Michael Papadales

EVelution Energy applauds Jeffrey Nadaner’s precise grasp of the steps necessitated to orchestrate public and private capital to secure allied supply chains. This effort also requires support from U.S. Department of the Treasury and United States Department of Commerce to ensure American manufacturing has a path to sustainable economic prosperity. Software is important, but hardware operated by an American workforce is critical. It is incumbent on private capital (ie, investment fiduciaries to #pensionfunds) to participate in defending the national security interest underpinning our capital markets. Alliance for American Manufacturing

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#ObsessivelyEnthusiasticInvestor #UnreasonablyEnthusiasticInvestor #IrrationallyEnthusiasticInvestor at REFASHIOND Ventures: The Industrial Transformation Fund We look for the people we believe are doing the best work in Industrial Transformation & Supply Chain Technology; Attempting the impossible. Then we go all-in on them. With obsessive and unreasonable enthusiasm. Join us. #IndustrialTransformation #SupplyChain #Innovation #Technology #Startups #VentureCapital #DemandTheImpossible #UnreasonableEnthusiasm #ObsessiveEnthusiasm #IrrationalEnthusiasm

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Want to know how the United States Department of Defense and the United States Space Force plan to integrate commercial solutions to their space architectures? Check out Becky Leggieri's article in April's Federal Budget IQ report. #space #technology #publicsectorforecast

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🛡️ Driving Innovation and Growth: Expanding the Defense Industrial Base 🚀 As we navigate an increasingly complex global landscape, the expansion of our defense industrial base is more crucial than ever. Strengthening our capabilities not only enhances national security but also drives innovation and economic growth. ✨ Why Expand? Expanding the defense industrial base fosters resilience against emerging threats, promotes technological advancement, and creates high-skilled jobs. It's about equipping our forces with cutting-edge capabilities while bolstering our industrial and innovation base. 🌐 Global Impact In a connected world, collaboration and strategic partnerships are key. By expanding our defense industrial base, we foster international cooperation, enhancing interoperability and strengthening alliances to address global security challenges collectively. 🔍 Opportunities Ahead From cybersecurity to advanced manufacturing, expanding the defense industrial base opens doors to new opportunities in technology development, research, and infrastructure investments. It fuels a cycle of innovation that benefits not only defense but also commercial sectors. 🤝 Collaboration is Key By fostering collaboration between government, industry leaders, and academia, we can drive forward-thinking initiatives that propel our defense capabilities into the future. It's about harnessing diverse expertise and resources to build a secure and prosperous future. At Ombra we embrace this pivotal moment to expand our defense industrial base, driving innovation, safeguarding our nation, and creating a resilient foundation for generations to come. Together, we can shape a stronger, more secure future. #DefenseIndustry #NationalSecurity #Innovation #EconomicGrowth #GlobalSecurity #Collaboration #TechnologyAdvancement #FutureReady

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Government Contracting #govcon seems to be a labyrinth 😕to many outsiders and newer folks coming into the space. I once created an Access database🧮 at a previous employer many years ago to highlight the importance of good data management and common unique identifiers... As the company tended to have some byzantine processes and nomenclature that I was trying to flesh out and focus 🔍on measuring the things that matter. So I've seen quite a bit of diverse contracts from over $100M 💰annual jobs to ones under $100K. I believe the process is essentially the same to ensure a smooth transition from pre-award to 🥇post-award. It starts with being able to accurately code 🔣your contract into your system of record. Do your #proposal 📚and #pricing 💵documents match the contract award 📝documents? Check that before you 🖋sign! Had an experience recently where there was some ambiguity 😵with a contract modification document in what it was doing as it relates to the changes we proposed. Some contracts get complex when you get to a dozen mods or so with many CLINs, SLINs, and 🗜ARCNs... IYKYK We both had differing interpretations🗣 as we worked through the document. There was a 💪🏼challenge with all the moving parts and new CLINs added and old ones removed and it turns out that we both had the same initial confusion that it wasn't done correctly... However, when we dug ⛏deeper into the changes in Section B (contract values) and Section G (funding values) we determined that this customer was doing It's important to have a uniform 🥋methodology on how you read and review your contract documents before you sign it and book the funding and contract values in your accounting system. Set your books up right the first time, or you'll pay💸 for it over-and-over again each month. And get the right people 🤼 and departments involved! Make it a great week 👊🏼

