New in 2019: Here’s what the Air Force is doing about aviation mishaps

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

  Contract Awards by US Department of Defense - March 7, 2019

  DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY Tactical & Survival Specialties,* Harrisonburg, Virginia (SPE8EJ-19-D-0001); W.S. Darley & Co.,* Itasca, Illinois (SPE8EJ-19-D-0002); Atlantic Diving Supply Inc.,* doing business as ADS, Virginia Beach, Virginia (SPE8EJ-19-D-0003); Federal Resources Supply Co.,* Stevensville, Maryland (SPE8EJ-19-D-0004); Unifire Inc.,* Spokane, Washington (SPE8EJ-19-D-0005); and Quantico Tactical,* Aberdeen, North Carolina (SPE8EJ-19-D-0006), are sharing a maximum $4,000,000,000 bridge contract under solicitation SPM8EJ-13-R-0001 for special operations equipment. These are firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity, 365-day bridge contracts. These were sole-source acquisitions using justification 10 U.S. Code 2304 (c)(1), as stated in Federal Acquisition Regulation 6.302-1. Locations of performance are Virginia, Illinois, Maryland, Washington and North Carolina, with a March 6, 2020, performance completion date. Using military services are Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps and Coast Guard. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2019 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. NAVY Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems, Northridge, California, is awarded a $322,504,595 cost-plus-incentive-fee contract to provide for the engineering and manufacturing development (EMD) of the AGM-88G, Advanced Anti-Radiation Guided Missile – Extended Range (AARGM-ER). The EMD effort includes the design, integration and test of a new solid rocket motor for the AARGM-ER for use on the F/A-18E/F, EA-18G and F-35A/C aircraft platforms. Work will be performed in Northridge, California (98 percent); and Ridgecrest, California (2 percent), and is expected to be completed in December 2023. Fiscal 2019 research, development, test and evaluation (Navy) funds in the amount of $55,087,929 will be obligated at time of award, none of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was not competitively procured pursuant Federal Acquisition Regulation 6.302-1. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity (N00019-19-C-0050). Harris Corp., Clifton, New Jersey, is being awarded $43,263,695 for modification P00013 to a previously awarded firm-fixed-price contract (N00019-17-C-0090). This modification is for the procurement of additional full-rate production Lot 16 Integrated Defensive Electronic Countermeasures AN/ALQ-214 A(V)4/5 Onboard Jammer systems for the F/A-18 E/F aircraft for the government of Kuwait under the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program. Work will be performed in Clifton, New Jersey (59 percent); San Jose, California (14 percent); San Diego, California (7 percent); Rancho Cordova, California (5 percent), Mountain View, California (3 percent); and various locations throughout the continental U.S. (12 percent), and is expected to be completed in August 2022. FMS funds in the amount of $43,263,695 are being obligated at time of award, none of which expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity. Lockheed Martin Corp., Owego, New York, is awarded a $23,882,121 cost-plus-fixed-fee, cost-reimbursable indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract. This contract provides engineering, logistics, tooling management support and technical data services for sustainment, operation, maintenance, and training in support of all domestic and foreign H-60 variants. Work will be performed at Owego, New York (55 percent); and Stratford, Connecticut (45 percent), and is expected to be completed in March 2024. No funds will be obligated at the time of award. Funds will be obligated on individual orders as they are issued. This contract was not competitively procured pursuant to Federal Acquisition Regulation 6.302-1. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity (N00019-19-D-0001). Lockheed Martin Rotary and Mission Systems, Manassas, Virginia, was awarded a $20,889,135 cost-plus-incentive-fee, cost-only modification to previously-awarded contract N00024-18-C-5218 to exercise an option and provide incremental funding in support of the continued development, integration and production of the Navy's AN/SQQ-89A(V)15 Surface Ship Undersea Warfare System. The AN/SQQ-89A(V)15 is the Surface Ship Undersea Warfare combat system, with the capability to search, detect, classify, localize and track undersea contacts, and to engage and evade submarines, mine-like small objects and torpedo threats. The contract is for development, integration and production of future advanced capability build and technical insertion baselines. Work will be performed in Manassas, Virginia (83 percent); Lemont Furnace, Pennsylvania (10 percent); Syracuse, New York (6 percent); and Hauppauge, New York (1 percent), and is expected to be completed by March 2020. Fiscal 2014, 2016, 2018 and 2019 shipbuilding and conversion (Navy); fiscal 2019 research, development, test and evaluation (Navy); and foreign military sales (Australia) funding in the amount of $20,889,135 will be obligated at time of award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, District of Columbia, is the contracting activity. (Awarded March 6, 2019) Gravois Aluminum Boats LLC, doing business as Metal Shark,* Jeanerette, Louisiana, is awarded a $20,628,477 delivery order to previously awarded, indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity, firm-fixed price contract N00024-17-D-2209 for 12, 40-foot patrol boats, complete with basic boat equipment, shipping, long term preservation, boat familiarization, and crew original equipment manufacturer and waterjet training. Work under this delivery order will be performed in Jeanerette, Louisiana, and is expected to be complete by August 2022. Fiscal 2019 other procurement (Navy) (Overseas Contingency Operations); and fiscal 2019 other procurement (Navy) funding in the amount of $20,628,477 will be obligated at time of award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, District of Columbia, is the contracting activity. B.L. Harbert, Birmingham, Alabama, is awarded a $20,599,777 firm-fixed-price contract for