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General Dynamics names Nedzbala interim IT president as Gilliland departs

Ross Wilkers — Fri, 02 Oct 2026 14:31:28 -0400

General Dynamics has appointed Paul Nedzbala to lead the defense company’s IT services business unit as interim president following the abrupt departure of Amy Gilliland.

Gilliland has worked as GDIT’s president since 2017 and is “no longer with the company,” General Dynamics said in a Friday afternoon release. She first joined General Dynamics in 2005 and was GDIT’s lead operations executive before her promotion to president.

"We thank Amy for her contributions to our company and wish her all the best in her future endeavors," GD CEO Phebe Novakovic said in the release.

Gilliland’s run as president began with the integration of CSRA, which GDIT acquired in 2018 for $9.7 billion, and included this year’s launch of a new technology strategy as a follow-on to a 2023 blueprint that created several digital accelerators.

GDIT reported $9 billion in revenue for 2025, up from $8.7 billion for 2024 and $8.4 billion for 2023. General Dynamics Corp. hit Position No. 5 on the 2026 Washington Technology Top 100, our ranking calculated from unclassified prime IT and professional services contract obligations.

Nezbala moves up to interim president nine months after he was appointed chief business officer, a role that tasked him with leading corporate development strategies and operations. He joined GDIT via the acquisition of CSRA, where he led the health and civil group.

"Paul is a proven leader who bring decades of experience in federal IT services," Novakovic said. "We are grateful for his willingness to serve in an interim capacity until a new GDIT president is named."

Officials at General Dynamics and GDIT declined to comment beyond the announcement.

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Justice agrees to take another look at $1B asset forfeiture support contract

Nick Wakeman — Fri, 02 Oct 2026 14:00:00 -0400

The Justice Department is rethinking a $1 billion award for asset forfeiture support services following a protest that questioned several aspects of the evaluation.

Forfeiture Support Associates, a joint venture owned by Amentum and Science Applications International Corp., has held the contract since 2004 and won the recompete in late August. Amentum and SAIC have become the JV partners through a series of acquisition and spinoff transactions over several years.

After Justice awarded FSA the new contract, KACE Co. filed a protest to challenge the department's evaluation of proposals and award decision. KACE also took issue with the department's responsibility determination.

The Government Accountability Office dismissed the protest on Sept. 23, when Justice told GAO it would pull back the award to re-evaluate proposals and make a new award decision.

Justice uses the contract to provide administrative, clerical and profession service to support their asset forfeiture processes. About 1,400 contractors to provide support at 490 locations around the country.

The contract has a five-year term.

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Blackstone's new defense tech company and more capital markets action to highlight

Ross Wilkers — Fri, 02 Oct 2026 13:30:00 -0400

Falcata

This new defense technology company has taken flight with the backing of Blackstone, which formed it through the acquisition and combination of TSC and Applied Systems Engineering.

Falcata describes its tech portfolio as including seekers, radar technologies, guidance electronics, control actuation systems, GPS-denied navigation, ISR (intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance), and launchers.

Falcata’s strategy centers around bringing those technologies together to cover the entire guidance chain for interceptors, which are necessary for fending off aerial threats such as drones and missiles.

Brandon Wolfson, chief executive of TSC since 2018, has been appointed CEO of the combined company. Wolfson is a 25-year veteran of TSC.

Jonathan Moneymaker, who led BlueHalo as CEO through its sale to AeroVironment in 2025, has been appointed chairman of the board of directors at Falcata.

Goldman Sachs is the exclusive financial adviser to Blackstone, whose legal counsel on the transaction is Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP.

Fortem Technologies

The maker of sensors and software for securing airspace from unauthorized drones has completed a $50 million Series B capital raise to accelerate its manufacturing and deployment efforts.

Lockheed Martin led the Series B round, which closed six months after the world’s largest investment company invested $25 million into Fortem as part of the initial tranche. Unusual Machines and other investors also participated.

Fortem opened for business in 2016 and specializes in counter-unmanned aerial systems technology, which includes radar sensors and command-and-control software that use artificial intelligence. The company’s DroneHunter system works as an autonomous interceptor in layered defense systems.

With this newfound investment, Fortem will work to expand its capacities for manufacturing and deploying its SkyDome family of systems for monitoring civilian airspace.

In August, Fortem became the only small business to receive selection for the Homeland Security Department’s potential $1.5 billion C-UAS contract.

Fortem’s federal portfolio also includes an Army contract to defend installations and a DHS award for protecting 2026 FIFA World Cup venues. Lockheed uses Fortem’s technology for a broader C-UAS architecture called Sanctum.

Hertha Metals

This steel producer has collected $133.65 million in Series A capital from investors, including a $65 million equity investment from the U.S. government.

Hertha Capital was founded in 2022 by CEO Dr. Laureen Meroueh to product high-purity iron that is used to manufacture rare earth magnets, which are widely used in defense and technology sectors.

The Defense Department is backing Hertha Metals through the Industrial Base Analysis and Sustainment program, which is intended to help address supply chain vulnerabilities and develop a skilled industrial workforce.

DOD’s investment in Hertha Metals is part of larger efforts by the U.S. government to establish domestic sources for the iron needed for magnets, substantially all of which are currently imported.

Hertha Berlin is using the newfound capital to build Hertha Chalyz, a facility for producing 10,000 tons of steel-grade and magnet-grade high purity iron.

Khosla Ventures and Doerr Capital co-led the Series A round with participation from CEV, Pear Ventures, Gates Frontier, Niterra SUISO no MORI Fund (General Partner: Global Brain), Toyota Ventures and Siemens Financial Services.

Varda Space Industries

This in-space manufacturing startup has fetched $250 million in Series D capital from investors to support the next phase of its strategy focused on pharmaceuticals and hypersonic research.

Varda opened for business in 2021 and has achieved six successful launches of its W-series vehicle since then.

The company has predominantly focused on drug manufacturing in space as a more novel approach that crystallizes active ingredients in ways impossible on Earth.

Varda’s orbital capsule is designed to enter the atmosphere at 18,000 miles per hour and hit a speed of Mach 25+ before parachuting back to Earth.

A dozen more launches and re-entries of the W-series vehicles are planned through 2028.

Lux Capital and Natural Capital led the Series D round. Other participants included Founders Fund, Khosla Ventures, Caffeinated Capital, General Catalyst, 8090 Industries, Giant Step, and Also Capital.

Astro Digital

This satellite maker has found a transaction partner to help take it public against a backdrop of heightened investor interest in space and defense companies.

Astro Digital plans to merge with Proem Acquisition Corp. I, a blank check or Special Purpose Acquisition Company, and then list on the NASDAQ stock market.

All parties involved expect the listing to happen in the first quarter of 2027, while Astro Digital’s co-founder and CEO Chris Biddy will continue to lead the company.

Astro Digital opened for business in 2018 and says it has delivered nearly 40 satellites to 30 customers, including NASA and the Defense Department. The satellites are designed for missions such as Earth observation, communications, space infrastructure and defense.

Astro Digital posted $34 million in revenue for 2025 and expects to record $50 million in sales this year with an eye toward hitting $500 million on the top line by 2032. The SPAC merger values Astro Digital at a pro forma post-money enterprise value of approximately $587 million, while also giving the company $180 million in gross proceeds assuming no redemptions.

That $180 million figure includes $130 million held in Proem's trust account and $50 million from PIPE investments led by Proem Asset Management and Leon Capital Group.

Broadfield US is legal counsel to Astro Digital. Clear Street is financial and capital markets adviser to Proem, and Loeb & Loeb LLP is legal counsel to Proem.

RedLattice

This developer of cyber intelligence technology has also agreed on a transaction that will take it to the public markets with the intent of listing before the year ends.

RedLattice plans to merge with blank check company Bold Eagle Acquisition Corp. and then list on the NASDAQ stock market under the ticker symbol “REDL.”

All parties involved expect the listing to happen before the end of this year, while CEO Andy Boyd will continue to lead RedLattice.

