General Dynamics' information technology division has launched a new accelerator program designed to advance digital engineering, advanced simulation and modeling and security monitoring for government systems. The Ember Digital Engineering Accelerator is the latest digital accelerator under the GDIT brand that aims to apply digital modeling and simulation to a military system's development and testing phase before moving to production, the company said Tuesday.

United Launch Alliance looks to reuse the upper stages of its Vulcan Centaur heavy-lift launch vehicles by keeping them in orbit, where they could perform other functions apart from the original launch mission. ULA President and CEO Tory Bruno explained in an interview during the Space Symposium conference how Vulcan upper stages, loaded with additional propellant, could work to move other spacecraft in orbit or event defend them against anti-satellite weapons.

Drone technology developer Red Cat has partnered with Sentien Robotics to deliver an autonomous drone-swarming capability to military customers to enable defense and security operations in land, air and sea domains. Under the partnership, Red Cat will integrate its Teal 2 drones into Sentien's Hive-Expedition and Hive-XL automated unmanned aerial system fleet transport and launch vehicles to provide drone swarms that can support multidomain operations, Red Cat said Thursday.

Steve Escaravage, an executive vice president within Booz Allen Hamilton’s global defense business, said the U.S. federal government and the Department of Defense should find new pathways that would enable industry to back defense missions as the country faces strategic competition. Escaravage, a 2024 Wash100 awardee, noted that the National Defense Strategy states that denial, resilience and cost imposition are the three areas that play a role in strengthening deterrence.

NASA's Langley Research Center has launched a market research for follow-on procurement of mechanical and composite hardware fabrication support services. According to a request for information notice posted Friday on SAM.gov, LaRC seeks to identify interested sources and learn about their capabilities that could meet its requirements for the design and fabrication of research-oriented flight test articles and assemblies.

CACI International has booked a potential $1.3 billion task order to provide U.S. European Command and Africa Command with communications and information technology expertise over a five-year period. Commenting on the award Monday, John Mengucci, president and CEO of CACI and a 2024 Wash100 Award recipient, said, "We are uniquely positioned to equip the warfighter to successfully execute their missions and enhance communication, collaboration and coordination with partner nations."

The Department of the Treasury's Internal Revenue Service has begun seeking information on a potential $512 million multiple-award blanket purchase agreement covering information technology portfolio management support services for the IRS' Enterprise Case Management system. A notice posted Wednesday on SAM.gov states that the BPA has an ordering period of five years and encompasses strategy and planning, enterprise services and operations, cybersecurity, user and network services and program management services.

Mercury Systems has received a production contract from BlueHalo to deliver a signal processing technology for the latter's digital beaming platform being developed for the U.S. Space Force's Satellite Communication Augmentation Resource program. The company said Thursday it will produce a field-programmable gate array-based common signal acquisition and digital beamforming tool for BlueHalo's BADGER technology, a transportable ground-based communications system that uses re-configurable beamforming tiles for simplifying space operations.

L3Harris Technologies is set to enhance solid rocket motor production in Orange County, Virginia, with investments totaling $41.2 million through a partnership agreement with the county. The company said Thursday it plans to construct new facilities, procure equipment and recruit 80 employees over the next three years as part of an initiative to expand operations in the state.

Vibrint has partnered with light fidelity technology provider pureLiFi to develop a secure wireless communications capability designed to safeguard government and national security data in classified environments. Tom Lash, CEO of Vibrint, said in a statement published Wednesday the new Vibrint LiFi technology uses light waves instead of radio waves to create ultra-secure wireless data communications networks.

Organizations will have to augment their approaches to network traffic monitoring when they implement Transport Layer Security 1.3, according to Scott Aken, the CEO of software company Axellio. Aken explains in an opinion column published Tuesday on Security Magazine that TLS 1.3 "significantly enhances" data encryption but in so doing imposes limits on data stream decryption, making network security monitoring more difficult and potentially obscuring malware and traffic by threat actors.

Carahsoft Technology will start distributing a Transformed Medicaid Statistical Information System data quality product to the public sector. The company said Tuesday it will market Mathematica and NewWave’s Imersis offering through its reseller partners and the National Association of State Procurement Officials ValuePoint contract.