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Navy planning small business R&D contract

Nick Wakeman — Mon, 10 Aug 2026 14:52:10 -0400

The Naval Research Laboratory plans to release a solicitation by Oct. 1 for research-and-development support services for its Space Science Division, with the resulting award reserved entirely for small businesses.

The presolicitation notice describes a cost-plus-fixed-fee, level-of-effort contract with a one-year base period and four individual option years. The lab estimates roughly 199,500 labor hours over the life of the contract, covering a mix of labor categories including key personnel.

NRL's Space Science Division conducts R&D related to the atmospheres of the Sun and Earth. This includes solar activity and its effects on the Earth’s ionosphere, upper atmosphere and middle atmosphere.

The division builds instruments that are placed on satellites, rockets and balloons.

Work under the contract is not being considered a commercial requirement and NRL will use a best-value tradeoff source selection process to make the award..

A formal solicitation has not been released yet. The Sam.gov notice states that the agency reserves the right to cancel the acquisition before the solicitation is released.

Interested vendors must be registered in SAM.gov to be eligible for award and they can register as interested parties ahead of the formal posting. Questions and comments on the notice are due by Aug. 25.

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Financial, operations and growth leadership moves across the market

Ross Wilkers — Mon, 10 Aug 2026 13:14:51 -0400

Agile Defense

Carrie Supko has joined the digital transformation company as vice president of homeland security, a role she brings 25 years of experience to.

Supko will work with growth and delivery teams on existing programs and efforts to expand the homeland portfolio, which includes agencies such as Customs and Border Protection and Citizenship and Immigration Services.

She most recently worked as a vice president of business development at Quantum Sky, formerly known as Tyto Athene. Her career also includes roles at Peraton and CACI International.

Ajax Defense

Craig Brosius has joined the supply chain-focused investment holding company as senior vice president of operations, a role he brings nearly a decade of experience to.

“He will work across our company on operational excellence and lead the development of the Ajax Operating System (AOS), supporting our long-term growth,” Ajax Defense said in a LinkedIn post.

Brosius most recently spent nine years at Kennametal.

Aquia

Kalid Tarapolsi has moved up to chief operating officer at the digital services company, which he first joined in 2021 and more recently worked as chief growth officer.

His new responsibilities cover delivery, growth and communications functions as Aquia pushes to expand across federal and state markets.

The 25-year market veteran’s career includes roles at Lumen Technologies, LAP GreenN and Deloitte.

AttainX

Archana Dhore has joined the technology and professional services provider as chief financial officer, a role she brings two decades of experience to.

Dhore’s career includes stints as CFO at Rividium and TripleCyber.

She also spent nearly 11 years at Snap Inc.

CACI International

Marcie Small has moved up to chief human resources officer after 15 years at the company, where she most recently worked as senior vice president of talent acquisition and growth.

Small succeeds Angie Combs, who has retired from CACI after seven years there.

In her most recent SVP role, Smith led efforts to modernize CACI’s talent ecosystem and redefine its approach to leadership development.

Capitol Meridian Partners

Maisha Glover has joined the private investment firm as the ninth member of its operating partner team, which assesses investment opportunities and works with portfolio companies on their strategies and execution.

Glover most recently worked as a partner at McKinsey. Her career also includes leadership roles at Booz Allen Hamilton, Science Applications International Corp. and Leidos.

The group of CMP operating partners includes Ryan McCarthy, Tiffanny Gates, Raanan Horowitz and Dennis Liberson.

CMP’s portfolio of GovCon investments includes Clarity, LMI, Parry Labs and Westway Enterprises.

Clarity

Rick Johnson has joined the national security technology integrator as chief financial officer, a role he brings 25 years of experience to.

Johnson most recently held the CFO role at Tyto Athene for two years. His career in the market also includes senior roles at Booz Allen Hamilton, Novetta and IntelliBridge.

Clarity announced the hire in a LinkedIn post.

Consulting Solutions

Don Styer has joined this company focused on tech transformation and human capital efforts as executive vice president of federal solutions, a role he brings 25 years of industry experience to.

Styer’s responsibilities at Consulting Solutions cover strategy, growth, profit-and-loss, and service delivery functions.

He most recently worked as chief technology officer at Serco North America, the subsidiary of Serco Group that houses U.S. government work.

Delphinus Engineering

Gray Beck has joined this naval maintenance and modernization services provider as chief strategy officer, a role he brings nearly two decades of experience to.

Beck’s new role is a newly-created position that focuses on corporate strategy, mergers and acquisitions, and integration efforts. Delphinus’ hire of Beck follows the company’s receipt of backing from Bluestone Investment Partners.

Beck most recently was CFO of CBeyonData, a former Bluestone portfolio company acquired by SMX in 2025. He also held the CFO role at Quadel Consulting, also a former Bluestone portfolio company that was purchased by System One in 2021.

DMI

Gregory “Greg” Olson has joined the IT and digital transformation services provider as senior vice president for customer impact and managed services, a role he brings three decades of experience to.

Olson will oversee the strategy for DMI’s managed services portfolio, along with growth and customer delivery initiatives. He will report to Trey Theimer, DMI’s chief growth officer.

Olson most recently worked as chief strategy officer at ATCH, where he focused on digital evidence and investigative technology programs. He also is a former executive for AT&T’s U.S. government business.

ManTech

Scott Keenan has joined the company as vice president of growth for its defense and space sector, a role he brings two decades of experience to.

Keenan most recently worked as managing director for public sector growth at Verizon. He joined Verizon in 2021 after 16 years at General Dynamics IT.

ManTech announced the hire in a LinkedIn post.

Mitre Corp.

Glenn Daly has moved up to vice president of engineering and analysis at the nonprofit science and technology organization, which he first joined in 2001.

Daly will lead Mitre’s new Center for Engineering and Analysis that works across areas such as infrastructure, network and connections; systems engineering; modeling and analysis; signals and electronics; and emerging technologies.

He most recently worked as managing director for Mitre’s division focused on programs out of the defense secretary’s office.

NVIDIA

Christopher George has joined the semiconductor maker as vice president of public sector, a role he brings 15 years of experience to.

George most recently served as a senior adviser to the U.S. government for artificial intelligence and advanced computing. Before that, he spent 14 years at Intel including one as president of the government technologies business.

“Governments are making long-term investments in AI infrastructure to strengthen national security, accelerate scientific discovery, and improve public services,” George wrote in a LinkedIn post on his new role.

PCI Federal

Dr. Todd C. Hughes has joined the government services company as vice president of artificial intelligence strategy and solutions for its technology and mission solutions sector.

The two-decade tech veteran will oversee PCI Federal’s efforts to continue developing its advanced technology group. His responsibilities include working with agencies on moving AI from experiments to operational use, PCI Federal said in a LinkedIn post.

Hughes most recently worked as chief innovation officer at Scientific Systems for nearly four years. His career in public sector includes service as a program manager at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

T2S Solutions

Jeffrey Casperaites has joined the technology research-and-development services provider as chief financial officer, a role he brings three decades of experience to.

Casperaites’ career in the market includes CFO roles King & George and M1 Support services, as well as an interim CFO stint at Astrion.

T2S announced the hire in a LinkedIn post.

Turion Space

Danny Joe has joined the venture-backed satellite and spacecraft builder as chief financial officer, a role he brings three decades of experience to.

Joe’s appointment follows the completion of a $75 million Series B capital raise in the spring, which was led by Washington Harbour Partners. His career includes CFO stints at American Lithium Energy, Flyweel.io, Inspectorio and QLess.

Turion announced the hire in a LinkedIn post.

York Space Systems

Kevin Messerle is stepping down from the chief financial officer post at this small satellite maker, a role he has held for five years.

Messerle’s tenure at York is highlighted by its $629 million initial public offering in January.

Brian Frantz, who joined York as chief accounting officer in the fall, has been appointed interim CFO in a move taking effect Aug. 14. Frantz is a former CFO for RE/MAX International.

Accenture Federal Services

Juliane Gallina, the former CIA deputy director for digital innovation, has joined the board of managers at this subsidiary of the global professional services firm.

AFS’ LinkedIn post on the appointment touts Gallina as having led artificial intelligence adoption efforts during her tenure at the CIA, which also involved digital transformation initiatives.

Gallina is also currently a partner at the investment firm Lavrock Ventures.

AeroVironment

Michael Ruppert, chief financial officer at ManTech since 2023, has joined the board of directors at this maker of autonomous systems and other defense technologies.

Ruppert held the CFO role at Mercury Systems prior to his appointment at ManTech.

AeroVironment also announced that Charles Thomas Burbage will retire from the board after 13 years as a member. His term will end at the start of AeroVironment’s next annual stockholder meeting, which is currently scheduled for Sept. 24.

Constellis

Ed Dolanski has joined the risk management services provider’s board of directors after three decades in executive roles across the industry.

Dolanski is a former executive at Boeing, where his roles included president of government services and president of global services and support.

In June, Constellis CEO Dan Gelston appeared on our WT 360 podcast to explain the company’s strategy and vision for bringing technology into security as a way of extending perimeters.

Delphinus Engineering

Along with the aforementioned hire of Gray Beck, Delphinius’ board of directors has added a new member in Jerry Punderson.