RedLattice is backed by the private equity firm AE Industrial Partners, which acquired majority ownership of the company in 2023. AE Industrial will continue to be RedLattice’s largest shareholder after transaction closes.

RedLattice opened for business in 2012 and designs its tech to help government agencies with efforts in lawful intercept, research and intelligence gathering. The company touted $267 million in revenue for the 12-month period ended June 30 and a contract backlog of roughly $200 million.

The transaction values RedLattice at a pre-money enterprise value of $1.25 billion. RedLattice expects to receive up to $610 million in gross proceeds, a figure that includes $335 million in committed capital from new and existing investors, plus $275 million from Bold Eagle’s trust account assuming no redemptions.

Goldman Sachs is the exclusive financial and capital markets adviser to Bold Eagle. Jefferies is the exclusive financial and capital markets adviser to RedLattice. Goldman Sachs and Jefferies LLC are also the placement agents. Kirkland & Ellis LLP is legal adviser to RedLattice, White & Case LLP is legal advisor to Bold Eagle, and Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP is legal adviser to the placement agents.

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NASA makes 16 awards for $1.4B consolidated logistics pact

Ross Wilkers — Fri, 02 Oct 2026 13:00:00 -0400

NASA has awarded 16 prime positions on a potential $1.4 billion blanket purchase agreement that brings the bulk of logistics services it acquires from industry together into a consolidated mechanism.

NASA said Thursday that it set up the Enterprise Logistics Support Services pact as part of larger efforts to standardize requirements, improve its reporting functions, and streamline how it manages costs and resources.

Awardees will compete for orders to support equipment and property management, transportation, disposal, product support, flight hardware support operations, equipment maintenance and repair, export control, move operations, flight hardware, and other material purchases.

Winners are as follows:

Akima Facilities Operations
Akima Global Logistics
Alutiiq Operations Services
ASR International
ASRC Federal Administrative Services
ASRC Federal Professional Services
IAP World Services
KBR
Leidos
LogiCore
Prime Response
S&K Applied Solutions
TechTrans International
Tetra Tech
Ttrax International
Yulista Support Services

Work will take place over an initial five-year base ordering period, followed by up to three individual option years and a potential six-month extension.

NASA awarded the ELSS pact through OASIS+, the government-wide contract vehicle for professional services that are not IT-centric.

ELSS consolidates 10 separate center-level logistics contracts into a single vehicle covering all 13 centers. The idea is to move away from a fragmented model of purchasing logistics services from industry, according to an analysis by OST Global Solutions.

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Hope is not a plan: Get ready for SBA's new size standards now

Kevin Cooley — Fri, 02 Oct 2026 11:00:00 -0400

As of Aug. 20^,when the Small Business Administration sprung their new size standards on industry, we’ve been inundated with articles and LinkedIn posts decrying the increases.

I’ve read hundreds of posts that suggest all parties should submit comments through the Federal Register in the hope that SBA might withdraw or adjust their proposal. And so far, that pretty much captures the sophistication of the available advice.

To be clear, you should submit comments. We could indeed see a change of heart from SBA or perhaps a viable legal challenge. That is possible.

However, I’d like to suggest that it’s pretty clear that SBA has the statutory authority to adjust size standards. And negative comments aren’t likely to deter the SBA. More than likely, something along the lines of what SBA proposed will take effect in 2027.

It’s been more than 30 days since SBA shocked us with the news. Don’t you think it’s time that industry starts sharing ideas on how to prepare? I talk to a lot of companies, of all sizes, and I can tell you that others are already developing their strategies. To share a few concepts I’m hearing from industry:

Due to the rule of two, the higher size standards are likely to drive work, currently held by the true large businesses, from unrestricted to small business set-aside (SBSA). Smart players are doing the research today, to understand which unrestricted contracts are likely to flip SBSA. And in the meantime, are already gathering the companies they need, to include those who are current subcontractors to the unrestricted firms and are forming strong teams to pursue those contracts. They aren’t putting their head in the sand for months waiting to see what final size standards get implemented.
Perform some competitive analysis. Identify the currently mid-size firms that will become small that have a footprint or strong relationships in your market. Think about who is likely to compete with you. Hold a black hat and know your competitors better, now. What are their weaknesses? Who are the teaming partners they need to try and capture your work? What moves will they make? Get ahead of them, while you can.
The number of bidders for each opportunity is likely to increase. Figure out how you can further differentiate yourself. What does your customer value most? Work hard now to meet with and influence your customers and better shape the opportunities that you must secure for success. Invest the time to improve your relationships with the government decision makers associated with your work. Make the investments, sharpen your pencil, and focus yourself to be the best competitor you can now, before others start engaging with your customers.
Evaluate the true smalls that live in your market and who compete for your work. Assess the capabilities, strengths, and customer relationships of those firms and pick a few to approach and engage with. A number of true smalls should be more willing to join your teams as they also reflect on the new competitive environment and explore ways they can stay relevant. You might find some of those smaller firms have relevant relationships and give your team a distinct advantage.

I’ve always appreciated the saying that “Hope is not a Plan.” Hoping the new size standards go away isn’t a plan. Submit your comments. But start appraising your markets and competitors and get moving. While most parties have enjoyed the dialogue on social media the best players are already working to shape their environment.

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GSA memo to set AI-specific acquisition rules

Christian Robles — Fri, 02 Oct 2026 10:30:00 -0400

The General Services Administration is adjusting its acquisition regulation to include language aimed at protecting government data that contractors process in large language models.

Buried on page 129 of an agency memo signed by GSA Senior Procurement Executive Jeffrey Koses is a section titled “Basic Safeguarding of Data within Large Language Model Artificial Intelligence Systems.” The section details what data protections contractors and subcontractors must include when their LLMs process government data.

For example, the rules state contractors cannot use government data to train LLMs, inform advertising or sell to a third party. Contractors must also implement data handling procedures, including encrypted data transmission and audit logging systems. The memo clarifies the language does not apply to LLMs that contractors use internally for business purposes or products where the LLM functionality is “incidental to” its primary purpose.

The memo is originally from January, but states GSA signed off on the section with the LLM acquisition language in July and that it takes effect on Oct. 19.

GSA had sought to enact a similar draft LLM acquisition rule through a public comment period but ran into intense pushback from industry groups even after a round of modifications. Several stakeholders welcomed the memo’s take on LLM acquisition safeguards.

"GSA’s final AI terms and conditions mark a significant improvement from prior draft versions, and establishes a stronger foundation for safeguarding government data in AI systems,” Quinn Anex-Ries, a senior policy analyst at the Center for Democracy and Technology, said in a Thursday statement.

Anex-Ries praised the rule for “almost entirely” removing language requiring contractors to adhere to “unbiased AI principles.” That language was one of the most controversial provisions of GSA’s draft rule, with some industry groups warning the agency there’s no clear way to test for compliance.

“The AI clause changed in ways industry asked for. It self-deletes when LLM use stays inside the contractor's own back-office systems, or when LLM functionality is incidental to a product the Government isn't using for AI. Flowdown reaches only subcontractors who design, develop, deploy or operate the model,” Kevin Martin, GSA program manager at Government Acquisitions Inc, wrote on LinkedIn.

However, “the workload that remains is still substantial for anyone whose product has LLM functionality in scope: a 120-day disclosure deadline, 72-hour incident reporting, deletion of embeddings and fine-tuned weights at closeout, 30 days of notice and concurrent access before a major model swap, and Government rights to benchmark the deployed model for bias and truthfulness,” he added.

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Your capture plan is fine, but no one is executing it

Nic Coppings — Thu, 01 Oct 2026 14:00:27 -0400

Last quarter you sat in a gate review and heard this: "The customer's been buried, so we didn't meet with them as planned. Relationship's solid, though. Nothing to worry about." You nodded, and they moved on to the next slide.

I've been in those reviews. The name on the contact plan was a real person. The call was due in May. It's now September, and the two of them have never spoken. Your capture plan called for it. Your contact plan assigned it. Your gate review let them off the hook, and you were complicit.

