GovConJudicata Weekly Debrief (12/13–17)
This week's Weekly Debrief covers the 2022 NDAA, Palantir's work with the Army's Vantage platform, Raytheon's prototype weather satellite for the Space Force, Boeing's decision to drop the vaccine mandate, and commentary on what the government should do next year.
NDAA
"The annual defense bill, passed this week by the Senate, included a provision to require new reports on the potential efficacy of a National Cyber Academy modeled after existing military service academies."
"The Senate passed a crucial defense spending bill Wednesday that now heads to President Joe Biden's desk for his signature. The 2022 National Defense Authorization Act, a roughly $770 billion package to fund national defense programs and set the policy agenda at the Department of Defense, passed the Senate 89-10. It cleared the House earlier this month in a 363-70 vote."
Defense
"Big-data company Palantir will continue to work on one of its major Army programs, Army Vantage. The company announced Friday it earned a $116 million option year extension on its $458 million-ceiling contract it initially won in December 2019. The system is an “integrated data platform,” meaning it uses software to combine data sources from across the Army into a single common operation picture, according to Palantir."
"The U.S. Space Force has awarded Raytheon Technologies a $67 million contract to test a prototype weather system the company designed for the service, the American firm announced Dec. 15. The Space Force initially selected Raytheon Intelligence & Space to design a prototype for the Electro-Optical Infrared Weather System, or EWS, in 2020. The program will replace the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program, or DMSP, which has provided cloud characterization and theater weather imagery observations data to the military since the 1960s."
Vaccine Mandate
"Boeing said on Friday that it had suspended a vaccination requirement for employees after a court blocked enforcement of an executive order by President Biden that instructed federal contractors to impose such mandates."
Commentary
"The late cigar titan Zino Davidoff wrote a wonderful little book many years ago, The Connoisseur’s Book of the Cigar. In one passage, he discusses the pillar of ash that grows as you puff a cigar. Cigar smokers sometimes like to see how long they can let the ash get before tapping it off. But Davidoff cautions not to dwell too much on the ash, because it represents pleasure past. He was always looking ahead."
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