WT 360: The market from all angles

Anduril and the Navy are co-investing in a submarine component production plant that the service branch is hoping can be a boost to the country’s shipbuilding capacity.

Lauren Williams, business editor at Defense One, has extensively covered the Navy’s challenges regarding its efforts to increase shipbuilding throughput and joins for this episode to explain how this new shipyard is a part of that push.

What keeps Navy leaders up at night on the shipbuilding front? In talking with our Ross Wilkers, Lauren goes over the constraints that have built up over time and recommendations government auditors made to address them.

Lauren also takes listeners through a $4 billion Army counterdrone contract that includes a mix of known and lesser-known names, why the Air Force is talking about a large unmanned aerial tanker when that tech is years away, and how the military is looking at quantum.

Lauren authors Defense One’s Business Brief newsletter that goes out every Thursday. Click this link to subscribe.

Point solutions have long dominated the government technology conversations, in part because agencies have focused on solving specific organizational problems instead of looking at them in a multi-functional way.

Mark Lee, chief executive of Entarian, joins for this episode to break down today’s federal market landscape as one where mission integration is where the conversation begins and ends with agencies. Technology still does enter the chat without being the be-all and end-all, as Lee tells our Ross Wilkers.

Lee also overviews the role of Entarian’s solution development team as the company’s engine for making mission integration happen for its customers and provides an update on the integration of Sev1Tech after both companies joined forces back in the spring.

Federal technology integrators spent much of fiscal year 2025 trying to see what a new world order of contracting would look like, then FY 2026 was all about settling into that environment.

John Caucis and James Wichert, public sector analysts at the market intelligence firm Technology Business Research, join for this episode to go over how agencies’ emphasis on outcomes and accountability from contractors are carrying over into the just-started fiscal 2027.

One way integrators are responding to that scrutiny is offering more intellectual property, including reusable software and other products. Caucis and Wichert walk our Ross Wilkers through how integrators are going about IP and which companies are most active in this respect.

Caucis and Wichert also break down the opportunity sets in both defense and civilian markets, plus the evolving tech partnership scene for integrators that they must be involved in. Artificial intelligence and hyperscale cloud computing are merely two examples of that, as Caucis and Wichert explain.

DOGE was government contracting's biggest story of 2025 — and it's not close

Outcome-based strategies must come before outcome-based contracts

Trump executive order pushes fixed-price contracting, but implementation questions loom

Booz Allen puts more emphasis on products in its new fiscal year

How OneGov is changing CACI's contractor role

CACI’s $2.6B Arka buy targets space dominance, agentic AI

With new 'VIA' strategy, General Dynamics IT evolves how it will pursue growth

Peraton wins air traffic control system overhaul contract

In a show-me market, Leidos continues to show up

Maximus hopes its Air Force cyber win is just a starting point

How ICF views its return to federal growth

WT 360: Booz Allen’s roadmap for collaborating with startups after an investment

Leidos sheds security screening unit in agreement with Analogic

All three frontier artificial intelligence companies now have either have new agreements in place or extensions to their current pacts as part of OneGov: the government’s initiative for consolidating its brand name tech purchases.

Christian Robles, who reports on technology policy and service delivery at Nextgov/FCW, joins for this episode to provide the details of who signed with the General Services Administration and for what. Not every agreement is exactly alike regarding the length of time and terms for usage and cost, as Christian told our Ross Wilkers.

Christian also goes over a GSA-Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services partnership that strives to connect states with products via the federal Schedules program, and how license plate reading systems are starting to enter society’s tech regulation chat.

Connect with Christian on Twitter at @crobles8gsa08. If you have a tip you'd like to share, Christian can be securely contacted at crobles808.12 on Signal.

