Welcome to today's Defense Business Briefing, your weekly roundup of the latest defense industry news. DBB will not publish next week. Happy holidays!

Brown: L3Harris is 'in the market on a couple different assets'

L3Harris Technologies is making "very good progress" on preparing parts of the company for divestiture, the company's chief executive told Inside Defense earlier this month.

Huntington Ingalls CEO says he supports CMMC approach

Mike Petters, the chief executive of Huntington Ingalls Industries, said he supports the Defense Department's effort to implement the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification program, but said that will be only one part of a "dynamic" effort to protect critical data and systems.

HII CEO: Industry leaders should better communicate ‘real risks’ of major programs

Huntington Ingalls Industries has been the target of criticism because of delays with weapons elevators on the aircraft carrier Gerald Ford (CVN-78), but the company’s chief executive said the blowback illustrates the challenge the country faces in managing program risks.

Pentagon, Microsoft officials meeting to kick off JEDI cloud contract

Pentagon officials are meeting with Microsoft representatives in Washington to begin implementing the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure contract, even as Amazon is suing to block the award in federal court.

GAO denies Raytheon's Ship Self Defense System protest

The Government Accountability Office has denied Raytheon's bid protest of the Navy's award to Lockheed Martin for the Ship Self Defense System.

Small business group launches cyber certification classes based on Pentagon's proposed model

The America's Small Business Development Centers is hosting the first of what is expected to be dozens of classes throughout the country over the next couple of months that are intended to prepare companies for the Pentagon's Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification plan expected to be finalized early next year.

DOD working groups grapple with standards, governance and functions of cyber accreditation body

The Defense Department has convened a series of industry working groups to develop recommendations for creating an accreditation body that will be central to a cybersecurity certification program for Pentagon contractors expected to be up and running next year.

BAE names Arseneault CEO

BAE Systems' U.S. business said Tom Arseneault will become chief executive, effective April 1.

Huntington Ingalls taps Amin to serve as CIO

Huntington Ingalls Industries said it has named Bharat Amin chief information officer, effective Jan. 1.

The week ahead

Congress is poised for some big votes this week. The Senate is slated to vote on the fiscal year 2020 defense authorization bill, while lawmakers are closing in on a final appropriations deal.

Pentagon plots path forward in transitioning systems to JEDI cloud with 14 'early adopters'

Despite facing a lawsuit in the Court of Federal Claims, the Pentagon is moving forward on the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure cloud services contract with plans to transition a number of "early adopters" to the Microsoft-provided cloud environment including U.S. Transportation Command, Special Operations Command and the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center.

SMC deepening industry engagement on special programs despite classification constraints

As momentum builds in Congress and within the Pentagon for declassifying information about threats in space and the Air Force's attempt to defend against them, the Space and Missile Systems Center is taking steps to share more information with industry about how it can contribute to that work.