THE GAP IS NOT THE PLAN

Your capture plan isn't the problem. Every capture process preaches early customer contact, requirement shaping, co-solutioning, and win strategy execution. The words are right.

The strategy is never the bottleneck. Bridges Business Consultancy found 80 percent of leaders say their companies are good at developing strategy, only 44 percent say they implement it well, and a mere 10 percent achieve most of their objectives. Your team doesn't need a better capture template. They need to execute the one sitting in your binder.

THE CONTACT PLAN IS NOT A PHONE BOOK

Open the customer relationship and contact plan slide, and you'll find names, titles, and org charts. A relationship-strength column filled in from memory. An owner column filled in with whoever has the closest title. You won't find what the customer cares about, what intel we last gathered, what we want to learn next, or when the next call is scheduled. Half the rows are empty. The other half haven't changed since the plan was written.

Populating the contact plan feels like progress, and it is the easy part. The hard part is executing on it. Meeting the customer and gathering the intel you need. This is the part your team puts off.

THE EXCUSE YOU ACCEPTED

The delay always ends with a plausible excuse. The customer didn't want to meet. I didn't know who the right person was. There was nothing new to bring them. Each excuse is true. Each one is also a training gap presented as a scheduling problem.

The customer didn't want to meet because the request offered them nothing. We didn't know who to call because nobody asked their contacts who the other stakeholders were or for an introduction. They had nothing to bring because they think a customer call is a capabilities briefing, not a customer-focused conversation. None of this is a character flaw. Every one of them is an engagement skill nobody taught, yet the owner is measured on schedule, burn, and a clean CPARS, never on relationship quality.

WHY LEADERS LET IT SLIDE

Then you accepted the excuse. Why? Because pushing back means confronting someone who clearly dreads making sales calls, or someone who often doesn't report to you. Assuming the relationship is fine is easier than forcing someone to do something they've never been taught.

The excuse sounds reasonable because, without training, it is. So the box gets checked, the plan stays green, and the room breathes a sigh of relief as the review moves to the next slide.

WHAT HIGH-PERFORMING ORGANIZATIONS DO DIFFERENTLY

They stop accepting the excuse and do three things instead.

1. They measure where they stand. Not activity, not the number of touches logged in the CRM, but the customer's view of them: whether the customer calls them first with a problem, shares what is coming before the RFI, and sees them as the option rather than an option. A customer relationship score built from those questions turns relationship-building into a number leadership reviews with the same attention as burn rate. It ends the debate about whether the relationship is fine.

2. They train the people who already have customer access. The PM, the lead engineer, and the contracts manager talk to the customer more in a month than the capture team does in a year. They don't need to become salespeople. They need the skills to be more effective in the meetings they already have: listen for customer intel, ask follow-up questions to go deeper, and share intel rather than daily noise with the team. Those skills are learnable, and most companies have never spent a dollar teaching them.

3. They hold the line on the contact plan. An owner, a date, a line in the program review, and a consequence when it slips. When the excuse arrives, the question is not whether it is true. It is what the owner needs to do to execute the call now.

START WITH THE PLAN YOU ALREADY HAVE

Pull up the capture plan you approved at the last gate. Find the contact plan. Count the calls assigned and the calls made. If the number surprises you, you've found the problem, and it isn't the plan. Then ask three questions of every name on it. Were they trained to do this? Do we measure whether it worked? What happens when they don't?

The capture strategy was fine. The engagement and intel gathering side is hard. It is also the part some of your competitors have already fixed.

Nic Coppings is senior partner at Hi-Q Group, where he helps federal contractors build a growth culture across the whole organization, not only the BD team. Hi-Q trains and coaches BD and delivery teams to gather customer intel and execute the contact plan, and gives leaders decision tools built on engagement and relationship strength, so pursuit, recompete, and investment decisions rest on real customer data. He has more than 20 years of federal contracting experience. Reach him at ncoppings@hi-qgroup.com.

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Leidos wins $672M airport security equipment recompete

Ross Wilkers — Thu, 01 Oct 2026 13:15:00 -0400

Leidos has won a potential eight-year, $672.5 million contract to continue its role as lead deployer of checkpoint security equipment at airports for the Transportation Security Administration.

TSA uses the contract to acquire support across the full lifecycle of screening equipment inclusive of imaging technology, walk-through metal detectors, X-ray systems, explosive trace detection systems, bottled liquid scanners, computed tomography systems, credential authorization tech and chemical analysis devices.

TSA awarded this second iteration of the Security Equipment Deployment Services Checkpoint contract on Monday and received three bids in total, according to Sam.gov records.

The contract tasks Leidos with coordinating, installing, removing and relocating passenger screening systems at airport security checkpoints. Leidos also provides services to TSA in support of site surveys, design, site preparation, electrical installation, logistics and equipment testing efforts.

Work under the new contract will take place over one initial base year and up to seven individual option years.

Leidos captured the original iteration in 2021 and has received $435 million in order volume since, according to GovTribe data.

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Navy picks 7 for $828M business support recompete

Ross Wilkers — Thu, 01 Oct 2026 13:11:38 -0400

The Navy has awarded seven companies positions on a potential nine-year, $827.9 million contract for professional services to aid the service branch’s senior uniformed officer responsible for personnel requirements.

Winners will compete for task orders to provide business management support services to the deputy chief of naval operations for personnel, manpower and training and its subordinate commands. The Navy received 20 proposals for the contract, according to the Pentagon’s Wednesday awards digest.

Awardees are as follows:

22nd Century Technologies (newcomer)
Booz Allen Hamilton (incumbent)
CACI International (incumbent)
Guidehouse (newcomer)
Ignite Digital (newcomer)
Serco Group’s North America subsidiary (incumbent)
Systems Planning and Analysis (incumbent)

Serco North America inherited its incumbency through the 2021 acquisition of WBB, one of five primes on the current Business Management Support Services contract awarded in 2018.

The Navy has obligated $244.3 million in task order volume against BMSS ahead of its scheduled August 2027 sunset, according to GovTribe data. Deloitte, which has received 6% of the volume, is the lone incumbent not on the new contract’s awardee list.

Solicitation documents released in November describe the new contract’s service categories as including manpower and performance assessment, financial program management, quantitative analysis, and research-and-development support.

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DISA takes second shot at expanding Leidos' Enclave contract

Nick Wakeman — Thu, 01 Oct 2026 09:53:49 -0400

The Defense Information Services Agency taking a second shot at adding the combatant commands' network migration effort to Enclave, the massive IT services contract held by Leidos.

In a revised justification document posted Monday, DISA sought to address many of the complaints that General Dynamics IT raised in its protest of the agency's first attempt in June.

GDIT’s protest led DISA to pull back on the plan to expand Leidos’ contract and kick off a market research effort that was not carried out the out first time around.

Leidos won the potential $11.5 billion Enclave contract in 2022 to migrate the Pentagon’s 22 administrative and support agencies to the DODNet.

DISA first tried to add the combatant commands to the migration effort in June, following a May memo from Pentagon Chief Information Officer Kirsten Davies.

GDIT lodged a protest arguing there were several deficiencies such as inadequate market research, failure to conduct a pricing determination, and a failure to describe steps to remove barriers to future competitions.

GDIT also questioned the urgency DISA used as part of its justification.

In the June justification document, DISA said it waived the need for market research and that Leidos was the only company capable of carrying out the work.

GDIT's protest said that there should be a competition and it could do the work as well. DISA then took corrective action in response to the GDIT protest.

The agency released a sources sought notice in late July and a second posting in late August.

Both notices asked many of the questions that GDIT said were missing the first time around.

With those steps behind it, DISA's newest justification document again seeks to expand Leidos’ Enclave contract to include the combatant commands.

The justification document is an expansion of the original June notice. In fact, it has the same justification and approval number (JA26-059) as the June posting.