Punderson’s 33-year career in government culminated with four years of service as director of contracts at Naval Sea Systems Command.

He is also a former senior vice president of defense and intelligence for the Professional Services Council, plus a former chief operating officer for Gryphon Technologies. ManTech acquired Gryphon in 2021.

General Dynamics

Danny Deep has joined the corporation’s board of directors nearly nine months after he was appointed president.

Deep has been with GD for two decades and was promoted to executive vice president of the combat systems segment in the spring of 2024.

In the summer of 2025, Deep moved to EVP of global operations to focus on operating performance measures across the entire corporation.

Science Applications International Corp.

David Benson and David Cush have joined the board of directors, which increases from 10 members to 12 with their elections.

Benson is a former president and chief financial officer of Fannie Mae, where he helped lead it through a complex transformation following the 2008 federal government takeover.

Cush is a former CEO of Service King Collision, which he led through a restructuring effort during his 2018-to-2022 tenure. He also led Virgin America as CEO from 2007 to 2016, a tenure that included its 2014 initial public offering and concluded with its sale to Alaska Airlines in 2016.

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Senate clears spending measure, leaves other major bills unfinished

Shauneen Miranda, States Newsroom — Mon, 10 Aug 2026 13:13:31 -0400

The Senate adjourned for its summer recess early Saturday after approving a stopgap spending bill but declining to advance legislation that would require photo ID for voting.

In a rare overnight session that began on Friday, senators trudged through a slew of measures, confirmed President Donald Trump’s nomination of Todd Blanche as attorney general and then departed the nation’s capital for the coveted August recess. The chamber is not expected to return to regular session until after Labor Day.

The Senate passed, 86-11, a major effort first proposed by the late Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., that would impose sanctions on Russian President Vladimir Putin, along with the country’s oligarchs and military leaders.

A bipartisan education bill — championed by Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo. — served as the vehicle for the Russia sanctions package.

Collins’ and Bennet’s bill would ensure that “early childhood educators can claim the same federal tax credit for out-of-pocket classroom supply purchases that is currently available to K-12 teachers,” per a press release.

Averting a shutdown

The Senate also passed a bipartisan measure on a 90-6 vote that would keep the federal government funded through Dec. 11. The House has passed a different version, so the two would have to be reconciled.

Earlier in the day, senators had advanced the legislation, known as a continuing resolution, toward a final vote on another strongly bipartisan vote of 91-6.

Senators did not vote on a proposed blueprint that would unlock the complex budget reconciliation process and allow Republicans to move ahead on their third party-line bill.

Attorney general vote

The upper chamber also confirmed Blanche, the acting attorney general, to be the next U.S. attorney general.

Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., marked the determinative vote amid GOP opposition from Collins and Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, over Blanche’s bid, as well as the absence of Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who’s recovering from a health issue.

The Senate //, including Cameron Hamilton to serve as the next administrator for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, 51-47.

Voting and photo ID

The Senate failed to advance on a 52-46 vote a bill that would require a photo ID to vote in an election to federal office.

Related to the separate SAVE America Act, it was sponsored by Sen. Jon Husted, R-Ohio. Sixty votes were required to move ahead on the measure, which was opposed by all Democrats voting.

Democrats have said in the past such a requirement would make it more difficult for all Americans to vote.

Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, a proponent of photo ID and the SAVE America Act who at one point had said he would hold up adjournment to obtain action, vowed afterward to continue pushing for it. “This fight’s not over. We’re just getting started,” he said.

Trump is an intense proponent of the SAVE America Act and urged the Senate to stay in town to pass it, though Republican leaders have said repeatedly there are not 60 votes to do so.

The SAVE America Act would require voters to show proof of citizenship when they register and a photo ID when they vote. Noncitizens are already barred from voting in state, federal and almost all local elections.

College sports

The Senate did not take a procedural vote before leaving town on a sweeping bipartisan bill that would set national standards for college athletes’ compensation.

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas and Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash. — the top members of the Senate Commerce panel, which has jurisdiction over the matter — introduced the bill, with Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., and Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., as original co-sponsors.

The bill underwent several changes after it was passed by the Commerce panel in June, and was able to ultimately garner the support of the formidable Big Ten and Southeastern conferences.

But the Congressional Black Caucus opposed the legislation in a statement earlier this week, noting that “at the very moment that Black political representation is under attack across the country, we will not be complicit in efforts to further exclude the interests of Black people by advancing legislation that will determine the economic future of Black athletes, their families, and their communities without their meaningful participation and engagement.”

Trump, who’s thrown his support behind the measure, urged the Senate earlier Friday evening to stay in town until the bill passes.

“Stop grandstanding, and try getting this done,” he wrote in a social media post.

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Boeing's sale of Insitu and more transactions to note

Ross Wilkers — Mon, 10 Aug 2026 13:04:22 -0400

Boeing

As part of its reset, the aerospace giant has agreed to sell three of its autonomous and electric flight subsidiaries to Archer Aviation in return for a minority ownership stake in the air taxi maker.

Archer is acquiring Insitu, a military drone maker Boeing acquired in 2008, Wisk Aero, which is developing an autonomous electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft, and air traffic management system developer SkyGrid. The acquisitions are part of a push by the company to expand its defense portfolio.

Boeing and Archer are also entering into a collaboration and technology sharing agreement, under which Boeing will retain access to Wisk’s core autonomous flight technology for current and future aircraft. All parties involved expect the transactions to close before this year ends.

Insitu is known in the market for ScanEagle, an unmanned surveillance and reconnaissance aerial vehicle, and the smaller RQ-21 Blackjack.

For Boeing, its agreement to sell these subsidiaries is part of the company’s larger reset since CEO Kelly Ortberg joined in the summer of 2024 to lead its operational and financial turnaround effort.

Moelis & Company is acting as financial adviser to Archer, which is also working with Fenwick & West as outside counsel. J.P. Morgan Securities is the financial adviser to Boeing, whose outside counsel is Mayer Brown.

Acentra Health

This technology solutions integrator has acquired a maker of a cloud-based technology platform used to manage long-term care, home- and community-based care, and behavioral health cases.

FEI Solutions opened for business in 1999 to help government agencies and health organizations modernize Medicaid and human services technology environments. FEI’s platform is designed to offer configurable models that help clients manage functions in incident reporting, data analysis, claims and invoices, and provider management.

With this transaction, Acentra is pushing to expand its technology offerings in areas such as assessment and eligibility. Acentra views its portfolio as touching claims and assessment handling efforts, along with case management.

“Government healthcare agencies are under increasing pressure to modernize complex programs while improving the experience for providers, case managers, and the individuals they serve,” Acentra CEO Todd Stottlemyer said in a release.

Acentra is owned by The Carlyle Group and was created in late 2022 via the merger of CNSI and Kepro, which coincided with the hire of Stottlemyer to lead the combined company.

In 2024, Acentra purchased EAP Consultants to add mental health and well-being programs for workplaces.

FedTec

This digital transformation and professional services provider is now a subsidiary of Reply, an Italy-headquartered company that designs and implements solutions based on the web and social networks.

FedTec employs nearly 400 people and posted approximately $100 million in revenue for its most recent fiscal year. Data from USASpending.gov lists FedTec’s main customers as including the Social Security Administration, Defense Information Systems Agency, General Services Administration and IRS.

By agreeing on this sale of itself, FedTec is looking to lean on the resources of a more global company like Reply in order to position for larger and more complex contracts.

Reply’s own technology and business roadmap covers areas such as artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, cloud modernization, data and enterprise platforms.

Ramanjit Singh will continue to lead the FedTec business as chief executive, while other key leadership team members are also remaining in place. Singh joined FedTec as CEO in 2024 after 17 years at 22nd Century Technologies, where his most recent role was a managing partner position.

Mona Kaur founded the company as FreeAlliance in 2004, then rebranded it to FedTec in 2024. She handed the CEO role over to Singh and has remained involved as president.

Precise Systems

This engineering services provider has purchased a developer of modeling and simulation software to build a greater presence across training environments for aerospace, defense and transportation organizations.

Ternion opened for business in 1989 to create commercial-off-the-shelf and customized simulations for use in live, virtual and constructive training environments. Ternion designed its flagship FLAMES tool to act as a flexible simulation framework for use in command and control training, mission planning and rehearsal, systems engineering, test and evaluation, experimentation and analysis.

“The addition of the Ternion team and the FLAMES platform will help us accelerate technology innovation, shorten the path from concept to mission application, and better prepare our customers for increasingly dynamic operating environments,” Precise Systems CEO Scott Pfister said in a release.

Precise Systems’ goal is to integrate Ternion’s technologies into other offerings in engineering, digital transformation, mission systems, software development and interactive training.

Philpott Ball & Werner were the financial advisers to Ternion.

Precise Systems was first backed in 2023 by Bluestone Investment Partners, which has since supported three acquisitions by the contractor including the Ternion purchase.

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CMMC’s pause isn’t a cancellation

Perry E. Keating — Mon, 10 Aug 2026 12:07:08 -0400

For defense contractors, the Defense Department’s 60-day suspension of CMMC Phase II requirements should not be read as a stop-work order on cybersecurity.

It is a pause in the rollout of certain certification requirements, but it does not pause contractors’ responsibility to protect government information.

