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DSCA Deputy Director Jed Royal to Transition as Principal Deputy Assistant Director Within Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Office
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DSCA Deputy Director Jed Royal to Transition as Principal Deputy Assistant Director Within Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Office

Jed Royal, deputy director of the Defense Security Cooperation Agency, will assume a new post under the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy as principal deputy assistant director for Indo-Pacific security affairs, effective Sept. 12.

DSCA said Royal has provided agency leadership amid critical periods such as during the global pandemic, U.S. withdrawal of its troops from Afghanistan and the current crisis in Ukraine.

“[The agency] is excited to continue working with [Royal] on important efforts affecting U.S. national security and defense interests in the Indo-Pacific region,” the DSCA statement reads.

Royal has been serving as DSCA deputy director since June 2021 and is responsible for security cooperation program portfolio oversight.

His career includes time serving as director of defense policy and plans at the U.S. Mission to NATO, acting deputy assistant secretary of defense for Afghanistan, Pakistan and Central Asia affairs within the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Policy, director for cooperative threat reduction policy in the Office of Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction as well as a number of other government posts.

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U.S. Space Force Awards $59M Contract for Unconventional Fuels Delivery to Amentum; Dr. Karl Spinnenweber Quoted
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U.S. Space Force Awards $59M Contract for Unconventional Fuels Delivery to Amentum; Dr. Karl Spinnenweber Quoted

Amentum announced on Wednesday that the company has received a seven-year, $59 million contract from the U.S. Space Force’s Space Launch Delta 30 in order to provide management, science, and engineering on commercial and government launch systems with unconventional fuels at Vandenberg Space Force Base.

Under the contract, Ametnum will leverage its leading-edge solutions to manage unconventional fuels for commercial and government space launch programs, including hypergolics, cryogenic and pneumatic commodities used in rockets, missiles, and spacecraft payloads. 

“Our extensive expertise in leveraging the latest technologies and industry best practices in unconventional fuels management, storage and delivery will ensure our team meets the high-consequence mission of safeguarding U.S. and allied interests in space,” explained Dr. Karl Spinnenweber, president of Amentum’s Critical Missions Group. 

Over the last 14 years, Amentum has successfully supported more than 200 launch events from both the Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Space Force Station to develop the team’s understanding and management capabilities to ensure the safety and risk mitigation of the space launch systems it supports.

Amentum will move towards launch systems to provide transient alert aircraft solutions as well as fuel accountability, personnel protective equipment management, hazardous operations, fleet management, systems and safety engineering, and training.

“Our 14-year performance on the Florida Space Coast as a critical partner to NASA, the U.S. Air & Space Forces, and commercial launch providers has established Amentum as the premier partner to and developer of new capabilities for the space launch industry,” said Dr. Spinnenweber. 

Amentum will perform the work at Vandenberg Space Force Base, Calif. for Space Launch Delta 30 as well as the Patrick Space Force Base and Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida Space Launch Delta 45. 

About Amentum

Amentum is a premier global leader in designing, engineering, managing and modernizing critical systems and programs of national significance across defense, security, intelligence, energy, and environment. Driven to create a safer, smarter, cleaner world, we innovate as a team of inventive doers passionate about making a difference. 

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‘How Deltek Costpoint Users Win More Deals’ Research Released; Author Samuel Hamway Quoted
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‘How Deltek Costpoint Users Win More Deals’ Research Released; Author Samuel Hamway Quoted

Deltek announced on Wednesday that the company has released recent findings and insights from its How Deltek Costpoint Users Win More Deals research from Nucleus Research to provide an assessment of how product usability and functionality are driving the operational value of the solutions in the ERP marketplace.

How Deltek Costpoint Users Win More Deals can be downloaded here.

“Deltek Costpoint’s ERP offering is focused specifically on government contractors, bringing an end-to-end ERP solution, from accounting to the shop floor, with a suite of compliance certification offerings and security features specifically designed for work with the United States Federal Government,” author Samuel Hamway, a research analyst at Nucleus Research.

Deltek Costpoint is the industry-standard integrated project accounting and resource planning solution that was built specifically for government contractors that need to stay compliant with government accounting and cybersecurity standards.

Hamway’s report was written based on interviews with several Deltek Costpoint customers who all greatly benefited from the project, which focused on the benefits that customers get from using the project and enhanced security and compliance, improved organizational visibility as well as leveraging the company’s significant capabilities in the GovCon market, its out-of-the-box functionality and work in audit compliance.