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Supply Chain Risk Management (SCRM) is one of the most complicated parts of government contracting. Here's a wonderful opportunity hosted by NDIA RMC, Colorado Space Business Roundtable and Carter Freeman with vcfo to get a free breakfast and hear from knowledgeable speakers about some practical advice and lessons learned for managing supply chain in the aerospace industry. #aerospace #smallbusiness #supplychain

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Slingshot Aerospace continues to carve a niche as a leading space technology firm with the public acknowledgment of its Agatha AI model. Defense News reports that DARPA picked Slingtonshot Aerospace and its Agatha system last year to help the U.S. recognize anomalous behavior by individual satellites within a satellite constellation, ostensibly to identify potential spy satellites or space weapons hiding within these constellations. According to Defense News, since the successful conclusion of the DARPA project in early 2024, Slingshot Aerospace has started conversations with potential customers, both federal and commercial, interested in its Agatha AI solution. While this product should drive strong growth over the next few years, Slingshot's VC-backing and growth potential will likely mandate a steep EV/sales multiple for eager acquirers, likely keeping most strategics and sponsors at bay.

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The Alliance for Commercial Technology in Government was honored to join in an unprecedented alliance with Software in Defense Coalition, Alliance for Digital Innovation, and National Venture Capital Association, to respond to US Army's so-called "Modern Software Development Multiple Award IDIQ RFI". Given the major progress towards enticing commercial vendors and investors to contribute to the the US defense industrial base by the likes of Defense Innovation Unit (DIU), AFWERX, Space Development Agency, Office of Strategic Capital, and congress's excellent initiatives with DIU's Hedge Portfolio, APFIT, RIF, RCCTO, etc., out comes this "modern" software development strategy right out of the 1950's that literally PRIORITIZES Cost Plus Fixed Fee (CPFF) contracting over commercial product purchases. We're living in Bizarro World. Seems like the Army's stinging loss in Palantir's 2017 lawsuit hasn't taught the acquisition force a thing about their legally mandated (and inarguably wise) preference for commercial items found in 10 USC 3453 and FAR Part 10. For those not paying attention for the last 5 or 6 years: - Commercial purchases of existing software products under commercial terms is far and away the best acquisition option because the product is already finished, all the risk is taken out, someone else paid for it, a bunch of other people are subsidizing the maintenance, and the firm fixed commercial price the DoD might pay is a fraction of the cost to build it. It is also built by companies who only make profit when the cost to build and operate the software is minimized, focusing them on the highest quality and most economical software development techniques. Besides all that it's legally mandatory. - The second best option is custom modification of commercial items under Firm Fixed Price milestone delivery contracts for all the same reasons as above -The third best option is paying software developers Firm Fixed Price milestone deliverables for software development from scratch. This method rewards the contractor for finishing as fast and as cost-effectively as possible. - The fourth best is paying developers Firm Fixed Price hourly time and materials. At least in this mechanism the contractor is rewarded for lowering the cost of each hour of labor within the commercial hourly rate. This method still unfortunately rewards maximizing the number of hours it takes to finish the software and maximizing the maintenance labor. - The worst possible model is Cost Plus Fixed Fee, where the contractor is rewarded for maximizing the cost of the labor hour, maximizing how long it takes to finish the product, and maximizing the maintenance cost. This incentive structure also penalizes the replacement of custom labor with commercial items that are already finished and less expensive. This is literally insane. https://lnkd.in/es5Nkhvs

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A worthwhile read and why the NATO Industrial Advisory Group (NIAG) and the Defence Procurement Action Plan (DPAP) should be front and centre in the coordination of Industry’s crisis preparation and crisis response.

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Thanks for the NewSpace Nexus Sadler Report shout-out by Mike French of the newly formed Space Policy Group! "Sign-up for the excellent newsletters from Space News, Payload, CNBC, and the Sadler Report." For more information, check out this page!

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J2 Ventures, a firm led mostly by U.S. military veterans, announced on Thursday that it has raised a $150 million second fund. The Boston-based firm invests in startups whose products are purchased by civilians and the U.S. Department of Defense. While many emerging VCs are struggling to raise second funds, J2’s latest vehicle is more than double its $67.5 million debut fund from 2021. At first blush, the firm may seem to be benefiting from VCs’ growing interest in defense tech. But J2 has no interest in positioning itself as a defense tech investor. “Our portfolio is national-security adjacent, but not defense-focused,” said Alexander Harstrick, J2’s managing partner. The firm does not invest in technologies that protect critical national infrastructure or help deter attacks, such as drones, robotics, or surveillance tech. Instead, J2 backs companies whose products help maintain the well-being and healthcare of nearly 3 million people employed by the U.S. military.

