Bin Laden discovered ‘hiding in plain sight’ [Washington Post] - After years of assuming Osama bin Laden was hiding in caves, he was found living in “plain sight” in a large compound near the Pakistan Military Academy in Abbottabad. The SEAL team that assaulted the compound arrived in two Sikorsky Black Hawk helicopters (one of which crashed), while a Boeing Chinook CH-47 was sent for emergency support.

How contractors are affected by bin Laden's death [Federal News Radio] – Defense contracting expert Jim McAleese says the killing of Osama bin Laden "is certainly going to reinforce the need and the continued resourcing of the intelligence contractors" as al-Qaeda vows revenge. He feels that the successful outcome will help maintain funding for agencies such as the Central Intelligence Agency and National Reconnaissance Office.

Local military contractors that supply special forces unlikely to know the part they played [Crain’s Detroit Business] – Contractors who supply U.S. Special Operations Command such as L-3 Communications EOTech and Trijicon have little way of knowing their exact contributions to the killing of Osama bin Laden. Tom Munson, director of sales and marketing for gun sighting supplier Trijicon, notes that getting feedback from special ops or the specific unit would be the only way to find out, adding that most troops in those units equip or customize their own weapons.

Former Midshipmen comment on bin Laden [ESPN] – News of the death of Osama bin Laden led Ed Malinowski to recall his only quarterback start in 2001 for Navy, which was against Army and followed by giving a game ball to President George W. Bush. He is now a DOD contractor.

VA-DoD joint EHR to be commercial, not necessarily proprietary [Fierce Government IT] - Leaked minutes [PDF] from a March 17 meeting of DOD and Veterans Affairs (VA) officials indicate that the agencies are looking for commercial solutions for their Joint Common Electronic Health Record (EHR). VA CIO Roger Baker said that while the EHR will incorporate a lot of proprietary products, the system will not necessarily be built on proprietary software.

Alion designs game to train sailors for new position [Washington Technology] - Alion Science and Technology will train Navy personnel for the Littoral Combat Ship-2 (LCS-2) Readiness Control Officer position with a personal-computer based training game. The expansion of the company’s Virtual Maintenance Performance Aid is part of a $4.6 million task order from the Naval Air Warfare Center Training Systems Division.

Role of security contractors debated at hearing [Federal Times] - At a Commission on Wartime Contracting meeting yesterday, Professional Services Council Vice President and counsel Alan Chvotkin argued that the government should be able to use private security contractors and doubted the government could grow enough to perform tasks currently done by contractors. Center for American Progress visiting fellow Pratap Chatterjee argued that federal workers are more qualified to provide security, noting that private security company United States Protection and Investigations had hired local criminals to protect U.S. Agency for International Development construction contractors in Afghanistan.

Emergent broadens CDC contract by $101m [Washington Business Journal] – Emergent BioSolutions will provide another 3.42 million doses of its BioThrax anthrax vaccine through a $101 million contract modification from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The company makes the only anthrax vaccine approved by the Food and Drug Administration.

GTSI chief executive joins federal cloud commission [Washington Technology] - GTSI CEO Sterling Phillips has joined the Commission on the Leadership Opportunity in U.S. Government on the Cloud. The commission will give suggestions on how the federal government should buy and use cloud technology to CIO Vivek Kundra.

DOD Contract Announcements
Contract Announcements for May 2, 2011 [Defense.gov] – The Navy handed out a $107 million contract modification to Force Protection Industries for 650 Category I Vehicle Independent Suspension System (ISS) kits and 350 Category II Vehicle ISS kits for the Cougar Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicle fleet, a $12.6 million order to Boeing for non-recurring engineering associated with the F/A-18 and EA-18G AN/APG-79 Active Electronically Scanned Array Radio Detection and Ranging General Purpose Processor 3 and a $6.9 million modification to Rolls-Royce for repair of up to ten T56-A-427 Series IV engines for the E-2C and C-2 aircraft.

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