Sam Hart

Michael W. MacKay, MBA announces the launch of Washington Office, a new DC-based strategy firm focused on championing frontier tech companies to advance U.S. security and prosperity. The firm aims to redefine government relations by focusing on emerging technologies and providing strategic support to startups and leading companies. • Innovation - Washington Office is launched to support startups and leading companies in harnessing emerging technologies for U.S. security and prosperity. • Security - The firm will co-host a micro-summit with NATO leaders to discuss the future of technology and its implications for national and international security. • Partnerships - Washington Office is in strategic partnership with Capital Factory, aiming to give 'Little Tech' a voice in the nation's capital. 💡You may want to consider exploring potential collaborations with Washington Office to leverage emerging technologies in defense innovation.

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Boosting, because your time is valuable, & Pete & Matt get right to the point with what you need to know. #acquisition #contracting

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For today's Substack post, Matt and I propose an idea for driving Commercial Competition across the DoD. How can we leverage a process like Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) solution brief to enable commercial solutions to compete with current acquisition programs? Explore if there are solutions that can deliver faster, lower cost, and/or at increased performance. Interestingly, there is a Defense Acquisition Challenge Program that has been in statute for nearly 20 years that aligns with our idea. What do you think? https://lnkd.in/estDCyAU

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Jake Sullivan, National Security Advisor, presented the roadmap on the future of U.S. military-industrial development. What really stands out to me is his emphasis on the role of commercial technology, the importance of Silicon Valley, and the need to reform the acquisition process to ensure innovative technologies can be quickly acquired and deployed. This is a crucial step forward in bridging commercial innovation with defense needs. Key points from the roadmap: 1. Ramp Up Production of Key Capabilities: Prioritize long-range munitions, air defense systems, autonomous platforms, and critical stockpiles. A critical munitions acquisition fund could stabilize demand and stockpiling efforts. 2. Strengthen Public-Private Partnerships: Increase production capacity, invest in workforce development, and expand DoD-owned facilities for greater resilience. 3. Accelerate Defense Acquisition Reforms: Rethink traditional processes to welcome nontraditional, innovative tech providers. Collaboration with Silicon Valley and securing new acquisition authorities will be game-changers. 4. Integrate Defense Industrial Bases with Allies: Partner with allies to boost readiness, production capacity, and supply chain resilience, reinforcing deterrence through unified capabilities. 5. Invest in Talent and Leadership: The focus on recruiting and retaining top talent ensures the U.S. military remains unmatched, with personnel who can translate advanced equipment into operational strength. #DefenseInnovation #MilitaryModernization #PublicPrivatePartnerships #SiliconValley #AcquisitionReform #DefenseTech #NationalSecurity #AI #MilitaryIndustrialComplex #InnovationEcosystem #TalentDevelopment

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New Hub-and-Spokes post! 🚀 Capitalizing on Critical Technologies: DoD's Office of Strategic Capital and its Plan to Secure America’s Strategic Edge Three key stories shaping U.S. defense and Indo-Pacific alliances this week: 1️⃣ DoD's Office of Strategic Capital Unveils 2025 Investment Plan Focused on supporting critical technologies and national security priorities, OSC's new strategy aims to catalyze private investment in sectors crucial to America’s edge. 2️⃣ $3.6B Sale of Air-to-Air Missiles to Japan A significant step in bolstering U.S.-Japan defense cooperation with the sale of AMRAAMs, ensuring the security of U.S. personnel and regional stability. 3️⃣ NSA Jake Sullivan’s Capstone Trip to India Sullivan's visit underscores the growing U.S.-India relationship, focusing on space cooperation, nuclear collaboration, and emerging technologies. #Defense #NationalSecurity #Technology #USIndia #USJapan #Investment #StrategicAlliances https://lnkd.in/euN3a_Bb

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We cannot put enough resources towards these efforts. "The Department of Defense, with support from the Office of Management and Budget and OSTP, will launch the Trusted Advisors Pilot this year. This program will create a pool of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) and AI experts that can be tapped by agencies to support implementation of the AI Executive Order, National Security Memorandum on Revitalizing America’s Foreign Policy and National Security Workforce, Institutions, and Partnerships (NSM-3), and other presidential priorities." https://bit.ly/3LO7Qdi

