Air Force to Spend $31M to Research How Lasers, Energy Weapons Affect Operators

On the same subject

• 

  August 25, 2020 | International, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security, Other Defence

  Contract Awards by US Department of Defense - August 21, 2020

  ARMY TSI Inc., Shoreview, Minnesota, was awarded a $48,213,673 firm-fixed-price contract for approximately 3,500 M41A1 protection assessment test systems conformance testing certifications, technical documentation and logistics support equipment. Bids were solicited via the internet with one received. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of Aug. 20, 2025. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, is the contracting activity (W911SR-20-D-0003). Federal Contracting Inc., Colorado Springs, Colorado, was awarded a $41,906,264 firm-fixed-price contract for construction of a Cyberworx building at the U.S. Air Force Academy. Bids were solicited via the internet with two received. Work will be performed in Colorado Springs, Colorado, with an estimated completion date of July 12, 2023. Fiscal 2020 military construction, defense-wide funds in the amount of $41,906,264 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Omaha, Nebraska, is the contracting activity (W9128F-20-C-0038). Fugro Earthdata Inc., Frederick, Maryland (W912P9-20-D-0024); and Quantum Spatial Inc., St. Petersburg, Florida (W912P9-20-D-0025), will compete for each order of the $22,666,666 firm-fixed-price contract for basic site plan mapping, land-use/land-type classification and/or change-analysis mapping. Bids were solicited via the internet with 38 received. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of Aug. 20, 2025. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, St. Louis, Missouri, is the contracting activity. Dyncorp International LLC, Fort Worth, Texas, was awarded a $12,853,147 modification (P00071) to contract W58RGZ-19-C-0025 for aviation maintenance services. Work will be performed in Afghanistan, with an estimated completion date of Nov. 8, 2020. Fiscal 2020 operations and maintenance (Army) funds in the amount of $12,853,147 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, is the contracting activity. AIR FORCE Raytheon Missile and Defense, Tucson, Arizona, has been awarded a $21,803,804 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for sustainment services associated with the ADM-160B, ADM-160C and C-1 Miniature Air Launched Decoy Jammer. Work will be performed in Tucson, Arizona, and is expected to be completed May 14, 2023. This award is the result of a sole-source acquisition. Fiscal 2020 operations and maintenance funds in the amount of $1,500,000 are being obligated at the time of award. Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, Robins Air Force Base, Georgia, is the contracting activity (FA8520-20-D-0005). NAVY BAE Systems Surface Ships Limited, Portsmouth, United Kingdom, is awarded a $19,914,240 firm-fixed-price, cost-plus-fixed-fee, and cost-only contract for Archerfish Destructor full rate production, maintenance and associated technical services. The work to be performed under this contract will include maintenance, spare and repair parts and evolution of the Archerfish Destructors. BAE Systems will manage the destructor configuration as well as integrate new or upgraded capability and assess the destructor configuration for application to in-service upgrade efforts. This contract includes options which, if exercised, would bring the cumulative maximum value of this contract to $189,268,826. Work will be performed in Portsmouth, United Kingdom (86 %); Marseille, France (8 %); and Rocket Center, West Virginia (6 %), and is expected to be complete by January 2023. Fiscal 2019 weapons procurement (Navy) (62%); 2020 weapons procurement (Navy) (28%); 2020 operations and maintenance (Navy) (9%); and 2018 weapons procurement (Navy) (1%) funding in the amount of $19,914,240 will be obligated at the time of award, of which $1,793,874 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was not competitively procured in accordance with 10 U.S. Code 2304(c)(1), this contract was awarded on a sole-source basis (only one responsible source and no other supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements). The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity (N00024-20-C-6407). MNDPI Pacific JV, Honolulu, Hawaii, is being awarded a not-to-exceed value of $14,000,000 task order (N62742-20-F-0339) as an undefinitized contract under an indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for various structural and waterfront projects and other projects at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam. The work to be performed provides architect-engineer services to conduct a geotechnical investigation in the area west of Dry Dock 3. The investigation is being done to provide data for a proposed future project to construct a new dry dock. All work will be performed in Honolulu, Hawaii, and is expected to be completed by July 2022. Fiscal 2020 military construction (planning and design) contract funds in the amount of $14,000,000 are obligated on this award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Pacific, Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii, is the contracting activity (N62742-20-D-0004). KBR Wyle Services LLC, Lexington Park, Maryland, is awarded an $8,740,605 cost-plus-fixed-fee, cost contract to provide technical assistance, program management, engineering, financial and logistics support for the integrated product teams that acquire and sustain F-18 series aircraft for Foreign Military Sales (FMS) customers and the governments of Finland and Kuwait. Work will be performed in Lexington Park, Maryland (87.75%); Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (3.6%); Kuwait City, Kuwait (3.6%); North Island, California (2.6%); and Patuxent River, Maryland (2.45%), and is expected to be completed in August 2025. FMS funds in the amount of $8,740,605 will be obligated at time of award, none of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was not competitively procured pursuant to 10 U.S. Code 2304(f)(2)(E). The Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity (N00421-20-C-0032). Lockheed Martin Corp., Fort Worth, Texas, is awarded a $7,955,000 cost, cost-share order (N00019-20-F-0565) against basic ordering agreement N00019-19-G-0008. This order is to consolidate Lots 12-14 known issues, funding and requirements on a single contract vehicle to ensure the most fiscally responsible business deals for customers. This supports concurrency related modification and retrofit activities for delivered air systems for the F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter aircraft for non-Department of Defense (DOD) participants and Foreign Military Sales (FMS) customers. Work will be performed in Fort Worth, Texas and is expected to be completed in December 2025. Non-DOD participant funds in the amount of $6,235,000; and FMS funds in the amount of $1,720,000 will be obligated at time of award, none of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity. DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY Boeing Distribution Services Inc., Miami, Florida, has been awarded a maximum $19,818,043 firm-fixed-price, requirements type prospective-price-determination contract for supply chain management, logistics support and individually priced parts. This was a sole-source acquisition using 10 U.S. Code 2304 (c)(1), as stated in Federal Acquisition Regulation 6.302-1. This is a five-year base contract with one five-year option period. Location of performance is Florida, with an Aug. 20, 2025, performance completion date. Using military services are Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2020 through 2025 defense working capital funds. The Defense Logistics Agency, Aviation, Richmond, Virginia, is the contracting activity (SPE4AX-20-D-9412). MISSILE DEFENSE AGENCY Lockheed Martin Rotary and Mission Systems, Moorestown, New Jersey, is being awarded an $18,836,895 sole-source, cost-plus-fixed-fee modification (P00375) under previously awarded Aegis Combat Weapon System development contract HQ0276-10-C-0001. The total value of the contract increases from $3,274,230,310, to $3,293,067,205; $65,039,414 of which was obligated for Aegis Ashore Japan (under Contract Line Item Number 0135) and increases to $83,876,309. Under this modification, the contractor will continue performing engineering design support and analysis of alternative services necessary for continuation of planning efforts and risk reduction efforts required to support the Aegis Ashore Japan analysis of alternatives and Foreign Military Sales. The work will be performed in Moorestown, New Jersey, with an expected completion date of Dec. 31, 2020. Funds from the government of Japan in the amount of $18,836,895 are being obligated at the time of award. The Missile Defense Agency, Dahlgren, Virginia, is the contracting activity. *Small Business https://www.defense.gov/Newsroom/Contracts/Contract/Article/2321448/

