May 2, 2022 | International, Aerospace
March 9, 2020 | International, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security
DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY
Tactical & Survival Specialties Inc.,* Harrisonburg, Virginia (SPE8EJ-20-D-0010); W.S. Darley & Co.,* Itasca, Illinois (SPE8EJ-20-D-0011); Atlantic Diving Supply Inc., doing business as ADS,* Virginia Beach, Virginia (SPE8EJ-20-D-0012); Federal Resources Supply Co.,* Stevensville, Maryland (SPE8EJ-20-D-0013); Unifire Inc.,* Spokane, Washington (SPE8EJ-20-D-0014); and Quantico Tactical Inc.,* Aberdeen, North Carolina (SPE8EJ-19-D-0015), are sharing a maximum $4,000,000,000 firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract under solicitation SPM8EJ-13-R-0001 for special operational equipment. This was a sole-source acquisition using justification 10 U.S. Code 2304 (c)(1), as stated in Federal Acquisition Regulation 6.302-1. These are 365-day bridge contracts. Locations of performance are Virginia, Illinois, Maryland, Washington, and North Carolina, with a March 6, 2021, performance completion date. Using military services are Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps and Coast Guard. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2020 through 2021 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (SPE8EJ-20-D-0010).
General Dynamics Mission Systems Inc., Taunton, Massachusetts, has been awarded a maximum $49,000,000 firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for production of spare parts in support of the Warfighter Information Network Tactical Increment 1. This was a sole-source acquisition using justification 10 U.S. Code 2304 (c)(1), as stated in Federal Acquisition Regulations 6.302-1. This is a five-year contract with no option periods. Location of performance is Massachusetts, with a March 5, 2025, performance completion 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 Land and Maritime, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland (SPRBL1-20-D-0003).
Cummins Inc., Memphis, Tennessee, has been awarded a maximum $9,752,276 fixed-price contract for diesel engine repair kits. This was a competitive acquisition with one offer received. This is a five-year contract with no option periods. Location of performance is Tennessee, with a March 5, 2025, performance completion date. Using military services are Army and Marine Corps. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2020 through 2025 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Land and Maritime, Columbus, Ohio (SPE7LX-20-D-0095).
NAVY
The Boeing Co., Seattle, Washington, is awarded $800,000,000 for an advanced acquisition modification (P00167) to a previously awarded firm-fixed-price contract (N00019-14-C-0067). This modification procures long lead material and activities in support of lot 11 P-8A aircraft production and delivery. Work will be performed in Seattle, Washington (97.04%); Huntington Beach, California (2.4%); Mesa, Arizona (.55%) and El Segundo, California (.01%). The purpose of this contract modification is to procure long-lead material and activities in support of 18 P-8A Lot 11 aircraft (8 Navy, 4 New Zealand, and 6 Republic of Korea). The mission of the P-8A MMA is to provide long-range anti-submarine warfare, anti-surface warfare, intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance capable of broad-area, maritime and littoral operations. Work is expected to be completed by June 2020. Fiscal 2020 aircraft procurement (Navy) funds in the amount of $800,000,000 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.
AIR FORCE
George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia, has been awarded a $320,689,444 cost-type contract for Mobile Unmanned/Manned Distributed Lethality Airborne Network (MUDLAN) accelerated development and demonstrations software and hardware. This contract provides for the enhancement of technologies to be developed under the MUDLAN Joint Capabilities Technology Demonstration program, including digital beam forming multi-beam Common Data Link apertures; directional K/Ku/eKU and W-band systems; MUDLAN multi-functional network controller (MFNC) for connecting multiple platforms while maneuvering; and using the MFNC to recognize jamming and autonomously move to other bands. Work will be performed in Fairfax, Virginia, and is expected to be complete by March 6, 2025. This award is the result of a competitive acquisition, and two offers were received. Fiscal 2020 research, development, test and evaluation funds in the amount of $650,000 are being obligated at time of award. Air Force Research Laboratory, Rome, New York, is the contracting activity (FA8750-20-C-0555).
Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory LLC, Laurel, Maryland, has been awarded a cost-plus-fixed-fee $16,769,744 modification (P00009) to task order FA8819-19-F-1003 for deep space advanced radar concept technology demonstration. The contract modification completes the delivery of the technology demonstration project. Work will be performed in Laurel, Maryland; and White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico, and is expected to be completed by June 30, 2021. Fiscal 2020 research and development funds in the amount of $2,000,000 are being obligated at the time of award. The total cumulative face value of the task order is $45,564,088. The Space and Missile System Center Directorate, Peterson Air Force Base, Colorado Springs, Colorado, is the contracting activity.
ARMY
Lockheed Martin Corp., Orlando, Florida, was awarded a $154,979,758 contract for Modernized Target Acquisition Designation Sight/Pilot Night Vision Sensor System (M-TADS/PNVS) systems for the Apache attack helicopter in support of the Moroccan government. 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 Aug. 31, 2023. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Rock Island Arsenal, Illinois, is the contracting activity (W52P1J-20-F-0225).
Raytheon Co., Andover, Massachusetts, was awarded a $108,321,679 modification (P00002) to contract W31P4Q-19-C-0055 for the procurement of hardware, facilities, equipment, and all technical, planning, management, manufacturing, and testing efforts to include all incidental services to produce the PATRIOT Digital Sidelobe Canceler and Peripheral Enhancement Assembly box production kits. Work will be performed in Andover, Massachusetts; Chatsworth, California; and Simsbury, Connecticut, with an estimated completion date of July 31, 2022. Fiscal 2020 missile procurement, Army; and 2010 Foreign Military Sales (Netherlands) funds in the amount of $108,321,679 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, is the contracting activity.