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The DoD Inaugural Human-Machine Interfaces CTA now has an approved Roadmap and Vision & Strategy document. They can be found here (CAC enabled). https://lnkd.in/eZU2kZan For those without a CAC, request via the DoD CTO Website, Critical Technologies page (at the bottom). https://lnkd.in/eey4y2BP There are too many Stakeholders across our Department, Industry, Partner Nations and Academia to thank for their support in 2024 to help refine, scope, prioritize and deliver this as a collaborative Strategy. We had over 300 Stakeholder engagements, 5 deliberate HMI CTA Workshops and numerous Key Leader Engagements to get this right. We will continue to refine with our Ecosystem as we drive to accelerate these technologies and set the conditions across the Department for a persistent and endemic focus on these Critical Technologies in our primary Mission Focus Areas. 2024 was great, but now the real work begins. Get Ready.

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BIGGEST PRODUCT UPDATE YET!!! Over the past 6 months of the journey, our users have continually been asking for this one golden question: How much money is there for X? Up until now, you still had to piece the full picture together on our platform. No more. Create market sizings in minutes with competitors, funding offices and key stakeholders at your fingertips. We are so pumped for this next iteration of Usul and aren't slowing down anytime soon. Interested in multiplying your DoD capture? Book a demo here: https://lnkd.in/gbkrP3yk

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Modernizing Army Software Acquisition: With DASA (SAR) Margaret Boatner and PEO IEW & S BG Ed Barker Center for Strategic & International Studies 19 Apr 2024 The Defense-Industrial Initiatives Group (DIIG) will host a roundtable discussion with Ms. Margaret Boatner, Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army for Strategy & Acquisition Reform (DASA(SAR)), and Brigadier General Ed Barker, Program Executive Officer for Intelligence, Electronic Warfare, & Sensors (PEO IEWS), on modernizing Army software acquisition. The Army recently released a policy that reforms a number of institutional Army policies and processes—from requirements through sustainment—to accelerate the adoption of modern and agile software development approaches in line with industry best practices. The discussion will focus on the historical approaches the Army used to develop software, the key principles of the new policy and how it seeks to disrupt the status quo, and the measures the Army will take to successfully implement the policy. The discussion will be moderated by Dr. Alexis Lasselle Ross, a Senior Associate (Non-Resident) at CSIS.

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Partnerships can make the startups have a seat at the table as they grow. It can also enhance the overall deliverable and make it a bigger win for the mission. Economic principle of sharing resources and doing what you are good at to expand the frontier of the curve.

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A review of 2024 in DoD Acquisition and Sustainment by William LaPlante, Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment. Examples of building resilience include: Joint Production Accelerator Cell (JPAC) and its impact on multiple weapons systems including Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM), Long-Range Anti-Ship Mis­sile (LRASM), Tomahawk, Harpoon, and F-16. Regional Sustainment Framework (RSF), which established with international allies & partners "a distrib­uted maintenance, repair, and over­haul (MRO) network placed closer geographically to the point of opera­tional need." Publishing of the first evert National Defense Industrial Strategy (NDIS) in order to "guide genera­tional change toward a more robust, resilient, and modernized defense in­dustrial ecosystem..." Competitive Advantage Pathfinders (CAPs), "which employ modular open systems approaches and cross-Service integration to streamline development and fielding." Re-energizing nuclear and biodefense capabilities through work by the Nuclear Weapons Council (NWC) and the Biodefense Council (BDC). #defenseindustry #Acquisitionreform https://lnkd.in/eDrypNGy 

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When $60b is up for grabs, the government should have known that there would be a few questions regarding the RFP. Nearly 6,000 though? After a brief pause in August, the NASA SEWP VI RFP process is back-rolling. This is an opportunity that must be in thousands of pipelines across large and small businesses. There is an estimated $12b in spend in the first year after award. SEWP VI will be NASA's main vehicle for IT procurement: both VAR activity, enterprise-wide services and small business purchasing. It will include both CONUS and OCONUS procurement as well. There will be several hundred awardees and the real work begins once the GWAC is awarded. RFP responders are asked to talk about how they track all of the items released under the contract: NASA does not want a situation where they receive zero bids for something. This is going to be a very active contract in 2025 and years to come.

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Dual use is a key attribute for a phase 3 SBIR/STTR.

