Air Force, Space Force priorities largely supported in funding bill

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  August 27, 2019 | International, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security

  Contract Awards by US Department of Defense - August 23, 2019

  NAVY Lockheed Martin Corp., Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co., Fort Worth, Texas, is awarded $2,426,326,544 for modification P00002 to previously awarded firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract N00019-19-D-0015 F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter initial spares for the Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, non-U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) participants, and Foreign Military Sales (FMS) customers. Spares to be procured include global spares packages, base spares packages, deployment spares packages, afloat spares packages and associated consumables. Work will be performed in Fort Worth, Texas (24.4%); El Segundo, California (9.1%); Owego, New York (8.6%); Samlesbury, United Kingdom (7.2%); Cheltenham, United Kingdom (6.2%); Nashua, New Hampshire (5.8%); Torrance, California (5.5%); Orlando, Florida (4.9%); Cedar Rapids, Iowa (3.7%); San Diego, California (3.6%); Phoenix, Arizona (3.1%); Melbourne, Florida (3.1%); Irvine, California (2.5%); North Amityville, New York (2.4%); Windsor Locks, Connecticut (2.2%); Baltimore, Maryland (2.2%); Papendrect, The Netherlands (1.9%); Rolling Meadows, Illinois (1.8%); and Alpharetta, Georgia (1.8%). All orders are expected to be placed no later than December 2020. No funds will be obligated at time of award, funds will be obligated on individual delivery orders as they are issued. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity. General Dynamics National Steel and Shipbuilding Co., San Diego, California, is awarded a $1,077,009,532 fixed-price-incentive modification to previously awarded contract N00024-19-C-2235 for the procurement of detail design and construction of Expeditionary Sea Base (ESB) 6 and ESB 7, as well as definitization of ESB 6 long lead time material, pre-production and engineering support. Work will be performed in, San Diego, California (57.9%); Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (6.0%); Santa Fe, California (5.9%); Beloit, Wisconsin (4.8%); Crozet, Virginia (4.5%); Mexicali, Mexico (3.1%); and various other locations, each accounting for less than 2% (17.8%), and is expected to be complete by January 2025. This contract includes options, which, if exercised, would bring the cumulative value of this contract to $1,626,008,493, and be complete by January 2025. Fiscal 2019 and 2018 shipbuilding and conversion (Navy) funding in the amount of $1,004,317,973 will be obligated at time of award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was not competitively procured in accordance with U.S. Code 2304(c) (1) – only one responsible source and no other supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, District of Columbia, is the contracting activity. Caterpillar Defense, Peoria, Illinois, is awarded a $54,000,000 indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract with firm-fixed-price task order for the Service Life Extension Program (SLEP) supporting the Navy's expeditionary force fleet of Caterpillar Heavy Construction Civil Engineering Support Equipment (CESE) at Naval Base Ventura County, Port Hueneme, California. The purpose of this contract is to provide a SLEP for the heavy construction CESE (motorized and non-motorized), special military construction and commercial support equipment, mineral products and plant facility equipment and power production equipment to support the Navy and other Department of Defense components worldwide. This contract contains an option which, if exercised, will bring the contract value to $65,000,000. Work will be performed in Port Hueneme, California; and Gulfport, Mississippi, installations, and is expected to be completed August 2020. If the option is completed, work will continue through February 2025. Funds will be obligated on individual task orders as they are issued. Task orders will be funded by fiscal 2019 other procurement (Navy) funds. Naval Facilities Engineering and Expeditionary Warfare Center, Port Hueneme, California, is the contracting activity (N39430-19-D-2123). RAFAEL Advanced Defense Systems Ltd., Haifa, Israel, is awarded a $13,336,344 firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract with a five-year ordering period for intermediate level and depot level test equipment, spare parts, fixturing, repairs, training, engineering services and material support services to establish organic U.S. government I-Level and D-Level Toplite family of electro-optic sights. Work will be performed in Haifa, Israel, and is expected to be complete by August 2024. Fiscal 2019 weapons procurement (Navy) funding in the amount of $4,407,485 will be obligated at the time of award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract is awarded on a sole-source basis in accordance with the statutory authority of 10 U.S. Code 2304(c) (1) as implemented by Federal Acquisition Regulation 6.302-1 - only one responsible source and no other supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements. The Naval Surface Warfare Center, Crane, Indiana, is the contracting activity (N00164-19-D-JQ77). ARMY Raytheon Co., McKinney, Texas, was awarded a $534,000,000 hybrid (cost-plus-fixed-fee and firm-fixed-price) contract for Horizontal Technology Integration Second Generation Forward Looking Infrared (2GF) Commander's Independent Thermal Viewer (CITV), azimuth drive assemblies, azimuth drive armor caps and rings, spares, and engineering services. One bid was solicited with one bid received. