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Oracle wins $396M federal HR systems overhaul contract

Nick Wakeman — Wed, 10 Jun 2026 15:11:18 -0400

The Office of Personnel Management is sticking with the incumbent as the agency moves forward with a plan to modernize human resource systems across the government.

OPM has picked Oracle for the 10-year, $395.8 million Federal HR 2.0 contract that will cover more than two million federal employees. Oracle faced challengers such as Workday, IBM, SAP and Economic Systems Inc.

IBM and Economic Systems filed protests earlier this year objecting to terms in the solicitation. IBM withdrew its protest and GAO denied Economic Systems’ protest on June 1. Once the protests were resolved, OPM was clear to make its award.

Much of what OPM uses to manage HR functions is run on PeopleSoft, which Oracle acquired in 2005. Oracle recently extended its support for PeopleSoft through 2037, which includes updates and fixes.

The contract is structured as a firm-fixed-price award with a 10-year ordering period. Requirements include core HR and personnel action processing, payroll and benefits integration, audit-ready reporting, and time and attendance tracking.

The system also has to comply with security standards such as FISMA and FedRAMP, as well as be interoperable with existing federal IT systems.

OPM wants the core implementation to be completed by the fall. Other phases will follow for agency transitions, and then licensing and sustainment.

More than 100 HR systems currently operate across the federal government. Federal HR 2.0 is OPM’s attempt to wrangle all that into a single, integrated platform.

The goal of the program is to centralize HR functions across government agencies. OPM wants a platform that can be the infrastructure for a data-driven federal HR ecosystem, according to solicitation documents.

Some of the functions OPM wants include position management, personnel action, records processing, workforce analytics, and employee and manager self-service capabilities.

Given that the award was announced Wednesday, the clock is ticking for competitors to file protests. Companies generally have 10 days to file after a debriefing.

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GSA gets moving on second batch of Polaris SDVOSB awards

Ross Wilkers — Wed, 10 Jun 2026 11:53:40 -0400

The General Services Administration has lined up a second batch of service-disabled/veteran-owned small businesses it wants for the Polaris government-wide IT contract.

GSA finalized 23 phase one awards to SDVOSB companies in the fall, then added four more firms to this track of Polaris in December and January. Original apparent awardees DecisionPoint-Agile Defense Joint Venture, Mindven, Paragon-Vertex Joint Venture and Sugarloaf Technologies were left off the final list and subsequently put back on.

In a Tuesday update to Sam.gov, GSA lists 17 SDVOSB companies as apparently successful offerors as part of this track’s second phase of awards. This move opens the window for companies to file protests of whether this group of contractors are, in fact, small businesses or not.

That notice also reiterates what GSA has told industry all along, in that no companies are eliminated from the competition as the agency continues to evaluate bids via its phased approach.

GSA received 251 proposals for the SDVOSB pool.

Polaris is a 10-year vehicle that covers emerging technologies and IT solutions in areas such as artificial intelligence, automation, immersive technology, distributed ledger technology and edge computing.

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NIH pulls the plug on its government-wide contracts

Nick Wakeman — Wed, 10 Jun 2026 11:18:49 -0400

After floundering for over a year, the National Institutes of Health have officially pulled the plug on its program for government-wide acquisition contracts.

NIH's IT Acquisition and Assessment Center has released the end dates for the CIO-SP3 and CIO-CS contracts.

The last day for making task order awards will be Oct. 29. The period of performance must end by Dec. 31, 2028. Task orders awarded after June 8 also cannot have period of performance beyond Dec. 31, 2028.

The end of the NITAAC program has been widely expected since the start of the Trump administration, but the troubles date back to at least 2022. NITAAC struggled to get CIO-SP4 awarded and its attempts faced rounds of challenges at the Government Accountability Office and the U.S. Court of Federal Claims.

Many of the complaints revolved around the self-scoring cut-off line that NITAAC used to eliminate bidders. Bidders argued that the threshold was arbitrary.

The Trump administration came into office with a focus on streamlining acquisition and consolidating more contracts at the General Services Administration.

In February, NITAAC told told the U.S. Court of Federal Claims that it was cancelling CIO-SP4 to align with Trump’s executive order “Eliminating Waste and Saving Taxpayer Dollars by Consolidating Procurement.”

The announcement this week sets the end date for CIO-SP3, CIO-SP3 Small Business and CIO-CS.

NITAAC will essentially shutter at the end of 2028.

NITAAC is also telling agencies to download their order file documents from the Electronic Government Ordering System (eGOS) by Dec. 31, 2028.

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CACI's Gray to retire

Ross Wilkers — Wed, 10 Jun 2026 11:16:15 -0400

After nine years at CACI International, DeEtte Gray will retire as president of U.S. operations on June 30 and transition to a strategic adviser role for the remainder of the year.

CACI announced Gray’s impending retirement in a regulatory filing posted Friday. As a public company, CACI is required to disclose key transitions in its corporate officer group and board of directors as they happen.

Gray’s current responsibilities cover strategic planning, serving customers, driving market growth and investing in technology development. She leads a group of 20,000 employees that work across business areas such as C3I, cybersecurity, digital solutions, enterprise IT, mission engineering and support, space, and spectrum superiority.

She first joined CACI in 2017 as president of U.S. operations, then was appointed president of business and IT solutions in 2019.

In the spring of 2022, Gray participated in a two-part episode of our podcast to discuss both CACI's enterprise technology strategy and her advice for future female executives in the industry.

Gray returned to the president of U.S. operations role in 2024.

Prior to CACI, Gray worked as president of the intelligence and security sector at BAE Systems U.S.’ subsidiary for nearly five years.

Gray also spent 13 years at Lockheed Martin, including as vice president of enterprise IT solutions for the defense unit within the company’s former IS&GS services segment. That role involved programs in enterprise architecture, software, cybersecurity and network operations.

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DHA plans shift in approach for electronic health record follow-on

Ross Wilkers — Tue, 09 Jun 2026 15:21:09 -0400

The Defense Health Agency has decided to go in a different direction for the follow-on contract to operate and maintain the military’s electronic health record, which was declared fully deployed in the spring of 2024.

DHA previously signaled it would take the same approach used in 2015 for the original single award to Leidos, which won the 10-year contract that designated it the lead systems integrator. The Oracle Health EHR, known as Cerner in 2015, and the Henry Schein dental record are part of the systems of systems known as MHS Genesis.

But DHA is now looking to set up the new contract with a more modular approach that brings a “fundamentally different and more competitive acquisition strategy” to the MHS Genesis ecosystem, the agency said in a Monday Sam.gov notice.

As DHA works on that blueprint, the agency is planning an extension of the contract with Leidos for another potential 12-month period that also lays out its pathway for the shift away from a single lead integrator.

One key priority for DHA and the Leidos-led team involves the migration of the EHR into Oracle’s cloud computing infrastructure, a move aimed at enabling communications between the MHS Genesis solution itself and military treatment facilities around the world.

DHA’s justification and approval notice for the extension indicates the agency will work to establish a direct relationship with Oracle for the hosting responsibilities during the bridge period.

Certain software licenses will also transition away from Leidos during the bridge period as DHA enters into new license maintenance and subscription agreements with software-as-a-service product providers.

Those key action items are part of DHA’s larger effort to work with Leidos on completing cloud migration activities, finalizing system documentation and transitioning responsibilities to additional contractors.

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Tyto Athene buys cloud migration provider

Ross Wilkers — Tue, 09 Jun 2026 12:43:43 -0400

Tyto Athene has acquired a cloud computing migration specialist focused on the U.S. intelligence community as part of an ongoing push to grow the portfolio of offerings for this particular customer set.

Ready Support Services opened for business in 2010 to help intelligence agencies and others across the national security ecosystem transition their IT assets to cloud platforms and shared services environments.

By purchasing RSS, Tyto is also looking to add IT service architecture and design services that work across multiple security enclaves. Financial terms of the transaction announced Tuesday were not disclosed.

"RSS brings deep, mission-tested expertise in enterprise service management, IT asset management, and a comprehensive ServiceNow operations focus,” Tyto Athene CEO Dennis Kelly said in a release. “Their specialized cloud migration and on-premises deployment capabilities deliver exactly the tailored support the IC requires when transitioning and securing its most critical applications.”

RSS’ relationship with and specialty in ServiceNow centers around on-premise deployments in classified environments.

