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Tag: government contractor

Manassas bio research supplier wins $5.5M in federal grants

Manassas-based biological materials management nonprofit American Type Culture Collection (ATCC) announced Tuesday that it won three Defense Threat Reduction Agency grants valued at more than $5.5 million to identify new therapeutic approaches to viruses.

“ATCC is committed to supporting this global health initiative by providing the novel scientific research and development solutions needed to address these high-morbidity and mortality infectious disease outcomes,” ATCC Chairman and CEO Dr. Raymond H. Cypess said in a statement. “Through our new partnership with DTRA, we now have the opportunity to focus on the development of novel machine learning and artificial intelligence models for countermeasure identification that may lead to better vaccine and therapeutic solutions, which are needed to save lives.”

ATCC will work to define new targets for therapeutics, evaluate new and/or Food and Drug Administration-approved candidates for antiviral and anti-inflammatory activities and define infection-associated biomarkers. The information gained will be used to develop AI models of disease and therapeutic effectiveness.

Promising therapies will be tested with organoid models (organ-on-a-chip) and could be a step in the one-drug-many-bugs approach to antiviral product development.

Aarthi Narayanan, ATCC’s director of translational research and technology transfer, will lead the research.

ATCC develops and supplies authenticated cells lines and microorganisms, advanced model systems and custom solutions, supporting research in basic science, drug discovery, translational medicine and public health.

GDIT secures $162M DISA Agency contract

Falls Church-based General Dynamics Information Technology Inc. (GDIT) announced Wednesday it had secured a potential $162 million contract with the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) to secure identity, access and account management for U.S Department of Defense applications.

The Identity, Credential and Access Management (ICAM) Other Transaction Authority (OTA) Phase III production agreement has a one-year base period with four option years. GDIT completed a pilot prototype in phases I and II. In this phase, it will continue to onboard the Defense Department’s financial management applications into the system and will expand the program to include non-financial management applications.

“DOD and DISA’s enterprise ICAM solution will serve as a critical pillar of its cybersecurity strategy and ultimate push toward a zero-trust architecture,” GDIT President Amy Gilliland said in a statement.

GDIT’s solution allows interoperability with other agencies, assisting with the department’s Joint All-Domain Command and Control concept to create a centralized system that allows data sharing among agencies.

Reston-based aerospace and defense contractor General Dynamics employs more than 100,000 people worldwide and generated $38.5 billion in revenue in 2021.

Peraton lands $2.69B Homeland Security contract

Federal contractor Peraton Inc.’s subsidiary, Perspecta Engineering Inc., landed a potential 10-year, almost $2.69 billion contract to assist the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the company announced Wednesday.

Under the indefinite quantity, indefinite quantity contract, Peraton will assist with Data Center and Cloud Optimization Support Services, providing information technology and other relevant professional services to automate, optimize and modernize the DHS Hybrid Computing Environment. The environment is a collection of enterprise computing resources, including a data center, colocation sites, private cloud services and DHS-furnished commercial cloud services.

“Peraton is proud to continue our support of DHS and help advance their national security priorities,” Peraton Chairman, President and CEO Stu Shea said in a statement. “This award further demonstrates our ability to deliver adaptable, managed enterprise IT services and support DHS’ goal to create scalable, innovative and cost-effective solutions that support and drive mission success across the department.”

Post-acquisition of Perspecta Inc. and Northrop Grumman’s integrated mission support and IT solution business, Peraton has more than 150 offices and 19,000 employees. In December 2021, it announced that it would be moving its headquarters from Herndon to Reston. The company is owned by Veritas Capital, a New York-based private equity firm.

PAE stockholders approve $1.9B acquisition by Amentum

Falls Church-based government contractor PAE Inc. (Pacific Architects and Engineers) announced Thursday its stockholders voted to approve and adopt the company’s previously announced agreement to be acquired by an affiliate of Germantown, Maryland-based aerospace defense contractor Amentum Services Inc. in a $1.9 billion all-cash deal.

The transaction is expected to close on or around Feb. 15, at which time PAE will become a wholly owned affiliate of Amentum. A Fortune 1000 company, PAE employs about 20,000 workers across approximately 60 nations; Amentum has 34,000 employees stationed in all 50 states and 105 foreign nations and territories.

PAE shareholders will be entitled to receive $10.05 per share in cash upon the closing of the acquisition. The share purchase price is approximately 70% greater than PAE’s closing price on Oct. 22, 2021, the last trading day prior to the Amentum deal’s announcement. At 4:12 p.m. on Feb. 11, PAE shares were trading for $10.05.

Founded in California in 1955 by engineer Edward Shay, PAE was acquired in 2006 by Lockheed Martin Corp., which moved PAE’s headquarters to Virginia. The company was sold to Lindsay Goldberg and then Platinum Equity before debuting as a publicly traded company on the Nasdaq in 2020.