The distinction matters. On July 13, the department announced the immediate suspension of Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification Phase II requirements, which were scheduled to take effect on Nov. 10. The department also said it would begin a comprehensive review of the CMMC program, focused on reducing barriers for small, medium and non-traditional businesses while emphasizing scalable, resilient cybersecurity measures.

At the same time, the announcement made clear that Phase I self-assessment requirements remain in place and that contractors and subcontractors remain contractually obligated to safeguard covered defense information under DFARS 252.204-7012.

That is the key message government contractors should take from this moment: the certification timeline may be changing, but the obligation to protect federal information is not.

Why the Pause Matters

CMMC has long been one of the most closely watched cybersecurity compliance programs in the defense market. For many contractors, particularly small and mid-sized businesses, the anticipated movement into Phase II raised difficult questions about cost, timing, assessment capacity and competitive access to defense work.

The department’s announcement acknowledges those concerns. It specifically cites the need to align the program with acquisition transformation priorities, reduce unnecessary barriers and maintain a strict security baseline while keeping innovators and competition in the defense supply chain.

This represents a significant policy signal. It suggests the government is not walking away from cybersecurity expectations, but it is reconsidering how those expectations are verified, implemented and scaled across a diverse Defense Industrial Base.

For contractors, the announcement brings both relief and uncertainty.

The immediate pressure around Phase II implementation may be reduced. Some solicitations and contracts may be modified as the department suspends pending and future CMMC implementation milestones. But uncertainty about the future model does not eliminate present obligations.

What Has Not Changed

The most important point is that CMMC was never the only driver of cybersecurity obligation. Defense contractors handling federal contract information or controlled unclassified information have long been subject to contractual and regulatory requirements tied to protecting government data.

Those obligations include maintaining appropriate safeguards, understanding where sensitive government information resides, documenting cybersecurity practices, performing self-assessments where required, and supporting representations made to the government or prime contractors.

The department’s announcement states that during the interim period, cybersecurity compliance with NIST SP 800-171 Rev. 2 will be enforced through self-assessments and select government-led assessments, with emphasis on tangible cyber hygiene rather than administrative overhead. It also states that the action does not eliminate the requirement for companies to protect federal data.

That should shape contractor behavior over the next 60 days. Organizations should not dismantle project teams, shelve remediation plans or allow documentation to grow stale. Instead, they should use the review period to strengthen the fundamentals.

The Risk of Overreacting

The greatest risk for contractors is misreading the suspension as cancellation.

Some organizations may be tempted to pause assessments, delay remediation, defer evidence collection or tell business units that CMMC no longer matters. That would be a mistake.

Prime contractors will still need confidence that their subcontractors can protect sensitive information. Customers will still ask about cybersecurity posture. Contracting officers may still require self-assessments. And organizations will still need to support the accuracy of cybersecurity representations made in proposals, certifications, contract performance communications and supplier questionnaires.

There is also a False Claims Act dimension. Even if the third-party certification pathway changes, unsupported or inaccurate cybersecurity claims can still create enforcement risk. A contractor that tells the government it has implemented required controls should be able to demonstrate the basis for that statement.

In short, the compliance mechanism may be under review. The accountability remains.

What Contractors Should Do Now

Defense contractors should use the 60-day review period to focus on practical, defensible cybersecurity governance.

1) Confirm your scope. Identify which contracts, systems and data environments involve federal contract information or controlled unclassified information.

2) Review current self-assessments. Ensure that scores, affirmations and supporting documentation are accurate.

3) Continue remediation. Address known gaps against NIST SP 800-171 requirements. A pause in certification timing should not become a pause in risk reduction.

4) Maintain documentation. Keep system security plans, plans of action and milestones, policies, procedures and technical evidence. Documentation remains central to defensible compliance.

5) Monitor contract requirements. Review active solicitations and contracts for any changes related to CMMC clauses, customer expectations or flow-down requirements.

6) Keep Leadership engaged. Elevate the issue to executive leadership. This is not merely an IT compliance question. It affects contract eligibility, customer trust, supply chain participation and enterprise risk.

The Bottom Line

The Defense Department’s 60-day review may produce meaningful changes to CMMC implementation. It may reduce burden, reshape assessment timing or create a more scalable model for the Defense Industrial Base.

But contractors should not confuse regulatory recalibration with regulatory retreat.

Cybersecurity remains a condition of doing business in the federal market. The companies best positioned after the review will be those that continue protecting government information, strengthening evidence, validating representations and treating cybersecurity as a business risk, not just a certification exercise.

CMMC implementation may be paused, but contractors' cybersecurity responsibilities remain in effect.

Perry E. Keating is the leader of Protiviti’s CMMC practice and President of Protiviti Government Services. He advises government contractors and commercial organizations on cybersecurity, CMMC readiness, government data protection, regulatory compliance and cyber governance.

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What history tells us about the potential government shutdown

Frank Konkel — Mon, 10 Aug 2026 10:00:00 -0400

The Senate is working to pass a bipartisan funding bill before a summer recess that would fund the federal government through Dec. 11, prevent a potential government shutdown during November’s midterm elections and avoid a repeat of last year, when agencies began the fiscal year with a record 43-day shutdown.

Senators easily cleared the first in a series of procedural motions Monday by a vote of 89-4, fast-tracking the bill for final vote before the Senate recesses for five weeks. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., all but promised Wednesday that senators would delay the recess—scheduled for Friday—until they navigate a “train wreck” of legislation that includes the spending bill.

The bill has several key differences from the one the House passed on July 21—which Senate Democrats declared dead on arrival—including no new funding for immigration agencies and language temporarily blocking the Trump administration from putting political appointees in charge of federal grant approvals. Unlike the House bill, the Senate bill does not include $1 billion for the Trump-class battleship program, and it would provide government funding one week longer than the House bill, which would fund agencies through Dec. 4.

To be signed into law and avoid a shutdown, one chamber would have to adopt the other’s bill, or appropriators will need to develop a compromise bill that both chambers pass and President Trump signs.

On its face, Congress’ unusual early efforts to avoid a shutdown dramatically decreased the odds of a shutdown—at least in October. On prediction market Kalshi, odds of an Oct. 1 shutdown now sit at 25%, down from 64% last month.

“It’s good they’re getting ahead of it. I cannot recall a time when a CR was introduced in July,” said David Berteau, a longtime budget expert and former high-ranking Pentagon appointee in both the Reagan and Obama administrations. “I don’t really know what the parties want, but the members want to not have a shutdown.”

That should alleviate some angst for federal employees and government contractors who’ve dealt with three partial or full government shutdowns in the past year. Hundreds of thousands of federal employees missed several consecutive pay periods, forcing many to take odd jobs or seek loans to pay bills. Many contractors, meanwhile, weren’t paid at all during the shutdown, since they are not legally entitled to backpay. Millions of Americans suffered too, with fewer domestic flights and hours-long security lines at airports, disruptions to public services and tens of billions of dollars in lost economic output.

In decades past, chances of a shutdown with a government and presidency under the same party—during a critical midterm election—would have been exceedingly low. Lately, though, there are no sure bets.

What history says

Given recent history, Berteau said it’s anything but a done deal.

Until 2018, every government shutdown for the previous four decades occurred under a divided government, when either the majority in the House or Senate was held by a different political party than the presidency.

“Until 2018, the last time we had a shutdown with unified government was under Jimmy Carter in 1980,” Berteau said. “That trend broke briefly in 2018, which started under unified gov’t and ended under a divided government. Then we had no shutdowns until last year, and all three of those were under a unified government.”

“Normally, I would say don’t worry about it, but it’s not normal anymore,” Berteau added.Neither House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., nor the White House has weighed in yet on the Senate’s spending bill. Once Congress returns from summer recess, they’ll be under a time crunch, with only 16 working days in the legislative calendar to advance a stopgap before the fiscal year ends Sept. 30. Other competing priorities, including a reconciliation bill and the SAVE Act, may take some oxygen during those proceedings.

“The possibility of an October shutdown, even in an election year, even in a unified government, that possibility is not zero,” Berteau said.

Even with apparent momentum in the Senate, government executives would be wise to dust off their shutdown plans, while government contractors who serve the government should prepare their pipelines and communication strategy for a possible shutdown. That’s because even if an October shutdown is avoided through a stopgap measure, the federal government faces the prospect of running out of money during a lame-duck Congress—midnight on Dec. 12 in the Senate’s current bill—wherein at least one of the House or Senate is favored to flip into Democratic control.

The scenario is eerily similar to the 2018 shutdown, which until last year held the record for the longest shutdown at 35 days. The 2018 shutdown began Dec. 22 when government funding ran out in President Trump’s first term, with Republicans in charge of the House and Senate. The crux of that shutdown was Senate Democrats’ opposition to more than $5 billion in funding for Trump’s border wall. That shutdown finally ended Jan. 25, 2019, three weeks after Democrats took control of the House under new Speaker Nancy Pelosi, following their successful flip of the chamber in November.

With three months to go until elections, most polls give Democrats better than an 80% chance to take the House in November, with Democrats only slight underdogs to take the Senate. There is a very real possibility that Republicans lose control of either the House or Senate in November, leaving a lame-duck Congress the responsibility of passing another budget bill to avoid a holiday shutdown.

