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Cost Estimating NewsBrief: August 8, 2025
MITRE Outlines Steps to Enable Rapid Innovation Adoption at DOD
(ExecutiveGov) MITRE identified challenges preventing the Department of Defense from rapidly adopting commercial innovations and provided recommendations that would accelerate capability delivery to warfighters in a new paper published Monday. Titled Breaking Barriers: Accelerating Innovation Adoption for Defense Priorities, the paper guides the Pentagon to streamline processes and better leverage commercial capabilities to achieve its technology priorities. The paper, published, recommends that the DOD start by identifying specific mission gaps and communicating them with industry. Read More
GAO Urges More Attention to Agency Acquisition and Management of IT
(FedWeek) The GAO has called to the GSA’s attention recommendations still pending to improve the acquisition and management of federal agency IT, saying that “Federal IT investments too frequently fail to deliver capabilities in a timely, cost-effective manner.” “Key management challenges—such as a lack of disciplined project planning and program oversight—continue to hamper effective acquisition and management of the government’s IT assets,” the GAO said in a report on recommendations pertinent to GSA’s chief information office. Read More
Navigating New Federal Acquisition Regulations: What GovCons Need to Know
(ExecutiveGov) In what’s being described as the most significant procurement reform in over 40 years, the federal government has launched the Revolutionary FAR Overhaul Initiative, aimed squarely at improving speed, clarity and competition in the acquisition process. For government contractors, this means a more streamlined Federal Acquisition Regulation, new compliance expectations and a shift toward market-based practices. Driven by Executive Order 14275, titled Restoring Common Sense to Federal Procurement, the initiative is being executed by the Office of Federal Procurement Policy in coordination with the FAR Council, GSA, the Defense Department and NASA. According to Wiley Rein, the effort centers on simplifying the FAR by eliminating duplicative, outdated or non-statutory rules and placing greater trust in acquisition professionals’ judgment. Read More
‘Effective immediately’: Navy CIO orders shift to containerization tech
(Breaking Defense) As part of its broader information technology modernization plan, the Department of the Navy established a new policy that orders certain software development programs to utilize containerization technology “effective immediately.” The memo, titled Containerization Technology Usage, called for such containerization tech to be used “to the greatest extent possible” across all DON commands and programs that are in the cloud or transitioning to the cloud “where enterprise container platforms and DevSecOps pipelines exist or are in development.” Read More
Trump’s Bill Makes Big Beautiful Investments in Naval Technologies
(ExecutiveGov) Naval aircraft, unmanned systems and munitions, not just shipbuilding, are set to benefit from the $150 billion appropriated for DOD spending in the “One Big Beautiful Bill” reconciliation legislation signed into law. The U.S. Navy could receive $288 million of the $400 million provided for Lockheed Martin’s Long Range Anti-Ship Missile if lawmakers get what they want, according to Breaking Defense. LRASM is a precision guided munition capable of being deployed from aircraft or surface platforms that can penetrate sophisticated air defense environments and stop surface threats at long range. Read More
Senators Propose Bipartisan Bill Banning Hiring Freezes, Mass Layoffs at Navy’s Public Shipyards
(ExecutiveGov) Sens. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H.; Maggie Hassan, D-N.H.; Susan Collins, R-Maine; and Angus King, I-Maine have proposed legislation that would spare the Navy’s four public shipyards from workforce reductions. Called the Protecting Public Naval Shipyards Act, the bipartisan bill tells the Department of Defense to exempt certain positions at public shipyards from hiring freezes and layoffs to ensure that nuclear-powered submarine maintenance and overhaul are uninterrupted. “This bipartisan bill will ensure that important naval operations continue without disruption by exempting public shipyard employees from the chaotic mass firings, workforce reductions, and hiring freezes directed by the Trump Administration,” said Hassan. Read More
You can design the wheels for NASA’s next moon vehicle with the ‘Rock and Roll Challenge
(Space.com) NASA is calling on the public to help shape the future of lunar exploration by designing the next generation of wheels capable of navigating the moon’s harsh terrain. Through a new crowdsourcing initiative called the Rock and Roll Challenge, NASA is inviting engineers and innovators from around the world to develop a lightweight, flexible and long-lasting wheel and tire system capable of withstanding the rugged lunar landscape that’s marked by extreme temperatures, craters, boulders, steep inclines and ultra-fine, abrasive dust known as regolith. Read More
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