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WT 360: How frontier AI is reordering the cyber landscape

Ross Wilkers — Thu, 12 Nov 2026 06:00:00 -0500

Cybersecurity has always been a fast-moving field and that is being magnified by how the frontier artificial intelligence labs keep coming up with new models and other creations that are reordering the overall landscape.

Shawn Smagh, director of intelligence at GreyNoise, joins for this episode to help unpack all the changes emerging across the cyber landscape as the frontier AI labs continue to move quickly and reorder the tradecraft.

Many of today’s questions in cyber are as much about dollars and cents as they are for tech. Smagh takes our Ross Wilkers through what effective budget approaches and strategies look like for cyber defense.

Smagh, a former director of intelligence for the Cyber National Mission Force, also gives his perspective on what good looks like in government-industry partnerships.

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A stronger defense industry base needs both small and mid-tier players to ensure American resilience

Julie Vida — Tue, 10 Nov 2026 16:21:45 -0500

Program Acquisition Executives (PAEs) across Defense Department face an existential mandate to acquire and operationalize reliable, uninterrupted capabilities that support critical defense missions. They look to defense industry teams that can keep delivering even when financial pressures arise. That makes the relationship between a prime contractor and its small business teammates an important part of the discussion about business size.

From a government contracting growth perspective, this policy debate plays out daily in how we structure capture strategies, assemble proposal teams, and execute task orders on a day-to-day basis.

In recent conversations with customers and colleagues, I've been discussing how mid-tier contractors can create opportunities for smaller firms while bringing the financial capacity to support the national security mission. As the Small Business Administration considers changes to its size standards, those relationships deserve consideration.

Modernizing size standards is not an all-or-nothing contest between small businesses and the mid-tier contractors on the edge of graduating into the larger arena. Established small businesses that have matured into proven mid-tier contractors can give DOD the capacity it is asking for. At the same time, they can create a more stable path for their small business teammates to grow into the next generation of large defense primes.

This model also benefits acquisition leaders and contracting officers, enabling a prime to pair the technical agility of specialized small business partners with the operational depth to manage complex program execution without administrative turbulence. Leaving size standards unaddressed risks penalizing this growth continuum, ultimately jeopardizing both small business growth and mission continuity.

The Small Versus Mid-Tier Zero-Sum Contracting Myth

Discussions across the defense industrial base frequently treat small business set-asides and mid-tier expansion as competing priorities, assuming that every dollar awarded to a growing mid-tier contractor takes an opportunity away from an early-stage firm. In practice, contract capture and subcontracting agreements tell a different story. Mid-tier firms represent living proof of what federal small business programs are designed to accomplish as they mature into the large defense industrial players of tomorrow.

Healthy mid-tier primes can help accelerate that growth by building meaningful partnerships with small businesses, moving beyond subcontracting plans designed simply to satisfy RFP requirements. This means giving specialized small partners substantial workshare in high-value technical areas such as cloud architecture, cyber defense, and artificial intelligence, while leveraging established contract vehicles, including major indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contracts and government-wide acquisition contracts, to bring those partners onto task order bids they might not be able to pursue independently due to past-performance requirements.

These resilient teaming structures and mentor-protégé partnerships foster technical innovation and operational scale, ultimately benefiting the warfighter. Having served in the U.S. Navy and the Pentagon before moving into industry, I care deeply about the people on both sides of that relationship. DOD needs dependable delivery, and our small business DIB teammates need opportunities to contribute, grow, and build healthy organizations.

At Odyssey, for example, we place a high value on the abundant workshare agreements we have with small business teammates. These partnerships with smaller industrial base businesses are incredibly valuable to us, and they direct substantial funding toward partners’ talent, technical capacity, and specialized development. As a mid-tier prime expands its reach, its capacity to bring niche small-business innovators onto major defense contract vehicles grows proportionally.

When mid-tier contractors grow, their small business partners can grow alongside them, expanding their footprint and impact on the mission. Beyond individual contract bids, growth executives can help smaller partners build the operational infrastructure needed to scale, sharing industry and regulatory best practices such as Defense Contract Audit Agency compliant accounting systems, Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification standards, and complex proposal pricing. Formal SBA Mentor-Protégé Agreements and joint ventures can further strengthen these relationships, helping turn early-stage niche providers into mature federal market participants.

American DIB Resilience as a Strategic Mission Enabler

Small defense industrial base disruptors bring speed and cutting-edge technology to customer challenges, with mid-tier primes bridging the gap to scale. Vital early-stage innovators can be uniquely vulnerable to cash-flow shocks and federal funding delays, which introduce risks for government customers. A sudden revenue stall can threaten a small company's ability to maintain operations and ramp up capacity for critical battlefield capabilities. Even a 30-day delay in government invoice processing or an administrative hold tied to a continuing resolution can trigger a payroll crisis for a small firm. When a small subcontractor runs short on cash, key personnel may leave, technical milestones can slip, and the contracting officer's representative may be left managing a program with compromised execution. These disruptions can threaten a company's ability to sustain operations and deliver critical battlefield capabilities.

An independent mid-tier prime with a strong balance sheet and mature processes can help serve as a financial shield for the entire team. With greater working capital and diversified cash flow, a mid-tier prime is often better positioned to absorb financial friction and ensure that small business teammates receive prompt payment to keep the mission moving, regardless of funding cycles. In practice, this can mean adopting accelerated sub-payment terms, paying small business teammates even if the government has not yet disbursed funds to the prime. By carrying working capital through funding delays, the prime can help keep subs on track, advancing the mission, and protecting customer timelines from interruption. This financial resilience protects smaller teaming partners as they cross the valley of death, and safeguards national security against unexpected fiscal disruptions.

Rather than forcing small partners to navigate market uncertainty alone, this collaborative approach turns contract execution into a shared growth engine where technical capability and business maturity expand together. Preserving space for these relationships to thrive ensures that when national security demands rapid response, government customers receive a proven, unified team ready to deliver at scale. For acquisition officials and SBA policymakers, the central takeaway is that mid-tier primes are not obstacles to small business growth. They provide the operational infrastructure that enables it.

Maintaining flexible size standards allows these contractors to continue serving as effective integrators, financial anchors, and growth partners across the small business ecosystem. Our customers need dependable delivery, and our small business teammates need opportunities to contribute and build healthy businesses. Preserving mid-tier capacity helps federal acquisition policy foster integrated teams that pair cutting-edge innovation with balance-sheet stability to enable our warfighters to win.

Julie Vida serves as Odyssey’s vice president of growth and brings a blend of military, technical, and business leadership experience focused on supporting government and public sector missions. Her leadership is informed by 24 years of honorable service in the United States Navy, where she served as both a surface warfare officer and a naval aviator. Her military career includes earning the Navy Air Medal for superior airmanship during Operation Enduring Freedom and serving as the Navy’s deputy chief information officer, where she helped guide technology investment and cybersecurity policies across the service. She is also committed to mentoring transitioning veterans and supporting women and girls pursuing STEM career fields.

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System One hires Heneghan to lead government unit

Ross Wilkers — Tue, 10 Nov 2026 13:10:43 -0500

System One has hired a new chief executive for its government solutions unit in John Heneghan, a nearly-three decade industry veteran and former president of the ECS Federal business.

Heneghan joins System One to lead the staffing and outsourcing services provider’s federal-facing subsidiaries in Gap Solutions and KeyLogic, as well as the more state-and-local focused Quadel.

System One’s Monday release on the appointment cites Heneghan’s background as spanning artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, digital modernization, and enterprise transformation efforts across the federal landscape.

Heneghan led ECS Federal as president from 2022 until February of this year, when he was appointed consulting transformation officer for the Everforth parent company amid its rebrand from the former ASGN name.

His tenure at ECS Federal was marked by the unit’s push to expand its portfolio in areas such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, cybersecurity, cloud computing and IT modernization.

System One significantly grew its federal market presence in 2017 with the acquisition of Gap Solutions, then moved to do so again in 2023 by purchasing KeyLogic.

Gap and KeyLogic together have recorded $152.4 million in unclassified prime contract revenue over the trailing 12 months, according to USASpending.gov data.

Gap’s two largest customers are the National Institutes of Health, plus Immigration and Customs Enforcement. KeyLogic’s main client is the Energy Department.

System One is co-owned by the private investment firms Oaktree Capital and StepStone Group, the former of which is private equity. Oaktree first backed System One in 2020, then StepStone acquired its stake in the fall.

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Slingshot Aerospace appoints one of its early investors as CEO

Ross Wilkers — Tue, 10 Nov 2026 13:09:54 -0500

Slingshot Aerospace has hired a new chief executive in Vince Monteparte, a 25-year technology veteran and board member who was an early investor in the space data software provider at its 2017 inception.

Slingshot said Thursday that Monteparte will lead the next phase of its strategy centered around space operations intelligence and autonomy, or SOIA, which the company touts as an approach for helping operators work with raw sensor and space-based data.

This includes sensor-backed operations, fusion of data across different sources and domains, predictive models, and mission rehearsal exercises that lean on artificial intelligence.

Monteparte succeeds Tim Solms, who previously led Slingshot as CEO for the past two years.

