February 26, 2020 | International, Aerospace

Duckworth: Army's New Helicopters Should Not Be Designed for Anyone Else

By Matthew Cox

WEST PALM BEACH, Florida -- Sen. Tammy Duckworth, a former U.S. Army helicopter pilot, said recently that the Marine Corps, Navy and Air Force would have to wait their turn if they want their own version of the Army's futuristic helicopters being developed under the Future Vertical Lift (FVL) effort.

The Illinois Democrat and member of the Senate Armed Services Committee recently attended a high-profile flight demonstration of Sikorsky-Boeing's new SB-1 Defiant helicopter that was designed with the goal of replacing the UH-60 Black Hawk.

The Army awarded a team from Sikorsky, part of Lockheed Martin Corp., and Boeing Co. a 2014 contract to build Defiant as part of the Joint Multi Role Technology Demonstrator (JMRT-D) program.

A Textron Inc.-Bell team also received a contract under the effort and built the V-280 Valor, a tiltrotor-design helicopter that completed its first test flight in December 2017.

Both the Valor and the Defiant prototypes are promising designs, Army officials maintain, that are capable of flying at speeds of more than 200 knots and will result in a replacement for the venerable Black Hawk as the service's new Future Long Range Assault Aircraft (FLRAA).

Duckworth, a former Army National Guard officer who lost both legs after enemy forces shot down the Black Hawk she was flying over Iraq in 2004, said she intends to keep the FVL program from morphing into an unwieldy, joint effort. That's a pitfall that has thrust many joint-service programs into program delays and cost-overruns because of overly broad requirements.

"This is an Army aircraft; we need to keep an Army mission," Duckworth told reporters at the Feb. 20 flight demo. "If the other services want to fall in behind it and develop something afterward and tweak it for what they need, that is fine, but we cannot build a Frankenaircraft ... that's going to meet the Marines' needs and the Navy's need and the Air Force's needs.

"We need to not let the requirements start to meander and creep around because otherwise we will never get to where we need to and get these things fielded as quickly as possible," she added.

In the past, the Pentagon has often tried to develop multiple versions of a major combat system, such as the new F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, which has been designed to satisfy the requirements of the Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force. The acquisition program for the advanced, stealth fighter began in the mid-1990s and still suffers from testing setbacks that have delayed a full-rate production decision.

That Army-Marine Corps Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV) program, however, is considered a successful acquisition effort that began in 2006 after Humvees in Iraq could not withstand the destruction force of enemy homemade bombs attacks.

JLTV took almost a decade to become a reality but, in August 2015, Oshkosh Corp. was selected over Lockheed Martin Corp. and AM General LLC to build the vehicle for the Army and Marine Corps.

Meanwhile, for the second year in a row, the Army has reduced the number of JLTVs it will buy in fiscal 2021 to free up money to fund future modernization.

FVL is one of the Army's top modernization priorities under a new strategy the service launched in 2017, with the goal of replacing most of its major combat platforms beginning in 2028.

Leaders stood up Army Future Command, an organization designed to help the service's acquisition and requirements machines work more closely together in an effort to streamline what has traditionally been a slow-moving process to develop and field combat system.

So far, the strategy appears to be working, since the FLRAA and the Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft (FARA) efforts are ahead of schedule, Duckworth said.

Army officials are scheduled to down-select to two vendors to build final prototypes of the FARA next month. The service is also scheduled to begin a competitive demonstration and risk reduction phase for FLRAA, which is expected to last until 2022, the year the service plans to down-select to one vendor to build the Black Hawk replacement.

"This is rare for defense procurement to actually be ahead of timeline instead of pushing everything to the right," Duckworth said. "I am very pleased with how well the Army is handling this development."

The senator stressed, however, that she intends to continue strict oversight of the FVL to ensure it doesn't result in a waste of taxpayer dollars.

"We can't be spending upward of $60 million per airframe," Duckworth said. "If we do that, then we can't field the number of airframes that we need to be out there in the force."

Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy, who also attended the flight demo, stressed that the service's leadership is committed to making necessary cuts to outdated programs to free up money for FVL and other modernization efforts.

"We don't have a choice. We are running out of letters to upgrade the existing platforms -- they are 40-year-old systems; the technology will not endure," he said.

-- Matthew Cox can be reached at matthew.cox@military.com.

https://www.military.com/daily-news/2020/02/25/duckworth-armys-new-helicopters-should-not-be-designed-anyone-else.html

On the same subject

October 4, 2019 | International, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security