Oshkosh Defense LLC, Oshkosh, Wisconsin, was awarded a $25,522,182 modification (P00314) to contract W56HZV-15-C-0095 to exercise available options on the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle contract. Work will be performed in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, with an estimated completion date of Aug. 31, 2021. Fiscal 2020 other procurement, Army; Marine Corp procurement; and Navy procurement funds in the amount of $25,522,182 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Detroit Arsenal, Michigan, is the contracting activity.
Sierra Nevada Corp., Sparks, Nevada, was awarded an $8,500,000 firm-fixed-price contract for Tactical Automated Landing System components support for the RQ-7B tactical unmanned aircraft system. 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 Feb. 27, 2023. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, is the contracting activity (W911QY-20-D-0011).
General Dynamics Mission Systems, Taunton, Massachusetts, was awarded an $8,016,219 modification (P00001) to contract (W15P7T-19-F-0022) to procure warranty coverage for the configuration items for the Tactical Network Transport On the Move System. Bids were solicited via the internet with one received. Work will be performed in Taunton, Massachusetts, with an estimated completion date of Dec. 31, 2025. Fiscal 2020 operations and maintenance, Army funds in the amount of $8,016,219 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, is the contracting activity.
DEFENSE INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
Bluehawk LLC, West Palm Beach, Florida, was awarded a $32,094,786 labor-hour contract (HHM402-20-C-0019) to provide technology transfer analysis and assessment services. Work will be conducted in Charlottesville, Virginia, with an expected completion date of Aug. 31, 2025. Fiscal 2020 operations and management funds in the amount of $2,935,456 are being obligated at time of award. This contract was awarded through a HUBZone set-aside and six offers were received. The Virginia Contracting Activity, Washington, District of Columbia, is the contracting activity.
*Small business
https://www.defense.gov/Newsroom/Contracts/Contract/Article/2104849/source/GovDelivery/
May 2, 2022 | International, Aerospace
September 17, 2018 | International, Aerospace
By: Valerie Insinna WASHINGTON — A fledgling five-person software start-up has just wrapped up their pitch to what could be a key investor. The pressure has been intense, but the customer decides to bite, sliding a credit card through a Square reader to award money to the company's Paypal account. This isn't an episode of Shark Tank, or a successful bid to get investment dollars from a Silicon Valley angel investor. The customer in this scenario is the Air Force — or at least, its acquisition executive would like it to be. During the Air Force Association's annual conference, Will Roper, assistant secretary of the Air Force for acquisition, technology and logistics, will announce a series of “Startup Days” targeted toward involving startup companies in Air Force acquisition by rapidly awarding contracts in less than 24 hours. “From the company's view, it will be a single day. From our view, we could probably turn it as quickly as a few days to a week — we put a call out, someone submits their idea, we analyze their idea, we check their company profile, we then invite a subset that have met the criteria,” he told Defense News in an exclusive Sept. 7 interview. “But then, when they come in to pitch their idea, they have a reasonable expectation of leaving with funding. We're ready to go or not go on a single day,” he continued. “And the contract length? One page.” When Defense News spoke with Roper, he had just gotten the green light to move ahead with this new way of awarding contracts. The effort remains in its early stages, and dates for Startup Day have not been chosen, although Roper believes the service could hold a series of Startup Days as soon as the end of this year or early 2019. The exact format is still being worked out as well: Program managers will be able to suggest precise technical problems that they'd like to see solutions for, but he'd also like to give companies the latitude to pitch their products for requirements the Air Force doesn't even know it has. Companies will submit proposals, which will be evaluated by Air Force program and contacting officials who will also analyze the company's profile — its number of employees, business type, product maturity and potential impact. But the goal is to have the actual events structured like a meeting with an angel investor, not the typical PowerPoint-laden gatherings of military officials and defense primes. “We've got to make this look more like Kickstarter than a defense industry day,” Roper said. “We may even put them on contract swiping a Square reader. We have government purchase cards that we're able to use for small purchases — up to $150k per transaction. That may be the mechanism we use because most companies that are startups, I'm going to guess, have a Paypal account.” An industry day geared specifically for start-up companies is just the latest way the Air Force is trying to harness a commercial technology boom where innovation has often been led by startups. Last year, the service announced the creation of a new organization called AFWERX that it began to help engage elements of the private sector that don't usually work with the government. However, even with AFWERX in operation, it takes the Air Force six to eight weeks to award a contract at its very fastest. And that's still too slow of a pace to enable it to work effectively with startup companies, Roper said. “There's this artificial ceiling that small companies can't reach to work with the government simply because they're too small to wait for a paycheck. If they're not on contract with us now, they've got to work with an investor fast enough to fund cash flow rates that startups need to grow,” he said. Roper doesn't expect all investments to bear fruit, but efforts like Startup Day have other advantages, he said. It gets Air Force contracting officers more comfortable with executing rapid contracts, potentially gives program managers a more effective way of spending their small business dollars and allows the service to have a voice in the kinds of technologies that cutting-edge companies develop. “I hope that will mean that every year when we do this — if it's successful, we'll do it every year—companies will have us on their radar screen and think, ‘The Air Force is a great way for us to get from being a company of five to a company of 50...and then we'll go off and become billionaires working with Amazon and Google,'” he said. “But this way they'll know us and their products and projects will have been influenced by us, hopefully for the betterment of the Air Force.” https://www.defensenews.com/digital-show-dailies/air-force-association/2018/09/17/air-force-aims-to-move-startups-from-pitch-to-contract-award-in-24-hours
April 19, 2023 | International, Land
The Terrestrial Layer System-Brigade Combat Team, or TLS-BCT, is one of several U.S. Army efforts to reinvigorate its electronic warfare arsenal.