The biggest change is the addition of the findings of the market research. DISA received responses from 24 companies including GDIT, Leidos, Booz Allen Hamilton, Accenture, Peraton and Science Applications International Corp.

DISA said Leidos could provide the services at the “scale, magnitude, and speed” the agency said it needs.

Leidos was able to “illustrate an approach that mitigated technical risk associated with conducting both automated endpoint and network migrations and implementing training and adoption measures that support uninterrupted mission operations,” DISA wrote in the document.

DISA also makes a new argument: other vendors would need access to "the migration script author" to adapt DODNet's automation scripts, Active Directory schemas and identity management structures. The agency says earlier attempts to use other vendors for smaller migrations ran into this barrier.

The agency also beefed up its pricing determination, which was missing in the first justification document.

DISA still says the $11.5 billion ceiling will not increase, but it now includes an estimated value for the combatant command work that DISA redacted. Each task order will be priced separately.

The agency also expanded on the urgency it claims justify the need for a speedy migration, including the need to harden national security infrastructure against AI driven threats. DISA is also working to meet certain zero-trust deadlines.

DISA estimates a separate competition would duplicate $15 million in engineering work already done under Enclave and would make an accelerated migration more difficult.

In her May memo, Davies said that the combatant commands should be migrated by the end of the government's fiscal year 2028.

Under the best of circumstances, this will be a massive undertaking. There are 11 combatant commands with 231,000 users at 200 global sites, according to DISA’s July sources sought notice.

So far under Enclave, Leidos has migrated 40,000 users across 900 sites at 14 agencies to DODNet since 2022.

Leidos’ experience is part of DISA’s argument for giving the company the task of migrating the combatant commands. The pace of migrations has accelerated from months to weeks because of the use of automated scripts adapted for DODNet, DISA said.

No response yet from GDIT on whether they will file another protest.

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Navy takes first step to craft NGEN network hardware recompete

Ross Wilkers — Wed, 30 Sep 2026 13:08:17 -0400

The Navy has started on its work on the next iteration of the hardware portion of NGEN – the service branch’s primary enterprise IT network that also reaches into the Marine Corps.

Approximately 750,000 Navy and 260,000 Marine Corps personnel use the Next Generation Enterprise Network that includes end user devices, enterprise infrastructure, networking hardware, commercial software, licenses, subscriptions and lifecycle services.

The Navy awarded the current NGEN-R hardware contract to HP Inc.’s federal subsidiary in 2019, then chose Leidos for the much larger software- and systems integration-focused piece in 2020.

By releasing this sources sought notice Tuesday, the Navy is embarking on initial market research and acquisition planning efforts to inform how it sets up the hardware recompete that will focus on supply chain management.

Navy leaders are specifically seeking ideas from industry into how the service branch can incorporate commercial supply chain practices, technologies and business models into IT product delivery functions.

Operational support services will not be in the scope of the recompete, which the Navy could use for acquiring engineering services that aid in product and service design activities.

The request for information describes the Navy’s current environment as being bogged down by issues related to acquisition-to-delivery cycle times, limited end-to-end visibility, administrative friction, and supply-chain risk exposure.

The RFI outlines five aspects of what the Navy envisions as a “good” operational environment and structured its questionnaire for industry around those points:

An authorized user with a validated need can identify an approved product, place an order, and receive it at the required location within a commercially competitive timeframe, with minimal intermediate paperwork or manual hand-offs.
The government retains continuous, authoritative visibility of every asset, entitlement, warranty, and open order from demand signal through disposition, and can act on that information without waiting for contractor-generated reports.
Routine transactions require little or no centralized government intervention once policy and catalog guardrails are set.
Supply chain risks that threaten availability, integrity, authenticity, security, cost, or delivery are identified early enough to protect mission timelines.
The government can transition providers, technologies, or service models without loss of accountability, open-order continuity, warranty coverage, or historical data.

Responses to the RFI are due by 3 p.m. Eastern time on Oct. 14.

HPI Federal has received $856 million in order volume to-date against the current NGEN-R End User Hardware contract that is slated to sunset in March 2029, according to GovTribe data.

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GAO clears the protest deck for $50B Army MAPS vehicle

Nick Wakeman — Wed, 30 Sep 2026 12:50:40 -0400

The Army has won out over the remaining protests surrounding its $50 billion MAPS professional services contract.

The Government Accountability Office has denied a final group of five challenges to the solicitation for the Army’s Marketplace for the Acquisition of Professional Services.

The protest by Cinteot was a standalone case. Kearney & Co., NextGen Federal Systems, Integral Federal and Alpha Tech Alliance were bundled into a single decision.

Only the Cinteot decision has been publicly released so far and that was unsealed Monday. The decision involving the other four is still going through GAO’s redaction process before the written decision publicly available.

Cinteot challenged the procurement process, the time given for responding to the solicitation amendments and raise allegations of a defective form.

One of Cinteot’s complaints about the procurement ws that instructions were not clear about how to score past performance examples as part of the self-scoring process. Even though several amendments slightly changed the scorecard, bidders still used a dropdown menu to pick an adjectival rating that translated into a numeric score.

The Army said, and GAO agreed, that it did not matter which scorecard bidders used. The score would remain the same.

On the other challenges, GAO found no grounds to rule in favor of Cinteot.

The four bundled protests challenged different aspects of the self-scoring process and the procurement as a whole.

These four companies also said the Army improperly consolidated requirements and the solicitation had ambiguities that prevented bidders from competing on a common basis. They also argued that requirements in the solicitation were unduly restrictive.

GAO denied all those challenges.

GAO made its decisions between Sept. 21 and Sept. 28, which clears the watchdog agency’s docket of MAPS protests.

Other earlier protests were dismissed by GAO and a challenge by Intelligence Consulting Enterprise Solutions was sustained. GAO told the Army to allow small business teams to submit proposals.

MAPS will become the Army’s primary contract for acquiring staff augmentation and technology support.

MAPS consolidates work that currently takes place under the Responsive Strategic Services Sourcing and Information Technology Enterprise Solution-3 Services vehicles.

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GSA’s deputy administrator to depart government

Frank Konkel — Wed, 30 Sep 2026 10:32:00 -0400

Michael Lynch, deputy administrator for the General Services Administration, will be leaving his role and returning to the private sector, according to an email sent to staff Wednesday morning by GSA Administrator Ed Forst.

“Mike has been a part of the Administration since January 20, 2025, and I want to thank him for his service to the agency and the American people,” Forst wrote in the email. “During this time, Mike has led initiatives to advance our strategic priorities, strengthen oversight of internal operations, and support effective delivery of our mission. Mike has also helped accelerate GSA’s efforts to increase technology adoption across the agency and the federal government, supporting our customers, workforce and efforts to streamline how we operate.”

“Deputy Administrator Lynch has been a great partner, and has served GSA with distinction," a GSA spokesperson said. "Throughout his tenure, he has made valuable contributions to the agency. We appreciate his leadership, his commitment to GSA’s mission, and his service to the American people. We wish him all the best in his future endeavors.”

Lynch’s departure date is unclear.

Lynch, in an email to staff sent later Wednesday morning, said he was proud of his time in the Trump administration, grateful to Forst “for his leadership, trust and partnership” and described his 20-month tenure in public service as “incredibly rewarding.” He added the decision was “the right one for me and my family.”

“When I arrived at GSA in January 2025, one of my priorities was to help modernize how government operates — leveraging emerging technology, reducing duplication, and improving delivery for the American people. Over the past 20 months, we have made meaningful progress and built a strong foundation for this work to continue,” he wrote.

Prior to his government service, Lynch was the chief executive officer at UK-based medical technology firm Zedsen. After joining GSA, he quickly became the public face of the agency’s increased role in AI and technology adoption and driving efficiencies across the federal government.

Lynch championed GSA’s OneGov program, through which GSA negotiated substantial discounts on AI and other software on behalf of the entire federal government, with accumulated savings to agencies now exceeding $1.7 billion. Several of those discounts have been extended in recent weeks, including deals with Google, OpenAI and Anthropic.

