Collins Aerospace awarded UK programme to develop inertial sensor for future weapons platforms

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  July 16, 2020 | International, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security

  Contract Awards by US Department of Defense - July 15, 2020

  ARMY General Dynamics Land Systems, Sterling Heights, Michigan, was awarded a $249,000,000 hybrid (cost-no-fee, cost-plus-fixed-fee, firm-fixed price) contract for Increment I of the Small Multipurpose Equipment Transport. Bids were solicited via the internet with three received. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of July 14, 2025. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Detroit Arsenal, Michigan, is the contracting activity (W56HZV-20-F-0382). Hensel Phelps, Phoenix, Arizona, was awarded a $91,819,195 firm-fixed-price contract for a ground based strategic deterrent mission integration facility at Hill Air Force Base. Bids were solicited via the internet with nine received. Work will be performed at Hill Air Force Base, Utah, with an estimated completion date of March 16, 2023. Fiscal 2020 military construction, defense-wide funds in the amount of $35,747,184 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Sacramento, California, is the contracting activity (W91238-20-C-0012). Burns and McDonnell Engineering Co. Inc., Kansas City, Missouri (W912HP-20-D-5000); Cromwell Architects Engineers Inc., Little Rock, Arkansas (W912HP-20-D-5001); and Exp Federal Inc., Chicago, Illinois (W912HP-20-D-5002), will compete for each order of the $49,900,000 firm-fixed-price contract for multidiscipline architect-engineer services. Bids were solicited via the internet with 19 received. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of July 14, 2025. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Charleston, South Carolina, is the contracting activity. TeamGOV Inc.,* Hyattsville, Maryland, was awarded a $7,531,979 modification (P00003) to contract W912DY-19-F-1336 to maintain complete and functional access control point control systems. Bids were solicited via the internet with three received. Work will be performed in Killeen and Fort Bliss, Texas; McAlester and Fort Sill, Oklahoma; Fort Polk, Louisiana; White Hall, Arkansas; Camp Roberts and Fort Irwin, California; Dugway Proving Ground, Utah; Fort Huachuca, Arizona; and White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico, with an estimated completion date of July 14, 2021. Fiscal 2020 operations and maintenance (Army) funds in the amount of $3,183,862 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Huntsville, Alabama, is the contracting activity. A Finkl and Sons Finkl Steel-Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, was awarded a $7,181,165 firm-fixed-price contract for procurement of hollow preform forgings for Watervliet Arsenal, New York. Bids were solicited via the internet with three received. Work will be performed in Chicago, Illinois, with an estimated completion date of July 15, 2024. Fiscal 2020 revolving funds in the amount of $7,181,165 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Detroit Arsenal, Michigan, is the contracting activity (W911PT-20-C-0022). NAVY Raytheon Technologies, Portsmouth, Rhode Island, is awarded an $88,050,510 modification to previously awarded contract N00024-16-C-6423 for the production of the MK54 Lightweight Torpedo MOD 0 and MOD 1 common part kits and spare torpedo components. This modification combines purchases for the Navy (18%); and the governments of Canada (72%); Republic of Korea (5%); Denmark (3%); Australia (1%); and Spain (1%), under the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program. Work will be performed in Portsmouth, Rhode Island (95%); and Keyport, Washington (5%), and is expected to be completed by May 2023. FMS funding in the amount of $71,687,560; and fiscal 2020 and 2018 weapons procurement (Navy) funding in the amount of $16,145,556 and $217,394 respectively, will be obligated at time of award, of which $217,394 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity. ERAPSCO JV, Sparton and USSI, Columbia City, Indiana, is awarded a $71,801,600 modification (P00005) to a previously awarded firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract. This modification increases the ceiling of the contract to provide for the production and delivery of a maximum quantity of 20,000 AN/SSQ-125 Sonobuoys production. Sonobuoys are air launched expendable, electro-mechanical anti-submarine warfare acoustic sensors designed to relay underwater sounds associated with ships and submarines. Work will be performed in De Leon Spring, Florida (51%); and Columbia City, Indiana (49%), and is expected to be completed by July 2022. No funds will be obligated at the time of award. Funds will be obligated on individual orders as they are issued. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity. Raytheon Missiles and Defense, Marlborough, Massachusetts, is awarded a $26,463,116 cost-plus-fixed fee and cost only modification to previously awarded contract N00024-19-C-5501 to exercise options and realign level of effort ceiling for Air and Missile Defense Radar AN/SPY-6(V) integration and production support efforts. Work will be performed in Marlborough, Massachusetts (64%); Kauai, Hawaii (12%); Fair Lakes, Virginia (10%); Moorestown, New Jersey (8%); Portsmouth, Rhode Island (6%); and San Diego, California (less than 1%). This option exercise is for performance of the integration and production support for continued combat system integration and test, engineering, training, software, depot maintenance and field engineering in support of the Air and Missile Defense Radar AN/SPY-6(V). Work is expected to be completed by November 2020. Fiscal 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020 shipbuilding and conversion (Navy); and fiscal 2019 and 2020 research, development, test and evaluation (Navy) funds in the amount of $35,960,832 will be obligated at time of award. Funds in the amount of $15,410 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was procured under the statutory authority of 10 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, Navy Yard, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity. The Boeing Co., St. Louis, Missouri, is awarded $12,201,000 for ceiling-priced delivery order N00383-20-F-A341 under previously awarded basic ordering agreement N00383-17-G-A301 for the procurement of multiple flight control surfaces in support of the Boeing F/A-18 E-G Super Hornet aircraft. All work will be performed in St. Louis, Missouri, and is expected to be completed by May 2026. Kuwait funds in the amount of $5,978,490 will be obligated at the time of award, and funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Kuwait (100%) funds will be used under the Foreign Military Sales program. One company was solicited for this sole-source requirement under authority 10 U.S. Code 2304 (c)(1) and one offer was received. The Naval Supply Systems Command Weapon Systems Support, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is the contracting activity. SJC-BVIL*, Montrose, Colorado, is awarded a $9,592,555 firm-fixed-price task order (N40084-20-F-4464) under a design-bid-build, indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity, unrestricted multiple awarded construction contract for commercial and institutional building construction contract to convert the overhead power and telephone lines to underground from wood power poles. The work is located from the Navy ammunition area to the Air Force ammunition area along DG1. The work will be performed at U.S. Naval Support Facility, Diego Garcia. All work will be performed in British Indian Ocean Territory. The work to be performed will replace the existing overhead feeder lines from technical feeder wood power poles (WPP) 26 to 82 and from non-technical feeder (WPP) 1013 to 1041 with underground loop-feed type system including conduits and conductors, pad-mounted transformer and switch, grounding system and related system appurtenances. End result is all referenced power and communication lines be underground and on the ocean side of the road. Work is expected to be completed by September 2022. Fiscal 2020 operations and maintenance (Navy) contract funds in the amount of $9,592,555 are obligated on this award and will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Three proposals were received for this task order. The Naval Facilities Engineering Command Far East, Yokosuka, Japan, is the contracting activity (N40084-18-D-0068). DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY Boeing Distribution Services Defense, O'Fallon, Missouri, has been awarded a maximum $81,000,000 modification (P00067) exercising the first three-year option period of a four-year base contract (SPE5EY-16-D-0547) with two, three-year option periods for broad supply chain management of industrial hardware relating to maintenance, repair and overhaul missions. This is a firm-fixed-price with economic-price-adjustment, indefinite-quantity contract. Locations of performance are Missouri and Texas, with a July 31, 2023, ordering period end date. Using military service is Army. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2020 through 2023 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Grasmick Produce Co.,* Boise, Idaho, has been awarded a maximum $20,304,000 fixed-price with economic-price-adjustment, indefinite-quantity contract for fresh fruit and vegetables. This was a competitive acquisition with three responses received. This is a four-year contract with no option periods. Location of performance is Idaho, with a July 14, 2024, performance completion date. Using military services are Air Force, Army, Marine Corps and Department of Agriculture schools and reservations. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2020 through 2024 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (SPE300-20-D-P357). AIR FORCE Northrop Grumman Systems Corp., McLean, Virginia, has been awarded a not-to-exceed $35,964,710 firm-fixed-price, undefinitized contract for repair of 174 B-52 Engine Nose Cowls for the B-52 Stratofortress Bomber jet. Work will be performed in Lake Charles, Louisiana, and is expected to be completed July 2021. This award is the result of a sole-source acquisition. Fiscal 2020 working capital funds in the full amount are being obligated at the time of award. Air Force Sustainment Center, Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma, is the contracting activity (FA8119-20-C-0004). *Small Business https://www.defense.gov/Newsroom/Contracts/Contract/Article/2275570/source/GovDelivery/

