January 11, 2023 | International, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security, Other Defence
Four members served on the 2018 National Defense Strategy Commission, which defense hawks in Congress wielded to argue for higher military budgets.
October 6, 2021 | International, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security
'Britain is only spending 2 percent of its [gross domestic product] on defense. But the threats ahead are collectively greater than the ones from the Cold War when we were spending 4 percent."
March 23, 2020 | International, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security
From throwable cameras to magnetic brakes, from disease prevention to battlefield networks, these small businesses have technologies the Army really wants. Read on to find out why. By SYDNEY J. FREEDBERG JR. WASHINGTON: Miniaturized electromechanical compasses so you can still find your way when the enemy's jammed GPS. 360 degree cameras you can throw into a building before you storm it. 60-minute screening for pathogens like COVID-19. Those are just three of the winning ideas in the latest round of the Army's Expeditionary Technology Search program, the service's push to get high tech out of small biz. This week, 20 small businesses made their pitches to a panel of Army judges — and in a suitably 21st century touch, it was all done via the web, since the AUSA Huntsville conference where the pitches were originally to take place was canceled because of the coronavirus. (Click here for all our virtual and surrogate AUSA coverage). Yesterday, in a brief webcast, xTechSearch program manager Zeke Topolosky read out the 10 semifinal winners, who'll receive $120,000 each and – even more important for many of the competitors – access to Army expert mentors to help refine their pitch and their product for military use. One final winner will be picked to receive $250,000 this fall, hopefully at AUSA's grand annual meeting in October if the coronavirus permits. Topolosky spoke to me at length by phone after the announcement. What follows, in his own words (edited for brevity and clarity), is what excited the Army about each of the 10 winners. Zeke Topolosky, Program Manager, Army xTechSearch: It's 20 semifinalists that presented the last two days. This is a selection of all of the top technologies from all of the different technology areas. All that is evaluated by 28 judges over the past two days, from all different fields, very senior technical experts, acquisition experts, end users, and soldiers. We had to come to a consensus agreement on the ten that would move on to the finals. Bounce Imaging, they've made a tactical throwable camera, but it's not just throwable. It can be used mounted on a canine, on a person, on a vehicle, and it gives you a complete 360 degree spherical view. They're working on this in both color and IR [infrared]. And they were working on continuing to miniaturize that technology. And it stabilizes at all times. Imagine a body-worn camera [on someone] running through a building: You can't really follow that video. This device kept the video always oriented in one direction that the users requested, and stabilized, at all times. So it really had a lot of immediate use in things like breaching buildings, subterranean investigation, where they could just toss this into a building and get complete 360 degree situational awareness, day and night. GeneCapture, a very strong company, lots of amazing expertise on their staff. Obviously, they made some references to coronavirus [testing]. What they can do is detect infections and pathogens from a deployable, portable system, and do it rapidly. They have the ability to test for multiple things at once. Most detection systems like this, they're testing for one pathogen at a time, and it has to be done in a laboratory. They were pitching the ability to do this downrange, and to test for multiple things. When you have a soldier downrange, not in a hospital or in a medical station, who may have some illness, you have to sort of guess on treating them, or not treat them at all till they get proper testing, which could lead to administering the wrong medication, or no medication. This would allow a field medic to do those tests, real time, and know exactly what they're dealing with. Inductive Ventures. This is a magnetic braking technology. Now, this company pitched numerous use cases for magnetic brakes versus the carbon brakes that we normally use, but for the xTech competition, they focused on braking for helicopters. Right now, when you land a helicopter, you have no way of moving that machine without either turning on the engine or towing by other vehicles. With this technology, you would enable helicopter operators, if they were to land in an emergency, or have to move their vehicle without it fully functioning, they can do that with this magnetic braking. We did have several helicopter pilots in our judging panel who were saying, “This is revolutionary for us.” We even had an example of somebody having to do an emergency landing on a soccer field with a Huey overseas, due to mechanical failure. And then once they landed, they literally had no way of moving that helicopter. They left it. This would have enabled them to be able to move it around and work on it. IoT/AI, these guys kind of blew the socks off the judges. Essentially, they had a device that was hardened against cyber attacks and other interference. They're also able to do all this on an edge device, in this black box that you can take to the field, as opposed to having to send data back to a server. It's just one less vulnerability. Everything can