General Atomics Awarded Army Contract Supporting Hypersonic Glide Body Prototype Development

On the same subject

• 

  January 28, 2019 | International, Aerospace

  If the money is there, new and improved F-15s could be coming soon to the Air Force

  By: Jeff Martin IN THE AIR OVER KENTUCKY — The U.S. Air Force could buy a new version of the F-15, known as the F-15X, as long as there is enough money in future defense budgets, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Goldfein told Defense News Saturday. And regardless of whether the service does buy the new jets this year, Goldfein said the new aircraft won't be taking money from the Lockheed Martin F-35. “I'm not backing an inch off of the F-35” Goldfein said. “The F-35 buy that we're on continues to remain on track. And I'm not interested in taking a nickel out of it when it comes to buying anything else in the fighter portfolio.” The FY2020 defense budget has been the focus of speculation for months, and the Pentagon has still not released a final topline figure. Original planning had called for a $733 billion topline, which dwindled down to $700 billion after calls from President Donald Trump to slash federal spending and then ballooned up to $750 billion after the intervention of then-Defense Secretary Jim Mattis. In December 2018, Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson told Defense News that “all options are on the table," and on Saturday Goldfein acknowledged that the service had built multiple budgets as different figures were proposed. “We built the [$]730[billion] budget, and we went in and did a drill said what if we only get [$]700[billion] and what do we subtract, and what if there was a [$]750[billion] budget?” he said. Goldfein would not directly confirm that the Air Force has the money in the budget for the new planes. But he hinted strongly that the service would pull the trigger on acquiring them. The F-15X is an improved model from Boeing, teaming a new airframe with an improved radar, cockpit, electronic warfare suite and the ability to carry more missiles, bringing in upgrades that have been developed for the F-15s sold to Qatar and Saudi Arabia. Late last year, Bloomberg reported that the Air Force was planning to request $1.2 billion for 12 of the fourth-generation jets in the 2020 budget request. The report said the aircraft would go to the Air National Guard to replace the olders F-15Cs, which date to the 1980s. And that age is why the Air Force is looking at a new variant. The service currently has about 230 F-15C and D model aircraft in service. However, Goldfein acknowledged those aircraft don't have the lifespan to make it to 2030 like other current fourth-generation aircraft, such as the F-15E, the F-16 and A-10. “It [has] performed brilliantly, but the cost growth runs to a point to where you're spending too much money," Goldfein said. The Air Force's decision to buy new F-15s came as a surprise late last year, as Air Force leadership had previously pushed back on the Boeing sales pitch. As recently as September 2018, Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson said that the Air Force needed to prioritize buying fifth-generation aircraft. "We are currently 80 percent fourth-gen aircraft and 20 percent fifth-generation aircraft,” she said at the time. "In any of the fights that we have been asked to plan for, more fifth-gen aircraft make a huge difference, and we think that getting to 50-50 means not buying new fourth-gen aircraft, it means continuing to increase the fifth generation.” But, Goldfein said Saturday that the decision to possibly refresh the F-15 fleet comes down to the need for more fighters in service, regardless of generation. “They complement each other,” he said. “They each make each other better.” When asked if that meant compromising for quantity over quality, he said that would not be the case. “We've got to refresh the F-15C fleet because I can't afford to not have that capacity to do the job and the missions.” Goldfein explained. “That's what this is all about. If we're refreshing the F-15C fleet, as we're building up the F-35 fleet, this is not about any kind of a trade.” He added that Air Force needs to buy 72 fighters a year to get to the amount they need in the future — and to drive average aircraft age down from 28 years to 15 years. And while Goldfein might want all 72 to be fifth generation F-35s, budgetary concerns likely won't let that happen. “If we had the money, those would be 72 F-35s. But we've gotta look at this from a cost/business case.” he explained. “An F-15 will never be an F-35. Never. But I need capacity.” https://www.defensenews.com/newsletters/2019/01/26/if-the-money-is-there-new-and-improved-f-15s-could-be-coming-soon-to-the-air-force

• 

  July 17, 2020 | International, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security

