EM’s Weekly Roundup: Robert O’Brien Appointed National Security Adviser, POC Announces Unmanned Systems in the Future Flight Forum, Major Contract Awards for AECOM, Altamira, Booz Allen, Leidos, General Dynamics, NCI, Novetta, SAIC & Weekly Top 10 Stories

President Trump announced on Wednesday that he’s selected Robert O’Brien to be the new National Security Adviser for the White House. O’Brien succeeds John Bolton, who left Trump’s administration last week. In his role, O’Brien will tackle everything from immigration policy to heightened tensions with Iran. He will be responsible for consolidating sensitive information and presenting President Trump with options. “We’ve got a number of challenges but there’s a great team in place,” he said. “I look forward to working with them and working with the president to keep America safe and continue to rebuild our military,” O’Brien said on Wednesday.

POC Announces Unmanned Systems in the Future Flight

I would also like to mention that Potomac Officers Club will host the Unmanned Systems in the Future Flight Forum on November 19th. The forum will feature leaders across U.S. services will discuss the future battlespace and the critical role unmanned systems will play. Topics to be covered include:

• What will the battlespace look like?
• What systems and capabilities will be necessary in the future “family of systems”?
• How are technologies such as AI, 5G, and edge computing, are powering the future of unmanned systems?
• How the services are working together?
• What has been achieved so far?
• What works and what doesn’t? (Case studies)
• What are or will be major challenges. How can industry help?

Please join Potomac Officers Club on November 19th for the Unmanned Systems in the Future Flight Forum. Register for the event right here.

This Week’s Major Contract Awards

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services awarded 17 positions on a potential $5 billion indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity (IDIQ) contract for technical assistance and analytics support to federal healthcare delivery models and demonstration efforts, CMS reported Monday.

CMS said Thursday in a FedBizOpps notice the agency will provide a total guaranteed amount of $25,500 to vendors holding spots on the second iteration of its Research, Measurement, Assessment, Design and Analysis (RMADA 2) IDIQ.

RMADA 2 contractors will help the agency design, implement and operate models authorized under the Patient Protection & Affordable Care Act and other health reform laws.

Other potential tasks include programmatic technical and environmental analyses; application development, progress monitoring; data collection, analysis reporting; rapid cycle evaluation feedback; and learning system implementation.

The awardees are:

• Abt Associates
• Actuarial Research Corp.
• American Institutes for Research
• Arbor Research Collaborative for Health
• Booz Allen Hamilton (NYSE: BAH)
• Deloitte Consulting​​​​​​​
• Econometrica​​​​​​​
• General Dynamics’ (NYSE: GD) information technology unit
• IBM’ (NYSE: IBM) Watson Health business​​​​​​​
• Impaq International
• LMI​​​​​​​
• Mathematica Policy Research​​​​​​​
• NORC​​​​​​​ at the University of Chicago
• RAND Corp.​​​​​​​
• RELI Group
• RTI International
• The Lewin Group

USAID Awards 10 Companies Spots on $2.5 Billion Contract

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has awarded 10 companies positions on the unrestricted portion of a potential five-year, $2.5 billion contract to support U.S. foreign policy objectives by helping USAID’s office of transition initiatives advance democracy and stabilization efforts in countries facing political crises.

Other potential tasks include programmatic technical and environmental analyses, application development, progress monitoring, data collection, analysis and reporting, rapid cycle evaluation feedback and learning system implementation.

The awardees are:

• AECOM (NYSE: ACM)
• Chemonics International
• Creative Associates International
• Crown Agents USA
• DAI Global
• Development Transformations
• Dexis Consulting Group
• Management Systems International
• Palladium International
• The Kaizen Co.

U.S. Air Force Awards 8 Positions on $250 IDIQ Contract

In addition, the U.S. Air Force awarded eight positions on a potential 10-year, $950 million contract to provide technical and analytical support to the Secretary of the Air Force’s Concepts, Development and Management (SAF/CDM) Office.

The service branch received 10 offers for the multiple-award, IDIQ contract and will initially obligate $5,000 through each contractor’s first task order.

SAF/CDM sought industry partners to address workload requirements in its efforts to study new concepts, develop emerging opportunities and manage high-priority initiatives to equip the Air Force with technology platforms.

Scope of work covers network and enterprise architectures, advanced analytics, applied technology and technology investments, concepts and analysis, research and development, cross-functional support to complex national security challenges and subject matter expertise.

The awardees are:

• Altamira Technologies
• Booz Allen Hamilton (NYSE: BAH)
• Deloitte Consulting
• Fulcrum IT Services, now part of Huntington Ingalls Industries (NYSE: HII)
• ManTech International (Nasdaq: MANT)
• MCR Federal
• Novetta
• Science Applications International Corp. (NYSE: SAIC)

Leidos Recieves $428M Task Order from U.S. Army

Elsewhere, Leidos received a potential five-year, $428 million task order on Tuesday to deliver aircraft intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance services to the U.S. Army.

The work will include sustainment, operations, program management, engineering and cybersecurity support services for the Army’s product director, airborne reconnaissance low. The task order also validates the company’s industry partnerships and infrastructure investments in airborne platforms operation.

NCI Secures $270M Contract to Support DISA Joint Service Provider

NCI Information Systems also secured a four-year, $269.9 million contract from the Washington Headquarters Services to provide information technology support to the Defense Information Systems Agency’s Joint Service Provider.

The company intends to help JSP users understand the organization’s current operating environment as well as apply technology platforms and best practices from industry to simplify operations.