Milrem Robotics to Supply World’s Largest Combat UGV Order to the UAE Ministry of Defence

On the same subject

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  June 12, 2019 | International, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security, Other Defence

  Contract Awards by US Department of Defense - June 11, 2019

  DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY LB&B Associates Inc., Columbia, Maryland, has been awarded a maximum $37,018,357 modification (P0006) exercising the third one-year option period of a one-year base contract (SPE60016D0493) with four one-year option periods for transportation services. This is a firm-fixed-price contract. This was a competitive acquisition with five responses received. Locations of performance are Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, New Jersey, New York, Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas, Colorado, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah, Wyoming, Arizona, California, Nevada, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington, with a June 30, 2020, performance completion date. Using customer is Department of Defense. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2020 procurement and war-stopper funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Energy, Fort Belvoir, Virginia. Transaero Inc., Melville, New York, has been awarded a maximum $8,827,535 firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for a hydraulic manifold. 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 five-year contract with no option periods. Locations of performance are California and New York, with a June 5, 2024, performance completion date. Using military service is Army. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2019 through 2024 Army working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Land and Maritime, Warren, Michigan (SPRDL1-19-D-0127). ARMY General Dynamics Land Systems, Sterling Heights, Michigan, was awarded a $16,269,197 modification (P00082) to domestic and foreign military sales (Morocco) contract W56HZV-17-C-0067 to provide systems technical support for the Abrams family of vehicles. Work will be performed in Sterling Heights, Michigan, with an estimated completion date of June 30, 2020. Fiscal 2019 research, development, test and evaluation; Army working capital; foreign military sales; and other procurement, Army funds in the amount of $16,269,197 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Warren, Michigan, is the contracting activity. NAVY General Electric Co., Cincinnati, Ohio, is awarded $9,211,724 for firm-fixed priced delivery order N0002419F4127 under a previously awarded basic ordering agreement N00024-18-G-4113 for LM2500 Single Shank Hot Section Kits. The material procured under this delivery order will be used to replace worn out nozzles and blades during the repair process, thus extending the life of the engine. Work will be performed in Cincinnati, Ohio, and is expected to be completed by August 2020. Fiscal 2019 operations and maintenance (Navy) funding in the amount of $9,211,724 will be obligated at time of award and will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. In accordance with 10 U.S. Code 2304(c)(1), this order was not competitively procured -- only one responsible source and no other supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, District of Columbia, is the contracting activity. *Small business https://dod.defense.gov/News/Contracts/Contract-View/Article/1872748/source/GovDelivery/

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  November 10, 2020 | International, Aerospace

  US Army floats the option of fielding high-altitude balloons

  By: Jen Judson WASHINGTON — The U.S. Army is now carving out a path to field high-altitude balloons to provide an additional but less expensive layer of communications, connectivity, range extension and surveillance capabilities, adding resiliency to the service's existing architecture of space assets and aircraft supporting multidomain operations. Recent tests and experiments with high-altitude balloons at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico, left an impression on the head of the Army's Space and Missile Defense Command. “It's just phenomenal what we're able to do with high-altitude balloons,” Lt. Gen. Daniel Karbler told Defense News in an interview ahead of the Association of the U.S. Army's annual conference, which took place virtually Oct. 13-16. “I don't have the cost analysis but, in my mind, pennies on the dollar with respect to doing it. If I had to do it via a [low-Earth orbit] or some satellite constellation, what we are able to provide with high-altitude balloons, it's tactically responsive support to the war fighter,” he added. Karbler said he sees the balloons supporting the Army's Multidomain Task Force in the future. “Conceptually, with the types of missions that the Multidomain Task Force is working, the high-altitude balloons would be a key capability enabler,” Brent Fraser, concept development division chief at SMDC's Space and Missile Defense Center of Excellence, told Defense News in an Oct. 29 interview. “[The balloons would] be able to provide some beyond-line-of-sight capability, whether it's communications, extended distances, to be able to provide the ability to enable sensing of targets deep in the adversary's areas, to be able to reinforce and complement existing sensing systems other than the aerial layer as well as the space layer,” Fraser added. In terms of war games and experiments conducted with high-altitude balloons, “as we look at a number of emerging concepts and capabilities and formations,” he explained, “I think we still have a ways to go, but I think we're on a positive path to continue.” SMDC has been working on high-altitude balloons — basically dirigibles that can camp out roughly 60,000-90,000 feet in the air — for a long time, but recently the technology has improved, particularly through the commercial market. Google, for instance, used high-altitude balloons to help Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria to help establish internet connectivity. Duration is one of the areas that has greatly improved. High-altitude balloons can now stay aloft for weeks, if not months, rather than just hours or days. Users can also command and navigate the balloons better than before, and the platforms can more easily be recovered after missions. “The technology readiness levels have really come a long way,” Fraser said. SMDC has partnered with Army Futures Command to advance the technology, particularly involving the latter's Assured-Positioning, Navigation and Timing cross-functional Team as well as Training and Doctrine Command, the Army Intelligence Center, and cyber and special operations personnel. Several years ago, the Army developed a high-altitude concept that established a foundation on which to build, Col. Tim Dalton, Army capability manager for space and high altitude within the SMDC's center of excellence, said in the same interview. After integrating the concept into a variety of war games with Futures Command and other entities, the Army is starting to develop requirements. “We're in the initial stages of defining what those requirements would be,” Dalton said. “There's kind of two aspects to the high-altitude piece: the high-altitude platform, so it's the balloon, and then whatever it's carrying on there for a payload.” The Army has created initial documents for staffing through Futures Command, and over the next couple of years the service will run those requirements through the Joint Capabilities and Integration and Development System process, which will lead to review by the Army Requirements Oversight Council. The service is in the early stages of figuring out what a program of record would look like, but it has some options, Dalton said. “What we're kind of hoping to do over the next couple of years as part of our campaign of learning is to help define what that looks like and the best way to resource those requirements for the Army.” https://www.defensenews.com/digital-show-dailies/ausa/2020/11/09/us-army-floats-the-option-of-fielding-high-altitude-balloons/

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  September 29, 2021 | International, Aerospace

  SASC Frets DoD Missile Warning Satellite Efforts May Be Flailing

  The first Next-Gen OPIR satellites, designed to replace the current SBIRS missile warning constellation beginning in 2025, are likely to be delayed, says GAO in a new report.