Kaman unveils medium-lift UAV to resupply distributed Marine Corps forces

On the same subject

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  April 24, 2018 | International, Naval

  3-D printer keeps F-35B flying during USS Wasp deployment

  MARINE CORPS AIR STATION IWAKUNI, Japan — State-of-the-art parts fabrication is keeping America's most advanced stealth fighter in the air during its first deployment aboard the USS Wasp. When a plastic bumper for a landing-gear door wore out this month on an F-35B Lightning II embarked on the amphibious assault ship, a 3-D printer was used to whip up a new one. The Iwakuni-based jet from Fighter Attack Squadron 121 later flew successfully with the new part, a Marine statement said. Called “additive manufacturing,” the process from Naval Air Systems Command allowed the Marines of Combat Logistics Battalion 31 to create the new bumper and get it approved for use within days, the statement said. Otherwise, they would have had to replace the entire door assembly, which is expensive and time consuming. “While afloat, our motto is ‘fix it forward,'” Chief Warrant Officer 2 Daniel Rodriguez, CLB-31's maintenance officer, said in the statement. “3-D printing is a great tool to make that happen.” The Navy said parts created using the 3-D printer are only a temporary fix, but it kept the jet from being grounded while waiting for a replacement from the United States. Lt. Col Richard Rusnok, commander of VMFA-121, lauded the use of the new technology. “Although our supply personnel and logisticians do an outstanding job getting us parts, being able to rapidly make our own parts is a huge advantage as it cuts down our footprint thus making us more agile in a shipboard or expeditionary environment,” he said in the statement. Marine Sgt. Adrian Willis, a computer and telephone technician who created the bumper, said he was thrilled to be involved in the process. “I think 3-D printing is definitely the future — it's absolutely the direction the Marine Corps needs to be going,” he said in the statement. The printer has been used multiple times during the patrol, the Navy said, including to create a lens cap for a camera on a small, unmanned ground vehicle used by an explosive ordnance disposal team. Templates for the parts will be uploaded to a Marine Corps-wide 3-D printing database to make them accessible to other units. bolinger.james@stripes.com Twitter: @bolingerj2004 https://www.stripes.com/news/3-d-printer-keeps-f-35b-flying-during-uss-wasp-deployment-1.522987

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  August 24, 2018 | International, Aerospace

  Two French defense heavyweights scoop up Dolphin chip designer

  By: Pierre Tran PARIS — European missile company MBDA and microchip maker Soitec said Aug. 21 they are acquiring Dolphin Integration, a design firm for low-power chips which has fallen into receivership. The two companies will buy through a joint venture the chip maker, which filed for insolvency July 24. Dolphin Integration has designed chips which are “indispensable” for certain highly classified sectors, including the French nuclear deterrent, a defense source said. MBDA will acquire 40 percent, while Soitec will own 60 percent. MBDA and Soitec will pay a total of some €6 million (U.S. $7 million) to acquire most assets of Dolphin Integration, pay some of the liabilities and inject a significant amount of cash to meet working capital requirements, the companies said. Further details of how the acquisition amount will be shared were not immediately available. All the business and staff will be kept on, but the sale price will not cover all amounts owed to creditors, Dolphin Integration said in an Aug. 21 statement. MBDA is a strategic customer of Dolphin Integration for defense applications since 2004, the missile company said. The acquisition will strengthen its industrial collaboration and long-term commercial pipeline for application specific integrated circuit and system-on-chip products, the company added. “With the support of MBDA, Dolphin Integration will be able to advance its positions in aerospace and defense design,” the missile company said. Other key clients include Airbus Defence & Space, Safran and Thales, besides MBDA, the defense source said. Soitec specializes in chips drawing on fully depleted silicon-on-insulator (FD-SOI) technology, running on low power and at high speed. The acquisition can be seen as an “offensive” move by securing a market upstream for FD-SOI, while MBDA takes a "defensive " step by protecting a strategic supplier, the defense source said. Soitec played an active role in an industry group which lobbied the Elysée president's office to support a European Project of Common Interest, the source said. Such projects are backed by the European Commission for cross-border work on infrastructure and energy. Soitec will seek to strengthen Dolphin Integration in the semiconductor market, to develop and promote products and services in strategic sectors such as mobile devices and infrastructure, data centers, and space and industrial applications, the chip specialist said. Dolphin Integration had annual sales of €17 million for the year to March 31, 2018 and employs 155 staff, of which 130 are design engineers. The company is based in Grenoble. MBDA's interest in semiconductors has sharpened since the U.S. blocked the sale of American chips for the Scalp cruise missile sought by Egypt to arm its fleet of Rafale fighter jets. https://www.defensenews.com/global/europe/2018/08/23/two-french-defense-heavyweights-scoop-up-dophin-chip-maker

