October 25, 2018 | International, Aerospace

Belgium reportedly picks F-35 for future fighter jet

By: Valerie Insinna and Sebastian Sprenger

WASHINGTON and LIÈGE, Belgium — Belgium appears poised to select Lockheed Martin's F-35 over the Eurofighter Typhoon as its next-generation fighter jet, with government sources on Oct. 22 telling national news outlet Belga that an F-35 victory has already been decided.

The Belgian government is expected to formally announce its decision before Oct. 29, Reuters reported on Monday.

A Lockheed Martin spokesman said he could not confirm whether Belgium had communicated its choice to the firm, but said the company remains confident in its offering.

“The F-35 offers transformational capability for the Belgian Air Force and, if selected, will align them with a global coalition operating the world's most advanced aircraft,” Mike Friedman said in an emailed statement. “The F-35 program is built on strong international partnerships, and our proposal includes significant industrial opportunities for Belgian companies to contribute to the global F-35 enterprise.”

The F-35 was widely considered the favorite in the competition, which included the Eurofighter — a partnership among the United Kingdom, Italy, Spain and Germany. This summer, Belgium announced that it would also consider two options in addition to the F-35 and Typhoon: France's Dassault Rafale or upgrading its existing F-16 fleet instead of purchasing new aircraft.

U.S. aerospace behemoth Boeing and Sweden's Saab pulled out of the competition last year, with Boeing claiming that Belgium's requirements favored the F-35 and Sweden stating that it was not able to provide the operational support needed by the Belgian Air Component.

A win by the F-35 would further solidify the joint strike fighter's dominance among U.S. allies in Europe and deal a heavy blow to Franco-German ambitions for a prominent role in building Europe's next-generation defense capabilities. Both Rafale and Eurofighter had pitched extensive industrial packages to Belgium in the hopes of bolstering their offers.

Analysts had said that Belgium's decision could be a bellwether for future European fighter jet competitions.

U.S. industry sources told Defense News this summer that they believed that President Donald Trump's rhetoric on NATO allies' defense spending and tariffs on steel and aluminum may have led Belgium to take a closer look at the European offers. Meanwhile, European defense officials and experts repeatedly made the case that Belgium should pick a European plane.

For Brussels, the capital of Europe, to choose the U.S. plane would amount to nothing less than an act of “betrayal,” the French business journal La Tribune headlined on Monday.

Two practical considerations were seen as playing heavily into the Belgian government's inclination toward the joint strike fighter: For one, the neighboring Netherlands already is an F-35 customer. The two countries agreed some years ago to pool their resources in policing their common airspace, and having only one aircraft type presumably would be good for interoperability.

In addition, Belgium for decades has had an agreement with NATO that requires its planes to be capable of carrying U.S. nuclear weapons into a hypothetical atomic war. Belgium, like neighbor Germany, stores a few warheads within its borders for that purpose.

Certifying a European-made aircraft, like the Airbus Eurofighter, for the nuclear mission after the F-16 is politically tricky and – some say – perhaps even undoable given the current state of trans-Atlantic affairs. In that line of thinking, a nuclear-capable F-35 could represent the most trouble-free option for Belgium.

The Belgian decision is sure to be watched closely by Germany. Berlin is in the market to replace its Tornado aircraft, looking for roughly 90 new planes. While officials have said they prefer the Eurofighter, uncertainty surrounding the nuclear-weapons certification of the future fleet remains something of an elephant in the room.

Belgium intends to buy 34 new fighters to replace its aging inventory of F-16s, which number about 54 jets — although that number may be even fewer after an embarrassing incident earlier this month, where a mechanic accidentally opened fire while doing repair work and and blew up a neighboring F-16.

In January, the U.S. State Department pre-emptively approved a $6.53 billion F-35 sale to Belgium that would include 34 F-35A conventional takeoff and landing variants, 38 F-135 engines manufactured by Pratt & Whitney, and a slew of other equipment to enable operations, training and logistics. That estimate is expected to come down as Lockheed and the government hammer out a final contract.

https://www.defensenews.com/air/2018/10/22/belgium-reportedly-picks-f-35-for-future-fighter-jet