“History says that when one House or both change hands in the midterms, they wait until a new Congress is seated before any final spending deals,” Berteau said.

That doesn’t mean a deal couldn’t happen. Both parties may have incentives to negotiate.

John Weiler, cofounder and executive director the IT Acquisition Advisory Council, said, “If Republicans lose the House as is expected, they will be moving to pass appropriations bills and a budget reconciliation package before the new Congress is sworn in, so they’ll be looking to make a deal with the Democrats on appropriations.”

Similarly, Weiler said, “Democrats should also be looking to strike a deal on appropriations because the Trump administration is happy to operate under a continuing resolution since it gives them more leverage and might be the last chance they have to set new spending levels versus ongoing CRs and budget showdowns.”

Until the president’s signature is dry on a spending bill, all bets are off.

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GAO to DOGE: The ‘Wall of Receipts’ does not add up

Nick Wakeman — Fri, 07 Aug 2026 13:30:00 -0400

The Department of Government Efficiency’s infamous Wall of Receipts was always problematic for its inaccuracies and misrepresentations.

Now the Government Accountability Office has put a bow on that reputation with a new report published Thursday that hammers the Elon Musk-led organization for its lack of transparency, overstated savings and data quality issues.

Our colleagues at NextGov/FCW have highlighted GAO's findings in that report of how DOGE took credit for savings that never happened, while Government Executive looked at the lack of transparency surrounding employees that worked for DOGE.

As for Washington Technology, we ran into some of these problems with accuracy and transparency firsthand in our reporting on DOGE in the early days of the Trump administration.

I once wrote about a company losing a $1 billion-plus contract. Company officials did not initially comment, but called me a few days later and told me on background to check again.

That $1 billion had been reduced to roughly $200 million. I then reported that, and a few days later the company called me again on background.

More corrections entered the total and the final tally of savings eventually arrived at $200,000.

DOGE also claimed $1.7 billion in savings involving a Defense Health Agency contract for IT services.

DOGE said the contract was terminated. DHA officials were able to dissuade DOGE from making the cut.

But the Wall of Receipts continued to report that $1.7 billion as saved even though that was not the case, GAO said.

A third example is an Air Force contract for IT modernization services known as Base Infrastructure Modernization. The Air Force reduced the value of the contract by 30%, or $3.75 billion.

DOGE claimed $4 billion in savings, but Air Force officials could not explain to GAO why there was a discrepancy.

On top of that, there is no guarantee that any money would be saved. An Air Force official told GAO the service branch may end up having to spend more because of the need to award new contracts to make up the difference, which could mean losing the opportunity leverage efficiencies and cost savings already negotiated.

GAO also found problems with DOGE’s claims about money saved on cancelled leases. At one point, DOGE claimed to have terminated 679 leases for savings of $400 million. Eventually, DOGE removed 415 of those leases and that reduced the claimed savings to $53.5 million.

DOGE officials declined to meet with GAO to explain the changes.

DOGE also claimed savings from leases that were already scheduled to end before the office was launched on Jan. 20, 2025.

Also missing from DOGE’s savings calculation is the cost of terminating leases and contracts and closing out grants.

GAO said that government agencies should disclose issues with their data quality and other limitations, such as completeness and timeliness. This helps users determine who much they can rely on the data and how to use it.

“The Wall of Receipts does not sufficiently disclose issues or limitations affecting data quality,” GAO wrote.

The DOGE wall of receipts still exists. You can still look at it, but I have not checked it in months.

No one can rely on it.

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Space Force launches $300M ground operations support recompete

Ross Wilkers — Fri, 07 Aug 2026 11:17:00 -0400

Space Force is now ready for industry to start working on and turning in bids for a potential seven-year, $300 million contract for ground operations and development work on experimental systems.

The single-award contract called Hybrid Architecture and Development for Experimental Systems contract, or HADES, covers efforts related to prototyping and operations of satellite ground systems and satellite operations centers.

Proposals for HADES are due Sept. 17 and must be submitted through the Procurement Integrated Enterprise Environment, Space Force said in a Wednesday notice to release the final solicitation.

HADES’ primary location of performance is the Space Force Research, Development, Test, and Evaluation Support Complex at Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico. This hub functions as Space Force’s main center for research-and-development and command-and-control functions for satellites.

In setting up HADES, Space Force is looking for an industry partner that can help integrate differences in coding between different prototype satellites made by different manufacturers.

Space Force’s main goal is to ensure it does not lose satellites because of coding or commands that are not efficient or in conflict with each other.

Science Applications International Corp. is the incumbent contractor. The company captured the current Engineering, Development, Integration and Sustainment contract in 2020 at a $655 million ceiling over seven years.

Space Force has obligated $260.7 million in order volume to-date against EDIS to represent roughly 40% of the ceiling, according to GovTribe data. EDIS is currently slated to expire in February 2027.

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Agentic development will expose GovCon's old business model

Matt Jones — Fri, 07 Aug 2026 11:00:00 -0400

I am an artificial intelligence convert.

Despite leading a defense technology company, up until recently I didn’t consider myself an AI evangelist. It just wasn’t a priority for me personally. That changed after I met vibe coding pioneer Gene Kim at a software development workshop for the Navy.

Gene asked me a simple question: “Have I ever thought about developing an app?” That turned into a discussion about the massive void in tools for scheduling pickleball matches, followed by a spontaneous coding session in the hotel bar that ended with a working prototype of my ideal app.

All of that happened in two hours. I was blown away by the potential this represented: agentic software development is not just another productivity tool. It can change how software gets built, tested and delivered.

What started as a vibe coding demo for a pickleball app led to a much more profound realization –AI-enabled software development doesn’t just incrementally shift how software is developed; it completely transforms the speed and agility of delivering applications from the software factory to the tactical edge.

It’s not just writing code faster. The real value is faster prototyping, modernization and mission-driven development without abandoning architecture, review, testing, integration, security or governance. And it doesn’t eliminate the need for smart coders – it just makes them better.

For the Defense Department, that kind of speed is not a luxury. Mission software, training tools, synthetic environments and edge applications all need faster iteration. The warfighter cannot wait for the next release cycle.

Agentic development will force defense contractors to stop selling software delivery as labor throughput and start competing on mission speed, governance and outcomes. Contractors that do not change their operating and pricing models will be exposed and fall behind.

The real challenge is organizational

Agentic development changes who gets to participate. For years, software development has created a barrier between the people who understand the mission and the people who build the tool. That divide costs time, context and slows speed to capability.

AI narrows that gap and makes the process more inclusive. Business development teams, mission experts, operators and customer-facing teams can now help shape early prototypes and workflows directly. They do not need to become developers to make meaningful contributions.

That is a major advantage in the government market, where the best solutions combine technical execution with deep operational understanding. But it will not happen by accident. The winners will be the ones that drive adoption across engineering, growth, leadership, delivery and mission teams.

If software creation accelerates but compliance, testing, procurement and internal coordination do not, the bottleneck simply moves. Contractors will still disappoint customers, just with better demos. The old silos have to break down. Faster software delivery only matters if the entire organization can move at speed.

The business model must change too

The uncomfortable truth is that much of the federal software market is still organized around the economics of effort, not the economics of outcomes. Agentic development will challenge that.

Federal contractors need a new business mindset. Faster delivery will put pressure on time-and-materials models, labor categories and pricing assumptions built around older ideas of how long software should take to build.

That is good for customers. It is harder for contractors whose revenue models depend on legacy delivery timelines. But pretending that tension does not exist will not make it go away. Federal contractors must redesign pricing, capture and delivery strategies around that reality.

Agentic development has changed the basis of competition. Firms that can prototype faster, bring mission experts into the development process earlier, align engineering with growth and rethink pricing will have a real advantage.

Those that treat AI as a side experiment will fall behind.

The future of defense software will not belong to the contractor with the most people billing against the problem. It will belong to the contractor that can turn mission context into secure, tested and deployable capability the fastest.

Agentic development makes that possible. It also makes the old excuses harder to defend.

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Matt Jones is CEO of Sigma Defense.

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As AI models break free, White House works with firms on secret safety measures

Patrick Tucker — Fri, 07 Aug 2026 10:30:00 -0400

No one is saying, officially, what was decided when top frontier AI labs—Google, OpenAI, Anthropic, and Meta—met with White House officials on Tuesday to discuss voluntary guidelines for testing new models.

But Democratic lawmakers described the Trump administration's approach to regulation as “ad-hoc and unpredictable,” and said it’s likely to boost global adoption of rival Chinese models at the worst possible time.

Two officials with one of the labs said that Google, Anthropic, and OpenAI submitted a joint draft of the regulation around nine days ago and then began to work with each other and with the White House to find points of agreement. According to the officials, the labs all agreed they should be able to continue A/B testing as part of the process for developing models, and the White House concurred.

Companies that agree to the framework will submit their models to U.S. inspectors to be evaluated for safety for 30 days before those companies can receive federal funding—including from the Defense Department, whose 2027 budget request seeks more than $54 billion for AI companies, according to the officials.

A June White House executive order adds that models from participating companies would get extra intellectual property protection from Chinese competitors or others who might seek to steal secrets.

The White House is not commenting on how it will conduct the inspections. One of the officials said the the Office of Science and Technology Policy is still trying to set testing standards and how bodies like the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency will conduct or design tests.

