Uncertain budgets hit small businesses hard

Budget cuts, gridlock in Congress, regulatory burdens, rising corporate costs and a climate of fiscal uncertainty are proving more troublesome for smaller government contractors, a panel of chief executives officers said today in Washington.

“The impact of this is largely felt most on the small businesses,” said John Jumper, chairman and chief executive officer of Science Applications International Corp., speaking today at a National Press Club Newsmaker news conference on the future of government contracting in an era of sequestration.

Are we ashamed of contractors killed in action?

At the beginning of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, it was obvious that contractors would play a historically large role in how those wars were waged.

Once the traditional war fighting was over, contractors were increasingly at risk as they drove convoys, worked as trainers for police forces and were exposed to suicide bombers and other threats.

GD wins subcontract to service littoral combat ships

General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems has won a contract from Austral USA to be the platform systems engineering agency for littoral combat ships 14 and 16.

Ships 14 and 16 are the fifth and sixth ships of the Independence-variant LCS to be ordered by the U.S. Navy under a 10-ship block buy contract awarded in December 2010 to Austal USA, the company said in a release.

Harris receives $26M order for Falcon III radios

Harris Corp. has received a $26 million order to distribute its Falcon III AN/PRC-117G multiband manpack tactical radios to the U.S. Marine Corps.

These radios form mobile ad-hoc communication networks to exchange voice, video and tactical data reports on the battlefield, Harris said.

Through this order, the Marine Corps will expand its wideband tactical networking capabilities and deliver the tactical Internet down to the individual warfighter.

TASC names new VP of Mission Solutions business

TASC Inc. has named Joseph Pacileo vice president of the company’s Mission Solutions business, where he will oversee TASC operations supporting its intelligence and cyber customers at Fort Meade.

Pacileo joins TASC from ManTech International Corp., where he served as vice president of Cyber Operations. Before ManTech, he was a director at Northrop Grumman, and also has served at the National Security Agency.

He holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from UC Davis, and a M.S.A. degree in administration from Central Michigan University.

Aquilent names chief marketing officer

Aquilent has named Helle Huxley chief marketing officer, where she will oversee the company’s marketing efforts.

Huxley will be responsible for all aspects of marketing, including branding, social media, advertising and public relations.

She will also direct new corporate marketing initiatives tied directly to customer communication goals and objectives.

Huxley was previously vice president of marketing for Management Concepts. Before that, she served as vice president of marketing at FedSources & WMG, which became Deltek’s GovWin, the company said in a release.

SI Org makes deal for part of Telcordia

The SI Organization has acquired Applied Communication Sciences, a company with a history that dates back to the legendary Bell Labs.

Applied Communication Sciences was created as an independent company last year to mitigate U.S. government concerns from the acquisition of Telcordia by Swedish-based Ericsson.

Lessons from Lockheed's $4.6B DISA GIG contract

More than two years in the making, and possibly worth $4.6 billion, the capture of the Global Information Grid Services Management Operations contract last year was a highlight for Lockheed Martin Corp.’s Information Systems and Global Solutions business.

They technically won the contract in May 2012 to manage the infrastructure of the Defense Information Systems Agency’s Global Information Grid, or GIG, but a protest by incumbent Science Applications International Corp. delayed the start of the contract until October.

Inside the engine that mines Twitter

In the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy, Splunk4Good was actively involved in the relief efforts, and tracked social media activity to get help to storm victims.

The company married social media with big data to figure out where the relief was needed, and what kind of relief it needed to be, but it couldn’t have done this without the underlying technology from a company named Datasift.

Northrop wins $555M Global Hawk contract

Northrop Grumman has won a $555.6 million contract with the U.S. Air Force to improve the Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle.

The Global Hawk can carry a variety of surveillance and intelligence systems, including near real-time high resolution imagery and other reconnaissance capabilities.