July 28 2023

1B IRS win for IBM, AI makes campaigns deceptive, no more IRS home visits, tons of POTUS nominations, 6 cloud computing companies, Google exec joins AFRL as CIO

QUICK HITS

  • You're missing out if all you do is respond to RFPs on SAM: You can win sole source awards based on responses submitted a year ago.

  • 6 cloud computing companies reshaping the industry landscape: See how they have been harnessing the power of cloud technology.

  • Missile threats are now more than just theoretical: Here are some realistic solutions to the threats playing out in real-time.

  • Analyzing the prime-sub relationship: While it’s mainly healthy and positive, there’s also some room for improvement.

TRIVIA

DEFENSE & AEROSPACE

Despite congressional fury, DOD official defends ditching multi-million MyTravel system.

The DOD decided to scrap its new multi-million dollar travel management system because of very low adoption rate, as well as slower than anticipated return to travel after the COVID-19 pandemic, a DOD official recently told a testy group of House lawmakers. Read more

Advanced semiconductors' modular chiplets are making kinetic platforms smart.

“Advanced microelectronics enable our troops with an advantage by making possible adaptive secure communications, electronic warfare, and long-range weapon systems, just to name a few,” said the DOD's CTO. "To stay ahead, we need reliable access to secure microelectronics to meet our current and future systems requirements.” Read more

UFO witnesses recount other-worldly events, but an investigating government office doesn't bite.

Three witnesses to unidentified aerial phenomena told Congress about objects performing maneuvers beyond what any known aircraft could achieve. But the wide-ranging testimony gave the stage to uncorroborated accusations of a massive government cover-up -- and even theories about interdimensionality. Read more

ICYMI Snippets

Defense Contract Awards

Follow the Defense Leaders

Defense Job Openings

  • NAVSEA needs a Director, Subsea and Seabed Warfare.

  • USMC seeks a Director, Commandant of the Marine Corps Office of Net Assessment.

Daily Funny

…because Shark Week is awesome.

INTEL COMMUNITY

Geospatial intelligence startup Kleos Space files for bankruptcy.

Kleos Space, a startup that operates signals-intelligence satellites, has run out of cash and will file for bankruptcy. The company’s financier informed Kleos Space that it will no longer extend additional credit, according to a spokesman for Kleos Space. Read more

3 ways a tech revolution may impact the IC.

To meet these three challenges and succeed in the competition with China, the intelligence community needs to reimagine how it takes new technologies from concept to creation to implementation at scale. Read more

ICYMI Snippets

CIVILIAN

OIG: FEMA fumbled distribution of COVID medical supplies, equipment.

Although FEMA worked with its strategic partners to deliver medical supplies and equipment, an OIG audit found that the agency did not use the Logistics Supply Chain Management System (LSCMS), its system of record for managing the distribution process, to track about 30 percent of the critical medical resources shipped, as required. Read more

TSA pay increase brings salaries in line with federal workforce.

The new pay scale instituted by TSA this month mirrors the General Schedule wage system used across much of the federal government. The increases were funded under the homeland security appropriations bill and included funding for the pay raises starting in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2023. Some employees got as much as a 31% boost. Read more

IRS announces the end of unannounced visits from revenue officers.

In the four months since his Senate confirmation, the IRS's commissioner has been on a listening tour, talking to employees, the union representing employees, citizens, and anyone else who will talk to him. One of the constant challenges he heard was around the safety of IRS revenue officers and agents who were conducting unannounced home visits. Read more

ICYMI Snippets

Civilian Contracts Awards

Follow Civilian Leaders

  • 5 industry leaders join Bluestone Advisory Board as inaugural members.

  • POTUS’s whole lotta nominees: National Cyber Director, Under Secretary for Defense Policy, SSA leader, Chief Financial Officers for USDA, US Coord. for Int’l Communications and Info Policy, Ambassador to Burkina Faso, and more.

  • Oak Ridge National Laboratory appoints a new director.

Civilian Job Openings

  • NASA needs a Director, Exploration Architecture Integration Science Directorate.

  • The Office of the Secretary of the Interior needs a CFO.

  • TSA seeks an Assistant Federal Security Director for Screening.

M&A CORNER

NewSpring to create intel platform company with Bridge Core buy.

NewSpring Holdings has bought Bridge Core for an undisclosed sum as part of a strategy to establish a full-spectrum company focused on meeting the technology needs of the U.S. intelligence community. Read more

SHOWER THOUGHTS 🚿

Is AI going to make future political campaigns more deceptive?

Campaigns are now rapidly embracing AI for composing and producing ads and donor solicitations. The results are impressive: Democratic campaigns found that donor letters written by AI were more effective than letters written by humans at writing personalized text that persuades recipients to click and send donations. But there are fears that AI will make politics more deceptive than ever. Read more

Is it possible for ChatGPT to become dumb?

AI models don’t always improve in accuracy over time, a recent Stanford study shows—a big potential turnoff for the Pentagon as it experiments with large language models like ChatGPT and tries to predict how adversaries might use such tools. Read more

If you’re going to the south pole, go to the south pole.

Fifty-four years after we first set foot on our lunar neighbor, the moon continues to beckon. But make no mistake; as we work (finally) to return to the moon within this decade, we should be moving forward, not back. Read more

TRIVIA ANSWER: B

Generally, US Fish and Wildlife Services manages land and freshwater species, while NOAA Fisheries is responsible for marine and anadromous species. (Source)

Here are some NOAA Fisheries shark facts!

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