construction of a combat vehicle warehouse at Marine Corps Logistics Base Albany, Georgia. The work to be performed provides a dehumidified warehouse for the storage of ground weapon system principal end items and associated collateral material. The structure will have a low profile sloped roof to minimize the volume of interior space to be dehumidified. The structure will be supported on a shallow foundation with a reinforced concrete slab on grade. Work will be performed in Albany, Georgia, and is expected to be completed by May 2021. Fiscal 2018 military construction (Navy) contract funds in the amount of $20,599,777 are obligated on this award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was competitively procured via the Navy Electronic Commerce Online website, with three proposals received. The Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Mid-Atlantic, Norfolk, Virginia, is the contracting activity (N40085-19-C-9126). G-W Management Services LLC,* Rockville, Maryland, is awarded a $19,754,000 firm-fixed-price contract for the improvement of Fuller Road at Marine Corps Base Quantico. The work includes the reconstruction, widening and minor realignment of existing Fuller Road from each of U.S. Route 1 to Mason Drive, and new entry control facility/access control point with entrance security building(s). The security facilities include new gate house, two sentry houses, inspection shelters, a canopy structure, and personnel weather shelters. The work includes: forest clearing, demolition and removals, grading, retaining walls, utility relocations, site utilities (storm drain, sanitary sewer, telecom, and power), buildings structures, vehicle inspection canopy, active vehicle barrier, and incidental related work. Work will be performed in Quantico, Virginia, and is expected to be completed by November 2020. Fiscal 2018 military construction (Navy) contract funds in the amount of $19,754,000 are obligated on this award and will expire on March 8, 2019. This contract was competitively procured via the Navy Electronic Commerce Online website with five proposals received. The Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Washington, Washington, District of Columbia, is the contracting activity (N40080-19-C-0010). ARMY Accurate Energetic Systems LLC,* McEwen, Tennessee (W52P1J-19-D-0028); and Spectra Technologies LLC,* East Camden, Arkansas (W52P1J-19-D-0029), will compete for each order of the $45,000,000 firm-fixed-price contract for Trinitrotoluene and plastic bonded explosive N-9. Bids were solicited via the internet with four received. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of March 6, 2024. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Rock Island Arsenal, Illinois, is the contracting activity. Tribalco LLC,* Bethesda, Maryland, was awarded a $12,043,813 modification (P00010) to contract W912DY-16-D-0021 for radio systems and services. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of March 12, 2020. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Huntsville, Alabama, is the contracting activity. Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Co., Oak Brook, Illinois, was awarded a $10,610,812 modification (P00016) to contract W912BU-15-C-0054 for dredging and rock removal. Work will be performed in Chester, Pennsylvania, with an estimated completion date of March 15, 2019. Fiscal 2019 operations and maintenance Army funds in the amount of $10,610,812 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is the contracting activity. UNIFORMED SERVICES UNIVERSITY OF THE HEALTH SCIENCES Angayut LLC, Arlington, Virginia, has been awarded a firm-fixed-price, indefinite-quantity/indefinite-delivery contract (HU000119D0001) with a minimum award amount of $100,000 and a maximum ceiling/face value of $20,000,000 for professional, scientific, and administrative support services. Performance will occur in Bethesda, Maryland; and San Antonio, Texas, from March 5, 2019, to March 4, 2024. The contract does not include options. Angayut is an 8(a) Alaskan Native Corporation in the SBA's 8(a) Business Development Program. Operations and maintenance funds will be applied at the task order level. In accordance with Section 8(a) of the Small Business Act (15 U.S. Code 637(a)(1)) and the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Part 19.8, and the executed partnership agreement between the Small Business Administration (SBA) and the Department of Defense. Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Bethesda, Maryland, is the contracting activity. (Awarded March 5, 2019) DEFENSE HEALTH AGENCY QBase LLC, Reston, Virginia (HT0015-19-F-0036), was awarded a firm-fixed-price $7,546,347 contract for non-personal information technology (IT) services in support of the Defense Health Agency (DHA), Health Information Technology (HIT), Infrastructure and Operations Division (I&O), Enterprise Systems Branch. These support services include virtual and physical server administration; database administration; IT system patching and mitigation of system vulnerabilities; application deployment, data at rest; technical writing; security scanning; Tiers 2 and 3 system administration services; operating system deployments; backup and storage services; and network and application vulnerability scanning. The award was made as a small business competitive solicitation in accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulation 8.405, using General Services Administration eBuy Schedule 70, Special Item Number 132-56. Seventeen quotes were received in response to the solicitation. The contractor place of performance is Falls Church, Virginia. The contract provides for four option periods, if exercised. This contract is funded with fiscal 2019 operations and maintenance appropriations in the amount of $7,546,347. The Defense Health Agency, Contracting Office – Health Information Technology, San Antonio, Texas, is the contracting activity. (Awarded Feb. 28, 2019) AIR FORCE CORRECTION: A $48,444,066 contract announced on March 6, 2019, for Assured Information Security Inc.,* Rome, New York (FA8750-19-C-0013), for full spectrum cyber capabilities was actually awarded today. All other information in the March 6, 2019, announcement is correct. *Small business https://dod.defense.gov/News/Contracts/Contract-View/Article/1779133/