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

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

  NAVY DLT Solutions LLC, Herndon, Virginia, is being awarded a multiple-award, firm-fixed-price Department of Defense (DoD) Enterprise Software Initiative (ESI) blanket purchase agreement (BPA) in accordance with the firms General Services Administration (GSA) Federal Supply Schedule contracts. The agreement is part of a multi-reseller/multi-software publisher software category management award for commercial-off-the-shelf software; information technology asset management software; software maintenance support; information technology professional services; and related services in support of DoD ESI and under the direction of Office of Management and Budget, Enterprise Software Category. The software publishers are: Appdynamics, Archibus, Cloudbees, Flexera and Polyverse. The BPA provides for purchase of these products and services by the DoD, U.S. intelligence community and the Coast Guard. The overall estimated value of this BPA category is $820,450,000. The ordering period will be for a maximum of 10 years from July 12, 2019, through July 11, 2029. This BPA is issued under DoD ESI in accordance with the policy and guidelines in the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement, Section 208.74. This BPA will not obligate funds at the time of award. Funds will be obligated as task orders using operations and maintenance DoD funds. Requirements will be competed among the awardees in accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulation 8.403-3(c)(2), and the successful contractor will receive firm fixed-price orders. This BPA was competitively procured via the GSA E-Buy web site among 679 vendors. Four offers were received and four were selected for award. Naval Information Warfare Center, Pacific, is the contracting activity (N66001-19-A-0045). Air New Zealand Gas Turbines, Auckland, New Zealand (N64498-19-D-4028); and MTU Maintenance Brandenburg-Berlin, Ludwigsburg, Germany (N64498-19-D-4029), were both awarded a $70,000,000 indefinite-delivery/indefinite quantity, firm-fixed-priced contract for the commercial depot-level overhaul of up to 24 L0M2500 paired blade turbine gas generators. The Naval Surface Warfare Center, Philadelphia Division, requires the commercial depot level overhaul of Navy, Coast Guard, Military Sealift Command and Foreign Military Navy LM2500 paired blade turbine gas generators, National Stock Number 2S 2835-01-032-9125. The two contractors may compete for task orders under the terms and conditions of the awarded contracts. Work under the Air New Zealand Gas Turbines contract will be completed at the contractor's facilities in Auckland, New Zealand, and is expected to be completed by June 2023. Work under the MTU Maintenance Brandenburg-Berlin contract will be completed at the contractor's facilities in Ludwigsfelde, Germany, and is expected to be completed by June 2023. Fiscal 2019 operations and maintenance (Navy) funding in the total amount of $5,740,811 will be obligated at time of award and will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was competitively procured via the Federal Business Opportunities website with three offers received. The Naval Surface Warfare Center, Philadelphia Division, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is the contracting activity. (Awarded July 10, 2019) C&C Power Solutions LLC,* Columbus, Georgia, is being awarded a $65,000,000 indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity, firm-fixed-price contract to procure, renovate, repower, overhaul and/or repair different power systems within its fleet of power equipment services at Naval Facilities Engineering Command Engineering and Expeditionary Warfare Center (EXWC) Mobile Utilities Support Equipment (MUSE). Initial seed task order is being awarded at $2,559,924 for a four, 900-kilowatt generator package at EXWC MUSE Port Hueneme, California. Work for this task order is expected to be completed by July 2020. All work on this contract will be performed in Port Hueneme, California, and is expected to be completed by July 2025. Fiscal 2019 other procurement, Navy (OP, N) contract funds in the amount of $2,559,924 are obligated on this award and will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Future task orders will be primarily funded by OP, N. This contract was competitively procured via the Navy Electronic Commerce Online website and Federal Business Opportunities website with five proposals received. The EXWC Acquisitions Department, Port Hueneme, California, is the contracting activity (N39430-19-D-2124). Palantir Technologies, Palo Alto, California, is being awarded a $27,640,000 fixed-price blanket purchase agreement under the Department of Defense (DoD) Enterprise Software Initiative to provide commercial-off-the-shelf hardware, software and services for DoD, the Intelligence community and the Coast Guard. This one-year agreement includes four, one-year option periods, which if exercised, would bring the potential value of this agreement to an estimated $143,800,000 million. The ordering period of the base agreement will be from July 12, 2019, through July 11, 2020. If all options are exercised, the ordering period will extend through July 11, 2024. No funds will be