  Contract Awards by US Department of Defense - July 16, 2020

  AIR FORCE Transcend Technological Systems LLC, Prattville, Alabama, has been awarded a ceiling $485,000,000 single-award, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for the Hill Enterprise Data Center (HEDC) – sustainment, modernization, and consolidation. This contract provides for sustainment and onboarding support for the HEDC and applications within the HEDC. Work will be performed at Hill Air Force Base, Utah, and expected to be completed July 15, 2027. This award is the result of a competitive acquisition and eight offers were received. Fiscal 2020 operations and maintenance funds in the amount of $2,500 will be obligated on the first task order, which will be awarded immediately after the basic contract. Air Force Sustainment Center Hill AFB, Utah, is the contracting activity (FA8201-20-D-0001). NAVY Kanto Kosan Co. LTD, Kanagawa, Japan (N62649-20-D-0012); and Seaon Environmental LLC, Tempe, Arizona (N62649-20-D-0013), are awarded a not-to-exceed $35,201,535 indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity, multiple-award contract that will include terms and conditions for the placement of firm-fixed-price task orders to provide oily wastewater purification services. This will include providing an oily water disposal barge, arranging oil/chemical separating barge consisting of a receiving tank, oil collecting tank, and a minimum of three settling tanks and purifying collected water/oil and discharge to the sea in accordance with applicable regulations in support of the U.S. Naval Ship Repair Facility and Japan Regional Maintenance Center, Yokosuka and Commander, Fleet Activities Yokosuka Port Operations. Work will be performed at Commander, Fleet Activities Yokosuka, Yokosuka, Japan. The contracts will run concurrently and will include a one-year base ordering period with four one-year option ordering periods. The initial ordering period will continue until July 2021; if all options are exercised, the final ordering period will be completed by July 2025. The total estimated value of the contracts will be $65,000,000. Fiscal 2020 operations and maintenance (Navy) (OMN) funds in the amount of $100,000 ($50,000 on each of the two contracts) will be obligated at time of award and funds will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Annual OMN funds will be obligated as individual task orders are issued. This contract resulted from a full and open competitive solicitation and the requirement was posted to the Asia Navy Electronic Commerce Online and the Federal Business Opportunities websites, with two offers received. Naval Supply Systems Command Fleet Logistics Center Yokosuka, Contracting Department, Yokosuka, Japan, is the contracting activity. Raytheon Missiles and Defense, Tucson, Arizona, is awarded a $15,296,009 cost-plus-fixed-fee and firm-fixed-price modification to previously-awarded contract N00024-17-C-5410 to exercise options for engineering and technical services and obsolescence solution in support of Standard Missile-2/6. Work will be performed in Tucson, Arizona, and is expected to be completed by June 2021. This contract combines purchases for the U.S. government (68.2%); and the governments of Australia, Taiwan, Korea, Japan, Spain, Netherlands and Denmark (31.8% combined), under the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program. This contract also combines purchases for other Department of Defense funds (47.2%); FMS programs (31.8%); and the Navy (21%). Fiscal 2020 other Department of Defense funds; 2020 research, development, test and evaluation (Navy) funds; fiscal 2020 weapons procurement (Navy) funds; and FMS funds in the amount of $15,296,009 will be obligated at the time of award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity. Beckman Coulter Inc., Brea, California, is awarded a $14,916,335 firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract. This contract is for the production, test and delivery of up to 800 particle counter units to replace all existing obsolete units currently in use throughout the Navy and Marine Corps fleet. These units will provide the fleet's intermediate maintenance level technicians a mechanism for measuring particle contamination in fluids from aircraft government support equipment in hangars and depots in support of the Navy Hydraulic Contamination Program. Work will be performed in Loveland, Colorado (75%); and Brea, California (25%), and is expected to be completed by June 2026. 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 and two offers were received. The Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division, Lakehurst, New Jersey, is the contracting activity (N68335-20-D-0031). B.C. Schmidt Construction Inc.,* Colusa, California, is awarded a $10,000,000 maximum amount, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for new flooring work, additions, alterations, maintenance and repairs at various locations within Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton and Naval Weapons Station Seal Beach, California. The work to be performed provides for the minimal design, installation, supervision, equipment, material, labor and all means necessary for new work. No task orders are being issued at this time. The term of the contract is not to exceed 60 months and work is expected to be completed by July 2025. Fiscal 2020 operations and maintenance (Navy) (O&M, N) contract funds in the amount of $2,000 are obligated on this award and will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Future task orders will be primarily funded by military construction (Navy); O&M, N; and O&M (Marine Corps). This contract was competitively procured via the beta.SAM.gov contract opportunities website and three proposals were received. The Naval Facilities Engineering Command Southwest, San Diego, California, is the contracting activity (N62473-20-D-1117). ARMY Carahsoft Technology, Reston, Virginia, was awarded a $29,837,009 firm-fixed-price contract for movement of the logistics modernization program to the cloud. Bids were solicited via the internet with 11 received. Work will be performed at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, with an estimated completion date of July 15, 2021. Fiscal 2020 other procurement (Army) funds in the amount of $29,837,009 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Rock Island Arsenal, Illinois, is the contracting activity (W52P1J-20-F-0419). Scientific Research Corp., Atlanta, Georgia, was awarded a $28,543,191 hybrid (cost-no-fee, cost-plus-fixed-fee) contract to provide a full spectrum of support to the Joint Pacific Alaska Range Complex at Eielson Air Force Base. 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 July 15, 2021. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Orlando, Florida, is the contracting activity (W900KK-20-F-0120). HDR Architecture Inc., Seattle, Washington, was awarded a $21,000,000 firm-fixed-price contract to provide architectural and engineering services in support of planned construction projects at the Veteran Administration American Lake Campus. Bids were solicited via the internet with eight received. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of July 16, 2028. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Seattle, Washington, is the contracting activity (W912DW-20-D-1003). CORRECTION: The contract announced on June 15, 2020, for General Dynamics Land Systems, Sterling Heights, Michigan (W56HZV-20-F-0382), for $249,000,000 should have included this additional sentence: The initial delivery order is being awarded under this action to obligate $14.1 million to provide field service representative support for remaining test events, data deliverables, refurbishment of test systems, production of 24 S-MET systems, associated authorized stock list kits and prescribed stock list kits. *Small Business https://www.defense.gov/Newsroom/Contracts/Contract/Article/2277243/source/GovDelivery/

