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Quad Leaders Reaffirm Commitment to Boosting Resilience in Indo-Pacific
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Quad Leaders Reaffirm Commitment to Boosting Resilience in Indo-Pacific

President Biden met with the leaders of Australia, India and Japan for a strategic security dialogue in Tokyo where they renewed their commitment to boosting the security, resilience and economic growth of the Indo-Pacific region.

In a joint statement published by the White House on Tuesday, the four Quad leaders discussed the coalition’s key areas of focus, including peace and stability, global health security, climate change, cybersecurity and emerging technology.

The Quad partners mentioned the ongoing conflict in Ukraine and its potential impact on the region, reiterating the need for peaceful settlement of disputes in accordance with international law.

They also discussed the coalition’s efforts to support global response to the COVID-19 pandemic, including financial contributions of approximately $5.2 billion to the Gavi COVAX Advance Market Commitment program.

“Noting significant expansion in the global supply of COVID-19 vaccines, we will continue to share safe, effective, affordable and quality-assured COVID-19 vaccines where and when they are needed,” the statement said.

Moreover, the leaders affirmed commitment to accelerate disaster preparedness and response efforts in the region through the use of space-related applications and technologies.

In February, the Biden administration released the Indo-Pacific Strategy of the United States outlining its plans to build connections within and beyond the region, help drive regional prosperity and security and support efforts to achieve regional resilience.

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Excella Secures $241M DRAID Contract With JAIC to Accelerate DoD AI Adoption; Sarath Ravella Quoted
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Excella Secures $241M DRAID Contract With JAIC to Accelerate DoD AI Adoption; Sarath Ravella Quoted

Excella announced on Tuesday that the agile technology solutions company has been awarded a potential five-year, $241 million Data Readiness for Artificial Intelligence Development (DRAID), through a Services Basic Ordering Agreement (BOA), from the Department of Defense (DOD) Joint Artificial Intelligence Center (JAIC). 

Through the DRAID BOA, Excella will accelerate AI adoption across the Defense Department as well as provide various services including project and program management, data science, data engineering, software development, data governance and cloud integration.

“Leveraging AI to support the key missions of the DOD is critical to national security, both at home and abroad,” said Sarath Ravella, vice president of Strategic Initiatives at Excella. 

“We’ve seen first-hand the progress the DOD has made in modernizing its systems with AI and data engineering, and our expertise will help increase the impact of AI on mission-critical applications in support of the warfighter,” Ravella added.

Excella will provide other services including data engineering, data architecture, data acquisition and curation, data quality and analysis, and synthetic data generation and data anonymization under the DRAID BOA contract. 

Excella has been on the ground supporting AI development for the DOD and has nearly two decades of experience successfully leading organizational transformations and modernizing legacy IT systems across federal government agencies.

Previously, Excella delivered data engineering and DevSecOps leadership to establish the Joint Common Foundation with JAIC through its partnership with the National Technical Information Service (NTIS) in 2020.

Since establishing the JAIC in 2018, the agency has both rapidly incorporated AI into existing applications and created new, innovative applications. Excella’s holistic AI approach, with a focus on responsible AI, will help JAIC accelerate the adoption and delivery of AI capabilities and scale the impact of AI across the agency.

About Excella

Excella is an Agile technology firm and transformative partner to leading organizations. Since 2002, federal agencies, prominent brands and trailblazing nonprofits have turned to Excella to transform bold ideas into elegant technology solutions. We believe technology exists to solve challenges and evolve thinking – we help organizations harness this power to make real progress.

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JAIC, Defense Digital Service, ADVANA to Operate Under CDAO Office in June
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JAIC, Defense Digital Service, ADVANA to Operate Under CDAO Office in June

The Joint Artificial Intelligence Center, Defense Digital Service and ADVANA or the Office of Advancing Analytics will stop operating as independent organizations as they become part of the newly established office of the chief digital and artificial intelligence officer within the Department of Defense starting June 1, Breaking Defense reported Tuesday.

CDR Sarah Flaherty, spokesperson for the CDAO, told the publication the CDAO office reached initial operating capability on Feb. 1 and will achieve full operating capability in June.

FedScoop reported that Diane Staheli, an AI ethics and research expert, was named head of the responsible AI division within the office of CDAO. In this capacity, she will help develop and implement practices, policies, metrics and standards for procuring and building accountable and trustworthy AI.