On the same subject

November 4, 2019 | International, Land

U.S. Marine Corps Orders More Amphibious Combat Vehicles from BAE Systems
October 30, 2019 - BAE Systems has received a $120 million contract from the U.S. Marine Corps for additional Amphibious Combat Vehicles under a third order for Low Rate Initial Production (LRIP). This award is an important next step on the path to full rate production. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20191030005625/en/ This latest contract is for the ACV personnel carrier variant (ACV-P), an eight-wheeled amphibious assault vehicle capable of transporting Marines from open-ocean ship to shore and conducting land operations. Each vehicle embarks 13 Marines in addition to a crew of three. “This award further validates the Marine Corps' confidence in the vehicle's proven capability in meeting their amphibious mission, and represents an important step toward fielding the vehicle in the Fleet Marine Force. The ACV is a highly mobile, survivable and adaptable platform designed for growth to meet future mission role requirements while bringing enhanced combat power to the battlefield,” said John Swift, director of amphibious programs at BAE Systems. Current low-rate production is focused on the ACV-P variant. More variants will be added under full rate production to include the command and control (ACV-C), 30mm medium caliber turret (ACV-30) and recovery variants (ACV-R) under the ACV Family of Vehicles program. BAE Systems previously received the Lot 1 and Lot 2 awards. The Marine Corps selected BAE Systems along with teammate Iveco Defence Vehicles for the ACV program in 2018 to replace its legacy fleet of Assault Amphibious Vehicles, which have been in service for decades and were also built by BAE Systems. ACV production and support is taking place at BAE Systems locations in Stafford, Virginia; San Jose, California; Sterling Heights, Michigan; Aiken, South Carolina; and York, Pennsylvania. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20191030005625/en/
May 7, 2020 | International, Naval

Navy Wants Robot Boats But Will Still Need Sailors To Fix Them
"We need to find a balance of vehicle designs that enables the cost to be cheap enough that we can afford them, but it's not so highly optimized towards the purely unmanned spectrum that it's cost prohibitive to maintain them." By PAUL MCLEARYon May 06, 2020 at 3:27 PM WASHINGTON: The Navy needs to comb through a host of thorny issues before deploying a new fleet of unmanned ships to confront China, Russia, and Iran. “You don't hear me talking about artificial intelligence and machine learning and things like that just yet,” said Capt. Pete Small, the Navy's program manager for Unmanned Maritime Systems at a C4ISRnet conference this morning. “Those aren't my first concerns. My first concerns are about the field stability and sustainability of these systems right now.” The Navy just isn't equipped to deploy or sustain a new fleet of unmanned vessels yet. “Our infrastructure right now is optimized around manned warships,” Small said. “We're gonna have to shift that infrastructure for how we prepare, deploy, and transit” over large bodies of water before large numbers of unmanned vessels can be effective, he said. It's not clear where that planning stands, but the service has already invested tens of millions in the early work of developing a family of large and medium unmanned vessels, and is looking to vastly ramp that up in the 2021 budget, asking for $580 million for research and development. In 2019 an unmanned Sea Hunter prototype autonomous vessel sailed from San Diego to Hawaii, but it needed to repair several broken systems along the way, forcing sailors to board the ship. It was the first experiment of its kind, one the Navy has not repeated. Those mechanical problems point to work the Navy must do to reconfigure its logistics tail to meet the needs of a new class of ship. “We're going to have to transition from a [system] more optimized around our manned fleet infrastructure to a more distributed mix of these large manned platforms to smaller platforms,” Small said, “we're gonna need to talk about things like, tenders for heavy lift ships, or forward operating bases, things like that.” The early thinking is the service will use the ships as sensors deployed well forward of manned ships and carrier strike groups, which could be at risk if they maneuvered too close to contested waters. But the Navy isn't going to pin everything on a nascent fleet of robot boats — a new class of manned frigates is also being built to operate inside the range of enemy precision weapons. The frigates are going to be smaller and faster than current destroyers, with the ability to generate much more power so they can use lasers and other weapons for both offensive and defensive missions. The Navy is considering several sizes of USVs, including a large variant between 200 and 300 feet in length and having full load displacements of 1,000 tons to 2,000 tons. The ships should be low-cost, and reconfigurable with lots of room capacity for carrying various payloads, including mine hunting and anti-surface warfare. The 2021 budget submission proposes using research and development funding to acquire two more prototypes and another in 2022. Plans then call for buying deployable LUSVs at a rate of two per year. Medium unmanned ships will likely come in at between 45 to 190 feet long, with displacements of roughly 500 tons. The medium ships are thought to skew more toward mission modules revolving around intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance payloads and electronic warfare systems. The first MUSV prototype was funded in 2019, and the Navy wants to fund a second prototype in 2023. Fundamental issues need to be sorted out before the Navy buys one of these ships. “We need to find a balance of vehicle designs that enables the cost to be cheap enough that we can afford them, but it's not so highly optimized towards the purely unmanned spectrum that it's cost prohibitive to maintain them,” Small said. If the maintenance is too complicated and time consuming, and “we have to take the whole vehicle out of the water and take it apart in some explicit manner to replace the parts, it's not gonna really support what we need in the field. So really, the sustainability of the technology is as important — if not more important — in the near-term than the technology itself.” https://breakingdefense.com/2020/05/navy-wants-robot-boats-but-will-still-need-sailors-to-fix-them/
June 3, 2020 | International, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security