Meanwhile, more than two dozen agencies are using GSA’s USAi platform to access commercial AI models produced by frontier AI firms.

Within GSA, Lynch led the execution against two core efforts that are now making a dent in challenges faced by other agencies. In early 2026, the agency launched a “million hours challenge” to save and automate one million hours of workload across the agency. The agency is pacing to exceed that goal by year’s end, according to multiple GSA officials. Insights and lessons learned in attempting to accomplish the feat later served as the backbone for its Eliminate, Optimize and Automate, or EOA Playbook. GSA released the playbook publicly to all agencies in June to serve as a step-by-step guide to cut, automate and streamline work.

Lynch, who said the Trump administration “has looked to GSA to lead” on approaches to make government more efficient and responsive, evangelized the agency’s internal efforts through a governmentwide Emerging Technology Showcase attended in-person and online by thousands of federal employees on July 30.

“That's really a core to GSA's mission and a convening function that we've heard: a lot of demand and interest throughout government to expand what we were doing internally and offer it up more broadly,” Lynch said during GovExec’s Government Efficiency Summit on July 16.

Behind the public-facing tech efforts, Lynch was known as a steady hand for GSA’s workforce, which — like many agencies — faced force reduction in 2025. Lynch helped launch GSA Labs, a program designed to identify high-performers in the early-to-mid career level and place them into small teams with executive sponsorship to tackle the agency’s toughest problems.

“Mike was the guy working with the [GSA chief human capital officer] to make this make sense,” one senior GSA official told Nextgov/FCW. “He’s been trying to keep things steady for employees. He’s the one heading up all the GSA labs, and made them a positive for employees. He really cared about [workplace] culture and performance management.”

Lynch’s departing email acknowledged pride in GSA Labs, the EOA Playbook and Million Hour Challenge, expanding OneGov agreements and launching USAi, but also called out the agency’s key resource: it’s people.

“I have also appreciated the opportunity to visit GSA employees across the country,” Lynch said. “Those visits reinforced that GSA’s greatest strength is its people and their commitment to serving our agencies and the American public. It’s been an honor to serve alongside you.”

Editor's note: This story has been updated.

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Trax loses White Sands protest, but judge hits government over AI disclosures

Nick Wakeman — Wed, 30 Sep 2026 10:28:01 -0400

Trax International Corp. may have lost its protest at the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, but the government’s lawyers may be in some hot water for not being forthcoming with the judge.

Over the summer, Trax challenged the Army’s decision to award a $450 million mission support services contract at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico to the Southwest Range Services joint venture. SA-Tech, Amentum and EWA Warrior Services are partners in the JV.

TRAX laid out several challenges to how the Army conducted evaluations, including the fact that the service branch used artificial intelligence to evaluate proposals.

Trax argued that the Army's Fast Track AI tool committed several hallucinations that gave the impression that the proposal by Southwest Range Services was superior to Trax's bid.

Judge Carolyn Lerner denied that argument because TRAX could not identify any actual errors in the evaluation that could be traced to the AI tool. Lerner wrote in her Sept. 22 ruling that while she "cannot entirely rule out the use of AI," TRAX needed to show more.

But at the same time, the Army drew the judge’s ire because their story about how they used the AI tool changed over the course of the case.

The judge has written a still-sealed show cause order to force the government to explain itself on the record. The show cause order will not change the outcome for TRAX, but it could result in some sanctions for the attorneys representing the Army.

Lerner wants the government to "explain the errors and misrepresentations in its briefing" on TRAX's motion to add the AI evaluations to the record.

The dispute over the record began when Trax asked the court to add the AI outputs to the administrative record. The government said a procurement analyst had run the proposals through Fast Track to test whether the tool could be used in future source selections.

According to the government, the evaluation board saw only one output from a third unnamed bidder and only on a screen. Board members judged it unusable and none of the outputs were entered into the contract file or used in the decision, the government said.

That account did not hold up. When Lerner ordered the Army officials to answer specific questions in supplemental declarations, the procurement analyst acknowledged for the first time that he had also sent the AI evaluations of the TRAX and Southwest Range proposals to three people.

Two were members of the evaluation board and the third person was the contracting officer.

Lerner called it a "belated admission."

She ruled that the AI evaluations need to be in the administrative record because they are “relevant to the process” and bear directly on “Trax’s claim that AI-assisted review introduced errors that infected its technical evaluation.”

Once the AI outputs were in the record, it became clear the board's evaluation of the third bidder contained passages that were nearly sentence-for-sentence identical to the AI-generated evaluation.

Lerner has written her show cause order, but the government has asked for more time to submit redactions to the order. Redactions were due Sept. 30 (today) and the judge’s response is expected Oct. 13.

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Army awards counterdrone contracts worth more than $4B

Lauren C. Williams — Wed, 30 Sep 2026 10:00:00 -0400

Military drone and counterdrone demand is booming amid a rush to spend funds before the end of the fiscal year—but the Pentagon’s drone marketplace is making it a little easier, defense officials said.

“These contracts are available to everybody. And so what we've seen across the department is a surge of end-of-year requests for procurement,” Brig. Gen. Matthew Ross, who leads the Pentagon’s Joint Interagency Task Force 401, told reporters Tuesday. “End-of-year spending is nothing new inside of the department, but when you have an available contract vehicle, it makes it really easy to execute. And so, we've seen that from across the services.”

The Army issued 10 indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contracts Tuesday with a total ceiling of $4.15 billion for systems to disable or destroy unmanned aerial drones, including command-and-control systems, sensors, and weapons.

Seven companies received $500 million awards: Allen Control Systems, Digital Force Technologies, DroneShield, L3Harris WESCAM, Napatree Technology, RADA Technologies, and SRC.

Echodyne and PVP Advanced EO Systems received $250 million contracts, and SmartShooter received a $150 million contract. Only about $50 million was obligated at the time of award, the Army said.

But there’s room for more—up to $7 billion.

"As of today we have awarded over $5 billion, which includes previous contracts with [Aerovironment] and CACI, these 10 new IDIQs and others that we expect to sign before the end of next month. The $7 billion ceiling is in full effect today, and additional contracts will be pursued to get us to that point," Col. Tony Lindh, JIATF-401’s lead for rapid acquisitions, told reporters.

The new enterprise contracts reflect a new way of doing business for the Army, providing buyers more flexibility over time.

“These platforms are software-defined, hardware-enabled systems…so we have to be able to partner with industry and then hold them accountable over time,” said Ross, JIATF 401’s director.

The Army’s unmanned aerial systems marketplace has done about $800 million in transactions since it opened earlier this year, and the expectation is for counterdrone demand to follow a similar path—especially with allies and partners, said Brent Ingraham, who leads Army acquisitions.

“About 10 days ago, Australia successfully procured, in this case, it was a UAS off the drones.mil marketplace,” Ingraham told reporters. “We still have to use the [foreign military sales] process as we go through this marketplace. But…we've automated the tools on the back end.”

That means it now takes days from request to purchase instead of months or longer when an ally or partner nation wants to buy a system the U.S. has.

“When they see the U.S. military buying certain products, they're all in,” Ingraham said. “And so this is a way to share those technologies, share what we're doing,” and help smaller businesses “scale.”

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Google extends Gemini OneGov deal into November

Christian Robles — Wed, 30 Sep 2026 09:30:00 -0400

Federal agencies will continue to have access to Google Gemini for $0.47 per agency per year through Nov. 15 instead of Sept. 30, according to a listing on the General Services Administration’s OneGov website.

GSA did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A Google spokesperson said they had no additional details to share.

The extended savings come after Anthropic extended $1 per user access to Claude through Oct. 31 instead of Sept. 30. OpenAI has a new OneGov partnership kicking in on Oct. 1 that will offer agencies a 50% usage-based discount on ChatGPT models, replacing a previous price tag of $1 per agency.

With the Gemini extension, all three OneGov deals that were set to expire at the end of September have either been extended or rewritten.