Staheli previously worked at MIT Lincoln Laboratory, where she led efforts focused on human-centered AI.

DOD made recent appointments at the newly established office. In late April, Craig Martell, formerly head of machine learning at Lyft, was named CDAO weeks after the appointment of Sharothi Pikar as deputy CDAO for acquisitions. In March, Margaret Palmieri, founder and former director of the Navy’s digital warfare office, was appointed deputy CDAO.

In February, the Pentagon established the CDAO office to bring AI and digital strategy and policy development to senior DOD leadership and appointed John Sherman, chief information officer of DOD and a 2022 Wash100 Award recipient, as acting CDAO.

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Defense Business Board Releases DOD Civilian Talent Management Study
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Defense Business Board Releases DOD Civilian Talent Management Study

The Defense Business Board performed a 24-week study of the Department of Defense’s civilian workforce and found that talent management within DOD lags behind the commercial sector and that DOD fills short-term vacancies with little attention to future technology requirements and strategy to upskill or reskill them, Federal Times reported Tuesday.

The board has recommended that the Pentagon increase training opportunities for civilian employees and improve collaboration with military talent managers to keep pace with the private sector when it comes to aligning talent with work function.

“The Department doesn’t know its employees’ capabilities and requirements for the future, the systems to manage them, the policies to enable the new generation of skilled employees, or the programs to upskill them,” the DBB report reads.

According to the study, DOD lacks the data approach, organization and cultural foundation to “take its place as a bastion of STEM development.”

The report offers three recommendations for the Pentagon to better manage civilian talent and these are transforming civilian culture to prioritize talent management; prioritizing and elevating talent management within the organization; and modernizing DOD’s workforce planning and data.

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Navy Event Highlights Role of Hypersonic Tech in Global Security Environment
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Navy Event Highlights Role of Hypersonic Tech in Global Security Environment

The U.S. Navy sought to emphasize the potential value of incorporating hypersonic technology into the national security mission at a three-day conference jointly presented by the branch’s Strategic Systems Programs office and NavalX Midwest Tech Bridge.

Government, industry and academic sector representatives attended the Hypersonics Innovation Conference to discuss technical factors that could expand the application of hypersonics to address global security challenges, the Naval Surface Warfare Center’s Crane Division said Tuesday.

Navy SSP and MTB also collaborated with the Air Force Institute of Technology, Defense Strategies Institute, National Security Technology Accelerator and the Indiana Innovation Institute to organize the event.

“This event came at a critical time for our country. The message throughout the conference was clear: The hypersonics community must come together and be innovative in our approach to developing advanced systems,” said Sarah Armstrong, director of the Joint Hypersonics Transition Office Systems Engineering Field Activity at NSWC Crane.

Navy Event Highlights Role of Hypersonic Tech in Global Security Environment

ExecutiveBiz, sister publication of GovConDaily, will host a virtual forum on July 12 to highlight the role of public-private partnerships in the next level of hypersonics development work for national defense missions. Click over to ExecutiveBiz to learn more about the upcoming Hypersonics Forum.

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Sen. Gary Peters Issues Report on Use of Cryptocurrency in Ransomware Attacks
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Sen. Gary Peters Issues Report on Use of Cryptocurrency in Ransomware Attacks

Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, has released a report saying the federal government lacks sufficient information on ransomware attacks and the use of cryptocurrency in ransom payments.

The report also found that current reporting of such attacks is fragmented across federal agencies and that lack of comprehensive information on cryptocurrency payments and ransomware attacks restricts available tools to protect against national security threats, Peters’ office said Tuesday.

According to the study, the lack of data on such attacks and payments restricts the capability of the federal government and the private sector in assisting victims of cybercrimes.

The report offers several recommendations, including the need for the administration to implement a law that requires incident reporting of cyberattacks and ransomware payments against critical infrastructure, and standardize federal data on ransom payments and ransomware incidents to facilitate analysis.

Congress should come up with more public-private programs to investigate the ransomware economy and support data sharing regarding ransomware payments and attacks.

Implementing the Cyber Incident Reporting for Critical Infrastructure Act of 2022 “will be a significant step to ensuring our government has better data to understand the scope of this threat, disrupt the incentive virtual currencies provide for cybercriminals to commit attacks, and help victims quickly recover after breaches,” Peters said.