Slingshot’s senior leadership team includes co-founder and president David Godwin, as well as fellow co-founder and board of directors chairperson Melanie Stricklan. Godwin and Stricklan started Slingshot in 2017.

Stricklan returns to the company she helped start three years after her departure. She currently works as senior vice president of the special programs division at Vast, a role she started over the summer.

Space Force is a significant customer for Slingshot, whose portfolio there includes a $27 million contract booked in January to help the service branch integrate AI tech into training efforts. Slingshot also is working under a Small Business Innovation Research phase II contract awarded in 2025 to help Space Command use AI in the analysis of objects in space.

Monteparte is currently a venture partner at Sway Capital and co-founder of Miro Technologies, which was acquired by Boeing in 2012.

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Accenture, Leidos execs on how to survive a divided government

Nick Wakeman — Tue, 10 Nov 2026 13:09:34 -0500

Federal contractors face a new set of unknowns on budgets and policy with Democrats taking control of Congress and President Donald Trump still in the White House.

But two veterans of the market are offering direct advice on how to weather this transition and the next two years of a divided government.

Speaking at GovExec’s After the Midterms event on Nov. 6, Accenture Federal Services' chief strategy officer Ira Entis said companies need to prepare three plans for today’s market.

Entis described the traditional plan as one of “lumpy funding” with a continuing resolution. The challenging plan is one “where there is going to be disruptions, funding pullbacks and customer cancellations,” he said.

Then there is the rosy plan that assumes lots of money will flow toareas such as artificial intelligence, cyber and Defense Department priorities.

“If you think of this not as one scenario but three, and then you look at things that are critical in every one of the scenarios, then we have no brainer things that we have to invest in,” Entis said.

Companies should invest in those areas no matter which scenario plays out, Entis added.

Rich Wilson, senior vice president of health and services growth at Leidos, said that focus is critical in today’s market.

“You cannot be a peanut butter spread across all the opportunities,” Wilson said.

Even a company the size of Leidos (No. 1 on the Washington Technology Top 100) does not have the resources to do everything, he said. Internally, companies need to be selective and make the bid-or-no bid decision quickly

At Leidos, Wilson said he focuses on improving the company’s agility around its growth operations.

“A lot of companies have built up very robust processes on top of processes,” Wilson said. “I would encourage everyone to really think about your growth teams.”

For example, Wilson said companies should ask if they are spending time working on solutions directly with clients or are putting together PowerPoint charts with the help of artificial intelligence.

“Are they doing really meaningful work out in the environment in the community you belong to?” Wilson said.

Both executives stressed that the market is shifting away from labor-based and cost-plus contracts to more outcome-based procurements, which they described as a historic shift.

Cost-plus contracts are a particularly bad way to buy technology because there is no incentive for the contractor to bring innovation and improvements, Entis said.

But the shift to outcomes opens the conversation to discussions around shared risk and innovation that can drive more creative approaches to solving the customer’s problem, the panelist said.

Accenture Federal had one customer with a call center, where it cost $13 every time a person (a contractor) answered the phone.

By using agentic AI, Accenture Federal built a system that could handle more calls without a live person answering the phone. The contract was structured so that Accenture Federal did not get paid if a live person had to answer the call.

“If you go to a person, we get zero dollars, so we’re handling more than 50% of the requests and customer satisfaction is up,” Entis said.

Wilson said he is encouraged by agencies that are moving away from labor-heavy, multi-year contracts to more milestone-driven acquisitions.

“You can build a really aggressive contract and acquisition strategy to support moving faster and getting to those milestones, he said.

Wilson was a government buyer for the Army before he retired as a colonel. He sees updates to the Federal Acquisition Regulation, the increased use of other transaction authorities, and growth of pilot programs as positives for the customer and the GovCon industry.

“I remember being in government and I ran about a billion dollars a year and no one ever offered to put an OTA in place to accelerate some sort of pilot,” Wilson said. “Those things are fantastic.”

Entis and Wilson also cautioned against too much focus on new technology.

“In this time of unprecedented technological change, it’s critical to constantly challenge assumptions and have that balance though of not just thinking about implementing tech for tech’s sake,” Entis said.

Wilson said people inside and outside of government are good at describing the problem, but not so good at describing everything that goes into the solution.

“They can’t get to all those things you need to do to achieve the mission outcomes,” Wilson said. “We are a technology forward company but that’s not the whole solution.”

Wilson said more consideration needs to be given to policy changes, doctrines, change management and workflows instead of just throwing more technology at the problem.

The same goes for proposals, Wilson said. Agencies are seeing more bids than ever because companies are leaning on AI to write them and many are getting rejected, which Wilson characterized as “rightly so."

“While it’s an accelerator, you just can’t outsource creativity, you can’t outsource judgment,” Wilson said.

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The Pentagon won't stop rogue AI with another memo

Alex Cohen — Mon, 09 Nov 2026 16:28:47 -0500

America needs a Pentagon that can move at the speed of technological change without handing sensitive information to anyone with a personal AI subscription.

That should not be too much to ask.

Yet a new report from WIRED raises troubling questions about whether the Defense Department can deliver on either.

According to the report, an Accenture contractor connected a personal Claude Code account to a Pentagon production environment used by multiple intelligence agencies. Sources told WIRED that the AI agent operated for roughly two months before it was discovered.

The system held controlled unclassified information — a category of government information that can include details about critical infrastructure, the propulsion systems of nuclear submarines, and our vulnerabilities to chemical and biological terrorism.

Now put that next to the duration: an unapproved agent with admin access, running inside that system for sixty days, with no one watching.

The contractor reportedly gave the agent login credentials so it could write code and spin up cloud servers. WIRED's sources said that access allowed the agent to bypass normal login controls and that it appeared to send credentials and information about the network to a high-risk third-party website.

Accenture disputes the allegations, but defense leaders do not need to wait for every disputed detail to be resolved before addressing the risk this story illustrates: What happens when powerful AI tools are easy to obtain personally, difficult to obtain officially, and capable of acting inside government systems?

A deadline is not a security clearance

I spent years in government before building technology companies, and the rationale for the behavior is evident to anyone who has worked inside an agency.

The approved path for new technology is slow on purpose and involves a tangle maze of jargon. Getting a new tool into a Pentagon boundary means an authority to operate. For a cloud service, that usually means FedRAMP — the government’s security authorization for cloud technology — plus a provisional authorization. Each step exists for a reason. Together, jumping through these hoops can take longer than executing the contract the tool was supposed to help with.

Meanwhile, the person doing the work has a deadline. They also have a personal subscription to a coding agent that does in twenty minutes what the sanctioned toolchain does in two days, if the sanctioned toolchain includes an agent at all. Claude is currently barred for Pentagon staff, so in this case, there wasn't an approved version of the tool to reach for.

That divide — between the authorized process and the unauthorized one — is where shadow AI comes from. Most people aren’t sitting at their desks plotting to leak government information. They’re trying to finish the work.

Policy memos won't fix this

The standard response to an incident like this is a memo reminding everyone that unapproved AI tools are prohibited. That memo already exists in almost every agency. It works about as well as the memos about personal email did (see: Hillary Clinton's email server).

The rules for reporting incidents like this one have long been in place. None of that helps much if the tool people actually want sits outside the boundary and the approved one shows up eighteen months later.

What works is making the sanctioned path faster than the unsanctioned one.

There was a time when everyone feared that piracy would kill Hollywood. The industry didn't beat it with lawsuits — it beat it with convenience. Apple and Netflix made legal streaming easier than stealing, and the piracy problem quietly dissolved. In other words, they used desire path engineering.

In practice, that means getting accredited agentic tools inside the boundary, with the controls that would have mattered built in.

A future of agent controls

What might the right controls look like, in a future where the government cannot ignore the reality of convenience that agents bring? Here are a few I might suggest.

First, an agent should get its own identity and should never borrow a person’s login. If something requires a human to sign in with a government security card, the agent should not get to piggyback on that access.

Second, permissions should be least privilege and scoped to the task. An agent writing code for one service doesn't need admin rights across the environment.

Third, every action must be logged in a place that a security team actually reviews. Two months is a long time for an agent to run unnoticed, and better logging is the boring fix for that.

Fourth, outbound connections from the agent go through an allowlist. If it needs to reach the internet, someone decided in advance which parts.

And finally, deploys to production need a human to approve them. The agent can draft and test as much as it likes. A person with accountability pushes the button.

None of this is exotic. It's the same discipline the government already applies to human admins, extended to software that acts like one.

It’s also urgent: Every agency team I talk to already has people using AI. The open question is whether that work happens on government-approved systems, where someone can limit access and review what happened, or on somebody’s personal account.

The contractor who plugged an AI agent into a Pentagon system wasn't trying to break anything. He had a deadline, and the only tool fast enough sat outside the wall. He didn't go rogue. He took the one path the ground left open. Build the faster road inside the boundary, and the next contractor won't have to choose.

Alex Cohen is co-founder and CEO of Statecraft. He previously worked in the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

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Aerospace firm pays $13M to cover cyber gaps in Army, MDA and NASA work

Nick Wakeman — Mon, 09 Nov 2026 15:57:38 -0500

Two business units of an aerospace-and-defense company have agreed to jointly pay $13 million to settle allegations it falsified its compliance with cybersecurity requirements involving contracts with the Army, the Missile Defense Agency and NASA.

