defense contractors | The Contracting Education Academy

June 30, 2020 By cs

Pentagon requesting ‘lower double digit billions’ to support COVID-hit defense contractors

The U.S. Department of Defense’s chief purchasing officer said the Pentagon has filed a budget request in the “lower double-digit billions” to support defense contractors disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic.

Ellen Lord, the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment, said the Pentagon submitted the multibillion-dollar request to the White House Office of Management and Budget in order to sustain the hiring and workforce levels of key defense contractors.

When asked during a press conference to provide a more precise estimate of the “lower double-digit billions” Lord did not provide further specifics.

The funding request, made under Section 3610 of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, authorizes the federal government to reimburse Federal contractors for paid leave where they have been sickened by the coronavirus, or where conditions have required healthy workers to stay home.

Keep reading this article at: https://americanmilitarynews.com/2020/06/pentagon-requesting-lower-double-digit-billions-to-support-covid-hit-defense-contractors/

The Contracting Education Academy at Georgia Tech has established a webpage where all contract-related developments related to the coronavirus (COVID-19) are summarized. Find the page at: https://contractingacademy.gatech.edu/coronavirus-information-for-contracting-officers-and-contractors/

February 6, 2014 By AMK

Defense contractors spread the wealth … by subcontracting to one another

When major U.S. defense companies aren’t fiercely competing for Pentagon contracts to build planes, tanks, and ships, they’re often working for another big customer: each other.

The graphic below, developed by Bloomberg Government, shows the relationships. To see a full size version, please visit: http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-01-30/defense-contractors-give-a-lot-of-business-to-each-other.

December 26, 2013 By AMK

Budget deal could cause mergers and acquisitions in Defense sector

A U.S. budget agreement making its way through Congress could set off the most robust series of mergers and acquisitions in the aerospace and defense sectors in years, industry leaders and experts say.

The two-year agreement is expected to reassure contractors on government spending and unleash pent-up demand for deals, according to analysts.

The budget deal will halve the $52 billion in automatic spending cuts facing the Pentagon in fiscal 2014 and would lower mandatory reductions in projected spending in 2015.

“It gives our customers in the U.S. government further certainty for their budget decisions,” Marillyn Hewson, chief executive of Lockheed Martin Corp, said in an interview with Reuters.

“It does give us more certainty and helps us in our planning process,” she said, noting that the company is always looking for acquisitions to tap new markets or round out existing business areas.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2013/12/17/business/17reuters-aerospace-mergers-analysis.html?hp&_r=2&&pagewanted=all

December 6, 2013 By AMK

Pentagon tightens cybersecurity rules for defense contractors

The Pentagon has approved new rules that would require defense contractors to tighten their computer security procedures and to report any cyber intrusions that resulted in the loss of controlled technical information.

An amendment to defense acquisition rules published on Nov. 18, 2013 would require defense contractors to incorporate established information security standards on their unclassified networks and to report any intrusions that result in loss of technical information on those networks, a Pentagon statement said.

The statement said the rules would apply to all new contracts that use or generate unclassified but valuable technical information, such as data concerning defense system requirements, designs, engineering, production and manufacturing capabilities.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/11/19/us-usa-defense-cyber-idUSBRE9AI17O20131119

September 4, 2013 By AMK

Pentagon buying official forecasts much tougher 2014 for defense contractors

The Pentagon’s acquisition staff is preparing to delay and potentially cancel programs in the coming weeks as it readies for another year of significant budget cuts, the military’s top procurement official said in an interview last week.

Frank Kendall, the undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics, said he’s already holding off on some spending.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen next year, and I don’t want to make major commitments to contracts that we may terminate once we get into [ fiscal 20]14,” he said. “We’re going to have to make some hard choices, I think, in the next few weeks about what we do with some of our programs.”

Kendall said that he expects the defense industry to bear a disproportionate impact from the automatic spending reductions, known as sequestration, in the coming year.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/capitalbusiness/pentagon-buying-official-forecasts-much-tougher-2014-for-defense-contractors/2013/08/30/a8ae5dce-0e6b-11e3-bdf6-e4fc677d94a1_story.html

The U.S. Department of Defense’s chief purchasing officer said the Pentagon has filed a budget request in the “lower double-digit billions” to support defense contractors disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic.

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