Tyto is owned by the private equity firm Arlington Capital Partners, which first purchased the integrator in 2019 and has supported several add-on acquisitions since.

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JP Donovan gets Godspeed's backing

Ross Wilkers — Tue, 09 Jun 2026 12:34:57 -0400

JP Donovan, a general contracting firm that focuses on specialized infrastructure construction, has received an investment from private equity firm Godspeed Capital Management to support the company’s space and defense growth efforts.

JP Donovan opened for business in 1998 to carry out construction, engineering, fabrication and precision machining work for projects in areas such as space infrastructure, heavy civil and design-build. The company is one of three primes on a potential three-year, $100 million contract NASA awarded in 2023 for ground support equipment for Artemis lunar missions.

In getting a new investor like Godspeed, JP Donovan is looking to further build out its infrastructure delivery capacity that includes fabrication and precision machining efforts. Financial terms of the transaction announced Monday were not disclosed.

William “Bill” Deane will continue as JP Donovan’s chief executive, a role he started in January after 22 years in federal engineering and construction. Founder John Donovan will hold a significant ownership stake in the company alongside Godspeed and is staying on as chief construction officer.

JP Donovan now becomes Godspeed’s second portfolio company focused on U.S. space programs alongside Aurex, whose core focus areas include missile defense and hypersonics.

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Trump memo pushes national security agencies to move faster on AI

David DiMolfetta — Tue, 09 Jun 2026 10:30:00 -0400

President Donald Trump on Friday signed a national security memo aimed at speeding up government use of advanced artificial intelligence across the military and intelligence community, while also trying to harden those systems against foreign theft and manipulation.

The National Security Presidential Memorandum reflects a growing view inside the White House that U.S. security agencies are moving too slowly to adopt frontier AI tools, even as the evolving technology improves rapidly and rivals like China seek ways to craft their own versions.

It calls for agencies like the FBI, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Office of the National Cyber Director to build “deep, proactive” relationships with AI companies so that cutting-edge models can be made available to national security personnel faster.

It also instructs officials to identify areas where AI could improve government operations, including intelligence analysis and cyber threat detection. At the same time, the memo says the tools cannot be used for unlawful surveillance of Americans, language that speaks to long-running civil liberties concerns over how agencies collect, analyze and process data.

The memo also focuses heavily on protecting U.S.-developed AI models from foreign adversaries. It directs senior officials, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and NSA Director Gen. Joshua Rudd, to work with private-sector companies on security protocols meant to prevent advanced models from being stolen, copied or compromised.

One area of concern is model distillation, a technique in which an AI system repeatedly queries another AI system in an attempt to mimic its performance and build out a separate model. The White House in April accused China of carrying out “industrial-scale” distillation attacks on U.S. AI systems.

The memo also directs agencies to work with industry to secure the infrastructure that supports frontier AI, including the data centers that store the enormous amounts of computing power needed to run advanced models. Data centers have recently become more attractive targets during periods of geopolitical tension.

Trump recently signed an AI security executive order that leans heavily on voluntary cooperation with industry. That order encourages developers to submit powerful new models to a 30-day government review before public release.

More AI-related guidance is expected soon. Nick Andersen, CISA’s acting director, said last week that the cyber agency is preparing a binding operational directive focused on AI-enabled cyber threats.

The administration’s approach to AI has shifted in recent months as officials confront a new class of cyber-focused models, including Anthropic’s Mythos, that can rapidly identify vulnerabilities across computer networks. The model has become a major driver of government discussions over how advanced AI systems could reshape both defensive and offensive cyber operations.

Last week, Anthropic said it is expanding Project Glasswing — its controlled-access program for giving trusted organizations early access to Mythos — to about 150 additional entities. The new group spans more than 15 countries and includes organizations in water, healthcare, communications and other critical infrastructure sectors.

OpenAI’s recent release of GPT-5.5-Cyber, which also demonstrated sophisticated cyber capabilities, has further heightened concerns in Washington over how quickly these systems are advancing and how they could reshape both cyber defensive and offensive operations.

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Blue Origin rocket explosion shows ‘fragility’ of national-security launch plans

Thomas Novelly — Tue, 09 Jun 2026 10:00:00 -0400

Hours after a Blue Origin rocket blew up on a Florida launch pad last month, a SpaceX rocket lofted a military payload from a nearby site—neatly illustrating concerns about whether the commercial launch industry can actually add providers quickly enough to match the Pentagon’s accelerating demands.

The incident should be “a moment to step back and reassess the fragility of our space launch infrastructure” and how little competition exists for the nation’s military launch missions, said Todd Harrison, the American Enterprise Institute’s defense space expert.

Just two companies are certified to launch the nearly 100 National Security Space launch missions the Pentagon has budgeted for in the next five years: SpaceX and United Launch Alliance.

Several companies are working to introduce new heavy-lift rockets, which handle payloads between 22 and 55 tons. But the ill-fated Blue Origin test failed to move the New Glenn rocket closer to qualification and ULA’s Vulcan heavy rocket is still sidelined amid a probe into a solid rocket booster anomaly. That leaves Elon Musk’s SpaceX with a heavy-lift monopoly, at least for now.

That’s not where service leaders, who plan a steep increase in launches, want to be.

Just before Blue Origin’s May 28 mishap, service officials awarded a task order to the Jeff Bezos-owned company for a National Reconnaissance Office mission by late 2027 or early 2028. Soon afterward, they reiterated their plans to count on the company.

“The U.S. Space Force (USSF) and NRO remain committed partners with Blue Origin and will work with them on the New Glenn vehicle anomaly experienced during its integrated vehicle hot fire test yesterday evening,” Space Systems Command said in a May 29 press release.

AEI’s Harrison suggested the incident was a reminder not to count too heavily on plans.

“I think it hurts some of that optimism that the Space Force may have had about getting a third provider, but I think, in a practical sense, it's not as if there are near-term missions that we're depending on New Glenn,” he said. “I think it’s just taking some shine off the rosy projections for the future, that there are going to be more hiccups like this along the way.”

‘We are the primary launch provider’

Congress is also concerned about the lack of launch providers.

The House Armed Service Committee’s initial draft of the 2027 National Defense Authorization Act asks the Air Force Secretary to brief lawmakers on how the Space Force is “investing in capability and capacity” to increase the service’s launch cadence. It also asks for ideas to “accelerate development and reduce barriers to participation by nontraditional defense contractors” to meet the growing mission demand. That report is due by March 2027.

“The committee has a continued interest in maintaining and growing competition across the space enterprise, to include launch,” one HASC staffer said.

In the meantime, SpaceX dominates the market.

“We are the primary launch provider for the U.S. government,” the private company wrote last month in its S-1 filing, part of the paperwork for its highly anticipated initial public offering.

SpaceX rockets launched 11 of last year’s 12 national-security launches, and holds the contracts for five of seven high-profile launch missions in the current fiscal year. SpaceX also launches its own satellites for the Starlink communications constellation, which has become crucial for military operations.

SpaceX has a huge lead against companies trying to take on future national security space missions, said Victoria Samson, the Secure World’s Foundation’s chief director of space security and stability.

“It does speak to how complicated these issues are, how far SpaceX is ahead of its competitors, and the, I would say, unlikelihood of any real competitor to SpaceX in the near future,” Samson said.

But SpaceX’s IPO filing also revealed weaknesses. Its launch business lost roughly $657 million last year. Despite a huge push to field orbital data centers in space, its AI segment lost $6.3 billion. The only profitable segment of the company was Starlink, with $4.4 billion in income.

And several national-security analysts noted that SpaceX is less than fully focused on military launches.

Byron Callan, a managing director at research firm Capital Alpha Partners, said in a note about SpaceX’s prospectus that “does not suggest that SpaceX is being positioned as a major defense contractor” and instead is more aligned with other technology sectors.

Harrison said that SpaceX’s other ambitions could pull focus away from its launch business.

“SpaceX today enjoys a near monopoly on military and national security space launch, and that's a vulnerability, because we're talking about a company that has evolved its focus over time from being a space launch company to being a SATCOM company to being an AI data center and space company,” he said. “Launch is an increasingly small part of the SpaceX portfolio.”

More missions, more launchpads

It’s unclear just how long it will take Blue Origin to recover from the explosion, which damaged its only launch pad.

Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp said this week on X that the company plans to have another New Glenn rocket in the skies by “the end of this year.” But SpaceX needed more than a year to repair its own launch pad after a 2016 Falcon 9 explosion.

Kiko Donchev, SpaceX’s vice president of launch, didn’t comment on Blue Origin’s timeline, but described in a post on X how extensive the investigation and cleanup process is.“In the initial days and weeks, you’re using a scalpel, not a bulldozer,” Donchev said, “Cleanup has to be done with a sense of urgency, but extreme precision. It’s literally launch pad surgery.”

The company reportedly has plans to build a second launchpad at the Space Force base and another site is in the works at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, officials said in April.

Still, the mishap underscores how the paucity of launch pads is a bottleneck for the Space Force’s plans.This year, the service plans to launch more than 200 rockets from the Cape and Vandenberg. In the next decade, that could increase to more than 3,000 launches per year, according to the service’s ambitious “Objective Force 2040” document.

That same document also warns that increased reliance on those two bases “creates enduring vulnerability to natural hazards, operational disruption, and degraded performance during periods of peak demand.”

Last month, the Commercial Space Federation, an industry group, sounded an alarm about the increased tempo of launch missions on traditional sites.

“U.S. orbital launch demand has surpassed 180 launches per year, straining infrastructure that

must be developed years in advance of its need,” the report said, adding that the Defense Department, NASA, local governments, and private companies should “coordinate infrastructure upgrade investments” to improve launch facilities amid growing tempo.

Service leaders told Defense One in April that they’re looking at expanding launch capabilities to other sites and to more providers.

Harrison said the Blue Origin mishap also shows why the government can’t leave the expansion of launch infrastructure to for-profit companies.

“You need to invest in some excess capacity, so that you have it when you need it. It could be a rocket failure that takes out a pad, it could be a hurricane, it could be an earthquake, fire, a wildfire,” Harrison said. “But if you want to have a robust launch enterprise, then you've got to build in some redundancy and some resilience that the commercial sector, which is trying to maximize profits, would not necessarily do on its own.”

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Apex, Axiom and Impulse Space detail their newest venture rounds

Ross Wilkers — Mon, 08 Jun 2026 12:32:00 -0400

Apex

The satellite and bus producer has secured $200 million in growth capital to support work on expanding its manufacturing campus and ramping up vertical integration of subsystems.

Apex started in 2022 to design and build productized buses that control how satellites generate power and communicate, while also giving customers the ability to add new equipment. Government agencies and satellite operators represent core customer sets for Apex, which is eyeing later this year for the launch of a handful of satellites.

Glade Brook Capital Partners and Washington Harbour Partners led this growth capital round, which values the company at a touted $2.3 billion. This round follows Apex’s $200 million Series D raise in the fall that pushed its touted valuation past $1 billion.

In conjunction with the new round, Apex has also hired former Axon executive Michael Kopet as chief financial officer to help lead this new phase of the strategy.

Apex’s key priorities for development include Nova 1, a satellite platform hosting an on-orbit space-based interceptor demonstration that is scheduled to launch this summer. The Project Shadow demonstration is intended to show that the spacecraft can host and support missile interceptors while orbiting the Earth.

Axiom Space

The human space exploration and infrastructure company has added another $175 million in capital to an investment round it announced in February at roughly $350 million.

With this final close, Axiom Space now touts the round as having hauled in $525 million through an “opportunistic extension” intended to tap into investor interest in its commercial space station efforts and work on spacesuits for NASA’s Artemis lunar exploration effort.

MUFT Bank Ltd., Japan’s largest bank, is a new investor that is joining Axiom’s network of backers through the $175 million extension, for which J.P. Morgan acted as the placement agent.

Axiom Space started in 2016 and is positioning itself to eventually be the commercial successor to the International Space Station, which is scheduled for decommissioning in 2030.

The company is gearing the new capital toward the space station and spacesuit programs, along with its broader technology roadmap and other space infrastructure efforts.

Impulse Space

This specialist in space transportation has collected $500 million in Series D capital to aid its efforts at expanding the team and capacity to produce vehicles, propulsion systems and other key architecture.

Impulse Space was founded in 2021 by CEO Tom Mueller, employee No. 1 at SpaceX and principal engineer of the rocket engines that power the Falcon 9 and Dragon spacecraft. Mueller’s idea for starting Impulse was to build vehicles that are more maneuverable, which would help satellites and payloads move throughout space.

137 Ventures and Banner VC co-led the Series D round, which pushes Impulse’s touted valuation past $1 billion and follows the $300 million Series C raise in 2025. Founder’s Fund, Lux Capital and Linse Capital also participated.

Impulse has planned for at least 200 open roles are planned across propulsion, avionics, autonomy, spacecraft systems, manufacturing and mission operations.

The company’s flagship systems include Mira, a maneuvering spacecraft designed to support in-space operations, and the Helios kick stage scheduled for first flight in 2027.

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Quantum Space agrees on transaction that will take it public

Ross Wilkers — Mon, 08 Jun 2026 10:56:53 -0400

Quantum Space, a satellite manufacturer led by former NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine, has agreed to a transaction that will take the company public four years after its founding.

Quantum Space said Monday that it will merge with Inflection Point Acquisition Corp. VI, a so-called “blank check” company that collected $253 million in its March initial public offering. Special purpose acquisition companies, or SPACs, are created specifically to merge or acquire with a private company for the purpose of taking it public.

All parties involved expect to close the move in the fourth quarter, after which Quantum Space’s stock would trade under the “QSPC” ticker symbol on the NASDAQ exchange.

In becoming a public company, Quantum Space is looking to capture rising investor interest in defense and space companies as the initial public offering of SpaceX looms over the capital markets.

Fiscal year 2026 revenue is estimated to be $24 million with an FY 2027 target of $61 million, according to Quantum Space’s investor presentation.

The company’s strategy going forward centers around Ranger, a spacecraft being designed to operate autonomously in multiple orbits of interest to government and commercial users. This includes low-Earth orbit, geosynchronous orbits and the cislunar space region between Earth and the Moon.

As part of the transaction, Quantum Space will receive $300 million in private investment in public equity capital prior to closure for development work on Ranger and expansion of production facilities.

Bridenstine joined Quantum Space as CEO in May to lead this iteration of Quantum Space’s push for growth in national security space, which includes work on Space Force’s Andromeda satellite program. Quantum Space is one of 14 awardees on that contract awarded in April, which Space Force has since increased the ceiling of to $6.2 billion.

"We have designed Ranger to satisfy the U.S. Space Force’s Theory of Competitive Endurance: avoiding operational surprise, denying first-mover advantage, and enabling counter-space campaigning,” Bridenstine said in a release. “We believe Ranger will enable us to meet accelerating demand in an environment where sustained maneuverability is no longer optional. Being a public company will better allow us to scale production, deliver on the contracts we've already won, and serve new national security, civil, and commercial customers who have been waiting for this platform."

Rockville, Maryland-headquartered Quantum Space touts its portfolio as including six contracts with federal agencies including Space Force. Other customers include the Defense Department, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and Air Force Research Laboratory.

Quantum Space currently has a $600 million equity value that could double to roughly $1.2 billion if there are no redemptions by Inflection Point’s shareholders.

Kam Ghaffarian, the serial entrepreneur who founded Quantum Space in 2022, is the company’s executive chairman. He also started the space companies Intuitive Machines and Stinger Ghaffarian Technologies, which KBR acquired in 2018.

Cantor is acting as lead placement agent and Moelis & Company LLC is working as the joint placement agent to Inflection Point. Cantor is also the exclusive financial adviser to Quantum Space. White & Case LLP is legal adviser to Inflection Point. Reed Smith LLP is legal advisor to Quantum Space. DLA Piper LLP is legal counsel to Cantor and Moelis & Company.

Below is a CNBC interview with Bridenstine that aired Monday.

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How supply chain crises emerge with faulty assumptions

Don A. Baker — Mon, 08 Jun 2026 10:30:00 -0400

In large federal programs, the earliest expectations often become the hardest risks to unwind, especially when those expectations are built on commercial supply chains that cannot support government requirements.

Large government programs rarely fail because of a single dramatic event. More often, they drift off course because expectations were set long before the program had the information needed to validate them.

In today’s environment, one of the most persistent sources of misalignment comes from a simple but consequential behavior: government customers increasingly base their budgets and timelines on commercial supply chains that bear no resemblance to the compliant supply chains required for federal acquisition.