obligated at the time of award. Funds will be obligated at the delivery order level using operations and maintenance (DoD) funds. This agreement was non-competitively procured with a brand name justification in accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulation 8.405-6 via a limited source solicitation and publication on the General Services Administration eBuy web site. Naval Information Warfare Center, Pacific, is the contracting activity (N66001-19-A-0044). Mercury Defense Systems Inc., Cypress, California, is being awarded a $22,901,395 cost-plus-fixed-fee, cost reimbursable order (N00421-19-F-6104) against a previously issued basic ordering agreement (N00421-17-G-0001). This order provides for the development, integration, delivery and test of the Radar Air-to-Ground Environment in support of the Integrated Battlespace Simulation and Test Air Combat Environment Test and Evaluation Facility. Work will be performed in Cypress, California (80%); Patuxent River, Maryland (10%); and Edwards Air Force Base, California (10%), and is expected to be completed in July 2022. Fiscal 2019 research, development, test and evaluation (Navy) funds in the amount of $300,000 will be obligated at time of award, none of which will expire at the end of the fiscal year. The Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity. Frontier Technology Inc., Beavercreek, Ohio, is being awarded a $13,236,204 cost-plus-fixed-fee task order (N63394-19-F-0041) under previously awarded indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract N63394-17-D-0003 for providing enterprise product life cycle management integrated decision environment services. Work will be performed in Washington, District of Columbia (80%); and Chesapeake, Virginia (20%), and is expected to be completed by September 2020. Fiscal 2012 shipbuilding and conversion (Navy); fiscal 2019 operations and maintenance (Navy); and fiscal 2019 research, development, test and evaluation (other defense agencies) funding in the amount of $6,722,842 will be obligated at time of award, and $6,122,842 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This task order was not competitively procured. In accordance with 10 U.S. Code 2304(c)(1), this contract was not competitively procured (only one responsible source and no other supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements). The services under this contract cover software development and installation, software configuration management and technical support, software solutions and training. These services are in support of the Affordable System Operation Effectiveness (ASOE) initiatives across the Department of Defense. The Naval Surface Warfare Center, Port Hueneme Division, Port Hueneme, California, is the contracting activity. IAP Worldwide Services Inc., Cape Canaveral, Florida, is being awarded a $10,870,239 indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity (IDIQ) modification for the exercise of the first option period under an IDIQ contract for base operations services at Naval Support Activity, Annapolis, Maryland. The work to be performed provides for all management, supervision, labor hours, training, equipment and supplies necessary to perform base operating services to include but not be limited to facility investment, service calls, pest control, operation of utility plants, refuse collection, special events and snow and ice removal. After award of this option, the total cumulative contract value will be $31,751,865. Work will be performed in Annapolis, Maryland, and the option period is from August 2019 to November 2019. No funds will be obligated at time of award. Fiscal 2019 operation and maintenance (Navy); and fiscal 2019 Navy working capital funds in the amount of $7,274,602 for recurring work will be obligated on individual task orders issued during the contract period. Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Washington, District of Columbia, is the contracting activity (N40080-18-D-0500). Schuyler Line Navigation Co. (SLNC),* Annapolis, Maryland, is being awarded a $10,595,700 (fixed-price for firm period) firm-fixed-price contract with reimbursable elements, for employment in worldwide trade for the transportation and/or prepositioning of cargo by the shallow draft tanker MT SLNC Pax. This contract includes a one-year base period with three one-year option periods and an 11-month option period, which, if exercised, would bring the cumulative value of this contract to $51,435,950. Work will be performed in the Western Pacific Ocean (intentions Japan or Korea), and is expected to be completed, if all options are exercised, by Oct. 29, 2024. Fiscal 2019 transportation working capital funds in the amount of $1,765,950 are being obligated at time of award and none of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Transportation working capital funds will be obligated in fiscal 2020 and will not expire at the end of fiscal 2020. This contract was a small business set-aside with more than 50 companies solicited via the Federal Business Opportunities website and three offers received. The Navy's Military Sealift Command, Norfolk, Virginia, is the contracting activity (N32205-19-R-3504). Paradromics Inc.,* Austin, Texas, is being awarded a contract option in the amount of $8,275,758 from a