Google extends Gemini OneGov deal into November

Anthropic extends $1 per user OneGov deal by a month

GSA unveils new, token-based OneGov discount with OpenAI

Industry offers government a playbook for handling OneGov expirations

OpenAI CEO exhorts ‘critical’ government AI adoption in DC

OneGov savings balloon to over $1.6B as agencies weigh future of AI in contracting

OPM to continue ChatGPT deployment following reupped OneGov deal

Contractor may have used AI to falsify payment dispute financial documents, appeals board finds

Contractor alleges Army inappropriately used AI to make $450M contract award

GSA memo to set AI-specific acquisition rules

Abridge selected for VA ambient AI enterprise contract

GSA and CMS continue Medicaid tech vendor collaboration, but its impact is likely limited, experts say

Flock camera systems receive bipartisan scrutiny from senators

JPMorgan Chase stood up its $1.5 trillion Security and Resiliency Initiative in the fall of 2025 with flexibility built into the system because one approach may work for a certain situation, but not for another.

Sara O’Rourke, managing director for SRI solutions at JPMorgan Chase, joins for this episode to go over how the team pursues investment and financing opportunities in industries directly connected to national and economic security and resiliency.

As O’Rourke tells our Ross Wilkers, identifying what the vulnerabilities are is step one before the team can design solutions for addressing choke points in supply chains.

O’Rourke also describes the first-hand experience she gained in facilitating public-private partnerships as Employee No. 5 in the Commerce Department’s CHIPS Investment Office. Semiconductors and energy needs feature in the episode discussion too.

At the time of this episode’s recording, the Small Business Administration had received 66,000 comments in response to its proposed sweeping rewrite of size standards for determining who is in fact a small business.

Stephanie Kostro, president of the Professional Services Council, joins for this episode to explain SBA’s ideas that would base the standards on market size instead of receipts and headcount.

Kostro led off the conversation with Nick and Ross by using the word “seismic,” and for good reason, as this proposal would be a fundamental reordering of the market if SBA goes ahead with it. She goes through why that word reflects what SBA wants to do.

Also on the agenda for this discussion: artificial intelligence’s role in bid protests, the CMMC cyber standard being on pause, the Federal Acquisition Regulation overhaul and the looming expiration of many agreements under the OneGov tech procurement initiative.

( NOTE: After we recorded this episode, the FAR Council unveiled the second batch of proposed changes to the regulations. )

SBA’s size standard rewrite draws angry, frustrated comments

SBA proposes sweeping rewrite of small business size standards

WT 360: Generative AI’s pitfalls and potential benefits in GovCon law

Think AI can write your company's bid protest? Think again.

File-naming blunders doomed MAPS protest, not ambiguities

CMMC's Phase 2 suspension locked in with binding regulation

CMMC suspension caught industry off guard, but the reasons did not

A playbook for thriving with OneGov and the FAR Overhaul

DOD suspends CMMC Phase 2, launches 60-day ‘reform’ review

30 days to shape the biggest FAR overhaul in 40 years

Revolutionary FAR Overhaul moves to formal rulemaking with first batch of proposed rules

Industry offers government a playbook for handling OneGov expirations

Digital Infuzion was born in 1999 as a health informatics company with the idea of helping organizations improve clinical research and its first client at the the National Institutes of Health remains a customer.

Hemant Virkar, founder and chief executive of Digital Infuzion, joins for this episode to explain how the company has grown beyond those initial healthcare roots to add new practice areas across the broad umbrella of digital transformation.

The company still leans on that heritage to act as a shepherd for agencies as they travel the path of modernization, as Virkar tells our Ross Wilkers.

Virkar’s keys for making outcome-based efforts work well for the government customer collective and advice for other founders/entrepreneurs also feature in the discussion.

One fundamental change to how the government contracting ecosystem functions centers on technology development and fielding: all of that must happen quicker and on a different cadence than before.

Steve Lefkowitz and Raj Kanodia, co-founders and leaders of Sagewind Capital, join for this episode to shed light on how the private equity firm’s portfolio companies have responded to that government-wide push for quicker and different forms of tech development and fielding.