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  May 22, 2019 | International, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security, Other Defence

  State, DoD Letter Warns European Union to Open Defense Contracts, Or Else

  By PAUL MCLEARY Europe has bristled at a letter sent to the EU from the Pentagon and State Department, which says proposed EU defense programs are unfair to the US defense industry. WASHINGTON: Pentagon and State Department officials have told the European Union they're “deeply concerned” over plans to potentially exclude US defense firms from competing for billions worth of new arms deals, suggesting the US could slap restrictions on buying European defense equipment in retaliation. At issue is the proposed $14 billion European Defence Fund, and a host of procurement programs under the the Permanent Structured Cooperation, or PESCO, the European economic alliance is undertaking. While the May 1 letter from Ellen Lord, Pentagon procurement chief, and Andrea Thompson, State's undersecretary for arms control and international security, expressed general support for the EU initiatives, it made clear the US would like to see significant changes in the draft language before the 28-country bloc votes on them as early as next month. The language in both documents, the US argues, feature intellectual property and export control restrictions that would act as “poison pills” to “effectively preclude participation by any company that uses U.S.-origin technology.” Overall, Lord and Thompson write, the conditions outlined in the EDF and PESCO documents “represent a dramatic reversal of the last three decades of increased integration of the transatlantic defense sector.” If the restrictions are kept in place, the US officials warn, “it is clear that similar reciprocally imposed U.S. restrictions would not be welcomed by our European partners and Allies, and we would not relish having to consider them in the future.” But EU officials defended their efforts this week. Asked about the US letter, an EU spokesperson replied in an email that the EDF and PESCO will “complement and strengthen NATO,” at a time in which the Trump administration has made that a key policy goal, and “enable Europe to shoulder its fair share of the burden and responsibility for global security.” But it's clear the letter has rankled the Europeans. “The EU has an open and competitive defense procurement framework, in fact more so than the US procurement market,” the spokesperson wrote. “In the EU, there is no ‘Buy European Act.' 81 percent of the total value of international defense contracts in Europe go to US firms. The US defense market is three to four times larger than that of the EU, and yet imports from the EU are marginal for the US, while EU imports from the US are significant.” The official said that American companies with subsidiaries in the EU will remain eligible for funding under the EDF subject to security conditions “which are similar – in fact less restrictive – to the ones that EU companies face in the US.” The EU's High Representative Federica Mogherini told reporters Tuesday that PESCO projects aren't meant to be a vehicle to increase transAtlantic ties, and the EU will gladly continue doing business with non-EU defense companies. The program “is not defined to be an instrument for partnership,” she said. “It does not substitute other partnerships, including in the defense industry and research that we have already in place and that are essential for us,” she added. For years, non-NATO countries like Sweden and Finland have drawn closer to NATO and have increased ties with US defense firms while also building their own domestic defense capabilities, though the relationship hasn't always been smooth. While the US government is concerned over US companies being excluded, the PESCO effort has been developed explicitly to bolster the ability of European countries to produce their own weapons systems, cyber capabilities, and surveillance technologies. So-called “third states” — non EU members — may ask to participate in PESCO projects, but all of the member states must vote to allow them in. Lord and Thompson argue that walling-off EU projects from NATO efforts would lead to duplication and waste, while decreasing interoperability between the EU and NATO. It could also “potentially tum the clock back to the sometimes divisive discussions about EU defense initiatives that dominated our exchanges 15 years ago.” In the end, the US letter is just the latest turn in what has been a complex, up and down relationship between the US and Europe under the Trump administration. The president has loudly condemned Washington's closest allies in Europe for not spending enough on their own defense, while threatening to pull out of NATO. At the same time, the US has increased troop levels in Europe and pumped over $11 billion into the European Deterrence Initiative over the past two years, in an effort to upgrade US and allied basing, increase joint exercises, and modernize equipment on the continent to counter the Russian threat. https://breakingdefense.com/2019/05/state-dod-letter-warns-european-union-to-open-defense-contracts-or-else/

