Live Breaking News & Updates on Top defense contractors

Stay informed with the latest breaking news from Top defense contractors on our comprehensive webpage. Get up-to-the-minute updates on local events, politics, business, entertainment, and more. Our dedicated team of journalists delivers timely and reliable news, ensuring you're always in the know. Discover firsthand accounts, expert analysis, and exclusive interviews, all in one convenient destination. Don't miss a beat — visit our webpage for real-time breaking news in Top defense contractors and stay connected to the pulse of your community

Top 5 Defense Contractors in 2021 - Insider Monkey

Top 5 Defense Contractors in 2021
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 40
The company Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE: NOC) has a $12.068 billion defense contract with the U.S. Department of Defense. The fields of expertise of the company include space, defense, aeronautics, and cyberspace. Even though the majority of the company’s business comes from the U.S., it also provides its services to 25 other countries like Japan, Australia, the United Kingdom, and South Korea. The company is known for its cutting-edge technology, mainly for defense purposes. The most notable products of the company include the X-47B unmanned aircraft, B-2 Spirit stealth bomber, and the Lunar Module.

Australia , Japan , United-kingdom , South-korea , Us-department-of-defense , Artisan-value-fund , Us-air , Northrop-grumman-corporation , Us-army , Number-of-hedge-fund-holders , Northrop-grumman

Biden taps DIU head for top Pentagon acquisition post -- Washington Technology

By Lauren C. Williams
NOTE: This article first appeared on FCW.com.
President Joe Biden will nominate the director of the Defense Department’s innovative acquisition arm to be the Pentagon’s top buyer, the White House announced April 2.
Michael Brown has been the director of the Defense Innovation Unit, which helps DOD prototype and field new technologies with rapid acquisition techniques, since 2018.
DIU recently celebrated its five-year anniversary and has expanded its portfolio under Brown’s leadership, fielding 26 new capabilities.
Brown was previously a White House Innovation Fellow for the Defense Department and was the CEO of two Silicon Valley companies, the cybersecurity firms Symantec and Quantum, which is one of the biggest suppliers of drives for personal computers.

White-house , District-of-columbia , United-states , Ronald-moultrie , Michael-brown , Laurenc-williams , Michael-mccord , Joe-biden , College-park , Symantec , University-of-maryland , Twitter

CMMC board preps for staff changes -- Defense Systems

By Lauren C. Williams
Mar 16, 2021
The governing body in charge of standing up and running the Defense Department’s unified cybersecurity standard for contractors is preparing to shift to a more permanent staffing arrangement.
Since it officially stood up in January 2020, the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification Accreditation Body (CMMC-AB) has been run by industry professionals volunteering their time, often in addition to their primary careers.
“The AB is in the process of hiring professional staff to provide the needed level of effort for continuing its mission,” Karlton Johnson, the body’s chairman, said. “That will allow those on the board to transition from hands-on working members to the true advisory role that all boards are chartered to fill.”

Karlton-johnson , Laurenc-williams , Ben-tchoubineh , College-park , University-of-maryland , Twitter , University-of-delaware , Defense-department , Nicole-dean , Defense-systems , Defense-systems-magazine , Defense-system

Will DOD keep collaborating after CVR? -- Defense Systems

Mar 16, 2021
The Department of Defense's Commercial Virtual Remote environment, spun up to accommodate telework in the COVID-19 pandemic, quickly became the largest Microsoft Teams deployment in the world -- and brought department-wide collaboration tools to DOD after years of less-successful attempts.
DOD personnel have embraced the tools and the silo-spanning interactions they enable, but CVR was always intended as a temporary fix. So the Defense Information Systems Agency is working hard to ensure the collaboration doesn't fade when CVR sunsets in July.
Les Benito, the director of operations for DISA's Cloud Computing Program Office, said that Global Directory is the key. Speaking at FCW and Defense Systems' March 10 event on Defense Readiness, Benito explained that the initiative will provide "a cloud-wide identity" as the military services spin up their own Microsoft 365 environments under the Defense Enterprise Office Solutions (DEOS) contract.

New-york , United-states , Los-angeles , California , America , Les-benito , Troyk-schneider , Indiana-university , America-foundation , Los-angeles-times , Defense-information-systems-agency , Atlantic-media-company

DOD's 5G foundation to support telerobotic surgery pilot -- Defense Systems

By Stephanie Kanowitz
Mar 16, 2021
The Defense Department is preparing for 5G-based telemedicine experiments with technologies such as augmented reality (AR) and robotic surgery.
DOD is expected to issue requests for prototype proposals from Joint Base San Antonio (JSBA) in Texas after releasing a statement of work for a 5G telemedicine and medical training project. The SOW sought industry input on development related to 5G-enabled AR/virtual reality-guided medical training, advanced telehealth information access, advanced robotic surgery and telementoring via AR for medical procedures.
The 5G network is critical to telemedicine because it shifts from the voice-centric 4G network to application-to-application communication without human intervention, National Spectrum Consortium (NSC) Vice Chairman Randy Clark said.