The settlement payments from ILC Dover LP and ILC Astrospace LLC are not admissions of liability and the allegations are not proven facts, according to the Justice Department's Nov. 3 announcement.

The settlement resolves a whistle-blower lawsuit filed by Philip Root, ILC’s former director of cybersecurity, who will receive $2.35 million as part of the agreement.

His lawsuit and the Justice Department investigation outlined several allegations, including that ILC allegedly used a third-part company to store controlled-unclassified information in a cloud environment without assuring that the company met FedRAMP moderate requirements.

ILC is also accused of not updating systems security plans for each of its covered information systems, as required by the Defense Department and NASA.

A second accusation is that the company did not submit any current assessments to DOD for its implementation of NIST SP180-171 cybersecurity controls.

The government also alleges that the company had no plans or milestones set to close the alleged security gaps.

The settlement does not describe any breach or data theft that occurred, but is focused on the risks created by the alleged non-compliance.

“The best response to cyberattacks is to prevent them from happening in the first place,” said U.S. Attorney Benjamin L. Wallace for the District of Delaware. “The obligations that ILC violated exist to prevent bad actors from taking advantage of the United States’ technical innovation.”

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Deloitte wins $488M FAA modernization challenge contract

Ross Wilkers — Mon, 09 Nov 2026 14:42:25 -0500

Deloitte Consulting has won a potential 10-year, $488.2 million contract to work with the Federal Aviation Administration on efforts to modernize the agency’s digital infrastructure that includes applications and databases.

The FAA awarded the contract on Friday through a challenge-based acquisition launched in February, during which agency officials watched bidders demonstrate their approaches through a multi-phase competition.

Called ATLAS, the Accelerated Transformation of Legacy Applications and Systems challenge emphasized migrations to cloud-native architectures and technical debt reduction.

ATLAS’ scope covers at least 200 applications and 3,000 databases across the FAA’s mission support technology portfolio. The FAA’s goal is to shift to an operating framework more heavily tilted toward automated workflows and artificial intelligence integration.

The agency sees AI as a means to analyze legacy code, generate and test new code, automate security monitoring functions, and identifying redundant systems to be eliminated.

Deloitte and the other bidders competed over four phases that involved evaluations of corporate experience, concept paper submissions, portfolio rationalization strategies and modern factory demonstrations.

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New entrants, adaptation shape GovCon in Northern Virginia

Ross Wilkers — Mon, 09 Nov 2026 14:41:37 -0500

When launching its NOVA Roadmap in July 2025, the Northern Virginia Chamber acknowledged the upheaval across the federal contracting ecosystem in light of government workforce reductions and subsequent contractor job losses.

Now in the fall of 2026, we can start asking: How has the GovCon industry fared in these past 18 months unlike anything it has experienced for quite some time?

Julie Coons, CEO of the NOVA Chamber, described the industry as “incredibly adaptable” amid a period where contractors of all shapes and sizes were challenged by the government to emphasize speed and agility in their tech deliveries.

“The headlines would tell us that there are new market participants from parts of this country that were not as active in government contracting,” Coons told us. “It is changing the industry as a whole, and that means it's expanding and adapting to changes in how federal procurement is approached in this administration.”

As Coons pointed out, one of the biggest shifts many in industry had to make was increasing their ability to work with established commercial tech offerings that can be adapted for federal mission sets.

Indeed: substantially all of the federal government’s largest systems integrators maintain networks of partnerships with commercial software names, while some of these relationships also include pledges to use the products for future projects.

“One of the things I heard early on from a number of members and participants in the industry is that they got it,” Coons said of the shift. “They had identified those solutions, they were adapting them and working with their partners along the timelines they have now.”

No conversation about GovCon, or really any other tech-intensive industry, can take place without going over the topic of talent.

The NOVA Roadmap’s first goal of reinventing the region’s economy contains an action item that accounts for all the public sector job losses: prepare the workforce with the skills to succeed in the new economy where digital infrastructure underpins everything in every industry.

Coons cited artificial intelligence, quantum computing, cybersecurity and commercial space as examples of growing industries with companies that are in both government and non-government markets.

Businesses need to be able to establish themselves quickly and keep moving forward in order to be “destination of choice” employers in the region, Coons said.

That includes “making sure that we work with our academic partners to make sure that the workforce here is job-ready for the kinds of emerging skills that our government contractors need,” Coons added.

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State Department's push to cancel hundreds of contracts left behind a trail of mistakes, watchdog finds

Sean Michael Newhouse — Mon, 09 Nov 2026 11:00:00 -0500

An effort by the State Department to save money by scrutinizing contracts could have resulted in wasted funds and exposed the agency to legal liability due to multiple widespread errors during the contract termination process, its inspector general found in a report published on Monday.

In February 2025, President Donald Trump issued an executive order directing agencies to review their contracts and grants for cancellation or modification “to reduce overall federal spending or reallocate spending to promote efficiency and advance the policies of my administration.” State had already been reviewing some contracts due to earlier directives targeting foreign aid and diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.

In response, employees reviewed nearly 5,600 contracts worth a total of about $65 billion and, between Jan. 20 and June 15, 2025, terminated almost 400 of them totaling roughly $360 million. But auditors found several instances where employees didn’t rescind obligated funds.

Across at least six terminated contracts, there was approximately $8.1 million that still had not been deobligated as of August 2026, the IG reported.

“Because [contracting officers] did not take timely action to deobligate excess funds, the department’s ability to redirect those resources to other mission priorities was limited and the risk that the funds would expire before they could be used increased,” auditors wrote.

The watchdog recommended that officials repurpose the $8.1 million, which the department agreed to do, except for nearly $50,000 that it determined was owed to the contractor as part of the termination settlement.

Auditors also found that, out of a sample of 30 terminated contracts, 25 did not have adequate written termination notices. For example, there were 10 instances in which two different termination dates were listed, which increases “the risk of disputed costs, administrative delays or contractor claims.”

Additionally, the IG highlighted four terminated contracts in which State employees didn’t ensure that contractors returned their government-issued laptops and phones. Similarly, the IG for the IRS reported in August that the agency could not account for nearly 600 agency electronic devices valued at more than $270,000 from employees who separated in spring 2025.

Auditors acknowledged that State, while undergoing the contract review, also was dealing with the Trump administration’s reductions to the civil service, a department reorganization and taking over the U.S. Agency for International Development’s operations. But they also emphasized that the agency did not standardize contract cancelation procedures and that some contracting officers had never terminated a contract before.

The IG recommended that State specify steps for returning government-issued property due to a contract termination, set procedures for reviewing unused funds from a canceled contract and establish a process for tracking deobligation actions. Officials concurred with all three.

The Government Accountability Office recently criticized State for entering inaccurate information into its grant management system following significant cuts to foreign assistance grants, contracts and cooperative agreements. For example, more than 4,000 awards (out of around 10,000) were categorized as both active and terminated.

The IG for the Veterans Affairs Department in September similarly reported on the VA’s contract cancellations, finding that employees generally complied with termination requirements but that, in some cases, they had “only a few hours” to complete reviews.

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WT 360: All about the government’s new data ownership boundaries in this AI age

Ross Wilkers — Mon, 09 Nov 2026 06:00:00 -0500

New rules of the road are in place for how contractors can process government data in large language models as agencies look to have more control and ownership over what is theirs.

Mark “Whit” Whittington, vice president of government sales at Seekr’s federal business, has studied the new rule closely and joins for this episode with our Ross Wilkers to go over what it means for the federal industrial base.

Contractors have a list of actions they can and cannot perform under the General Services Administration’s new rule, titled “Basic Safeguarding of Data within Large Language Model Artificial Intelligence Systems.”

Whittington goes over them and, perhaps more importantly, lays out how contractors can use data before their government customers decide to take a closer look at the companies’ LLMs. He also lays out some key markers to watch as federal AI acquisition unfolds in the future.

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Start small, measure well: a better path to federal AI adoption

Egon Rinderer — Fri, 06 Nov 2026 15:30:09 -0500

The Office of Management and Budget’s 2025 inventory reported more than 3,600 artificial intelligence use cases across federal agencies. As agencies decide which applications deserve greater investment, the number of AI deployments matters less than whether those deployments improve the work agencies are doing.

That puts responsibility on government and industry alike. Before proposing a new AI capability, contractors should help agencies answer a basic question: What result would make this technology worth expanding?

The best place to start is a well-understood task with an existing baseline. Give AI a defined role in that task, compare the results with the existing process, and use that evidence to decide what comes next.

Start with a specific problem

Department of Commerce Acting Chief Technology Officer Matheus Passos recently shared how a Census Bureau employee used AI to build a tool for tracking and deploying AI across the department, which was quickly adopted by other bureaus.

The people doing the work often see the best opportunities first. They know where time gets lost, which tasks consume disproportionate effort, and where automation might help.

