January 11, 2021 | International, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security
DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY
US Foods Inc., Raleigh, North Carolina, has been awarded a maximum $377,791,948 fixed-price with economic-price-adjustment, indefinite-quantity contract for full-line food distribution. This was a competitive acquisition with two responses received. This is a two-year base contract with one one-year option period and one two-year option period. Locations of performance are Virginia and North Carolina, with a Jan. 7, 2023, ordering period end date. Using customers are Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps and Coast Guard. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2021 through 2023 defense working capital funds. The contracting agency is the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (SPE300-21-D-3313).
Science Applications International Corp., Fairfield, New Jersey, has been awarded a maximum $95,000,000 firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for facilities maintenance, repair and operation supplies. This was a sole-source acquisition using justification 10 U.S. Code 2304 (c)(1), as stated in Federal Acquisition Regulation 6.302-1. This is a one-year bridge contract with no option periods. Locations of performance are Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, New Jersey and Washington, D.C., with a Jan. 8, 2022, ordering period end date. Using customers are Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps and Coast Guard. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2021 through 2022 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (SPE8E3-21-D-0005).
Dispensers Optical Services Corp.,* Louisville, Kentucky, has been awarded a maximum $18,000,000 fixed-price with economic-price-adjustment, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for optical lenses. This was a competitive acquisition with one response received. This is a three-year base contract with two one-year option periods. Location of performance is Kentucky, with a Jan. 7, 2024, ordering period end date. Using customers are Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps and federal civilian agencies. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2021 through 2024 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (SPE2DE-21-D-0012).
NAVY
Alberici-Mortenson JV, St. Louis, Missouri, is awarded a $359,738,706 fixed-price-award-fee modification to exercise the first and second options under previously awarded contract N69450-20-C-0016 for design-bid-build recapitalization of the dry dock at Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay, Georgia. The work to be performed provides for concrete repairs in various locations throughout the dry dock; overhauling and repairing the steel caisson; and upgrading power distribution, chilled water and fire detection and alarm systems. The project will also repair corroded steel members of the dry dock superstructure, re-coat the entire superstructure and replace roof and wall panels. The project will remove one bridge crane and overhaul two other bridge cranes. The scope also includes rebuilding/replacing sluice gates and actuators, roller gate rails, flap valves and frames and all piping. This project will also upgrade control systems and electronic components and upgrade the auxiliary seawater system. This award increases the total cumulative value of the contract to $554,465,051. Work will be performed in Kings Bay, Georgia, and is expected to be completed by October 2022. Fiscal 2021 operation and maintenance (Navy) funds in the amount of $359,738,706 will be obligated at time of award and will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command Southeast, Jacksonville, Florida, is the contracting activity.
Oceaneering International Inc., Chesapeake, Virginia, is awarded a $56,878,408 cost-plus-fixed-fee and cost-only modification to previously-awarded contract N00024-18-C-6413 for configuration changes, engineering services, material, maintenance and repair. The total cumulative face value of the contract is $131,895,943. Work will be performed in Chesapeake, Virginia, and is expected to be completed by September 2021. No funds will be obligated at time of award. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity.
Atlantic Signal LLC,* Topeka, Kansas, is awarded a $45,128,388 firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for the purchase of up to a combined maximum quantity of 233,736 units inclusive of hearing enhancement devices, cables, push-to-talks, hygiene kits and helmet adapters. Work will be performed in Topeka, Kansas, and is expected to be complete by September 2025. Fiscal 2020 operation and maintenance (Marine Corps) funds in the amount of $9,999,420 will be obligated on the first delivery order immediately following contract award and funds will expire on March 19, 2021. This contract was competitively procured via the beta.SAM.gov website, with seven offers received. The Marine Corps Systems Command, Quantico, Virginia, is the contracting activity (M67854-21-D-1809).
Raytheon Co., McKinney, Texas, is awarded $7,825,657 for a firm-fixed-price delivery order (N00383-21-F-PF03) under previously awarded basic ordering agreement N00383-19-G-PF01 for the repair of 10 line items associated with the APY-10 radar system used in support of the P-8A aircraft. Work will be performed in Jacksonville, Florida (70%); and McKinney, Texas (30%). Work is expected to be completed by May 2023. Annual working capital funds (Navy) in the full amount of $7,825,657 will be obligated at time of award and funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. One firm was solicited for this non-competitive requirement in accordance with 10 U.S. Code 2304 (c)(1), with one offer received. The Naval Supply Systems Command, Weapon Systems Support, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is the contracting activity.