• 

  June 20, 2018 | International, Land

  BAE wins Marine Corps contract to build new amphibious combat vehicle

  Jen Judson WASHINGTON — BAE Systems has won a contract to build the Marine Corps' new amphibious combat vehicle following a competitive evaluation period where BAE's vehicle was pitted against an offering from SAIC. The contract allows for the company to enter into low-rate initial production with 30 vehicles expected to be delivered by fall of 2019, valued at $198 million. The Marines plan to field 204 of the vehicles. The total value of the contract with all options exercised is expected to amount to about $1.2 billion. The awarding of the contract gets the Corps “one step closer to delivering this capability to the Marines,” John Garner, Program Executive Officer, Land Systems Marine Corps, said during a media round table held Tuesday. But the Corps isn't quite done refining its new ACV. The vehicle is expected to undergo incremental changes with added new requirements and modernization. The Corps is already working on the requirements for ACV 1.2, which will include a lethality upgrade for the amphibous vehicle. BAE's ACV vehicle will eventually replace the Corps' legacy amphibious vehicle, but through a phased approach. The Assault Amphibious Vehicle is currently undergoing survivability upgrades to keep the Cold War era vehicle ticking into 2035. BAE Systems and SAIC were both awarded roughly $100 million each in November 2015 to deliver 16 prototypes to the Marine Corps for evaluation in anticipation of a down select to one vendor in 2018. [BAE, SAIC Named as Finalists in Marines ACV Competition] All government testing of the prototypes concluded the first week of December 2017 and the Marine Corps issued its request for proposals the first week in January 2018. Operational tests also began concurrently. Government testing included land reliability testing, survivability and blast testing and water testing — both ship launch and recovery as well as surf transit. Operational evaluations included seven prototypes each from both SAIC and BAE Systems, six participated and one spare was kept for backup. BAE Systems' partnered with Italian company Iveco Defense Vehicles to build its ACV offering. [BAE Systems completes Amphibious Combat Vehicle shipboard testing] Some of the features BAE believed were particularly attractive for a new ACV is that it has space for 13 embarked Marines and a crew of three, which keeps the rifle squad together. The engine's strength is 690 horsepower over the old engine's 560 horsepower, and it runs extremely quietly. The vehicle has a V-shaped hull to protect against underbody blasts, and the seat structure is completely suspended. SAIC's vehicle, which was built in Charleston, South Carolina, offered improved traction through a central tire-inflation system to automatically increase or decrease tire pressure. It also had a V-hull certified during tests at the Nevada Automotive Test Center — where all prototypes were tested by the Marine Corps — and had blast-mitigating seats to protect occupants. The 3rd Assault Amphibian Battalion, 1st Marine Division out of Camp Pendleton, California, is expected to receive the first ACV 1.1 vehicles. https://www.defensenews.com/land/2018/06/19/bae-wins-marine-corps-contract-to-build-new-amphibious-combat-vehicle/