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  March 18, 2020 | International, C4ISR, Security

  The Pentagon is handling cyber vulnerabilities inconsistently

  Mark Pomerleau The Department of Defense has not consistently mitigated cyber vulnerabilities identified in a 2012 report, according to the department's inspector general. The DoD IG issued a follow-on report to its 2012 report, issued March 13 and made public March 17, that determined cyber red teams didn't report the results of assessments to organizations and components didn't effectively correct or mitigate the identified vulnerabilities. The new report discovered that components didn't consistently mitigate or include unmitigated vulnerabilities identified in the prior audit and during this audit by red teams during combatant command exercises, operational testing assessments and agency-specific assessments in plans of action and milestones. “Ensuring DoD Components mitigate vulnerabilities is essential to achieve a better return on investment,” the report stated. “In addition, we determined that the DoD did not establish a unified approach to support and prioritize DoD Cyber Red Team missions. Instead, the DoD Components implemented Component-specific approaches to staff, train and develop tools for DoD Cyber Red Teams, and prioritize DoD Cyber Red Team missions.” The report found that DoD didn't establish a unified approach because it didn't assign an organization with responsibility to oversee and synchronize red team activity based on priorities, it didn't assess the resources needed for each red team and identify requirements to train them to meet priorities and it didn't develop baseline tools to perform assessments. “Without an enterprisewide solution to staff, train and develop tools for DoD Cyber Red Teams and prioritize their missions, DoD Cyber Red Teams have not met current mission requests and will not meet future requests because of the increased demands for DoD Cyber Red Team services,” the report said. “Until the DoD assigns an organization to assess DoD Cyber Red Team resources, it will be unable to determine the number of DoD Cyber Red Teams and staffing of each team to support mission needs, which will impact the Do D's ability to identify vulnerabilities and take corrective actions that limit malicious actors from compromising DoD operations.” The DoD IG issued seven recommendations the secretary of defense assign an organization responsibility for. They include: Review and assess red team reports for systemic vulnerabilities and coordinate the development and implementation of enterprise solutions to mitigate them; Ensure components develop and implement a risk-based process to assess the impact of identified vulnerabilities and prioritize funding for corrective actions for high-risk vulnerabilities; Ensure components develop and implement processes for providing reports with red team findings and recommendations to organizations with responsibility for corrective actions; Develop processes and procedures to oversee red team activities, including synchronizing and prioritizing red team missions, to ensure activities align with priorities; Perform a joint DoD-wide mission-impact analysis to determine the number of red teams, minimum staffing levels of each team, the composition of the staffing levels needed to meet current and future mission requests; Assess and identify a baseline of core and specialized training standards, based on the three red team roles that team staff must meet for the team to be certified and accredited; and Identify and develop baseline tools needed by red teams to perform missions. https://www.fifthdomain.com/dod/2020/03/17/the-pentagon-is-handling-cyber-vulnerabilities-inconsistently/