ID.me to drop facial recognition requirement for government agencies

Amid concerns over privacy and data security, McLean-based tech company ID.me announced Tuesday it would drop the facial recognition requirement in its identity verification software, offering a new option to all government clients.

Founded in 2010 as TroopSwap, ID.me works with 10 federal agencies, including Social Security and Veterans Affairs, and 30 states, in addition to more than 500 retailers. The company’s announcement follows the Internal Revenue Service’s Monday announcement that it would drop its plan to require taxpayers to submit to facial recognition to access their online records. ID.me holds an $86.1 million contract with the IRS, which originally hired the company to provide facial recognition services.

All users will be able to delete their selfies or photos at account.ID.me beginning March 1, according to a news release.

“We have listened to the feedback about facial recognition and are making this important change, adding an option for users to verify directly with a human agent to ensure consumers have even more choice and control over their personal data,” ID.me founder and CEO Blake Hall said in a statement.

ID.me said agencies that procured its offline option would be able to verify the identifies of their customers through a video call or an in-person meeting, The Washington Post reported, but did not immediately respond to The Post’s questions of whether agencies would have to pay more for the option.

In January, ID.me told The Washington Post that it had 966 agents to handle video-chat verification for the U.S. The company said in a news release on Jan. 26 that it was hiring an additional 750 video chat agents.

ID.me agents have verified more than 3 million Americans, according to a news release, including the unbanked, homeless people and international users. It has a digital identity network of 73 million users with more than 145,000 people joining daily.

The IRS’ initial plan to require facial recognition for online records access beginning this summer had received scrutiny from legislators as well as tech privacy advocates.

On Thursday, a group of 15 Republican U.S. senators, including former Senate President Pro Tempore Chuck Grassley, sent IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig a letter expressing concern over the IRS’s plan to implement facial recognition, and also questioning how secure taxpayers’ biometric data would be with the third-party service. On Monday, U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, chair of the Senate Finance Committee, sent Rettig a letter urging the IRS to reverse the “implementation of facial recognition screening software for Americans who wish to access their historical tax documents online.”

IRS drops plan to use Va. firm’s facial recognition tech

The Internal Revenue Service is dropping a controversial plan to require taxpayers to submit to facial recognition to access their online accounts, the agency announced Monday. McLean-based contractor ID.me was working on the facial recognition system, which the IRS had earlier said would be implemented on its website this summer.

To prevent larger disruptions to taxpayers, the IRS will “transition away” from using ID.me “for facial recognition to help authenticate people creating new online accounts,” the IRS said in a news release. The agency will instead “quickly develop and bring online an additional authentication process that does not involve facial recognition.”

A startup founded in 2010, ID.me currently works with 10 federal agencies, including Social Security and Veterans Affairs, as well as at least 25 state employment agencies. The company holds an $86.1 million contract to provide the facial recognition services for the IRS, and it’s unclear what the announcement means for that contract. “We would refer you to the IRS with any questions on this issue,” an ID.me media spokesperson said.

“The IRS takes taxpayer privacy and security seriously, and we understand the concerns that have been raised,” Commissioner Chuck Rettig said in a statement. “Everyone should feel comfortable with how their personal information is secured, and we are quickly pursuing short-term options that do not involve facial recognition.”

Last week, responding to an inquiry from Virginia Business about the technology, the IRS released this statement about its plans to implement the facial recognition technology: “As we said when we announced this, this technology enables more people to securely access and use IRS online tools and applications and is a step the IRS took to ensure that taxpayer information is provided only to the person who legally has a right to the data.”

On Thursday, a group of 15 Republican U.S. senators, including former Senate President Pro Tempore Chuck Grassley, sent Rettig a letter expressing concern over the IRS’s plan, which would have required taxpayers to create an ID.me account.

“We are deeply concerned for many reasons,” the senators wrote. “The government and private companies have an unfortunate history of data breaches. The examples are many,” they said, citing Pro Publica’s June 2021 publishing of information from leaked tax records of the nation’s wealthiest billionaires, including Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk.

“The IRS has unilaterally decided to allow an outside contractor to stand as the gatekeeper between citizens and necessary government services. The decision millions of Americans are forced to make is to pay the toll of giving up their most personal information, biometric data, to an outside contractor or return to the era of a paper-driven bureaucracy where information moves slow.”

On Monday, U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, chair of the Senate Finance Committee, sent Rettig a letter urging the IRS to reverse the “implementation of facial recognition screening software for Americans who wish to access their historical tax documents online. … In addition to the serious privacy and civil liberties issues associated with the use of facial recognition technology, it is also alarming that the IRS and so many other government agencies have outsourced their core technology infrastructure to the private sector,” Wyden wrote.

