January 27, 2024 | International, Aerospace
September 20, 2019 | International, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security
Are meetings with industry actually accelerating military acquisitions?
By: Adam Stone
Military leaders say they are determined to find faster ways to buy cutting-edge technologies.
“We can't afford to spend seven years thinking about a requirement,” Army Undersecretary Ryan D. McCarthy said during a 2018 visit to Fort Belvoir, Virginia.
“If it is going to take that long, you are probably not going to get it. So, we need to get these capabilities sooner.”
To that end, the Department of Defense has increased the number of engagements with industry, launched alternative contracting vehicles, and taken other steps to streamline innovation more effectively. Industry officials are often clamoring for that interaction, but some say the Pentagon's efforts are beginning to bear fruit.
‘Big change'
One area where those changes are most visible has been in the Army's modernization of its battlefield network. David Huisenga, president and chief executive at Klas Telecom Government, said he has noticed a marked difference in the quality and quantity of engagements between industry and the Department of Defense.
After more than two decades in the business, “I have seen a really big change in the past two years with how the Army is adopting technology,” he said.
“They are really focused on rapid-insert capabilities. I had heard that talked about a lot in the past, but it's only recently that we have really seen that put into action.”
The Army's establishment of cross-functional teams has helped to focus energy around priority areas within the C4ISR realm.
Those areas include the Synthetic Training Environment Team (STE); the Network, Command, Control, Communications and Intelligence Team (NET); and the Assured Positioning, Navigation and Timing Team (APNT).
“They have really clarified their priorities within that here are the top five or 10 things they want to do and they have released actual timelines for implementation of those priorities,” Huisenga said.
Klas has taken advantage of the technical exchange meetings, supported by the cross-functional teams and Program Executive Office Command Control Tactical, where both industry and military leaders together work through all of the practical details of emerging requirements.
“Now you have the CFT with the charter to identify and rapidly field the technology, and you have the program executive office that procures and sustains that equipment, working together with industry, all at the same time,” Huisenga said.
For Klas, those engagements helped lead to a recent contract supporting Army's Security Force Assistance Brigade with an initial trial deployment of advanced networking equipment components. Those are slated for service officials to quickly test and refine those components before a final acquisition. Army leaders have said they plan to upgrade the network with new capabilities approximately every two years.
“The PEO made these purchases rapidly, probably the fastest acquisition I have ever seen, and now we will be getting real feed-back on that product,” Huisenga said.
“We, as industry, know that they will refresh every two years, so we can really focus our engineering on those requirements.”
‘One-stop' model
Rosemary Johnston, senior vice president of operations at Savi, a maker of geospatial-enabled logistics solutions, likewise gives the military high marks for its efforts to accelerate tech buys.
“The services are doing a phenomenal job of trying to hasten the acquisition process,” she said. She pointed to the Air Force's emerging “one-stop” model as an example. “They encourage vendors to come to a pitch day and if they like what they are hearing they can go ahead and execute a contract right away.”
Another helpful tool for Savi is the Pentagon's blanket contract for logistics solutions, under which vendors can be pre-vetted for price and suitability, thus allowing end users in the military to effectively buy direct and bypass the usual prolonged procurement process.
Savi recently took advantage of its place on that list to help secure a contract with the Defense Logistics Agency, under which the company will supply 23,000 sophisticated tracking devices to help DLA manage vast inventories of vehicles and equipment stored at multiple distribution sites.
That opportunity arose in 2018, with just two months to go before the close of the fiscal year, when there was pressure on the agency to get a deal done before the clock ran out on the 2018 money.
Thanks to the rapid acquisition process, “they were able to place the order with us, obligate those 2018 funds, and take delivery before the end of calendar year 2018,” Johnston said.
Tools and tactics
Officials from both PEO C3T and the network cross-functional team told C4ISRNET these are exactly the type of outcomes that the military is looking for.
While it is difficult to gauge the specific outcomes of these early efforts, and many acquisitions departmentwide still drag, officials point to early metrics that suggest industry is responding well. Take, for instance, those technology exchange meetings.
“We are averaging 400 people per meeting representing more than 120 companies, from large defense contractors to small businesses and startups,” said Maj. Brian Wong, chief of market research for the network cross-functional team at Army Futures Command. “I don't think we could have seen something like this in the past.”
Another tool that officials say has proven useful is the Middle Tier Acquisition authority: Granted by Congress in the 2016 National Defense Authorization Act, it gives the military the ability to make small purchases for rapid prototyping.