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of Aug. 23, 2026. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, is the contracting activity (W909MY-19-D-0015). MD Helicopters Inc., Mesa, Arizona, was awarded a $50,440,584 modification (P00024) to Foreign Military Sales (Afghanistan) contract W58RGZ-17-C-0038 for logistics support for the Afghanistan Air Force MD-530F aircraft fleet. Work will be performed in Kabul, Afghanistan; and Mesa, Arizona, with an estimated completion date of May 31, 2020. Fiscal 2019 and 2020 Afghanistan Security Forces, Army funds in the amount of $50,440,584 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, is the contracting activity. Black & Veatch Special Projects Corp., Overland Park, Kansas (W912DY-19-D-0014); AECOM Services Inc., Boston, Massachusetts (W912DY-19-D-0015); and Zapata Group Inc., Charlotte, North Carolina (W912DY-19-D-0016), will compete for each order of the $49,000,000 firm-fixed-price contract for architectural and engineering services. Bids were solicited via the internet with seven received. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of Aug. 22, 2024. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Huntsville, Alabama, is the contracting activity. Burns & McDonnell Engineering Co. Inc., Kansas City, Missouri, was awarded a $9,800,000 firm-fixed-price contract for pre-design investigation and design services for the Bureau of Indian Affairs, San Carlos Irrigation Project, power transmission infrastructure improvements located in Coolidge, Arizona. Bids were solicited via the internet with six received. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of Aug. 22, 2024. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Los Angeles, California, is the contracting activity (W912PL-19-D-0009). WASHINGTON HEADQUARTERS SERVICES Signature Renovations LLC, Capital Heights, Maryland, has been awarded a $100,000,000 indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract. The work to be performed provides various design-build/bid-build construction services at the Pentagon and the surrounding Pentagon Reservation. No funds will be obligated at time of award. Fiscal 2019 Pentagon Reservation Maintenance Revolving Fund will be obligated on individual task orders issued during the contract period. Work performance will take place in Arlington, Virginia. The expected completion date is Aug. 23, 2023. Washington Headquarters Services, Arlington, Virginia, is the contracting activity (HQ0034-19-D0018). DEFENSE ADVANCED RESEARCH PROJECTS AGENCY Science Applications International Corp., McLean, Virginia, has been awarded a maximum $48,000,000 modification (P00087) exercising the second two-year option period of a three-year base contract (SPE5EY-14-D-0562) with two two-year option periods and one three-year option period for supply chain management of industrial hardware used in aviation maintenance, repair and overhaul. This is a firm-fixed-price with economic-price-adjustment, indefinite-quantity contract. Locations of performance are Virginia, North Carolina, Florida and California, with a Sept. 30, 2021, performance completion date. Using military service is Navy. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2019 through 2021 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. B&H International LLC,* Bakersfield, California, has been awarded a maximum $10,000,000 firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for computer subassemblies in support of the Warfighter Information Network-Tactical Increment 2 system. This was a sole-source acquisition using justification 10 U.S. Code 2304 (c)(1) as stated in Federal Acquisition Regulation 6.302-1. This is a five-year contract with no option periods. Location of performance is California, with an Aug. 22, 2024, performance completion date. Using military service is Army. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2019 through 2024 Army working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Land and Maritime, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland (SPRBL1-19-D-0071). AIR FORCE Booz Allen Hamilton, McLean, Virginia, has been awarded an $8,004,263 modification (P00005) to contract FA4890-17-F-3042 for Cyber Command readiness inspection. This contract will support at 15 U.S. Air Force bases in the continental U.S. The contract modification provides for the exercise of an option for an additional year of cyber security support services under the multiple year contract. Work will be performed in accordance with the performance work statement and is expected to be completed by Sept. 24, 2020. Air Combat Command, Acquisition Management and Integration Center, Langley Air Force Base, Virginia, is the contracting activity. Next Century Corp.,* Annapolis Junction, Maryland, has been awarded a $7,607,221 cost-plus-fixed-fee/completion type contract for Multimodal Open Interfaces for Reasoning by Artificial Intelligence software prototype system. This contract provides for an integrated platform that hosts algorithms developed by Technical Area 1 (TA1) and TA2 Knowledge-directed Artificial Intelligence Reasoning Over Schemas performers. Work will be performed in Falls Church, Virginia, and is expected to be completed by May 22, 2024. This award is the result of a competitive acquisition and 35 offers were received. Air Force Research Laboratory/RIKE, Rome, New York, is the contracting activity (FA8750-19-C-0105). *Small Business https://www.defense.gov/Newsroom/Contracts/Contract/Article/1943009/source/GovDelivery/

