While the rest of the world is talking layoffs, defense contractors are instead saying that there’s not enough talent in the pipelines. In fact, a survey reported in the New York Post last week said that half of all U.S. companies are making plans to layoff employees and get ready for an economic downturn. The PwC survey showed that over half of U.S. companies have already put hiring freezes in place. And four out of 10 reported that they’ve rescinded job offers or gotten rid of sign-on bonuses. Meanwhile, defense contractors are worried about completing orders on time, an issue that Raytheon CEO noted on an investor call. While a slowdown in the economy is bad news overall, military contractors have struggled with supply chain issues due to a lack of available talent. With economic shifts, national security work becomes increasingly more appealing.
Layoffs
NSO Group
Israeli spyware firm, NSO Group, is not only losing their CEO, but they have plans to reorganize internally, cutting 100 jobs. NSO sells its Pegasus software to governments and law enforcement agencies. The software is used to hack into mobile phones to covertly record emails, calls, and texts. The U.S. blacklisted NSO Group last year, banning them from receiving exports from American companies.
Hiring
Boeing
Boeing is looking to hire even more employees, this time in San Antonio, TX. Recent job fair activity reports that Boeing is looking for 200 new employees. Mechanics are especially needed for their F-15, F-18, and C-17 aircraft programs. While skillsets from other industries will be considered, some positions will also require an active Secret security clearance.
Cleared Employer at Work: CISA
Opportunity to Watch
The DoD awarded BlueHalo Titan Defense a $24M contract to procure multiple Titan C-UAS systems. Titan, BlueHalo’s AI/ML-powered RF-based Counter-Unmanned Aerial System (C-UAS) solution, is the DoD’s recent selection as a Program of Record (POR) capability.
The undisclosed government customer will use Titan systems for pre-deployment activities, mobile security, fixed site protection, and dismounted operations while deployed.
“Titan acts as a force multiplier for our troops,” said Jonathan Moneymaker, BlueHalo’s Chief Executive Officer. “Titan creates a sphere of threat detection and protection around soldiers and key military assets–providing an innovative, affordable, easy-to-use system to save warfighter lives and ensure mission success.”
“We celebrate another contract award for Titan–not only because it demonstrates the system’s superior C-UAS force protection but because more front-line soldiers will now have access to an effective tool that will help bring them home safely,” said Dan Gillings, BlueHalo Sector President.
Titan C-UAS uses an automated decision engine to match threats with optimized electronic countermeasures without requiring an operator’s manual response, interpretation of the threat scenario, or expertise in discriminating complex frequency hopping spread spectrum signal characteristics.