AIR FORCE
Hardwood Products Co., LP, Guilford, Maine, has been awarded a not-to-exceed $110,085,000 firm-fixed-price, undefinitized contract as a commercial contract for industrial base expansion of U.S. domestic production capacity for medical foam tip swabs. This contract is for the procurement of equipment and machinery to enable expanded production of foam tip nasal swabs. Work will initially be performed in Pittsfield, Maine, and is expected to be completed by October 2021. Fiscal 2021 other procurement funds in the amount of $34,220,000 are being obligated at the time of award. The Air Force Life Cycle Management, Hanscom Air Force Base, Massachusetts, is the contracting activity (FA8730-21-C-0019).
M1 Support Services, Denton, Texas, has been awarded a $77,369,924 firm-fixed-price contract for the back-shop and flight-line maintenance of multiple aircraft types. Work will be performed at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada, and is expected to be completed by June 30, 2027, if all options are exercised. This award is the result of a competitive acquisition and three offers were received. Fiscal 2021 operation and maintenance funds in the amount of $37,094,520 are being obligated at the time of award. The Acquisition Management and Integration Center, Langley-Eustis AFB, Virginia, is the contracting activity (FA4890-21-C-0002).
iGov Technologies Inc., Reston, Virginia, has been awarded a $30,906,705 firm-fixed-price modification (P00015) to contract FA8730-18-F-0061 to exercise options for Tactical Air Control Party - Mobile Communications System Block Two kits, training and support of the system. This modification provides for the exercise of an option for an additional quantity of 142 production kits, along with the associated training Lot Two and second generation anti-jam tactical ultra-high frequency radio for the NATO licenses Lot One and Lot Two being produced under the basic contract. Work will be performed at various locations across the U.S., and is expected to be completed by September 2022. Fiscal 2020 other procurement funds in the amount of $1,189,383; and fiscal 2021 other procurement funds in the amount of $29,717,322, are being obligated at the time of award. The total cumulative face value of the contract is $81,006,838. The Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, Hanscom Air Force Base, Massachusetts, is the contracting activity.
DEFENSE ADVANCED RESEARCH PROJECTS AGENCY
Lockheed Martin Corp., Missiles and Fire Control, Grand Prairie, Texas, is being awarded a $58,905,062 modification (P00006) to previously awarded cost-plus-fixed-fee contract HR0011-20-C-0038 to exercise the contract line item number 0003 option for development of the integrated OpFires system. This includes risk reduction testing to achieve a system-level critical design maturity. Fiscal 2020 and 2021 research and development funds in the amount of $18,505,167 will be obligated at the time of award. Work will be performed in Grand Prairie, Texas (57%); Huntsville, Alabama (11%); and Elkton, Maryland (32%), with an estimated completion date of January 2022. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Arlington, Virginia, is the contracting activity.
U.S. TRANSPORTATION COMMAND
Pollock Research & Design Inc., Reading, Pennsylvania, has been awarded a firm-fixed-price contract modification (P00007) on contract HTC711-19-CR001 in the amount of $7,954,311. This modification provides continued crane maintenance for the U.S. Army Military Surface Deployment and Distribution Command. Services provide maintenance to ship-to-shore and rail mounted gantry cranes. Requirements include scheduled maintenance and on-call unscheduled maintenance. Work will be performed at the Military Ocean Terminal Sunny Point, Southport, North Carolina; the Military Ocean Terminal Concord, Concord, California; and Naval Magazine Indian Island, Port Hadlock, Washington. The period of performance is from Jan. 9, 2021, to Jan. 8, 2022. Fiscal 2021 defense working capital funds were obligated at award. The U.S. Transportation Command, Directorate of Acquisition, Scott Air Force Base, Illinois, is the contracting activity.
*Small business
https://www.defense.gov/Newsroom/Contracts/Contract/Article/2466843/
April 14, 2024 | International, Naval
The ongoing round of live testing is meant to ensure the current iteration of hardware and software are fully integrated with the Aegis combat system.