Contract Awards by US Department of Defense - October 03, 2019
DEFENSE HEALTH AGENCY CORRECTION: Shoreland Inc., Milwaukee, Wisconsin, was awarded a firm-fixed-price contract with a maximum value of $21,650,000. HT0038-19-C-0002 provides for the renewal of the commercial-off-the shelf enterprise publications licenses in support of the Military Health System. Licenses allow continuing access to a multinational collaborative database that provides up-to-date international unclassified medical intelligence data supporting patient movement, preventative medicine, and clinical contingencies planning for military medical and deployment planners and providers. This effort has a one-year base period of performance, and three one-year option periods. The estimated completion date is Sept. 30, 2023. Work will occur in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The base task order will be funded by fiscal 2020 operation and maintenance funds. The award is the result of a non-competitive solicitation in accordance with FAR 6.302-1. The contracting activity is the Defense Health Agency. NAVY BAE Systems Technology Solutions and Services, Rockville, Maryland, is awarded an $18,351,068 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract to provide engineering and technical services for integrated communications and information systems radio communications on various Navy ships in support of the Ship and Air Integration Warfare Division, Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division, Webster Outlying Field. Work will be performed in St. Inigoes, Maryland (60%); California, Maryland (30%); Bath, Maine (5%) and Pascagoula, Mississippi (5%), and is expected to be completed in June 2029. Fiscal 2020 shipbuilding and conversion (Navy) funds in the amount of $18,351,068 will be obligated at time of award, none of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was competitively procured via an electronic request for proposal; one offer was received. The Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity (N00019-20-C-0003). General Atomics, San Diego, California, is awarded a $12,255,842 modification (P00019) to a cost-plus-fixed-fee delivery order (0001) against a previously issued basic ordering agreement (N00019-16-G-0006). This modification increases the level of effort for repair of repairables (ROR) and technical assistance. ROR includes efforts and materials required to inspect and repair or remanufacture unserviceable repairable components that are provided to the contractor as government furnished property and return the electromagnetic aircraft launch systems (EMALS) and advanced arresting gear (AAG) repairable items to a fully operational status. Technical assistance includes the necessary services to provide "on-call/on-site" emergency repairs. Repair services and technical assistance will also be provided for EMALS and AAG shipboard systems. Work will be performed in Tupelo, Mississippi (55%); San Diego, California (35%); Norfolk, Virginia (6%); Waltham, Massachusetts (2%); Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (1%); and San Leandro, California (1%), and is expected to be completed in September 2020. Fiscal 2019 shipbuilding and conversion (Navy) funds in the amount of $12,255,842 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 Mississippi Department of Rehabilitation Services, Madison, Mississippi, has been awarded a $7,706,151 modification (P00012) to exercise an option on previously awarded contract FA3010-18-C-0007 for full food services. The location of performance is Keesler Air Force Base, Mississippi, and the work is expected to be complete by Sept. 30, 2020. Fiscal 2020 operations and maintenance funds in the amount of $7,706,151 will be obligated when they become available. The 81st Contracting Squadron, Keesler Air Force Base, Mississippi, is the contracting activity. ARMY KBRwyle Technology Solutions LLC, Columbia, Maryland, was awarded a $7,142,371 modification (0001 49) to contract W52P1J-12-G-0061 for logistics support services, maintenance, supply and care of supplies in storage. Work will be performed in Waegwan, South Korea, with an estimated completion date of May 28, 2020. Fiscal 2020 operation and maintenance funds in the amount of $600,000 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Rock Island Arsenal, Illinois, is the contracting activity. https://www.defense.gov/Newsroom/Contracts/Contract/Article/1979758/source/GovDelivery/
March 18, 2024 | International, Land

Minister Blair to announce investment in health care for Canadian Armed Forces members
On Wednesday, March 20, 2024, the Honourable Bill Blair, Minister of National Defence, will hold a media availability to announce a significant investment to deliver quality health care to Canadian Armed Forces members.
September 26, 2018 | International, C4ISR

Pentagon Extends JEDI Deadline Again—With a Catch
By Heather Kuldell, Managing Editor The department is requiring bidders to deliver their proposals in person. Companies bidding on the Defense Department's multibillion-dollar Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure cloud contract will need to hand-deliver their proposals. “In lieu of electronic submission, an offeror's entire proposal shall be captured on one or more DVDs and submitted in person only. No other forms of submission will be accepted,” the department said in an amendment to the JEDI request for proposal posted Monday. The department also pushed the deadline back a few days. Bidders must contact JEDI procurement officials by 5 p.m. Eastern time Oct. 10 to get logistical details for turning in their proposals in person on Oct. 12. It's the second time the department extended JEDI's original Sept. 17 deadline, following other amendments that answered industry questions and a pre-award bid protest from Oracle. Defense officials describe the JEDI acquisition as the foundation for hosting mission-critical data for warfighters around the world. But since it was announced a year ago, the procurement has drawn scrutiny from industry and lawmakers for requiring a single cloud service provider instead of multiple vendors. The contract could be worth up to $10 billion over 10 years if all the follow-on options are exercised. But before the project sees a cent, Congress wants more insight into JEDI and the rest of the department's cloud computing projects. In the final conference report for the Defense-related minibus, appropriators order the defense secretary to deliver a cloud-centric budget accounting plan and a detailed, enterprisewide cloud computing strategy that includes “defining opportunities for multiple cloud service providers.” The department would be prohibited from spending anything on JEDI or the Defense Enterprise Office Solutions—another multibillion-dollar cloud contract—until 90 days after those plans are delivered to defense committees. “The conferees believe cloud computing, if implemented properly, will have far-reaching benefits for improving the efficiency of day-to-day operations of the Department of Defense, as well as enabling new military capabilities critical to maintaining a tactical advantage over adversaries,” lawmakers wrote in the joint explanatory statement. The Senate passed the minibus—which also includes labor, health, education and a continuing resolution—last week. The House is scheduled to vote on the package this week. https://www.nextgov.com/it-modernization/2018/09/pentagon-extends-jedi-deadline-again-catch/151541/

All news