Contract Awards by US Department of Defense - June 02, 2020
AIR FORCE National Aerospace Solutions LLC, Arnold Air Force Base, Tennessee, has been awarded an $181,934,683 cost-plus-award-fee modification (P00106) to contract FA9101-15-C-0500 for test operations and sustainment. This modification adds Option Year Four for test operations, technology development, equipment and facility sustainment, capital improvements and some support services for the Arnold Engineering Development Complex. Work will be performed at Arnold AFB, Tennessee, and is expected to be completed June 30, 2021. No funds are being obligated at the time of award. This modification brings the total cumulative face value of the contract to $1,186,513,728. Air Force Test Center, Arnold AFB, Tennessee, is the contracting activity. Range Generation Next LLC, Sterling, Virginia, has been awarded a $13,941,843 cost-plus-fixed-fee modification (P000297) to contract FA8806-15-C-0001 for cyber hardened infrastructure support. This modification supports an increase in launch and test range requirements. The primary locations of performance are the Eastern Range, Patrick Air Force Base, Florida; and the Western Range, Vandenberg AFB, California. Work is expected to be completed Feb. 14, 2022. Fiscal 2020 operations and maintenance funds in the amount of $13,941,843 are being obligated at the time of award. The total cumulative face value is $1,210,861,882. Space and Missile Systems Center, Peterson AFB, Colorado, is the contracting activity. Oracle America Inc., Reston, Virginia, has been awarded a $10,499,623 firm-fixed-price contract to provide software licenses, Oracle Service Cloud Hosting Services and maintenance in support of the myPers Customer Relationship Management software. The vendor will be required to provide 1,000 full software licenses for business process owners/administrators and 5,000 light software licenses for users requiring access to support customers. Work will be performed in Washington, D.C., and is expected to be completed May 31, 2021. Fiscal 2020 operations and maintenance funds in the amount of $5,249,812 are being obligated at the time of award. Air Force District of Washington, Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, is the contracting activity (FA7014-20-C-0024). (Awarded May 29, 2020) NAVY Northrop Grumman Systems Corp., Woodland Hills, California, is awarded a $79,083,495 modification (P00018) to previously awarded cost-plus-fixed-fee, firm-fixed-price, cost reimbursable, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract N68936-15-D-0013. This modification increases the ceiling for the research and development of AH-1Z and UH-1Y system configuration set mission computers in support of the Marine Corps. Work will be performed in Woodland Hills, California (98%); Salt Lake City, Utah (1%); and Baltimore, Maryland (1%). Efforts include researching alternatives, investigating and documenting new capabilities and anomalies related to avionics and weapons, designing, developing, integrating, verifying, validating and testing upgrades to existing mission computer software and ancillary hardware and/or improved functionality and obsolescence management of the mission computer. This modification also includes the logistics requirements to support the system. Work is expected to be complete by April 2021. No funds are being obligated at time of award. Funds will be obligated on individual orders as they are issued. The Naval Air Warfare Center, Weapons Division, China Lake, California, is the contracting activity. Viasat Inc., Carlsbad, California, is awarded $75,373,500 (a modification with a maximum potential value) under previously awarded, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity, multiple award contract N00039-15-D-0043 for the Block Upgrade II retrofit of multifunctional information distribution system (MIDS) low volume terminals. Work will be performed in Carlsbad, California. The terminals provide secure, high-capacity, jam-resistant, digital data and voice communications capability for the Navy, Air Force and Army platforms as well as Foreign Military Sales customers. Work is expected to be complete by May 2024. This modification will increase the current contract value from $599,093,506 to $674,467,006. No funding is being obligated at the time of award. Funds will be obligated as individual delivery orders are issued. This contract modification was not competitively procured because it is a sole-source acquisition pursuant to the authority of 10 U.S. Code 2304(c)(1). Only one responsible source (Federal Acquisition Regulation subpart 6.302-1) was addressed under Justification and Approval No. 18,413 (April 2, 2018) and the contract was awarded on behalf of the Multifunctional Information Distribution System Program Office. The Naval Information Warfare Systems Command, San Diego, California, is the contracting activity. Trandes Corp., Linthicum, Maryland, is awarded