This dynamic begins innocently. A customer conducts their own market research, often before a program office is even aware a requirement is forming. They compare prices on Amazon, configure systems on Dell’s consumer site, or assemble a security package from a retail vendor.

These commercial references become the foundation for their budget, their timeline, and their expectations of what the program should deliver. Because the information is accessible, it feels authoritative to the client, because it is commercial, it can lead the client to feeling that these are realistic and current expectations, and because it is simple, it feels like something that is easily actionable.

The reality that exists is commercial supply chains are built to operate for a different world. They optimize speed, global sourcing, and minimal friction to meet the needs of the everyday consumer, relying on mixed inventory, foreign manufacturing, and distribution models that prioritize convenience over traceability.

These commercial supply chains are not designed to support multi‑unit government purchases, controlled distribution, serialized asset tracking, or the compliance documentation required under federal acquisition rules. When a customer anchors their expectations to commercial data, they are anchoring them to a supply chain that cannot support their requirements.

The gap becomes visible the moment a program attempts to translate a commercial assumption into a compliant procurement. A laptop that costs $1,200 on a consumer site may cost twice that amount once federal warranty requirements, lifecycle support, and TAA‑eligible manufacturing are factored in. A security camera available for two‑day shipping may have a 120‑day lead time in its NDAA‑compliant, TAA‑eligible form.

Even when a device is technically NDAA‑compliant, it may still be manufactured in China, making it unusable on TAA‑restricted contracts or secure facilities for programs that do not possess TAA requirements. These nuances are invisible to customers conducting commercial research, but they are decisive in government procurement, timelines, and budgetary considerations.

The most common result of this process is client sticker shock that has the potential to destabilize programs before they begin. Budgets built on commercial pricing begin to systematically collapse under the weight of compliant sourcing requirements for government programs. Delivery schedules built on Amazon delivery estimates unravel when documentation, traceability, and controlled distribution are introduced.

As the gap between expectation and reality widens, programs begin to drift toward shadow supply chains — informal, undocumented sourcing paths that emerge not out of negligence, but out of pressure to deliver against commitments that were never feasible or fail outright with missed service line agreements or through deliverables that do not meet governmental requirements.

Shadow supply chains exist and are not solely created by procurement teams. They are created by expectations that were set before supply chain managers or procurement teams were ever consulted. Program Managers, Capture Managers, Business Development Directors and clients need to understand, once a requirement is baselined, reversing it is politically difficult and operationally disruptive.

Programs are left to reconcile the irreconcilable: deliver compliant outcomes on commercial timelines with commercial budgets. Something has to give, and too often it is the integrity of the supply chain.

Recognizing this pattern, our program adopted a different approach, one that intervenes before expectations harden into requirements. Our Project Management Office instituted structured technical calls for all project and our supply chain specialists target specific projects with significant equipment or ODC components. Technical calls are no longer designed to be administrative checkpoints; they are strategic engagements designed to realign expectations with reality.

During the tech call, we walk customers through the differences between commercial and government supply chains, costs, procurement procedures for compliant alternatives, processes for procurement exceptions involving foreign made systems, and the reality of increased delays when non-compliant systems are selected.

We explain why Dell’s consumer division and Dell Federal operate entirely separate manufacturing and distribution ecosystems. We outline the warranty and lifecycle requirements mandated by their own MACOMs—requirements that consumer channels cannot meet.

We clarify the distinction between NDAA compliance and TAA eligibility, and why both matter. We demonstrate how commercial lead times collapse under the weight of government documentation, traceability, and controlled distribution. Lastly, we show the true cost and timeline implications of their requirements before those expectations become part of the program baseline.

This approach has done more than reduce sticker shock. It has restored credibility to schedules, stabilized budgets, and eliminated the conditions that give rise to shadow supply chains. Most importantly, it has strengthened the relationship between program teams and their customers by replacing assumptions with transparency.

Senior leaders overseeing large programs understand that expectation management is not a soft skill; it is a strategic discipline. When expectations are grounded in commercial supply chains, programs inherit risk they cannot control. When expectations are grounded in the realities of compliant sourcing, programs inherit a foundation of trust and transparency they can build on.

The challenge is not that customers conduct commercial research, it’s the challenge that programs allow commercial assumptions to shape government commitments. The solution is early, honest engagement, before the story book of promises becomes the requirement.

This is the standard that large mission‑service programs must adopt if they want to protect schedule integrity, budget accuracy, and mission outcomes in an environment where supply chain complexity is only increasing.

Don A. Baker, PMP, is a program logistics manager at CACI International with 25 years of experience spanning maintenance management, asset accountability, lifecycle operations, procurement, and compliant federal supply chains. He spent 15 years supporting Special Operations Forces as a U.S. Army logistician, specializing in C2ISR sustainment and enterprise‑level property management. His private sector career includes work in medical logistics, compliant sourcing, government property and large‑scale program execution.

The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of CACI International.

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Warner unveils bill to restore cyber information-sharing program funding

David DiMolfetta — Mon, 08 Jun 2026 10:00:00 -0400

Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., is introducing legislation to permanently fund a cybersecurity information-sharing program used by thousands of state, local, tribal and territorial governments, after the Trump administration ended federal support for the effort last year.

The measure would require the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency to provide funding for the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center, or MS-ISAC, a nonprofit-run program that offers services like threat intelligence and incident response assistance to roughly 19,000 government entities nationwide.

Under former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, DHS terminated CISA’s funding agreement with the Center for Internet Security, which operates MS-ISAC, and barred certain federal grant funds from being used for membership fees. Critics argued the move weakened a key mechanism for sharing cyber threat information with smaller governments that often lack dedicated cybersecurity resources.

Warner’s legislation would direct CISA to enter into a new agreement with the Center for Internet Security to provide cybersecurity services and threat intelligence at no cost to state, local, tribal and territorial entities. It would also authorize $50 million annually beginning in fiscal year 2027 and require the cyberdefense agency to report to Congress on its efforts to restore and expand participation.

In a letter sent Thursday to Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, Warner urged the department to restore support for the program and reverse broader cuts to CISA. The senator argued that eliminating MS-ISAC funding left communities with fewer resources to detect and respond to cyber threats and more vulnerable to attacks.

“This is too important to let politics get in the way. I will stand alongside anyone committed to ensuring that when our adversaries test our critical infrastructure, it holds fast,” Warner wrote to Mullin. “I want to work with you to achieve that end and ask that you reach out to me directly to coordinate — because the question is not whether our critical infrastructure will be targeted, but whether we will be ready when it is.”

John Gilligan, president and CEO of the Center for Internet Security, did not directly address the bill but told Nextgov/FCW in a statement that MS-ISAC has supported cyber stakeholders for more than two decades and has received congressional funding for at least 20 years.

“In fiscal year 2025, the appropriated funding was $27 million,” he said.

“The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) communicates with our state and local partners regularly and provides them with timely threat intelligence, expertise, no-cost tools and resources these partners need to defend against risks. This includes working with the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center (MS-ISAC) to share cybersecurity information and guidance. State and local governments seeking assistance are encouraged to contact our CISA regional teams who can help assess risk, strengthen defenses, enhance resilience, and respond immediately to incidents," said CISA Chief External Affairs Officer Christine Serrano Glassner in a statement.

DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Warner also sent separate letters to governors nationwide warning that states may need to take a more active role in defending critical infrastructure as cyber threats grow and federal cybersecurity programs face continued uncertainty. He encouraged them to conduct infrastructure audits, expand participation in regional threat-sharing organizations and identify under-resourced operators that need cyber assistance.

The effort comes as some lawmakers continue to scrutinize staffing reductions, budget cuts and program eliminations at CISA. State and local officials, cybersecurity groups and former officials have repeatedly warned that reducing federal support leaves smaller governments more vulnerable to ransomware and other cyberattacks, especially with midterm elections coming in November.

MS-ISAC was established in 2003 and has long served as one of the core hubs for cyber threat information sharing between federal agencies and state and local governments. Smaller jurisdictions often lean on the center for services they can’t afford to finance on their own.

Editor's note: This article has been updated to include comment from CISA.