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For my Government and GOVCON people out there - check out GSA's AI Guide for Government below. It's a helpful outline for how to think about AI as a government (or industry) organization that's thinking about how to deal with, develop, or buy AI solutions. It has some great nuance to it, and it's a way for agencies to frame their specific needs. If you're curious about the different regulatory, national security, and capability enhancements around AI, reach out. At the end of the day, I started Hathr because the US' National and Economic Security depends on Government, Business, and Individuals, being able to secure their data. OpenAI, Google, and all the businesses built of their platforms are just sucking up everyone's data and making the world a more generic (and in my opinion) and boring place where everything looks and sounds the same. I didn't (and still don't) see other AI companies prioritizing privacy, compliance, and security because AI Companies see the value in harvesting user data. If you or your organization is thinking about purchasing or developing an AI solution, the link below is a good primer. #privacy #AI #GOVCON

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🚨 Big Win in GovCon! G2Xchange has the latest on the 5-year, $2.4B SPRUCE IDIQ awarded by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. 🌟 With 10 top-tier companies named out of 33 bidders, this contract is designed to streamline agile product design and delivery services for the VA. 💼 What's SPRUCE? The Secure, Performant, Reliable, and User-Centered Experiences (SPRUCE) contract provides digital solutions that align with VA's mission. Each task order, capped at $50M, brings together expert teams across software development, data science, product support, and more. Check out the full details on how this contract will drive VA’s digital modernization goals by leveraging industry best practices and top professionals! 👉 Check it out here: https://lnkd.in/gav7kUFy G2Xchange | #govcon #VA #SPRUCE

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National leadership for Autonomous Systems: Army Futures Command, VERTEX | Advanced Autonomy, February 11-12, 2025. Explore the US Army's state of advanced autonomy in human-machine integrated formations. Your contributions could inform future solicitations, requirements, concepts, and policies. Get notified when applications open 🔔https://hubs.la/Q02-NLgX0 US Army SBIR|STTR Program! Check out AI/ML-Enabled Voice-Commanded Autonomous Maneuver for Ground Combat Vehicles. https://lnkd.in/e_dTt5MJ Army Futures Command and organizations like Army Applications Laboratory are about Forging the Future. How involved will the US Army be with INTELLIGENT INFRASTRUCTURE for Commerce and Defense? Or AUTONOMY PRIME? The US Army is clearly the service that will get the most utility out of ubiquitous autonomy, not only in kinetic operations in a degraded environment, but also in the garrison environment, as potential gains in efficiency and sustainment are enormous. It simply makes sense that the US Army lead the way. Intelligent Infrastructure is a national program aligned with historic US Army programs. US Army was foundational to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) - Manhattan Project (Major General Richard Groves); U.S. Department of Transportation - Interstate Highways (General Lucius D. Clay); NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration - Apollo Program (MG John Medaris and Wernher von Braun), and the formation of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) (General Austin W. Betts). The list goes on over the 250 years since being established in 1775. INTELLIGENT INFRASTRUCTURE and AUTONOMY PRIME will accelerate the Army Futures Command mission. INTELLIGENT INFRASTRUCTURE will provide operational resilience, accelerate our innovation OODA loop with autonomous robotics, and radically reduce operational & sustainment costs.  Texas will be ground zero for the foundation of a multi-billion dollar Autonomy Prime for civil & defense focus on applied science (TRL7 - MRL), and it makes sense that the Texas-based Army Futures Command being the bridge between government and industry. U.S. Army DEVCOM Army Research Laboratory has been a pioneer in key foundations, including Active Digital Twins, autonomous systems, data, and the CFTs. Autonomy Institute https://lnkd.in/gXKgGUhX INTELLIGENT INFRASTRUCTURE, CONTINUUM of Innovation Capital, AUTONOMY PRIME, ATLAS PROGRAM, SKYHATTAN, Autonomous Nation #infrastructure #leadership #northstar #future #commerce #mission #arpai #nextg #apnt #transportation #edgeai #i2infrastructure #robotics #technology #automation #digital #productivity #autonomy

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The DISA Next Strategy aims to transform and integrate capabilities and services to best support the #DoD aligning with the National Defense Strategy’s priorities. By enhancing information system networks, DISA Next fosters improved interoperability, security, and efficiency. #Startups that align their products with this strategy can better understand the transformation process and how to contribute to the DoD's mission. This alignment ensures that their #technology are relevant and effective, ultimately driving success in a defense environment increasingly reliant on #innovation.

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