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March 15, 2019 | International, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security, Other Defence

Contract Awards by US Department of Defense - March 12, 2019

NAVY

Northrop Grumman Systems Corp. - Marine Systems, Sunnyvale, California, is awarded a $273,053,534 cost-plus incentive-fee, cost-plus-fixed-fee, firm-fixed-price contract for technical engineering services, design and development engineering, component and full scale test and evaluation engineering, and tactical underwater launcher hardware production to support the development and production of the Common Missile Compartment. Work will be performed in Sunnyvale, California (55 percent); Ridgecrest, California (20 percent); Cape Canaveral, Florida (10 percent); Bangor, Washington (5 percent); Kings Bay, Georgia (5 percent); Barrow-In-Furness, England (2 percent); New London, Connecticut (1 percent); Quonset Point, Rhode Island (1 percent); and Arlington, Virginia (1 percent), and is expected to be completed by March 31, 2024. Fiscal 2019 shipbuilding and conversion (Navy) funding in the amount of $39,631,234 will be obligated on this award. Fiscal 2019 United Kingdom Common funding in the amount of $24,369,442 will be obligated on this award. No funds will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was not competitively solicited pursuant to 10 U.S. Code. Strategic Systems Programs, Washington, District of Columbia, is the contracting activity (N00030-19-C-0015).

Lockheed Martin Corp. Missile and Fire Control, Orlando, Florida, is awarded an $84,108,050 cost-plus-fixed-fee, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract to perform design and development studies, technology demonstrations and engineering services for rapid technology development for the Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile, Long Range Anti-Ship Missile, Joint Air-to-Ground Missile and Hellfire baseline weapon systems. Work will be performed in Orlando, Florida, and is expected to be completed in March 2024. Fiscal 2018 research, development, test and evaluation (Navy) funds in the amount of $4,584,507 will be obligated at the time of award, none of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was not competitively procured pursuant to 10 U.S. Code 2304(c)(1). The Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division, China Lake, California, is the contracting activity (N68936-19-D-0020).

Smartronix Inc., Hollywood, Maryland, is awarded a $72,374,593 cost-plus-fixed-fee, cost reimbursable, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract. This contract provides information management and information technology support services to sustain the analysis, design, development, integration, test, deployment and operations of information technology systems and services. This contract includes help desk, software engineering, financial and business application, server operations, application hosting, desktop, audiovisual and video teleconferencing support services. Work will be performed in China Lake, California (80 percent); and Point Mugu, California (20 percent), and is expected to be completed in March 2024. No funds will be obligated at the time of award. Funds will be obligated on individual orders as they are issued. This contract was competitively procured via an electronic request for proposal; six offers were received. The Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division, China Lake, California, is the contracting activity (N68936-19-D-0027).

Ch2m Hill Inc., Englewood, Colorado, is awarded a $68,000,000 cost-plus-award-fee modification to increase the maximum dollar value of an indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for comprehensive long-term environmental architect-engineering services on Navy and Marine Corps installations at sites in the Naval Facilities Engineering Command (NAVFAC) Atlantic area of responsibility. The work to be performed provides for architectural and engineering services to provide program management and technical environmental services in support of the Department of the Navy's Environmental Restoration Program, Munitions Response Program, and other similar programs at any Navy and Marine Corps activity in the area of responsibility covered by NAVFAC Atlantic. After award of this modification, the total cumulative contract value will be $308,000,000. Work will be performed primarily in Puerto Rico (35 percent); California (18 percent); Virginia (15 percent); Washington (12 percent), North Carolina (8 percent); Maryland (7 percent); Mississippi (3 percent); and Washington, District of Columbia (2 percent), and is expected to be completed by March 2020. No funds will be obligated at time of award; funds will be obligated on individual task orders as they are issued. Task orders will be primarily funded by environmental restoration, (Navy). The contractor was chosen using federal acquisition regulation Part 36, Architect-Engineer Services on an unrestricted basis. The Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Atlantic, Norfolk, Virginia, is the contracting activity (contract number N62470-16-D-9000).

