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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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Brig. Gen. Christopher Povak Begins Work as NRO Deputy Director, Space Force Element Commander
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Brig. Gen. Christopher Povak Begins Work as NRO Deputy Director, Space Force Element Commander

Brig. Gen. Christopher Povak, former deputy director of the U.S. Space Force’s Space Warfighting Analysis Center, formally assumed the National Reconnaissance Office’s No. 2 post and took charge of the service branch’s intelligence element at a ceremony held Friday.

He will help NRO Director Christopher Scolese, a three-time Wash100 Award winner, to oversee strategic and tactical priorities, which include satellite reconnaissance capability, the office said Friday.

Povak will also lead service members assigned to the agency as commander of the Space Force Element, which became the 18th member of the Intelligence Community in January 2021.

He previously worked at NRO as deputy director of mission operations directorate from August 2015 to May 2016 and executive officer to the agency deputy director from July 2010 to July 2011.

His other assignments included commander of the U.S. Air Force Element at Royal AF Menwith Hill in the U.K., the Aerospace Data Facility Colorado and the AF Element Space Operations Wing.

Scolese said the satellite acquisition, operations and engineering experience Povak has gained over three decades “will be crucial in our ongoing efforts to bolster innovation and maintain America’s intelligence advantage in space.”

In a separate announcement, the Department of Defense said President Biden nominated Povak for promotion to the rank of major general.

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Climate Change, STEM Education Highlighted at 2nd National Space Council Meeting
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Climate Change, STEM Education Highlighted at 2nd National Space Council Meeting

The National Space Council held its second meeting on Friday at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, with climate change and science, technology, engineering and math education as key topics of discussion.

The event included a video update on the proposed Earth Information Center, which would allow the public to see how the Earth is evolving, and help scientists and authorities study and address climate change, the agency said Saturday.

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson presented the video, noting that the center “will be available to everyone in an easy-to-access format.”

During the meeting, the agency also announced that it will grant more than $4 million to four institutions across the country to boost interest in NASA experiences and STEM education among traditionally underserved and underrepresented middle and high school students.

The award is part of the Space Grant K-12 Inclusiveness and Diversity in STEM program, otherwise known as SG KIDS, which aims to provide STEM opportunities to students in marginalized communities.

Vice President Kamala Harris presided over the NSpC meeting and reiterated the importance of the country’s leadership role in space exploration.

“There is so much we still don’t know and so much we still haven’t done – space remains a place of undiscovered and unrealized opportunity. Our test and our responsibility is to work together to guide humanity forward into this new frontier and to make real the incredible potential of space for all people,” said Harris, who is also the council’s chair.

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FCC’s Jessica Rosenworcel Seeks to Mitigate Risk of Satellite Debris With 5-Year Deorbiting Rule
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FCC’s Jessica Rosenworcel Seeks to Mitigate Risk of Satellite Debris With 5-Year Deorbiting Rule

Jessica Rosenworcel, chairwoman of the Federal Communications Commission, has proposed new rules that would direct satellite operators to deorbit their spacecraft within five years of concluding their missions in low-Earth orbit to mitigate risks associated with orbital debris.

“Today it is the recommended practice for satellite operators to deorbit their spacecraft within 25 years of completing their missions. But there is no reason to wait that long anymore. … For it to continue to grow, we need to do more to clean up after ourselves so space innovation can continue to expand,” Rosenworcel said in a statement published Friday.

“That is why I am proposing to shorten the 25-year guideline to no more than 5 years. It will mean more accountability and less risk of collisions that increase debris,” she added.

According to the proposed rules, FCC will continue to evaluate whether a shorter post-mission requirement for disposal of satellites is appropriate for large constellation of satellites via individual licensing measures.

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