Acquisition headlines

Trump orders General Motors to make ventilators under Defense Production Act. What did it achieve? “The order does not change GM’s previously announced plans or schedule to produce the ventilators, according to the company.” Here’s another bit: “Shares of GM were up more than 3% in after-hours trading Friday.”

USS Gerald R Ford reaches 1,000th aircraft launch milestone.

Pentagon hypersonic weapons hit ‘impact point’. Pushing forward: “we validated our design and are now ready to move to the next phase towards fielding a hypersonic strike capability.” I wonder who is archiving a history of these efforts.

China Deployed 12 Underwater Drones In Indian Ocean. A slice: “When China seized a U.S. Navy ocean glider in 2016 the stated reason was to ensure “safe navigation of passing ships.” Taken at face value, it may be surprising that China is now deploying these types of UUV en masse in the Indian Ocean.”

US aerospace industry reviewing aid options in 880-page coronavirus relief bill. An overview in two buckets: “One is a $17 billion bucket designated “for businesses critical to maintaining national security.” The other is a $454 billion pool of available loans and loan guarantees earmarked for “eligible businesses, states or municipalities”. Both pools are part of $500 billion to be made available to “severely distressed sectors of the United States economy” for purposes “related to losses incurred as a result of the coronavirus”, the law says.”

SpaceX wins NASA contract to send cargo to lunar Gateway with new Dragon XL craft. Relatedly: “The coronavirus outbreak has forced NASA to hold up on some of the preparations for Artemis — including work on its Space Launch System rocket and Orion crew capsule at centers in Louisiana and Mississippi. But SpaceX is continuing work on the Crew Dragon capsule in advance of its first crewed trip to space station.”

Tech companies tell DoD its new cyber standards are missing the mark. A number of industry associations wrote to Ellen Lord: “We are concerned that current plans for implementing CMMC lack sufficient clarity and predictability in key areas, and as a result may unnecessarily generate confusion, delay and associated costs.”

Amazon Files Objection To DoD Motion To Revise Microsoft JEDI Decision. “The order to stop work on the JEDI project was filed on March 6, 2020, but was only unsealed on March 20.” DoD wants to revise the contract details and price now that its in protest, Amazon wants to stop that revision. How can DoD pivot to get enabling cloud services?

War on the Rocks: What can the Picatinny Rail teach us about artificial intelligence?

US Army finds funds for future attack recon aircraft after FY20 budget cut. Funding was cut from GFE like the engine rather than the prime integrator. FARA will use modular open system architecture, I’d like to hear more about that.

SpaceX Competitor OneWeb Is Reportedly Bankrupt. “The coronavirus pandemic and resulting market turbulence undermined the negotiations between OneWeb and SoftBank for $2 billion in funding, people familiar with the matter told WIRED.”