Software management is a good example. IT teams regularly review large amounts of information about applications, licenses, and usage. Much of that work involves repetitive analysis, and agencies can already measure outcomes such as review time, accuracy, and software utilization. A focused pilot could test whether AI reduces manual review or identifies records that need attention without giving the technology control over the broader process.

For government contractors, that means starting with the workflow rather than the AI platform. Understand how an agency performs the work today, establish a baseline, and identify the specific outcome the technology should improve.

Measure against what already matters

Agencies often already have the metrics they need. A service desk may track mean time to resolution or ticket backlog. Other teams may focus on processing time, accuracy, or cost. Those measures create a baseline, but agencies must account for the full workflow.

We see this often in proposal responses. Generative AI can produce a lengthy draft in seconds. But if a subject-matter expert then spends hours correcting errors or rewriting the response, AI has simply shifted the work downstream. A narrower application may work better: AI can organize requirements or create a structure, while the expert remains responsible for the substance.

Government IT teams should apply the same test. An automated system might close service requests faster, but teams still need to know whether those issues stay resolved and how much time an employee spends reviewing inaccurate recommendations. Prompt counts and usage rates can measure adoption, but agencies should judge performance against the operational outcomes that mattered before AI entered the workflow.

Define the limits before deployment

Measurement also requires clear boundaries. In any workflow, an AI recommendation depends on accurate information about specific applications, licenses, and usage. Employees need enough context to evaluate the recommendation before acting on it.

Agencies and contractors should define the technology's authority before a pilot begins. Summarizing information carries less operational risk than changing a production system. As AI takes on more responsibility, teams need checkpoints for human review and a record of the actions the system takes.

Those boundaries help agencies evaluate whether a pilot can scale. If employees are regularly correcting AI’s recommendations agencies should account for that effort when determining whether or not the tool improved the workflow. A pilot that succeeds only because it has unusually clean data or extensive expert oversight may not produce the same result elsewhere.

Turn pilots into acquisition evidence

A successful pilot should make the next investment decision easier. If AI improves a defined workflow without increasing errors or review time, leaders can test the same approach with another team or related workflow to see whether the improvement holds.

That requires capturing lessons along the way. In April 2026, the Government Accountability Office found that several agencies were not systematically collecting lessons learned from AI acquisitions, limiting their ability to apply successful practices and avoid repeating mistakes.

Contractors can help close that gap by building measurement into proposals, pilot plans, and implementation. They should identify the baseline, expected improvement, deployment limits, and criteria for deciding whether to expand, adjust, or stop the effort. A focused use case that produces measurable improvement gives an agency stronger evidence for its next investment.

Some pilots will justify further investment, while others will show that AI is a poor fit for the task. Both results are useful if agencies and contractors agree at the outset on what success looks like.

Egon Rinderer is the senior vice president of federal and enterprise growth at NinjaOne. With over 35 years of experience spanning the Department of Defense, intelligence community, and private sector, Egon Rinderer has built a career tackling the most complex technical challenges facing modern enterprises.

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Walkinshaw wants congressional oversight to include FITARA reboot

Nick Wakeman — Fri, 06 Nov 2026 15:00:29 -0500

Most expect the Democratic-controlled Congress to focus on oversight when the new session begins in January, but that does not mean a sole focus on claims of corruption and malfeasance by the Trump administration.

For Rep. James Walkinshaw (D-Virginia), Congress should also return to its traditional oversight activities that include hearings and scorecards sparked by the Federal IT Acquisition Reform Act from 2014. That kind of accountability has fallen by the wayside in recent years.

“I’ve been advocating for a modernized modernization scorecard,” Walkinshaw said Thursday at GovExec's After the Midterms event. “When we developed the FITARA scorecards, we weren’t talking about AI adoption in the federal government, and I don’t think we ever quite got to where we wanted to capture cybersecurity metrics and judging agencies against a cybersecurity metric.”

Walkinshaw wants to return to the practice driven by his predecessor and former boss, Gerry Connolly, and Republican counterpart Darrell Issa.

Connolly and Issa together developed FITARA and annual scorecards to get it passed as part of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2015.

“Congress didn't just pass the bill and say mission accomplished. Congress said we passed the bill and now every year we're going to follow up and make sure agencies are implementing it,” Walkinshaw said. “I think that bore real fruit. It saved taxpayers billions of dollars. It helped us retire legacy systems that I think otherwise wouldn't have been retired. It’s a really powerful model.”

Walkinshaw, one of Congress’ chief critics of the Department of Government Efficiency, sees the cuts as an opening for a reboot of a post-DOGE government.

He said this is “a moment where we can, I hope, build that but do it in a better, smarter way. And I think Congress has to lead in that.”

On customer service, Walkinshaw said his constituents run into trouble when digital services do not fully solve their problem and cannot get a human on the phone.

Agencies like the Social Security Administration and Office of Personnel Management have largely gone digital for customer service because of workforce reductions.

“That makes people really, really angry,” he said.

The new Congress will be sworn in on Jan. 3. Before that, the lame duck session will need to deal with passing some sort of budget bill.

“Lame duck sessions are hard to predict because people who just lost their election or are retiring may not choose to show up for work,” Walkinshaw said.

Current House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) has to figure out what can get passed.

“Republicans are going to have a real attendance challenge and that can create some volatility,” Walkinshaw said. “But I think a shutdown is unlikely.”

Walkinshaw is hoping for bipartisan negotiations around individual appropriation bills, where both sides are open to negotiation. He predicted there will be some combination of passed spending bills and a continuing resolution for what is left that keeps the government open into January or February.

As the Democrats take the majorities in January, Walkinshaw said we should expect to see legislation focused on cost-of-living issues. He cited attempts to restore Affordable Care Act tax credits, roll back some of the Medicaid cuts and trying to wind back some of the tariffs.

“If we are successful in each of those things, it would have an impact on the bank accounts and pocketbooks of working families within weeks,” he said.

Democrats may have the House and Senate, but President Trump still has the White House and is a Republican.

“Our job in Congress is to pass legislation and get it onto his desk. At that point, he’ll have three choices,” Walkinshaw said.

Trump can sign or veto legislation. Choice number three is to negotiate, which Walkinshaw said he is open to if means having a conversation and meeting in the middle.

“I’ll just say as a Democrat having lived through this administration thus far, that hasn't been the posture, but if it changes, that'd be great,” he said.

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SBA official: industry's voice needed on size standard proposals

Ross Wilkers — Fri, 06 Nov 2026 14:50:22 -0500

The prospects of revamped small business size standards remain a major talking point for contractors across the board, whether they are small businesses or large companies that heavily lean on the former as partners.

In keynote remarks Thursday at the Greater Washington Government Contractor Awards, Ryan Lambert of the Small Business Administration reminded attendees of the upcoming deadline to weigh in on the agency’s proposed changes.

SBA first unveiled its plans in August to overhaul the methodology for determining the size standards businesses fall into, while also laying out how it will apply that methodology into rewrites of the standards.

As of mid-October, the agency had received approximately 1,200 comments on both proposed rules and the responses indicate some disagreement across industry over the impacts.

“The comment period closes Nov. 20, so this is your last chance to put a comment and recommendation on the record,” said Lambert, associate administrator for SBA’s Office of Industrial Base Resilience & Contracting. “We want real, specific comments. If you like part of it, tell us. If you don’t like a part of it, tell us what you might need.”

Thursday’s gala was the 24th annual edition of these awards, which were co-hosted by the Northern Virginia Chamber and George Mason University’s Greg and Camille Baroni Center for Government Contracting.

John Goodman was this year’s inductee into the LaFleur-Chason Hall of Fame for GovCon. Goodman led Accenture’s U.S. federal subsidiary as CEO from 2017 to 2024, a period where the unit doubled in size and increased its investments in emerging technologies and human-centric design principles. Goodman served as a senior Defense Department official before he joined Accenture.

The 2025 Public Sector Partner award went to Laura Stanton, deputy commissioner of the General Services Administration’s Federal Acquisition Service.

Winners and categories of the industry awardees are below, based on annual revenue.

Contractors of the Year

CACI International: greater than $300 million
MetroStar Systems: between $75 million and $300 million
Quantum Leap Research: between $25 million and $75 million
Tridentis: up to $25 million

Executive of the Year

Josh Wilson, CEO of LMI: greater than $300 million
Gautam Ijoor, CEO of Alpha Omega: between $75 million and $300 million
Tim Tkacz, CEO of Blue Sky Innovators: up to $75 million

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Oasis Systems back at GAO to challenge $665M Army counter-drone contract

Nick Wakeman — Fri, 06 Nov 2026 11:46:54 -0500

Oasis Systems won the first round of its protest of a $665 million contract for counter-unmanned aircraft systems that went to Parsons Corp. but now back with another challenge that takes issue with the Army's corrective action.

In the original protest, Oasis claimed Parsons has a conflict-of-interest because it makes some of the C-UAS products that will be evaluated under the contract. Oasis, a subsidiary of Astrion, also challenged how the Army evaluated technical proposals.

The Army agreed to take corrective action in early October, saying it would re-evaluate both the possible conflict and technical evaluation of the proposals. The Army also said it would take another look at the cost/price evaluation and then make a new award decision.

