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Cost Estimating NewsBrief: June 13, 2025
Two more centralization, cost savings initiatives from GSA
(Federal News Network) Two new initiatives are accelerating General Services Administration progress toward centralizing the procurement of common goods and services, simplifying acquisition processes and saving money. GSA is taking initial steps to set up an Office of Centralized Acquisition Services by recruiting contracting officers to potentially join the new organization. At the same time, GSA is digging into the value-added reseller (VAR) model to better understand the role of such companies and what it would take for original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to sell directly to the government. Read More
Weapon Systems Annual Assessment: DOD Leaders Should Ensure That Newer Programs Are Structured for Speed and Innovation
(U.S. Government Accountability Office) Since our last annual assessment, we found that major weapon costs continue to rise as DOD struggles to deliver innovative tech quickly. DOD has been using a streamlined process—known as the “MTA pathway”—to develop and deliver some weapons faster. But even programs on the MTA pathway face delays in developing technologies and getting them into the field. We recommended ensuring that new programs include leading product development practices in their earliest stages. This could help prevent them from getting locked into rigid requirements and development approaches that cause delays. Read More
US spy chief wants intel community to get away from building its own tech
(NextGov/FCW) Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said Tuesday that she wants the federal government to pivot away from developing its own in-house solutions and rely more on the private sector to supply technologies needed for spies and analysts. Under her leadership, “I want to get us away from having the government trying to build tech solutions for itself because it’s really not what the government is best at doing, but really focusing on buying and purchasing solutions wherever we can, so that our workforce can really focus on the things that we are very good at and have exclusive responsibilities to fulfill,” she said. Read More
We’ve got a new mystery on our hands’: Titan’s weird wobble just got even stranger
(Space.com) For years, scientists have been intrigued by a weird “wobble” in the atmosphere of Titan, Saturn’s largest moon. Now, new research is revealing clues about Titan’s strange atmospheric tilt, but it’s also raising new mysteries. Data from the Cassini mission to Saturn has shown that, unlike Earth’s atmosphere, Titan’s atmosphere doesn’t rotate in sync with its surface. Instead, it tilts and shifts like a spinning top that changes its orientation with the seasons. “The behaviour of Titan’s atmospheric tilt is very strange,” Lucy Wright, lead author of the new research and a postdoctoral researcher in the School of Earth Sciences at the University of Bristol in the U.K., said in a statement. “We think some event in the past may have knocked the atmosphere off its spin axis, causing it to wobble.” Read More
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