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Weekly Roundup January 9 – January 13 2017: More Clues to Defense’s 2017 Market Picture & more


Weekly Roundup

January 9 – January 13 2017

A Note From Our President & Founder Jim Garrettson

This first full week back to work for us after the Christmas and New Year’s holiday season also happens to represent the last one before President-elect Donald Trump takes office next Friday.

In the meantime, we also continue the “Appointment Watch” over who will be charged to lead our country’s largest departments and agencies over the next four years.

We learned of current Veterans Affairs health leader David Shulkin’s nomination to lead the VA this week and also followed James Mattis’ testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee on his potential new role as defense secretary.

As observers widely expected, Mattis fielded some questions about Trump’s public criticisms of the F-35 fighter jet and other statements — much of it via Twitter of course — about the costs of major defense programs.

Even with that cost focus, all signals from the Trump transition team point to a military buildup and brought analysts to a near-consensus that the defense industrial base has newfound opportunity.

In particular, Deloitte’s latest “Global Aerospace and Defense Sector Outlook” issued this weeksays defense companies worldwide appear poised to see a return to revenue growth this year after multiple years of declines.

Deloitte expects defense sub-sector sales to expand 3.2 percent in 2017 on increases in U.S. military spending with expectations of a Trump administration’s heightened focus on strengthening the military and rising global tensions.

Those geopolitical hot spots also could help spur a “record year” for U.S. foreign military sales agreements with the Middle East a primary driver of this growth, Deloitte said.

On a final note, this weekend also features the scheduled launch of Iridium’s much-anticipated satellite batch barring any technical issues at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

SpaceX will first try to send the first 10 “NEXT” satellites into space Saturday and again Sunday to start a seven-launch program toward an eventual 81-strong, second-generation constellation for public and private sector customers around the globe.

We spoke with Iridium Matt Desch in the buildup to the launch for his perspective on what NEXT has to offer for users both in the government arena and commercial worlds.

Please read our conversation with Desch here before or even while you follow the launch.

THIS WEEK’S TOP 10 GOVCON STORIES

Engility Sells USAID Business to Research Triangle Institute
International Resources Group Ltd. carries out training and systems engineering work for USAID.
LLR Partners Buys Automation & Cyber Hunting Unit ‘BluVector’ From Northrop
BluVector was formerly known as Acuity Solutions and adopted the current name to reflect its flagship technology platform.
CSRA Holds Hacking Competition for Employees in Facet of ‘Customer Zero’ Strategy
CTO Yogesh Khanna and Homeland Security VP Seth Abrams briefed reporters at the company’s headquarters during its “Hack-A-Thon.”
Dawn Scalici on Thomson Reuters’ Government Market Strategy & Data Priorities at Agencies
Scalici describes to us the global data company’s data analytics collaborations with agencies and her transition from government to industry.
Hughes’ Rick Lober on Commercial Satcom Trends Agencies & Company’s Airbus Partnership
Lober also offers an outlook on the evolution of public-private collaboration in satcom as part of this Q&A with us.
IBM’s Keith Salzman Cites Govt Programs That Aim to Help Address Substance Abuse Disorders
Salzman details efforts by federal agencies such as the departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs, plus the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
ManTech to Help Test Navy’s Weapons, Combat Systems Under $87M Task Order
Dan Keefe, head of the company’s MCS group, said ManTech will continue its partnership with the Naval Surface Warfare Center’s Dahlgren Division.
Belcan Buys Kemtah Group in Govt IT Services Expansion Push
Albuquerque, New Mexico-based Kemtah joins Belcan five months after the latter’s acquisition of Intercom Consulting & Federal Systems.
DoD OKs Sale of Raytheon SM-6 Missile to International Customers
News of the decision comes almost two years after Raytheon rolled out the first full-rate production Standard Missile-6.
CenturyLink to Implement Additional Network Services Under DoD Fiber Optic Net Contract
Erich Sanchack, CenturyLink federal lead, said the company aims to help the military move forward on technology implementation efforts.

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