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House lawmakers want the Navy to deploy drone boats faster

Lauren C. Williams — Mon, 08 Jun 2026 09:30:00 -0400

The Navy would have to detail its plans to buy and use seagoing drones under a suite of provisions in the House Armed Services Committee’s draft 2027 defense policy bill.

The bill, which passed out of committee late Thursday, would require service leaders to devise a plan to buy, sustain, and operate small unmanned surface vessels—ones weighing less than 50 metric tons and no more than 50 feet long.

The plan would have to include a detailed inventory of each acquired USV, the types of missions the Navy would use USVs for, how they would work with crewed vessels, and how they would be integrated with current command and control, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance, and logistics infrastructure.

The bill would also require the Navy to develop plan to “accelerate procurement and integration of commercially available sUSVs.”

The committee wrote in direct reporting language that buying more commercially available “technologies and platforms could enhance fleet readiness, reduce developmental timelines, and lower overall costs compared to government designs” especially amid “the increased demand from multiple geographic Combatant Commands for additional sUSVs to meet a variety of urgent mission needs.”

The provisions would also require the Navy to submit a report to identify obstacles to buying commercially available small USVs .

The proposals come just weeks after the Navy released its latest 30-year shipbuilding plan, which outlined its intentions to include hundreds of unmanned surface vessels in its hull count. They also come as the Pentagon prepares to spend more on unmanned vessels.

A separate requirement targets operational autonomy, tasking the Navy with certifying that procured drone boats can function “during periods in which communications capabilities are denied, degraded, intermittent, or limited; and (2) during periods in which positioning, navigation, and timing capabilities are degraded or unavailable,” according to the bill.

“The Secretary of the Navy would also be required to develop and implement a strategy for the integration of unmanned surface vessels naval force design and joint maritime operations. The Secretary of the Navy would be required to submit a report to the congressional defense committees not later than 210 days after the date of the enactment of this Act on the strategy for unmanned surface vessel integration and provide an annual brief on integration efforts thereafter.”

Like the Navy’s shipbuilding plan, the HASC’s draft of the 2027 National Defense Authorization Act notes undersea drones’ usefulness in maritime operations and pushes the Navy to adopt and integrate the extra-large unmanned underwater drones that have already been tested.

“The Committee further encourages the Secretary of the Navy to accelerate adoption of the XLUUV platforms selected through the Combat Autonomous Maritime Platform program’s 2025 competitive process to transition these systems from experimentation to operational deployment and to equip priority commands with the capabilities required to meet Fleet demands,” lawmakers wrote. “Therefore, the committee directs the Secretary of the Navy to provide a briefing to the House Committee on Armed Services not later than March 1, 2027, outlining plans to accelerate the adoption and fielding of XLUUVs and associated payloads utilizing existing production contracts,” including fielding timelines.

The bill also includes a requirement for the head of Special Operations Command to brief Congress by Dec. 1 on the need for a “hybrid-electric amphibious seaplane” which could “provide a viable solution by enabling fixed-wing aircraft to operate from waterways, runways, and unimproved surfaces with increased combat radius, reduced fuel consumption, and lower acoustic and thermal signatures.”

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WT 360: All about AE Industrial’s place in the market's private capital action

Ross Wilkers — Mon, 08 Jun 2026 06:00:00 -0400

We have taken a deeper dive into the government market’s private investment landscape in recent weeks by hearing the viewpoints of a banker and then a venture capital specialist.

Kirk Konert, managing partner at AE Industrial Partners, joins for this episode to continue the conversation by weighing in on private capital trends across the market and explaining what goes into aligning business decisions with the government priorities.

AE Industrial is also at the heart of the investment action, which in recent months has included initial public offerings of two portfolio companies. Konert takes our Ross Wilkers through that process and the reasoning behind listing Firefly Aerospace and York Space Systems on the public markets.

Konert also breaks down key differences between private equity and venture capital, then provides advice for business leaders on how to go about their search for investment partners. Knowing what you want going in is the starting point.

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PDW acquires communications tech, engineering specialist

Ross Wilkers — Fri, 05 Jun 2026 12:26:37 -0400

Drone maker PDW has agreed to acquire an engineering services provider that specializes in communications technologies with an eye toward incorporating those smaller-form products into unmanned aircraft.

Vanteon opened for business in 1985 and employs 40 engineers that focus on RF tech design, software-defined radios and embedded systems. The design work covers both analog and digital efforts, while the software-defined radios are built for use on handheld and wireless devices.

With Vanteon in tow, PDW is looking to enhance the functionality of its small uncrewed aircraft and bring the communications tools into edge environments. Financial terms of the transaction announced Thursday were not disclosed, while all parties expect the move to “close promptly” after closing conditions are completed.

“The environments our customers operate in are becoming more complex. Adversaries are investing heavily in electronic warfare, jamming, signal detection, and spectrum denial,” PDW CEO James Slider wrote in a blog post. “Operators need systems that can maintain connectivity, adapt to changing conditions, and continue delivering mission-critical information when communications are challenged or degraded. Meeting that need requires deeper expertise across the entire communications stack.”

In 2024, the Army selected a pair of drones made by PDW and Anduril for a program set up to quickly give brigade combat teams these commercially-available systems. The Company-Level Small Uncrewed Aircraft System Directed Requirement also was set up with learning objects to help inform future efforts.

PDW is moving to acquire Vanteon in support of a larger vertical integration strategy for bringing more hardware and software development in-house, which includes field-programmable gate arrays.

Also known as FPGAs, these circuits can be programmed and reprogrammed after manufacturing to perform customized hardware functions.

“In practical terms, that means radios can adapt more quickly to evolving mission requirements, support new waveforms, improve spectrum agility, and respond to emerging threats without requiring entirely new hardware designs,” Slider wrote. “Some of the best-performing autonomous systems are not built as collections of independent parts. They are designed as integrated platforms where aircraft, payloads, autonomy software, onboard computing, antennas, datalinks, and operator interfaces work together as a unified whole.”

PDW announced this acquisition three months after the completion of a $110 million Series B capital raise to support its production ramp-up push.

The McLean Group acted as the exclusive financial adviser to Vanteon on this transaction, and Harris Beach Murtha was legal counsel to Vanteon.

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A handful of CEO-level transitions and more leadership moves across the market

Ross Wilkers — Fri, 05 Jun 2026 12:25:04 -0400

Austal USA

Gene Miller has been appointed president of the shipbuilder on a full-time basis after having worked as its interim leader in the four months following Michelle Kruger’s retirement.

Austal USA is a 3,500-employee subsidiary of its parent company that calls Australia home. Both Austal USA and General Dynamics Bath Iron Works manufacture the Navy’s Independence-variant Littoral Combat Ship.

Miller joined Austal USA in 2024 after nearly two decades in leadership roles at Ingalls Shipbuilding and Bath Iron Works.

CyberCore Technologies

Knute Olson has joined this subsidiary of HP Inc. as chief executive after four decades at other GovCon companies, most recently CACI International as a vice president.

CyberCore provides secure supply chain management and cybersecurity services across the federal ecosystem.

As part of the transition, Astrid Pages will return to the chief financial officer position she has worked in since May 2023. Pages led CyberCore as interim CEO from November 2025 up until now.

ICEYE US

Ann Stevens has joined this subsidiary of the Earth observation satellite maker as chief executive, a role she brings two decades of national security experience to.

Stevens will lead ICEYE US’ push to expand its geographic footprint, product portfolio and employee team size.

She most recently worked as chief strategy officer at ASRC Federal and succeeds Eric Jensen, who is moving to chief operating officer for the ICEYE parent company that calls Finland home.

Trident Solutions

Ricardo Gonzalez has joined the defense electronics manufacturer as chief executive, a role he brings three decades of experience to.

Trident Solutions is owned by ATL Partners, which unveiled the company’s current branding and identity in the spring of 2025. ATL started to build Trident in 2021 via the acquisition of LightRidge Solutions.

Gonzales most recently worked as vice president of optical and photonics systems at CACI Internationa. His career also includes senior roles at Frontgrade Technologies and BAE Systems’ U.S. subsidiary.

AtkinsRéalis

Byron Bright will join the Montreal-headquartered engineering and construction services provider on July 1 as president of its U.S. subsidiary.

The 25-year industry veteran is known in the federal market for his tenure as president of KBR’s government solutions business and later as chief operating officer for the corporation prior to his departure in July.