be done there on the edge. It's kind of the golden nugget for deploying AI for the Army, where it's going to be done in forward deployed areas, without infrastructure, without these computing resources that are power draining, in vulnerable areas where the enemy is trying to mess them up. Deploying artificial intelligence in the Army is going to be way more difficult than all the things we see being developed on the commercial side, from self-driving cars to Alexa. Lots of people are developing algorithms, but we don't necessarily have the hardware to make that a reality for the Army, that's really sort of missing right now. IOT/AI, what they're providing is some of the hardware solutions to make that a reality. LynQ Technologies, this was a very strong company, it had strong VC backing, which de-risks a lot for the Army, and they've also been recognized by Techstars, out of the Air Force. It's a very mature product. There's a real near-term win with this, because it's a ready-to-go product that we could be using now to locate injured soldiers in the field, downed pilots, lost cargo, et cetera. It was a very strong company, well-backed on the commercial side. They clearly had a capability that they could deliver the Army now that we don't have. KeriCure – deployable wound care products. Like LynQ, this was a very mature product: You can go on Amazon and buy their product now. It was just a wonder why the Army doesn't have this in their kit. Field medics right now could be using this. Yes, there's some testing that would have to be done with to validate some of the claims, and there is possibly some more development work that has to go into packaging it better for field use. But it's a mature product that can give immediate, lifesaving capability to soldiers now. The Army deals with wounds that can't be dressed properly immediately, that lead to infections. And what this product does, it's a dressing you spray on wounds to prevent those infections from occurring. We had some combat medics in the group, and they all agreed they could use this in their kit right now. MEI Micro, it's a MEMS [Micro Electronic-Mechanical System] IMU [Inertial Measurement Unit]. It's an order of magnitude improvement on position, navigation, and timing capabilities that we have now. When you're GPS-denied, the solutions that are out there — including quantum clocks and gyro [gyroscopic] devices — are very expensive, and they're under development. What they presented showed a leap-ahead capability for a far lower cost. If it can be realized, it's a game changer here for assured position, navigation, and timing, which helps you with things like communications, navigation, et cetera, especially in a congested or a GPS-denied environment. Multiscale Systems, this is a company that competed in a previous round of xTech, when they were a little less mature. They had a meta-material, an engineered material, so you could customize the properties of the material and how you build it. They're able to make materials for air traffic, cargo, and even lining truck beds, much lighter, much stronger than what we currently have, and for cheaper. With the Army where, especially in logistics and transportation, they can have an immediate impact and save a lot of money and a lot of weight, especially when airdropping cargo and containers and things like that. Beyond that, there just seems to be a lot of other applications for these materials. Granted, they will need some work in lowering the cost to produce them, but the product itself could be a huge cost savings for the Army and lighten the load a lot in aircraft and ground logistics platforms. Novaa, that's the next generation SATCOM [satellite communications]. What these guys are proposing is a brand-new way of handling the spectrum. In the Army, we are constantly having to tap into multiple frequencies, so you'll see vehicles, aircraft driving around with lots of antennas on them. If you're on SATCOM, if you have a radar system, if you're doing high frequency, ultra-high frequency, everything requires a different physical antenna — and all of these antennas take up space. Not only that, they stick out, they get snagged, get caught, these antennas break. And worst of all, they are targets. They're highly visible. They stick out like a sore thumb, and they let the enemy know, hey, this is a vehicle of importance, it's got communication gear or sensor gear. What they are offering is an antenna designed to replace all those antennas with one single aperture, with a very low profile. The space savings, the drag savings, and the concealed nature of it, on top of having the complexity and the cost of all these antennas replaced with just one, was very appealing. It was the antenna design, but it was the architecture that goes with it as well, to be able to handle from one aperture, all these other systems that have to tap into that antenna. Really a potentially revolutionary way of approaching the spectrum. Vita Inclinata is the last one. This is another repeat company, they had previously been in the competition and had come back. They make a stabilization system for helicopters that are hoisting up either cargo or gurneys with injured people on them. This is a huge problem in the rescue operations, where a little gust or just the wrong movement can cause a load to spin out of control. There's instances where the Army is dropping expensive cargo because it would bring down the helicopter when they get into a spin, even losing injured people that are being medevac'ed because of these spins. Even rigging these hoist systems is extremely dangerous and requires somebody on the ground. Vita