a $24,388,698 for an indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity, cost-plus-fixed-fee contract (N66001-20-D-0336) to provide engineering services to support electronic tactical air navigation, air traffic and command control, landing systems and joint tactical systems. Work will be performed in San Diego, California (75%); and potential air traffic control sites, ships, and Department of Defense facilities worldwide (25%). The period of performance of the base award is from June 2, 2020, to June 1, 2022. If all options are exercised, the period of performance will extend through June 1, 2025. This two-year contract includes three one-year options, which if exercised will bring the potential value of this contact to an estimated $63,833,003. No funds will be obligated at the time of award. Funds will be obligated as task orders are issued using operations and maintenance (Navy); other procurement (Navy); research, development, test and evaluation (Navy); and potential funding from other government agencies to include the Army, Air Force, Coast Guard and the Department of Homeland Security. This contract was competitively procured as a small business set-aside via request for proposal which was published on the contract opportunities section of the System for Award Management website and the Naval Information Warfare Systems Command e-Commerce Central website. Two proposals were received and one was selected for award. The Naval Information Warfare Center Pacific, San Diego, California, is the contracting activity. Metson Marine Services Inc. (N66604-20-D-M001); Seaward Services Inc. (N66604-20-D-M002); and Oceanetics Inc. (N66604-20-D-M003), are awarded $22,950,296 for a maximum value, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity, multiple-award contract for the procurement of operational and logistic services required to support various at-sea tests for the Naval Undersea Warfare Center Division Newport customers. Work will be performed at the contractors' sites and at government locations based on each individual task orders all over the world and is expected to be complete by June 2025. For these base five-year contracts, funding will not be obligated at time of award; the $1,000 minimum guarantee will be executed on each awardee's initial task order. Fiscal 2020 service cost center funding in the amount of $3,000 will be obligated at time of award, and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This multiple-award contract was competitively procured and three acceptable offers were received via the BETA.SAM.gov website. The Naval Undersea Warfare Center Division Newport, Newport, Rhode Island, is the contracting activity. Northrop Grumman Systems Corp., Aerospace Systems, Melbourne, Florida, is awarded a $17,649,408 modification (P00001) to firm-fixed-price, cost-plus-fixed-fee order N0001920-F-0025 against previously issued basic ordering agreement N00019-15-G-0026. Work will be performed in Norfolk, Virginia (39.2%); Ronkonkoma, New York (23.98%); Bethpage, New York (18.02%); Petaluma, California (6.8%); Irvine, California (6.76%); Melbourne, Florida (3.25%); Minden, Nebraska (1.5%); and various locations within the continental U.S. (.49%). This modification procures fabrication and installation support to retrofit the Link 16 (L16) Crypto-Modernization (CM)/Hybrid-Beyond Line of Sight (HBLOS) capability on 34 E-2D Advanced Hawkeye aircraft. This modification also provides for the retrofit of four sets of support equipment to satisfy operational requirements for the L16 and HBLOS as well as the procurement of five new radio interface units in support of the installation schedule for the CM/HBLOS capability. Work is expected to be complete by June 2021. Fiscal 2020 aircraft procurement (Navy) funds for $17,649,408 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. AECOM Technical Services Inc., Los Angeles, California, is awarded $9,054,900 for cost-plus-award-fee task order N62742-19-F-4006 modification under an indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity, multiple award contract for the Shipyard Infrastructure Optimization Program advanced studies, part three, at the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard (PHNSY) and Intermediate Maintenance Facility (IMF). Work will be performed in PHNSY and IMF, Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii, and provides for 17 advanced studies and project management for Site 1, PHNSY and IMF, in accordance with the scope of work as negotiated. Work is expected to be completed by September 2021. Fiscal 2020 Navy contract funds in the amount of $9,054,900 are obligated on this award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Pacific, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, is the contracting activity (N62742-16-D-3555). Northrop Grumman Systems Corp., Herndon, Virginia, is awarded a $7,815,609 firm-fixed-price modification to previously awarded