December 6, 2024

Fewer Veterans in Congress

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The number of veterans in Congress has been steadily dropping in recent election cycles, but the legislative branch’s veteran count could take an even bigger hit this year, reports Military Times. Only 183 of the 865 major-party candidates up for Congressional election this year have military experience. Recent data shows those figures could drop the total number of veterans in the House and Senate to less than 100 for the first time since the 1950s, when World War II veterans began running for office. The current Congress has only 106 lawmakers with military experience.

The Department of Justice is restructuring its national security prosecution team to address cyber attacks and the threat of sensitive technology ending up in the wrong hands, reports NewsDaily. The focus change recognizes that national security threats have broadened and become more technologically savvy since the 9/11 attacks.

Lockheed confirmed this week that it has delivered just 22 of 36 F-35 fighter jets promised to the Pentagon this year, but has a plan to complete work on the remaining 14 aircraft over the next two months, reports Reuters. The contractor could lose incentive fees if it misses the delivery target.

US defense and intelligence agencies are increasingly looking to the cloud to store, organize and process operational data critical for tactical decision-making, according to FederalTimes. As the intelligence community embraces cloud options, they are also working with DoD decision-makers to determine the best cloud uses to support ground operations.

The USS George H.W. Bush was relieved in the Arabian Gulf by the carrier USS Carl Vinson over the weekend and should soon head home, according to PilotOnline.com. The Carl Vinson will take over support of maritime security operations, strike operations in Iraq and Syria and theater security cooperation efforts.

With the Pentagon and Congress offering no budgetary clarity for the future, defense contractors need to seek opportunities in the international market, according to DefenseNews. The US defense marketplace is saturated with companies after more than a decade of growth, but emerging defense markets don’t have the industrial base to support their requirements.

The National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence awarded the first federally-funded research and development center (FFRDC) contract designed  to enhance the nation’s cybersecurity, reports C4ISR&Networks. The new FFRDC will be managed by non-profit MITRE Corporation with assistance from the University System of Maryland. The group will organize best practices and security strategies to work across platforms. Plans are to work with commercial stakeholders, government and academia.

Many believe November election results will produce a political situation that ensures budget cuts, but Forbes provides four reasons why federal spending may actually increase. A new Republican majority in the Senate combined with the existing GOP majority in the House suggests federal spending reductions but factors including Ebola and increasing military demands could drive increases.

DARPA awarded a contract to Aurora Flight Sciences for development of its SideArm launch and recovery system, reports C4ISR&Networks. SideArm builds on Aurora’s work on the Tactically Enhanced Reconnaissance Node (TERN), which aims at configuring small ships to act as UAV launch and recovery sites.

Dell will provide a Microsoft enterprise-as-a-service cloud email system for Navy reservists, according to Defense One. The Navy says the cloud email pilot will save hundreds of millions of dollars as an alternative to the service’s Next Generation Enterprise Network, known as NGEN.

Tapestry Solutions, a Boeing Co., San Diego, California, is being awarded a $14,074,384 cost-plus-fixed-fee, cost-plus-firm-fixed-price contract for the procurement of Navy Tactical Mobile (TacMobile) Systems engineering, test and integration. The TacMobile program is an Acquisition Category III program of record that implements an evolutionary acquisition approach to meeting operational requirements through sequential integration of mature commercial-off-the-shelf and government-off-the-shelf capabilities into a functional whole. This contract contains options, which if exercised, will bring the contract value to $70,933,134. Work will be performed in Charleston South Carolina (66 percent); Patuxent River, Maryland (32.5 percent); and Jacksonville, Florida (1.5 percent). Work is expected to be completed by Oct. 20, 2019. No funds will be obligated at the time of award. Funds will be obligated via incremental funding modifications issued to the contractor. This contract was competitively procured as a full and open solicitation via the Federal Business Opportunities website via the SPAWAR e-Commerce Central website, with three offers received. The Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command, San Diego, California, is the contracting activity (N00039-15-C-0001).

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