DHS Awards ManTech Seat on $325M SETA III Contract

ManTech International Corp. [MANT] was selected for a position on a potential five-year $325 million contract from the Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology (S&T) branch to continue providing systems engineering and technical assistance (SETA) under the SETA III contract. The indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity award was made on June 3 and ManTech was the incumbent on SETA II. “This award expands our role for state-of-the-art technology solutions that range from advanced cyber security to data analytics and sophisticated systems and software engineering,” says Kevin Phillips, president and CEO of ManTech. “As our nation confronts rising challenges from hostile states and criminal hackers, we are ‘Bringing Digital to the Mission’ at DHS in innovative ways that advance their strategic and tactical goals while safeguarding vital IT and network assets end-to-end.” The company has been providing similar support to S&T since 2003.

IARPA Awards MAEGLIN Research Contracts to Michigan, SRI International

The Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Agency (IARPA) has awarded Phase 2 research contracts to teams led by the Univ. of Michigan and SRI International for continued research under the Molecular Analyzer for Efficient Gas-Phase Low-Power Interrogation (MAEGLIN) program. MAEGLIN is aimed at developing an ultra-lower-power chemical analysis system for remote detection and identification of explosives, chemical weapons, industrial toxins and pollutants, narcotics, and nuclear materials in the presence of significant background interference. The first phase of the program involved development of components for collection, separation and analysis. In the second phase, which has two components, the teams will demonstrate a chemical identification capability in either a forensic identification or screening identification track, against the program metrics using hardware at the brass-board system level. The second component will be the design of an integrated prototype with the same functionality in terms of chemical identification capability as the brass-board systems, but also meet the Phase 2 design requirements for size, weight and power consumption. A test and evaluation team consisting of the Chemical Biological Center, Naval Research Laboratory and Sandia National Laboratory is responsible for testing and evaluating the accuracy, sensitivity and long-term use performance of the MAEGLIN integrated brass-boards and prototype designs. “Chemical detection is a priority for the Intelligence Community, with applications such as forensic analysis, border/facility protection, and stockpile/production monitoring,” says Kristy DeWitt, MAEGLIN program manager. “In particular, the IC has an interest in long-term monitoring of a chemical environment without human oversight, but current technology cannot provide both high sensitivity and accuracy, and long-term emplacement capability.”

CISA Awards GDIT $325M for Priority Telecommunications Services

General Dynamics’ [GD] Information Technology segment has received a potential $325.4 million contract to provide priority telecommunications services for the Department of Homeland Security Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency’s (CISA) Emergency Communications Division. The incumbent for the work was the former CSRA, which GD acquired in 2018. Under the contract, GDIT will provide a range of services including program managing, engineering support, operational support, technology refresh and others.

CBP Awards Team Qbase $6M to Continue Providing Help Desk Support Services

Customs and Border Protection on Sept. 20 plans to award Team Qbase a potential $5.8 million task order to continue providing Technology Service Desk support services until the agency is able to migrate to a competitive award of a replacement task order under the Health and Human Services Chief Information Officer, Solutions and Partners, Small Business (CIO-SP3 SB) contract vehicle. The new task order to Team Qbase has a four-month base period and three two-month options. Under the award, Team Qbase will plan for incoming and outgoing transition of operations, program management, operations, and the Automated Commercial Environment Account Service Desk.

DTRA Awards Applied Research $240M for Reachback Support

The Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) has awarded Applied Research Associates (ARA) a potential five-year $240 million contract to continue providing technical reachback support. The company says it develops decision support products for the U.S. military, federal agencies, and interagency partners following an event involving weapons of mass destruction or the release of hazardous materials. ARA’s reachback team is staffed by more than 30 subject matter experts to directly support warfighters and emergency responders with rapid CBRNE technical expertise around-the-clock.

Synapse Nabs Contract to Develop and Deploy AI for Automated X-Ray Threat Detection

Synapse Technology says it has received a second contract from the Air Force to develop and deploy artificial intelligence (AI) technology for enabling X-Ray security systems to automatically detect weapons, sharps and improvised explosive devices. The X-Ray systems are used to screen passenger baggage at security checkpoints at military bases. The system operators are Airmen that are required to identify Transportation Security Administration prohibited items and military oriented threats. Deploying our product in an operational environment at stateside and international bases will enable Synapse to create customized detection solutions for the Air Force,” says Madeline Zimmerman, business development lead for Synapse. The value of the award wasn’t disclosed. The contract is through the Air Force’s AFWERX program.

Air Force Base Sticks with Dedrone for Small UAS Tracking

Dedrone says that Francis E. Warren Air Force Base in Wyoming is continuing its license agreement with the company to continue using the DroneTracker small unmanned aircraft system (sUAS) tracking system for airspace security. The base is one of the U.S. strategic missile bases, responsible for Minuteman III ICBMs. The DroneTracker platform provides passive radio frequency technology to detect, classify and track sUAS and displays the information in real-time. The system can also trigger automatic alerts and countermeasures when a sUAS threat is present. The value of the licensing agreement wasn’t disclosed.

Paragon Nabs $53M DHS Guard Services Contract

The Department of Homeland Security Federal Protective Service has awarded Paragon Systems Inc. a potential $53 million contract to provide protective security officer services for federal personnel and property throughout Hawaii, American Samoa, Guam and Saipan. The contract has a one-year base period, four one-year options, and a six-month option.

ECS Teams with Dutch Firm on DHS Cyber Security Dashboard

ECS, which earlier this year won a potential $276.1 million task order to supply the Department of Homeland Security with an integrated dashboard to help with monitoring and mitigating cyber security threats across the federal civilian government, is partnered with the Dutch company Elastic N.V. [ESTC] for its solution. Elastic N.V. will provide its Elastic Stack platform, which has capabilities for data storage, search, analyze, visualize, navigate and share. ECS was the incumbent contractor for the DHS Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) program dashboard. ECS says that Elastic’s platform will simplify the architecture for the CDM Dashboard II and “will augment, and in some cases replace, multiple closed-source legacy components to more accurately and efficiently track and report critical metrics for both cabinet- and sub-level agencies.” CISA’s CDM dashboard and agency dashboards display information from CDM tools that agencies deploy on their networks, providing situational awareness of cyber security posture and allowing users to identify risks to their networks. “Elastic is on track to reduce time to insight from weeks to seconds,” ECS says.