delivered to the Navy later in 2022, demonstrated its operational readiness and ability to operate autonomously during a series of demonstrations held in recent months.

EPF 13 performed planned test events aimed at assessing autonomous capabilities integrated into its shipboard configuration as part of the unmanned logistics prototype trials supported by Austal USA and industry partners L3Harris Technologies and General Dynamics.

“USNS Apalachicola will enhance the operational flexibility needed by our Sailors,” said Tim Roberts, strategic and theater sealift program manager for Program Executive Office Ships.

The Navy’s expeditionary fast transport ships are capable of loading and unloading military cargo in shallow-draft ports.

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