Jedi Contract Interference: Another Norm Broken? More Impeachment Bait?

Jedi Contract Interference: Another Norm Broken? More Impeachment Bait?
Jedi Contract Interference: Another Norm Broken? More Impeachment Bait?

What went wrong and what happens next? CSIS experts Mark Cancian & Andrew Hunter dive deep into JEDI.

Griffin: DoD Can’t Rely on Commercial Satellite Communications

Griffin: DoD Can’t Rely on Commercial Satellite Communications
Griffin: DoD Can’t Rely on Commercial Satellite Communications

Griffin’s seeming skepticism about commercial ventures to provide global broadband and Internet services is in stark contrast to the enthusiasm bubbling out of the Air Force and the Army. 

Amazon’s Big JEDI Gamble ANALYSIS

Amazon’s Big JEDI Gamble ANALYSIS
Amazon’s Big JEDI Gamble ANALYSIS

Why did Amazon bypass the GAO protest process and go straight to federal court? That strategy faces two major risks.

Amazon Vs. Trump: How A JEDI Protest & Impeachment Intertwine

Amazon Vs. Trump: How A JEDI Protest & Impeachment Intertwine
Amazon Vs. Trump: How A JEDI Protest & Impeachment Intertwine

If Amazon protests the Pentagon’s award of the $10 billion JEDI contract to rival Microsoft — and they almost certainly will — the president’s public feud with CEO Jeff Bezos will be central to their case.

New Evidence Of Conflict of Interest In JEDI Contract

New Evidence Of Conflict of Interest In JEDI Contract
New Evidence Of Conflict of Interest In JEDI Contract

WASHINGTON The massive and troubled $10 billion cloud contract the Pentagon has been pursuing has run into another snag. DoD revealed Tuesday it has obtained “new information” pointing to potential of conflicts of interest in the competition, already widely criticized for favoring Amazon Web Services. Pentagon spokesperson Elissa Smith confirmed to Breaking Defense that “new…

Cloud Computing, Armageddon, & How Not To Sell IT To DoD

Cloud Computing, Armageddon, & How Not To Sell IT To DoD
Cloud Computing, Armageddon, & How Not To Sell IT To DoD

“You’re not looking at my mission needs,” Brig. Gen. Crall told an audience of contractors. “If ‘there’s an app for that,’ does the app work when you’re disconnected?” Crall asked. “Does the app work when you haven’t had food for three days and you’ve been cut off?”

Forget The Terminator For Future Army AI: LTG Wesley

Forget The Terminator For Future Army AI: LTG Wesley
Forget The Terminator For Future Army AI: LTG Wesley

DETROIT: The Artificial Intelligence the military needs most is not some kind of killer robot, the Army’s three-star senior futurist told me today. The Army really needs AI to make sense of lots of data, fast, so commanders and quartermasters can send the right forces with the right supplies to the right place on the…

Pentagon Frustrated By Silicon Valley Rejection: Joint Chiefs Chairman

Pentagon Frustrated By Silicon Valley Rejection: Joint Chiefs Chairman
Pentagon Frustrated By Silicon Valley Rejection: Joint Chiefs Chairman

HALIFAX: The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs expressed frustration Saturday over the refusal of some tech giants to work with the US military. “I have a hard time with companies that are working very hard to engage in the market inside China,” said Gen. Joe Dunford at the Halifax Security Forum, “then don’t want to work…

HAC-D Members Want Investigation into JEDI Competition

HAC-D Members Want Investigation into JEDI Competition
HAC-D Members Want Investigation into JEDI Competition

Two lawmakers don’t mention Amazon Web Services by name in their letter to the DoD IG, but the Web retailer is all over the complaint.

Amazon’s Bezos To Air Force: Don’t Overthink It (But….)

Amazon’s Bezos To Air Force: Don’t Overthink It (But….)
Amazon’s Bezos To Air Force: Don’t Overthink It (But….)

What did Amazon founder, Washington Post owner and space entrepreneur Jeff Bezos tell the Air Force Association?

Don’t overthink it.
Don’t sweat the small stuff, but it’s not all small stuff.
On low stakes decisions, you should go fast, experiment, try and fail and try again; but on the big stuff — the irreversible decisions — for God’s sake, take your time.

Pentagon Hopes JEDI Contract Good For The Force

Pentagon Hopes JEDI Contract Good For The Force
Pentagon Hopes JEDI Contract Good For The Force

WASHINGTON: The JEDI cloud computing contract may be one of the most controversial deals the Pentagon hasn’t even awarded. Worth up to $10 billion over a decade, the Pentagon’s attempt to build its first true enterprise-wide cloud has sparked charges that the deal is designed to go straight to Amazon, which already supplies the CIA…

GAO Decision Threatens US Military Dominance; Reject It

GAO Decision Threatens US Military Dominance; Reject It
GAO Decision Threatens US Military Dominance; Reject It

Bill Greenwalt is sort of the Pied Piper of military acquisition policy. Where he leads, others often follow. After he wrote a series of op-eds for Breaking Defense recommending major changes to the Pentagon’s acquisition system, Sen. John McCain lured Bill back to his old job at the Senate Armed Services Committee. Greenwalt rewrote the laws, shaking up Defense Department acquisition. Bill is back, pointing to new acquisition problems, this latest one with his former employer — the Government Accountability Office. It’s a doozy, as you’ll see.

DISA Launches 5 Cloud Tests, Warns On Industry Consolidation

DISA Launches 5 Cloud Tests, Warns On Industry Consolidation
DISA Launches 5 Cloud Tests, Warns On Industry Consolidation

FORT MEADE, MD: “Remember the peace dividend we took in the Clinton years in the ’90s? Welcome back,” said Douglas Packard. “That’s where we’re at.” Some 20 years ago as defense budgets plummeted post-Cold War, the defense industry consolidated, recalled Packard, acting head of procurement at the Defense Information Systems Agency. Contractors better beware once more,…

Reaping the Benefits of a Global Defense Industry

Bellwethers of the Post-Afghan Defense-Industrial Base

Bellwethers of the Post-Afghan Defense-Industrial Base
Bellwethers of the Post-Afghan Defense-Industrial Base

After three years of the “age of austerity” in Western military spending, investors’ imperatives and corporate strategies show one indication of how the defense-industrial base will evolve over the next decade. Investors want public companies that demonstrate an attractive risk-adjusted total return, not just M&A-fueled arbitrage plays. In response, companies are husbanding or harvesting their financial…