San-antonio , Texas , United-states , Randy-clark , Joseph-evans , Stephanie-kanowitz , National-spectrum-consortium , Department-of-veterans-affairs , Office-of-the , Defense-department , Joint-base-san-antonio , Vice-chairman-randy-clark

How JADC2, competition with China could spur DOD budget reform -- Defense Systems

By Lauren C. Williams
Mar 17, 2021
Could the Defense Department’s goal of having unified communications across the military -- along with an escalating tech competition with China -- be the impetus needed for true budget and acquisition reforms?
Bill Greenwalt, a fellow for the American Enterprise Institute who served as the deputy undersecretary of defense for industrial policy during the Bush administration, said the budget process “is the single most important process to look at if you want to have acquisition reform.”
“In the near term, we need to move fast because China’s moving fast,” embracing flexible budget pilots that could be for specific missions, while striving for long-term reforms, Greenwalt said during a March 5 virtual Hudson Institute event on budget agility and competing with China.

China , United-states , American , Eric-schmidt , S-clinton-hinote , Laurenc-williams , Elaine-mccusker , Google , College-park , House-armed-services-committee , University-of-maryland , Twitter

DARPA developing AI into a mission-critical partner -- Defense Systems

By Defense Systems Staff
Mar 16, 2021
As artificial intelligence advances, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is moving toward treating computers less as tools and more as partners that can help solve complex military problems, according to Matthew Turek, program manager in DARPA’s Information Innovation Office.
Speaking at FCW’s March 10 Defense Readiness Workshop, Turek said DARPA has approximately 30 programs focused on AI and another 90 that are leveraging AI technologies -- from foundational science and hardware to algorithms, knowledge representations, machine learning and autonomy. Some of those, he added, are already in the field.
Those programs fall into three waves of AI. The first covers symbolic reasoning, in which engineers create sets of rules to represent knowledge in well-defined in domains, like optimizing the shipping of military equipment. The second wave applies statistical models that have been trained on big data for specific problem domains to deliver nuanced classification and prediction capabilities. This type of AI has been used for face detection algorithms and virtual assistants like Siri – whose foundational technology was developed at DARPA, Turek said.

Matthew-turek , Information-innovation-office , Defense-advanced-research-projects-agency , Readiness-workshop , Defense-systems , Defense-systems-magazine , Defense-system , Defensesystems-com , Defense-contractors , Top-defense-contractors , Defence-contractors , Top-dod-contractors

IC: Influence campaigns, not hacking, used to meddle in US elections -- Defense Systems

By Justin Katz
Mar 16, 2021
The U.S. intelligence community on Tuesday issued a declassified report concluding it has "no indications" that foreign actors attempted to alter technical aspects of the voting process during the 2020 elections.
"We assess that it would be difficult for a foreign actor to manipulate election processes at scale without detection by intelligence collection on the actors themselves, through physical and cyber security monitoring around voting systems across the country," according to the new report compiled by multiple intelligence agencies and published by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
The report draws on the conclusions of a classified document delivered to the White House in January and says Russia, at the direction of President Vladimir Putin, undertook a series of actions to both denigrate President Joe Biden and support former President Donald Trump during the 2020 elections. It also states that China largely avoided any targeted meddling in the 2020 elections because it likely did not view either Trump or Biden winning as advantageous to Beijing.

Cuba , China , Beijing , New-york , United-states , Russia , Turkey , Venezuela , Russian , Turkish , Donald-trump , Justin-katz

What cyber risks will Biden's supply chain EO uncover? -- Defense Systems

By Justin Katz
Mar 16, 2021
As more details have emerged about the breach into federal agencies involving SolarWinds Orion, senior administration officials and analysts have started calling the incident a "supply chain attack." While the government continues to assess the scope and scale of that breach, the White House is now directing various executive departments to assess the risks in their respective supply chains.
The executive order calls for both 100-day immediate reviews of certain products -- such as semiconductors and high-capacity batteries -- as well as year-long sectoral supply chain reviews of the defense, health, transportation and agriculture industries, among others.

Florida , United-states , University-of-south-florida , Tampa , White-house , District-of-columbia , Kathryn-waldron , Solarwinds-orion , Chris-white , Ron-sanders , Kevin-gronberg , George-bush

House task force digs into DOD supply chain vulnerabilities -- Defense Systems

By Lauren C. Williams
Mar 16, 2021
Supply chain vulnerabilities have long been a concern in the Pentagon, but the Defense Department’s growing dependence on small drones, semiconductors and microelectronics manufactured by adversaries has gained increased attention in recent months.
To address growing uneasiness, the House Armed Services Committee has launched a task force to investigate defense supply chain vulnerabilities, foreign manufacturing concerns and other issues raised by the pandemic.
Co-chairs Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.) and Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) will lead a three-month effort that aims to survey the critical supplies DOD needs for military and national security and identify the vulnerabilities and chokepoints in those supply chains. The effort is geared toward coming up with legislative solutions to build supply chain resilience that can be included in the upcoming National Defense Authorization Act for 2022.

United-states , America , Laurenc-williams , College-park , House-armed-services-committee , University-of-maryland , Twitter , University-of-delaware , Cyberspace-solarium-commission , National-defense-authorization , Defense-department