DoD budget faces multiple obstacles | Actionable Intelligence

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  February 27, 2024 | International, Land

  Here are the winners and losers in US Army’s force structure change

  High-tech units focused on multidomain operations are in; formations for counterinsurgency are out, in the Army's new force structure design.

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  February 3, 2021 | International, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security

  Contract Awards by US Department of Defense - February 02, 2021

  AIR FORCE ViaSat Inc., Carlsbad, California, has been awarded a $50,800,000 cost-plus-fixed-fee, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for development on prototype space systems. The contractor will provide studies, design, manufacturing, integration, performance qualification, network space segment elements, launch, flight and demonstration of prototype space systems. This also includes the development, integration and demonstration with ground terminals in conjunction with the government ground segment to reduce risk and assess performance and functionality for future protected service. Work will be performed in Carlsbad, California, and is expected to be completed May 2, 2028. This award is the result of a competitive acquisition and one offer was received. Fiscal 2021 research, development, test and evaluation funds in the amount of $754,337 will be obligated when the first task order is awarded. Air Force Research Laboratory, Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico, is the contracting activity (FA9453-21-D-0029). NAVY ACTS-Meltech JV1 LLC,* Virginia Beach, Virginia (N00178-21-D-4403); Athena Construction Group Inc.,* Triangle, Virginia (N00178-21-D-4404); Cremer Global Services Inc.,* Melbourne, Florida (N00178-21-D-4405); Encon Desbuild JV2 LLC,* Bladensburg, Maryland (N00178-21-D-4406); HSU EGI JV LLC,* Gaithersburg, Maryland (N00178-21-D-4407); Matos Builders LLC,* Baltimore, Maryland (N00178-21-D-4408); New Dominion Construction LLC,* Dumfries, Virginia (N00178-21-D-4409); Signature Renovations LLC,* Capitol Heights, Maryland (N00178-21-D-4410); and Trinity USA Contracting Inc.,* White Stone, Virginia (N00178-21-D-4411), are awarded a combined $30,000,000 firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for facility repairs and renovations in multiple buildings, trailers and labs. This contract was competitively awarded among HUBZone small businesses. It provides standard maintenance, sustainment, repair and minor construction as well as field surveying of sites, mapping of new site conditions, soil boring sampling, sampling and testing of potential existing hazardous construction materials, performing and providing engineering analysis and evaluations for purposes of structural and electrical capacities and providing energy computations for infrastructure solutions. Operation and execution are primarily focused in repairing, upgrading and nonstructural construction in accordance with and not exceeding Category II of the Naval Facilities Engineering Command Engineering & Construction Bulletin Issue No.2006-04. Each awardee will be awarded $500 (minimum contract guarantee per awardee) at contract award. These contracts do not include options and consist of a cumulative value of $30,000,000 over a five-year period to the nine vendors combined. Work will be performed in Dahlgren, Virginia (85%); Wallops Island, Virginia (5%); Virginia Beach, Virginia (5%); and Washington, D.C. (5%), and is expected to be completed by February 2026. Fiscal 2021 sustainment, restoration and modernization funds in the amount of $4,500 will be obligated at the time of award and will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. All other funding will be made available at the delivery order level as contracting actions occur. This contract was competitively procured via the beta.SAM.gov website, with 11 offers received. The Naval Surface Warfare Center, Dahlgren Division, Dahlgren, Virginia, is the contracting activity. Huntington Ingalls Industries, Newport News Shipbuilding division, Newport News, Virginia, is awarded a $12,500,000 cost-plus-fixed-fee modification to previously awarded contract N00024-16-C-4316 to continue performance of the repair, maintenance and upgrade efforts on the USS Helena (SSN 725) Dry-Docking Selected Restricted Availability. Work will be performed in Newport News, Virginia, and is expected to be completed by April 2021. Fiscal 2021 operation and maintenance (Navy) funding in the amount of $12,500,000 will be obligated at time of award and will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Supervisor of Shipbuilding, Conversion and Repair, Newport News, Virginia, is the contracting activity. DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY Federal Prison Industries Inc.,** doing business as UNICOR, Washington, D.C., has been awarded a maximum $21,978,000 modification (P00009) exercising the first one-year option period of a one-year base contract (SPE1C1-20-D-F057) with four one-year option periods for various types of coats. This is a firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract. Locations of performance are Illinois, Texas, North Carolina, and Washington, D.C., with a Feb. 5, 2022, ordering period end date. Using military services are Army and Air Force. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2021 through 2022 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency, Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Delavan Inc., West Des Moines, Iowa, doing business as Collins Aerospace, has been awarded a maximum $9,999,999 firm-fixed-price, indefinite-quantity contract for T700 aircraft engine fuel injector assemblies. This was a competitive acquisition with one response received. This is a five-year contract with no option periods. Location of performance is Iowa, with a Feb. 2, 2026, performance completion date. Using military services are Army, Navy and Air Force. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2021 through 2026 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Aviation, Richmond, Virginia (SPE4A721D0099). ARMY Weeks Marine Inc., Covington, Louisiana, was awarded an $11,791,200 modification (P00001) to contract W912P8-20-C-0059 for maintenance dredging of the Southwest Pass of the Mississippi River from Baton Rouge to the Gulf of Mexico. Work will be performed in Venice, Louisiana, with an estimated completion date of June 30, 2021. Fiscal 2020 civil construction funds; and fiscal 2020 non-federal sponsor, state of Louisiana funds in the amount of $11,791,200 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, New Orleans, Louisiana, is the contracting activity. *Small business **Mandatory source https://www.defense.gov/Newsroom/Contracts/Contract/Article/2490862/source/GovDelivery/