contract N00024-15-C-6327 to provide equitable adjustments for engineering change proposals for Increment One Block One (I1B1) Systems low rate initial production in support of the Expeditionary Warfare Program Office. Work will be performed in San Diego, California. This modification is to provide for an equitable adjustment for already completed engineering work for Counter Radio-Controlled Improvised Explosive Devises Electronic Warfare (CREW) systems that provide combat troops protection against Radio-Controlled Improvised Explosive Devices (RCIEDs). CREW systems are designed to provide protection for foot soldiers, vehicles and permanent structures. The Joint CREW (JCREW) I1B1 system is the first generation system that develops a common open architecture across all three capabilities and provides protection for worldwide military operations. This modification is issued to ensure JCREW systems are viable for future production and maintain operational readiness for the field. Work is expected to be complete by May 2020. Fiscal 2020 operations and maintenance (Air Force) funds; 2019 other procurement (Navy) funds; and 2018 other procurement (Navy) funding in the amount of $7,815,609 will be obligated at time of award; $5,011,497 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity. (Awarded May 28, 2020) DEFENSE ADVANCED RESEARCH PROJECTS AGENCY Agile Defense Inc.,* Reston, Virginia, has been awarded a $31,225,244 modification (P00052) to previously awarded task order HR0011-15-F-0002 for unclassified information technology services. The modification brings the total cumulative face value of the task order from $176,513,865 to $207,739,109. Work will be performed in Arlington, Virginia, with an expected completion date of February 2021. Fiscal 2019 and 2020 research and development funds in the amount of $12,224,558 are being obligated at time of award. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Arlington, Virginia, is the contracting activity. ARMY Chi-Chack LLC,* Tacoma, Washington, was awarded a $29,082,048 firm-fixed-price contract for language and culture services to include creativity and flexibility to meet the unique instruction needs of commanders requiring language and/or culture related capabilities. Bids were solicited via the internet with four received. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of May 31, 2025. U.S. Army 419th Contracting Support Brigade, Fort Bragg, North Carolina, is the contracting activity (W9124720D9001). Technica LLC,* Charleston, South Carolina, was awarded an $11,316,045 modification (0004 C4) to contract W52P1J-12-G-0018 for Fort Bliss, Texas, Logistics Readiness Center support services to include maintenance, transportation and supply. Work will be performed in El Paso, Texas, with an estimated completion date of Sept. 1, 2020. Fiscal 2020 operations and maintenance (Army) funds in the amount of $11,316,045 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Rock Island Arsenal, Illinois, is the contracting activity. Maloof Weathertight Solutions LLC, Warner Robins, Georgia, was awarded an $8,847,818 firm-fixed-price contract to provide all work for repair and replacement of roof projects at Fort Stewart and Hunter Army Airfield, Georgia. Bids were solicited via the internet with 11 received. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of June 1, 2023. U.S. Army 419th Contracting Support Brigade, Fort Stewart, Georgia, is the contracting activity (W9124M-20-D-0006). DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY Telephonics Corp., Farmingdale, New York, has been awarded a maximum $15,236,585 firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for aviation control interface. This was a competitive acquisition with one offer received. This is a five-year contract with no option periods. Location of performance is New York, with a June 1, 2025, ordering period end date. Using military service is Army. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2020 through 2025 Army working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Aviation, Redstone Arsenal, Alabama (SPRRA1-20-D-0044). Northrop Grumman Systems Corp., Rolling Meadows, Illinois, has been awarded a $12,494,230 firm-fixed-price delivery order (SPRPA1-20-F-KF0C) against a five-year basic ordering agreement (SPE4A1-16-G-0005) for AAQ-24 ATW sensors. This was a sole-source acquisition using justification 10 U.S. Code 2304 (c)(1), as stated in Federal Acquisition Regulation 6.302-1. Location of performance is Illinois, with a May 31, 2022, performance completion date. Using military service is Navy. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2020 through 2022 Navy working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Aviation, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. *Small business https://www.defense.gov/Newsroom/Contracts/Contract/Article/2205772/source/GovDelivery/

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