Kiewit Infrastructure West Co., Honolulu, Hawaii, is awarded a $64,993,500 firm-fixed-price contract for P-704 Sewer Lift Station and Relief Sewer Lines, Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii. The work to be performed provides for two major components. The first component is a new wastewater pump station to replace existing pump station SY-001. The second component is a new gravity sewer main along South Avenue that replaces an existing gravity trunk sewer. A new pump station and gravity sewer line are required to accommodate the anticipated increase in wastewater flows from proposed shore activities within the existing pump station SY-001 collection area and to accommodate peak wet-weather flows with the required level of redundancy. Work will be performed in Oahu, Hawaii, and is expected to be completed by June 2021. Fiscal 2017 military construction (Navy) contract funds in the amount of $64,993,500 are obligated on this award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was competitively procured via the Navy Electronic Commerce Online website, with five proposals received. The Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Hawaii, Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii, is the contracting activity (N62478-19-C-1515).

Joyce & Associates Construction Inc.,* Newport, North Carolina (N40085-19-D-8044); Olympic Enterprises Inc.,* Hubert, North Carolina (N40085-19-D-8045); Owens Construction Inc.,* Beaufort, North Carolina (N40085-19-D-8046); Pyramid Contracting LLC,* Irmo, South Carolina (N40085-19-D-8047); and TE Davis Construction Co.,* Jacksonville, North Carolina (N40085-19-D-8048), are being awarded a $40,000,000 firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity, multiple award construction contract for maintenance and repair project. Work will be performed at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, and the surrounding area. Joyce & Associates Construction Inc. is being awarded an initial task order of $498 for the head repairs at Building 1747 at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. Work is expected to be completed by July 2019. The term of the contract is not to exceed 60 months, with an expected completion date of March 2024. Fiscal 2019 operations and maintenance, (Marine Corps) (O&M,MC) contract funds in the amount of $498 are obligated on this award and will expire at the end of fiscal 2019. Future task orders will be primarily funded by O&M,MC. This contract was competitively procured via the Navy Electronic Commerce Online website with 12 proposals received. These five contractors may compete for task orders under the terms and conditions of the awarded contract. The Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Mid-Atlantic, Norfolk, Virginia, is the contracting activity.

Burns & McDonnell Engineering Co., Inc., Kansas City, Missouri, is awarded a maximum amount $20,000,000 indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity, architect-engineering contract for architect-engineer (AE) services for various fire protection projects at various locations in all areas under the cognizance of Naval Facilities Engineering Command (NAVFAC), Pacific. The work to be performed provides for architect-engineer fire protection services with associated multi-discipline architect-engineer support services. AE fire protection services include, but are not limited to, design and engineering services for preparation of technical reports including conducting engineering investigations and concept studies; fire protection design features including life safety analysis, building and fire code analysis, including water supply analysis at proposed project sites, etc.; design-build request for proposal documents; design-bid-build construction documents; construction estimates; operations and maintenance manuals; record drawings; shop drawing reviews and other construction submittal review; technical review of design plans and specification prepared by architecture/engineering firms and government forces; water flow testing; final acceptance testing of all types of installed fire protection systems; post construction award services; and other miscellaneous services. No task orders are being issued at this time. Work will be performed at various Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, and other government facilities within the NAVFAC Pacific area of responsibility including but not limited to Guam and the Northern Marianas Islands (70 percent); Australia (20 percent); and Hawaii (10 percent). The term of the contract is not to exceed 60 months, with an expected completion date of March 2024. Fiscal 2017 military construction (MILCON), (planning and design) contract funds in the amount of $10,000 are obligated on this award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Future task orders will be primarily funded by MILCON. This contract was competitively procured via the Navy Electronic Commerce Online website, with eight proposals received. The Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Pacific, Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii, is the contracting activity (N62742-19-D-0006).

