• $150 million anthrax vaccine contract goes to firm with close Democratic Party ties

    The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced on the evening of 29 December that it was awarding PharmAthene $150 million to develop and produce an anthrax vaccine; FOXNews notes the strong ties to the Democratic Party of senior company executives

  • Bill would prohibit use of private security contractors in war zones

    Two U.S. lawmakers introduce a bill which would prohibit the use of private security contractors in war zones like Iraq and Afghanistan; one-fifth of the U.S. armed forces in Iraq consists of private contractors, while in Afghanistan that number reached one-third

  • LGS on Lockheed Martin team for $31 million DARPA cyber assurance contract

    LGS selected by Lockheed Martin as a subcontractor for a 31 milllion dollar DARPA-funded contract to develop cyber procedures which will provide military untis with dynamic bandwidth allocation

  • U.S.-Mexico border fence hobbled by delays, technical problems

    The future of the U.S.-Mexico border fence is in doubt; the project, contracted by DHS to Boeing, has been plagued by technical glitches from the start; among other things, the radar system had trouble distinguishing between vegetation and people when it was windy; also, the satellite communication system took too long to relay information in the field to a command center; by the time an operator moved a camera to take a closer look at a spot, whatever had raised suspicion was gone; Obama’s proposed 2011 budget cuts $189 million from the venture

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  • Contractor surge: 56,000 contractors to accompany the 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan

    The Obama administration’s decision to send 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan is just one aspect of the surge; these troops will be accompanies by up to 56,000 additional contractors; as of September, the Defense Department had 104,101 contractors employed in Afghanistan

  • Lawmakers question the number of DHS contractors (but what is the number?)

    Do you know how many contractors DHS relies on to carry out the department’s mission? Nobody knows; the best we have is a DHS estimate: about 10,520 in the Washington, D.C. area alone; six years ago DHS tried to do a head count of contractors, but the industry resisted and the project was dropped; DHS says its estimate is based “on algorithms, taking the cost of the contract and taking valid formulas” for estimating personnel required to execute the contracts; “[these figures are] as accurate as we can get under the current conditions”.

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  • New Orleans $1-billion flood defense revised

    To head off a possible $150-million to $300-million cost overrun on the $1-billion Gulf Intracoastal Waterway West Closure Complex in New Orleans, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has redesigned the waterway; trading off some “nice to haves” for necessities.

  • DHS procurement office considers contract hybrids

    Government agencies are supposed to be using performance-based contracting as much as possible, but this approach is not suitable for all procurements; DHS says it will begin to hybrid contracts which would blend different approaches

  • Winter Olympic private security force raises concerns

    A Canadian company has been awarded the contract to find 5,000 security guards for the Winter Olympics which open in Vancouver in 100 days; security experts say that “‘Certain facets of security screening can be overlooked in a rush”

  • Top U.S. federal contracts to exceed $180 billion In 2010

    New report says that the top 20 federal contracts, many involving IT purchases, will be worth 50 percent more than last year’s contracts

  • Senate weakens ban on off-shore companies with federal contracts

    The “Buy American” provisions in the $787 billion stimulus package prohibited DHS contracts from going to foreign companies — or from “inverted” companies (that is, companies with phony foreign headquarters); in March the ban was extended to other government agencies — but the ban has now been loosened

  • CSC replaces Unisys in a half-billion-dollar TSA account

    A 2006 DHS IG review criticized Unisys for handling TAS’s Information Technology Infrastructure Program (ITIP) services contract; CSC has now won the five-year contract, potentially worth $493 million

  • U.S. buys additional shot-spotters

    The U.S. Army already deploys more than 6,000 Boomerang shot-spotter systems; the manufacturer, BBN, has just received a $22.5 million contract to supply 3,300 additional units

  • U.S. to increase reliance on private security contractors

    Scandals involving activities of private security firms in Afghanistan notwithstanding, the U.S. government is increasing its reliance on these firms; last week five firms were awarded contracts totaling $485 million

  • McAfee acquires MX Logic to enhance cloud security

    McAfee acquires MX Logic for $140 million; MX Logic has 40,000 customers and four million end users; the deal is designed to bolster McAfee’s existing “security as a service” portfolio; McAfee, alongside Panda and Trend Micro, is among the most aggressive players in the security market in talking up the benefits of cloud-based architectures