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This WSJ analysis points towards the investment opportunities that support the USA 🇺🇸 national interests as well; worthwhile to watch! https://lnkd.in/gsRAb9tn #navy #usnavy #usna #shipbuilding #defense #nationalinterests

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From Matthew Kroenig, Vice President and Senior Director of the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security, and Imran Bayoumi an associate director with the Scowcroft Strategy Initiative in the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security. "The United States and its allies need a new strategy to protect against the threats posed by Chinese drones, strengthen their position in the international UAS market, and assert global leadership in this key twenty-first-century technology. To help the United States and its allies win the new tech race, the Scowcroft Center previously published a three-part “promote, protect, and coordinate” strategy. This paper updates that framework, and applies it to the issue of dual-use drones. First, the United States and its allies should protect their countries from the national security threat posed by Chinese-made drones by prohibiting their use in sensitive areas, such as by the government and in critical infrastructure. Specific recommendations include the following. - The US Congress should pass the Countering CCP Drones Act and the Drone Infrastructure Inspection Grant (DIIG) Act. - The US Congress should pass legislation to make US state-level bans effective and actionable by offering federal-government support for their implementation, including through targeted grant programs accelerating the transition to secure and capable systems. - The US State Department should, in light of increasing global restrictions on People’s Republic of China (PRC)-made drones, launch an initiative to educate allies and partners on the risks associated with those systems, and support secure and capable alternatives. - The US State Department should encourage allies and partners to enact tariffs and sanctions on PRC-made UAS to counter China’s unfair trade practices. "

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🌟 TODAY at 2pm UTC ⏰ Dear industry colleagues, 🔍 Amidst the recent developments in the Israel-Iran situation, it is imperative to stay informed and empowered. I strongly encourage you to join this industry leading webinar to gain information on this critical topic. 💡 Expect valuable insights that will enhance your decision-making process regarding your flight operations. #AviationInsights #Webinar #Overflightrisk 🛫

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Very timely and great news to see United States Department of Defense endorsement of a Statement of Principles for #indopacific #Defense Industrial Base Collaboration following extensive consultations with US Federal Government allies and partners across the Indo-Pacific region and around the world.   The following principles will guide these collaborative actions among likeminded participants: - Ensuring shared defense industrial resilience is vital to the continued regional security, economic security, and prosperity of the Indo-Pacific. - Strengthening defense industrial resilience requires collaborative action to expand industrial base capability, capacity, and workforce; increase supply chain resilience; promote defense innovation; improve information sharing; encourage standardization; reduce barriers to cooperation; and otherwise mitigate potential vulnerabilities and facilitate collaboration. - Optimizing collaboration requires accounting for the needs, capabilities, and comparative advantages of participants' industrial bases consistent with free and fair market competition and protection of intellectual property. - Conducting collaborative action will not be limited to governments, but also include industry, capital providers, academia, and other forms of partnership. Importantly, "fostering further dialogue is needed to promote collaboration and increase shared defense industrial resilience". This is a key mission of Armatus.ai and will be the focus of our next event in #tokyo from 3-4 June. Check out the website for details. But we go beyond dialogue. Our Symposium’s goal directly engages US, #Japanese, #Australian, U.K. and other Allied Nation #dualuse #technology companies with U.S. government contracting and funding leaders. #defence #defense U.S. Indo-Pacific Command Japan Ministry of Defense US Army Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) Japan - The Government of Japan Defence Australia Australian Industry & Defence Network (AIDN National) United States Air Force US Navy U.S. Space Command United States Marine Corps Bernice Glenn Kissinger Mica Imamura Frank Clark Jeremy Knopp Kristian Ryan The Japan Times Advanced Strategic Capabilities Accelerator (ASCA) United States Studies Centre at the University of Sydney Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (CSBA) Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) Pacific International Center For High Technology Research - PICHTR CIC (Cambridge Innovation Center) Beaten Zone Venture Partners Guy N. Jason Vella Kylah Limmer ManTech https://lnkd.in/gn4Dp2QQ

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