NCS/EML SB JV LLC,* Louisville, Kentucky, is awarded an $11,981,174 indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for base operations support services at Naval Air Station Whiting Field and outlying areas. The work to be performed to include facility investment, pest control, other (swimming pools), grounds maintenance and landscaping, pavement clearance, utilities management, electrical, wastewater, water, base support vehicles and equipment, and other related services. The maximum dollar value including the base period and seven option years is $96,721,878. Work will be performed in Milton, Florida (67 percent); and outlying areas (33 percent), and is expected to be completed by March 2020. No funds will be obligated at time of award. Fiscal 2019 operations and maintenance (Navy); fiscal 2019 working capital funds (Navy); fiscal 2019 Defense Health Program; and fiscal 2019 family housing operation and maintenance (Navy) contract funds in the amount of $8,359,610 for recurring work will be obligated on individual task orders issued during the base period. This contract was competitively procured via the Navy Electronic Commerce Online website, with eight proposals received. The Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Southeast, Jacksonville, Florida, is the contracting activity (N69450-19-D-1740).

DEFENSE SECURITY SERVICE

iWorks Corp., Reston, Virginia, was awarded a $48,980,260.80 firm-fixed-price contract for the Defense Security Service (DSS) Vetting Risk Operations Center (VROC) and Consolidated Adjudications Facility (CAF) Personnel Security Support Services. The contract provides for the Personnel Security Support Services to assist in successfully executing the vetting mission for the Defense Vetting Directorate. Work will be performed at the DSS VROC office located in Hanover, Maryland; and the Department of Defense CAF office in Ft. Meade, Maryland, with an expected completion date of Feb. 4, 2024. Fiscal 2019 operations and maintenance funding in the amount of $7,310,770 are being obligated at time of award. This contract was a competitive acquisition and multiple proposals were solicited on government-wide point of entry (https://www.fbo.gov) and four proposals were received. The Defense Security Service Office of Acquisitions, Quantico, Virginia, is the contracting activity (HS0021-19-C-0001).

DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY

Honeywell International Inc., Clearwater, Florida, has been awarded a maximum $12,788,000 firm-fixed-price contract for Inertial Navigation Systems. 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 contract with one one-year option period. The option is being exercised at time of award. Location of performance is Florida, with a June 22, 2020, performance completion date. Using military service is Army. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2019 through 2020 Army working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Land and Maritime, Warren, Michigan (SPRDL1-19-C-0116).

Honeywell International Inc., Clearwater, Florida, has been awarded a $7,724,728 firm-fixed-price contract for Inertial Navigation Kits. This is a 22-month base contract with one one-year option period. The option was exercised at time of award. This was a competitive acquisition with one response received. Location of performance is Florida, with a Jan. 2, 2021, performance completion date. Using military service is Army. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2019 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Land and Maritime, Warren, Michigan (SPRDL1-19-C-0099). (Awarded March 8, 2019)

R. B. Allen Co., Inc., North Hampton, New Hampshire, has been awarded a maximum $7,531,007 requirements contract for casualty control communication systems to include technical data, training, testing, and shipping. 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 base contract with four one-year option periods. Location of performance is New Hampshire, with a March 18, 2020, performance completion date. Using military service is Navy. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2019 Navy capital improvement program funds. The contracting activity is Defense Logistics Agency Aviation, Richmond, Virginia (SPE4A8-18-D-0001).

UPDATE: Globe Trailer Manufacturing Inc., Bradenton, Florida (SPE8EC-19-D-0039) has been added as an awardee to the multiple-award contract for commercial trucks and trailers, issued against solicitation SPE8EC-17-R-0008, announced April 20, 2017.

ARMY

ExpFederal Inc., Chicago, Illinois, was awarded an $11,254,947 firm-fixed-price contract for electrical safety assessments, repairs program, materials management and control services for U.S. Forces-Afghanistan. Bids were solicited via the internet with 12 received. Work will be performed in Bagram, Afghanistan, with an estimated completion date of March 11, 2021. Fiscal 2019 operations and maintenance, Army funds in the amount of $11,254,947 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Huntsville, Alabama, is the contracting activity (W912DY-19-C-0008).

