“STARS AND STRIPES” By Jennifer Svan “The field exercise in a wooded training area capped three days of joint instruction aimed at helping chaplains from the United States and nearly a dozen NATO allies and partners work together during a crisis.” ______________________________________________________________________________ “Chaplains in camouflage crawled on the ground, carried stretchers and counseled fellow service members amid a barrage of explosions and gunfire, part of
“MILITARY TIMES” By Tim Kane “A college degree was the steppingstone to a career, but the announcement by more than 15 of the biggest names in business that they would no longer require employees to have a college degree rocked the foundation of higher education. What this means for those transitioning from the military and for veterans is that they are setting themselves up for a successful career transition into an industry that is job rich, faster than what a college degre
“WAR ON THE ROCKS” By Benjamin Jensen, Yasir Atalan And Ian Reynolds “No technology is a panacea or poses a risk independent of the people and institutions surrounding its use. Adapting algorithms to support strategic analysis requires studying the people, culture, and bureaucracy as much as it does model performance.” ________________________________________________________________________________ “Prophecy and alarmism about AI are both overblown. War on the Rocks has been
“SMALLTOFEDS” By Ken Larson “Billing under federal government contracts can cause difficulty for small businesses because they often do not recognize that setting up complete contract identification information on the government billing form is vital to smooth invoice processing.“ ________________________________________________________________________________ “A major feature not recognized by businesses new to government contracting is the relationship between inspection an
The LLM replied as follows: “CHAT GPT” “Large language models have made big leaps in processing and generating human-like language, but they still don’t truly “understand” communications the way people do. The most effective approach right now is a hybrid: AI to amplify speed, breadth, and structure with a human consultant to interpret, adapt and empathize in ways the model can’t yet match.” BOTTOM LINE: The truth will always be ours to determine. https://rosecoveredglasses.w
“SMALLTOFEDS” By Ken Larson “To effectively market a federal government services contract a small business must sell on the basis of having a business system as well as technical performance infrastructure ready to run the job when a contract proposal is submitted. Parallel thinking is required to plan for government project technical effort against a template of necessary business process infrastructure, driven by introducing Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) into the c
Pictorially illustrated, direct links to topics on the Military Industrial Complex, Small Business Federal Government Contracting and Veterans Affairs. (Use toggle feature in frame below and click images to access and follow on Pinterest) https://www.pinterest.com/smalltofeds/sm-bus-fed-gov-contracting/
President John F. Kennedy meets with the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Maxwell D. Taylor and Defense Secretary Robert S. McNamara at the White House on Oct. 2, 1963. “DEFENSE ONE” By Dr. Harlan Ullman – November 17, 2017 “Tragically, the U.S. started these wars for reasons that proved wildly wrong, or intervened based on lack of knowledge and understanding that led to failure. The reasons for failure span generations of leaders and apply equally to both political
“MILITARY TIMES” By Daniel Terrill “Smack” recently raised $61 million in Series B funding to develop Alpha, a wrist-worn device designed to connect operators in the field to real-time data collected and processed through Smack’s Omega AI software.” ________________________________________________________________________________ “For the U.S. military, artificial intelligence tools help analysts turn enormous amounts of data into something actionable, like when to strike a ta
By Tony and Friends On Rose Colored Glasses ) We recommend, due to the age of this 18 year old piece, that you click on the image twice to enlarge. Let Tony, a winner of the “Thinking Blogger Award”, know what you think about what we projected back in 2007 about our neighbors to the North ___________________________________________________________________________ There is a prevalence of international intrigue in our current relationship with Canada. Tony and his friends revi
By Linda F. Hersey “$1.17 billion in grants to 680 organizations nationwide to help veterans who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless secure housing and help with job training, health care coverage and counseling.“ ________________________________________________________________________________ “The funds will cover $855 million for one-year grants starting Oct. 1 — the beginning of fiscal year 2027 — for providing case management services, rapid re-housing and evicti
“SMALLTOFEDS” – By Ken Larson “SETA contracting is often utilized by the government to enhance small business contracting participation by firms that hold set aside designations who can offer quality services in support of internal agency facilities or operations. SETA efforts may involve long term contracts to perform acquisition assistance, project management, price or program analysis, independent estimates, administrative support, computer and data base operations, techni
“MILITARY TIMES By Justin Brown “Washington has spent decades encouraging veterans to become entrepreneurs, with contracting programs giving service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses a chance to compete. A new SBA proposal could unintentionally weaken that commitment” _________________________________________________________________________________ “In common IT services categories, the threshold would rise from $34 million in average annual receipts to $531 million. SB
“SMALLTOFEDS”By Ken Larson “When a government contracting specific market target has been identified and a proposal has been submitted, pre-award surveys and fact finding by the buying agency or the prime contractor often follow. With adequate preparation and understanding of what the processes involve, the small enterprise can succeed in passing government agency or prime contractor site surveys and fact finding.” _____________________________________________________________
“THE CIPHER BRIEF” By Hamlet Yousef “Today’s David is armed with drones, software, commercial sensors, open-source intelligence and rapidly adaptable technology. Goliath still has overwhelming advantages in scale, firepower and resources, but the sling has become far more sophisticated — and far cheaper.“ __________________________________________________________________________________ “The most important lesson emerging from the Iran conflict may not actually be about Iran.
“SMALLTOFEDS” By Ken Larson “The principal differences between free lancing and small business contracting from the perspective of the market realities that drive success in the venue.“ ________________________________________________________________________________ “Talented free lancers often wish to grow independently as individuals in the government contracting market and face difficulties in doing so. Many have service and product development skills of value to federal a
By Ken Larson The System for Award Management a great source for market research regarding what agencies are buying and who is being awarded new business. But pivoting to bid off SAM.Gov is a lost cause. Someone else has already done the marketing.” _________________________________________________________________________________ Every client I have had in government contracting goes through a front- end-loaded learning process. Below are the best tips I can offer to “Get Out
“BREAKING DEFENSE” By Mark Pomerleau “The Secure Space Network will deploy close to 50 ‘Sensitive Compartmented Information Facilities’ around the nation to improve access to classified information for smaller businesses to do work with the military.” _________________________________________________________________________________ “Contractors will soon have more options to perform classified work for the Pentagon through the newly announced “Secure Space Network.” The effor
