The Department of Defense has issued the final rule for a certification program that seeks to verify whether defense contractors comply with existing cybersecurity protections for federal contract information and controlled unclassified information.
According to the Pentagon, the follow-on rule change to the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement to implement the CMMC program will be published in early to mid-2025.
Once the rule takes effect, DOD will incorporate CMMC requirements into solicitations and contracts.
Under CMMC 2.0, the number of assessment levels has been reduced from five to three to streamline the compliance process for small and medium-sized businesses.
Self-assessments will be required for the basic protection of FCI and the general protection of CUI. For some CIU, third-party assessments at CMMC Level 2 and Level 3 will be required for contractors.
DOD has introduced plans of action and milestones, which will be issued for specific requirements to allow a vendor to secure conditional certification for 180 days while working to meet the National Institute of Standards and Technology standards.
Register now for the Potomac Officers Club’s 2025 Defense R&D Summit on Jan. 23, and hear from leading defense researchers, experts and decision makers about the cutting-edge technologies shaping the future of the U.S. military.
The senior leader has nearly two decades of experience in business strategy, business development and customer success gained from working as a risk management, financial management, and management advisory professional.
Prior to serving as a vice president at FAP, Vineyard was a partner at 11th Hour Service responsible for assisting in the development and implementation of its corporate strategy.
The new Tria VP, in his new role, will help advance the company’s service offerings and expand its presence in the military and veteran health market.
Vineyard’s career also includes time working at Kearney & Company and Deloitte.
In addition to Vineyard, Tria recently named Gina Gallagher as senior vice president for business development and Katie Webb as executive VP for public health.
About Tria Federal
Tria Federal provides technology and services to federal health, defense and public safety customers. It supports the Defense Health Agency, the U.S. Air Force and the Navy by tracking active-duty readiness and operationalizing healthcare services, among other efforts.
Register now to learn more about the transformative trends and innovations shaping the future of the health care sector at the Potomac Officers Club’s 2024 Healthcare Summit on Dec. 11.
HomeNewsUS Approves $1B Weapon System FMS Deals With Saudi Arabia
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has received clearance from the U.S. State Department to purchase missiles, ammunition and other weapon systems via three foreign military sale transactions worth potentially $1.05 billion.
The Defense Security Cooperation Agency said Friday KAS requested to buy 2,503 AGM-114R3 Hellfire II missiles and related equipment for $655 million approximately, with Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) as the principal contractor.
RTX (NYSE: RTX) will serve as principal contractor on the Sidewinder deal.
The proposed sales are intended to boost Saudi Arabia’s capability to address current and future threats and support its self-defense and regional security missions in the Middle East region.
According to Everson, as VP of business development quality, he will work with Astrion Chief Growth Officer Ronald Hahn to develop and implement new frameworks that would support the company’s continued growth.
The executive previously served as VP of business development within Astrion’s Navy division, where he oversaw the execution of long-term growth strategies and led efforts to opportunities to enter new markets.
Before Astrion, Everson held roles of increasing responsibilities at Systems Planning & Analysis, a defense company based in Alexandria, Virginia.
He also served as an associate at Booz Allen Hamilton (NYSE: BAH) for nearly 5 years.
Prior to his career in the private sector, Everson was a submarine officer for the U.S. Navy for over 8 years.
HomeFinancial ReportsGovCon Index Sustains Weekly Gain Streak, Q3 Earnings Season Underway
Executive Mosaic’s GovCon Index closed higher at $5,505.35 (+1.44%) after recovering from a steep 1.05% decline on Thursday. The index, which tracks the stock performance of 30 major government contractors, posted a 0.65% week-on-week gain, maintaining its winning run.
Wall Street’s major stock indexes also finished strong before the weekend and for the week as the Q3 2024 earnings season kicks off. For the year, the Nasdaq Composite, S&P 500, and Dow Jones Industrial Average are up 22.2%, 21.9%, and 13.7%, respectively. On the other hand, the GovCon Index is up 17.93% year-to-date.
V2X (NYSE: VVX) popped 7.67% Friday and was the week’s top GCI gainer with +9.31%. Second placer Palantir Technologies (NYSE: PLTR) gained 8.75% in five days and was the best performer from Tuesday to Thursday.