“If we see innovation coming out of industry, whether it's server infrastructure or radio waveforms, we can use rapid prototyping and see how that fits in our network design in order to make better decisions,” said Paul Mehney, who helps manage the office's industry affairs.
Rapid Innovation Funds offer another means to keep the department ahead of the technology curve. With projects worth as much as $3 million per project, Mehney said, these dollars have been used to explore ways that soldiers can communicate when their first line of communications fail.
The funds have also supported advances in dismounted blue force tracking. Rather than require soldiers to access vehicle-mounted equipment for identifying their status in the field, the Army is testing prototypes of handheld variants that could make soldiers jobs easier.
On the contracting side, the increasingly popular OTA — or Other Transaction Authority — has freed military planners to buy small quantities of emerging tech solutions for prototyping and testing.
The military also is deepening its market research
“We are taking a wider look — beyond the traditional defense contracting space — to include startups and smaller companies,” Wong said.
“We have discussions with incubators and with the venture capital community to see what may be in their portfolios that could be of interest to government.”
The close ties between the CFTs and PEOs help ensure that streamlined buys are targeted to actual military need. PEO C3T leaders point to the fact that they've held four technology exchange meetings with the network team and other program offices.
For the vendor community, the fast-track environment presents new opportunities but also new challenges.
Klas, for instance, outsources production of its core product. In order to meet new demand for accelerated deployments, Huisenga said, the company must keep up through more frequent and more specific communications with its manufacturer.
Johnston said her firm's biggest challenge lies in ensuring that military procurement professionals understand the emerging rules of the road.
“We still get requests from contracting officers who aren't familiar with these contracts,” she said.
“They'll ask for a quote, they'll send a statement of the work, and we have to let them know that a lot of this has already been negotiated. We need to explain to them the process we have already gone through to get to this point.”
Military officials, meanwhile, say their challenge lies in ensuring industry is up to speed on the emerging requirements. Especially in the rapidly evolving C4ISR environment, the military can only meet its accelerated objectives if industry is already up to speed on emerging needs.
“It's up to us to make sure industry is informed about what our network design looks like currently, what we anticipate our network design goals to shape up like for future capability sets, and to ensure that industry knows what our architecture looks like so they know how to plug into it,” Mehney said.
“We aren't totally there yet. We still owe industry a better lay-down on those three critical components.”
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July 15, 2019 | International, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security, Other Defence
Contract Awards by US Department of Defense - July 12, 2019
NAVY DLT Solutions LLC, Herndon, Virginia, is being awarded a multiple-award, firm-fixed-price Department of Defense (DoD) Enterprise Software Initiative (ESI) blanket purchase agreement (BPA) in accordance with the firms General Services Administration (GSA) Federal Supply Schedule contracts. The agreement is part of a multi-reseller/multi-software publisher software category management award for commercial-off-the-shelf software; information technology asset management software; software maintenance support; information technology professional services; and related services in support of DoD ESI and under the direction of Office of Management and Budget, Enterprise Software Category. The software publishers are: Appdynamics, Archibus, Cloudbees, Flexera and Polyverse. The BPA provides for purchase of these products and services by the DoD, U.S. intelligence community and the Coast Guard. The overall estimated value of this BPA category is $820,450,000. The ordering period will be for a maximum of 10 years from July 12, 2019, through July 11, 2029. This BPA is issued under DoD ESI in accordance with the policy and guidelines in the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement, Section 208.74. This BPA will not obligate funds at the time of award. Funds will be obligated as task orders using operations and maintenance DoD funds. Requirements will be competed among the awardees in accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulation 8.403-3(c)(2), and the successful contractor will receive firm fixed-price orders. This BPA was competitively procured via the GSA E-Buy web site among 679 vendors. Four offers were received and four were selected for award. Naval Information Warfare Center, Pacific, is the contracting activity (N66001-19-A-0045). Air New Zealand Gas Turbines, Auckland, New Zealand (N64498-19-D-4028); and MTU Maintenance Brandenburg-Berlin, Ludwigsburg, Germany (N64498-19-D-4029), were both awarded a $70,000,000 indefinite-delivery/indefinite quantity, firm-fixed-priced contract for the commercial depot-level overhaul of up to 24 L0M2500 paired blade turbine gas generators. The Naval Surface Warfare Center, Philadelphia Division, requires the commercial depot level