Andrew Swick and Margaret M. Cassidy We are going to unpack some parts of the FY26 NDAA most relevant to defense contractors and their advisors. This installment covers Industrial Base Investment and Opportunities, organized into five subcategories: Industrial Base Fund & capacity investments; Domestic sUAS and IndoPacific cooperation; Portfolio Acquisition Executive (PAE) and centralized acquisition;...

The SBA announced yesterday in a news release that it has suspended “over 1,000 contractors” from participating in the 8(a) Program because they did not turn in the documents the SBA demanded that the produce by the deadline of January 19, 2025. This announcement, is actually buried in the news release so too find this...

On January 7, an Executive Order titled “Prioritizing the Warfighter in Defense Contracting” was issued. Its message to the defense industrial base is clear: get your act together – start performing defense contracts and delivering on time—or else. The “or else” is significant. If the Secretary of Defense, at his sole discretion, determines that a contractor has...

The U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”) used the law to hack a Georgia Tech Research Corporation (GTRC) cybersecurity research lab for doing cybersecurity research for the Department of Defense[1] (DoD) for allegedly not having cybersecurity controls in place as required by its contracts and telling DoD it did. Read to learn more about what happened....

Prepare for Modifications: Since schedules were likely disrupted for many contracts and subcontracts you will likely need a modification to your performance schedule which in turn may impact your price and other SOW more generally. And, don’t forget we now have a revolutionized FAR so, that may result in mods as well. Request an Equitable...

In a year that saw executive orders coming out rapid fire, a FAR revolution and a government shutdown, there is some good news. A Pentagon memo from earlier this year titled Directing Modern Software Acquisition to Maximize Lethality may simplify and expedite the process for companies to have the Department of Defense buy their software....

September 30, 2025, the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program lapsed which is really sad because SBIR percolates innovation and small business growth. As of now, SBIR, along with many other programs and funding to run the government, are dead or frozen because of the government shutdown. As for SBIR, it is caught up in...

Trump & Biden Agree: AI Exports Should Be Controlled U.S. export regulations are fundamentally about protecting national security. By controlling exports the U.S. aims to keep adversaries rogue entities and rogue persons from using American innovation to develop cyber capabilities or weapons that can be used against the U.S., allies or to generally cause harm....

Non-traditional defense contractor sounds like a start-up that has decided to sell its cutting-edge tech to the Department of Defense when it has never before done so. That is not the case. In fact, some very traditional defense contractors are actually “non-traditional defense contractors.” That statement seems to make no sense. Let me explain. The...

Recently I was in a meeting with ten other people and we were trying to resolve a risky business situation that had legal and financial implications for the company. Discussing risky business situations with this group of folks was nothing new. In fact, we were having the same conversation over the same situation without any...