Hawk Carlisle, president and CEO of the National Defense Industrial Association, wrote in an article published Monday in National Defense magazine that NDIA gives the defense industrial base a score of 75 and a C rating in the “Vital Signs 2021" report set to be released in December. Carlisle said the score indicates that the defense industrial base continues to face a challenging environment amid the COVID19 pandemic.

Jeff Ryder, vice president of growth and strategy at General Motors’ defense unit, said GM Defense sees a $25B market in developing new military products based on the parent company’s existing vehicles, technologies and parts, CNBC reported Monday. “That’s an addressable market that we feel we have a right to win and pursue. And that’s what we’re doing,” he said.

The Demonstration and Science Experiments satellite of the Air Force Research Laboratory performed the first space-to-space very low frequency transmission within three months of its launch during a coordinated experiment with the Japanese Space Agency’s Arase spacecraft. The DSX satellite launched in June 2019 to study the interactions of space plasma, radiation belts and radio waves in near-Earth space.

John Kamensky, a senior fellow with the IBM Center for the Business of Government, wrote in an article published Thursday on Nextgov that agencies should go beyond the Federal Data Strategy by taking into consideration four recommendations to promote intergovernmental data sharing.

Avaya will support the North American Aerospace Defense Command’s annual Tracks Santa program by deploying its cloud-based contact center platform designed to handle calls from the public. "The capability to create meaningful connections across a variety of platforms makes for happier customers and a happier holiday season. We are proud to serve so many, including the NORAD Tracks Santa program, and pleased that our technology continues to help spread cheer across the globe,” said Jerry Dotson, vice president of Avaya's public sector business.

Timothy McBride, global government relations lead at Raytheon Technologies, and Joe Purcell, vice chairman of the financial sponsors coverage group at Morgan Stanley, have been appointed to the board of advisers of the Center for a New American Security.

NuWave Solutions has purchased a ProModel Corp. business segment that offers analytic software platforms to the U.S. government, for an undisclosed sum. “ProModel Government Services is uniquely qualified to help federal government agencies with their decision making,” said Reggie Brothers, CEO of NuWave and a GovCon Expert.

James Taiclet, president and CEO of Lockheed Martin, said acquiring Aerojet Rocketdyne will bring in propulsion systems for potential integration with Lockheed-built missile and rocket offerings, Via Satellite reported Monday. Taiclet told analysts Monday during a conference call he expects the transaction to support upfront design, production planning and engineering integration efforts at the Bethesda, Maryland-based aerospace and defense company.

Nicolas Fischbach, global chief technology officer at Forcepoint, wrote in a guest piece published Friday on Nextgov that government agencies should prioritize data visibility and data loss prevention as they head into 2021. He said agencies should determine how employees and other users interact with government data through user activity monitoring with the aid of behavioral analytics to better detect compromised accounts and malicious actors.

IBM and Salesforce have teamed up to help government agencies, businesses and schools verify an individual’s health and vaccine status to enable them to safely reopen amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The partnership will facilitate the integration of IBM Digital Health Pass with the Salesforce Work.com platform to provide organizations with a single tool for making data-driven decisions as they work to streamline communications, initiate actions and reduce risks.

The U.S. Army is set to hold a mobile 155mm howitzer shoot-off at Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona in early 2021 and companies are announcing their selection to participate in the event while others are expressing interest to take part in the activity, Defense News reported Thursday.

Tory Bruno, president and CEO of United Launch Alliance and a previous Wash100 awardee, said ULA’s Vulcan Centaur rocket will be on the launch pad for its maiden flight by the end of 2021, SpaceNews reported Thursday.

The U.S. Army and South Korea-based defense company Hanwha have agreed to partner to research and build defense platforms, Defense News reported Wednesday. Hanwha and the Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Armaments Center will exchange technical knowledge, intellectual property and resources under the cooperative research and development agreement.

A new Deloitte report has identified nine technology trends that are likely to cause disruption for government agencies over the next 12 to 18 months. The company's annual report Tech Trends 2021: A Government Perspective scored each trend based on its relevance to agencies and the government’s readiness to implement such trends and showed that machine learning operations or MLOps, revitalization of core assets, zero trust approaches and a reboot of the digital workplace were considered the most relevant to agencies.

Northrop Grumman has made an investment in Deepwave Digital and partnered with the company to advance research-and-development work on artificial intelligence to enhance communications processing capability.