GovConJudicata Weekly Debrief (6/17–21)

This week's Weekly Debrief covers ARPA-H's contract with Palantir, Army's drone push, DIU's spending, and space.

Health

FedScoop – ARPA-H enters $19M contract with Palantir for artificial intelligence, data software

• "The Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health will use Palantir’s AI and data software to support its data infrastructure and track the progress of its research programs under a $19 million contract being announced Thursday."
  

Defense

DefenseNews – Army to buy more than 1,000 Switchblade drones through Replicator

• "The U.S. Army will field more than 1,000 Switchblade 600 drones over the next year as part of Replicator — the Pentagon’s push to field thousands of uncrewed systems. Gen. James Mingus, the Army’s vice chief of staff, revealed the quantity for the first time during a June 21 House Appropriations defense subcommittee hearing, hosted at the Defense Innovation Unit’s headquarters in Mountain View, Calif."

BreakingDefense – Here’s how DIU will spend almost $1B this year

• "The Defense Innovation Unit  today laid out its plans for how it will spend the $938 million Congress gave the organization for fiscal year 2024. The budget, which will be dispersed across four areas to streamline the organization’s 'DIU 3.0' strategy, with DIU Director Doug Beck saying in a press release today that 'DIU’s FY24 spending is concentrated on closing the U.S. military’s most critical operational capability gaps with the focus, speed, and scale required to help us deter major conflict or win if forced to fight.'"

Space

Space.com – When a dangerous asteroid threatens Earth, humanity will have to work together, NASA says

• "A threatening asteroid could bring Earth's oft-squabbling nations together, at least for a while. Dealing with a big, dangerous asteroid that appears to have our planet in its crosshairs will require a healthy dose of international cooperation, experts say — and it's best to start thinking about that scenario now, while we have enough time to lay out a potential response framework."

Space.com – Pentagon picks SpaceX, Blue Origin and ULA for $5.6 billion launch deal

• "SpaceX, Blue Origin and United Launch Alliance (ULA) have been chosen to provide launch services for the U.S. Space Force.  The three companies will compete for National Security Space Launch (NSSL) contracts worth up to $5.6 billion across fiscal years 2025 through 2029, the U.S. Department of Defense announced on June 13."

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