But Oasis is now arguing that the Army needs to rework the solicitation because it no longer reflects the service branch's needs.

The Army was originally going to use contract to support an end-to-end integrated program office, but has since shifted much of the integration effort to another contract within a different organization. All that is left is the requirement for program management services, which Oasis says is very different from the original solicitation.

Oasis filed its new protest on Nov. 5. A decision is due Feb. 16.

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Shield AI to acquire radar maker Echodyne in $5.3 billion deal

Nick Wakeman — Thu, 05 Nov 2026 21:20:42 -0500

Shield AI plans to acquire a radar company as it continues to expand its defense technology capabilities.

Shield AI is buying Echodyne Corp. in a transaction valued at up to $5.3 billion. Echodyne builds radars for counter-drone and security systems used by defense, government and commercial customers in more than 40 countries.

Both companies expect triple-digit revenue growth this fiscal year, according to Shield AI’s announcement Thursday.

“We are building a new-generation defense technology company consisting of three fast-growing, high-margin, mutually supporting business units: autonomy software, autonomous systems, and mission systems,” said Gary Steele, CEO of Shield AI.

Shield AI is looking to accelerate its ability to meet customer demand for multi-mission capabilities and increases its access to the counter-drone industry. The acquisition also aims to diversify revenue streams beyond just autonomy software.

Shield AI is raising $2.5 billion to support the transaction, including $1 billion in Series H capital at a touted post-money valuation of $28.8 billion post-money valuation.

Another $1 billion is in a structured equity investment from funds managed by Blackstone, while $500 million in debt financing is being led by JPMorgan Chase Bank.

Of the $5.3 billion transaction value, $4.8 billion will be paid and issued at closing and up to an additional $500 million is contingent on Echodyne meeting agreed financial performance targets.

Both companies expect the transaction to close in early 2027.

Echodyne designs and manufactures compact, solid-state radars by using its patented Metamaterials Electronically Scanned Array (MESA) technology. In September, Echodyne received a contract with a $250 million ceiling from the Armys Joint Interagency Task Force 401 to supply counter-drone radars to U.S. and allied forces.

Echodyne’s radars are integrated into remote weapon stations, high-energy lasers, and high-power microwave systems, and they cue interceptors toward incoming drones.

“Hundreds of customers rely on our radars to detect and track drones, protect people and infrastructure, secure borders, and ensure safe airspace operations,” said Eben Frankenberg, CEO of Echodyne.

Shield is also using the acquisition to extend its presence in Washington state, where Echodyne is headquartered in the town of Kirkland.

Echodyne recently opened an 86,350-square-foot manufacturing facility to produce about 30,000 radars per year. In September, Shield AI named Washington as the production home for the autonomous jet powered X-BAT drone.

J.P. Morgan Securities was the financial adviser to Shield AI. Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz acted as legal adviser to Shield. Covington & Burling LLP advised Shield on regulatory and business diligence matters. On the financing, Sullivan & Cromwell LLP served as legal advisor to Shield AI.

Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC and Robert W. Baird & Co. were the financial advisers to Echodyne, whose legal adviser was Fenwick & West LLP.

This is Shield AI’s third acquisition since April 2025, when it acquired an autonomy software business from Crowdbotics. In March 2026, Shield AI acquired Aechelon Technology to add simulation and synthetic reality technologies.

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New protests for $50B Army MAPS vehicle

Nick Wakeman — Thu, 05 Nov 2026 19:48:04 -0500

A fresh set of protests have hit the much-troubled MAPS professional services vehicle that the Army is still trying to get out the door.

The $50 billion Marketplace for the Acquisition of Professional Services was hit with several protests over the summer involving small business participation, as well as questions about transparency and ambiguities surrounding the solicitation.

The resolved most of those by late September. GAO denied most of the challenges, but in one ruling it told the Army to allow small business teams to submit revised bids.

Two of the three new protests directly target the small business changes GAO recommended. The third protest challenges how the Army is requiring the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification in light of the Defense Department’s pause of the the program.

AHS Business Services and Mindboard are both challenging the small business portion of MAPS.

The Army reopened the proposal window for small business teams to follow GAO’s recommendation. AHS and Mindboard are arguing that the Army’s approach is too narrow because it only applies to the small business category of the contract.

They are saying that small business teams should also be able to submit proposals for the commercial-sector vendor portion of the contract.

Intelligence Consulting Enterprise Solutions is challenging the CMMC requirements that are part of the solicitation.

DOD has paused the aspects of CMMC that go beyond self-certification. CMMC is a program to protect the controlled unclassified government information contractors hold on their systems.

GAO's rulings on the new protests are expected by early February.

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Leidos hones cyber product bet on the 'whole AI-powered patching process'

Ross Wilkers — Thu, 05 Nov 2026 12:14:37 -0500

Leidos is in the early phases of helping its intelligence agency customers use a new automated cybersecurity platform for finding software vulnerabilities across enterprise networks and fixing them without manual intervention.

If those efforts go well, Leidos believes it will have found a boon for its commercial cyber and AI product portfolio in an age where conversations about automation and security are one-and-the-same.

During Leidos’ third quarter earnings call with investors Tuesday, chief executive Tom Bell described the Parcata product as designed to complete “the whole AI-powered patching process in minutes, far faster than existing options.”

Parcata works off of multiple large language models to look at vulnerabilities in first- and third-party software, while also patching zero-day vulnerabilities in real time. Leidos hopes to make Parcata more widely and commercially-available later this year, Bell told analysts.

Parcata was developed by Kudu Dynamics, the cyber specialist Leidos acquired back in the spring for $300 million. Kudu first started working on Parcata as part of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s AI Cyber Challenge that tasked participants to build autonomous cyber reasoning systems.

Launched in 2023, the AI Cyber Challenge focused on using AI and LLMs more specifically to automatically discover and patch software vulnerabilities in open-source critical infrastructure.

Anthropic’s Mythos model is the most widely-known example of these LLMs that analyze large amounts of software and system data, then bring up weaknesses and potential attack paths to defensive cyber operators. These types of models can also be used for offensive operations.

“AI-powered vulnerability detection is a big problem for every company and everybody who has a computer system right now, and Parcata is the automated way to do that without human interface,” Bell said. “It is a real-time, very effective patch that makes the speed of detecting, patching and deploying in minutes, and obviously, that's something that the world needs more of.”

Given this was said to a group of Wall Street analysts, they sought to better understand the market opportunity for Leidos.

Bell acknowledged some inherent difficulties in providing great detail on that front, given how the tech landscape functions and especially in the age of AI.

“At this point, given the speed with which this whole market is moving, we can't exactly bound what that means for us,” Bell said.

A second item of interest for analysts involved Leidos’ maritime portfolio, which the company has identified as one of five priority areas that will shape the business through 2030.

In September, the Navy awarded contracts to three companies for the production of 30 medium-sized unmanned surface vessels at about $40 million in work for each. Galliano Marine Services, HII and Saronic are tasked to build 10 vessels each with the first expected to be delivered in the fourth quarter of 2027.

Leidos recorded successful trials of its vessels, but was not chosen for a production contract in this round. The company will be eligible for future contracts as part of the second phase and remains in the MUSV program’s marketplace.

“We were disappointed. We would have loved to have booked an order for 10 of those vessels,” Bell said. “That didn't come our way. But we're in the marketplace, and we certainly don't see it as a dead end, so our maritime ambitions remain robust.”

The MUSV program is not the only place where Leidos is looking for maritime market share. Bell said Leidos is “actively working several very intense customer engagements,” both within the Navy and elsewhere across the Defense Department, to deliver the products it is offering for the MUSV competition.

Third quarter revenue of $4.6 billion was up 4% over the prior year period, while profit of $664 million showed a 5% year-over-year increase in adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization).

Leidos lowered its full-year revenue guidance to between $18 billion and $18.2 billion, down from the prior range of $18.2 billion-to-$18.4 billion, with the adjusted EBITDA margin outlook left at mid-13%.

Leidos said the revised guidance partially accounts for the transaction involving its now-former security screening technology business, which merged with Analogic in early October to form a joint venture that Leidos is the minority owner of.

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Tech, finance and sales leadership moves across the market

Ross Wilkers — Thu, 05 Nov 2026 12:13:57 -0500

Apogee Engineering

Josh Reid has moved up to vice president of technology at this provider of engineering and professional services, where he has worked for 10 years.

Reid will oversee functions involving Apogee's enterprise technology strategy, cybersecurity compliance and adoption of artificial intelligence, business operations, and offerings for customers.

He most recently held the role of director of infrastructure development.

Client Solution Architects

Bobby Brown has joined this provider of technology and operational support services as vice president of business development, a role he brings 25 years of industry and military experience to.

“Bobby will lead strategic growth initiatives, strengthen customer relationships, and help expand our presence across the defense community,” CSA said in a LinkedIn post on his new role.

Concurrent Technologies Corp.

Jo O’Saben will on Jan. 4 move up to chief financial officer at this nonprofit science and science research firm, where she has worked for three decades.

O’Saben will succeed the retiring John Klein, who has been CTC’s CFO since 2020 and been with the company for 33 years. She most recently worked as controller.

