Raytheon realigns for challenging economy

Raytheon Co. was well prepared for the seismic shifts that have occurred at the Defense Department this year—the most publicized of which is the budget sequestration that might extract $500 billion from the Pentagon’s budget over the next 10 years.

“We have been preparing for this environment for some time,” said Scott Whatmough, vice president of integrated communication systems at Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems. “Raytheon has effectively managed its business during a range of periods of defense spending, including downturns, and we are confident we will continue to do so.”

Is the government starting to hate LPTA too?

I was surprised (and relieved) to learn that government proposal evaluators are pushing back on the use of lowest price, technically acceptable (LPTA) evaluation criteria—and for good reason. They are now learning that this evaluation criteria can limit their ability to exercise reasonable judgment in the evaluation process and may result in contracts awarded to companies that are clearly inferior and have less qualified offerings compared to others in the competition.

Boeing wins $17M option for Navy aircraft logistics

Boeing has won a $17 million option to provide the U.S. Navy with logistics support services for its C-40A aircraft fleet.

Under the option, Boeing will provide commercial depot support and site support at a number of Navy sites.

These sites include Naval Air Station Jacksonville, Fla.; Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base, Fort Worth, Texas; Naval Air Station North Island, Calif.; and Naval Air Station Oceana, Va.

Work will be performed at Forth Worth, Texas, Jacksonville, Fla., North Island, Calif., and Oceana, Va., and is expected to be completed in July 2015.

No funds are being obligated at the time of the award.

Exelis wins $125M contract to deliver airborne jammers

Exelis has won a $125 million contract to deliver the latest variant of the AN/ALQ-214 airborne jammer to the U.S. Naval Air Systems Command in Patuxent River, Md.

The AN/ALQ-214 is a subsystem of the Integrated Defensive Electronic Countermeasures suite, which is intended to provide self-protection and increased survivability for tactical aircraft against radio frequency and infrared surface-to-air and air-to-air threats.

CACI adds new board member

CACI International has named William Jews to its board of directors, said CACI executive chairman of the board, Jack London.

Jews most recently served as president and CEO of CareFirst, the nation’s seventh largest Blue Cross Blue Shield plan.

“Mr. Jews brings outstanding experience as a business executive with an exceptional track record of organizational growth and customer satisfaction, along with significant expertise in board governance and public service,” said London.

Social Security plans $210M EMC buy

The Social Security Administration is planning a 10-year, $210 million contract to buy EMC products and services for the agency’s mainframe computers.

The contract will either go directly to EMC or to an authorized reseller, according to a notice that SSA posted on the FedBidOpps.gov website.

ICF wins $34M contract for program, IT management

ICF International has won a ten-year $34 million contract with the U.S. Postal Service to provide program management and IT management support.

Under the contract, the program management and IT management support will go toward the service’s Mailing Information Systems and Domestics Products divisions.

Amazon vs. IBM: Does it matter who wins?

We knew that, on June 6, the Government Accountability Office was set to make its decision on IBM Corp.’s protest of a $600 million CIA cloud computing contract won by Amazon.

But when the decision came out in favor of IBM, a small fire ripped through the newsroom. I think the prevailing wisdom was that Amazon, one of the pioneers of cloud computing, would keep the contract, so the opposite result was a shock.

IBM wins first round in CIA battle with Amazon

IBM Corp. has prevailed in its bid protest over a major cloud computing contract between Amazon Web Services and the CIA – reportedly a 10-year, $600 million deal – to build the spy agency a massive private cloud infrastructure.

A version of this article first appeared on FCW.com. Read More

Big data could predict cyber attacks

Big data has the potential to predict cyber attacks before they happen, particularly when data visualization is used.

eWeek reported that a panel of cyberexperts believe visualizing event data can spot trouble more quickly than reading.

But the challenge is sorting vast amounts of data to separate true events from noise, the experts said.