Certified Small Disadvantaged Business Aleut Management Services, a subsidiary of Aleut Federal, has been awarded a spot on the General Services Administration Multiple Award Schedule contract vehicle for special item number 54151S, which covers IT professional services. Aleut Federal said Saturday on LinkedIn that its subsidiary's inclusion in GSA MAS highlights the company's commitment to IT innovation and excellence and will facilitate opportunities to provide various IT services to the government, including network services, database planning and design and programming.

Ensign-Bickford Aerospace & Defense will work to increase its capacity to produce printed circuit board assemblies for use in hypersonic weapons after being awarded $11.7 million by the Department of Defense. The award is the latest issued within fiscal year 2024 by the Defense Production Act Investment Program, the Department of Defense said Friday.

Tiffanny Gates, a more than two-decade federal cybersecurity executive and a three-time Wash100 awardee, has joined the board of directors of Washington, D.C.-based data-centric security platforms provider Virtru. “As the Department of Defense modernizes its digital infrastructure to a zero trust architecture, innovative data security tools like Virtru enable our service members to securely collaborate and share sensitive information across domains,” Gates said in a statement published Thursday.

L3Harris Technologies subsidiary Aerojet Rocketdyne has secured a contract to manufacture launch and flight motors for FIM-92 Stinger missiles to help RTX business Raytheon replenish the U.S. Army’s inventory of the anti-aircraft missiles. The replenishment contract awarded to Aerojet marks the first time in nearly two decades the company will manufacture new missiles for the U.S. military, L3Harris said Thursday.

The Department of State has approved North Macedonia’s request to procure Joint Light Tactical Vehicles and associated program and logistics support services from the U.S. government under a potential foreign military sales agreement worth $111 million. Oshkosh Defense, AM General, Leonardo DRS and L3Harris Technologies will serve as principal contractors in the proposed FMS deal, which includes the procurement of 18 additional M1278A1/A2 JLTV heavy gun carriers and seven JLTV general purpose vehicles, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency said Friday.

NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center has released a solicitation for the development of flight instruments for the Space Weather Next Lagrange 1 Series Coronagraph program. A notice posted Friday on SAM.gov states that NASA will launch a full and open competition to design, analyze, develop and fabricate three flight coronagraph instruments for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite program.

Mary Robinson, formerly senior director of business development at Concurrent Technologies Corporation, announced on LinkedIn Friday her appointment as vice president of BD at Advanced IT Concepts. Before her tenure at CTC, Robinson held key roles in business development, serving as chief of staff of BD at Navistar Defense and executive director of planning and strategy at Technology Service Corporation.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency awarded contracts to Leidos and Raytheon BBN, an RTX company, for services related to the Quantum Augmented Network program. The cost-plus-fixed-fee contracts, valued at $8.5 million for Leidos and $7.5 million for BBN, is for the development of a hybrid quantum-based communication network specifically for critical infrastructure security, the Department of Defense said Friday.

Amazon Web Services has secured High authorization under the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program for its end-to-end encrypted service available for AWS GovCloud customers in the U.S. West region. AWS Wickr is an encrypted communications service that uses a 256-bit encryption technique to enable government and commercial customers to secure group messaging, voice and video calling, screen sharing and file sharing, AWS said Thursday.

Defense Unicorns, a provider of artificial intelligence capabilities and open source software for national security, raised $35 million in its Series A funding round from investors led by Sapphire Ventures and Ansa Capital. Defense Unicorns said Thursday it will use the funds to advance its mission-focused capabilities.

Dataminr Government President Dana Barnes was named among Executive Mosaic’s esteemed roster of 2024 Wash100 Award winners for championing artificial intelligence-focused efforts to deliver optimized customer value and ensure responsible use of AI. This is the third time that Barnes was included in the annual list of 100 elite leaders in the government and government contracting space.

Vote for Barnes as one of your favorite awardees at Wash100.com. This year’s popular vote competition runs through April 30, so cast your 10 votes now!

Lockheed Martin and the U.S. Army demonstrated the extended-range variant of the Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System during an operational test at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, paving the way for the rocket to move to the fielding and production phase. Two ER GMLRS rockets were fired from the Army's High Mobility Artillery Rocket System launcher against a target and met missile performance criteria in terms of flight trajectory, range and accuracy from launch to impact, Lockheed said Thursday.