previously awarded cost type of contract. Support includes development of a neural interface system capable of performing continuous, simultaneous full-duplex (read and write) interaction with at least one thousand neurons in regions of the human sensory cortex. This option builds on the designs and prototypes developed from the base award, and provides in vivo animal testing and human studies. This option has a one-year period of performance from July 12, 2019, through July 11, 2020. Work will be performed at the contractor's facilities in Austin, Texas. The option will be incrementally funded at the time of award in the amount of $3,000,000. The original contract was competitively procured via Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) 16-09 “Neural Engineering System Design (NESD).” Forty-one offers were received and six were selected for award. Naval Information Warfare Center, Pacific, is the contracting activity (N66001-17-C-4005). AIR FORCE Sossec Inc., has been awarded a $355,000,000 ceiling increase modification (P0030) to previously awarded firm-fixed-price agreement FA8626-17-9-1000 for the propulsion consortium initiative. Work will be performed at Atkinson, New Hampshire, and is expected to be completed by July 31, 2024. No funds are being obligated at the time of award. The Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, Propulsion Acquisition Directorate, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, is the contracting activity. Textron Defense Systems, Wilmington, Massachusetts, has been awarded a $51,263,809 firm-fixed-price contract modification (P00012) to previously awarded contract FA8204-14-C-0011 for the Minuteman III Intercontinental Ballistic Missile weapon system multiprobe antenna procurement. Work will be performed at Wilmington, Massachusetts, and is expected to be completed by July 13, 2029. Fiscal 2019 procurement funds in the amount of $4,645,109 are being obligated at the time of award. The Air Force Nuclear Weapon Center, Hill Air Force Base, Layton, Utah, is the contract activity. ARMY The Boeing Co., Mesa, Arizona, was awarded a $96,873,221 modification (P00024) to foreign military sales (United Arab Emirates) contract W58RGZ-16-C-0023 for Apache aircraft integrated logistics support, product assurance and Longbow Crew Trainers. Work will be performed in Mesa, Arizona, with an estimated completion date of Dec. 31, 2024. Fiscal 2010 Foreign Military Sales funds in the amount of $96,873,221 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, is the contracting activity. DynCorp International LLC, Fort Worth, Texas, was awarded a $29,311,547 modification (P00251) to domestic and foreign military sales (Slovakia) contract W58RGZ-13-C-0040 for the aviation field maintenance services contract. Work will be performed in Afghanistan, Honduras and Germany, with an estimated completion date of Sept. 30, 2019. Fiscal 2010 and 2019 operations and maintenance, Army; and Foreign Military Sales funds in the combined amount of $29,311,547 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, is the contracting activity. Joint Research and Development Inc.,* Stafford, Virginia, was awarded a $25,000,000 hybrid (cost-no-fee, cost-plus-fixed-fee and firms-fixed-price) contract for operations, research and technology and program and integration support for the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command, Chemical Biological Center's Chemical Biological Applications and Risk Reductions business unit. 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 14, 2024. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, is the contracting activity (W911SR-19-D-0008). BAE Systems Ordnance Systems Inc., Radford, Virginia, was awarded a $17,789,259 firm-fixed-price contract to upgrade and rehabilitate the water intake pumps at Radford Army Ammunition Plant. One bid was solicited with one bid received. Work will be performed in Radford, Virginia, with an estimated completion date of Aug. 31, 2021. Fiscal 2019 procurement of ammunition, Army funds in the amount of $17,789,259 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Rock Island Arsenal, Illinois, is the contracting activity (W52P1J-11-G-0002). DEFENSE INFORMATION SYSTEMS AGENCY SES Government Solutions Inc., Reston, Virginia, was awarded a firm-fixed-price task order against the competitive single award blanket purchase agreement (BPA) from General Services Administration's Information Technology Schedule 70 contract for commercial satellite communication services, HC1013-18-A-0002, which was awarded April 13, 2018. The face value of this task order is $7,151,397, funded by fiscal 2019 operations and maintenance funds. The total cumulative face value of the BPA is $516,700,000 (contract ceiling). Performance will be centralized to the U.S. Central Command, with the BPA representing worldwide coverage. The task order period of performance is four years, consisting of a 12-month base period of July 15, 2019, through July 14, 2020, and three 12-month option periods. The Defense Information Technology Contracting Organization, Scott Air Force Base, Illinois, is the contracting activity (GS-35F-0328V/HC1013-18-A-0002, HC1013-19-F-0119). *Small business https://dod.defense.gov/News/Contracts/Contract-View/Article/1903937/source/GovDelivery/