Air Force | The Contracting Education Academy

March 16, 2017 By cs

GAO weighs in on the state of federal contracting

Contractors working with major federal agencies delivered $438 billion in products and services in fiscal 2015, a 24 percent decrease from fiscal 2011, according to a wide-ranging roundup from the Government Accountability Office.

The 66-page report titled “Contracting Data Analysis: Assessment of Government-wide Trends” said the drop-off occurred mostly at the Defense Department, which saw contracting go down by 31 percent in that timeframe.

Services contracts have now risen to 60 percent of total government obligations — 50 percent of Pentagon awards and 80 percent of those let by civilian agencies over the past five years, GAO said.

Such services as professional and management support to information technology needs were used most by the Air Force and Army, while the top civilian agencies procuring services (worth at least $10 billion) were the departments of Energy, Health and Human Services, NASA, Homeland Security and Veterans Affairs.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.govexec.com/contracting/2017/03/gao-weighs-state-federal-contracting/136082/

February 6, 2017 By cs

Northrop scratch-built a jet to bid on an Air Force contract — now it’s dropping out

The decision leaves three, or maybe four, potential bidders on the 350-plane T-X program.

Northrop Grumman said it would not bid to build a pilot-training jet for the U.S. Air Force, despite spending more than four years quietly building a plane for the job. That leaves three potential bidders for the 350-aircraft, multibillion-dollar T-X program.

In a short statement, officials with Northrop and its partner BAE Systems said they made the decision after reviewing the Air Force’s parameters for the competition, issued in late December.

“The companies have decided not to submit a proposal for the T-X Trainer program, as it would not be in the best interest of the companies and their shareholders,” Northrop said in a statement.

That announcement was foreshadowed last week when Wes Bush — Northrop chairman, CEO and president — declined to commit to bidding to replace the Air Force’s decades-old T-38 Talon jets, also made by Northrop.

“We are presently assessing the terms presented by [the bidding parameters] to determine whether we see an appropriate business opportunity for us to submit a bid,” Bush said during a quarterly earnings call.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.defenseone.com/business/2017/02/northrop-scratch-built-jet-bid-air-force-contract-now-its-dropping-out/135060

January 4, 2017 By cs

DoD contractor agrees to $4.5 million settlement for alleged False Claim Act violations

Advanced C4 Solutions, Inc. has agreed to pay $4.535 million to the United States to settle allegations that it submitted inflated invoices to the government for work performed at Joint Base Andrews.

andrews-af-base

Advanced C4 Solutions, Inc. is a Florida-based company that was operating as an 8(a) small business certified by the Small Business Administration (SBA). On June 10, 2010, Advanced C4 was awarded a contract to supply project management and labor services for an Air Force technology project. The contract was awarded by the U.S. Navy’s Space and Warfare Systems Command (SPAWAR), which was administering the contract in support of the United States Air Force.

Among other things, the contract required the Advanced C4 to design, construct, and implement certain local area network and wide area network systems that would be utilized by Air Force personnel and other components of the U.S. Armed Forces on Joint Base Andrews in Maryland. The contract required the company to accurately provide invoices to the United States for work performed under the contract, including work by subcontractors. Labor costs were required to be billed according to the job classifications set forth in the contract and the number of labor hours worked by personnel at each job classification. The contract also provided that the Advanced C4 could only utilize pre-approved subcontractors. Pursuant to this provision, the company entered into subcontractor agreements with several entities, one of which was Superior Communication Solutions, Inc. (SCSI).

spawar Advanced C4 Solutions and its subcontractors began work under the SPAWAR contract in June 2010. Andrew Bennett was the Advanced C4’s project manager who was tasked with overseeing the work performed by the company and its subcontractors under the contract. In this capacity, Bennett was responsible for verifying the accuracy of all invoices submitted by subcontractors to the company and, in turn, all the invoices submitted by the company to SPAWAR.

The settlement agreed to on Dec. 28, 2016 resolves allegations that Bennett, while an employee of Advanced C4, knew that SCSI created false invoices that charged for labor hours that were not actually worked, and charged the United States at job classification rates for personnel that did not have the requisite credentials to be billed at those rates, and yet submitted those SCSI invoices to the government for payment anyway. SPAWAR subsequently paid these invoices not knowing they were false.