The Gemini OneGov extension comes the same day the Trump administration unveiled America.gov, a website offering Americans AI-generated responses to questions about government services and benefits.

The website uses Gemini and Grok models, though GSA did not respond to a request for comment on whether the website is taking advantage of the OneGov initiative.

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ICE starts to explore AI, data strategy support contract

Ross Wilkers — Tue, 29 Sep 2026 13:50:01 -0400

Immigration and Customs Enforcement has embarked on initial market research efforts to explore how it could hire at least one contractor to support its enterprise strategy for artificial intelligence and data.

ICE’s office of the chief information officer has led the agency through a multi-year initiative to become a more data-driven organization and get more tech offerings into a production environment. This includes STELLA, an artificial intelligence platform that functions as a large language model for capabilities such as chatbots and workflow automation.

The production environment now requires ongoing operations-and-maintenance support and continued enhancement work to support ICE’s future transformation efforts, the agency said in a sources sought notice published Tuesday.

AI, data, and technology strategy and architecture are the three major functional areas ICE is looking for industry support in. ICE is also exploring the possibility of an enterprise agentic software factory operating model to aid in AI-enabled delivery.

That factory would have three architectural layers including an enterprise operating model and control plane, agentic orchestration and runtime layer, and independent assurance boundary.

The plane would be set up to support portfolio governance, while the runtime layer would act as a coordinator of AI and software giants. The boundary would provide cybersecurity, accessibility and mission acceptance testing capabilities to users.

ICE’s request for information has 12 questions for industry to answer ahead of the agency’s acquisition planning and requirements development efforts. The RFI asks for feedback on contract strategy, pricing models, multi-cloud and AI platform sustainment capabilities, and experience in AI governance and risk management.

Responses to the RFI are due by 10 a.m. Eastern time on Oct. 16.

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Amentum wins $572M NORAD warning system contract

Ross Wilkers — Tue, 29 Sep 2026 13:49:00 -0400

Amentum has won a seven-year, $572.3 million contract to help the North American Aerospace Defense Command operate and maintain a system designed to assess missile launch and surveillance information.

NORAD’s Cheyenne Mountain Complex in Colorado is home to the Integrated Tactical Warning/Attack Assessment and Space Support system, also known as NCMC - ITW/AA. The system works to integrate and correlate information from certified sources to determine the nature of adversaries’ launches and attacks, then issue warnings to military leaders.

The Air Force received seven bids for the third iteration of the NORAD Cheyenne Mountain Complex-Integrated Tactical Warning/Attack Assessment and Space Support Contract, according to the Pentagon’s Monday awards digest.

Amentum can claim this as an incumbent win, given that Jacobs won the current NISSC II iteration in 2020 and spun off its federal services businesses to Amentum in 2024. Roughly $547 million in order volume has flowed through the current contract, according to GovTribe data.

Amentum will work in areas such as system administration, vulnerability management, organizational-level maintenance and test support for the warning system.

The NCMC-ITW/AA’s user base includes the U.S. National Command Authority, National Military Command Center, combatant commanders and members of Canada’s national leadership team.

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Tetra Tech's new government leader and 3 CEO transitions to note

Ross Wilkers — Tue, 29 Sep 2026 13:47:25 -0400

Tetra Tech

Lauren Springer has moved up to president of the government services group at the global technical and engineering services provider, which she first joined in 2000.

With this promotion announced Tuesday, Springer now leads a business that has integrated federal technology work into its portfolio over the past several years. In January, Tetra Tech purchased Halvik Corp. to add agile delivery and digital solutions content.

Springer also currently works as president of Tetra Tech’s U.S infrastructure division.

Tetra Tech posted $5.4 billion in revenue for its 2025 recent fiscal year ended Sept. 28 and U.S. federal work represents 31% of that, according to the company’s annual report. The government services group contributed 49% of overall fiscal 2025 sales for Tetra Tech, which ranked at Position No. 64 on the 2026 Washington Technology Top 100.

Agile Six

Dan Levenson has moved up to chief executive at the digital services provider, which he first joined in 2018 as a strategy lead.

Levenson became president of Agile Six in 2020 and now oversees all aspects of the company’s strategy centered around product and delivery management, the DevSecOps software practice, data and applied artificial intelligence, and user-centered design and research.

Agile Six has recorded $25.1 million in unclassified prime contract revenue over the trailing 12 months with the Veterans Affairs Department representing 97% of the spend, according to USASpending.gov data. The Health and Human Services Department makes up the remaining 3%.

Levenson succeeds Robert Rasmussen, who co-founded Agile Six in 2014 and led it ever since as CEO. Rasmussen is staying involved as chairman of the board of directors, Agile Six said in a LinkedIn post.

Defcon AI

Margo de Naray has joined the integrator of artificial intelligence-centric technology systems as chief executive following a one-year stint as CEO of Solestial, a space solar tech outfit.

Defcon AI opened for business in 2022 and closed a $44 million seed capital raise two years later from a network of backers including Fifth Growth Fund and Red Cell Partners, the tech incubation firm.

De Naray now leads a company touting a $150 million contracted revenue backlog across four large customers, Defcon AI said Tuesday. She succeeds Yisroel Brumer, who co-founded the company alongside Red Cell Partners CEO Grant Verstandig.

Solestial was acquired by York Space Systems in May. De Naray’s two-decade career in industry also includes senior roles at Astra and Cargill.

Emagine IT

Aamir Saleem, who co-founded the technology services contractor in 2002 alongside company President Song Pak, is returning to the CEO post after a one-year stint as its chief technology officer.

During that period, EIT was led by CEO Cedric Sims as Saleem worked to refine the company’s technical vision and strategic direction. EIT’s LinkedIn announcement of Saleem’s return to the CEO role noted Sims’ leadership of the company during that transition.

EIT has recorded $23.9 million in unclassified prime contract revenue over the trailing 12 months with HHS representing 49% of the spend, according to USASpending.gov data.

Other significant prime customers include the U.S. International Development Finance Corp., plus the Interior and Defense departments.

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General Dynamics IT keeps Army field support work with $510M award

Nick Wakeman — Tue, 29 Sep 2026 13:44:18 -0400

General Dynamics IT has retained customer it has worked with for 20 years by securing a $510 million field support task order from the Army Communications-Electronics Command.

The company will provide global logistics, sustainment and maintenance services for the Army and coalition forces under the Worldwide Field Support program. GDIT first began supporting the customer in 2006, the company said Wednesday.

The five-year task order was awarded in July and has a single base year, followed by four individual option years.

GDIT will support the Army’s current and future command, control, communications, IT assets, cyber, intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and medical (C5ISR-M) systems. This includes radios, command and control, and environmental control systems.

The company will provide hardware and software support, field maintenance, and support personnel in forward locations. GDIT said it will perform work at190 locations worldwide, including Army bases and installations.

Army Communications-Electronics Command manages the Army’s C5ISR-M systems that soldiers use to monitor the battlefield and execute operations in real time.

“From low-cost drones to sophisticated cyber threats, the battlefield is evolving faster than ever and increasing risks to our soldiers,” Brian Sheridan, GDIT senior vice president for defense, said in a release.

GDIT personnel will work alongside soldiers to bring the “latest technology and solutions to help the Army stay one step ahead of our adversaries and prepare now for the battlespace of the future,” Sheridan said.

The award builds on GDIT’s portfolio of services across the Army, including delivering enterprise network and cybersecurity services for the Army National Guard, enterprise IT services for U.S. Army Europe, global integrated base defense sustainment support, flight school training, and mission training complex support.

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White House launches AI-powered ‘America.gov’ digital front door

Christian Robles — Tue, 29 Sep 2026 13:16:00 -0400

The Trump administration launched an artificial intelligence-powered one-stop shop for citizens interested in federal services and information on Tuesday with the help of former Department of Government Efficiency employees.

The website currently allows users to ask a chatbot questions about everything from qualifying for Medicare to finding a job to renewing a passport, without ever creating an account. Users receive AI-generated answers derived only from official federal sources.

