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Cost Estimating NewsBrief: February 14, 2025
Johns Hopkins APL to Enhance Space Security With New Program
(ExecutiveGov) The Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory has unveiled a new digital engineering program meant to enable U.S. space agencies to protect satellites and other systems critical to national security. The APL said Monday its new modeling, simulation and analysis tool utilizes model-based systems engineering and digital engineering that allows users to simulate responses of national security systems to different space events. The simulations enable them to gain insights of the strengths and weaknesses of the system and use them to strengthen the agency’s space security infrastructure. Read More
Space Force doubles down on acquisition reform ahead of DoD moves
(Breaking Defense) The Space Force is “aggressively” pushing forward with acquisition reforms put in place under the Biden administration to fast-track new capabilities and cut costs — including rapidly moving toward the use of fixed-price contracts and cracking down on contractor performance, according to a senior official. The business of acquisitions is to deliver and integrate warfighter capability as fast as possible, and that’s it,” Maj. Gen. Stephen Purdy, acting head of the Air Force’s space acquisition shop, told the annual Defense and Intelligence Space Conference on Tuesday. Read More
Financial Management: Overview of Federal Payment Process
(U.S. Government Accountability Office) We testified about federal payment processes and systems related to the General Fund, and our knowledge of audit activities over these systems. This testimony is based on our recurring audits of the General Fund. Treasury’s Fiscal Service manages the General Fund systems that are critical to the government’s financial infrastructure. For example, these systems disburse payments to American people and businesses; collect taxes and other revenue; and borrow the funds necessary to run the federal government. In FY 2022, $23.2 trillion flowed into the General Fund and $22.8 trillion flowed out. Read More
Army CIO Issues Cross Domain Solution as a Service Policy
(ExecutiveGov) Leonel Garciga, the U.S. Army’s chief information officer and a 2025 Wash100 awardee, has released a memorandum outlining the policy for using Cross Domain Solution as a Service, or CDSaaS, across the military branch. CDSaaS is a cloud computing-based platform that cloud service providers offer as a service to government organizations to facilitate the transfer of information across two or more different classification domains. The transfer can be done from high-to-low, low-to-high or in any combination needed to meet mission requirements. Read More
DOD Calls for Review of SDA’s Acquisition Approach, Independent Status
(ExecutiveGov) Breaking Defense reported that the Department of Defense’s acquisition office has issued a memo calling for a review of whether the Space Development Agency should remain an independent entity within the U.S. Space Force. According to the Jan. 31 memo obtained by the publication, Steven Morani, who is performing the duties of under secretary for acquisition and sustainment at DOD, asks the Department of the Air Force to establish an independent review team, or IRT, to assess whether SDA’s acquisition approach and organizational performance meet the needs of warfighters. Read More
Coast Guard workforce lacks maritime cyber expertise, watchdog says
(NextGov/FCW) A government oversight report out Tuesday said that major foreign adversaries like Russia and China pose a significant risk to the cybersecurity posture of the U.S. maritime ecosystem and noted that the Coast Guard does not have adequately educated personnel ready to tackle those threats. The Coast Guard “has not fully addressed leading practices to ensure its cyber workforce has the competencies needed to address [maritime transportation systems] cybersecurity risks,” said the report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office. Read More
A different lens on Europe’s defense budgets
(McKinsey & Company) European NATO countries’ defense spending has long fallen short of the organization’s target of 2 percent of GDP, set in 2014 In the decade since, it has averaged only 1.6 percent. However, geopolitical tensions have caused European NATO countries to reevaluate their defense capabilities. European defense spending is on the rise, standing at an average of 2.2 percent of GDP in 2024. Estonia and Latvia have announced commitments to spend 5.0 percent of GDP, and Poland plans to reach 4.7 percent in 2025. Other countries are publicly discussing increasing their defense spending to 3 percent or even as much as 5 percent. Read More
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