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  July 30, 2020 | International, C4ISR

  How Army network modernization efforts ensure equipment works with allies

  Andrew Eversden A critical piece of the U.S. Army's network modernization push is ensuring its systems work with allies. In future battles, the Army will not fight alone; it will be joined by coalition partners, as well as other U.S. services. As the Army moves to improve its integrated tactical network, it must ensure that its network tools work with coalition and service partners The Army recently completed a critical design review of Capability Set '21 a set of new network tools that will be delivered to soldiers next year. The service is in the first phase of procuring the new capabilities. A “key factor” involved in delivery to soldiers at the battalion level and below is a move to a 75 percent “secure but unclassified” network that provides improved communication between coalition partners, said Col. Garth Winterle, project manager for tactical radios at the Army's Program Executive Office Command, Control, Communications-Tactical. “We're moving off of an all-secret network to one that's a lot more flexible and actually encourages coalition interoperability,” Winterle said. One opportunity to test interoperability was Defender Europe 2020, which was meant to be one of the largest European exercises involving both the U.S. Army and NATO allies, but had to be scaled down due to the coronavirus pandemic. Still, the Army was able to test interoperability. There were a series of pre-Defender Europe exercises to assess capabilities “to inform future network design,” according to Justine Ruggio, director of communications for the Network Cross-Functional Team at Army Futures Command. These assessments included several pieces of Capability Set '21, including communications exercises and validation exercises with the Army's fielded Command Post Computing Environment software, Tactical Server Infrastructure and Commercial Coalition Equipment “to enable the use of the Mission Partner Environment, which allowed all participants to share classified information during the exercise, including the Polish and U.K.,” Ruggio said. During the pre-Defender Europe tests, “we were able to bridge the Polish and U.K. unit into an integrated command structure using our secret releasable network and create that common command-and-control picture,” Col. Lesley Kipling, the mission command lead and Army National Guard liaison officer to the Network CFT, said in an interview with C4ISRNET. Secret but releasable information is classified at the secret level and can be released to certain coalition partners who have sufficient clearance from their home country. An exercise scheduled for next year, called Warfighter 21-4, will allow for additional interoperability assessments with U.K. and French forces. According to Ruggio, one focus area will be on interoperability using the Network CFT's DevOps model to iterate the Command Post Computing Environment, continue to assess Commercial Coalition Equipment and evaluate the Mission Partner Environment. The event will be aligned with Capability Set '23, the next iteration of network tools. Kipling added that the cross-functional team and its partners are “continuing” to work on policies and training for properly connecting to a coalition network “so that it's not learning on the fly, but that these procedures and policies are codified in a way that they can be standardized and any user can execute whenever they're put in a situation,” she said. Brig. Gen. Joseph Papenfus, chief Information officer and deputy chief of staff of the G6 of U.S. Army Europe, said that the scaled-back nature of Defender Europe did affect network interoperability testing because soldiers were unable to come over from the United States. That means that U.S. Army Europe will focus heavily on European partners during the smaller exercises, Papenfus said, including validating network integration and establishing a secret but releasable network with NATO. “Every opportunity that we have to see how a piece of equipment works within the larger set of the network, we take advantage of that,” Ruggio said. https://www.c4isrnet.com/yahoo-syndication/2020/07/29/how-army-network-modernization-efforts-ensure-equipment-works-with-allies/