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Executive Summary: An incumbent contractor faced an accelerated RFP timeline for a mission-critical Military Space C2 platform. Using an “Agile CI” approach and the Clear Eyed CI platform, the team bypassed traditional 4-6 week timelines to identify hidden competitor threats and secure a $200M+ award from the U.S. Space Force (USSF).
- Objective: Accelerated Recompete Defense
- Market: U.S. Space Force (USSF)
- Core Tech: DevSecOps, Cloud C2, Software-Defined Systems
- Result: Successful $200M+ Retention
The Challenge: The Compressed Recompete
- High-Growth Market: As USSF and the military space market become a “hot target” for systems integrators, the incumbent faces an unprecedented volume of mid-tier and large-scale challengers.
- Technical Complexity: The work required maintaining a specialized DevSecOps cloud environment for space-based Command and Control.
- Timeline Friction: A near-term RFP arrival precluded a standard, month-long Black Hat process, requiring an immediate strategic pivot.
The Strategy: “Agile CI” & The Clear Eyed Platform
- Process Truncation: Replaced the full-scale Black Hat with a Rapid Discovery Session focused on high-probability threats and an accelerated “simple” Black Hat session.
- Data Leverage: Utilized the Clear Eyed CI platform to quickly pull foundational intelligence on an array of competitors.
- Objective Red-Teaming: Focused specifically on dismantling “incumbent bias” to expose vulnerabilities in the client’s existing beliefs on their differentiation.
The Execution: Accelerated Black Hat Simulation
- Rapid Discovery: Scoped known customer shifts and DevSecOps platform expectations within a few days.
- Abbreviated Simulation: Stripped non-essential exercises to focus purely on Competitor Tactics and Strengths that were previously invisible to the client.
- SME Collaboration: Integrated technical Subject Matter Experts into a condensed “War Game” to validate technical differentiators.
- Time to Deliver: More traditional Black Hat and Competitive Intelligence deliveries may take 4-6 weeks, but we cut that time in half.
The Impact
- Recompete Victory: Secured the $200M+ recompete, maintaining the client’s foothold in the USSF market.
- Threat Visibility: Uncovered specific competitor “takeaway” tactics that the client had not accounted for in their solution development.
- Mission Continuity: Ensured the continued operation of a core military space asset without transition risk.