overhaul of Navy, Coast Guard, Military Sealift Command and Foreign Military Navy LM2500 paired blade turbine gas generators, National Stock Number 2S 2835-01-032-9125. The two contractors may compete for task orders under the terms and conditions of the awarded contracts. Work under the Air New Zealand Gas Turbines contract will be completed at the contractor's facilities in Auckland, New Zealand, and is expected to be completed by June 2023. Work under the MTU Maintenance Brandenburg-Berlin contract will be completed at the contractor's facilities in Ludwigsfelde, Germany, and is expected to be completed by June 2023. Fiscal 2019 operations and maintenance (Navy) funding in the total amount of $5,740,811 will be obligated at time of award and will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was competitively procured via the Federal Business Opportunities website with three offers received. The Naval Surface Warfare Center, Philadelphia Division, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is the contracting activity. (Awarded July 10, 2019) C&C Power Solutions LLC,* Columbus, Georgia, is being awarded a $65,000,000 indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity, firm-fixed-price contract to procure, renovate, repower, overhaul and/or repair different power systems within its fleet of power equipment services at Naval Facilities Engineering Command Engineering and Expeditionary Warfare Center (EXWC) Mobile Utilities Support Equipment (MUSE). Initial seed task order is being awarded at $2,559,924 for a four, 900-kilowatt generator package at EXWC MUSE Port Hueneme, California. Work for this task order is expected to be completed by July 2020. All work on this contract will be performed in Port Hueneme, California, and is expected to be completed by July 2025. Fiscal 2019 other procurement, Navy (OP, N) contract funds in the amount of $2,559,924 are obligated on this award and will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Future task orders will be primarily funded by OP, N. This contract was competitively procured via the Navy Electronic Commerce Online website and Federal Business Opportunities website with five proposals received. The EXWC Acquisitions Department, Port Hueneme, California, is the contracting activity (N39430-19-D-2124). Palantir Technologies, Palo Alto, California, is being awarded a $27,640,000 fixed-price blanket purchase agreement under the Department of Defense (DoD) Enterprise Software Initiative to provide commercial-off-the-shelf hardware, software and services for DoD, the Intelligence community and the Coast Guard. This one-year agreement includes four, one-year option periods, which if exercised, would bring the potential value of this agreement to an estimated $143,800,000 million. The ordering period of the base agreement will be from July 12, 2019, through July 11, 2020. If all options are exercised, the ordering period will extend through July 11, 2024. No funds will be obligated at the time of award. Funds will be obligated at the delivery order level using operations and maintenance (DoD) funds. This agreement was non-competitively procured with a brand name justification in accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulation 8.405-6 via a limited source solicitation and publication on the General Services Administration eBuy web site. Naval Information Warfare Center, Pacific, is the contracting activity (N66001-19-A-0044). Mercury Defense Systems Inc., Cypress, California, is being awarded a $22,901,395 cost-plus-fixed-fee, cost reimbursable order (N00421-19-F-6104) against a previously issued basic ordering agreement (N00421-17-G-0001). This order provides for the development, integration, delivery and test of the Radar Air-to-Ground Environment in support of the Integrated Battlespace Simulation and Test Air Combat Environment Test and Evaluation Facility. Work will be performed in Cypress, California (80%); Patuxent River, Maryland (10%); and Edwards Air Force Base, California (10%), and is expected to be completed in July 2022. Fiscal 2019 research, development, test and evaluation (Navy) funds in the amount of $300,000 will be obligated at time of award, none of which will expire at the end of the fiscal year. The Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity. Frontier Technology Inc., Beavercreek, Ohio, is being awarded a $13,236,204 cost-plus-fixed-fee task order (N63394-19-F-0041) under previously awarded indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract N63394-17-D-0003 for providing enterprise product life cycle management integrated decision environment services. Work will be performed in Washington, District of Columbia (80%); and Chesapeake, Virginia (20%), and is expected to be completed by September 2020. Fiscal 2012 shipbuilding and conversion (Navy); fiscal 2019 operations and maintenance (Navy); and fiscal 2019 research, development, test and evaluation (other defense agencies) funding in the amount of $6,722,842 will be obligated at time of award, and $6,122,842 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This task order was not competitively procured. In accordance with 10 U.S. Code 2304(c)(1), this contract was not competitively procured (only one responsible source and no other supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements). The services under this contract cover software development and installation, software configuration management and technical support, software solutions and training. These services are in support of the Affordable