The murkiness around the policy’s details has angered some top lawmakers. In a Tuesday letter, Senate Democrats ask the White House to “provide an unclassified response, with a classified annex if necessary, clarifying the Administration’s current policy and approach to limiting access to advanced AI models.”

The lawmakers also evinced concern about the models' new abilities to defy easy inspection, scrutiny, and limitation.

“During an internal evaluation [in July] OpenAI models escaped their testing environment and used high-level technical capabilities to compromise a third party’s network without any instructions to take those actions,” the letter reads. “The Federal Government cannot be passive as these capabilities emerge.”

AI’s Jurassic Park moment

Last week, Chinese company Moonshot AI released a new open-weight model, Kimi 3, that performs as well as some top U.S. models and is being offered to consumers around the world at a far lower price.

Lawmakers and others are increasingly worried the United States could fall behind China in a race to develop faster, more efficient, more profitable models and to shape the way global populations use, buy, sell, and even build AI. Open weight models have become a key point of contention.

Anthropic wants more scrutiny of open-weight models and more efforts to curb sales of high-performance chips to China to thwart distillation attacks. But others in the industry are taking a more supportive view of open weights.

A former senior White House official and a former senior defense official with direct knowledge of the discussion said Anthropic pushed for more language in the framework to address open-weight security, but came away disappointed.

Anthropic did not comment for this story.

In recent months, several of the newest AI models have broken out of their virtual testing containers.

Anthropic disclosed the first such incident in April, when an early version of their Mythos model was able to “autonomously write some remarkably sophisticated exploits,” including one that allowed it to escape an isolated testing environment that programmers use to test code for effectiveness and safety before it’s released.

Anthropic pulled the model from general release, but made it available under "Project Glasswing" so the government and a handful of large companies could find and fix vulnerabilities in their software.

The White House responded with an export-control ban on June 12, barring access to the model not just to foreign countries but even foreigners in the United States. That meant that Anthropic’s own researchers, many of whom were born outside of the United States, could not work on the model. The White House reversed the ban on June 30.

In July, tensions around a national AI safety strategy, or lack thereof, grew hotter. Both Anthropic and OpenAI revealed new incidents in which models breached their containment. It came as no surprise to many veteran cybersecurity experts. AI researcher and author Gary Marcus, in 2022, predicted such a possibility on his blog, describing it as an “AI’s Jurassic Park Moment.”

Last week, AWS Chief Security Officer Stephen Schmidt told reporters: “Containers are not security boundaries. I actually have a T-shirt that says that, which I started wearing about three years ago.”

AWS hosts multiple models for users through its Bedrock platform. Schmidt said the AI Mythos era requires a far more vigilant approach to cybersecurity, especially for researchers.

“One of the reasons that we built the virtualization infrastructure for AWS using our own Nitro Hypervisors so many years ago was we realized that containers were not an appropriate security boundary then. The same is true for AI. You cannot use an AI container as a security boundary.”

In March, a group of British researchers calculated the sandbox breakout period for various large language models, which proved very accurate months later.

A follow-on paper published this week by the same group describes how to build better containment environments for the models emerging today.

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Hadrian fetches $1.37B to add more automation-intensive factories

Ross Wilkers — Thu, 06 Aug 2026 13:41:02 -0400

Hadrian, a builder of automation-intensive manufacturing facilities, has collected $1.37 billion in Series D equity financing to aid the next phase of its push to stand up more factories for defense and other key industries.

Since its $260 million Series C capital raise in mid-2025, Hadrian has grown its footprint to slightly less than 3 million square feet across four sites with plans to add more capacity and production lines for making precision parts and other components.

Munitions and autonomous systems are of keen interest to Hadrian, which opened for business in 2020 to design facilities that pair workers with artificial intelligence and robotic technologies.

Hadrian said Thursday that JPMorgan Chase’s Strategic Investment Group joined the Series D round as anchor co-lead via the banking giant’s Security and Resiliency Initiative, a $1.5 trillion funding program unveiled in the fall.

WCM Investment Management, Washington Harbour Partners, Valor Equity Partners, 137 Ventures and Baillie Gifford were co-leads for the new round. Other participants included 1789 Capital, Morgan Stanley Wealth Management, funds managed by Apollo, accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates, CapitalG, Andreessen Horowitz, Founders Fund, Lux Capital, Altimeter and Construct Capital.

Hadrian’s touted valuation also increases to $7.87 billion with this capital infusion, which is also going toward the company’s research-and-development efforts and added capabilities at the manufacturing hubs.

Hadrian touts its model as “factories-as-a-service,” where defense companies can quickly scale up production capacities to meet demand for parts and assemblies.

"Production is now the frontline of deterrence," Chris Power, founder and CEO of Hadrian, said in a release. "America's ability to lead will depend on whether we can build, train, and scale faster. This financing allows Hadrian to accelerate building the Factories of the Future, expand into new mission-critical production capabilities, and invest in the technicians and engineers who will rebuild America's industrial base."

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GSA's agenda for resellers focuses on service pricing transparency

Ross Wilkers — Thu, 06 Aug 2026 13:16:13 -0400

In every conversation about how the government is looking to recalibrate its relationship with industry, questions about the role of technology product resellers and value-added resellers seem to inevitably come up.

Contracts with those companies came under scrutiny during the first year of this second Trump administration, while the General Services Administration is moving on its OneGov procurement initiative to have more direct relationships with brand name tech companies.

Laura Stanton, acting commissioner of GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service, said during a Wednesday webinar that the complex nature of technology procurement means the agency will always want resellers to be a part of the ecosystem.

OneGov and other pressure points on resellers are coupled with how fast the overall commercial tech marketplace moves to begin with. Stanton pointed out that agencies also tend to bundle their purchases of products with ancillary services like cloud and licensing support.

“This complexity has really increased the importance of having those knowledgeable partners who understand the commercial technology and the unique requirements of the federal marketplace,” Stanton said in the webinar hosted by George Mason University’s Baroni Center for Government Contracting. “Resellers, (and) particularly value-added resellers, help bridge that gap.”

Stanton cited solution design, tech integration, license management, security requirements and compliance obligations as examples of where VARs support agencies.

GSA’s primary goals in starting up OneGov and subsequently entering into agreements with software-centric companies include establishing transparent baselines for not only pricing, but terms and conditions that every agency can lean on.

Stanton said that when looking out to the next three-to-five years, GSA will push to have more visibility into total lifecycle costs for technology and that includes services provided by VARs.

But while price is important as volume discounts are inherent to OneGov, Stanton said GSA is also looking to send clear demand signals to the original equipment manufacturers and then determine the services needed.

“Right now, it's just very challenging to differentiate if we have everything together and with a single price,” Stanton said.

In January, GSA issued a request for information to the reseller ecosystem that asked for details on pricing practices and markup percentages as part of the agency’s examination of how these companies work with OEMs.

The agency also sought to get a deeper understanding on factors that shape markups such as volume, product category, support levels and business size. This RFI focused predominantly on hardware purchases, while OneGov has mostly centered around pacts with software companies.

GSA received 130 responses across the federal acquisition community to the RFI, Stanton said. Much of the responses from industry centered around expertise and services wrapped around the products, as well as compliance and documentation work that is inherent to federal acquisition.

Industry respondents also weighed in on how the government defines total value and showed some “willingness to separate the product pricing from the value-added services” to support GSA’s transparency push, Stanton said.

As with any change to how the government operates, Stanton pointed to the workforce and laid out what FAS is doing now to help them adapt to the new paradigm.

“We're looking at how we better align our Schedule practices with these commercial standards: how to get the acquisition workforce more information and guidance over how to analyze, how to price, how to acquire both the services and the products, and how the agency buyers can better evaluate those value-added services,” she said.

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CMMC Phase 2 is suspended but the requirements are not

Jason Sproesser — Thu, 06 Aug 2026 12:12:53 -0400

Everyone is talking about the Defense Department’s decision to suspend CMMC third-party assessments as a condition of contract award. But far less attention has been paid to what the department hasn’t suspended.

Government-led third-party assessments remain in place for the department’s most critical programs, technologies, and controlled data. C3PAO assessments are paused, but assessments conducted by the Defense Industrial Base Cybersecurity Assessment Center (DIBCAC) are still very much alive.

This raises an important question for every defense contractor. If the department still believes that some contractors require independent verification, how does it decide which ones they are? More importantly, could your company be one of them?

Read the Memo All the Way to the Bottom

When the DOD’s memo was released on July 13, much of the industrial base saw “Phase 2 suspended” and assumed the department had returned to relying primarily on self-assessments. But that isn’t what the entire memo actually says, or how department officials have explained it since.

The relevant language appears at the very end, under Interim Cyber Posture: “During this suspension, the Department will continue enforcing baseline compliance with NIST SP 800-171 Rev. 2 through DIB self-assessments and select government-led assessments…”

In a follow-up interview, DOD CIO Kirsten Davies was even more direct. The department has the authority at any time to conduct in-person or documentation-based assessments of defense contractors.

What Davies was describing is DFARS 252.204-7020. It is the clause that allows the department to show up with DIBCAC and evaluate your cybersecurity posture, and it has remained unchanged since 2020.