The handful of contractors owned by Sagewind have made technology core to their strategies and prioritize making decisions on what is often called an “OODA Loop” methodology. By Light, Sabel Systems, Sigma Defense and Tria Federal are in the Sagewind portfolio.

Lefkowitz and Kanodia also provide our Ross Wilkers their perspectives on private capital trends in GovCon, plus homework for business leaders to do before looking for an investment partner like Sagewind.

PSA: We are going on hiatus until mid-September. Keep a lookout for an announcement of our return with new episodes and conversations about the market from all angles.

DOD’s move to ‘wartime footing’ demands new contracting models

The military's acquisition reform push means 85% ready is good enough to start

Shield AI closes $1.5B Series G round and moves on acquisition

Aechelon lands Sagewind's backing

By Light acquires another simulation, training tech outfit

Sigma Defense acquires Aries Defense to boost tactical edge capabilities

Sabel Systems expands space domain work with Centil acquisition

Growth, legal and operations leadership moves across the market

WT 360: Tria Federal and its pair of priority areas

Greg Barbaccia’s impending departure from the federal chief information officer role after 18 months in it is one of a handful of headline topics that got industry’s attention over the past six weeks.

As NextGov/FCW’s executive editor, Jessie Bur captains a team of reporters who cover developments across the government landscape with an eye toward those that overlap with our areas of interest here at WT.

Jessie joins Nick and Ross for this episode to take a tour around the world of Fed Tech news and happenings, starting with Barbaccia’s pending exit from government and ending with the CMMC security standard’s very murky future.

Their discussion agenda also includes the GovExec news team’s sit-down discussion with Rep. James Walkinshaw (D-Virginia), whose district includes many federal employees and contractors. Artificial intelligence storylines and the OneGov technology acquisition program enter the chat too.

Greg Barbaccia to leave federal CIO role at end of August

HUD CIO tapped to lead Interior tech shop, people familiar say

Interior CIO Paul McInerny exits position

Transportation’s tech chief Pavan Pidugu to depart in September

Inside the federal CIO’s culture-first approach

Lawmaker warns of administration’s ‘fetishization’ of Silicon Valley startups

Connolly's successor, James Walkinshaw, looks to carry on his IT and workforce legacy

Energy expects $74M in annual savings from new AI and data tools

AI, once relegated to helping hackers with certain tasks, can now power every stage of a cyberattack

7 tech companies commit to protect consumers from rising electricity prices

Anthropic hires Teresa Carlson as public sector lead

Anthropic held cyberthreat briefings with agency CIOs last month

GSA is eyeing OneGov savings beyond software and tech, official says

OneGov’s discounted deals are ‘a first step’ to longer-term contracts, officials say

Nearly 3.4M users across government can use AI through OneGov, GSA official says

CMMC suspension caught industry off guard, but the reasons did not

Not again! CMMC's comprehensive review is déjà vu all over again

DOD suspends CMMC Phase 2, launches 60-day ‘reform’ review

LMI touts itself as a provider of “commercial-grade, mission-ready technology” as a description of its goal to bring fast-moving technology into federal environments with strict requirements on security and other key matters.

But how does LMI define that technology and how do they bring it forward to agencies?

Alex Adamczyk – vice president of sales, engineering and rapid prototyping at Company No. 73 on our 2026 Top 100 – joins for this episode to answer those questions and more about LMI’s approach to innovation and integration.

Culture is everything, to the point that LMI reorganized the company to emphasize that every employee plays a role in innovation. Adamczyk takes our Ross Wilkers through the company’s new structure to achieve that aim.

Adamczyk also explains how the unique, bespoke nature of certain government problems does not necessarily prevent industry and agencies from embracing more commercial-like development and integration approaches.

TOP 100: LMI's commercial tech approach hinges on the business model

LMI promotes Wilson to chief executive

How LMI incubated its own generative AI tool before going to market

WT 360: LMI's logistics heritage also informs its present and future