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  September 13, 2023 | International, Naval

  French-British underwater drone proves de-mining ability, says Thales

  The MMCM system is meant to detect, identify and neutralize mines up to 300 meters deep, compared to 120 meters today.

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  April 29, 2019 | International, Aerospace

  Australia Makes Moves to Grow its Defense Industry

  By Stew Magnuson GEELONG, Australia — Very little excites the aerospace industry and the media that covers it more than the announcement of a new jet fighter program. So when the curtain went up in a Boeing tent at Avalon — The Australian Air Show revealing a full-size model of a new robotic jet fighter, the camera flashes popped off as if it were a star on a Hollywood red carpet. “It is a red letter day,” Australian Minister of Defence Christopher Pyne said while standing in front of the Airpower Teaming System, Boeing's name for the loyal wingman jet fighter, an unmanned aircraft intended to fly in formation with the nation's F-35A joint strike fighters and F/A-18E/F Super Hornets. It was also an auspicious day because the unmanned system would be the first indigenously developed aircraft Australia produced since the CAC Boomerang fighter during World War II. The program makes a statement to the world that Australia is no longer content to be merely a buyer of military equipment, but has ambitions to be a developer and exporter as well, said Pyne. “This is all testament to the fact that we are undergoing our largest buildup of our military capability in our peacetime history — $200 billion over the next 10 years.” While Australia is still buying pricey F-35s from the United States, attack-class submarines from France and armored fighting vehicles from a European consortium, it wants a significant portion of that $200 billion to stay in the country and help it create aerospace and defense sector jobs, officials said. The nation last year released the 2018 Defense Industrial Capability Plan spelling out how it would build a “broader and deeper defense industrial base” over the next decade. “The government's goal by 2028 is to achieve an Australian defense industry that has the capability, posture and resilience to help meet Australia's defense needs,” the plan stated. One of its main goals is to turn the nation into an exporter of military goods rather than just an importer. The day before the airshow, U.S. and other foreign contractors gathered in nearby Melbourne to hear from State of Victoria and Defence Ministry officials about the new ways of doing business in Australia. Damien Chifley, executive director of the defense industry branch in the Australian Department of Defence, said the approach now is to partner. The country's defense contractors are predominantly medium to small companies who can't go it alone. They need help bringing their innovative ideas to prime contractors. If a U.S. or other foreign company wants to vie for an Australian contract it must now submit an “industry capability plan,” which spells out exactly how they will work with local firms to bring the project to fruition, Chifley said. “The idea is they go out the main gate with Australian industry,” he said. These plans are not offsets, which is the mechanism used by some nations to make contractors invest a certain amount of dollars in the local economy as a condition of winning a contract. However, these industry capability plans will be weighed by the contracting authority when selecting a winning proposal, he noted. Claire S. Willette, CEO of the Australian Defence Alliance, said in an interview that the nation's effort to bolster its aerospace and defense sector should be seen in light of its losses in manufacturing jobs — particularly the automotive industry — rather than security concerns. Australia wants a “sovereign capability to support itself” in the defense industrial sector, she said. “From a long-term sustainable economic perspective, you need to build something. You need to have a growth area,” said Willette, an American who served in the Pentagon for 20 years before moving to Australia. “Because we did have this burgeoning defense industry and because we have some really niche, high-tech areas of excellence, I think that [the government] saw that this was a natural fit and something they could grow off of,” she said. Australian government officials and locally based U.S. contractors at the airshow were eager to promote the nation as a spot where they can find the talent to develop programs. Boeing, by far, has the largest and longest presence with more than 90 years experience doing business in the country and some 5,000 employees in its defense and commercial sectors. It features two large research facilities — Boeing Research and Technology-Australia and Boeing Phantom Works International in Brisbane — where work on the robotic jet fighter will take place. The company invested $62 million in research and development in Australia in 2018, company officials said. “We're going to prove that we can do big, audacious programs like this here in Australia,” said Darren Edwards, vice president and managing director of Boeing