Tag Archive for: contract

General Dynamics’ cloud contract with NGA moves forward after Leidos withdraws protest

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WASHINGTON — The National Geospatial Intelligence Agency will begin a major upgrade of its cloud computing infrastructure after a protest over a $4.5 billion cloud-services contract was withdrawn by one of the competitors. 

General Dynamics Information Technology on Dec. 8 was selected for a 10-year deal to modernize NGA’s cloud platform and data centers. The award was challenged by another competitor, Leidos, which filed a protest Dec. 28 with the Government Accountability Office.

General Dynamics on March 18 announced it won the contract. According to GAO, the protest filed by Leidos was withdrawn March 16, allowing NGA and General Dynamics to move forward with the work. Bid protests are common on government contracts this size, especially in the highly competitive cloud market. 

A component of the U.S. intelligence community, NGA analyzes satellite imagery and other geospatial data for the U.S. military, allies and homeland security agencies. 

NGA first solicited bids for the cloud services contract in 2019. The work covers a wide range of services in support of geospatial intelligence users, including the integration of commercial clouds, data center design and operations, mobile secure wireless across multiple networks and agency locations worldwide. Much of the new technology will support NGA’s new campus in St. Louis known as NGA West. The agency’s headquarters is in Northern Virginia in the Washington, D.C. metro area.

The $1.7 billion facility in north St. Louis has been under construction since November 2019 and NGA expects it will be open for business in 2025.

General Dynamics on Dec. 13 announced it is opening a new facility and geospatial innovation center at the Cortex in St. Louis. 

NGA officials said upgrading its cloud computing and data infrastructure is a top priority for the agency as it tries to improve the quality and speed of services. A modern cloud enterprise, for example, will facilitate interoperability between the agency and commercial geospatial data providers. 

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Lockheed scores US Army contract for major electronic warfare, intel and cyber platform

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WASHINGTON — Lockheed Martin has won a second-round contract worth $9.6 million to continue work on the U.S. Army’s first integrated electronic warfare, signals intelligence and cyber platform, the service announced Monday.

The other transaction authority agreement for phase two on the Terrestrial Layer System-Brigade Combat Team, or TLS-BCT, follows a 16-month prototyping period that involved Lockheed and Boeing subsidiary Digital Receiver Technology. During those months, each company was charged with developing prototypes and working with soldiers, after which point the Army would pick one solution to move forward.

TLS-BCT will be mounted on a Stryker vehicle, and officials have said it will be critical to modernizing the force to defeat modern and sophisticated threats on the battlefield.

“When fielded, TLS will be assigned to the Multi-functional Platoon and the EW Platoon organic to the Military Intelligence (MI) Company (MICO) in the BCTs. TLS will provide the warfighter at multiple echelons critical situational awareness of the enemy through detection, identification, location, exploitation, and disruption of enemy signals of interest,” said Ken Strayer, the project manager for electronic warfare and cyber within Program Executive Office Intelligence, Electronic Warfare and Sensors.

In the most recent budget request, the Army asked for $39.7 million for the program from research and development funds. The first unit is to receive the system in fiscal 2022.

Lockheed’s award will provide prototypes for manufacturing proof of concept.

Mark Pomerleau is a reporter for C4ISRNET, covering information warfare and cyberspace.

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Guard911 Awarded State of Florida Department of Education Security Contract for Alyssa’s Law | News

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COLLINSVILLE, Ill., May 9, 2021 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ — Guard911, a technology-based security company offering a mobile panic alert system, has been named as an approved vendor for the Florida Department of Education – Alyssa’s Law mandate.

The Illinois-based company will provide public and charter schools in Florida with access to their SchoolGuard ‘mobile panic alert app’ service to facilitate an immediate notification to all staff and law enforcement to active shooter emergencies.

Steve Hoard, the Coordinator of Safety and Mental Health at Union County Schools, believes that Guard911 is an excellent vendor choice by the state. 

“Union County schools have relied on the powerful, proven effective and simplicity of SchoolGuard for the past several years.” Hoard states, “We highly recommend other school districts in Florida to implement the Guard911 serve as well.”

Sheriff Tommy Ford of Bay County mentions all of his schools have implemented the Guard911 service a few years ago and he remains a strong advocate to the user-friendly service.

Ford states, “For over three years, Bay County Schools have relied on safeguarding their school district with the SchoolGuard service offered by Guard911 and I remain a strong advocate to this service.”

The company’s President and Founder, Nate McVicker, says his team is excited to work with Florida and help protect additional schools through this opportunity. 

“We are honored to be awarded a contract to work with the Department of Education to safeguard additional schools in Florida against senseless acts of violence,” said McVicker, “SchoolGuard is already operable in several Florida schools and we look forward to expanding our reach in our mission to protect more statewide … as seconds save lives.”

About Guard911

Guard911 was founded in 2013 by veteran law enforcement and technology experts looking to take a deep psychological approach to armed intruder emergencies. As a result, the Guard911®, SchoolGuard®, CampusGuard911™, and Hero911® apps were designed with a single focus – to provide an early warning system for these emergency situations and save precious seconds that can mean the difference between life…

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IBM led consortium wins $3.2 million German Digital Health Passport contract – Ledger Insights

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Yesterday German press reported that a consortium led by IBM, including blockchain cybersecurity firm Ubirch won the tender for digital vaccination certificates in Germany. The two firms beat competition from a joint initiative by Deutsche Telekom and SAP. According to the Official EU Journal the award is €2.7 million ($3.2 million), but IBM will subcontract 51% of the project.

The initiative is to create a digital version of yellow vaccine certificates. 

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reported that other consortium participants include Bechtle and Govdigital, which is a cooperative of 15 IT providers. In January, Ubirch and Govdigital were involved in a regional project in the Bavarian district of Altötting. It’s unclear whether that solution used IBM’s Digital Health Pass. 

A key feature of the regional trial was to issue a physical card, similar to a credit card but displaying a QR code. Given the first vaccines were provided to older people, the card proved popular. The QR code encodes personal information such as the name, ID and the details of the vaccination, and anyone scanning the code sees the information. The data is not saved elsewhere and the vaccine recipient can store the data on a mobile phone. When the QR code is created, a hash or fingerprint of the data is stored on a blockchain.

A similar solution for Corona test certificates has already been deployed by Ubirch at Frankfurt Airport, Berlin, Hamburg and Düsseldorf. For that, Ubrich partnered with Govdigital and Lufthansa Industry Solutions.

Ubirch positions itself as an IoT cybersecurity firm. It claims it created the world’s first blockchain-on-a-SIM solution together with 1NCE and G+D Mobile Security, a firm known as a currency solution provider to central banks.

Meanwhile, IBM’s Digital Health Pass solution is currently being trialed by the State of New York. It uses a mobile phone app and blockchain for verifiable credentials. 

There are a variety of solutions in the marketplace for COVID-19 health certificates. And airlines, in particular, are keen to adopt them. The solutions include GE Digital’s TrustOne app, IATA’s Travel Pass platform, and the 

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