America.gov, which sifts through 29,000 websites to pull responses, states it is free to use and “never includes ads, and keeps your privacy protected.”

Phase two of America.gov, which is set for early 2027, will allow Americans to apply for, enroll in and track progress of benefits such as Social Security directly within the chatbot.

“One of the most revolutionary product launches of all time. It really is,” President Donald Trump said at a launch event in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday. “We’re putting power and control back into the hands of the people, right where it belongs,” he added.

At the event, Trump signed an executive order mandating that agencies ensure public-facing services integrate directly with America.gov as soon as possible.

A fact sheet on the order states that services integrating with America.gov will “include public-facing federal services that serve more than 100,000 users in a 12-month period and can be accessed or applied for online. Tax filing services provided by the Internal Revenue Service and national-security-sensitive services provided by the Department of War and the Intelligence Community are excluded.”

The order also directs the head of the Office of Management and Budget to issue guidance to agencies on implementing their covered services into America.gov.

America.gov does not include web-tracking technologies, save conversations or use specific locations to share information, according to its privacy page.

The National Design Studio, a Trump administration creation that includes former DOGE employees, designed and engineered America.gov. The General Services Administration is operating the website amid a major shakeup to its web design system staff.

Approximately 40 million people visit government websites each day, Joe Gebbia, the National Design Studio’s chief design officer, said at the event.

Under phase two, Americans will be able to upload and send marriage certificates to federal agencies of their choice through the chatbot, according to a presentation Gebbia shared at the launch event.

Gemini and Grok models are powering America.gov, Gebbia told CNBC Tuesday morning. Grok has faced backlash for creating millions of sexualized deepfakes of women and children last year, Nextgov/FCW previously reported.

Americans will also be able to use login.gov to digitally verify their identities and send that information to agencies such as the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the Social Security Administration and the Department of Veterans Affairs, according to a presentation CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz shared at the event.

Oz touted America.gov’s ability to show verified users the locations of doctors near them who accept Medicare and enables them to schedule medical appointments. The website also allows users to pull information about drugs they take, compare medication costs and find local pharmacies that carry the medications.

Oz argued the new website will be more useful than informational Medicare packets CMS sends Americans each year, costing approximately $100 million. Oz previously flirted with using AI to help Medicare beneficiaries find health plans and doctors.

“For 165 million Americans, you get Medicare, Medicaid, Obamacare. We want these systems eventually to integrate and be able to help so many Americans,” Oz said of America.gov.

Oz told reporters he is pushing for CMS to be as transparent “as possible” about Medicare plans highlighted on America.gov and “make it hard” for insurance companies “to game” information.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio showed that Americans can apply for a passport after signing in with login.gov. The service will launch in December 2026, according to a presentation Rubio gave at the event. The State Department already has an online passport renewal platform that has issued millions of passports.

“By the end of 2027, our goal is for the vast majority of Americans to be able to apply for a passport or passport card on America.gov,” Rubio said.

Rubio also unveiled the 2028 U.S. passport, which he said the State Department created alongside the National Design Studio.

Two civic technologists cautioned that America.gov has not yet proven itself to be the watershed website that Trump administration officials heralded.

“This isn't any big leap forward over the other ‘one-stop shops’ that have been tried before. What remains to be seen is how it could be integrated with any agency program,” Mikey Dickerson, former administrator of the U.S. Digital Service and senior advisor to Democratic-aligned Tech Viaduct, told Nextgov/FCW.

“My first read [of America.gov] is that like many other [National Design Studio] websites, the real functionality is ‘coming soon’ — I tested a VA disability claim and it directs me to the VA site. It claims to be able to do that in 2027, but that’s a significantly heavier lift than building an LLM wrapper,” Christopher Whitaker, executive director of the Alliance of Civic Technologists and a Tech Viaduct contributor, posted on social media.

Other top Trump administration officials, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, General Services Administrator Edward Forst, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and former Federal Chief Information Officer Greg Barbaccia, attended the launch event.

Private sector leaders, including former DOGE leader Elon Musk and NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang, are set to speak Tuesday afternoon.

Trump thanked Musk for “initially envision[ing] the transformation of government with technology” during his remarks, despite squabbling with the former DOGE leader in 2025.

Trump argued that America.gov highlights the need for the SAVE America Act, a federal bill requiring voters to provide photo ID at the time of voting that has stalled in Congress.

Trump said he will soon sign an executive order changing the name of AI to “super intelligence,” a new term he has recently coined; he claimed that Chinese President Xi Jinping supports the renaming. The America.gov order Trump signed refers to AI as super intelligence.

“We don't want to hear artificial because it's not artificial. It's very powerful. It's very brilliant,” Trump said.

The Washington Sun first reported on plans for America.gov earlier this month.

Editor's note: This article has been updated to include additional info about the models powering America.gov.

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Why every small GovCon needs a board of advisors

Mark Amtower — Mon, 28 Sep 2026 15:08:09 -0400

To say this market has become more complex, especially for small contractors, would be belaboring the obvious.

Between shifting defense budgets, rigid compliance requirements like evolving SBA size standards, FAR, DFARS, and CMMC, the lingering effects of DOGE, long sales cycles, and fierce competition from large primes, running a small GovCon in this space can easily become an echo chamber.

Establishing a formal or informal board of advisors provides small GovCons with strategic leverage that is otherwise difficult to access. Here are a few reasons small government contractors should have a Board.

1. Bridging the Experience Gap

Small GovCons are often founded by brilliant technical experts, former government personnel, or sharp operators who excel at delivery. However, they may lack specialized expertise in scaling a business, executing account-based marketing (ABM) for the public sector, or managing complex federal pricing and contract vehicles.

The Advisory Solution: A board allows you to hand-pick seasoned veterans—such as former agency acquisition officials, retired senior military leaders, or veteran GovCon CEOs—who have already navigated the exact growth hurdles you are facing.

2. Objective Strategic Guidance (Without the Legal Risk)

Unlike a board of directors, which has fiduciary responsibilities, voting power, and legal liabilities, a board of advisors has no legal authority to govern or vote. It is purely advisory.

The Advisory Solution: This makes it a low-risk, high-reward structure. Advisors act as a sounding board, offering objective, unbiased truth about your pipeline, bidding strategy, or operational bottlenecks without the friction or red tape of traditional corporate governance.

3. Expanding the Network and Opening Doors

In the federal market, relationships and past performance matter immensely. Breaking into a new agency or getting past a gatekeeper is often the hardest part for a small business.

The Advisory Solution: Bringing on well-connected advisors instantly expands your Rolodex. A good advisor brings deep agency relationships, warm introduction channels to key decision-makers and contracting officers (COs), and/or valuable connections to large prime contractors looking for reliable small-business subcontractors.

4. Enhancing Credibility and Trust

When pursuing federal agencies or teaming up with enterprise-level primes, trust is currency. Small businesses must constantly prove they have the maturity, stability, and governance to handle federal dollars.

The Advisory Solution: Showcasing a high-caliber advisory board on your website, capability statement, or proposal bios signals instant market maturity. It reassures teaming partners and contracting officers that your leadership team relies on seasoned oversight and industry best practices.

5. Navigating the Federal Lifecycle and Compliance

The rules of engagement in GovCon change rapidly—from shifting small business set-aside rules and SBA regulations to cybersecurity mandates and shifting federal IT modernization priorities.

The Advisory Solution: Advisors who stay on top of policy changes can help you spot legislative and budgetary trends long before they hit the streets, helping you position your capture efforts effectively and avoid costly compliance missteps.

6. Thinking of Your Exit Plan

All small GovCons should have both a growth plan and an exit plan.

The Advisory Solution: The first five bullets above help with the growth. However, most GovCon professionals you would select for a board will also have some direct or indirect experience with successful exits. Planning well in advance of any exit ensures a more positive outcome.