Inclinata, they've developed fully autonomous solution that completely stabilizes any loads, from just a wounded person to tens of thousands of pounds of cargo. They have a ready-to-go, pretty well tested device that could be added on to any helicopter. Since last year, their company has progressed a lot, with lots of interest across the services and the commercial side, landed some good investments and contracts. And this time around, they really understood where the niche was, where the Army needed this the most. Last year, they were trying to talk to the Future Vertical Lift folks about, “your new aircraft could use this.” But it's really all the helicopters, especially the existing ones that we're using now. The Army does not have this capability and it's desperately needed. https://breakingdefense.com/2020/03/xtechsearch-army-picks-top-10-tech-innovators
March 1, 2019 | International, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security, Other Defence
NAVY General Electric Aviation, Lynn, Massachusetts, is awarded a $366,206,842 five-year, firm-fixed-price requirements, long-term contract for the repair of 18 different head-of-family part numbers in support of the T-64 engine. Work will be performed in Cherry Point, North Carolina, and work is expected to be completed by February 2024. Working capital funds (Navy) will be obligated as individual task orders are issued and funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. One company was solicited for this sole-source, non-competitive requirement in accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulation 6.302-1, with one offer received. Naval Supply Systems Command Weapon Systems Support, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is the contracting activity. (N00383-19-D-UK01) The Boeing Co., St. Louis, Missouri, is awarded a $157,700,000 firm-fixed-price contract to procure two operational flight trainers (OFTs), two weapons tactics trainers (WTTs); six brief/debrief stations (BDSs);, to include two OFT BDSs, two WTT BDSs; and two weapons system trainer BDSs; one part task trainer, ten electronic classrooms, two scenario generation stations, one training system support center, two virtual maintenance trainers and supporting technical data such as software, books and other publications. In addition, this contract provides contracts, logistics, engineering and management technical expertise required to procure, design, build, test, deliver, install- and inspect P-8A training systems for the government of the U. K. Work will be performed in St. Louis, Missouri (55 percent); Tampa, Florida (30 percent); Lossiemouth, Scotland (10 percent); Jacksonville, Florida (2 percent); Dallas, Texas (2 percent); and Seattle, Washington (1 percent), and is expected to be completed in April 2022. Foreign military sales funds in the amount of $157,700,000 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 10 U.S. Code 2304(c)(4). The Naval Air Warfare Center Training Systems Division, Orlando, Florida, is the contracting activity (N61340-19-C-0004). General Dynamics Mission Systems Inc., Pittsfield, Massachusetts, was awarded $34,732,571 for cost-plus-fixed-fee order N6339419F0028 under previously awarded basic ordering agreement N6339416G0005 for providing in-service engineering and lifecycle support services required to maintain and support the command, control, communications, computers, combat systems and intelligence elements for the Austal Independence variant littoral combat ship. The services provided will include program planning and control, resource management, cost and schedule control, installation and modernization, software development and testing, and training support. Work will be performed in Pittsfield, Massachusetts (80 percent); and at various shipyards dependent on ship's schedule along the east coast of the U. S. (20 percent), and is expected to be complete by February 2021. Fiscal 2019 other procurement (Navy); and fiscal 2019 operations and maintenance (Navy) funding in the amount of $1,886,257 will be obligated at time of award and funding in the amount of $896,755 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Surface Warfare Center Port Hueneme Division, Port Hueneme, California, is the contracting activity (N63394-19-F-0028). (Awarded Feb. 26, 2019) General Dynamics Electric Boat, Groton, Connecticut, is awarded an $18,251,709 cost-plus-fixed-fee modification to previously-awarded contract N00024-09-C-2104 for planning and execution of USS South Dakota's (SSN 790) post-delivery work period (PDWP). General Dynamics Electric Boat will perform planning and execution efforts, including long lead time material procurement, in preparation to accomplish the maintenance, repair, alterations, testing, and other work during its scheduled PDWP. Work will be performed in Groton, Connecticut, and is expected to be completed by December 2020. Fiscal 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019 shipbuilding and conversion (Navy) funding in the amount of $14,651,709 will be obligated at time of award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Supervisor of Shipbuilding, Conversion and Repair, Groton, Connecticut, is the contracting activity. Lockheed Martin Corp., Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co., Fort Worth, Texas, is awarded $14,121,444 for cost-plus-incentive-fee order N0001919F2693 against a previously issued basic ordering agreement (N00019-14-G-0020). This order provides for the development of the F-35 Automatic Ground Collision Avoidance System (AGCAS). The AGCAS is an on-board system that prevents controlled flight into terrain. Work will be performed