Bright succeeds Steve Morriss, who has led the U.S. business for two-and-a-half years and is retiring from AtkinsRéalis at the end of the year. Morriss will continue to oversee the company’s minerals and metals business, plus work with the cloud hyperscalers until his retirement.

BMNT

Brian Miller has moved up to the newly-created role of president at this technology consulting firm, where he has been for a decade.

BMNT works with federal agencies on creating programs and other initiatives focused on technology transition. The company worked with the Defense Innovation Unit to stand up its Commercial Solutions Opening effort and is the operating partner behind DIU’s Defense Commercialization Fellowship, among others.

As president, Miller work with CEO and co-founder Peter Newell on leading efforts to expand BMNT’s portfolios of programs and partnerships.

Capitol Meridian Partners

Ryan McCarthy, who served as Army secretary from 2019 to 2021, has joined the private investment firm as an operating partner to help advise on defense market trends.

McCarthy will also work with CMP on identifying investment opportunities, working with portfolio companies on their strategies and executive mentorship.

During his two-year tenure, the Army activated its Futures Command organization to run modernization projects.

Carlyle Group

Kate Heinzelman, former general counsel for the CIA, will join the global investment firm on June 29 in this same capacity to oversee its legal and compliance organization.

She served in that role at the CIA from 2022 to 2025 and before that was chief counselor to the U.S. attorney general.

Heinzelman succeeds Jeffrey Ferguson, who has been Carlyle’s general counsel since 1999 and is moving into a strategic adviser role.

Concurrent Technologies Corp.

Hans DeViso will move up to vice president of the nonprofit science and tech firm’s engineering and advanced manufacturing division on June 30.

DeViso succeeds the retiring Tim Tibbits, who has spent 18 years at CTC and served as a naval flight officer for the preceding 28 years.

Most recently, DeViso worked as chief operating officer at Azista USA. He is a two-decade veteran of the defense industry.

Everfox

Ted Girard has joined the cybersecurity company as chief revenue officer, a role he brings 27 years of industry experience to.

Everfox has tasked Girard with leading its sales, partnership and business development functions.

He most recently worked as vice president of public sector at Snowflake. His career also includes stops at Okta and Perforce Delphix.

FalconTek

Ryan Rowe has joined the technical and professional services provider as vice president of strategy and growth, a role he brings 25 years of experience to.

Rowe will lead FalconTek’s business development, capture and proposal operations.

He most recently worked as vice president and general manager at SSI, where he spent close to 12 years.

Inadev

Naina Leo has joined the digital and business transformation provider as chief strategy officer, a role she brings three decades of experience to.

Leo will also work as managing director for the civilian and health business at Inadev, which CEO Manish Agarwal joined in the spring after acquiring an equity stake.

Leo’s career in industry includes leadership roles at Maximus/Attain, Octo, IBM and PwC.

ITC Federal

Kimberly White has joined the IT and professional services provider as vice president of human resources, a role focused on workforce development and organizational leadership.

ITC announced the hire in a LinkedIn post that says she will also focus on culture and employee engagement as the company pushes to grow across national security and law enforcement programs.

White most recently worked as VP of HR at Electrosoft and before that led HR initiatives at Steampunk.

Leidos

Luke Thomas has joined the government technology integrator as vice president of veterans affairs, a role he brings a decade of experience to.

He most recently worked as vice president and enterprise growth late at Tista Science and Technology Corp.

His career also includes roles at Optum, Cognitive Medical Systems, Accenture Federal Services and Gartner.

NEC National Security Systems

Alex Mutambudzi has moved up to chief financial officer at this subsidiary of Japan-headquartered IT and electronics company NEC.

Mutambudzi has been with the NEC enterprise since 2017 and most recently worked as a finance director.

NEC NSS provides biometric identity and artificial intelligence technologies for federal users in mission areas such as access control and transportation security.

Precise Systems

Mark Gerasch has joined the defense technology integrator as vice president of strategic capture, a role he brings three decades of experience to.

Precise Systems has tasked Gerasch with leading its business development teams to build customer relationships and identify new opportunities.

Gerasch most recently worked as executive vice president of growth at RMC Global. His career also includes roles at Zenetex, General Dynamics IT and Anteon.

Red River

Mike Sang has moved up to chief financial officer at the technology transformation company, which he first joined in 2024.

Sang’s 10-year career in industry includes financial leadership roles at CAE and L3Harris Technologies.

Before that, he worked at Morgan Stanley.

Scientific Systems Company

Dan "Animal" Javorsek, a former program manager at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and 24-year Air Force veteran, has joined the autonomous technology developer as chief strategy officer.

Javorsek’s most recent military assignment was commander of Detachment 6 for the Air Force Operational Test and Evaluation Center. Prior to that, he served in the program manager role at DARPA’s strategic technology office with responsibility over artificial intelligence and machine learning efforts.

Scientific Systems hired Javorsek to help guide its strategy for designing systems across the air, ground, maritime and space domains.

Serco North America

Andy Henson has joined this subsidiary of the global government services company as chief technology officer, a role he brings two decades of experience to.

Henson most recently spent nine years at Science Applications International Corp., where he led analytics and solution delivery efforts across the company’s defense and national security portfolio.

He has also held tech leadership roles at Booz Allen Hamilton.

Valkyrie Enterprises

Danielle Thomasson has moved up to vice president of business development and capture at the engineering services and technology solutions provider, which she first joined in the fall of 2025.

Valkyrie has tasked Thomasson with carrying out and integrating BD and capture activities across all of its business areas, the company wrote in a LinkedIn post on her new role.

Before Valkyrie, she worked as executive director for capture at ManTech.

Westat

Justin Baer has joined the provider of research, data collection and analysis services as vice president and practice director for education and social policy.

Westat has tasked the two-decade market veteran with leading strategy, client engagement and program delivery functions across the practice

Baer most recently worked as a senior vice president at Coleridge and is also a former practice leader at Fors Marsh.

Mitre Corp.

Samantha Ravich, former principal deputy national security adviser to Vice President Dick Cheney, has joined the board of trustees at this nonprofit science and technology organization.

Ravich is also a former cochair of the National Commission for the Review of R&D (research-and-development) Programs for the U.S. Intelligence Community.

She previously chaired the Center for Cyber and Technology In

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New coalition will enter legal debate over industry’s role in government cyber missions

David DiMolfetta — Fri, 05 Jun 2026 12:00:00 -0400

A new Washington initiative seeks to shape policy debates over how the government and private sector collaborate on cyber operations, a conversation that will inevitably raise complex questions about the legal authorities governing industry’s role, participants say.

Venable’s Center for Cybersecurity Policy and Law launched the Cyber Operations Policy Coalition this week, seeking to be a “trusted forum for collaboration among industry, government, legal experts, academia, and civil society to help develop policy frameworks for collective cyber defense,” according to its mission statement.

At a launch event Wednesday, current and former officials concurred that stakeholders will need to confront unresolved questions about legal authorities, liability and the rules of the road for companies before deeper public‑private cyber operations can truly scale.

Legal expertise will be “key to the success” of integrating industry and government more closely, Katie Sutton, assistant secretary of defense for cyber policy and the principal cyber advisor to the defense secretary, said in a discussion held at the event.

“We talk about authorities — everything is under what authorities do I have, what authorities does Cyber Command have, under what authorities is this operation happening? [There are] a lot of well-defined authorities from a government perspective. Industry actually has quite a few authorities that they can bring to bear too, because they run this domain,” Sutton added.

“We can’t be in a model … asking permission every time a certain step is going to be taken. That’s going to require a lot of the unsexy work we heard about the legal and policy foundations, the understanding of liability and everything that surrounds that,” said Tonya Ugoretz, who heads PwC’s Cyber & Risk Innovation Institute and previously served in senior roles at the FBI and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

Unlike traditional military domains, cyber conflict often runs through privately owned networks, forcing the government to rely on companies that may be both targets of foreign activity and essential partners in responding to it.

The U.S. has sought to integrate cyber activity into military operations, lending the debate urgency as the White House more openly discusses offensive cyber operations and as private companies are drawn deeper into the market for cyber tools. The advent of advanced cyber-focused frontier AI models has also contributed to the discussions.

As part of its emerging counter-advanced persistent threat planning with major providers, the Joint Cyber Defense Collaborative — a Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency-led body for coordinating public and private sector cyberdefense — is beginning to explicitly map out both defensive playbooks and potential offensive-leaning moves that might be on the table in a geopolitical crisis, according to Matt Springer, the JCDC deputy assistant director.