Key Takeaway

For a small government contractor, an advisory board acts as an unfair competitive advantage. It gives you enterprise-level strategic firepower, network access, and market wisdom on a fractional, consulting basis—helping you scale faster, bid smarter, and avoid expensive blind spots.

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DHA embarks on health data management contract strategy

Ross Wilkers — Mon, 28 Sep 2026 13:44:33 -0400

The Defense Health Agency has started to sketch out a plan for hiring single or multiple contractors that can help integrate health data from multiple sources, including vendor-developed and Veterans Affairs Department-linked applications.

At the moment, DHA does not have a finalized enterprise strategy for how and where this program data would reside and be managed for the agency’s usage. DHA is first looking at viable hosting and data management models as the agency evolves toward a longer-term approach, according to a sources sought notice posted Thursday.

DHA is citing clinical, administrative, operational, financial, scheduling, encounter, assessment, document and analytics as among the types of data it wants industry help in maintaining and operating.

The notice asks respondents to describe their capabilities for ingesting, normalizing, exchanging, reconciling and making available data from both vendor and VA-connected applications.

Some models of interest to DHA include environments managed by the agency itself, the Defense Department’s enterprise cloud environments, other government cloud environments, vendor-hosted environments, hybrid architectures and federated data approaches.

The request for information’s questionnaire covers topics pertaining to ownership, interoperability, cybersecurity, privacy, hosting authorization, records management, continuity of operations, vendor transition, and long-term sustainment.

Responses to the RFI are due by 12 p.m. Eastern time on Oct. 26.

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Air Force unveils first draft of $2B base security tech recompete

Ross Wilkers — Mon, 28 Sep 2026 13:43:52 -0400

The Air Force has unveiled a first draft of the solicitation for a potential $2 billion recompete of a contract focused on the acquisition, integration and sustainment of base defense security systems.

With the apt name of GUARD, the multiple-award Global Unified Airbase Readiness and Defense contract will support efforts across the Air Force to equip its security forces with security systems and other tools for protecting personnel and facilities.

Air Force officials set up GUARD to cover its family of Integrated Base Defense Security Systems and move this tech to a modular open systems architecture for integrating new subsystems and third-party applications, according to the draft request for proposals posted Friday.

IBDSS comprises of fixed-site electronic security systems including cameras and other intrusion detection products, tactical systems used for force protection missions, and delay and denial systems for target engagement functions.

The Air Force is particularly looking at applications from the Internet of Things, cloud computing and artificial intelligence domains as tools to integrate into the overall IBDSS environment.

GUARD’s core requirements cover the design and delivery of new systems, site surveys and installation, systems engineering, testing and verification, cybersecurity assessment and authorization support, training, and lifecycle sustainment efforts such as warranties and logistics.

By releasing the draft RFP, the Air Force is giving industry a new opportunity to examine the acquisition strategy in more detail and weigh in before the service branch releases a final solicitation.

Comments and feedback on the draft RFP are due by 12 p.m. on Oct. 14.

GUARD will be the follow-on to IBDSS Next, a multiple-award task order effort finalized in 2023 with four winners that vie for work to maintain the systems.

Deltek data indicates the Air Force has awarded $177.3 million in work ahead of separate sunset dates for each winner between February 2027 and May 2028.

Obligation details for the awardee are as follows:

Parsons Corp. – 27%, or $48.7 million
CACI International – 27%, or $47.4 million
M.C. Dean – 23%, or $41.7 million
Johnson Controls – 22%, or $39.5 million

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Serco’s new North America CEO: ‘I want to press the accelerator’

Nick Wakeman — Mon, 28 Sep 2026 13:43:31 -0400

Barbara Supplee is one day into her new CEO role at Serco North America, replacing the former chief executive who left after less than a year on the job.

But Supplee is not looking at a company in need of a turnaround.

"I want to press the accelerator" instead, she said in an interview in the week before her Sept. 28 start.

Supplee joins Serco North America from Science Applications International Corp., where she served as executive vice president of its Army-Navy business group.

She succeeds Michael LaRouche, who left to become CEO of the KBR government business being spun off to create Trinzic.

In looking at her new company, she sees one already working in the right places.

"The organization is well positioned within the market and some of the top priorities for both federal and defense," she said.

Serco’s Navy business was a big draw for Supplee, who served as a Navy intelligence specialist earlier in her career. Supplee's private sector career has taken her to BAE Systems Inc., CACI International, General Dynamics IT and SAIC.

Most of those roles had a Navy focus. She pointed to Serco North America’s naval architecture capabilities as a key element of the company’s growth.

"We talk about shipbuilding, shipbuilding, shipbuilding. We have some of the best in the business. It's a national treasure," she said.

Those architects worked with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency USX-1 Defiant, an autonomous vessel designed to operate without a crew. Supplee believes that experience gives Serco North America an advantage in autonomy.

"Having naval architects that understand the design of manned systems and being able to apply that knowledge and capability to autonomy is an advantage," she said.

A second key to Serco North America’s growth is the work it does in live, virtual and constructive training. Serco North America grew that business when it acquired from Northrop Grumman for $327 million in 2025.

Combined with the company's long-running readiness work, she said the training business "has put us in a strong place to advance the readiness of the entire department.”

She listed other strengths including C5ISR work for Naval Information Warfare Center Atlantic and Pacific, electronic security systems and base operations support.

Together, she said those let Serco "connect a lot of dots in the overall life cycle of systems."

Serco North America employs 10,000 people and posted $2 billion in 2025 revenue. To grow, Serco North America will rely on breaking through what she sees as a challenge across the entire market – the mindset of the customer.

“That’s the biggest challenge really,” she said.

Industry has a role in helping acquisition professionals embrace new frameworks for doing business that are being pushed by the Trump administration. This includes more performance-based and outcome-based contracting, she said.

Thanks to its work with customers such as the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Serco North America has a depth of experience with these kinds of contracts. The company provides eligibility and enrollment support for the Affordable Care Act system, and the work is done through fixed-price and outcome-based contracts.

The company has automated processes and significantly reduced the number of people needed to run the system, Supplee said.

“I think we have a jump on some of the competition in that we’ve already proven that we can do that work in tandem with our customers,” she said.

Thanks to executive orders and Pentagon directives dictating fixed-price and outcome-based contracting as the default, contracts with those elements are expected to increase. Supplee said the growth is not just coming from new contracts, but also as part of the option years on existing contracts.

“I'm excited that we already have that core competency within the company because we will be able to respond to that and help customers, contracting officers, and acquisition professionals in getting it done,” she said. “It'’s better for all parties.”

Serco North America is looking to grow capabilities through partnerships with commercial tech companies as well as acquisitions when the opportunity arises, such as the Northrop training acquisition.

Supplee also sees opportunity north of the border. Canada's government is spending more on both defense and government services, she said. Serco North America also provides base operations support in Greenland and she sees possible growth if the new U.S. defense agreement there leads to more bases.

"Base operation support itself is right in our sweet spot," she said.

In a year, she said success should look like growth "sometimes in places that you haven't seen Serco." Her top priorities are space, LVC and autonomy, more automation in citizen services, and a stronger push into Canada.

Supplee is Serco North America's third CEO within the past 18 months, something she acknowledged as a lot of change for company employees.

“One of the things I want them to know is I am a very transparent leader, and I’ll share with them what I know when I know it,” she said.

She plans to spend her first six months traveling across the business.

"I have partnered with Serco; I have competed against Serco. I know quite a bit about the business, but to know the teams and really understand the capabilities, it's time to pack a bag," she said.

As she meets with employees, there are three basic questions she plans to ask:

What should the company should stop doing?
What should they start doing?
What they should keep doing?

Supplee grew up in Minnesota, where both sets of grandparents were dairy farmers. She is a fifth-generation veteran and the first in her family to choose the Navy over the Army, which makes for "very fun times during the Army-Navy game."

She compares Serco North America's culture to life on a farm or aboard a ship.

"If you've ever been on a ship, it's not a nine to five. You work until the job is done," she said. "Just like with farming, it requires everybody to be all in."

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