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  May 11, 2020 | International, Naval

  The US Navy’s modernization rush must not harm mine countermeasures

  By: Rep. Rob Wittman As the world continues to grapple with the COVID-19 pandemic, we are reminded that even in a time of unprecedented technological growth and development, simple and primitive threats have the ability to radically alter our way of life. In spite of astonishing medical advancements, some threats, unfortunately, remain timeless. Many people have drawn comparisons between the current coronvirus pandemic and the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918. The Spanish flu was caused by an H1N1 virus that was first identified in the United States in military personnel in the spring of 1918. It would eventually infect one-third of the global population, killing approximately 675,000 people in the United States and an estimated 50 million people worldwide. All of this was happening in the midst of the “war to end all wars” — World War I. While the homeland was battling the flu pandemic, the U.S. Navy was battling the U-boat threat in the Atlantic. In World War I, German submarines sank almost 5,000 ships, most of them merchant vessels. To help counter the U-boat threat, the United States and the United Kingdom embarked on an unprecedented and ambitious project: the construction of the North Sea Mine Barrage — a 230-mile-long underwater barrier of sea mines stretching from Aberdeen, Scotland, to Ekersund, Norway. The effort was a marvel of modern manufacturing, producing 1,000 sea mines every day. Over five months, the allies eventually laid over 70,000 sea mines, helping to contain the U-boat threat and protect allied shipping. As a second wave of the flu pandemic raged across the globe, World War I finally came to an end in November 1918. The American and British navies now had the task of cleaning up 70,000 live sea mines in the unforgiving North Sea. These primitive mines were anchored to the bottom of the sea, and the U.S. and U.K. had the advantage of knowing precisely where they were located because they had laid them. Despite those advantages, it took 82 ships and over 4,000 men — 10 times the assets that were required to lay the mines — to clean up the North Sea Mine Barrage. After almost a year of mine-clearing efforts, the operation was declared complete. Navy studies would later reveal that only approximately 40 percent of the American mines had actually been cleared, and mines continued to wash ashore for years after the end of the war. Fast forward a century and sea mines have proliferated around the world. Since the end World War II, sea mines have damaged or sunk four times as many U.S. Navy ships as any other method of attack. U.S. adversaries have paid attention. Russia was a pioneer in mine warfare and is estimated to have as many as 250,000 sea mines in its inventory. China is not far behind, with an inventory of around 100,000, including some of the world's most advanced mines. China has hundreds of mine-capable ships and aircraft, and could deploy thousands of mines a day during a conflict. To counter the mine threat, the U.S. Navy relies on 11 wooden-hulled Avenger-class mine countermeasures ships, 31 MH-53E Sea Dragon helicopters and a handful of explosive ordnance disposal platoons. The Navy wants to retire both the Avengers and Sea Dragons by 2025, while efforts to field any replacement capability have continued to falter. While the U.S. Navy has focused its research and funding on countering emerging threats such as advanced radars and hypersonic missiles, a time-tested threat waits patiently in the waters around the globe; and if we ignore the lessons of history, a centuries-old technology could lead to our defeat. Mine warfare, like public health, is an area that rarely attracts attention or significant investment until a crisis emerges. We should not wait until American lives are in peril before we take action. We need to change course immediately. First, the Navy must maintain its existing mine countermeasures forces until a credible replacement is fielded. Second, the Navy must make a significant investment to recapitalize the mine countermeasures force both in time and quantity to deliver a credible force. Unfortunately, the Navy has spent billions of dollars and wasted precious years pursuing a mine countermeasure module program that, even if it worked as advertised, would have neither the capability nor the capacity to effectively counter an enemy mine threat anticipated in our National Defense Strategy. Whether it's a pandemic or a proliferated naval threat, our citizens expect the United States to respond effectively, and we must make the necessary investments to counter the threats to our nation and our Navy. https://www.defensenews.com/opinion/commentary/2020/05/08/the-us-navys-modernization-rush-must-not-harm-mine-countermeasures/

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  July 3, 2018 | International, Naval

