Leidos' Gerry Fasano: DoD Acquisition Pace Quickens With Funding Boost

Gerry Fasano, president of Leidos‘ (NYSE: LDOS) defense group and a 2020 Wash100 award winner, told Government Matters in a video interview posted Tuesday about the Department of Defense’s focus on speed of acquisition and its impact on government contracting.

“We hear from service acquisition executives the need for speed. … We see the pace of government, it’s clear that it’s quickening and that quickening pace is reflected in the budget. 2019 was a very strong budget year … and 2020 is an extension of that and with that strong budgets, we had seen an explosion in contracting.”

When asked about the company’s efforts to facilitate that need for speed, Fasano cited the importance of investment. He said having more budget visibility provides the company an opportunity to invest in several areas.

“We see the National Defense Strategy is reflected in the budget so it’s much easier of a business case for us … to invest in those key areas that customers are asking. We’ve done that in the maritime domain, … new acoustic sensors. We did the same thing in the airborne domain, lots of investments in AI/ML and our software factors,” he added.

The Department of the Navy awarded Leidos the potential eight-year, $7.7B Next Generation Enterprise Network Recompete contract for base network services in early February and Fasano talked about how the service helped create an environment for offerors to bring innovation through their proposals.

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