Recently, 26 companies submitted a letter to both the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) and the House Committee on Armed Services, calling upon Congress to actively support policies that enable small businesses to engage with the Pentagon. Companies like Rebellion Defense, SandboxAQ, Percipient.ai, and 23 others all united to push Congress to embrace policies that reinforce small business participation within the defense industrial base (DIB). The Coalition’s recommendations encompass several crucial aspects, including:
- Encouraging the Pentagon to use existing appropriations authority to buy commercially available software.
- Cultivating a culture that prioritizes the acquisition of commercial software, rather than expending valuable research-and-development funds to reinvent the wheel.
- Upholding policies that streamline the certification process for small businesses, effectively reducing the time and cost associated with their involvement in military systems.
The Coalition urgently implores Congress to prioritize the passage of a comprehensive year-long funding bill, coupled with policies that fully support software innovation and ongoing defense modernization efforts. The goal is to bolster the prospects of defense startups and small businesses, which hold a pivotal role in maintaining our strategic advantage over adversaries.
Contract Opportunities to Watch: QuSecure
QuSecure was awarded a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II Federal Government contract to develop quantum-resilient software solutions for the U.S. Army.
With this award, QuSecure will continue to advance research and development of quantum-resilient technologies and encryption solutions for the U.S. Government. The award states that QuSecure’s work has merit, will result in important benefits for the Army, and allots upwards of $2 million to address uses in tactical edge and tactical IoT devices that can be used for battle-ready deployment.
Key Employer in the Cleared Industry: Boeing
With veterans making up nearly 15% of Boeing’s U.S. workforce, we know your transition to civilian life is an opportunity to upskill and grow. Join us and work with advanced aerospace and defense technologies that help keep the world safe and bring our heroes home. Explore our opportunities.
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Cleared Opportunities
Booz Allen’s corporate venture capital arm, Booz Allen Ventures, LLC, has made a strategic investment in Shift5, the onboard data company. Shift5 brings order to the complexity of onboard data, providing observability, critical insights, and cybersecurity protection to the world’s most critical commercial and military fleets and weapon systems. This is the first investment by Booz Allen Ventures aligned with the firm’s National Cyber business, which uses a comprehensive view of the cyber landscape and intelligence-grade tradecraft to unlock stronger defensive solutions and deploy full-spectrum cyber capabilities with confidence, precision, and speed.
“The nation’s adversaries view the U.S. federal government, intelligence agencies, the military, and all critical infrastructure sectors as a single, target-rich environment—one cyber battlespace,” said Brad Medairy, executive vice president and leader of Booz Allen’s National Cyber business. “In this threat landscape, this investment enables us to outpace adversaries and protect U.S. strategic advantage by enhancing weapon systems readiness. Shift5 will be a key enabler of our continued delivery of superior tradecraft for cyber-physical resilience and mission readiness.”
“Shift5 is a key enabler of the cyber-physical resilience and readiness of Department of Defense mission systems, highly recognized commercial aviation companies, and critical rail infrastructure,” said Travis Bales, managing director at Booz Allen Ventures. “If critical infrastructure such as these are not fully functional, then national security, public safety, and economic security could be at risk. The work Booz Allen and Shift5 are doing together will unlock value for our clients as we work shoulder-to-shoulder with them to detect attacks and maintain resilience.”
