While the federal government once again waits until the last minute to decide whether or not they should shutdown, the opportunities for defense contractors continue to grow. The new year is almost upon us, and it’s a great time to reconsider your current job and whether or not it’s the right time to quit and find new opportunities in national security. The key is staying on mission. But regardless of your line of work, the contracts are many, and the workers are few. So, keep checking out the landscape – you never know what opportunity you might find.
Contract Opportunities to Watch
| Palantir | The Space Systems Command’s (SSC) Cross-Mission Ground & Communications Enterprise (ECX) awarded Palantir a $43 million contract to continue its delivery of a data and decision platform to support national security objectives. This $43 million contract is an additional extension, expanding upon previous awards from April and August this year. The total cumulative face value of the contract is $91.5 million.
This award provides continued capabilities for Project Brown Heron which enables all-domain situational awareness and decision-making at NORAD/USNORTHCOM (N-NC), and the Space C2 division under the Cross Mission Ground & Communications Enterprise (ECX). The Palantir platform, known as Warp Core, is being utilized to make decisions from large volumes of data in support of these missions. Warp Core leverages Palantir as a configurable enterprise data management and operations software solution that enables the integration and management of data from various data sources and supports application delivery, in-depth analysis, and data-driven decision-making across echelons and functional communities, including for users who operate on multiple security levels across multiple networks. As the application and data landscape continue to rapidly expand in both scale and complexity, Warp Core simplifies and streamlines data management and integration, to aid in everything from readiness to improved decision-making. Warp Core’s work also extends beyond Space Domain Awareness missions and was recently used by SSC and its partners to assist the evacuation of U.S. allies from Afghanistan. “The threats to our nation in and through the space domain are very real as we’ve seen in recent weeks, we must continue to advance our Nation’s Space Domain Awareness capabilities,” said Doug Philippone, Global Defense Lead at Palantir Technologies. “We’re very proud to have consistently earned the confidence of this innovative organization and to continue our partnership.”
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Key Employer in the Cleared Industry
| Northrop Grumman |
At Northrop Grumman, you can visualize a career that can take you places, build your skills, and grow – not just for a project, but for a career. Discover a role that’s right for you. Explore opportunities. |
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Cleared Opportunities
Honeywell Quantum Solutions (HQS) and Cambridge Quantum (CQ), two global leaders in quantum computing and technology, received regulatory approval and completed the previously announced business combination.
The new company, named Quantinuum, is now the largest and most advanced full-stack quantum computing company. Through its impressive scale and proven technology leadership in quantum hardware, software and research and development, Quantinuum will shape the future of what is projected to become a $1 trillion industry over the coming decades.
“The formation of Quantinuum marks an important milestone for the quantum computing industry,” said Darius Adamczyk, chairman and chief executive officer of Honeywell, and chairman of Quantinuum. “Quantinuum customers will now have access to the world’s first quantum operating system, applications, and hardware-agnostic software, all of which will be used to address extremely challenging business needs with which conventional computing systems struggle. The combination of the quantum industry’s top talent, growing customer base, and most comprehensive technology will position Quantinuum extremely well for future growth.”
Quantinuum’s products and solutions support cyber security and encryption, drug discovery and delivery, material science, finance, natural language processing and optimization across major industrial markets. These products are delivered in an integrated manner and are compatible with a variety of quantum hardware processors, including the system Model H1, powered by Honeywell, and also IBM’s suite of quantum computers.
“The pace and scope of engineering advances, innovations in algorithm discovery, and the development of early-stage quantum software has picked up markedly in the past 12 months and is now ahead of most projections,” said Ilyas Khan, chief executive officer of Quantinuum. “Quantinuum is an accelerator for the quantum computing ecosystem as a whole, and I am thrilled and honored to be able to lead the new company as we enter a critical phase in the birth of the quantum computing sector.”
Quantinuum has recently announced groundbreaking advances in the financial industry by enabling quantum Monte Carlo simulations; conducted the world’s largest experiment in quantum natural language processing, a key enabler of artificial intelligence; announced commercial projects in critical areas of drug discovery that will enhance humanity’s well-being; and provided all quantum software developers open access to “tket,” the world’s most popular independent quantum software development kit. Quantinuum’s System Model H1 quantum computer, powered by Honeywell, recently achieved a quantum volume of 1,024, the highest measured on a commercial quantum computer to date, with further advances to be announced in the near future.
Quantinuum has a staff of nearly 400, over 300 of whom are engineers and scientists that include some of the world’s leading quantum computing experts. It has offices in the U.S., United Kingdom, Japan and Germany, and is an IBM Quantum Hub.
Honeywell has been an investor in and commercial partner of CQ since 2019, and now owns a majority stake in Quantinuum. Additionally, Honeywell and Quantinuum have entered into a long-term agreement for Honeywell to help manufacture the critical ion traps needed to power Quantinuum’s trapped-ion quantum hardware. Honeywell’s businesses will continue to serve as a proving ground for the new company’s quantum offerings. There is no change to Honeywell’s financial outlook as a result of the transaction.