Defense stocks gained increased attention and rallied to start the month as the Middle East conflict escalated. The top defense contractors will parade their latest quarterly results on Oct. 22, starting with Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) and RTX (NYSE: RTX).
Plane maker Boeing (NYSE: BA) will present its Q3 2024 earnings on October 23. According to Anderson Economic Group, the ongoing union strike has cost the aircraft maker around $5 billion already. Also, on Friday, Boeing announced it will lay off 17,000 employees or 10% of its workforce over the next several months.
Regarding rate cuts, market analysts believe the pace until year-end would be gradual. They predict 25 basis point cuts by the U.S. Federal Reserve in November and December.
Prior to his promotion, Owen was Peraton’s senior director for the U.S. Air Force and Army.
Owen was with Perspecta when it was acquired by Veritas Capital and then combined with Peraton. He served as senior program director responsible for some of the company’s Air Force contracts, overseeing multiple teams tasked with managing Network as a Service, Secret Internet Protocol Router Network, Electronic Warfare contracts and other programs for the Department of the Air Force.
Before joining Perspecta, Owen worked at AT&T (NYSE: T) for more than 12 years. He was associate director for government, senior tech project manager, transition manager, bureau service manager and director.
Some of his responsibilities at AT&T included spearheading the growth of commercial and innovative offerings to the Air Force, supervising large global enterprise deployments and commercial delivery models and serving as the “as-a-service” subject matter expert within the company’s Defense organization.
HomeNewsPaul Nakasone to Headline Interos’ Risk Intelligence-Focused Event
Interos will bring together the brightest minds in supply chain risk management for a one-day event this October to discuss pressing issues across artificial intelligence, cyber, geopolitical risks, ESG and more.
One of the sessions at Interos’ 2024 Risk Intelligence Summit will be featuring Paul Nakasone, a retired U.S. Army general who served as commander of U.S. Cyber Command and director of the National Security Agency.
The former Central Security Service chief and seven-time Wash100 awardee will engage in a strategic dialogue with Click Here podcast host and managing editor Dina Temple-Raston to explore how geopolitical factors impact global security and stability.
In addition to General Nakasone, thought leaders from government agencies and companies such as Accenture (NYSE: ACN), Nvidia (Nasdaq: NVDA), Bechtel and L3Harris Technologies (NYSE: LHX) will join panel discussions to share their insights on how to address supply chain risks across various sectors.
Attendees will also get the chance to earn 5.8 Continuing Professional Education credits. Carahsoft will administer the CPE certification at the summit. Click here to know more about the CPE credits.
Register now to join the Interos Risk Intelligence Summit on Oct. 29 in Washington, D.C., to connect with decision-makers across sectors and learn how to make the right supply chain risk investments in today’s risk environment.
HomeContract AwardsState Department OKs UAE’s Proposed $1.2B Purchase of GMLRS, ATACMS Munitions
The State Department has cleared a potential $1.2 billion foreign military sales request from the United Arab Emirates for Guided Multiple Launch Rocket Systems, Army Tactical Missile Systems, related equipment and support services.
The Defense Security Cooperation Agency said Friday Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) will serve as the prime contractor in the proposed FMS deal, which covers 259 GMLRS M31A1 unitary pods and 203 ATACMS M57 unitary missiles.
UAE also asked to buy personnel training and training equipment, publications, software development support, program and technical support, U.S. government and contractor engineering assistance and logistics services.
The FMS request will enable the Middle Eastern country to enhance its capability to counter current and future threats and improve interoperability with the U.S. and other partners.
To execute the proposed transaction, the U.S. should deploy four government and four contractor representatives to UAE for a period of 10 days to support the stockpile reliability program and software equipment training efforts.
“Seal of the United States Space Force” by the United States Space Force, Licensed under Public Domain
HomeNewsSpace Force Seeks Proposals for Radar Missions Support IDIQ
The U.S. Space Force has begun soliciting offers for an indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract to provide radar, computer and communications support for the service branch’s missile warning, missile defense and space domain awareness efforts worldwide.
According to a solicitation published Saturday, the IDIQ contract covers non-personal operations, maintenance and support services for the radar missions of USSF and Space Operations Command at six geographically separated units.
Those six GSUs are the Cape Cod Space Force Station in Massachusetts in Massachusetts, Beale Air Force Base in California, Cheyenne Mountain SFS in Colorado, Pituffik Space Base in Greenland, Clear SFS in Alaska and Royal Air Force Fylingdales in England.