That would also raise fresh questions about legal risk and authorities for companies that own and operate infrastructure. “We have some potential cyber offensive options that could be taken theoretically by partners in those scenarios,” he said at the launch event. “This will get into some of the policy questions I know we wanted to touch on. That’s a dicey area.”

The discussions highlight how cybersecurity is becoming a more central arena for national security law, as officials and industry leaders examine whether existing legal frameworks are sufficient for operations that frequently require closer coordination between the government and private firms.

In the last year, top national officials have sought to highlight the role of cyber operations in their recent military achievements. A new cyber service branch is also being weighed in the must-pass annual defense bill.

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EHR modernization needs better cyber and privacy collaboration, GAO says

Edward Graham — Fri, 05 Jun 2026 12:00:00 -0400

The Government Accountability Office said on Tuesday that the unit overseeing the federal government’s new electronic health record system is not collaborating enough with its partner agencies to secure the software against digital threats or ensure that patient data is sufficiently protected.

In a watchdog report, GAO said the Federal Electronic Health Record Modernization office “doesn't fully follow leading practices for collaboration” when it comes to the cybersecurity and privacy of data with the new EHR system.

The office oversees the government’s effort to deploy one common, interoperable system across the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Defense Department, the U.S. Coast Guard and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. GAO said the completed system is expected to have “more than 500,000 users providing care to over 18 million servicemembers, veterans, and their families, making it one of the nation’s largest electronic health record systems.”

FEHRM was created through a joint charter signed by DOD and VA in December 2019, with the four participating agencies taking on varying levels of cyber and privacy responsibilities.

DOD is primarily responsible for managing the cybersecurity of the EHR software and the network used to access the system. GAO said VA also has “responsibility for the cybersecurity of its own network.” Each of the four agencies is also responsible for managing their own networks and following applicable privacy laws when it comes to handling users’ data.

While GAO said that FEHRM has “initiated a number of efforts to promote collaboration” with the four agencies, it added that “it has done so without well-defined common goals and outcomes.” The watchdog added this includes concerns that the office does not “monitor, assess or communicate on performance measures” to hold its partners accountable.

“Articulating clear and measurable goals would better position the FEHRM to oversee the coordinated cybersecurity of the federal EHR by providing insight into the specific resources, skills, or time needed to address shared responsibilities,” the report said. “Further, these goals would help hold the FEHRM accountable for demonstrating how its activities, such as the development of the Joint Incident Management Framework, align with the common outcomes it seeks to achieve.”

FEHRM has been working to create the framework since 2021 to streamline agency responses to EHR-directed cyber threats, with GAO saying the guidance was most recently scheduled to be released in April.

Without outlining clear goals and outcomes, the watchdog said “progress on planned efforts, such as the Joint Incident Management Framework, may be impeded or further delayed.”

GAO’s concerns about planning extended to the office’s logistical operations, with the report saying that FEHRM “has not fully articulated specific short- or long-term goals or intended outcomes related to the cybersecurity of the federal EHR or the privacy of health data within it.” This included office officials telling GAO in January 2026 that it was still developing its goals for fiscal year 2026.

The watchdog made two recommendations, including calling for both DOD and VA leaders to press FEHRM “to define common goals, outcomes, and associated performance measures, and monitor, assess, and communicate progress on collaboration efforts toward ensuring the cybersecurity and privacy of the federal enclave.”

DOD did not concur with the report as it was written. VA neither agreed nor disagreed with GAO’s takeaways, but said it initially focused on establishing a unified culture to build trust with partner agencies, which it called “the essential first step.”

While the joint EHR system has reportedly not been directly targeted by a cyberattack, previous cyber incidents have underscored the impact these types of breaches and digital assaults can have on healthcare delivery.

A February 2024 ransomware attack on Change Healthcare — a subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group and the largest healthcare payment system in the U.S. — disrupted payments and prescription processing at medical facilities across the U.S. This included VA’s systems, with an agency official saying at the time that it affected just over 40,000 veterans’ medications.

That attack also affected “interface assessments” at the Captain James A. Lovell Federal Health Care Center in North Chicago, Illinois, a joint DOD-VA facility that was in the process of switching over to the new federal EHR system. That rollout, which occurred in March 2024, was the Pentagon’s last site rollout of the new software.

DOD and NOAA have completed their deployments of the new software, and the Coast Guard is reportedly in the final stages of its rollout. VA, however, has faced numerous missteps in its own EHR implementation effort.

VA paused most rollouts of the EHR system in April 2023 to address a host of safety, technical and usability concerns. The agency and DOD subsequently conducted the Lovell deployment during the reset period, which was the sixth VA facility to receive the new software.

The agency recently resumed EHR software rollouts at four Michigan-based medical facilities in April and plans to deploy the system at nine more sites in 2026. VA Secretary Doug Collins told Congress last month that the new rollouts were “phenomenal,” although he said the agency needs to go back and fix issues at the first five sites that received the software.

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Anthropic held cyberthreat briefings with agency CIOs last month

Alexandra Kelley — Thu, 04 Jun 2026 15:29:00 -0400

Leading artificial intelligence developer Anthropic hosted briefing sessions for federal agency chief information officers in early May, several sources familiar with the sessions told Nextgov/FCW.

Meetings occurred May 7 and May 8. While briefing topics varied, they focused on defending digital assets from cyber threats powered by advanced AI models including Anthropic’s Mythos Preview, the sources said.

Other branches of government have been informed of Mythos’s capabilities. In mid-May, lawmakers on the House Homeland Security Committee received a briefing with Anthropic executives on Mythos’s ability to detect software vulnerabilities.

The launch of Mythos Preview in early April came alongside Anthropic’s announcement of Project Glasswing, an initiative that granted access to the model in its beta form to multiple participating private sector partners. On Tuesday, Anthropic announced its expansion of Project Glasswing to include roughly 150 new partners following initial feedback from inaugural companies.

New participants in Project Glasswing are from industries that weren’t included in the first cohort, with sectors like power, water, healthcare, communications and hardware now part of Anthropic’s initiative.

Project Glasswing’s debut came just weeks after the Pentagon labeled Anthropic a supply chain risk in response to the company contesting the use of its technology in Pentagon operations with autonomous weaponry and American surveillance. The designation prompted President Donald Trump to order the government to halt all use of Anthropic products. The legality of the supply chain risk designation is being contested in court following Anthropic’s lawsuit against federal agencies and their leadership.

Despite the supply chain risk designation, the federal government is keen to understand Mythos’s threat capabilities. A long-awaited executive order on AI was slated to address how the federal government analyzes AI-driven cyberthreats, including granting intelligence and security agencies access to advanced frontier AI models, but signing of that order was postponed after Trump expressed doubts that it might hinder AI innovation. Trump signed a scaled-down version of that order Tuesday that implemented a lesser degree of federal oversight on such advanced models.

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CISA sketches out timeline for incident response, threat hunting contract

Ross Wilkers — Thu, 04 Jun 2026 15:21:46 -0400

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency has given industry a rough timeline of its plan to award a contract for incident response and proactive threat hunting support.

CISA is estimating the final solicitation release date as on or around May 1, 2027, with an award to follow in the third quarter of calendar year 2027, the agency said in a Monday notice to DHS’ Acquisition Planning Forecast System.

CISA plans to use the General Services Administration’s Schedule in awarding the contract, of which the ceiling value is currently estimated as north of $100 million.

The Cyber Technology Services contract is being set up to cover functions such as IT architecture, IT development operations, IT security operations, and operations-and-maintenance.

A draft performance of work released in May describes CISA’s need for an industry partner to help deploy, develop and maintain cyber technologies used by the agency’s threat hunting office.

CISA also is seeking help in areas such as vulnerability management, security assessments, cloud engineering, implementation of the DevSecOps software development practice, continuous monitoring and software development support.

This is a brand new requirement with no incumbent.

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Don't let political rhetoric obscure what the 8(a) program actually does

Nicole Borromeo — Thu, 04 Jun 2026 15:18:08 -0400

Policy conversations in Washington often overlook practical realities and benefits in favor of sensationalized narratives. This dynamic is playing out in real time in the discussion about the Small Business Administration’s 8(a) business development program, which critics are falsely characterizing as a "preference without performance" initiative.