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Executive Spotlight: Sean DuGuay, Principal of National Security & Defense for Capgemini Government Solutions
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Executive Spotlight: Sean DuGuay, Principal of National Security & Defense for Capgemini Government Solutions

Sean DuGuay, principal of National Security & Defense for Capgemini Government Solutions, recently spoke with ExecutiveGov regarding the challenges of implementing zero-trust technology as well as the renewed focus on data security in the federal sector and the compliance standards challenges that government agencies and others are working to meet.

In addition, DuGuay also touched on Capgemini’s efforts to drive digital transformation and stay ahead of the speed of innovation with recent acquisitions like VariQ to push the company’s growth strategy for the rest of 2022 and beyond during the latest Executive Spotlight interview.

“Capgemini has a rich company history and heritage of more than 50 years, with deep industry expertise in digital transformation and technology solutions and capabilities, earning recognition across the board. Although we are a global firm, our commercial presence is very significant in the North American market.

The beautiful thing about Capgemini Government Solutions is we get to leverage deep technical expertise in Cloud, Data, and SaaS/PaaS solutions. The government is looking for the latest and greatest technology that we can pull from our commercial clients, and in its work with the Federal Government, Capgemini is able to bring Silicon Valley innovation and lessons learned to an amazing client with incredible challenges. We have the technologies and technologists who know how to uncover and solve problems to help further their mission.”

You can read the full interview with Sean DuGuay below:

ExecutiveGov: What can you tell us about the implementation of the recent VariQ acquisition as well as how it benefited your portfolio, technical capabilities and driven value for your company and customers? What are your goals for the end of 2022 in the homeland security sector?

Sean DuGuay: “VariQ was a strategic acquisition for Capgemini. I was on the executive leadership team for VariQ and my new leadership role at Capgemini is awesome because of the depth and breadth of Capgemini capabilities that I now have behind me.  At VariQ we were rich in contract vehicles, including the Alliant-2 which provides access to best-in-class opportunities, but sometimes lacked the depth to compete on the biggest deals.  Now, I’m part of a $20B organization with the capabilities to tackle the toughest challenges that government has to offer.

In addition, Capgemini’s strength in a platform as-a-service offering will enable tremendous growth for us in the federal market. There have already been a number of contracts the government has put out and there are more to come in. There’s significant growth for Capgemini in the government space and all those specific areas.

My role with Capgemini is to lead the organic growth of our business within Homeland Security, the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Department of State (DOS). I get to work with some of the brightest technology minds the industry can offer. These Capgemini employees are true problem solvers.

It’s a business leader’s dream to have these experts by your side, and my goal is to bring our clients the best offerings possible with true problem-solving capability and mission enhancement. I work with these clients daily and see their struggles, and I want to help solve them.  I want them, the taxpayers, and citizens to benefit from the best the government can bring.

We look forward to working with the Federal Government in cyber and new platforms as-a-service. Our company has contracts and portfolios throughout those areas, and we are excited about some upcoming opportunities to help both clients with their challenges.

I have almost 30 years of experience in the industry and was in the Marines for a decade prior. I’ve touched pretty much every aspect of this business at some point. If our Civilian or DoD market teams need some support, I will bring that to the table for them and Capgemini. That’s the team mentality that I love about this company and something that’s pretty rare to find in our industry. We all help each other and, quite frankly, this is the most fun I’ve had in quite a while.”

ExecutiveGov: With the influence of emerging technologies impacting every aspect of business, how has your company been able to drive digital transformation efforts to stay ahead of innovation in the federal landscape for yourself and your customers?

Sean DuGuay: “Since Capgemini has more than 340,000 employees across 50 different countries that are touched by our technology, you can’t help but want the best-in-class and it’s been fun to see the growth in this company thus far. One day I’m talking to a federal client about a major issue they are having and the next day I’m talking with a technologist across the country on a way to solve it.

As we look at the technology trends like cloud, data, API, connectivity, DevOps and software development, it’s astonishing to see that Capgemini can help in all these areas. I’ve had a lot of experience with emerging technologies and digital transformation efforts, which the pandemic only accelerated across the board.