*Small business

https://dod.defense.gov/News/Contracts/Contract-View/Article/1783465/

On the same subject

  • Here’s the newest price tag for DoD’s arsenal of equipment

    June 4, 2020 | International, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security

    Here’s the newest price tag for DoD’s arsenal of equipment

    By: Aaron Mehta WASHINGTON — The Defense Department's portfolio of 121 key defense acquisition programs now has a price tag of $1.86 trillion, according to a new report by the Government Accountability Office. The number comes from the GAO's annual assessment of Pentagon acquisition, delivered to the public on Wednesday. The figure involves a 4 percent increase over the previous year but also factors in, for the first time, 15 major IT investments ($15.1 billion) and 13 middle-tier acquisition programs ($19.5 billion). The vast majority comes from 93 major defense acquisition programs, or MDAP, worth $1.82 trillion. Of those, 85 MDAPs worth a total of $1.8 trillion are already underway, with the rest expected to enter production in the near future. The $1.8 trillion figure marks the largest level of investment in MDAPs since 2011, and an increase of $44 billion over the department's 2018 MDAP portfolio. The current MDAP portfolio has accumulated more than $628 billion in cost growth over the life of its programs — or 54 percent more than the projected cost when programs began — with schedule growth overshooting targets by 29 percent at an average capability delivery delay of more than two years. Over the last year, 42 MDAPs reported a combined total acquisition cost increase of more than $80 billion. Nine programs that saw cost estimates increase by over 25 percent made up more than half of that total. While some of that is driven by increased procurement numbers, such as with the Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile for the Air Force, those changed procurement plans are not the major driver of the cost increase. However, it's not all bad fiscal news: The remaining 43 MDAPs saw a cost decrease of more than $16 billion. And 19 programs that increased procurement managed to drive costs down through those updated plans. One worrisome trend the GAO highlighted is the lack of factoring in cybersecurity to early development of key performance parameters on MDAPs. The watchdog dug into a sample of 42 MDAPs as a test case, it and found that 25 of those programs had zero cybersecurity factored into the key performance parameters. Another 10 programs had one KPP related to cybersecurity, which is unlikely to be enough in the modern, wired world. For the middle-tier programs, which are designed for rapid prototyping and fielding, the GAO warned there is “inconsistent cost reporting and wide variation in schedule metrics” across the programs, adding that this poses “oversight challenges for Office of the Secretary of Defense and military department leaders trying to assess performance.” However, the watchdog agency also said the Department of Defense is in the process of addressing those issues. One notable program challenge identified in the report: The Navy's presidential helicopter replacement program, known as the VH-92A, has yet to “demonstrate that it can meet the requirement to land on the White House South Lawn without causing damage.” Parts of the helicopter are too hot, which will damage the lawn under “certain conditions.” As a result, the program is studying everything from lawn surface treatments to changes in aircraft design. “Due to concurrency in the program, which entered production while simultaneously addressing problems identified during the operational assessment, a design change to address this or other deficiencies discovered in the future may require modifications to units already in production,” the GAO found. https://www.defensenews.com/pentagon/2020/06/03/heres-the-newest-price-tag-for-dods-arsenal-of-equipment/

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  • Differentiating a port from a shipyard is a new kind of problem for AI

