The Insider

Defense Secretary Ash Carter has appointed Cheri Tyner, formerly deputy director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement's office of acquisition management, director of the acquisition directorate within Washington Headquarters Service, the Pentagon announced today.

Additionally, Maureen Higgins, formerly deputy director of the Office of Personnel Management's Center for Leadership Development, has been appointed as assistant director for human capital and resource management at the Defense Contract Audit Agency.

Booz Allen Hamilton said today it has formed a strategic alliance with Raytheon and Websense, the cybersecurity firm Raytheon acquired earlier this year.

The alliance combines Booz Allen's consulting services with Raytheon's SureView product, meant to help organizations detect insider threats and manage incidents.

The Reserve Forces Policy Board will meet on Sept. 2, according to a Federal Register notice published this morning.

The meeting's purpose "is to obtain, review and evaluate information related to strategies, policies, and practices designed to improve and enhance the capabilities, efficiency, and effectiveness of the Reserve Components. Additionally, the Board will review its work from the past year and determine what matters to include in the annual report required by law to be transmitted to the President and the Congress by the Secretary of Defense."

The notice further states:

The meeting will focus on discussions of the Services' personnel system reforms being considered under the Force of the Future initiative and its effects on the Reserve Components to the RFPB from the invited speakers to include the Acting Under Secretary of Defense (Personnel and Readiness), Chief of Naval Personnel, U.S. Navy; Deputy Chief of Staff for Manpower, Personnel and Services, U.S. Air Force; Deputy Chief of Staff, G-1, U.S. Army; Deputy Commandant for Manpower and Reserve Affairs, U.S. Marine Corps; and Director, Reserve & Military Personnel, U.S. Coast Guard. Additionally, two of the RFPB subcommittee chairs will provide updates on the work of their respective subcommittee. The Ensuring a Ready, Capable, Available and Sustainable Operational Reserve Subcommittee will provide findings of their review of the Department's and Service's mobilization and dwell time policies and authorities affecting the Reserve Component operational availability, and will conclude with a briefing by the Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA) on the initial findings of their study on the Reserve Component effectiveness during Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF). The Supporting & Sustaining Reserve Component Personnel Subcommittee plans to highlight issues and to recommend a change to the Service's management of their Individual Ready Reserve (IRR) programs.

CACI International's sales in its most recent quarter fell about 4 percent to hit $865.5 million, the company announced today.

However, the company boosted its quarterly profit 13 percent to reach $41.3 million.

Ken Asbury, CACI's chief executive, said in a call with analysts this morning that CACI has been pursuing a strategy of going after larger contracts. "You're seeing that play out," he said.

Asbury also said the contractor is keeping a close eye on the mergers and acquisitions market as several companies, including BAE Systems and Lockheed Martin, have expressed interest in selling their services businesses.

"Some of them that are in the market are interesting and some are just not," he said today. "We're pretty disciplined in how we try to use our capital."

Four industry groups have banded together to call on the White House to stop issuing presidential directives focused on government contractors, arguing that the dozen released during President Obama's time in office have significantly increased the costs of doing business with the government.

The Aug. 11 letter, sent to Denis McDonough, the president's chief of staff, and Valerie Jarrett, senior adviser to Obama, was signed by the chief executives of the National Defense Industrial Association, the Aerospace Industries Association, the Professional Services Council and the Information Technology Industry Council.

The document states the 12 executive orders related to government contracting have created 16 new regulations.

"[W]hile well intentioned, some of the EOs have required substantial investments in time and systems even though their actual impact is exceedingly minimal," the letter says. "As such, some estimate that nearly thirty cents of every contract dollar goes toward compliance with unique government regulations."

The letter adds that the directives are not only problematic for current contractors but also to those who may want to sell to the government.

"As efforts continue across the administration, and within our member companies, to expand the broad diversity of firms willing and able to support the government and to bring real innovation to bear for our nation, these unique and costly government-unique regulations simply raise an already substantial barrier between the commercial and government marketplaces."

This week's edition of Inside the Army:

1. While it looks like the Army Guard will follow through with a contentious swap of Apache helicopters to the active service, the states' adjutants general continue to oppose the move.

Full Story: With Active-To-Guard Apache Transfers Approaching, Some Still Grumble

2. German defense officials have flocked to the Pentagon in recent weeks urging U.S. leaders to endorse speedy treatment for technology cooperation related to Berlin's planned lower-tier missile defense system, which is based on a system co-developed by Lockheed Martin.

Full Story: Tight Deadline Has Germany, Lockheed On Edge About Missile Defense Deal

3. Government auditors have recommended that the Army reserve components work to improve the accounting over their deployable forces after a review found gaps in the data.

Full Story: Audit Finds That Army Reserves Lack Info On War-Readiness Of Soldiers

The defense community's most important events this week are all set for Wednesday, including a farewell from Army Chief of Staff Gen. Raymond Odierno and a space and missile speech from Frank Kendall, the Pentagon's acquisition chief.

Wednesday

-Lt. Gen. Jon Davis, deputy Marine Corps commandant for aviation and Vice Adm. Mike Shoemaker, the commander of Naval Air Forces, are scheduled to speak about naval aviation at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Link: http://csis.org/event/naval-aviation

-Odierno, who is reaching the end of his term as service chief, is scheduled to discuss the state of the Army at the Pentagon.

-Kendall is scheduled to appear at the Space and Missile Defense Symposium in Huntsville, AL. His speech comes as the Defense Department is crafting a new strategy to recommit itself to space, cyber and nuclear spending in fiscal year 2017.

Link: https://smdsymposium.org/