The federal government was forced to adapt and pivot to meet the needs of the mission, which is obviously extremely important to all of us. It was very difficult to stay secure and 80 percent of the government believes that digital business is moving and progressing far too quickly to properly adapt to the new processes and landscape changes.

In addition, the pandemic made cyber resiliency much more challenging. As you look at those numbers and the challenges the government is currently facing, that’s really where the VariQ acquisition and the commercial side of Capgemini’s cyber group come into play. That’s a major building block for increased efficiency, scalability and agility.”

ExecutiveGov: With zero-trust technology becoming a major focal point moving forward, what can you tell us about the difficulties of implementing zero-trust architectures and focusing on data security?

Sean DuGuay: “Zero-trust has very quickly become a popular buzzword.

Zero Trust is extremely important as stated in the Executive Order from January 2021. As more companies heard or reacted to the executive order, they began to offer zero-trust in-a-box offerings, but you can’t just package zero-trust into a box.

Every government agency is in a different situation in terms of its security and digital transformation efforts. ‘Zero-trust as an offering’ just means that these companies have a way to talk to their customers and understand their challenges to be compliant with the EO.

Working with multiple federal clients has revealed they have decades of technologies all combined with overlapping interdependencies, intertwined like a bowl of spaghetti. If you pull at one and try to fix it, you’ll impact another strand attached. Sometimes, zero-trust can be a thin thread and you need to be careful. Having strong subject matter experts who understand these challenges before they make recommendations is key to a solid offering.

The other issue with untangling all these strands of capability is that it all costs money, resources and time. There’s no such thing as plug-and-play for zero-trust. It doesn’t come in a box.”

ExecutiveGov: With CMMC and other compliance standards changing to push the best business practices for federal contractors and companies, what can you tell us about the challenges of maintaining those standards and making changes to your own policies to remain compliant?

Sean DuGuay: “Capgemini has some of the most impressive people I’ve ever seen who are getting us through the complexities of the CMMC processes, and we’re looking to be one of the first federal contractors to become CMMC certified.  We’ve completed all our internal audits and we’re scheduled for the certification audit this year.

At its core, CMMC is intended to determine the current maturity of an organization’s cybersecurity initiatives. The keyword is maturity, as most companies and government agencies have been reactive instead of proactive over the past few years.

That’s the great thing about our company. Capgemini brings everything together because our capabilities are solid and reliable. We are at the forefront of helping the federal government improve its cybersecurity posture and maintaining the required standards.”

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BlueHalo Lands $1.4B Space Force Contract for Satellite Technological Development; CEO Jonathan Moneymaker Quoted
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BlueHalo Lands $1.4B Space Force Contract for Satellite Technological Development; CEO Jonathan Moneymaker Quoted

BlueHalo has won a $1.4 billion contract from the U.S. Space Force to support and execute the Satellite Communication Augmentation Resource program.

The Arlington, Virginia-based defense and space contractor said Tuesday it will oversee SCAR program activities across the full lifecycle, from preliminary plans through full-scale construction. The SCAR endeavor is positioned to supply an automated, adaptable assembly line of constantly evolving satellites via BlueHalo’s intricate radio-frequency technologies.

“Between the rapid proliferation of new space satellite constellations at a relentless rate and the criticality of the U.S. maintaining its strategic advantage as a Nation in space in the face of advancing adversaries, new technologies had to be brought to bear,” explained Jonathan Moneymaker, CEO of BlueHalo.

Moneymaker, who is a 2022 Wash100 Award recipient, also expressed his admiration for BlueHalo’s team of engineers, scientists and support staff for fostering the company’s Broad Area Deployable Ground terminal enabling Resilient communication (BADGER) that makes the SCAR program possible.

BADGER builds on BlueHalo’s proprietary Multi-band Software Defined Antenna (MSDA) platform, a phased array technology that streamlines mission operations via agile and re-configurable beamforming tiles. BADGER offers a multi-band and actionable ground communications apparatus with the MSDA as its basis.

In order to accomplish the SCAR mission, BlueHalo is set to collaborate with Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, who brings its OpenSpace platform to the table. OpenSpace is a software-powered satellite ground system that realizes scalable deployments in a flexible, cloud-agnostic, virtualized environment. Kratos is receiving a contract award valued at $160 million, tasking the company with software, services and various system components.

