Commentary

Agentic development will expose GovCon's old business model

Matt Jones, CEO at Sigma Defense, explains how a pickleball app epiphany showed him why contractors billing for hours — not outcomes — will not survive what is coming.

CMMC Phase 2 is suspended but the requirements are not

Contractors supporting the department’s most sensitive missions still must be prepared to prove their cybersecurity posture, writes Jason Sproesser of Summit 7.

Find opportunities — and win them.

The Army wants one voice, but acquisition may get silenced

Army Directive 2026-17 shuts down hundreds of official Army social media accounts. For the acquisition community, the loss goes beyond reach because the Army is also giving up its ability to frame its own message, writes acquisition expert Allison Gregory.

Disclosure for thee but not for me

Agencies are not disclosing GenAI in procurement and that spells potential trouble, writes attorney David. P.J. Timm.

More satellites will not save us

The West is winning the numbers game in space but is missing the point. Real resilience depends on autonomy and ground-segment survivability, writes Graeme Ritchie, CEO of Shield Space.

The Army changed how it buys but most contractors haven’t changed how they sell

Compressed acquisition timelines are rewarding contractors who invest in customer intelligence months before an opportunity appears. Not the ones who mobilize after it lands, writes growth expert Nic Coppings.

How Anthropic is sending a signal to the market by hiring Teresa Carlson

Her history of turning skeptical agencies into customers signals a shift for the AI pioneer from regulatory defense to an aggressive infrastructure play, writes GovExec Chief Executive Officer Tim Hartman. 

TOP 100: What slogans say about your company

This analysis of Top 100 contractor taglines finds bigger and vaguer language. A growing number of firms are also betting their brands on artificial intelligence, writes Boscobel’s Joyce Bosc.

Why winning is keeping GovCon execs up at night

The edge gots to firms that excel at navigating the new regulatory landscape. Here’s eight keys to building your advantage, writes Chris Crowder of Unanet.

New EO puts a clock on quantum-safe encryption

EO 14412 sets hard deadlines for agencies and contractors to migrate away from crypto that quantum computers can one day break, writes Gina Scinta of Thales Trusted Cyber Technologies.

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

Eight years, multiple pauses, and still no cyber protection to show for it — maybe it's time to move past CMMC, not review it again, writes former PSC President David Berteau.

Every capability needs a mission story

To build trust with your customers, your marketing efforts should focus on how what you do supports the mission, writes Katie Helwig of Mild Red LLC.

Federal AI policy just changed again. Is your security stack ready?

The White House's Anthropic directive shows why contractors can't build compliance around any single AI tool or ruling, writes Mark Mitchell of Netskope.

The third best practice GovCon keeps ignoring

Your Shipley process and CRM are only as good as the customer intelligence feeding them. Most firms have never measured that capability, writes growth expert Nic Coppings.

New executive order pushes agencies toward quantum-ready AI security

EO 14409 sets a high bar for protecting AI models and training data — and agencies can't do it alone; they need help from their vendors, writes Gina Scinta, CTO of Thales Trusted Cyber Technologies.

Federal acquisition rewrite leaves cybersecurity confusion unresolved

As the government overhauls its procurement rulebook, contractors are still grappling with a persistent problem that shapes how they price, plan, and perform work. This includes information that must be protected and those responsible for identifying it, writes Lindy Kyzer of ClearanceJobs.com.

42 companies from the 2016 Top 100 are gone. What happened to them?

A decade of mergers, divestitures and shifting priorities has reshaped the federal market. The next 10 years may be just as turbulent.