“NATIONAL DEFENSE MAGAZINE” By Stew Magnuson, Editor In Chief “Where officials from the Air Force, Navy and Army intend to spend what they called a “historic and once in a generation” $1.5 trillion budget so they will not have to make compromises between modernization and readiness. They can have it all.” ______________________________________________________________________________ “The Defense Department in 2025 did not hold a big rollout for the fiscal year 2026 budget re

“DEFENSE ONE” By Peter W. Singer “The math of current battlefields remains literally orders of magnitude beyond what our budget plans to spend, our industry plans to build, our acquisitions system is able to contract, and thus what our military will deploy.” ________________________________________________________________________________ “At the lowest point of the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln characterized the core factor between victory and defeat as finding a general who un

Vermillion River Valley - Hastings, Minnesota https://www.flickr.com/photos/odysseyof_armaments/55231185984/in/dateposted-public/

PLEASE CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE “TASK AND PURPOSE” By Haley Britzky “As of 2018, less than 10% of adults in the U.S. were veterans, according to a 2021 report from the Pew Research Center. The number of living veterans is only going to decrease, the same report said; by 2046, “there will be around 12.5 million veterans. While the population dwindles, veterans continue to play an outsized role in innumerable facets of American society, from pop culture to politics. And perhaps

“PROJECT SPECTRUM” “ Project Spectrum is platform that provides NO COST cyber security education, training programs, tool reviews and self-assessments for small businesses. It was designed to make it easier for small business to do business with the government.” ____________________________________________________________________________ “In fiscal year 2023, Congress required DoD by 2027 “to establish a new program where we actually do commercial tool demonstrations for smal

“WASHINGTON TECHNOLOGY” By AJ Yawn “Recently, the rise of artificial intelligence has added even more complexity to the efforts of contractors to comply with CMMC requirements. Here’s how to get ahead of the problem and turn AI into a compliance asset.” ______________________________________________________________________________ “The Pentagon’s Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification initiative, a program for verifying that defense contractors have implemented the cybers

“SMALLTOFEDS” – By Ken Larson “When considering submitting a proposal to a given government solicitation, conduct a bid/no bid exercise. By going through that process you will begin formulating your win strategy or you will discover that you should not bid this job for lack of such a strategy.“ ________________________________________________________________________________ “Government contract proposal preparation is time consuming and can be costly. Meeting the agency Reque

“WASHINGTON TECHNOLOGY “ By Ross Wilkers “ Assuming government leaders know what those practices are and how they work is not a good idea, according to the General Services Administration’s chief acquisition officer. “ _______________________________________________________________________________ “Multiple cycles are running at once in the Trump administration’s push for structural changes in how the federal government buys $1 trillion in goods and services each year. One c

“SMALLTOFEDS” By Ken Larson “ Assuming a proposal to a government agency has an acceptable technical solution and past performance and management factors that convince the customer it is a viable candidate, then pricing may be the winning element in the source selection equation. “ _______________________________________________________________________________ “The mechanics of government contract pricing have been discussed previously at this site. The discussion relates how

“DEFENSE ONE” By Phil Zabriskie “ The killing a country does through its soldiers is part of its fabric and identity. The less it is examined, the less a country will know about itself, its impulses, and the impact of what it has trained and dispatched its sons and daughters to do. “ ________________________________________________________________________________ “If a war fails to achieve its stated objectives—as Vietnam did—it can make the reasons for killing even harder t

Hastings, Minnesota https://www.flickr.com/photos/odysseyof_armaments/11734665584/in/dateposted-public/

“MILITARY TIMES” By Patricia Kime “Four Veterans Affairs health systems in Michigan will activate the department’s new electronic health records system, ending a three-year pause to a program that has been plagued by delays and cost overruns.” _________________________________________________________________________________ “The VA Detroit Healthcare System, VA Saginaw Healthcare System, VA Ann Arbor and Battle Creek Healthcare Systems will flip the switch from the VA’s le

By Jennifer Jones “Simplified Acquisition Procedures (SAP) are a flexible tool when conditions are right. They are low visibility and not “sexy” like weapons systems. But they account for most of the purchases we [the government] make, and a substantial amount of the money we spend.” ________________________________________________________________________________ “New contracting professionals often start out using these procedures. So, I feel it is warranted to spend some

“ WASHINGTON TECHNOLOGY” By Katie Helwig “An observable pattern is taking shape. Agencies are not just adjusting how they evaluate proposals—they are redefining how value is determined in a constrained environment.” _________________________________________________________________________________ “An increasing number of procurements are trending toward two distinct evaluation approaches: Lowest Price Technically Acceptable (LPTA) and Highest Technically Rated Offeror (HTRO).

By Ken Larson Smalltofeds “The ultimate reward. When a small business puts their own unique twists on basic suggestions and develops a thriving enterprise.” _____________________________________________________________________________ “I had two mentors at key points in my 36 year career in Aerospace. They were a combination of technical, management and communications talent, rarely found in high tech industry. Neither placed salary, position or ego ahead of developing the

“SMALLTOFEDS” By Ken Larson “It is necessary to establish a written policy and procedure disclosing time keeping practices to government auditors and fact-finding teams. “ Total Time Accounting” makes all hours a part of the record and keeps records free from waste fraud and abuse or defective pricing allegations .” _______________________________________________________________________________ “In small business government service contracting, it is necessary to establish a

Pictorially illustrated, direct links to topics on the Military Industrial Complex, Small Business Federal Government Contracting and Veterans Affairs. (Click images to access and follow on Pinterest) https://rosecoveredglasses.wordpress.com/2026/04/13/ready-reference-library-military-small-business-and-veterans-affairs-2/

“THE WARHORSE” By M. Tabar “My stepfather, brother, and I served in Afghanistan and Iraq. We are still there, frozen in the suck—a boomer, a Gen Xer, and a millennial—ducking mortars, mourning dead colleagues, and waiting for care packages curated by Mom. For seven years, I was an aid worker outside the wire and embedded with the U.S. military inside the wire. In the mid-2000s, I overlapped with one or both of my family members in each war zone. We rarely speak of it.”...

Mississippi River Valley - Hastings, Minnesota https://www.flickr.com/photos/odysseyof_armaments/55197547210/in/dateposted-public/

“WASHINGTON TECHNOLOGY” By Alan P. Balutis And Dennis Lucey “There seems to be a few common “truths,” some “givens,” and a whole lot of conventional wisdom spoken as to how to get into the door of government . Basic rules to gain your first foothold with the customer.” _______________________________________________________________________________ “Know what the agency does and what it’s looking for. Bring specific ideas, not a panoply of promises.Show specific examples of