The contracts are a function of the Space Rapid Capabilities Office, a direct reporting division of the U.S. Space Force. According to Dan Gillings, sector president of BlueHalo, work will take place primarily at the company’s newly updated Albuquerque, New Mexico facility and participation in the SCAR program will generate 60 new engineering and manufacturing jobs.

BlueHalo’s Space Force contract win follows a series of recent contracts for the company. Earlier this month, it was announced they will furnish the Department of Defense with Titan Counter-Unmanned Aerial System kits. Additionally, in April, BlueHalo received a contract from the U.S. Army to equip the service branch with its laser weapon platform, LOCUST.

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Dawn Meyerriecks to Bring Government, Technology Expertise to ColdQuanta Board; CEO Scott Faris Quoted
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Dawn Meyerriecks to Bring Government, Technology Expertise to ColdQuanta Board; CEO Scott Faris Quoted

Former Central Intelligence Agency and NASA executive Dawn Meyerriecks has been elected to the board of directors of quantum technology company ColdQuanta.

In her new advisory role, Meyerriecks will leverage a three-decade career developing new products and services at major government and technology organizations, the Boulder, Colorado-based company said Tuesday.

“Dawn is a respected leader who brings a wealth of knowledge and global expertise to help us apply our cold atom technical advances to solve some of the world’s most complex problems,” said Scott Faris, CEO of ColdQuanta.

Meyerriecks began her career as a technical consultant at the multidisciplinary corporation TRW, which has since become a part of Northrop Grumman. She then worked for a decade and a half in NASA’s jet propulsion laboratory as a senior engineer and project manager and subsequently held the positions of chief technology officer of the Defense Information Systems Agency and technical director for the Joint Interoperability and Engineering Organization.

While at DISA, Meyerriecks spearheaded the chartering and administration of a new global information grid enterprise services organization, a communications architecture that protects, handles and directs Department of Defense information and data.

The executive has additionally worked in senior-level roles at AOL and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. Her most recent position was the deputy director of the CIA for science and technology, wherein she presided over an international team of thousands to offer technical, programmatic, operational and policy services. She was also responsible for the first restructure in nearly 60 years in order to align mission and intelligence collection needs while attuning standards to societal and health issues.

Regarding her new board residence, Meyerriecks shared, “I’m hopeful that my expertise and perspective will help the company further its goal of uniting the world’s systems with its transformative quantum technology.”

Meyerriecks is the eighth member of the ColdQuanta board. Her appointment follows the hire of Faris as CEO, which came concurrently with the company’s business reorganization in September.

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Devo Technology Drives New Contracts, Public Sector Partnerships; GM Dan Wilbricht Quoted
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Devo Technology Drives New Contracts, Public Sector Partnerships; GM Dan Wilbricht Quoted

Devo Technology announced on Monday that since the cloud-native logging and security analytics company was designed as “In-Progress” for full authorization through the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) back in February, Devo has continued to drive its momentum in other critical areas of public sector business.

Most notably, Devo Technology has been accepted as a partner in the Public Sector Program (PSP) with Amazon Web Services, which has increased the collaboration and resources for Devo to deliver end solutions that help customers solve their problems.

Devo Technology has also partnered with DLT to provide streamlined access to emerging technology solutions through existing government contract vehicles. In addition, Devo also increased its ability to sell its products and solutions to government entities through new availability with the General Services Administration (GSA) Schedule.

The company has also achieved “Supplier Status” with OMNIA Partners and integrated the Devo platform to help AFS collect all log traffic and correlate and set up alerts to monitor and look for any suspicious behavior in core sets of network devices and key systems.

“The Devo Platform was built for those on the front lines of defending U.S. cyber posture in a radically expanding risk landscape,” Dan Wilbricht, Public Sector GM at Devo, said following the FedRAMP announcement back in Feb. 2022.

“Devo’s dedication to achieving full FedRAMP authorization acknowledges the importance of providing federal agencies the best cybersecurity and logging solutions possible, so they can have insight into and defend their networks and focus on continuing to support the American people,” Wilbricht explained.

For the company’s growth, Devo Technology also had a 200 percent increase in personnel to grow the company’s public sector team significantly across direct and channel sales, solution engineering and marketing. The Devo Platform continues to provide exceptional quality services to ensure absolute commitment for the company’s customers in the public sector.

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