Leidos (NYSE: LDOS) closed its $215M cash acquisition of 1901 Group, a provider of managed information technology and cloud platforms in public and private sectors, a month after it announced the transaction.

Accenture Federal Services will use artificial intelligence and machine learning to accelerate analysis of geospatial imagery under a potential four-year contract with the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity. AFS will work with Element84, I2R, Boston University, Cornell University, MIT, North Carolina State University, South Dakota State University, University of Tennessee and University of California-Riverside to study changes in the earth’s surface caused by climate change, urban growth and other factors under IARPA’s Space-based Machine Automated Recognition Technique program.

President-elect Joe Biden has proposed a potential $1.9T COVID-19 pandemic relief package that urges Congress to approve more than $10B in funds to support the modernization and improve the cybersecurity of federal information technology systems and networks, The Hill reported Thursday.

Unmanned aircraft system manufacturing company AeroVironment (Nasdaq: AVAV) has agreed to acquire Arcturus UAV in a cash-and-stock transaction valued at approximately $405M as part of efforts to expand into adjacent segments and broaden UAS portfolio and customer footprint. “We are excited about the opportunities for value creation through our acquisition of Arcturus UAV, which will enable us to accelerate our growth strategy and expand our reach into the more valuable Group 2 and 3 UAS segments,” said Wahid Nawabi, president and CEO of AeroVironment.

The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency has released a draft request for proposals for a potential five-year, $947M follow-on contract to the Emerald program used to procure lifecycle acquisition management, strategic business and financial management support services. A presolicitation notice posted Tuesday says the Clover multiple-award, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract is a total small business set-aside effort that will replace the Emerald program and will have a base ordering period of five years for indefinite delivery requirements task orders.

A state-by-state analysis of Department of Defense spending showed Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT), Boeing (NYSE: BA) and Northrop Grumman (NYSE: NOC) took the first three spots on a list of top 10 contract awardees during fiscal year 2019. The list also includes General Dynamics (NYSE: GD), BAE Systems, Huntington Ingalls Industries (NYSE: HII), Humana (NYSE: HUM), L3 Technologies, which now operates as L3Harris Technologies (NYSE: LHX) after it merged with Harris, Raytheon and United Technologies Corp. Raytheon and UTC merged in April 2020 and the combined entity now runs as Raytheon Technologies (NYSE: RTX).

The General Services Administration will remove from Multiple Award Schedules contracts unmanned aircraft systems and other drones to address potential security risks associated with the use of such devices. The decision does not cover drones approved by the Defense Innovation Unit under the Blue sUAS program, which seeks to provide the Department of Defense and federal agencies with trusted and secure small drones.

The U.S. Air Force has awarded an additional 36 spots on a potential $950M contract to develop and operate systems across the ground, sea, air, cyber, electromagnetic spectrum and cyber domains as part of the Joint All Domain Command and Control program.

The U.S. Navy has issued a new solicitation to expand the current of pool of vendors competing for task orders under the potential 10-year, $50B SeaPort Next Generation contract vehicle for professional services. The service has launched a rolling admissions process for the SeaPort NxG indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract and will accept proposals from new companies through Feb. 12.

Alan Lawrence, vice president of federal at Dell Technologies' (NYSE: DELL) Boomi business, said government agencies should shift their focus from maintaining legacy information technology systems and applications to advancing IT modernization to improve data security, employee and customer engagement and mission outcomes.