• 

  September 18, 2019 | International, Aerospace

  Hypersonic weapons could give the B-1 bomber a new lease on life

  By: Aaron Mehta NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — It's been a rough stretch for the U.S. Air Force's fleet of 62 B-1B Lancer bombers, with a pair of fleet shutdowns over safety concerns and the confirmation of plans to start retiring the plane as the new B-21 comes online, even as the much older B-52 remains in service. But speaking at the Air Force Association's annual conference Monday, Gen. Timothy Ray, the head of Air Force Global Strike Command, seemed to throw his support behind keeping the B-1 around for quite some time. In fact, in Ray's mind, the B-1′s capabilities might expand. Several times throughout the speech, Ray emphasized that while the B-21 is slowly spinning up, he can't afford to lose any capability. Indeed, Ray seemed to posture toward keeping the B-1 over the long term, according to John Venable, a senior defense fellow at the Heritage Foundation and former F-16 command pilot. “One of the major takeaways [from the speech] is that the B-1 is not going to go away nearly as soon as people thought,” Venable said, “and that's a good thing.” Under the Air Force's stated goal of 386 squadrons, the service's force mix requirement is about 225 bombers. The service currently has 156, Ray said, and even with the B-21 coming online sometime in the 2020s, planned retirements to the B-1 and B-2 would keep the bomber force under 200. Ray's belief in the B-1 spans from two broad assessments. First, freed from the heavy workload of B-1s performing regular close-air support activities in Iraq and Afghanistan, the fleet will experience less wear and tear, and hence survive longer than projected. “We're just flying the airplane in a way we shouldn't have been flying it, and we did for far too long. The good news is we're resetting that entire team,” Ray said. “What we thought was a very sizable load of structural issues” ended up being a “fraction” of issues to deal with, he added. Those structural issues have become particularly visible in the last 16 months, with the entire B-1 fleet grounded twice for mechanical issues. In June 2018, the fleet was grounded for two weeks following the discovery of an issue with the Lancer's ejection seat; in March 2019, another ejection seat issue grounded the fleet for almost a month. Members of Congress have since expressed serious concerns about the B-1's readiness rates, a number that was just more than 50 percent in 2018. Ray expressed optimism about the mechanical issues, saying that any fallout from the ejection seat shutdowns will be completed by the end of October, which is “must faster” than the service predicted. The second reason Ray believes there's still life in the B-1? The idea that there are modifications to the Lancer that would add new capabilities relevant in an era of great power competition. In August, the Air Force held a demonstration of how the B-1 could be modified to incorporate four to eight new hypersonic weapons by shifting the bulkhead forward from a bomb bay on the aircraft, increasing the size inside the plane from 180 inches to 269 inches. That change allows the loading of a Conventional Rotary Launcher, the same system used inside the B-52, onto the B-1. According to an Air Force release, first reported by Military.com, the bulkhead change is temporary, giving the B-1 flexibility based on its mission. Overall, the internal bay could be expanded from 24 to 40 weapons, per the service. In addition, the testers proved new racks could be attached to hardpoints on the wings. “The conversation we're having now is how we take that bomb bay [and] put four potentially eight large hypersonic weapons on there,” Ray said. “Certainly, the ability to put more JASSM-ER [Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile Extended Range] or LRASM [Long Range Anti-Ship Missile] externally on the hardpoints as we open those up. So there's a lot more we can do.” Said Venable: “I think it's a great idea. Increasing our bomber force end strength, we're not going to get there just by buying B-21[s] and retiring the B-1s.” “Adding a new rotary [launcher that] he was talking about, just behind the bulkhead of the cockpit of the B-1, freeing up the pylons to actually manifest more longer-range weapons and give it a greater penetrating strike capability — those are great takeaways from this particular event,” the analyst added. https://www.defensenews.com/digital-show-dailies/air-force-association/2019/09/17/global-strike-head-makes-case-of-b-1-survival/