ManTech secures $118M Navy contract

Herndon-based tech contractor ManTech International Corp. has secured a $188 million, five-year contract to support the U.S. Navy’s Naval Surface Warfare Center Crane by providing tech solutions for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance by unmanned aircraft systems.

“At ManTech, intelligent systems engineering is a core competency where we excel at developing innovation solutions. … Under this important re-compete win, our aim is to ensure battle-space dominance at speed across the full range of combat scenarios,” David Hathaway, executive vice president and general manager of ManTech’s Defense sector, said in a statement.

The contract falls under the Department of Defense Information Analysis Center’s multiple-award vehicle. The center provides technical data management and research support for the Defense Department and other federal government users.

Founded in 1968, ManTech provides technology solutions for U.S. defense, intelligence and federal civilian agencies. In 2020, the Fortune 1000 company reported $2.5 billion in revenue, and the company reported $637.8 million in revenue for the third quarter of 2021. In December 2021, ManTech announced it had completed its $350 million acquisition of Gryphon Technologies.

GDIT wins $518M Army contract

Falls Church-based General Dynamics Information Technology Inc. (GDIT) won a $518 million task order from the U.S. Army Communications Electronics Command (CECOM), the company announced Monday.

Under the Worldwide Field Support task order, the Fortune 500 General Dynamics Corp. subsidiary will provide logistics, sustainment and maintenance services for joint U.S. and coalition forces in the Army Field Support Brigade regions. It includes support for current and future C5ISR — formerly Communications-Electronics RD&E Center — systems, equipment and ancillary operational requirements.

The task order is part of the indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity Responsive Strategic Sourcing for Services Multiple Award that a General Dynamics Corp. joint venture — including GDIT, General Dynamics Mission Systems, General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems and General Dynamics Land Systems — won in April 2021.

“We’re excited to accelerate work on this important program, which brings together expertise from across General Dynamics, focusing our collective hardware and software systems solutions on providing CECOM with an innovative and cost-effective approach to supporting the warfighter’s mission,” GDIT President Amy Gilliland said in a statement.

Reston-based aerospace and defense contractor General Dynamics employs more than 100,000 people worldwide and generated $38.5 billion in revenue in 2021.

Parsons lands $100M COVID testing contract

Centreville-based defense contractor Parsons Corp. has been awarded a task order to provide COVID-19 tests to Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities across the United States, the company announced Jan. 19.

Parsons will supply emergency-use authorized, portable, rapid molecular and rapid antigen test kits to DHS, as well as provide logistics, coordination and training support.

“As we continue to battle the pandemic, testing availability is a crucial component to helping DHS fulfill its mission of securing the nation from threats, and keeping people safe by helping detect and slow the spread of the COVID-19 virus,” said Jon Moretta, Parsons’ president for engineered systems, in a statement. “We are proud to provide our biosurveillance knowledge to the department, leveraging our industry-leading resources, capabilities and expertise as we work with DHS and organizations around the world to improve disease surveillance, monitoring and detection; public health and medical situational awareness; and research, development, testing and evaluation.”

Founded in 1944, Parsons employs more than 16,000 people in 24 countries and specializes in defense, intelligence, security and infrastructure engineering, focusing on technology.

Reston IT company promotes CEO

Tony Crescenzo, president of Reston-based information technology contractor Intelligent Waves LLC (IW), has been promoted to CEO, the company announced Wednesday.

“Tony’s high-energy leadership style and ability to recruit top management talent has enabled us to maximize the value and impact of our company,” IW founder and owner Jared Shepard said in a statement.

Crescenzo became IW’s president in 2020 and will retain the position.

IW’s founder and owner, Jared Shephard, who had also been CEO, will remain chairman of the board.

“It is a tremendous honor to take the reins as the CEO of Intelligent Waves, and I look forward to helping the company fulfill its full potential through innovation in the government’s most demanding and critical areas,” he said in a statement.

Crescenzo is a veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps. Before joining IW, he had served as CEO of IntelliDyne LLC since 2013. Crescenzo has held leadership positions at Software AG Federal Systems, CACI and Initiate Systems. He served as president and CEO of Inline Software and was the founder and CEO of Analysis Frameworks. He was also a partner at the management consulting firm Achievence LLC.

Crescenzo is a member of the Northern Virginia Technology Council’s board and the co-chair of the council’s Veteran’s Employment Initiative Foundation. He chairs the Semper Fi Fund Advisory Board and is also a member of The Nature Conservancy’s Virginia Board of Trustees.

Intelligent Waves is a service-disabled veteran-owned small business that was founded in 2006 by Jared Shepard, who served in the U.S. Army as an infantryman. The company provides systems engineering, cloud computing and managed services, cyber and security architecture, mobility and operations and intelligence analytics.