Proposals are due Dec. 11.
IDIQ Contract Scope
Mission and service areas of the contract include radar operations support, system upgrades and modifications, radar maintenance, mission computer maintenance, technical assistance, site or installation physical security, simulation trainers, training development, exercises and testing support, military satellite communications, communications-electronics, Secret Internet Protocol Router Network, Non-Classified Internet Protocol Router Network and Joint World-Wide Intelligence Communications System.
The contract may also direct vendors to provide environmental, occupational health, civil engineering, vehicle and traffic management, medical and public health, lodging management, information management, operational security and support for transition activities.
The military branch requires security classification up to the Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information level to support site Sensitive Compartmentalized Information Facility and communications requirements.
Activity is constantly moving across and into the theater of the Middle East and central Asia, with sizable impacts for global security and global commerce. There are countless “ripple effects” from this area, such as Iranian drones that have appeared on battlefields in Ukraine. To manage such a complex and expansive situation, partnerships and international coalitions are non-negotiable — “not a ‘nice to have,’ but a ‘need to have,’” says Schuyler Moore, chief technology officer of U.S. Central Command. Moore, who is also a Wash100 Award winner, gave the morning keynote address at the Potomac Officers Club’s 2024 GovCon International Summit on Thursday.
The threat in the Middle East, Moore relayed, is distinct from what it was 20, 10 or even five years ago. Where once it was a place seemingly defined by “under-trained, under-resourced … ratag militia groups” who were “fundamentally limited by a ceiling,” countries like Iran now possess sophisticated technological skills that have produced ballistic missile capabilities and a bevy of unmanned systems.
“It would be a mistake to underestimate the quality and scope of technology and its impact on security both for the region and the global community. There are tactics, techniques and procedures and technologies that are being sharpened on the stone of this region that we have to keep an eye on,” Moore warned.
National security will be the driving focus of the Potomac Officers Club’s next event: the 2024 Homeland Security Summit. Guest speakers include the executive director, the chief strategy officer and the chief privacy officer of CISA; the chief technology officer of the Transportation Security Agency; and the deputy chief AI officer of Customs and Border Protection, among many others! Save the date—Nov. 13—and secure your spot today.
The U.S. needs to retain its willingness to sell and share technologies with other nations, because if we don’t provide those opportunities, nations may look to other manufacturers, like China, which could have catastrophic effects, Moore suggested.
However, with software in particular, aggressive monitoring and maintenance must occur when partnering and sharing with allies. Moore used the metaphor of building a different restaurant to accommodate the various “allergies” of these different collaborators. She described a situation that is extremely siloed, not just between the DOD and its global network but amongst the DOD and federal government itself.
“We do not operate on a single network. We have multiple networks across the Pentagon and across the other combat commands that sometimes talk to one another, sometimes don’t. And so we are dealing with our own separation of networks in addition to this challenge of having networks that multiple partners can access. So understanding that we would like to move in the direction of having more efficiency and more consolidation of those networks is an end state that we’d like to get to,” Moore underlined.
Luckily, Moore has one specific solution that she aimed right at the room of government contractors at the event.
“We ask industry to increasingly think about this as you build your software applications to understand that we would like to be able to use as consolidated and as efficient a number of kitchen tools as possible. And you can facilitate that by building in those attribute-based access controls into your software applications that will allow us to be more successful and use your tools more easily done online,” she said.
Even this, though, will not quite be enough. Moore raised that organizing data is going to be one of the most challenging yet important tasks for those building a more unified, communicative and efficient network. In order for “releasability” of information to be functional and effective, the data has to be labeled and sorted correctly.
This involves approaching large datasets with some nuance: too often, the CENTCOM CTO said, officials will just slap a label of “no foreign” on a large dataset when parts of it could be fair game.
“As soon as we do that, we are cutting off a door that might allow for better partnership down the road. So we must, as a community, look back at the data that we already have as a department and think about how we methodically move through,” Moore oriented.
Get in on the industry-government collaborative action. Learn about ways to enable the mission of DHS at the 2024 Homeland Security Summit. It will be rich with keynotes, panel discussions and opportunities for one-on-one interaction with peers, competitors and decision-makers.