Also on Jan. 4, Jay Bleehash will become the chief administrative officer role. The 17-year CTC veteran works as executive director for talent and brand strategy, plus chief ethics officer.

General Dynamics Mission Systems

Rachel Oberc has been appointed vice president of space, cyber and intelligence for the defense company’s business unit focused on the C4ISR domain.

Oberc has been with GDMS for 14 years and formerly was vice president of networks and communications systems. She moves into the role previously held by Amy Johnson, now president of the General Dynamics IT business unit.

GDMS announced Oberc’s new role in a LinkedIn post.

Intel

Rob Gillis has moved up to general manager of government go-to-market and sales at this chipmaker, which he first joined in 2014 as a field sales manager.

Gillis succeeds the retiring Greg Glifton, who has been with Intel for 26 years and held that GM role for roughly one year.

Gillis announced the transition in a LinkedIn post.

Leonardo DRS

Shaveta J. Kapoor has joined this defense technology company as chief human resources officer, a role she brings nearly two decades of HR experience to.

Kapoor will oversee Leonardo DRS’ strategy for human capital, including talent development and other workforce initiatives.

She most recently worked in the CHRO role at ASRC Federal for six years and before that held leadership positions at Serco Group’s North American subsidiary.

Precise Software Solutions

Jordan Atkinson and Kathy Kchao have both moved up to vice president of business development and capture posts at this provider of IT and digital transformation support.

Atkinson will oversee growth efforts for Precice’s civilian market and Kchao will focus on the health sector.

Atkinson first joined Precise in 2025 and is a 17-year industry veteran, while Kchao has been with the company since 2023 and in the market for two decades.

QTC Medical Services, a Leidos subsidiary

Tiffany Yaeger has moved up to chief executive for this provider of medical exams and record reviews, which she first joined in 2022 to lead the business operations organization.

The two-decade defense and health veteran most recently led exam services and business operations for QTC, as well as complex transformation initiatives.

Prior to QTC, Yaeger worked in senior leadership positions at the parent company for six years.

Siemens Government Technologies

Honishka Adish has joined the U.S. federal subsidiary of the engineering and industrial technology conglomerate as vice president of national security solutions, a role he brings nearly two decades of experience to.

Adish will focus on SGT’s intelligence portfolio that cuts across areas such as industrial automation, cross-domain software simulation and energy resilience.

He most recently worked as acting chief growth officer for Peraton’s space sector. His career also includes roles at HII and Booz Allen Hamilton.

Trinzic

Sam Geis has been appointed chief people officer-designate for this government services business being spun off from KBR, which she first joined in 2022 via its acquisition of Frazier-Nash.

“Trinzic will be powered by 18,000 talented, mission-focused professionals around the world. I’m excited about what we can create together: a company where people can grow and develop, build rewarding careers and see the contribution they make to our customers and their missions,” Geis wrote in a LinkedIn post on her new role.

The two-decade human capital veteran currently works as vice president and people partner for KBR’s government unit.

Intermap Technologies

Terry Ryan, the former chief executive of contractors such as Constellis and VT Group, has joined the board of directors at this provider of geospatial intelligence.

Ryan’s three-decade career includes senior roles at Science Applications International Corp., ManTech, Mercury Systems, SRA International and Tenax Aerospace.

While in government, he served in positions such as deputy director of the Defense Reconnaissance Office and director of ISR systems for the Office of the Secretary of Defense.

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OpenAI hones public sector focus with new leadership hires

Frank Konkel — Wed, 04 Nov 2026 13:32:00 -0500

Fresh off a year in which more than 1 million federal employees gained access to its ChatGPT platform, OpenAI added several senior executives to its government team in October to further accelerate its momentum across the public sector.

OpenAI hired Yvette Cesario to be its new head of national security. Cesario formerly worked for Amazon Web Services, where she served as managing director for national security and was a founding member of AWS’ national security team, bringing cloud computing at scale to intelligence agencies. In her new role, Cesario will lead engagement with the intelligence community, which is increasingly looking to use generative AI in its mission space.

Peter Guerra will serve as OpenAI’s head of tech success. Guerra formerly worked as Oracle’s group vice president for data and AI for government, defense and intelligence, and was at Microsoft, Accenture and Booz Allen Hamilton prior to that. In Guerra’s new position, he’ll work to transition agencies from generative AI pilots to mission deployments.

Jamil Jaffer, who founded the National Security Institute and the AI & Innovation Institute at George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School, will take on the role of OpenAI’s head of global government cyber. Jaffer previously served as venture partner and strategic advisor at Paladin Capital Group, a defense technology-focused venture capital firm, and has held prior national security-focused roles in the House, Senate and the Justice Department’s national security division.

“OpenAI is focused on bringing advanced AI tools to public servants and helping them use the technology to serve the American people,” Katrina Mulligan, head of national security partnerships for OpenAI for Government, said in a statement. “Yvette, Peter and Jamil bring deep experience with the missions our government partners carry out every day.”

OpenAI also beefed up its policy communications team, hiring Megha Bhattacharya to serve as public sector lead. Prior to joining OpenAI, Bhattacharya served in the Biden-Harris Administration, including roles in the White House press office and in the State Department.

These hires coincided with OpenAI’s appointment of former U.S. Army Secretary Dan Driscoll to serve as senior counselor for national security modernization. Driscoll was hailed by President Trump as “a disruptor and a change agent” in 2024 before resigning Aug. 31.

“AI should give people more power over their lives and people should have a say in how it’s developed,” OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said. “The US has an extraordinary opportunity to work with other countries to spread the adoption of democratic AI and I’m excited to welcome Dan Driscoll to OpenAI to strengthen American leadership and help us do that.”

In August 2025, OpenAI was among the first companies to negotiate software discounts for government customers through the General Service Administration’s OneGov program, courting a new government market.

In September, OpenAI for Government announced a new multi-year agreement with GSA — dubbed OneGov 2.0 — offering federal agencies discounted, token-based pricing for its popular ChatGPT models. The new deal removed monthly platform fees and offered a 50% discount on token-based usage across those models beginning Oct. 1, one day after its original OneGov deal expired.

According to OpenAI for Government, the company onboarded 50 new government agencies during the months of September and October. During the same two-month span, OpenAI captured government contracts collectively valued at more than $550 million, according to GovTribe data. They include:

Treasury: $487 million potential value; $2.16 million obligated
Health and Human Services: $30.68 million potential value; $6.93 million obligated
Veterans Affairs: $34 million potential value; $4.20 million obligated
Labor: $875,000 potential value, fully obligated
Education: $1.42 million potential value; $711,000 obligated

In another summer milestone, the Pentagon unleashed a specialized version of OpenAI’s ChatGPT to troops and civilian defense users of the GenAI.mil platform. Through the platform, up to 3 million users have access to tools provided by Google, OpenAI and xAI.

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Lockheed pays $29.5M to settle DEI claims sparked by former VP

Nick Wakeman — Wed, 04 Nov 2026 13:26:43 -0500

Lockheed Martin has become the fourth – and largest – government contractor to settle allegations with the Justice Department that it operated a diversity, equity and inclusion program that discriminated against white and male employees.

The Justice Department said Tuesday that Lockheed is paying $29.5 million in total across two settlements. This includes one $22 million payment to settle False Claims Act allegation and a second, separate $7.5 million agreement to end a case with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

The $7.5 million will go to more than 1,000 Lockheed employees under an EEOC agreement to resolve a 2025 Commissioner’s Charge filed by EEOC Chair Andrea Lucas, which alleged the company discriminated against white employees in performance ratings, bonuses and pay.

In the settlement agreement, “Lockheed denies that it engaged in the covered conduct and denies the allegations in the civil action.” Both parties involved said they settled to avoid protracted litigation.

The Justice Department also uses the word “contends” to describe its allegations against Lockheed Martin and does not present them as established facts. Justice intervened in part on Oct. 28.

The action was brought in July 2025 by Tim Booher, a former vice president of combat systems, who will receive $4.4 million as part of the settlement.

The case started with a qui tam action filing Lockheed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas.

Booher alleged that Lockheed's human resources team told him to swap out 18 white employees from a bonus and compensation program known as Comp Adder, then replace them with non-white employees.

His filing lays out his claims of how Lockheed HR officials suggested he focus on the “cuspers,” employees ranked just above or below the 20% cutoff, and swap the lowest-ranked white employees who made the list for the highest-ranked minority employees who did not.

Booher’s complaints about the order were met with warnings of “legal activity” if he did not comply and his boss told him he would “get used to” it, according to the filing.

He left Lockheed in 2023 and in 2024, Booher went to EEOC Commissioner Lucas with his story.

Justice's allegations reach further back than Booher’s. The government contends the practices date to 2019 and included sex as well as race.

Justice alleged Lockheed tied managers’ incentive pay to demographic goals and offered mentoring and leadership programs, such as an Executive Leadership Diversity Mentoring program, on the basis of race or sex.

DEI programs such as these have been a frequent target of the Trump administration, including at government contractors.

In September, Accenture agreed to pay $25 million to settle similar allegations.

In August, Deloitte paid out a $21.5 million settlement. IBM paid $17.1 million in April to settle allegations that it failed to comply with anti-discrimination requirements.