“Additionally, the solution serves both enterprise businesses and SMBs, supporting both service and product-centric use cases in addition to proven scalability for growing businesses,” Samuel Hamway added.

Following the research and results of the ‘How Deltek Costpoint Users Win More Deals’ report, Hamway concluded that Nucleus expects increased adoption of Deltek due to the aimed focus of Costpoint, which also includes its features enhancing productivity, visibility and security.

About Deltek Costpoint

With built-in controls to implement FAR-compliant processes, Costpoint guides businesses through growth and maturity in government contracting. It provides reduced accounting and compliance complexity, deep project cost allocation and segregation, a data and technology infrastructure enabling digitization and automation to the entire project lifecycle, as well as best-in-class customer support.

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State Department Selects CRDF Global to Boost Efforts Against Chemical, Biological Threats
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State Department Selects CRDF Global to Boost Efforts Against Chemical, Biological Threats

The State Department’s Nonproliferation and Disarmament Fund has entered into a cooperative agreement with CRDF Global to help strengthen cross-sector efforts against the development of chemical and biological weapons.

Under the $7 million award, CRDF Global will support cooperative initiatives to oversee hazardous and weaponizable chemicals and other materials, raise security awareness of biological threats among small chemical vendors and distributors and prevent diversion of dangerous materials, the nonprofit organization said.

CRDF Global will also provide law enforcement with training materials to detect, prevent mitigate and respond to chemical attacks.

A 14-member international team assembled by CRDF Global will bring subject matter expertise to support the mission to reduce chemical and biological weapons terrorism threats.

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DHS Releases Report on Protecting Public Alert System From Electromagnetic Pulses
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DHS Releases Report on Protecting Public Alert System From Electromagnetic Pulses

A group of agencies from the Department of Homeland Security has released a report providing information on operational approaches and best practices to protect the National Public Warning System from electromagnetic pulse attacks to prevent the disruption of national emergency information dissemination.

The Electromagnetic Pulse Shielding Mitigations report also outlines several actions that critical infrastructure owners and operators could take to safeguard their equipment against electromagnetic pulse attacks, DHS said Tuesday.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Integrated Public Alert and Warning System Program partners with the private sector to equip radio broadcast stations with EMP-protected backup transmitters and power generations to ensure the continuity of NPWS communications during an emergency.

“Electromagnetic pulses, whether caused by an intentional EMP attack or a naturally occurring geomagnetic disturbance from severe space weather, could disrupt critical infrastructure such as the electrical grid, communications equipment, water and wastewater systems, and transportation modes,” said Kathryn Coulter Mitchell, senior DHS official performing the duties of the undersecretary for science and technology.

The report was developed by DHS Science and Technology Directorate, FEMA IPAWS and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.

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Letterkenny Army Depot Prepares Own Modernization Plan to Support Future Defense Systems
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Letterkenny Army Depot Prepares Own Modernization Plan to Support Future Defense Systems

The U.S. Army’s maintenance depot tasked with repairing and modernizing air and missile defense platforms and precision fire systems has outlined a $1.4 billion modernization plan to perform major upgrades in preparation for next-generation battlefield systems, Breaking Defense reported Tuesday.

Letterkenny Army Depot plans to modernize its facilities, upgrade equipment and boost workforce development and training to support future air defense systems including platforms designed to counter small drone threats.

The facility also proposes to establish new production space across five large buildings and invest in the development of a high-energy laser test range.

Kate Williams, director of the office of strategic management at Letterkenny Army Depot, said the plan is crucial to keep up with the Army’s modernization efforts and align the facility’s capabilities with future mission requirements.

“We need to build the right facilities at the right time with the right equipment and the right skill sets prepared to provide service to the sustainment community,” Williams said.

The modernization is still awaiting final resourcing approval from Army Materiel Command.

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Pentagon Unveils Updated Space Policy Document
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Pentagon Unveils Updated Space Policy Document

The Department of Defense has issued an updated directive that acknowledges space “as a priority domain of national military power” and implements several “tenets of responsible behavior in space” that Lloyd Austin, secretary of DOD and a 2022 Wash100 Award winner, outlined in a July 2021 memo, SpaceNews reported Tuesday.

