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June 12, 2024 | International, Land

Minister Blair to visit Brussels, Belgium to strengthen support for Ukraine and meet with NATO counterparts

The Honourable Bill Blair, Minister of National Defence, will visit Brussels, Belgium from June 13 to 14, 2024. During his trip, the Minister will meet with Allies and partners to strengthen international support for Ukraine, bolster Euro-Atlantic security, and discuss Canada’s defence policy update, Our North, Strong and Free.

https://www.canada.ca/en/department-national-defence/news/2024/06/minister-blair-to-visit-brussels-belgium-to-strengthen-support-for-ukraine-and-meet-with-nato-counterparts.html

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  • Six things on the Pentagon’s 2019 acquisition reform checklist

    December 31, 2018 | International, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security

    Six things on the Pentagon’s 2019 acquisition reform checklist

    By: Aaron Mehta WASHINGTON — Under the purview of Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, reform has become a buzzword inside the Department of Defense, with every office trying to find ways to be more efficient, whether through cost savings or changes to bureaucracy. The department's Acquisition and Sustainment office, headed by Ellen Lord, manages billions of dollars in materiel; and by Lord's own belief, it is ripe for changes that could net the department big savings. On Dec. 17, Lord sat down with reporters and outlined a series of goals for 2019 that she hopes will help transform how the Pentagon buys equipment. Here, then, are six key items to watch for in the coming year. 1. Rework the department's key acquisition rules: The DoD Instruction 5000.02 is a key bedrock that forms the basis of how the defense acquisition system works, guiding acquisition professionals in their day-to-day program execution. And if Lord gets her way, she'll largely rip it up and start over. “In 2019, one of my key objectives is to rewrite 5000.02. We have, right now, this huge, complicated acquisition process that we encourage our acquisition professionals to tailor to their needs,” Lord said. “We are going to invert that approach and take a clean sheet of paper and write the absolute bare minimum to be compliant in 5000.02, and encourage program managers and contracting officers to add to that as they need for specific programs.” Lord envisions taking the massive, unwieldy 5000.02 guidance and getting it down to “a couple page outline of what you need to do,” with “simple” contract language and an easy-to-follow checklist “so that this isn't an onerous process.” “I'm encouraging what I call creative compliance. I want everyone to be compliant, but I want people to be very thoughtful and only use what they need,” she said. “This is literally starting with a clean sheet of paper, looking at the law and the intent, and working to vastly simplify this.” Andrew Hunter, a former Pentagon acquisition official now with the Center for International and Strategic Studies, notes that the instruction is supposed to be rewritten every five years to keep it fresh, and now is probably the right time to start looking into that. But, he added, “a lot of what she says she wants to do are things that sound very similar to my ear to what [Lord's predecessor] Frank Kendall was trying to do in the last rewrite. He tossed stuff out left and right, worked very hard to create the different models, put in extended discussions of different potential models of programs so that it would be obvious to people there's not one single way to do a program.” Hunter is cautious when it comes to a massive shift in the 5000.02 system. “If you literally tell the system, ‘All the rules are repealed, go do everything you want,' the reaction won't be a sudden flood of creativity that astounds you with the amazing talent at the department, even though there is a lot of talent there," he said. “What's more likely to happen is you have total paralysis because everyone is sitting around going: ‘Oh no, the rules are gone. How do we know what we can do? What do we do now?' But over time that might shake out.” If Congress needs to get involved, Lord said, she's prepared to go to Capitol Hill “because I know they are partnering with us and they want to make sure we do things in a simpler, most cost-effective manner.” 2. Intellectual property rules: A long-standing fight between the department and industry is over who should own the intellectual property used by the American military. Before fully taking on 5000.02, Lord hopes to write a departmentwide intellectual property policy. Lord pointed to the “very good job” done by the Army on creating an IP policy and said her goal is to build on that to create a standard across the DoD. “From an industry perspective, we are trying to be consistent across all the services and agencies, so that we don't have different requirements for similar needs,” Lord said. “So intellectual property is a good example. We'd like to have the same kind of contract language that can be tailored to individual needs, but basically have consistent language.” David Berteau, a former Pentagon official who is now the president and CEO of the Professional Services Council, noted it is hard to read the tea leaves for what Lord may be planning based on her public comments. But he pointed out the long-standing challenge for the Pentagon — that nearly 70 percent of all program costs are life-cycle sustainment and maintenance costs — as a sign that something needs to change so the department can avoid major issues in the future. Depending on how new rules are implemented, the use of IP might drive down costs — or, he warned, it might lead to companies unable to compete, forcing the Pentagon to pay more or be less prepared for challenges. Put plainly, Berteau said, “it's complicated.” He hopes Lord will begin interacting with industry on this issue in ways similar to the current “listening tour” on changes to progress payments. 3. Better software development: It's become almost cliché that the department needs to do better at developing software, but in this case it's a cliché that experts, including Lord, agree with. The Defense Innovation Board, a group of tech experts from outside the department, is working on a series of studies on software, including one focused on how to drive agile development techniques inside the building. Lord said to expect that report before the end of March, adding: “I think that will be important in terms of capturing a road map forward on how to do this correctly.” 4. Increase use of OTAs: In 2018, Lord's office released a handbook on when and how to use other transaction authorities — legal standards designed to speed acquisition that critics say are underutilized by the department. Lord called it “sort of a warmup” for creating more useful handbooks for the acquisition community, but said that the goal for 2019 is to get people to correctly employ OTAs. “Usually they should be used when you don't have a clear requirement. So, true prototyping when you don't know what you're going to get,” Lord said. “Prototyping early on, probably before you get to the middle-tier acquisition.” 5. Greater use of prototyping: Speaking of which, Lord said the department has about 10 projects underway for rapid prototyping at the mid-tier level, with the goal of growing to about 50 in the next year. The goal is to take the systems into the field, test them out and then grow the next iteration of the capability based on what is learned. “We're taking systems that are commercially available and perhaps need a little modification, or defense systems that need a modicum of modification to make them appropriate for the war fighter,” Lord said. “That's one of the authorities we are very appreciative for, and we will continue to refine the policy. I signed out very broad policy on that this year. We'll write the detailed policy coming up early next year.” 6. Making the Selected Acquisition Reports public again: Until recently, the department publicly released annual Selected Acquisition Reports for each of the major defense programs. Those reports can inform the public of where programs stand and the costs associated. However, under the Trump administration, those reports have been largely classified as “For Official Use Only,” or FOUO, a higher level of security. Critics, including incoming House Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam Smith, D-Wash., have argued there is no need for those once-public reports to be listed as FOUO. It appears Lord is working to open those back up. “We're going to try to minimize the FOUO on that,” Lord said in response to a question about it. “There are certain information [issues] that we have to protect, but [we] understand the need, the requirement, and I will put our guidance to make everything open to the public to the degree we can.” https://www.defensenews.com/pentagon/2018/12/27/six-things-on-the-pentagons-2019-acquisition-reform-checklist/