Companies that operate as federal contractors are required to certify that they comply with anti-discrimination requirements of the Federal Acquisition Regulations. Before the second Trump term, this often meant that companies had programs to foster advancement of non-white and female employees.

The Trump administration has argued that these programs put white male employees at a disadvantage by denying them equal opportunities. The president has signed executive orders banning practices based on race or gender.

In a statement provided to Washington Technology through a spokesperson, Lockheed Martin said:

“We continue to deny the allegations, which relate to past practices. We did not admit liability, determining it would be best for all involved to put these matters behind us so we can remain focused on our critical national security mission.”

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Aptim hires V2X's former leader as chief executive

Ross Wilkers — Wed, 04 Nov 2026 12:29:58 -0500

Aptim has hired a new chief executive in Chuck Prow, a three-decade industry veteran and formerly CEO of V2X, a company he led from its inception via a merger of two other companies.

Prow will join Aptim on Monday to lead the environmental and resilience consulting services provider through the next phase of its push for growth in defense modernization, energy security and critical infrastructure.

Aptim said Tuesday that Prow succeeds Mark Fallon, who is stepping down after six years as its chairman and CEO. Aptim has been owned by private equity firm Veritas Capital since 2017.

Baton Rouge, Louisiana-headquartered Aptim describes itself as a specialist in environmental, engineering, emergency management, sustainability, resilience and infrastructure services for organizations in government and commercial sectors.

Aptim has recorded roughly $154 million in unclassified prime contract revenue over the trailing 12 months with Energy Department work representing 47%. GovTribe data identifies the Army, Navy and Environmental Protection Agency as other major customers.

Prow oversaw the standup of V2X via the 2022 merger of Vertex and Vectrus, the latter of which he led as CEO since 2016.

Prow’s career in the market also includes 12 years at IBM in positions of increasing responsibility, culminating with a stint as general manager for global government industry.

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Delphinus, Shorepoint and Tenica close on acquisitions

Ross Wilkers — Wed, 04 Nov 2026 12:28:03 -0500

Delphinus Engineering

Four months on from its receipt of external investment, this provider of naval-focused maintenance and modernization services has moved on an acquisition to add more logistics and sustainment work.

Delphinus is adding approximately 200 employees with its purchase of Professional Analysis, whose clients cut across the Navy and Marine Corps.

PAI opened for business in 2003 to work on military programs focused on ensuring operators have access to materials. PAI has recorded $10.2 million in unclassified prime contract obligations over the trailing 12 months, according to USASpending.gov data.

"The combination expands our ability to support the Navy and Marine Corps across engineering, maintenance, modernization, and logistics,” Delphinus chief executive Roby Lentz said in a release. “It is an important step toward our ambition of building the nation's premier naval sustainment organization.”

Bluestone Investment Partners backed Delphinus over the summer and Lentz was promoted to CEO from his former role as chief operating officer. Delphinus is positioning for opportunities connected with the Navy’s push to improve fleet readiness and bolster the maritime industrial base.

Wistlr acted as exclusive financial advisor to PAI.

Shorepoint

This federal cybersecurity company has moved to buy a suite of contracts with an eye toward growing its engineering, automation and assessment offerings for agencies.

Coalfire Federal, the public sector subsidiary of Coalfire Systems, primarily concentrates on requirements in areas such as risk management and compliance. The team also supports efforts in cybersecurity strategy, privacy, cloud computing and assurance.

Coalfire Federal has recorded approximately $8.4 million in unclassified prime contract obligations over the trailing 12 months with Health and Human Services Department work representing 57%, according to USASpending.gov data. The Interior Department is another major customer at 34% of the spend.

Shorepoint is making this acquisition with the backing of CM Equity Partners, which closed its growth capital investment in the fall of 2025. The Coalfire Federal arm was stood up in 2017 to manage the federal cyber portfolio inherited from Veris Group, which Coalfire Systems acquired in 2016.

TideLock Partners acted as financial adviser to Coalfire Federal.

Tenica Global Solutions

Tenica has acquired a fellow provider of IT, systems engineering and integration services for intelligence agencies with the goal of further building out a portfolio of technical offerings for those customers.

Trinity Enterprise Services opened for business in 2014 to focus on programs in areas such as enterprise IT operations and infrastructure, data centers and cloud computing, systems integration, cybersecurity and compliance, and mission integration.

With this transaction, Tenica is pushing to broaden its customer reach and add a team of cleared engineers and other technical professionals that work in sensitive mission sets.

For Tenica, this move follows the company’s sale to private equity firm McNally Capital during the summer. Tenica is one of nearly a handful of contractors in McNally’s portfolio, which focuses on defense and intelligence.

“This acquisition represents an important next step in our strategy to expand and reinforce Tenica's already strong presence in the intelligence community and create a more comprehensive suite of mission-critical solutions,” Tenica chief executive Nicholas Scherling said in a release.

PilieroMazza provided legal counsel to Tenica. Evergreen Advisors Capital was the financial adviser to Trinity, for which Miles & Stockbridge provided legal counsel.

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What the midterm results mean for federal tech policy

Chris Teale, David DiMolfetta, Christian Robles, and Grace Dille — Wed, 04 Nov 2026 12:06:00 -0500

Major Democratic wins in the House and Senate on Tuesday are expected to shape how lawmakers will approach leading technology issues in the coming Congress.

Below, Nextgov/FCW and Route Fifty reporters break down the significant wins and what could be expected from Democrats in the coming year.

Notable wins and losses

Incumbent Republican Rep. Mike Lawler conceded to Cait Conley, a Democrat and former counterterrorism official running in New York’s 17th congressional district, according to The New York Times, though the Associated Press had not called the race as of Wednesday morning. Conley is a veteran who served as the director for counterterrorism on the National Security Council and an election security advisor at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.

In an interview with Nextgov/FCW this summer, Conley expressed interest in a seat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which has jurisdiction over energy, telecommunications, technology and large portions of the nation’s critical infrastructure.

Rep. Kathy Castor, a key Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, won re-election in a redrawn competitive Florida seat, according to the Associated Press. She co-sponsored the Ratepayer Protection Act, bipartisan legislation meant to protect residents from higher energy costs that data center construction could drive. The bill passed the House in September and faces an unclear future in the Senate.

Not all former feds saw success Tuesday. Michael Masuda, a former engineer who worked in the State Department and the Democrat running in California’s 5th congressional district, lost his race against incumbent Republican Rep. Tom McClintock, according to the Associated Press.

Kristin Hook, a Democrat running in Texas’ 21st congressional district who formerly worked at the National Institutes of Health and the Government Accountability Office, lost her race against Republican Mark Teixeira, according to the Associated Press.

And Charles Borges, a Democrat running for a Maryland State Senate seat, lost his race against incumbent Jack Bailey, according to The New York Times. Borges is a former Social Security Administration chief data officer who filed a whistleblower complaint alleging a Department of Government Efficiency staffer copied Social Security numbers to a private cloud environment.

Cybersecurity, national intelligence and surveillance

Democrats’ midterm win in the House puts lawmakers who have questioned cuts to the federal cyber workforce and the Trump administration’s handling of U.S. spy agencies in a position to investigate both.

More broadly, with Democrats taking the Senate, they would gain a say in which of President Donald Trump’s picks to lead defense, intelligence and homeland security agencies get confirmed. While top cabinet nominees are filled for now, several dozen lower-level positions are still vacant, per data from The Washington Post and Partnership for Public Service.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the DHS agency that became the tip of the spear under Trump’s maximal deportation agenda and has received widespread backlash for a series of lethal incidents, will also receive significant oversight.

The second Trump administration has expanded ICE operations through AI-driven surveillance tools and private data brokers to track and profile individuals, prompting major concerns from lawmakers and civil liberties groups over misidentifications and digital tracking.

“We will investigate the administration weaponizing DHS against Americans, its out of control immigration policies, and its blatantly corrupt self-dealing,” said Rep. Bennie Thompson, who is poised to be the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee next year.

Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn., the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, won reelection Tuesday and has already put one group on notice. In September, he warned intelligence contractors that lawmakers were likely to investigate donations to Trump’s White House ballroom. Himes wants to know who solicited the money and whether companies believed a contribution would help them secure a government contract or gain access to senior officials.

Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., who was also reelected, will chair the Senate Intelligence Committee and may lead various oversight missions. He has proposed changing who can serve as acting director of national intelligence, arguing that the White House should not be able to install a political appointee over experienced officials the Senate has already confirmed.

Both Himes, Warner and other Democrats who sit on their respective intelligence panels have expressed concerns about politicization of intelligence findings, which especially became a flashpoint after the Iran war started in late February.

A possible FITARA comeback

With Democrats regaining the majority in the House Committee on Oversight and Government reform, the scorecard established under the Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act to grade the 24 largest federal agencies on their progress in modernizing IT may see a revival.

The House Oversight Committee traditionally held semiannual hearings to review the grades, compiled in collaboration with the Government Accountability Office.

However, the scorecard was discontinued in 2023 after Republicans took control of the committee. The late Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., FITARA’s author and then-ranking member of the committee, continued issuing his own scorecards and hosted roundtable discussions to review the results with agency chief information officers.