Defence Australia. Meanwhile, Lockheed Martin and local officials touted the country's success in winning F-35 sustainment contracts. As a partner nation in the program, Australian contractors can compete globally with other F-35 customers for component maintenance contracts. They received 343 out of a possible 388 such contracts in the latest round, building on the 64 they had received in the first round. Australian contractors have received a total of $1.3 billion in F-35-related contracts so far, said Royal Australian Air Force Air Vice-Marshal Leigh Gordon, head of the joint strike fighter division. “That is a really great example of the strength of Australian industry and its competitiveness in the global sphere,” Gordon said. Going hand in hand with Australia's ambitions in the defense realm is its renewed focus on space. In July 2018, it established the Australian Space Agency, which brought together about 11 different agencies spread out within the government at various ministries, said Kim Gina Ellis, senior lecturer on space industry engagement, governance and law at Swinburne University of Technology in Victoria. The government wants a central point to coordinate and bring all the civilian activities together, she said. Again, the long-term goal is job creation, she told National Defense. The government wants to add about 20,000 to the approximately 10,000 space sector jobs already in Australia, she said. Meanwhile, as is the case in the United States, the nation has a growing private sector launch industry with a handful of companies building small rockets and launch facilities for small satellites, she said. Along with telescopes and communications systems that have been positioned on the continent since the beginning of the space age, Australia features a favorable geographic location for inserting spacecraft into polar orbits, Ellis noted. The new agency will “help build the industry and show the rest of the world that we have these amazing capabilities and that we support most of the major space exploration programs,” Ellis said. Jeff Shockey, vice president of global sales and marketing for Boeing Defense, Space and Security, said in an interview that Australia is growing very close to investing 2 percent of its GDP in defense. “They are doing the right things. There is a lot going on down here in this region and they are at the forefront.” Boeing has ambitions to export the Airpower Teaming System to the other “five-eye” partners: the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and New Zealand. Shockey said Boeing is an international company and Australia is an enduring ally and partner. Building a new jet fighter outside the United States should not be seen as “off-shoring” work, he said. “We're a global company and we're doing work throughout the enterprise on this project and others, both domestically and abroad,” he said. “There is a great high-tech talent base here,” he added. And the wide-open spaces will be a perfect proving ground for unmanned aircraft, Shockey and other company executives said. Willette said: “We're never going to have the assembly lines for an F-18, an F-16 or a JSF, but we do have the componentry, the systems and the systems integration and the skilled engineering. Designing and fabrication and machining — and the professional services that back all that up — those are huge strengths for this country.” The government has several new programs to spark innovation that would be recognizable to the U.S. defense industry. It is setting up grand challenges, cooperative research centers, university research networks and small business research grants. It has what would be called in the U.S. “broad agency announcements” with pots of money dedicated over the next 10 years for organizations with ideas in fields such as intelligence, reconnaissance and surveillance, electronic warfare, cybersecurity, amphibious warfare, maritime and anti-submarine warfare, and air and sealift. The 2018 Defense Industrial Capability Plan was just one building block in a larger plan, said Willette. The Australian government is continuing to produce more policies surrounding manufacturing skills and science, technology engineering and math education. “Having a level of sovereignty, and integrity and resiliency in your supply chain is incredibly important from a national security perspective,” Willette added. The ideas for the new programs are based on long-established U.S. or U.K. acquisition programs, said a government official who was not authorized to speak on the record. The Australian government is keen to partner with U.S. universities and has established the Australia-U.S. Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative Program to help Australian schools establish themselves with the Pentagon's Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative. It will provide Australian colleges with grants of up to 1 million Australian dollars per year if they can team with U.S. counterparts in the MURI program. Willette said: “The message very clearly coming from Australia is: ‘partner with us.'” http://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/articles/2019/4/29/australia-makes-moves-to-grow-its-defense-industry