  • Germany enhances TAURUS missile system with upgrade agreement

    December 26, 2024 | International, Aerospace

    Germany enhances TAURUS missile system with upgrade agreement

    The German Armed Forces, the Bundeswehr, have entered into an agreement with TAURUS Systems for the upkeep and enhancement of the TAURUS stand-off missile system.

  • Contract Awards by US Department of Defense - November 05, 2019

    November 6, 2019 | International, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security

    Contract Awards by US Department of Defense - November 05, 2019

    DEFENSE INTELLIGENCE AGENCY Dynetics Inc., Hunstville, Alabama (HHM402-19-D-0023), was awarded a five-year base with possible five-year option, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract with a ceiling value of $737,992,267. This contract will provide support services for the Missile and Space Intelligence Center. Work will be performed at Redstone Arsenal and Huntsville, Alabama, with an expected completion date of Oct. 31, 2029. The contract was awarded through a full and open solicitation, and one offer was received. The Virginia Contracting Activity, Washington, District of Columbia, is the contracting activity. DEFENSE COUNTERINTELLIGENCE AND SECURITY AGENCY METIS/Celestar JV, Tampa, Florida, was awarded a $100,000,000 single award, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency (DCSA). The contract provides administrative support services to support DCSA. Work locations under this contract will be determined at the individual task order level. Most work will be performed at DCSA Headquarters at the Russell-Knox Building, Quantico, Virginia, and at various DCSA field offices as directed. No funds will be obligated on the base contract award. Due to a small business size protest on Sept. 24, 2019, fiscal 2019 operations and maintenance funds in the amount of $3,200,000 are being obligated on the first task order within the next two days. The anticipated delivery schedule includes a five year base period. The request for proposal was posted on the Federal Business Opportunities website on June 27, 2019. Forty proposals were received. The DCSA Contracting Office, Quantico, Virginia, is the contracting activity (HS0021-20-D-0002). AIR FORCE Mission Essential Personnel LLC, New Albany, Ohio, has been awarded a $95,000,000 indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for advisory and assistance services. This contract provides for technical and analytical services to support and improve policy development, decision making, management, administration and systems operation. Work will be performed primarily at Headquarters U.S. Air Forces in Europe (USAFE); USAFE bases; USAFE geographically separated units; U.S. European Command; U.S. Africa Command; and U.S. Army in Europe, including Installation Management Command, and is expected to be completed by Sept. 12, 2026. This contract is the result of a competitive acquisition, and 11 offers were received. Fiscal 2020 operations and maintenance funds in the amount of $2,500 are being obligated at the time of the award. The 764th Specialized Contracting Squadron, Ramstein Air Base, Germany, is the contracting activity (FA5641-20-D-0001). NAVY CH2M Hill Constructors Inc., Englewood, Colorado (N62470-13-D-6019); Environmental Chemical Corp., Burlingame, California (N62470-13-D-6020); Kellogg, Brown, & Root Services Inc., Arlington, Virginia (N62470-13-D-6021); and URS Group Inc., Morrisville, North Carolina (N62470-13-D-6022), are being awarded an $80,000,000 modification to increase the maximum dollar value of an indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity, multiple award contract for global contingency construction projects worldwide. The work to be performed provides for the Navy, the Navy on behalf of the Department of Defense, and the Navy on behalf of other federal agencies when authorized, an immediate response for construction services. The construction and related engineering services would respond to natural disasters, humanitarian assistance, conflict or projects with similar characteristics. Work will be predominately construction. The contractor, in support of the construction effort, may be required to provide initial base operating support services, which will be incidental to construction efforts. After award of this modification, the total cumulative contract value will be $966,000,000, raising the contract value from $886,000,000. The contract completion date was May 2019. No funds will be obligated at time of award; funds will be obligated on subsequent modifications for work on existing individual task orders. Naval Facilities Engineering Command Atlantic, Norfolk, Virginia, is the contracting activity. Jacobs-Ewingcole JV, Pasadena, California, is awarded a $15,313,983 firm-fixed-price modification to increase the maximum dollar value of task order N62473-19-F-4996 under an architect-engineer indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for China Lake Conceptual Master Planning Site Payout and Development at Naval Air Weapons Station (NAWS) China Lake. The work to be performed is to provide design and engineering services in support of the NAWS China Lake earthquake restoration program. Work will include project definitions for the following: air operations facility and air traffic control tower, Michelson Mission Systems Integration Laboratory, magazines and inert storage facility, aircraft rescue and fire-fighting (ARFF) station and community support facilities. Additionally, work will include design build request for proposal development for the following: Hangar 3 replacement, apron, taxiway and utilities, the integration lab, air operations facility and air traffic control tower, the Michelson Mission Systems Integration Laboratory, aircraft parking apron in support of Hangar 2 replacement, the advanced weapons hangar, magazines and inert storage facility, ARFF station and the community support facilities. The contractor shall provide all labor, supervision, engineering, materials, equipment, tools, parts, supplies and transportation to perform all work described in the request for proposal. After award of this modification, the total cumulative task order value will be $21,822,789. Work will be performed in San Diego, California, and is expected to be completed by September 2021. Fiscal 2020 military construction, (Navy) contract funds for $15,313,983 will be obligated on this award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Southwest, San Diego, California, is the contracting activity (N62473-18-D-5801). ARMY Chinook Systems Inc.,* Arlington, Virginia (W912DY-20-D-0008); Exp Federal, Chicago, Illinois (W912DY-20-D-0009); Shearer and Associates,* Huntsville, Alabama (W912DY-20-D-0010); and HDR Engineering, Omaha, Nebraska (W912DY-20-D-0011), will compete for each order of the $49,000,000 firm-fixed-price contract for architectural and engineering services for cyber in support of the various divisions and programs. Bids were solicited via the internet with six received. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of Nov. 18, 2024. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Huntsville, Alabama, is the contracting activity. The Ross Group Construction Corp., Tulsa, Oklahoma, was awarded a $35,042,773 firm-fixed-price contract for construction, repairs, new roofing system, metal wall panel repair, demolition and deconstruction of existing materials and renovations of office space, conference rooms, server rooms, a dock and receiving area and information technology-related activities. Bids were solicited via the internet with four received. Work will be performed in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, with an estimated completion date of Oct. 31, 2021. Fiscal 2019 research, development, test and evaluation funds in the amount of $35,042,773 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Tulsa, Oklahoma, is the contracting activity (W912BV-20-C-0001). J.F. Brennan Company Inc., La Crosse, Wisconsin, was awarded a $12,828,650 firm-fixed-price contract for construction and installation of lock chamber bulkhead recesses. Bids were solicited via the internet with two received. Work will be performed in Morris, Illinois, with an estimated completion date of Dec. 20, 2020. Fiscal 2020 civil construction funds in the amount of $12,828,650 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Rock Island Arsenal, Illinois, is the contracting activity (W912EK-20-C-0011). DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY Biomet 3I LLC, Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, has been awarded a maximum $49,000,000 fixed-price with economic-price-adjustment, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for dental equipment and accessories for the Defense Logistics Agency Electronic Catalog. This was a competitive acquisition with 100 responses received. This is a five-year contract with no option periods. Location of performance is Florida, with a Nov. 4, 2024, performance completion date. Using military services are Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2019 through 2024 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (SPE2DH-20-D-0021) Aptiv Services 3 US LLC, Irvine, California, has been awarded a maximum $28,370,372 firm-fixed-price, indefinite-quantity contract for F-15 aircraft electrical special purpose cable assemblies. 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. Location of performance is California, with a Nov. 5, 2024, performance completion date. Using military service is Air Force. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2020 through 2024 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Aviation, Richmond, Virginia (SPE4A6-20-D-0016). *Small Business https://www.defense.gov/Newsroom/Contracts/Contract/Article/2009294/source/GovDelivery/

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