Podcast Show Notes
2025-07-15 Federal Market Insights Episode 15 — Session Overview
WPI Podcast Episode 15 Summary
Articles
These three articles address different aspects of the applicability of Drones to warfare. Reporting from other conflicts often includes mention of the employment of drones. Drones are now seen as one of the must-have tools. There are two sides to the use of drones. One is the offensive use of drones. Drones can be used for many purposes – intelligence gather, logistics support and deployment of munitions. The other side is how to defend against drones. As the use of drones continues to increase so will the need for the DIB to flex. The DIB will need to be able to assist with both offensive tools and creating and supporting tools to defend against drone use. It is possible that this shift in technology may drive procurement changes which impact current vendors.
Companies need to remain aware of these shifts and determine how such shift may impact opportunities as they know them.
The changing face of war and new uses of technology.
Drones and ammunition: Army chief hands lawmakers $4.3 billion wish list for FY26
The Army’s Unfunded Priorities List features, for instance, an additional $581 million for small drones and counter-unmanned aerial systems, as both are “changing faster than our budget can react,” according to Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George.
“As seen on battlefields all over the world, the character of war is evolving rapidly,” the four-star general wrote in this year’s Unfunded Priorities List, obtained by Breaking Defense. “Our Army must adapt to meet the challenges ahead, and this is reflected in the Army’s FY26 President’s Budget (PB) submission.”
Hegseth orders military to ‘unleash’ use of small drones in new memo
“While global military drone production skyrocketed over the last three years, the previous administration deployed red tape. US units are not outfitted with the lethal small drones the modern battlefield requires,” Hegseth wrote.
“WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is directing every US Army squad to be armed with small, one-way attack drones by the end of fiscal 2026, while also enabling troops to modify small drones as necessary in the field as part of a push to break through policy and acquisition barriers.”
“While global military drone production skyrocketed over the last three years, the previous administration deployed red tape,” Hegseth wrote in the Unleashing US Military Drone Dominance memo dated today. “US units are not outfitted with the lethal small drones the modern battlefield requires.”
“That new Pentagon memo follows an early June executive order from the White House dubbed, “Unleashing American Drone Domination” focusing more broadly on commercial UAS. Hegseth’s directive, though, is aimed at drilling down on what that means for the Department of Defense.”
Sec Def’s Memo: https://media.defense.gov/2025/Jul/10/2003752117/-1/-1/1/UNLEASHING-U.S.-MILITARY-DRONE-DOMINANCE.PDF
Pentagon shifts control of Blue UAS List to DCMA in effort to scale secure drone fleet
Though there’s a change of command, DIU will maintain involvement with the DCMA to “inform and align vendors on evolving Blue List expectations.”
WASHINGTON — The Defense Innovation Unit will hand over the reins to its Blue UAS List to the Defense Contract Management Agency by Jan. 1 of next year, but the tech-outreach organization still expects to play a role in engaging with vendors and continuously updating the list.
The move was laid out as part of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s ‘Unleashing US Military Drone Dominance’ memo, released late Thursday. The Blue List program creates a directory of Pentagon-approved commercial systems that are fully free of Chinese parts.
“The Blue List will become a trust-but-verify system, managed by the DCMA, which will use sampling to ensure DoD vendors meet statutory requirements,” per the memo. “The DCMA will be properly resourced to accomplish this mission.”
We discussed the above articles and in general how technology such as Drones are changing warfare and the battlefield. Drones have been a topic of several articles over the past several weeks. Drones provide flexibility and can be built in large numbers for a relatively small price. The price is especially more affordable considering the cost and time to construct major weapons systems such as aircraft carriers and sophisticated fighters.
The main portion of the Podcast was to discuss sources of Information for federal contracts.
We reviewed the following resources for solicitations and information.
The last ideas related to this topic is what information is needed to award a contract. It is important to remember that various laws and regulations direct how and when funds can be used. Expenditures must have a purpose – a bona fide need must exist. Whimsical spending is not supposed to occur; funds have to exist either via an approved appropriation or other permitted sources of funds. Competition must be used and the process must be reviewed and signed off on by a contracting officer.
Succeeding in this competitive market requires being able to identify and respond to opportunities. More importantly, being competitive requires companies meet the requirements of Being Responsible, Completing the requirement Terms and Conditions. Also, companies must know their pricing. The following phrase is used in many sections of the FAR – prices need to be Fair and Reasonable.
SAM is known as the GPE – Governmentwide Point of Entry. As noted in 5.101 Methods of disseminating information. Contracting Officers are required to synopsize notices expected to exceed $25,000 in the GPE – SAM.gov. However, this FAR subsection and other subsections address, there are other posting requirements for various dollar level of opportunities. Companies need to be aware of this information. It is important to recognize what resources exist and how those resources are used.
Below are two lists that help to identify many of the resources to know about and use.
Opportunities –
SAM – published – anticipated value greater than $25,000
SAM – Part 5 not required to be published
SAM/FAR – sole source authorities
WPI bidmatch – available at no charge to WPI clients
DIBBS – DLA RFQs
Fedconnect – Solicitations, Synopsis posted to SAM
Unisom – Reverse Auctions (formally known as fedbid.com
NECO – Navy Electronic Commerce Onlne – Navy Opportunities
GSA ebuy for MAS holders
Opportunities limited to MATOC holders and similar multi-year awards
***Proxity and other third party sources of services and information
Sources of information
Agency Forecasts – Agency web pages; https://www.acquisition.gov/procurement-forecasts
SAM – Awards, Data, Solicitations
DLA – sites; no-bid, urgent need, other
FPDS – Federal Procurement Data System; award data, DoD award information 90 days delay. Contracts only
USAspending – All federal spending; grants, contracts, other
SAM Databank – award data
GAO – reports, high priority programs
Agency Strategic Plans
Agency Data Plans
Agency programs
Budgets
News articles
Proxity – other similar sources
Google/Other searches to include AI