While contractors no longer need a C3PAO assessment as a condition of contract award, they remain responsible for meeting the same cybersecurity requirements and for the accuracy of the compliance information they report. The recent LOGZONE settlement is a reminder that DIBCAC can initiate assessments on its own, without waiting for a whistleblower.

How DIBCAC Decides Where to Spend Limited Resources

The practical constraint is that there just isn’t enough DIBCAC to go around. Since it doesn’t have the capacity to assess every contractor in the defense industrial base (DIB), how does it decide which companies to target?

While the department has never published a formal methodology for selecting assessment targets, its actions over the past several years point to a consistent set of risk indicators:

Self-assessment scores that appear implausibly high relative to the organization and warrant additional scrutiny.
Participation in critical technologies or strategically important defense programs.
Responsibility for particularly sensitive controlled unclassified information (CUI).
A critical role within the defense supply chain.

DIBCAC is not selecting contractors at random. It relies on a risk-based approach, directing its limited assessment resources toward organizations where the consequences of inadequate cybersecurity would have the greatest impact on national security.

The Department Knows These Supply Chains

While the DOD has never had visibility into every corner of the DIB, it has extensive visibility into the supply chains supporting its highest-priority missions. It knows the critical functions, the critical activities, and the contracts that support them.

The Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering maintains a public list of critical technology areas, including applied AI, biomanufacturing, contested logistics technologies, quantum, battlefield information dominance, scaled directed energy weapons, and scaled hypersonic systems. These programs are where the department wants assurance that its data remains protected after it leaves government networks.

There is another factor that smaller contractors often overlook. Prime contractors are responsible for reporting the unique identifiers associated with their contracts. As a result, the department already has a detailed map of the organizations supporting a given program and the level of risk associated with that work. If the department is deciding where to send assessors, much of that map already exists.

A Familiar Model

What’s striking is how closely today’s approach resembles the department's original vision for CMMC.

CMMC 1.0 was envisioned as a phased rollout with a selective criteria. It called for third-party assessments to begin with carefully selected contracts involving critical technologies, sensitive data, and strategically important programs before eventually expanding more broadly. This phased approach was intended to minimize disruption to the industrial base while obtaining the highest level of assurance where it mattered most.

Today’s implementation follows a similar philosophy. Rather than allowing individual programs to require third-party certification as a condition of award, the department is deciding where independent verification is most important and directing its limited assessment resources accordingly.

For contractors, the distinction is significant. Instead of a requirement that simply applies to your contract, you may be selected because of the work you perform. This is a targeted, risk-based model, and it closely resembles the one the department envisioned in 2020.

What Contractors Should Do Now

If your company supports critical technologies, handles sensitive CUI, or plays an important role in a priority defense program, you should assume a DIBCAC assessment remains a realistic possibility.

Third-party assessments still exist, and so does your liability.

Before DIBCAC asks the questions, make sure you can answer them:

Could we produce evidence supporting every NIST SP 800-171 control we’ve implemented?
Are our supplier performance risk system (SPRS) score and compliance assertions fully supported by documentation?
If DIBCAC contacted us tomorrow, could we demonstrate compliance rather than simply claim it?

The mechanics may change, but the expectation remains the same: contractors supporting the department’s most sensitive missions must be prepared to prove their cybersecurity posture. That means implementing NIST SP 800-171, maintaining documentation that substantiates compliance, and ensuring written policies match operational reality.

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Palantir calls on GSA to withdraw draft AI acquisition rule

Christian Robles — Thu, 06 Aug 2026 11:49:00 -0400

The General Services Administration should axe its draft large language model-specific acquisition rule, in part because it is purportedly unlawful and would undermine Trump administration goals if it were finalized, Palantir argued in recent comments on the proposal.

“If implemented, the Proposed AI Clause will likely prevent Palantir from providing government customers with the AI-powered solutions they need through GSA contracts,” law firm Freshfields warned on behalf of the company.

“Accordingly, Palantir expects government customers to turn to non-GSA contract vehicles to acquire Palantir’s most valuable AI-powered commercial solutions, thus diluting the promise of GSA contracts overall,” the company added in a letter to GSA.

Palantir argued that GSA has no independent authority to finalize the proposed LLM rule and would violate the Federal Acquisition Streamlining Act by mandating contracting requirements beyond standard commercial practices if it did finalize it. It notes that the courts have held that when an agency claims authority to decide on an issue of “vast economic and political significance,” Congress must delegate that authority in statute, which it has not done here. The company further said that the rule would significantly burden contractors and cause agencies to turn to other contract vehicles, undermining the Trump administration’s goal of reducing inefficiencies and consolidating procurement through GSA.

The company also called the proposed LLM rule incompatible with legal requirements for defense acquisitions — such as limitations on the clauses defense agencies can require of contractors and prohibitions on “demanding proprietary IP rights as a condition of contract award” — and said it disregards decades of intellectual property rights precedence.

Menaka Kalaskar, head of Palantir’s U.S. government legal and contracting team, raised much of the same concerns during a GSA listening session last month but stopped short of calling for the agency to withdraw the rule.

“If the clause is really needed, then it can be included in the [Federal Acquisition Regulation] overhaul rather than the GSA coming out on its own,” Kalaskar said at the time.

Palantir’s call for GSA to kill the LLM acquisition clause stands apart from much of the rest of the federal contracting industry.

During last month’s listening session, industry groups representing contractors widely urged GSA to clarify definitions and modify flowdown requirements if the agency wanted to achieve its goal of safeguarding government data processed by LLMs. Groups reiterated many of those same talking points in letters sent to GSA, according to an Nextgov/FCW review of a dozen public comments on regulations.gov.

Coalition for Common Sense in Government Procurement members “continue to have concerns regarding the overly broad language utilized in the AI clause and believe the AI clause may have a chilling effect on contractor use and adoption of AI should the clause be finalized as written,” the group wrote to GSA.

The coalition asked GSA to ensure only data directly submitted to an LLM’s inference engine — not upstream and downstream processing by ancillary system components — be subject to LLM rule requirements. The group also asked GSA to create a bright-line test to clearly define when LLM functionality is “incidental to the primary purpose of the core requirement being procured” and therefore not subject to LLM rule requirements.

The Software & Information Industry Association, AEM Corporation, Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton LLP, the Business Software Alliance, Professional Services Council and the Information Technology Industry Council similarly called for GSA to more clearly define the scope of the LLM acquisition rule, Nextgov/FCW found in a review of comments sent to GSA.

But the contracting industry is not united on how to reform the proposal.

For example, the Information Technology Industry Council urged GSA to get rid of a requirement that contractors ensure LLMs are developed and monitored in a way that adheres to “unbiased AI principles.”

“The criteria through which the government will evaluate compliance are still insufficiently defined, which creates ongoing uncertainty regarding the government’s expectations,” Megan Petersen, ITI’s senior vice president of policy, public sector and counsel, told Nextgov/FCW. “Without clear definitions and transparent compliance benchmarks, contractors will be held to an impossible performance standard.”

Other groups instead urged GSA to clear up the “unbiased AI principles” language with objective metrics contractors could use to ensure compliance with the regulation.

The Professional Services Council urged GSA to publish its benchmark methodology and evaluation criteria for “unbiased AI principles” and update them through notice-and-comment periods. The group pointed to NIST AI RMF 1.0 trustworthiness criteria and the IEEE 7003 Algorithmic Bias standard as some third-party standards GSA could use.

In total, 79 stakeholders sent GSA comments on the potential LLM procurement overhaul before the Aug. 3 deadline, according to regulations.gov.

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DHA wants out of the test infrastructure business it built

Nick Wakeman — Thu, 06 Aug 2026 09:41:02 -0400

The Defense Health Agency wants to consolidate the test infrastructure that underpins many of its systems in a move to reduce costs and improve efficiency.

In a new commercial solutions opening released Wednesday, DHA says it is looking for commercial solutions that can be acquired on a fixed-price basis.

DHA's current contract provides operational support. But no single entity is accountable for performance, cost efficiency, or optimization of the environment as a whole. DHA is calling the new contract Enterprise Software Services Next.

DHA uses a decentralized model, where individual programs allocate resources and assume responsibility for configuration and management. While initially flexible, the CSO says the model's lack of central governance has led to “uncoordinated growth that now significantly exceeds operational demand."

The structure also led to deferred hardware refresh cycles, resulting in an aging infrastructure and growing maintenance costs.

“The result is an environment where the government is paying for capacity it does not use, programs are diverting technical personnel from product delivery toward infrastructure administration, and costs are disproportionate to the value delivered,” according to the CSO.

The CSO does not specify what DHA wants. Instead, it is soliciting commercial solutions that can address the problems.

DHA's base-period goals include consolidated infrastructure and facilities, enterprise platform governance and cost-effective service, and cybersecurity and authorization accountability.

Two additional goals are structured as options to be exercised after the award. This includes integrated testing and independent verification and validation services, as well as enterprise tooling and operational support for product delivery.

The CSO says their timing depends on when other DHA contracts end.

Evaluation factors include “advancement.” In other words, DHS is looking for something creative and new: “Solutions that do not represent a meaningful improvement will be ineligible for award.”

Factor 2 is efficacy and outcomes. Outcomes must be linked to proposed pricing structure.

Factor 3 is the technical approach and adaptability.