Policy debates should be grounded by facts. That’s why it is important to set the record straight about the 8(a) program, its benefits to the federal government and Alaska, and the significant risks of allowing mischaracterizations about the program to guide regulatory decision-making.

The 8(a) program is a competitive, proven procurement tool that supports critical national security missions and drives economic growth in communities across the country. Under the program’s auspices, certified contractors routinely bid against one another for federal awards.

This model works – and we have the data to prove it. Non-8(a) procurements of $50 million or more take more than 255 days on average to complete. But 8(a) directed awards reduce the federal procurement cycle by up to 85%, putting vital capabilities into the field in weeks, rather than months.

Continued achievement under the 8(a) program, not designation, is what drives contract renewal. Many program participants including Alaska Native Corporations, which were established by Congress under the 1971 Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA), are among the highest graded companies for contractual efficacy and performance according to the federal government’s scoring rubric.

The Trump administration has recognized the 8(a) program’s value and the role that contractors like ANCs play in improving federal operations. Together, we’re working to enhance federal efficiency and ensure taxpayer dollars achieve maximum effect.

ANCs are private, for-profit entities that are owned and controlled by their respective Alaska Native shareholders. In 1992, Congress voted on a bipartisan basis to offset the limitations of ANCSA – including the limited utility of lands conveyed to Indigenous tribes – by including ANCs in the 8(a) program. This milestone empowered ANCs to innovate private sector solutions to national challenges while strengthening Alaska Native communities and our state’s broader economy.

These unique corporations are economic importers in Alaska, and participation in the 8(a) program has helped to drive impacts that are equally profound for the state as they are for the federal government.

In 2022 alone, ANCs generated $13.5 billion in total revenue and $6.1 billion in statewide economic activity. They also generated over 8,000 direct jobs and more than 15,000 downstream and affiliated jobs that same year.

Hard economic statistics tell only half of the story when it comes to ANCs impact on Alaska communities, particularly its Alaska Native shareholders. Since their inception, these corporations have awarded over $173.9 million in scholarship funding. They’ve also provided millions in cash and in-kind donations to strengthen our Indigenous culture and ensure that the traditions forming the bedrock of our identity are passed on to the next generation.

Participation in the 8(a) program helps make all of this possible. For me, this connection is personal – I’ve experienced these benefits firsthand.

I grew up in a small village in Alaska’s interior that had fewer than 600 year-round residents. Over the years, my hometown, like many rural Alaska communities, has dwindled due to severe economic out-migration. Good educational opportunities and well-paying jobs can be difficult to find in communities like mine.

ANCs work to address this issue. Because Congress had the foresight to integrate ANCs into the 8(a) program as an economic development mechanism, regional corporations, village corporations, and tribes have more financial resources to invest in future next generations.

Thanks to this downstream economic activity, I was able to attend undergraduate school and later earn my law degree from the University of Washington. My education was funded in part by those very ANC shareholder scholarships.

But my story isn't unique: it’s part of a much larger legacy of Indigenous success fueled in part by ANC economic success. Across Alaska, more than 81,000 of these scholarships have been awarded to Indigenous students like me.

My trajectory, and the trajectories of thousands of other Alaska Native leaders, simply would not have been possible without ANCs’ economic strength, part of which comes from participation in the 8(a) program.

But these federal and state-level impacts are omitted from policy conversations about the 8(a) program in Washington. Instead of following misguided claims that the 8(a) program is a preferential program that doesn’t benefit America or its communities, lawmakers must course correct. The 8(a) program is vital, and its policymaking process should be guided by quantifiable ground truths about its impact.

To do otherwise would be to misunderstand both the law, 8(a)’s benefits to the federal government, and the experience of Alaska Native peoples like me.

It’s time to move past the political rhetoric around 8(a) and understand its undeniable impact on America and Alaska. It is a proven, battle-tested system in which the results speak for themselves.

Nicole Borromeo serves as the President of the ANCSA Regional Association (ARA), which works to promote the growth and economic strength of Alaska Native regional corporations.

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VA embarks on its search for enterprise cloud broker

Ross Wilkers — Thu, 04 Jun 2026 14:44:38 -0400

The Veterans Affairs Department has kicked off market research efforts to inform how it could create a new enterprise cloud brokerage contract that would aid in VA’s overall modernization push.

In the role of broker, one company is tasked with helping VA examine and acquire cloud computing capabilities from the hyperscalers and software-as-a-service providers. The idea behind that approach is to help VA manage its multi-cloud environment and unify functions such as governance, security and automation.

A request for information posted Tuesday describes how VA is also interested in further exploring the FinOps concept, a framework that brings together financial management functions and the DevOps software development practice.

VA has several ongoing pilots and governance programs in place as part of its push toward greater adoption of FinOps practices, which aim to bring more financial accountability and transparency into engineering processes.

Therefore, the RFI’s emphasis on FinOps indicates VA is looking at spending as of equal or greater importance to the cloud technologies themselves.

“For those in the cloud, FinOps, or federal IT community, this initiative represents a major opportunity to help shape the future of the VA enterprise cloud in how one of the largest federal enterprises will manage cloud services at scale,” David Foster, VA’s head of infrastructure operations and enterprise cloud, wrote in a LinkedIn post accompanying the RFI.

The RFI describes VA’s enterprise cloud environment as currently being home to 757 applications from multiple providers, inclusive of the hyperscalers and SaaS companies.

VA’s idea for exploring a brokerage model is to incorporate more cloud service provider credit procurement, chargeback and showback processes, governance enforcement, security and compliance monitoring, and automated provisioning.

A future contract would cover up to six years in total, starting with an initial base year followed by up to five individual option years.

Responses to the RFI are due by 9 a.m. Eastern time on June 22.

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State Department seeks small businesses for LEO satellite terminals

Nick Wakeman — Thu, 04 Jun 2026 14:19:28 -0400

The State Department is looking for small businesses capable of providing low-earth orbit satellite terminals, airtime services and support equity for its global diplomatic communications network.

State's request for information posted Thursday is specifically asking for responses from HUBzone, woman-owned, service-disabled, veteran-owned and other types of small businesses. Responses are due June 22.

The contract will support the Remote Expeditionary Area Communications Hub program, or REACH. It provides contingency and crisis communications to U.S. embassies, consulates and diplomatic missions worldwide.

The potential contract will support off-grid operations across 277 overseas posts including emergency evacuations, election monitoring, remote consular operations and other activities.

State is looking for a prime that can supply LEO terminals and related hardware such as tripods, ruggedized kits, and transit cases. The company will also provide a unified account management portal and 24/7 global help desk.

The department expects the contract to have one-base year and up to four individual option years.

A draft statement of work released with the RFI describes requirements such as real-time system monitoring and outage reporting, tiered user access controls, supply chain risk management aligned with NIST SP 800-53, and Section 889 compliance.

Delivery requirements for any of the 277 posts are stringent: 15 days for standard deliver; seven days for accelerated delivery; and 48 hours for emergency delivery

The RFI asks respondents to identify their General Services Administration schedule contracts or other governmentwide acquisition contract vehicles, indicating that the department will likely award the work as a task order.

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Omni acquires synaptic intelligence tool developer

Ross Wilkers — Wed, 03 Jun 2026 13:57:17 -0400

Omni has acquired an artificial intelligence company that developed a platform to use brain-like techniques in helping operators and enterprise organizations make decisions.

Nara Logics opened for business in 2011 to build virtual AI advisers that provide real-time and explainable recommendations across different data environments. The company does this by leaning on synaptic intelligence, which refers to how the brain stores memories and learns without forgetting the past.

By acquiring Nara Logics, Omni is looking to further build out its software offerings for decision pipelines in classified and other operational settings. Financial terms of the transaction announced Tuesday were not disclosed.

Analysts, operators and commanders are in the intended user base for Nara Logics’ Synaptic Intelligence Platform. The idea is to provide them with an explainable AI offering that completes the data processing cycle.

Nathan Wilson, one of the original cofounders of Nara Logics in 2011, is a research scientist from MIT's Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences that designed the platform architecture to operate in a similar manner to biological neural structures.

The company describes the platform’s current user base as including financial and government analysts, who are responsible for processing multi-source data and prioritizing events in context.

Omni is owned by Madison Dearborn Partners, which acquired the software integrator in the summer of 2024.

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