Defense Business Alert

The Pentagon is bracing for a possible three-month delay across its major acquisition programs because of the COVID-19 outbreak, while Congress is eying another massive economic rescue package that could push billions in new funding to defense contractors.

The Pentagon official overseeing the Defense Department's new cybersecurity certification program thinks most companies in DOD's supply chain will be able to maintain the required cyber credentials for $1,000 per year or less.

The Defense Department is surging ahead with efforts to get third-party assessor organizations certified for work under the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification program, but the process of setting up a structure for companies to be assessed and approved has many unanswered questions, according to two large defense industry groups.

The Defense Department this week laid out the framework for implementing recent legislation meant to help pay contractors unable to work during the coronavirus outbreak.

House Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam Smith (D-WA) said today he is working to include measures that would help the U.S. defense industrial base in an upcoming COVID-19 stimulus bill being crafted by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA).

The Army's acquisition executive and modernization chief are evaluating daily the potential impacts of the COVID-19 outbreak on the service's major programs and the contractors supporting them. They say while certain events have been paused or rescheduled, they are not yet expecting any significant schedule changes.

Two defense industry groups, citing the coronavirus outbreak, are pressing lawmakers to provide a six-month extension to the deadline for when federal contractors are banned from using Chinese telecommunications products like Huwaei and ZTE.

The Space and Missile Systems Center on Friday revealed it has directed Raytheon, the prime contractor for the GPS Operational Control Segment, to replace the system's computer hardware -- a move that will add another 10 months to the program's schedule and cost the government an additional $378 million.

The coronavirus relief legislation passed by the Senate this week would loosen restrictions on how the Defense Department can award larger other transaction agreements for prototypes related to COVID-19.