Price is factor 4, but only comes into play in phase 2 of the competition.

Phase 1 submissions are due Aug. 20 and proposals must include the solution concept, which needs to be specific and identify tangible results.

A due date for phase 2 will be given to the companies who are invited to compete in that phase.

Awards will be fixed-price contracts based on the delivery of tangible results, not levels of effort or labor hours.

DHA anticipates the competition to result in multiple awards.

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Contractor alleges Army inappropriately used AI to make $450M contract award

Christian Robles — Wed, 05 Aug 2026 11:34:00 -0400

Trax International Corporation is asking the U.S. Court of Federal Claims to direct the Army to reevaluate bids for mission support services at White Sands Missile Range — in part because the department allegedly misused AI to determine the contract award.

The Army used AI that hallucinated multiple times, creating the false impression that Trax’s bid was weaker than rival Southwest Range Services’ successful bid of roughly $450 million, a complaint filed in late July alleged. The filing comes after the Government Accountability Office denied Trax’s bid protest in May.

But the lawsuit claims that records the Army provided to GAO did not explain whether assigned strengths for the Southwest Range Services bid came from a human at the Source Selection Evaluation Board or an AI tool.

Additionally, the Army conceded that one of the weaknesses it identified with Trax’s bid is not supported by the record. But it appears that the erroneous weakness came from a “classic AI hallucination, with made-up references to TRAX’s proposal, that no one on the [Source Selection Evaluation Board] checked,” the company claimed.

“Given the $29.4 million price premium associated with [Southwest Range Services’] proposal, there is a reasonable possibility that the removal of this Weakness could have changed the award decision,” the lawsuit states.

The Army declined to comment on the ongoing litigation.

Trax is not the first contractor to publicly allege an agency has wrongfully used AI to evaluate contract bids.

Salient CRGT alleged that a Defense Department subagency improperly used AI, rather than human employees, to evaluate bids. The Government Accountability Office considered those allegations abandoned and dismissed them in a decision dated Jan. 5, 2026.

Contractors will likely continue to scrutinize federal agencies’ use of AI in evaluating bids, according to David Timm, a partner at Burr & Forman.

In a recent Washington Technology op-ed, Timm raised concerns that few civilian agencies are reporting the use of AI in bid evaluations as “high-impact.” That means agencies have either not implemented minimum risk practices or have not publicly disclosed them if they have, he told Nextgov/FCW in an email.

The Defense Department has noted it uses AI to assist with bid evaluations in several recent solicitations. But if agencies don’t widely disclose they are using AI in bid evaluations, it could become harder for contractors such as Salient CRGT and Trax to successfully argue the government misused AI.

“More bid protests are likely to come as the ungoverned and undisclosed use of GenAI tools results in errors throughout the procurement, but if agencies do not comply with the [Office of Management and Budget] rules it will complicate how contractors prove their allegations,” Timm wrote in the op-ed.

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Library of Congress awards 5 seats on $162M IT support contract

Ross Wilkers — Wed, 05 Aug 2026 11:19:20 -0400

The Library of Congress has awarded five companies positions on a potential five-year, $162.2 million contract for operations and maintenance work on IT systems.

Library officials created the IT Operational Support Services IDIQ contract to acquire help from industry in running the agency’s network, database and web-based applications for end users and mission functions.

Awardees and their total evaluated prices announced Tuesday are as follows:

AdaptiveStack Technologies -- $29.7 million
AdaptiveVets Solutions -- $29.9 million
Inserso Corp -- $27.9 million
Intellect Solutions -- $37.7 million
Tista Science and Technology Corp. -- $37 million

The library is also emphasizing agile processes in this contract with the goal of obtaining quick customer feedback and further iterating products.

Solicitation documents released in December break out the main task areas as including:

Software and infrastructure for servers, storage and security systems
Network services supporting voice and data communications
Database, messaging and collaboration tools
System performance
End-user device and peripheral support
Data center operations
Independent verification, validation and software testing
End-user training

A number of bids submitted was not available at the time of publication.

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Tyto Athene rebrands as Quantum Sky

Nick Wakeman — Wed, 05 Aug 2026 10:03:37 -0400

Tyto Athene appointed a new chief executive in July, and now here in August the company has rebranded as Quantum Sky.

“Quantum Sky reflects the mission environment our customers are already operating in,” said Andrew Boyd, the company CEO who was named in early July. “The work is moving faster, the data is more complex, and the threat surface is expanding.”

The Arlington Capital Partners-owned company will continue supporting existing customers and will push to expand its work across artificial intelligence-enabled operations, cyber resilience, cloud and software.

“Agencies need advanced technology partners that can engineer secure, operational AI and quantum solutions into the fabric of the mission — not as a pilot, but as a capability they can field, trust and sustain,” Boyd said.

The company aims to deepen its quantum capabilities, help agencies prepare for post-quantum cryptography and applying quantum technology to algorithm development, sensing and communications.

The new brand follows a two-year effort to align the company’s leadership, acquisitions, and contract portfolio around higher-end federal mission technology. In addition to Boyd's hire in July, the company appointed Cutter Brenton in May as chief AI officer.

Acquisitions have added capabilities in space software and systems engineering, managed cybersecurity, cloud compliance automation, FedRAMP acceleration, enterprise service management and intelligence community cloud migration capabilities.

Quantum Sky said that the core of its growth strategy is Project 137, an applied innovation and intellectual property engine.

Project 137's work spans four core domains: infrastructure and platform operations, cyber, decision advantage, and quantum

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CGI Federal books $251 million contract to modernize GSA's financial operations

Nick Wakeman — Wed, 05 Aug 2026 09:46:31 -0400

CGI Federal has secured a $251 million contract to help the General Services Administration modernize its financial management operations.

The company will continue its hosting, operations and maintenance support services for the agency’s Pegasys financial management system and multi-tenant shared application environment.

Pegasys and the multi-tenant shared application environment are built on CGI’s Momentum platform. They support GSA and 36 other federal boards, commissions and agencies with financial management functions that meet Treasury Department requirements.

The new contract announced Tuesday also supports priorities outlined in Executive Order 14249, “Protecting America’s Bank Account Against Fraud, Waste and Abuse.” This order aims to promote financial integrity and operational efficiency across government financial systems.

In 2025, CGI Federal completed migration of Pegasys and the multi-tenant shared application environment to Amazon Web Services. CGI Federal says this resulted in 25% lower hosting costs and a 30%-to-50% improvement in batch processing performance.

The modernization effort will create opportunities for expanded use of artificial intelligence and automation to improve performance, including GSA workforce optimization goals. This includes GSA’s “Million Hours Challenge,” which is focused on reducing manual labor by using AI tools.

“Our focus is on delivering resilient, future ready solutions that help agencies improve service delivery, enhance transparency and adapt to emerging mission needs,” said Jay Hadley, senior vice president and business unit leader for regulatory agency programs at CGI Federal. “By combining secure cloud architectures with modern analytics and AI, we enable organizations to confidently advance their financial operations and better serve the public.”

Under the contract, CGI Federal will continue operating Pegasys and the MSA in a secure FedRAMP Moderate environment on AWS under CGI Federal’s Momentum-as-a-Service subscription model.

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Veritas to merge Steampunk into MetroStar Systems

Nick Wakeman — Tue, 04 Aug 2026 15:21:27 -0400

Veritas Capital plans to acquire Steampunk and will merge the business with MetroStar Systems, an existing company in the private equity firm's portfolio.

The combination will bring together MetroStar’s artificial intelligence and digital transformation work with Steampunk’s user-centered delivery model approach.

Terms of the acquisition announced Tuesday were not disclosed. All parties involved expect to close the transaction by end of this calendar quarter.

“The combination of MetroStar and Steampunk will create a powerful force multiplier for delivering mission-critical solutions at scale,” said Hugh Evans, managing partner of Veritas.

Veritas acquired MetroStar in November 2025. Steampunk was formed in 2019 when a group of former Agilex executives acquired and rebranded SE Solutions.

In the last 12 months, Steampunk has pulled in $205 million in unclassified prime contract obligations. Data from USASpending.gov pegs its top customers as Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the Patent and Trademark Office.

MetroStar has logged $52.6 million in unclassified prime contract revenue over the last 12 months. MetroStar's biggest customers are the Air Force, Navy, Army and Defense Information Systems Agency.

“Together, we can move missions faster, operate at a greater scale, and deliver even bigger outcomes for our customers and their missions,” said Ali Reza Manouchehri, co-founder and CEO of MetroStar.

Robert W. Baird & Co. was financial adviser and Holland & Knight LLP was legal counsel to Steampunk. Latham & Watkins LLP is the legal counsel to MetroStar and Veritas.

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File-naming blunders doomed MAPS protest, not ambiguities

Nick Wakeman — Tue, 04 Aug 2026 14:44:29 -0400

User error has apparently sunk the JAAW Group’s pursuit of a place on the Army’s MAPS professional services contract vehicle.

But its protest also ran into trouble after the Government Accountability Office claimed there was evidence of artificial intelligence being used to craft the protest.

JAAW Group was the managing member of joint venture Paralaxx LLC, which pursued the Army’s $50 billion Marketplace for the Acquisition of Professional Services contract.