    September 19, 2018 | International, C4ISR

    Differentiating a port from a shipyard is a new kind of problem for AI

    By: Daniel Cebul It's well known that satellites and other intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance platforms collect more data than is possible for humans to analyze. To tackle this problem, the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity, or IARPA, conducted the Functional Map of the World (fMoW) TopCoder challenge from July 2017 through February 2018, inviting researchers in industry and academia to develop deep learning algorithms capable of scanning and identifying different classes of objects in satellite imagery. IARPA curated a dataset of 1 million annotated, high-resolution satellite images aggregated using automated algorithms and crowd sourced images for competitors to train their algorithms to classify objects into 63 classes, such as airports, schools, oil wells, shipyards, or ports. Researchers powered their deep learning algorithms by combining large neural networks, known as convolutional neural networks (CNNs), and computers with large amounts of processing power. The result was a network that, when fed massive amounts of training data, can learn to identify and classify various objects from satellite imagery. By combining a number of these networks into what is called an ensemble, the algorithm can judge the results from each CNN to produce a final, improved result that is more robust than any single CNN. This is how a team from Lockheed Martin, led by Mark Pritt, designed their deep learning algorithm for the challenge. Pritt explained to C4ISRNET, that he and his team developed their CNN using machine learning software and framework from online open source software libraries, such as Tensor Flow. Earning a top five finish, the algorithm designed by Pritt's team achieved a total accuracy of 83 percent, and was able to classify 100 objects per second. Pritt said that with fully functioning algorithm, this software could take an image recognition task that takes a human an hour to complete and reduce the process to a few seconds. The team's algorithm excelled at identifying classes with distinctive features, and successfully matched nuclear power plants, tunnel openings, runways, tool booths, and wind farms with accuracies greater than 95 percent, but struggled with more indiscreet classes such as shipyards and ports, hospitals, office buildings, and police stations. “Usually when you develop an algorithm its nice to see where it succeeds, but you actually learn the most where you look at where the algorithm fails or it doesn't do well,” Pritt said. In trying to decipher why the algorithms struggled, Pritt said the competitors suggested that some objects simply don't have any distinguishing features from the point of view of a satellite image for the algorithms to recognize. “Maybe the most important ingredient you need for these new types of algorithm to work is the dataset because these algorithms require a great amount of data to train on,” Pritt explained. “It's kind of analogous to the way a human will learn in childhood how to recognize things. You need lots of examples of what those things are and then you can start to generalize and make your own judgments,” he said. But even with large amounts of training data that is correctly labeled, it is also possible the deep learning technology of today cannot reach the higher levels of intelligence to recognize nuanced differences. For example, Lockheed Martin's algorithm confused shipyards and ports 56 percent of the time. Pritt said that people “look at an image and they can tell that it's a port or a shipyard, they are usually looking at very subtle things such as if there is a ship in dry dock or if there is a certain type of crane present. They are looking for details in the image that are maybe higher level or more complicated than what these deep learning algorithms can do right now.” However, the fact that these algorithms cannot do everything should not dismiss the significant contribution they could provide to the defense and intelligence community. Hakjae Kim, IARPA's program manager for the fMoW challenge, said the benefits of this technology could extend far beyond faster image processing. “I want to look at it more in the perspective that we can do things we weren't able to do before,” Kim said. “Because its technology that we are now able to do x, y and z, there are more applications you can create because with the human power it is just impossible to do before.” Kim and Pritt stressed managing expectations for CNN-based artificial intelligence. “This is a real technology that will work, but it also has limitations. I don't want to express this technology as a magic box that will just solve everything magically,” Kim said. “I don't want the users in the field to get disappointed by the initial delivery of this technology and say 'Oh, this is another technology that was oversold and this is not something we can use," he added. Part of managing our expectations for AI requires recognizing that although intelligence is in the name, this technology does not think and reason like humans. “A lot of the time we think that because we use the term AI, we tend to think these algorithms are like us, they are intelligent like us,” Pritt said. “And in someways they seem to mimic our intelligence, but when they fail we realize ‘Oh, this algorithm doesn't really know anything, [it] doesn't have any common sense.'” So how are IARPA and Lockheed Martin working to improve their algorithms? For IARPA, Kim's team is working on updating and maintaining their dataset to ensure algorithms have the most up to date information to train on, ultimately making the CNN-based algorithms easier to trust. “[S]ubtle changes in the area mess up the brains of the system and that system will give you a totally wrong answer,” Kim explained. “So we have planned to continuously look over the area and make sure the algorithm we are developing and reassessing for the government to test on and use to be robust enough for their application," he furthered. Work is also underway at American universities. Kim described how a team of researchers at Boston University are using the fMoW dataset and tested algorithms to create heat maps that visualize what part of the image algorithms are using to classify objects. They've found that sometimes it is not the object itself, but clues surrounding the object that aid most in classification. For example a “windmill that actually shows a shadow gives a really good indicator of what that object is,” Kim said. “Shadows show a better view of the object. A shadow is casting the side view of the object over on the ground, so [BU's heat map algorithm] actually points out the shadow is really important and the key feature to make the object identified as a windmill.” But don't expect these algorithms to take away the jobs of analysts any time soon. “I think you still need a human doing the important judgments and kind of higher level thinking,” Pritt said. “I don't think AI will take away our jobs and replace humans, but I think what we have to do is figure out how to use them as a tool and how to use them efficiently, and that of course requires understanding what they do well and what they do poorly," he concluded. https://www.c4isrnet.com/intel-geoint/2018/09/18/differentiating-a-port-from-a-shipyard-is-a-new-kind-of-problem-for-ai

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