• 

  August 12, 2019 | International, Aerospace, Land

  Here’s how the US Army’s missiles and space program office is being reorganized

  By: Jen Judson WASHINGTON — The U.S. Army is reorganizing its Program Executive Office Missiles and Space to focus on the integrated fires mission, the office's chief said. “This is the construct that we need to have within the PEO to be agile, to be flexible, and not just meet those requirements that we see today, but to be able to bend as needed for those requirements that are coming tomorrow,” Maj. Gen. Robert Rasch said Aug. 8 at the Space and Missile Defense Symposium in Huntsville, Alabama. The PEO is moving from having eight program managers to five that all fall under an integrated fires-focused portfolio. The five different program offices will be Fires Radars and Sensors, Integrated Fires Mission Command, Air-and-Missile Defense Fires, Operational and Strategic Fires, and Aviation and Ground Fires. Additionally, the PEO will have an Integrated Fires Rapid Capabilities program office. The projects under Fires Radars and Sensors will be the Lower Tier Air and Missile Defense System, Sentinel, AN/TPQ-50, AN/TPQ53, AN/TPQ-36, AN/TPQ-37, the Range Radar Replacement Program, and the Army Long-Range Persistent Surveillance — deployed in several global locations to defend against aircraft, cruise missiles and drones. The Integrated Fires Mission Command portfolio will include the Integrated Air and Missile Defense Battle Command System, the Integrated Collaborative Environment, the Integrated Fire Control Network, and the Joint Tactical Ground Station, to name a few. The Air and Missile Defense Fires areas of responsibility will be the Indirect Fires Protection Capability Increment 2, Stinger missile, Avenger system, National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile, Expanded Mission Area Missile, Interim Maneuver-Short Range Air Defense system, Patriot Advanced Capability-3 missile, PAC-3 Missile Segment Enhancement missile, Patriot launcher and C-RAM Intercept Land-based Phalanx Weapon System. The Precision Strike Missile, the Guided Multiple Launch Rocket Systems, Army Tactical Missile Systems, High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, and the Multiple Launch Rocket System will fall under Operational and Strategic Fires. Javelin, Hellfire, Tube-launched Optically Tracked Wire-Guided missile, Improved Target Acquisition and the Lethal Miniature Aerial Munition will be a part of Aviation and Ground Fires. Under the Integrated Fires and Rapid Capabilities portfolio will be Counter-Unmanned Aircraft Systems, Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon, and the Mobile Low, Slow Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Integrated Defense Systems. All of the products living under the PEO Missiles and Space umbrella will remain, it's just a matter of shifting them around, Rasch said, and that's the easy part. “What we have lacked in the past is really a systems-of-systems look at the requirements as they come into our PEO,” Rasch said, and the new organization will “make sure that we really understand how we need to implement these from a materiel perspective.” Rasch noted that going forward a lot of focus will be on the sensors portfolio to figure out “how we can truly make best use of the various sensors we have on the battlespace to provide better situational awareness that enables everything, that truly enables the concept or integrated fires that is needed to support multidomain operations.” The newly organized PEO will reach a full-operational capability by the first quarter of fiscal 2021, Rasch said. “You ask: ‘Why so long?' ... We have a little bit of work to do before I can start turning over all the locks, so we are in deep mission analysis right now.” Moving products around to different portfolios is easy, but “when we start looking at funding lines, we start looking at leadership across the varied PM offices, you start looking at the functional support that exists within those,” Rasch said. “We are going to make sure we can, deliberately, over the next year and half.” https://www.defensenews.com/digital-show-dailies/smd/2019/08/08/heres-how-the-armys-missiles-and-space-program-office-is-being-reorganized/