The JV’s proposal was rejected because it did not follow the naming conventions for its proposal. JAAW argued that the solicitation was not clear and that the MAPS portal rejected the proposal.

In its July 31 ruling, GAO found the instructions were clear and that the JV consistently did not follow the instructions for how to name their files.

The solicitation required a certain format: Company name, Cover and then the date. The portal would automatically add the PDF extension.

JAAW made four different attempts and none followed the naming convention. JAWW made similar mistakes when submitting some of the other volumes, and even misspelled its own name in one.

While JAAW argued there were inconsistencies in the instructions, GAO did not find anything that was ambiguous.

GAO reviewed screenshots of the company’s rejected submissions. The error messages the company received told it to use the naming format from the solicitation.

GAO dismissed the protest because the company did not provide any factual grounds for the protest.

To make matters worse, JAAW made inaccurate legal citations in its protest that GAO said were consistent with the use of artificial intelligence.

One case the company cited could not be found. A second case was real, but was found to be irrelevant because it focused on different issues.

JAAW admitted its mistake and withdrew that citation. The company also committed to “independent verification of all legal authorities in future filings,” it told GAO.

“There is nothing inherently wrong with the proper and competent use of AI tools in the legal arena, this evolving technology has many glitches--including hallucinations--and must only be used with close, careful supervision, factchecking, and citation-checking,” GAO wrote.

GAO declined to impose sanctions over the AI-related citation errors since it was dismissing the protest anyway on the merits. But the agency warned JAAW that future filings with similarly unreliable citations could draw sanctions.

GAO has separately dismissed a protest by Alpha Omega Integration. Eight other protests are still active with decision dates later in August and into September.

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Leonardo DRS views Raft's software as the 'thinking part'

Ross Wilkers — Tue, 04 Aug 2026 14:28:28 -0400

Leonardo DRS is eyeing its $450 million cash agreement to acquire Raft as a way of adding more software into an overall edge compute offering, which includes a significant cognitive element.

During Leonardo DRS’ second quarter earnings call with investors Thursday, chief executive John Baylony laid out the rationale for the transaction and direction the company sees this move as taking it.

Baylony cited the Air Force, Space Force, Special Operations Command and intelligence community as agencies where Leonardo DRS has a larger footprint with Raft in tow.

Raft is also providing its data platform for the Army’s Next Generation Command and Control effort to establish a common data baseline.

Then there is the technology equation Leonardo DRS is looking at, which Baylouny laid out for analysts on the call.

“We've been really focused on sensing and computing and communications and force protection, and those sensors that we created and have in the marketplace really need to have that intelligence,” Baylouny said. “As Raft likes to say, sensors need a brain.

"In the future, autonomous platforms are going to increasingly need to sense the battlespace, make sense out of the battlespace and do something about it and act," Baylouny added.

Leonardo DRS has historically worked on the front end of that technology ecosystem, in particular the sensors and computing infrastructure. Raft enters into the “thinking part” of events happening out in the field and that involves software, Baylony said.

For the Army NGC2 effort specifically, Raft’s platform works to convert data acquired from sensors in a way that helps AI algorithms read it across the enterprise. Baylouny said Leonardo DRS is looking to “immediately have synergies” from having both its hardware and Raft’s software working on that problem set.

This transaction is also taking place against the backdrop of the Pentagon’s acquisition reform agenda to transform how it buys goods and services from industry, especially software.

Baylouny described that push as one where the customer is moving toward more purchases of solutions, versus individual components and subsystems on more of a piecemeal basis.

“This was one of the missing pieces that we needed to fill to get to that level,” Baylouny said of Raft. “We're heading off at the pass where the customers are moving, so that's a big structural change in both the way that the customers are buying and what we're selling and how we're selling.”

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Rocketdyne returns to the market

Ross Wilkers — Tue, 04 Aug 2026 14:25:47 -0400

Rocketdyne is back in the market as a standalone company after AE Industrial Partners closed its acquisition of the L3Harris Technologies space propulsion, power and electronics business units.

AE Industrial now owns a 60% stake in the 1,300-employee Rocketdyne entity with L3Harris holding the other 40% and continuing to be a key partner. Rocketdyne said Tuesday that its portfolio as an independent business includes the RL-10 rocket engine, in-space propulsion thrusters, and systems for nuclear power and energy.

The RL-10 has been used on the Space Launch System and United Launch Alliance’s Atlas, Delta and Vulcan Centaur rockets.

Kristin Houston will lead Rocketdyne as chief executive following a two-year stint as president of space propulsion and power systems at L3Harris. She first joined L3Harris in 2021 as president of the electro-optical sector following 16 years at Boeing.

When the transaction was first announced in January, AE Industrial said it planned to revive the Rocketdyne name and focus much of its attention on speeding up new technology development. AE Industrial is the same private investment firm whose space market backings include Firefly Aerospace, Redwire and York Space Systems.

This new iteration of Rocketdyne does not include everything that was part of Aerojet Rocketdyne when L3Harris acquired the latter company in 2023. For example, L3Harris is keeping the RS-25 engine that NASA uses for the core stage of the Space Launch System.

L3Harris also held onto a bulk of the solid rocket motor portfolio for its Missile Solutions segment, which the company plans to take public next year.

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How Leidos looks at the military's electronic health record plan

Ross Wilkers — Tue, 04 Aug 2026 14:20:03 -0400

Leidos is viewing the Defense Health Agency’s plan for the next iteration of the military’s electronic health record system as a sign of the government’s elevated interest in taking on more tech integration responsibilities.

In June, DHA laid out a blueprint for transitioning away from the current lead systems integrator model for the MHS Genesis system toward a setup of direct contracts with the providers of the underlying technologies.

DHA is planning to continue working with Leidos, the lead Genesis integrator, under a series of bridge contracts to help facilitate that shift. The agency is eyeing the summer of 2027 for completion of the tech providers’ transitions away from the current managed model.

During Leidos’ second quarter earnings call with investors Tuesday, chief executive Tom Bell indicated the Genesis program is not the only example of where the government wants to take on more.

“What they're interested in (regarding) in-sourcing is the systems integration, but also the acquisition of commercial technology, per the aspirations of this administration,” Bell said. “We see that trend continuing across many agencies.”

On a government-wide basis, the Trump administration has sought to recast the roles and responsibilities of integrators like Leidos in order to have more direct relationships with commercial tech companies. This push includes still-in-the-works changes to acquisition regulations and efforts to track how agencies conduct commercial acquisitions.

For Genesis specifically, Oracle Cerner is the provider of the baseline electronic health record that feeds into the overall systems of systems. Philips North America, American Well Corp., Henry Schein and Solventum Health Information Systems are also part of the Genesis ecosystem.

Bell touted Leidos’ work on the prime contract since 2015 as helping get DHA to a place where “they can now commercially acquire the software themselves and perhaps do some of the systems integration themselves.”

At the same time, Bell sees a place for Leidos in the future of Genesis.

“There's still a need for us to maintain the system, enhance the system and partner with them in terms of making the system match fit for the future,” Bell said. “While we see a lot of conversations around in-sourcing and it's understandable why our customer would want to make sure that they have organic capability, It's difficult to see that they can in-source it all and have the manpower necessary to do the whole work.”

DHA on July 31 selected a dozen companies for a potential five-year, $300 million professional services contract focused on product deployment efforts across the agency’s health IT environment that includes Genesis.

Leidos was one of those chosen for the contract, indicating the company is indeed maintaining a connection with Genesis in some respects.

Second quarter revenue of $4.5 billion was 7% higher than the prior year period and 4% up on an organic basis, while profit of $631 million showed a 2% year-over-year decrease in adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization.

Leidos lifted the low end of its full-year revenue guidance to $18.2 billion from $18 billion, with the high end unchanged at $18.4 billion. The company is also holding to its adjusted EBITDA margin outlook of mid-13%.

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McNally Capital adds Tenica to its national security bench

Nick Wakeman — Mon, 03 Aug 2026 14:43:38 -0400

McNally Capital has acquired the defense and intelligence firm Tenica Global Solutions, which provides integrated engineering and digital modernization solutions to agencies.

Tenica also provides mission operations and cybersecurity support across its national security, intelligence, space and defense markets. Tenica will continue to operate under its current leadership team.

“As we begin this next chapter, we are excited to partner with McNally, a firm that understands what makes Tenica unique and can provide the resources and expertise to help us continue growing,” Tenica's president and CEO Nicholas Scherling said in a release.

Tenica is headquartered in Chantilly, Virginia and was founded in 2008. The company has received about $5.4 million in unclassified prime contract obligations over the trailing 12 months with the Navy as its biggest customer, according to USASpending.gov.

The majority investment fits with McNally’s strategy of finding companies that serve defense and intelligence priorities. Tenica’s systems engineering and mission operations capabilities provide a foundation for more growth, McNally said in its announcement.

McNally's investments also include Quiet Professionals, Orbis Operations, and Xcelerate.

McNally looks to invest in founder-led companies and family-owned businesses, as well as help in management-led investments.

For the Tenica acquisition, McNally worked with Nio Advisors LLC. Ropes & Gray LLP served as legal counsel to McNally Capital and Venable LLP provided government contracting counsel.

The McLean Group served as Tenica’s financial adviser and PilieroMazza served as legal counsel to the company.

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