System Operation Effectiveness (ASOE) initiatives across the Department of Defense. The Naval Surface Warfare Center, Port Hueneme Division, Port Hueneme, California, is the contracting activity. IAP Worldwide Services Inc., Cape Canaveral, Florida, is being awarded a $10,870,239 indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity (IDIQ) modification for the exercise of the first option period under an IDIQ contract for base operations services at Naval Support Activity, Annapolis, Maryland. The work to be performed provides for all management, supervision, labor hours, training, equipment and supplies necessary to perform base operating services to include but not be limited to facility investment, service calls, pest control, operation of utility plants, refuse collection, special events and snow and ice removal. After award of this option, the total cumulative contract value will be $31,751,865. Work will be performed in Annapolis, Maryland, and the option period is from August 2019 to November 2019. No funds will be obligated at time of award. Fiscal 2019 operation and maintenance (Navy); and fiscal 2019 Navy working capital funds in the amount of $7,274,602 for recurring work will be obligated on individual task orders issued during the contract period. Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Washington, District of Columbia, is the contracting activity (N40080-18-D-0500). Schuyler Line Navigation Co. (SLNC),* Annapolis, Maryland, is being awarded a $10,595,700 (fixed-price for firm period) firm-fixed-price contract with reimbursable elements, for employment in worldwide trade for the transportation and/or prepositioning of cargo by the shallow draft tanker MT SLNC Pax. This contract includes a one-year base period with three one-year option periods and an 11-month option period, which, if exercised, would bring the cumulative value of this contract to $51,435,950. Work will be performed in the Western Pacific Ocean (intentions Japan or Korea), and is expected to be completed, if all options are exercised, by Oct. 29, 2024. Fiscal 2019 transportation working capital funds in the amount of $1,765,950 are being obligated at time of award and none of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Transportation working capital funds will be obligated in fiscal 2020 and will not expire at the end of fiscal 2020. This contract was a small business set-aside with more than 50 companies solicited via the Federal Business Opportunities website and three offers received. The Navy's Military Sealift Command, Norfolk, Virginia, is the contracting activity (N32205-19-R-3504). Paradromics Inc.,* Austin, Texas, is being awarded a contract option in the amount of $8,275,758 from a previously awarded cost type of contract. Support includes development of a neural interface system capable of performing continuous, simultaneous full-duplex (read and write) interaction with at least one thousand neurons in regions of the human sensory cortex. This option builds on the designs and prototypes developed from the base award, and provides in vivo animal testing and human studies. This option has a one-year period of performance from July 12, 2019, through July 11, 2020. Work will be performed at the contractor's facilities in Austin, Texas. The option will be incrementally funded at the time of award in the amount of $3,000,000. The original contract was competitively procured via Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) 16-09 “Neural Engineering System Design (NESD).” Forty-one offers were received and six were selected for award. Naval Information Warfare Center, Pacific, is the contracting activity (N66001-17-C-4005). AIR FORCE Sossec Inc., has been awarded a $355,000,000 ceiling increase modification (P0030) to previously awarded firm-fixed-price agreement FA8626-17-9-1000 for the propulsion consortium initiative. Work will be performed at Atkinson, New Hampshire, and is expected to be completed by July 31, 2024. No funds are being obligated at the time of award. The Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, Propulsion Acquisition Directorate, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, is the contracting activity. Textron Defense Systems, Wilmington, Massachusetts, has been awarded a $51,263,809 firm-fixed-price contract modification (P00012) to previously awarded contract FA8204-14-C-0011 for the Minuteman III Intercontinental Ballistic Missile weapon system multiprobe antenna procurement. Work will be performed at Wilmington, Massachusetts, and is expected to be completed by July 13, 2029. Fiscal 2019 procurement funds in the amount of $4,645,109 are being obligated at the time of award. The Air Force Nuclear Weapon Center, Hill Air Force Base, Layton, Utah, is the contract activity. ARMY The Boeing Co., Mesa, Arizona, was awarded a $96,873,221 modification (P00024) to foreign military sales (United Arab Emirates) contract W58RGZ-16-C-0023 for Apache aircraft integrated logistics support, product assurance and Longbow Crew Trainers. Work will be performed in Mesa, Arizona, with an estimated completion date of Dec. 31, 2024. Fiscal 2010 Foreign Military Sales funds in the amount of $96,873,221 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, is the contracting activity. DynCorp International LLC, Fort Worth, Texas, was awarded a $29,311,547 modification (P00251) to domestic and foreign military sales (Slovakia) contract W58RGZ-13-C-0040 for the aviation field maintenance services contract. Work will be performed in Afghanistan, Honduras and Germany, with an estimated completion date of Sept. 30, 2019. Fiscal 2010 and 2019 operations and maintenance, Army; and Foreign Military Sales funds in the combined amount of $29,311,547 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, is the contracting activity. Joint Research and Development Inc.,* Stafford, Virginia, was awarded a $25,000,000 hybrid (cost-no-fee, cost-plus-fixed-fee and firms-fixed-price) contract for operations, research and technology and program and integration support for the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command, Chemical Biological Center's Chemical Biological Applications and Risk Reductions business unit. 