in Fort Worth, Texas, and is expected to be completed in March 2020. Fiscal 2018 research, development, test and evaluation (Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps) funds in the amount of $5,109,509 will be obligated at time of award, all of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This order combines purchases for the Air Force ($5,926,519; 42 percent); Navy ($2,110,071; 15 percent); Marine Corps ($1,378,177; 10 percent); and non-U.S. Department of Defense participants ($4,706,677; 33 percent). The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity. ARMY Dobco Inc., Wayne, New Jersey, was awarded a $47,962,590 firm-fixed-price contract for the replacement of Welch Elementary School and Dover Air Base Middle School at Dover Air Force Base, Delaware. Bids were solicited via the internet with three received. Work will be performed in Dover Air Force Base, Delaware, with an estimated completion date of Feb. 25, 2021. Fiscal 2015, 2016 and 2107 military construction funds in the amount of $47,962,590 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is the contracting activity (W912BU-19-C-0017). NextGen Federal Systems LLC,* Morgantown, West Virginia, was awarded a $27,527,066 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for staff augmentation services. Bids were solicited via the internet with six received. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of Feb. 26, 2023. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, is the contracting activity (W56JSR-19-D-0011). Brayman Construction Corp., Saxonburg, Pennsylvania, was awarded a $21,744,985 firm-fixed-price contract to construct a cellular cofferdam at the Bluestone Dam in Hinton, West Virginia. Bids were solicited via the internet with four received. Work will be performed in Hinton, West Virginia, with an estimated completion date of Nov. 30, 2019. Fiscal 2015, 2018 and 2019 operations and maintenance Army funds in the amount of $21,744,985 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Huntington, West Virginia, is the contracting activity (W91237-19-C-0002). AIR FORCE Collins Aerospace, a division of Goodrich, Westford, Massachusetts, has been awarded a $47,606,589 modification (P00007) to previously awarded contract FA8620-18-D-3014 for the DB-110 Tactical Reconnaissance Pod program. This modification provides foreign military sales (FMS) partner nations an ordering vehicle for the DB-110 Tactical Reconnaissance Pod program, including the following procurement of DB-110 reconnaissance pods, rogram infrastructure, airborne data link terminals, surface terminal equipment, mobile ground stations, fixed ground stations, transportable ground stations, and data and travel in support of orders. This modification brings the contract ceiling to $183,104,667 and involves FMS to Jordan, Qatar and Bahrain. This award is the result of a sole-source acquisition. Work will be performed in Westford, Massachusetts, and is expected to be complete by Nov. 14, 2023. The Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, Wright Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, is the contracting activity. TAC Industries Inc., Springfield, Ohio, has been awarded a $7,190,190 delivery order (FA8534-19-F-0028) to previously awarded contract FA8532-14-D-0003 for the production of 463L low profile nets and 463L top nets. This delivery order provides for aircraft cargo nets that secure a wide variety of cargo to the pallets prior to loading, which also minimizes the risk of the cargo shifting during flight. Work will be performed in Springfield, Ohio, and is expected to be complete by Dec. 31, 2020. Fiscal 2019 other procurement funds in full amount are being obligated at time of award. This task order brings the total cumulative face value of the contract to $54,494,482. Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, Robins Air Force Base, Georgia, is the contracting activity. DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY Federal Prison Industries Inc.,* doing business as UNICOR, Washington, District of Columbia, has been awarded a maximum $12,210,000 indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for moisture wicking t-shirts. This is a 24-month contract with no option periods. Locations of performance are Georgia, South Carolina, and Washington, District of Columbia, with a Feb. 25, 2021, performance completion date. Using military services are Army and Air Force. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2019 through 2021 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (SPE1C1-19-D-F021). (Awarded Feb. 26, 2019) WASHINGTON HEADQUARTERS SERVICES Cargo Transport System Co., Safat,, Kuwait, has been awarded a contractmodification (P00007) on contract HTC711-17-D-R021 in the amount of $10,000,000. This modification provides continued stevedoring and related terminal services to the 595th Transportation Brigade. This includes vessel loading, vessel discharge, receipt of cargo, disposition of cargo, stuffing/unstuffing of cargo, intra-terminal transfer of cargo, inland transportation of cargo, customs clearance, yard management and management expertise. Work will be performed in ports of Kuwait. The period of performance is from March 9, 2019, to Sept. 8, 2019. Fiscal 2019 transportation working capital funds were obligated at award. This modification brings the total cumulative face value of the contract to $27,709,945from $17,709,945. U.S. Transportation Command, Directorate of Acquisition, Scott Air Force Base, Illinois, is the contracting activity. (Awarded Feb. 25, 2019) * Small Business https://dod.defense.gov/News/Contracts/Contract-View/Article/1769868/