The last scorecard was released by Connolly in September 2024. Connolly died in May 2025.

Rep. James Walkinshaw, D-Va., who succeeded Connolly and previously spent over a decade working as his chief of staff, told Nextgov/FCW in June that the scorecard would likely resume if Democrats regained control of the House.

Walkinshaw also said Congress should modernize the grading scale to account for advances in artificial intelligence and cybersecurity threats.

“The question is obviously, ‘how do you develop those metrics in a way that’s objective?’ But I think that scorecard proved to be over time a good forcing mechanism to nudge agencies to modernize,” Walkinshaw said.

Walkinshaw won reelection in Virginia’s 11th District race on Tuesday.

AI companies face a new political landscape

The 2026 midterms marked a new milestone in the technology industry’s efforts to combat election misinformation, with major AI companies establishing dedicated “war rooms” to monitor their platforms for misuse.

OpenAI and Anthropic were among the companies preparing for potential AI-driven election interference, reflecting growing concerns about how generative AI could be used to spread misinformation and confuse voters.

The election also offered a test of whether artificial intelligence is becoming a more prominent political issue. AI policy has become a point of contention between lawmakers and technology companies, particularly as communities raise concerns about data center construction, electricity costs and the technology’s potential impact on jobs.

Several congressional races featured candidates who made AI regulation a central part of their platforms.

Democrat Abdul El-Sayed won the Senate race in Michigan and has called for a new Cabinet-level agency to oversee AI development and for a pause in AI frontier development.

In California’s 11th Congressional District, Democrat Scott Wiener similarly proposed the creation of a federal regulatory body to oversee AI safety and security. As of publication, Wiener’s race has not yet been called, but he is leading in current numbers.

Democrat Manny Rutinel, the congressman-elect in Colorado’s 8th District, campaigned on requiring independent safety reviews before major AI model releases.

According to polling released Tuesday from The Alliance for Secure AI and YouGov, 81% of voters said they support candidates who favor AI safeguards.

“AI has quickly become a top issue in this election, and will only become more salient as we approach the 2028 presidential election,” Alliance CEO Brendan Steinhauser said in a statement. “From here on out, every candidate from both parties will need to be an AI safety candidate if they want to win in 2028.”

According to an NBC News exit poll, 56% of voters said artificial intelligence and data centers were a “crucial or major factor” in their vote for Congress, and 44% said they were “a minor factor or not a factor” in their vote.

After the results poured in on Tuesday evening, Democrats pledged to focus on AI when they take over the majority in January.

Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Greg Casar, D-Texas, called for Democrats to make taking on AI a top priority. Casar said the results are “the early tremor of a much bigger AI earthquake upending American politics.”

In his victory speech on Tuesday, Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., said “the titans of Silicon Valley dig bunkers for themselves and warn that the artificial intelligence they’re creating risks human extinction.”

Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., said Big Tech executives will “need to plant new forests for all of the subpoenas we’ll be printing,” in a post on X.

“For all the unknowns we may face in our future, Americans made it clear tonight that the era of Trump’s unchecked corruption is officially over,” said Geordan Neinstein, co-founder of the “New. Digital. Now.” PAC and a former manager at the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee.

“I look forward to more transparency when CEOs testify in front of a Democratic Congress,” he added when asked about expected oversight of technology and AI topics.

Other federal policy shifts

Though votes are still being counted, the next Congress will likely face pressure to deliver on affordability and hold the Trump administration accountable, Amanda Renteria, CEO of civic tech nonprofit Code for America, told Nextgov/FCW.

She expects that means Congress will weigh solutions — such as clearer guidance and longer timelines — that would help states implement the One Big Beautiful Bill Act’s Medicaid and SNAP changes, noting that state officials will face pressure to implement quickly redesigned IT systems for Medicaid, SNAP and other programs. She also expects Congress to develop artificial intelligence policy and hopes it will revisit bipartisan policies such as the Earned Income Tax Credit.

Democrats will likely scrutinize defense spending growth, reorienting technology funding and procurement priorities, advisory firm Clark Street Associates wrote in a blog post.

For example, Democrats may push for increased funding for energy research programs, including the Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy, or ARPA-E. But other technology priorities, such as domestic refining and processing of critical minerals and reducing supply chain dependency on China, will likely remain bipartisan, the post said.

“Overall, the election changes the political map more than it changes the underlying defense technology requirements,” VJ Sahi, senior managing partner at Clark Street Associates, told Nextgov/FCW.

With Democrats soon taking over Congress, they have less of an incentive to work on appropriations bills with Republicans during the forthcoming lame duck session, Sahi added.

Voters reject data centers in local ballot initiatives

It was a bad election night for data centers, as opponents of their development were successful in virtually all 40 ballot measures across 10 states, according to preliminary results.

Voters in localities of various sizes in the Midwest, South, East and West largely voted to reject data centers being built in their jurisdictions, although some of those votes are advisory and therefore not binding on local elected officials.

Ohio communities saw the most ballot initiatives on data centers, mirroring a state level effort to vote on a constitutional amendment banning new data center construction, which could be on the ballot next year. Almost 20 towns, cities and counties in the state held votes on data centers, with some asking voters if they should ban the construction of the centers writ large, while others were asked about amending their zoning laws to allow them. In every race, data center opponents appear to have been victorious.

Data centers also suffered defeats in localities in California, Illinois, Kansas, Maine and New Jersey. More votes are expected next month in Arkansas and North Dakota.

“Voters across the country have emphatically rejected the push for AI data centers. In state after state and race after race, Big Tech has failed to deliver — and everyday Americans have won,” said Mitch Jones, deputy director of Food & Water Action, a nonprofit that pushes for clean water and food.

“Not only in Washington, but in state capitols and village halls across the country, newly elected leaders are poised to stand up to the unregulated, reckless buildout of hyperscale data centers wherever they are proposed,” added Jones.

So far, the only city where data centers have prevailed in the vote last night appears to be Harwood, North Dakota, where the secretary of state’s office said 75% of the 430 people that voted rejected an amendment to the city charter that would have required an independent review and public hearing before adopting large industrial projects, including data centers. That would have applied to future projects, not the controversial Applied Digital campus that has already been approved.

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ATI fights SBA’s bid to argue its case in secret

Nick Wakeman — Tue, 03 Nov 2026 15:50:12 -0500

The Small Business Administration has asked a federal judge to accept a filing that ATI Government Solutions would not be allowed to see, to which the company says SBA is trying to defend its suspension of the company in secret.

Attorneys representing the government filed a sealed motion on Sunday, asking to submit a document under seal. The motion was filed ex parte, which means ATI’s lawyers cannot see it either. Judge Ana Reyes of the U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia has not yet ruled on it yet.

ATI has been suspended from federal contracting since October 2025, when SBA acted a day after James O’Keefe released a video that the company says was heavily-edited.

SBA lifted the 8(a) suspension in June, but extended the Federal Acquisition Regulation-based suspension in October.

ATI is now asking Reyes for an emergency order to lift the FAR ban. Reyes has given SBA until Nov. 6 to respond.

In an opposition document filed Tuesday, ATI calls the sealed motion yet another attempt by SBA to avoid explaining why it suspended the company.

“For more than a year, defendants [SBA] have been unable to do so, utterly failing to provide any evidence or explanation to justify their decisions, all the while publicly naming and shaming Plaintiff ATI as the paradigm of a fraudulent government contractor,” ATI writes.

Now that ATI has gone to court to force SBA to explain itself, the company claims the agency is still trying to shield its actions from scrutiny.

ATI claims that the Justice Department, which represents SBA in the case, has refused to Iet the company see any version of the motion or to explain why it was filed ex parte.

No redacted version appears on the public docket. ATI argues the judge’s standing order requires one.

Courts allow ex parte filings only in narrow circumstances and especially involving national security cases, ATI argues.

“This is not a case that involves national security or state secrets; it is a case about a government IT contractor suspended without cause,” the company writes.

ATI says it believes the sealed filing relates to a Justice Department investigation that SBA prompted. SBA Administrator Kelly Loeffler has said publicly that the agency was referring ATI to law enforcement.

ATI is arguing that because SBA already made the investigation public, the agency cannot now claim the investigation is too sensitive to discuss.

The company also warns that letting SBA rely on the investigation would create a loophole. ATI says an agency could prompt an investigation, punish a company, then cite that same investigation as the reason it cannot explain itself.

That would let the government use the investigative process “as both a sword and a shield,” ATI writes.

Any investigation can’t justify the suspension after the fact anyway, the company argues. SBA suspended ATI within hours of the O’Keefe video.

ATI’s earlier filings indicate the administrative record SBA has turned over consists of links to O’Keefe’s videos with wo of them posted after the suspension, as well as publicl-available business records.

ATI wants Reyes to deny the motion. If she does not, ATI wants SBA ordered to share enough information for the company to respond. As a last resort, it wants a sealed hearing where both sides are present.

“Plaintiffs cannot properly respond to a motion they have not read and to which they have no access,” the company writes.

ATI closes its filing by quoting Justice Louis Brandeis: “Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants."

Officials at SBA have declined to comment.

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