GovConJudicata Weekly Debrief (10/21–25)

This week's Weekly Debrief covers space industry updates from Space Force, NRO, and SDA, the Army's desire to shorten award times, and OMB's national security memo on AI.

Space

BreakingDefense – Join the commercial space reserve: Get longer contracts, in-depth threat briefs; play wargames

• "When the Space Force contracts commercial companies to provide “reserve” capabilities that could be “surged” in times of conflict — and possibly denied to non-US customers for a period of time — those joining can expect a number of peacetime benefits in exchange for their willingness to serve, according to the head of the Space Force’s Commercial Space Office (COMSO)."

SpaceNews – NRO readies open call for satellite remote sensing

• "The National Reconnaissance Office will invite companies to propose remote sensing capabilities on an ongoing basis. In the past, the agency responsible for designing, building and operating U.S. spy satellites has solicited proposals through Broad Area Announcements, which have defined timelines for submission and contract award."

DefenseNews – Space Development Agency builds vendor pool for future demo missions

• "The Space Development Agency has picked 19 companies to experiment with new satellite technologies through its Hybrid Acquisition for Proliferated Low Earth Orbit program. Through the effort, dubbed HALO, the agency will run rapid on-orbit demonstrations aimed at reducing risk and speeding up technology development for future operational missions."

Army

FedNewsNet – Army wants to cut award times to six months

• "The Army wants to reduce the contract awarding process from the nearly two-year cycle — a notorious bottleneck for deploying technology to the field — to less than six months, said an Army contracting official. One of the ways the service is trying to achieve this is by moving away from overly prescriptive contract requirements to a more flexible approach that focuses on providing “characteristics of need” early during its experimentation phases under Army Futures Command and allowing contractors to propose innovative solutions in return. Officials said the characteristics of need won’t replace the Army’s formal requirements process, but would help inform it."

AI

InfoSec Mag – White House Issues AI National Security Memo

• "The White House has issued a National Security Memorandum (NSM) on AI, setting out key actions for the federal government to advance the safe, secure and trustworthy development of the technology in the interests on US national security."

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