GovCon Wire Your Direct Source for Government Contracting News

After 20 years in the government contracting media business, I sense personally how much the industry mourns the passing of the true GovCon titan in Jack London of CACI. The ever vigilant Jack London spoke the words, “The world is a dangerous place“ with a clear sense of purpose. Because of people like Jack, a leader of character, the world is indeed a safer place.

Northrop Grumman (NYSE: NOC) has secured a potential five-year, $3.6 billion contract to develop, test and integrate an airborne communications relay system for the U.S. Air Force. The company will also help the service branch operate and maintain payloads and ground stations of the Battlefield Airborne Communications Node, the Department of Defense said Thursday.

Traviss Green, former director of regional sales at McAfee (Nasdaq: MCFE), has joined Millennium to serve as chief operating officer and oversee the business operations, growth strategy development and executive management team of the Arlington, Virginia-based firm.

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has launched a campaign to promote the use of cybersecurity tools and best practices to increase ransomware threat awareness across the public and private sectors.

President Joe Biden has ordered federal agencies to work with the government's COVID-19 response coordinator in efforts to collect, publish and share pandemic-related data and address disinformation or misinformation campaigns regarding the public health crisis.

Jeff Owen, formerly a managing director at Accenture (NYSE: ACN), has joined technical consulting firm Steampunk as vice president of operations, according to a LinkedIn post Saturday. He brings more than two decades of experience in areas such as digital transformation, internet of things implementation, network planning and supply chain business processes.

The U.S. Air Force expects to release a solicitation for the third iteration of a potential five-year, $950M contract vehicle for cybersecurity research and development support in mid-late February. The service’s program management/technical team will conduct private meetings virtually from Jan. 25 to Feb. 12 to provide vendors an opportunity to share their capabilities and ask questions about the upcoming request for proposals for the Agile Cyber Technology 3 contract.

Richard Smith, a former CACI International (NYSE: CACI) vice president responsible for Department of Homeland Security portfolio, has been appointed to a similar position at ManTech International (Nasdaq: MANT).

Congress has approved a waiver to facilitate the confirmation of Lloyd Austin, a retired U.S. Army general, as defense secretary under the administration of President Joe Biden, Defense News reported Thursday.

Kim Koster, vice president of GovCon Strategy at Unanet, co-author of the 2020 GAUGE Report and GovCon Expert, has published her latest article as a member of Executive Mosaic’s GovCon Expert program on Friday. "As much flux and uncertainty as government contractors have endured during the unrelenting coronavirus crisis, one thing they can be sure of in 2021 is that their forecasting chops will be tested," said Koster.