May 14, 2020 | International, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security
By: Robert DuPree For the past few months, the U.S. federal government has been, quite understandably, totally focused on addressing the enormous health care and economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. These efforts will necessarily continue to be front and center in the weeks and even months ahead, no matter how rapidly the curve flattens or declines, as different sectors and regions reopen. But to move the country forward, Congress must prepare to do its regular business for the year, which largely means tackling appropriations bills. Congressional staff have reportedly been doing the prep work to get spending bills ready for whenever the House and Senate can safely convene to work on them (or to do much of this work remotely). The American people — including federal contractors large and small, and our employees — are relying on Congress to check its partisan impulses and figure out how to do two things at once in the coming months: Continue to combat the COVID-19 crisis, and develop fiscal 2021 funding bills for all federal departments and agencies to meet our nation's needs. Unfortunately, there are some who are already taking a simplistic view, saying Congress will be so busy dealing with the pandemic that it will have to just give up and pass a continuing resolution to fund the government beyond the election into next year or even for a full year. On the contrary, the pandemic is exactly why Congress should be doing its work and completing updated appropriations bills on time. First of all, in these extraordinary times, the country doesn't need appropriations bills which merely extend the decisions made on spending last December, when Congress finally completed action (over two months late) on FY20 appropriations bills. The COVID-19 pandemic was just a blip on the horizon at that time. For FY21, the country needs updated spending legislation that more accurately reflects the greatly changed world we now face. Moreover, departments and agencies also need the flexibility to enter into new contracts to meet new needs, which is generally prohibited unless expressly provided under a continuing resolution. Further, Congress and the administration must come to grips with the elephant in the room — the strict annual spending caps imposed by the Budget Control Act of 2011, as amended. To mix metaphors, this law is no longer just an elephant, it's an emperor who has no clothes. Congress has modified the BCA's statutory spending caps a number of times over the past decade (thus, the above caveat “as amended”). Now we're about to face the final year of the law's spending caps, and what do we find? The caps are a joke. The caps were meant to limit discretionary spending each year, but Congress has repeatedly found ways around them. This has usually been done in one of two ways. The first is by including some amount of normal baseline defense spending under the category of overseas contingency operations, or OCO, which is “wartime” funding; this occurs even when unrelated to America's overseas/wartime military efforts. OCO spending is exempt from the BCA caps, so funding part of the base Defense Department budget this way enables the law's defense-spending cap to be technically met while also understating the Pentagon's non-wartime expenditures. The second way is by designating certain spending as “emergency” expenditures. Yes, these are almost always for valid, unforeseen emergencies, but it is still spending that would otherwise exceed the discretionary caps. Only Congress can wave a wand and say: “No, it doesn't exceed the cap — it's for an emergency.” To be honest, the caps painted an unrealistic picture of efforts to control federal spending anyway. By only being applied to discretionary spending, exempting massive entitlement expenditures and interest on the debt, the caps presented a partial picture of true federal-spending restraint to begin with. And now the COVID-19 crisis has resulted in multiple legislative packages being enacted, which the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates could add over $2.7 trillion to the current year's deficit. But because they are loans or designated as “emergency” spending, they don't violate the caps. They just add to the deficit. In reality, true federal spending has soared far past the stable level of spending that the caps were purported to achieve when the BCA was first enacted. Yet, the caps are still in place for next year, which will impact the congressional appropriations process by either preventing the spending needed to address current needs, or leading to further contortionist efforts by legislators to circumvent the caps. So let's quit pretending. Congress and the administration should agree to repeal the final year of the caps as part of the next COVID-19 legislative package so appropriators can be upfront about the spending needed without having to hide so much of that spending behind the “emergency spending” loophole. Be transparent, and admit the country is, like during World War II, spending a whole lot more than anticipated to meet the crisis. And most of all, get the job done by acting in a bipartisan fashion to pass appropriations bills by Oct. 1, 2020, that accurately reflect our real needs and expenditures. Admittedly, that may not be easy to do in an election year, but the nation and the federal contracting community are depending on Congress to be able to manage the COVID-19 crisis response, while simultaneously conducting its regular business. Robert DuPree is manager of government affairs at Telos Corporation. He focuses on political developments in Congress and the executive branch, including the federal budget, appropriations process, national defense and cybersecurity. He previously served as legislative director for a senior member of the U.S. House of Representatives. https://www.defensenews.com/opinion/commentary/2020/05/13/a-delicate-balancing-act-the-us-government-must-juggle-a-pandemic-and-the-fy21-budget/
June 26, 2024 | International, Aerospace
Opinion: It's time to explore alternative design and acquisition strategies to significantly reduce the cost of NGAD and expedite its delivery.