  Australia officially announces $26B frigate contract. Here are the build details

  By: Nigel Pittaway MELBOURNE, Australia ― Australia will acquire nine high-end anti-submarine warfare frigates from the end of the next decade under a deal with BAE Systems worth AU$35 billion (U.S. $26 billion). The announcement was formally made Friday at the ASC shipyard in Osborne, South Australia, by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, Minister for Defence Marise Payne and Minister for Defence Industry Christopher Pyne. A version of BAE Systems' City-class Type 26 ASW frigate, now under construction for the British Royal Navy, will be acquired under Australia's SEA 5000 Phase 1 project, also known as the Future Frigate Project. Referred to as the Global Combat Ship―Australia, or GCS-A, during the competition, the design will be known as the Hunter-class in Royal Australian Navy service and will replace the Navy's existing Anzac-class frigates. There has been speculation in the media that the decision to go with BAE may be driven, in part, by Australia's desire to secure strong terms with the U.K. as it negotiates a series of new trade agreements after Britain leaves the European Union. Payne noted Friday that the GCS-A design was selected because it was the most capable ASW platform. “This is a decision entirely based on capability, the best capability to equip the Navy in anti-submarine warfare,” she said. Regardless, news of BAE's win was welcomed in the United Kingdom, with Secretary of State for Defence Gavin Williamson referring to it as the “biggest maritime defence deal of the decade.” “This £20 billion ‘deal of the decade' demonstrates how British defence plays a huge role in creating jobs and prosperity and is ‘Global Britain' in action,” he commented on social media. “Great to see our military and industrial links strengthen with Australia.” The ships will be built by ASC Shipbuilding in South Australia, using local workers and Australian steel, under the Turnbull government's continuous naval shipbuilding program. “What we are doing here is announcing our commitment to build the nine Future Frigates,” Prime Minister Turnbull said. “The Hunter-class frigates will be the most advanced anti-submarine warships in the world.” The Hunter-class frigates will be equipped with CEA Technologies-built CEAFAR phased array radar currently fitted to the Navy's post-anti-ship missile defense Anzac frigates, together with Lockheed Martin's Aegis combat system and an interface provided by Saab Australia. The Aegis combat system was mandated for all of Australia's major surface combatants by the Turnbull government in October 2017. The GCS-A design was selected in preference to Fincantieri's Australian FREMM, dubbed FREMM-A, a variant of the ASW-optimized FREMM frigate now in service with the Italian Navy; and the F-5000 from Navantia, based on an evolution of the Royal Australian Navy's Hobart-class air warfare destroyer, which in turn is a derivative of the Spanish Navy's F-100 Álvaro de Bazán class. An ASW capability was the highest priority for the Royal Australian Navy, according to Chief of Navy Vice Adm. Tim Barrett. “I spoke as recently as last night to the First Sea Lord, my equivalent in the [British] Royal Navy, and I am assured by his comments on just how successful this platform will be as the world's most advanced anti-submarine warfare frigate,” he said Friday. The first steel is due to be cut on prototyping activities for the build at Osborne in late 2020, with full production following in 2022. The first ship of the class will be delivered to the Royal Australian Navy in the late 2020s. Under the deal, the government-owned shipbuilder ASC will become a subsidiary of BAE Systems during the build, with the government retaining a sovereign share in the entity. The shipyard will revert to government ownership at the end of the project. Turnbull said the arrangement ensures BAE Systems is fully responsible and accountable for the delivery of the frigates, noting that Australia retains the intellectual property and a highly skilled workforce at the end of the program. “My expectation is that the next generation of frigates that comes after the ones we're about to start building at ASC will be designed and built in Australia,” he said. BAE System's global maritime systems business development director, Nigel Stewart, told Defense News that he welcomes the build strategy. “We were really pleased with that as an outcome because ASC has great capability. We always wanted to use the workforce, but this allows us to join ASC and BAE together much earlier, and we think that will be really positive,” he said. Stewart said the plan was for the Hunter-class build to follow the Type 26 activity in the U.K. by around five years, which will serve to de-risk the Australian program. BAE is due to deliver the first ship, HMS Glasgow, to the British Royal Navy in 2025, with entry into service in the 2027 time frame. “We cut steel for the first Type 26 in the U.K. in June 2017, and we'll cut steel for full production of the Hunter class in South Australia in 2022,” he said. “We'll run at an 18-month drumbeat in the U.K., and somewhere between 18 months and two years in Australia. That will keep a five-year gap, which is almost perfect. You are de-risking the Australian program in the U.K. and you don't get the obsolescence issues you would if there was a longer gap, so it's a really good program overlap.” In other news Friday, the Turnbull government announced it will set up a AU$670 million training and capability center for the Hunter-class frigates in Western Australia. Known as Ship Zero, the initiative will be established at HMAS Stirling, the Navy's Fleet Base West, at the shipbuilding facility in Henderson. Much of the training traditionally performed at sea will be transferred into the land-based facility. The capital works project will be considered by the Australian Parliament early next year, and construction is expected to commence in 2019. https://www.defensenews.com/naval/2018/06/29/australia-officially-announces-26b-frigate-contract-here-are-the-build-details/