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 July 14, 2024. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, is the contracting activity (W911SR-19-D-0008). BAE Systems Ordnance Systems Inc., Radford, Virginia, was awarded a $17,789,259 firm-fixed-price contract to upgrade and rehabilitate the water intake pumps at Radford Army Ammunition Plant. One bid was solicited with one bid received. Work will be performed in Radford, Virginia, with an estimated completion date of Aug. 31, 2021. Fiscal 2019 procurement of ammunition, Army funds in the amount of $17,789,259 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Rock Island Arsenal, Illinois, is the contracting activity (W52P1J-11-G-0002). DEFENSE INFORMATION SYSTEMS AGENCY SES Government Solutions Inc., Reston, Virginia, was awarded a firm-fixed-price task order against the competitive single award blanket purchase agreement (BPA) from General Services Administration's Information Technology Schedule 70 contract for commercial satellite communication services, HC1013-18-A-0002, which was awarded April 13, 2018. The face value of this task order is $7,151,397, funded by fiscal 2019 operations and maintenance funds. The total cumulative face value of the BPA is $516,700,000 (contract ceiling). Performance will be centralized to the U.S. Central Command, with the BPA representing worldwide coverage. The task order period of performance is four years, consisting of a 12-month base period of July 15, 2019, through July 14, 2020, and three 12-month option periods. The Defense Information Technology Contracting Organization, Scott Air Force Base, Illinois, is the contracting activity (GS-35F-0328V/HC1013-18-A-0002, HC1013-19-F-0119). *Small business https://dod.defense.gov/News/Contracts/Contract-View/Article/1903937/source/GovDelivery/
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February 12, 2021 | International, Aerospace
State clears first three foreign military sales of Biden administration
By: Aaron Mehta WASHINGTON — The Biden administration has approved three Foreign Military Sales requests for Jordan, Chile and a NATO agency, with a combined potential price tag of more than $200 million. The approvals mark the first FMS cases moved since President Joe Biden took office. The last FMS cases approved by the State Department came in late December; the Biden team has since announced a pause and review of a number of weapon sales approved by the Trump administration, most notably on weapons purchased by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. The three approvals were announced on the website of the Defense Security Cooperation Agency. DSCA announcements mean that the State Department has decided the potential FMS cases meet its standards, but this does not guarantee the sales will happen in their announced forms. If the U.S. Congress does not object, the foreign customer begins to negotiate on price and quantity, both of which can change during the final negotiations. Jordan was approved for an F-16 Air Combat Training Center and related equipment, with an estimated cost of $60 million. That package would include “mission trainers, combat tactics trainers, instructor/operator stations, tactical environment simulators, brief/debrief stations, scenario generation stations, database generation stations, mission observation centers, and other training center equipment and support,” per the DSCA notice. The center would “enhance” Jordan's pilot training for their fleet of F-16s, the oldest of which entered service in 1997. Work will primarily be done at Lockheed Martin's Rotary & Mission Systems center in Orlando, Fla. Chile was approved to purchase up to 16 Standard Missile-2 (SM-2) Block IIIA missiles, along with support equipment and contractor assistance, with an estimate price tag of $85 million. The anti-air weapons are slated to be used aboard two recently transferred former Adelaide-class frigates to the Chilean Navy. Work would be preformed by Raytheon Missiles and Defense in Tucson, Ariz. The NATO alliance's Communications and Information Agency to buy 517 AN/PRC-158 Manpack UHF SATCOM radio systems, worth an estimated $65 million. Also included in the package would be “crypto fill devices, man-portable ancillaries, vehicular ancillaries, deployed Headquarter ancillaries, power support, and operator and maintenance training,” per the DSCA notice. The sale would “ensure NATO warfighters have access to the latest C3I systems and technologies, and will be interoperable with U.S. forces,” the announcement states. “An updated UHF TACSAT radios in the hands of NATO allies and partners will offer significant C3I capabilities at all echelons, from the operational level down to the lowest small unit tactical formation.” https://www.defensenews.com/global/the-americas/2021/02/11/state-clears-first-three-foreign-military-sales-of-biden-administration/