In related cases, Bennett, of Tampa Florida, James T. Shank, of Perry, Georgia, and a third individual were indicted on federal criminal charges related to their actions in this matter. Bennett and Shank pled guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud for their conduct related to the SPAWAR contract. The third defendant is scheduled for trial beginning on January 30, 2017.

Source: https://www.justice.gov/usao-md/pr/defense-contractor-agrees-4535-million-settlement-alleged-false-claim-act-violations

December 19, 2016 By cs

ATDC graduate wins $18.8 million Air Force contract to prevent, stop, and hunt adversaries

Endgame, a 2010 graduate of the Advanced Technology Development Center’s Signature program and leading endpoint security platform to close the protection gap against advanced attackers, announced it won an $18.8 million contract with the U.S. Air Force to safeguard networks for its elite Cyber Protection Teams.

atdc ATDC is Georgia Tech’s incubator that provides coaching, connections, and a community to foster the development of technology startups in Georgia.

Endgame first deployed its platform to the Air Force in December 2015 to automate the hunt against global attackers. As part of the current agreement, the Air Force will receive Endgame’s endpoint detection and response (EDR) platform to prevent, detect, and hunt for advanced threats to protect critical infrastructure.

“The Air Force is the gold standard for cybersecurity innovation in the United States, and the extension of our partnership proves that the Endgame platform provides significant value for their security teams,” said Nate Fick, CEO of Endgame. “As attacks become more polymorphic, Endgame’s unique ability to anticipate never-before-seen adversary techniques will help the Air Force better prevent, detect, and hunt attackers before they cause damage or loss.”

Today’s attacks are growing increasingly sophisticated, and despite an estimated $75 billion per year spent on security, attackers dwell undetected in networks for an average of 146 days – exposing organizations to massive theft and business disruption. Unfortunately, most security teams are forced to wait for prior threat intelligence – known as indicators of compromise (IOCs) or signatures – to determine whether their systems are infected. This strategy has failed; waiting and searching for known threats leaves organizations vulnerable for too long and leaves them unable to protect themselves and their critical assets.

Endgame’s EDR platform detects attacks at their earliest stage without prior threat intelligence. Endgame developed its methodology by working with organizations running the largest cyber-operations in the world, including the U.S. Department of Defense and intelligence community.

Source: http://atdc.org/news-from-our-companies/endgame-wins-18-8-million-air-force-contract-prevent-stop-hunt-adversaries/

October 28, 2016 By cs

Lockheed’s pitch: Buy our training jet, save taxpayers $1 billion

Lockheed Martin could build new training jets for the U.S. Air Force more quickly than its competitors — enough to save $1 billion over six years, a top company executive said.

bidding-parameters And the service ought to take that into account as it evaluates bids for the $15 billion T-X project, he said.

“What we’re concerned about, frankly, is that the Air Force in their competition right now is not recognizing the value of early delivery or even on-time delivery,” said Rob Weiss, Lockheed executive vice president and general manager of Advanced Development Programs.

Lockheed is running its pursuit of the contract through Weiss’s group, the secretive division better known as the Skunk Works, birthplace of the U-2 spyplane, SR-71 Blackbird, and F-117 stealth fighter.

Here’s how the firm calculates the $1 billion in savings: The Air Force says it wants the first 16 planes ready to train pilots by 2024, but Lockheed says it could deliver the planes three years early. That would allow the Air Force to start getting rid of its T-38 Talon trainers sooner.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.govexec.com/contracting/2016/10/lockheeds-pitch-buy-our-training-jet-save-taxpayers-1-billion/132520

Contractors working with major federal agencies delivered $438 billion in products and services in fiscal 2015, a 24 percent decrease from fiscal 2011, according to a wide-ranging roundup from the Government Accountability Office.

The decision leaves three, or maybe four, potential bidders on the 350-plane T-X program.

Advanced C4 Solutions, Inc. has agreed to pay $4.535 million to the United States to settle allegations that it submitted inflated invoices to the government for work performed at Joint Base Andrews.

Lockheed Martin could build new training jets for the U.S. Air Force more quickly than its competitors — enough to save $1 billion over six years, a top company executive said.

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