The new space policy document calls for DOD to strengthen the security, safety, accessibility and sustainability of the space domain; defend and protect the use of space for U.S. national security, economy and allies; and improve partnership with the Intelligence Community to build up the unity of effort and enhance the effectiveness of space operations.

The directive highlights the need to transform the DOD space enterprise to meet the rapid changes in the strategic environment by maturing the U.S. Space Force’s capability and capacity, enabling U.S. Space Command to carry out operations in space and improving DOD’s space architecture planning, requirements and make acquisition initiatives into a “streamlined, agile process” to expedite the delivery of space capabilities.

The policy also outlines the space-related duties and responsibilities of several DOD officials, including the assistant secretary of defense for space policy, director of the Defense Technology Security Administration and defense undersecretaries for acquisition and sustainment and research and engineering.

Deputy DOD Secretary Kathleen Hicks, a 2022 Wash100 Award recipient, signed the space policy document on Aug. 30.

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DOD’s Innovation Arm Seeks Commercial Software to Help Address Supply Chain Risks
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DOD’s Innovation Arm Seeks Commercial Software to Help Address Supply Chain Risks

The Defense Innovation Unit has asked industry stakeholders to propose commercial software platforms that could help address threats to the defense industrial base by building end-to-end alternate paths of key supply chains and identifying and mitigating risks within those supply chains.

DIU said it is seeking analytic techniques that could enable Department of Defense users to ingest government-furnished data sources, proprietary data and commercially available information to populate computational supply chain representations and perform modeling and simulation within a particular value chain for supplier diversification, future planning and analysis of downstream effects of disruption in a supply chain node, among other requirements.

The proposed platform for the agency’s Argo Navis program requirement should come with several features, including automated data fusion across commercially available, publicly available and customer-provided sources; pre-built risk model repository for supply chain risk mitigation purposes; behavior-based detection models; and distinct profiles for entities with a particular supply chain or network.

The Pentagon’s innovation arm said DOD may field selected platforms in an Impact Level 5 or IL6 environment.

Submissions are due Sept. 16.

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Commerce Department Issues Strategy for CHIPS for America Program Implementation
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Commerce Department Issues Strategy for CHIPS for America Program Implementation

The Department of Commerce has unveiled its strategy for implementing a $50 billion program meant to strengthen the U.S. semiconductor industry, create jobs and drive innovation.

The implementation strategy for the CHIPS for America program was released in accordance with an executive order that President Joe Biden signed in August, the department said Tuesday.

The document outlines the program’s four key goals, such as expanding domestic semiconductor production, building a stable supply of mature node semiconductors and investing in research and development efforts to ensure that future chip technologies are developed and manufactured in the U.S.

The CHIPS for America program backs three initiatives: large-scale investments in leading-edge manufacturing; new production capacity for mature and current generation chips, new and specialty technologies and semiconductor industry suppliers; and initiatives to strengthen U.S. leadership in R&D.

The program also establishes long-term strategic goals and calls for potential program applicants to consider approaches to increase scale and attract private capital and advance collaboration to build out semiconductor ecosystems.

According to the strategy, the program will spend approximately $28 billion on efforts meant to drive domestic manufacturing of logic and memory chips and invest $11 billion in a national semiconductor technology center and national advanced packaging manufacturing program, among other initiatives.

The department will release application guidance for the program in early February and plans to issue awards and loans on a rolling basis.

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DTRA Issues RFI for Cooperative Threat Reduction Program
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DTRA Issues RFI for Cooperative Threat Reduction Program

The Defense Threat Reduction Agency has released a request for information on potential industry sources of cooperative threat reduction services.

DTRA plans to award five to seven companies spots on an indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract that could run between five and eight years in support of the Cooperative Threat Reduction Program, according to the RFI published Tuesday.

The CTR Program will cover a wide range of products and services to eliminate, mitigate, transport and ensure the security of offensive nuclear weapons, biological threats, radiological items and chemical weapons.

The initiative also includes support to partner countries to help strengthen their capability to deter, prevent and detect illegal trafficking of weapons of mass destruction and related materials. Threat reduction activities should be carried out abroad in accordance with the partner country’s regulatory frameworks and laws.

Interested stakeholders should submit statements outlining their capability to meet the CTR requirement as a prime contractor. 

Responses are due Sept. 16.

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