L3Harris has taken multiple steps forward in its responsibilities under a U.S. Air Force contract to modernize avionics for the C-130H aircraft. These achievements include the first flight and delivery of the initial round of prototype aircraft for developmental and operational assessment, the Melbourne, Florida-headquartered company announced on Thursday.

The Defense Logistics Agency Logistics Operations has awarded LMI a contract to help enhance research and development methods and improve purchase order lead time estimates for new systems. 

The Potomac Officers Club will host the 10th Annual Defense R&D Summit on Jan. 31 to discuss the latest developments in the defense technology sector. Register here and save a seat at the highly anticipated event.

Bill Rowan, vice president of public sector at Splunk, discussed some of the key takeaways from the company’s annual summit for public sector leaders and the first is that it is imperative for government agencies to build up digital resilience amid the evolving cyberthreat landscape to quickly respond to cyber risks. “With a strong foundation of digital resilience, agencies can prepare and respond rapidly to whatever comes their way,” Rowan, a four-time Wash100 awardee, wrote in a blog post published Tuesday.

Don Parente, vice president of public sector sales and solution architecture at MetTel, said the U.S. Mint and other federal agencies should begin planning amid the looming retirement of plain old telephone services and other copper telephone lines. According to Parente, the Federal Communication Commission recently permitted local exchange carriers to shut down copper wires, a move that is accelerating the issuance of disconnect notices to agencies.

The Forward Defense program in the Atlantic Council's Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security has established a new commission tasked with developing recommendations on improving the U.S. military's production and integration of advanced software technologies. Mark Esper, former secretary of defense; Christine Fox, former acting deputy secretary of defense; and Mung Chiang, president of Purdue University, have been named co-chairs of the Commission on Software-Defined Warfare, the Atlantic Council said Friday.

Kenneth Bedingfield has been selected to serve as senior vice president and chief financial officer of L3Harris Technologies, effective Dec. 11. In his new role, Bedingfield will guide the company’s financial strategy while overseeing its global finance team, L3Harris announced from its Melbourne, Florida headquarters on Monday.

Robert Moore of Carahsoft Technology said state and local government agencies in Ohio have started integrating innovative technologies to drive modernization, improve the decision-making process, streamline operations and reduce costs. In a blog post published Nov. 3, the state and local government market executive wrote about a local agency in Westerville, Ohio, and its efforts to customize citizen experiences and utilize data to advance applied analytics.

Barry Duplantis, vice president and general manager of the North American public sector at Mattermost, said government agencies looking to curb the use of shadow IT by employees should consider deploying a self-hosted, open-source collaboration platform. In an opinion piece published Tuesday on Federal Times, Duplantis wrote that such a platform could enable government employees to share data, communicate and collaborate while ensuring data security.

A survey by Guidehouse and the Association for Federal Enterprise Risk Management has found that cybersecurity and privacy continue to top the list of risks that federal agencies anticipate to have the greatest impact on the strategic objectives of their organizations in the next three to five years. The 2023 survey found an increase in the integration of enterprise risk management with budgetary processes, execution and other key management processes and that 62 percent of federal government leaders intend to have continued focus on risk appetite over the next year, Guidehouse said Tuesday.

Bill Rowan, vice president of public sector at Splunk and a four-time Wash100 awardee, said in a commentary published Friday on Federal News Network that federal agencies looking to improve critical infrastructure through digital resilience and adoption of the National Cybersecurity Strategy should use next-generation observability tools.

Divergent Technologies has closed its Series D equity financing, totaling $230 million. Divergent said Monday that Hexagon AB invested $100 million and led the capital raising round, which included new and existing institutional and family office investors.

The Department of Energy will work with other federal agencies and companies on a collaborative effort that seeks to harness the power of quantum technologies to advance national security, improve the economy, achieve energy security and support sustainability goals. DOE said Monday it will partner with the Department of Defense, NASA, Infleqtion, Nebula Space Enterprise and Accenture Federal Services on the Quantum & Space Collaboration.