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The Pentagon reduced the department’s roster of critical technology areas (CTAs), cutting the list by more than half. Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering Emil Michael on Monday unveiled six CTAs – down from the previous 14 – that he said will define the military’s future capabilities. The new list includes applied artificial intelligence, biomanufacturing, contested logistics technologies, quantum and battlefield information dominance, scaled directed energy, and scaled hypersonics.

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The Energy Act of 2020 defined critical minerals as those commodities which are essential to the economic or national security of the U.S.; have a supply chain that is vulnerable to disruption; and serve an essential function in the manufacturing of a product, the absence of which would have significant consequences for the economic or national security of the U.S.
The 2025 List of Critical Minerals has been posted in the Federal Register. The List contains all 50 critical minerals from the 2022 List, plus an additional 10 critical minerals. More information can be found in the Federal Register Notice.

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GSA’s Integrated Award Environment will modernize the Service Contract Reporting (SCR) functionality in SAM.gov on September 12, 2025.  Neither the requirements of SCR laid out in the Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) nor the general process for this kind of reporting will change.  However, this move is more than a look-and-feel shift; it represents a major modernization of how service contract data is captured, stored, and reported.  

By embedding automation at every level, the new system reduces manual processes, preserves historical integrity, and delivers improved transparency for both contractors and government stakeholders.

To view the full announcement, click here.

OFPP, DoD, GSA, and NASA (collectively referred to as the Federal Acquisition Regulatory Council, or FAR Council) are issuing a final rule amending the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) to further implement a statute, which requires an adjustment every five years of statutory acquisition-related thresholds for inflation. The adjustment uses the Consumer Price Index for all urban consumers and does not apply to the Construction Wage Rate Requirements statute, Service Contract Labor Standards statute, performance and payment bonds, and trade agreements thresholds. OFPP, DoD, GSA, and NASA are also using the same methodology to adjust nonstatutory FAR acquisition-related thresholds in 2025.

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Today, the General Services Administration (GSA) issued a Request for Information seeking input from a broad range of suppliers and industry associations regarding the creation of a new single, end-to-end integrated, and highly-efficient procurement ecosystem — that effectively incorporates Artificial Intelligence (AI) — to drive transparent collaboration and greatly enhance the federal acquisition lifecycle. The RFI is an initial outreach to industry partners looking to provide perspective on GSA’s vision and path to updating procurement practices. The RFI supports GSA’s initiative, on behalf of the entire federal government, to revolutionize federal procurement for the acquisition workforce, program offices, and suppliers. Responses to the RFI are due August 29, 2025.

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The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in conjunction with its marketplace manager, The Applied Research Institute (ARI), is initiating a long-term, open call for new and novel technology solutions to support DARPA in advancing research, development, prototyping, experimentation, and adoption of disruptive, DARPA-relevant research and technology solutions. Specifically, DARPA seeks to obtain solutions or capabilities that deliver breakthrough technological advancements that are new as of the date of submission; or technologies, processes, research or methods that represent a new application as of the date of submission. This initiative, entitled the “Expedited Research Implementation Series” will solicit, collect, assess, and curate the most disruptive, revolutionary solutions, and make those solutions available through rapid acquisition pathways.

DARPA ERIS website

SAM.GOV Expedited Research Implementation Series (ERIS) Notice

Submission Checklist

One of our Nation’s bedrock principles is that all Americans must be treated equally. Not only is discrimination based on protected characteristics illegal under federal law, but it is also dangerous, demeaning, and immoral. Yet in recent years, the federal government has turned a blind eye toward, or even encouraged, various discriminatory practices, seemingly because of their purportedly benign labels, objectives, or intentions. No longer. Going forward, the federal
government will not stand by while recipients of federal funds engage in discrimination.

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The DLA Strategic Plan 2025 – 2030 outlines the organization’s mission, goals and values, and explains the core efforts that makes DLA the Nation’s Logistics Combat Support Agency.

The Defense Logistics Agency is our Nation’s Logistics Combat Support Agency, responsible for delivering agile, adaptive, and resilient logistics support across the continuum of conflict. To succeed in an environment where our efforts are contested by adversaries in all domains at all levels of war, we must think, act, and operate in new ways. It is only through meaningful change that we can deliver exceptional global logistics support and win in today’s rapidly changing and Contested Logistics environment.

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The Pentagon’s fiscal year 2026 research and development budget request contains 61 separate program lines with an associated budget justification that mentions quantum technologies — a notable milestone in the U.S. military’s decades-long pursuit of capabilities that could one day reshape sensing, computing, cryptography and decision-making. To read more, click here.

With global conflicts increasingly shaped by drones and A.I., the American military risks losing its dominance. While the future of warfare is being invented in places like Ukraine, U.S. officials are looking on with a growing sense of urgency. For decades, the American armed forces have relied on highly sophisticated, super-expensive weapons, like nuclear-powered aircraft carriers and stealth fighters, which take years to design and cost billions of dollars to produce. To read more, click here.