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June 29, 2021 | International, Aerospace

China Planning High Speed Helicopter to Compete Against Boeing-Sikorsky’s Defiant-X

China Planning High Speed Helicopter to Compete Against Boeing-Sikorsky's Defiant-X

https://www.defenseworld.net/news/29906#.YNuC5ehKg2w

On the same subject

  • Raytheon AI: Fix That Part Before It Breaks

    March 23, 2020 | International, Land, C4ISR

    Raytheon AI: Fix That Part Before It Breaks

    A modern mechanized military lives or dies by maintenance. But what if a computer could warn you when your weapons and vehicles were about to break, so you could fix them before they ever let you down? By SYDNEY J. FREEDBERG JR. WASHINGTON: Raytheon is working with the military on multiple pilot projects for AI-driven predictive maintenance. What's that? Traditionally, military mechanics spend a huge amount of time on what's called preventive maintenance: They carry truckloads of spare parts to war, they consult historical tables of roughly how often certain parts wear out or break down, and they preemptively crack open the access hatches to check those parts on a regular basis. The idea behind predictive maintenance is to feed all that historical data into a machine learning algorithm so it can tell maintainers, vehicle by vehicle and part by part, when something is likely to fail. It's a tremendous technical challenge that requires scanning in years of old handwritten maintenance forms, downloading digital records, and then constantly updating the database. Ideally, you want up-to-the-minute reports on things like engine temperature and suspension stress from diagnostic sensors installed in frontline vehicles. You need to account not only for what kind of equipment you're operating, but how hard it's running for a particular mission and even where in the world it's operating, because environmental conditions like heat, moisture, dust, and sand make a huge difference to wear and tear. And you can't just push out a single software solution and call it done. You have to constantly update your data so the algorithm can continue to learn, evolve, and adapt to different situations. But, Raytheon's Kevin Frazier and Butch Kievenaar told me, artificial intelligence and machine learning have advanced dramatically over just the last five years. Now Raytheon – a long-established defense contractor – is partnered with a flock of niche innovators to make it happen. Currently, they told me, Raytheon is already conducting or about to launch several multi-month pilot projects, seeking to prove the technology's value to the military: For the Army, they're working with a commercial partner on the M2 Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicle, the mainstay armored troop transport of the heavy combat brigades, and the hulking M88 Hercules, a tracked “armored recovery vehicle” designed to tow broken-down battle tanks back for repair, if necessary under enemy fire. For the V-22 Joint Program Office – which supports the Osprey tiltrotor for the Marines, Air Force Special Operations Command, and now the Navy – they're working on the V-22's collision-avoidance radar, a Raytheon product. And across their customer base, they're looking at ways to do predictive maintenance on the many complex components Raytheon provides for a host of programs. How does this work? Let's hear from Kevin and Butch in their own words (edited for clarity and brevity from a highly technical 50-minute interview): Q: What kinds of problems can this technology help the military solve? Kevin: Right now, maintenance is conducted either on a scheduled timeline or when something breaks. What we are trying to do is replace that one piece because you know it's about to wear out and prevent it from breaking. Butch: One of the biggest things is you've got to understand what mission you're trying to achieve. If I'm trying to answer platform readiness questions, then I have to have certain data that's related to that topic. If I am trying to do supply chain analysis, I'm asking questions about where are critical parts and what size stockages we have to have to reduce turnaround time. So I'm answering a different question, and I'm looking at a different data set. So the key to setting all this up is what you do on the front end with your data to give the data scientists so that we can refine the algorithm appropriately. Q: AI/ML requires a lot of data. Is that data really available for all these different military systems? Kevin: It is. It's in different states. Some vehicles have sensors on them. Some do self-diagnostics. Some of the older equipment, especially the support equipment, doesn't have any sensors on them — but they all have files. They all are in the maintenance system, so the data exists. Data doesn't have to purely digital. It does have to be digitized at some point, but it doesn't necessarily have to start being digital. It could be maintenance logs that are hand-written, or the operator of a particular vehicle does a walk around and does an inspection report, writes that up — that's something that you actually can scan and input. Now we can add so many different types of data that your whole data environment becomes much richer. It helps you get to that algorithm — and then to continue to take in that data and refine that model. You're still recording that data and getting data from both handwritten and digital sources to update your model and tune it, so that you're just that much more accurate. Butch: What we're talking about is discrete algorithms solving for discrete problem sets. You look at the environment, and what the algorithm does is it learns. You keep ingesting data. You can get it a bunch of different ways so your analytical tool continues to learn, continues to refine. I can do a physical download from the vehicle, or scan maintenance records, or get it all fed off of a downloader that automatically feeds to the cloud. It can be as fast as we can automate the process of that piece of equipment feeding information back. For the Army and the Air Force especially, there is sufficient data over the last 15 that pertains to the impacts of combat. And we have it for different environments that you can then use to help train and refine the algorithms that you're using as it learns. Kevin: You have to understand the impacts the environment has on how the vehicle is functioning and what type of a mission you're doing, because that will cause different things to wear out sooner or break sooner. That's what the AI piece does. The small companies that we partner with, who are very good at these algorithms, already do this to some extent in the commercial world. We're trying to bring that to the military. Butch: The really smart data scientists are in a lot of the smaller niche companies that are doing this. We combine their tools with our ability to scale and wrap around the customer's needs. These are not huge challenges that we're talking about trying to solve. It is inside the current technological capability that exists. We have currently several pilot programs right now to demonstrate the use cases, that this capability that actually works. https://breakingdefense.com/2020/03/raytheon-ai-fix-that-part-before-it-breaks

  • Contract Awards by US Department of Defense – October 1, 2020

    October 2, 2020 | International, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security, Other Defence

    Contract Awards by US Department of Defense – October 1, 2020

    U.S. TRANSPORTATION COMMAND The Federal Express Team, Memphis, Tennessee, has been awarded a modification (P00005) on contract HTC7111-8-D-CC37 in the estimated amount of $1,630,630,000. Team members include American Airlines Inc., Fort Worth, Texas; Amerijet International Inc., Miami, Florida; Atlas Air Inc., Purchase, New York; Federal Express Corp., Memphis, Tennessee; Polar Air Cargo Worldwide Inc., Purchase, New York; Eastern Airlines LLC, Wayne, Pennsylvania; and Hawaiian Airlines Inc., Honolulu, Hawaii. The modification provides continued international long-range and short-range charter airlift services for the Department of Defense. The option period of performance is from Oct. 1, 2020, to Sept. 30, 2022. Fiscal 2021 transportation working capital funds were obligated at award. This modification brings the total cumulative face value of the contract to $3,261,260,000 from $1,630,630,000. U.S. Transportation Command, Directorate of Acquisition, Scott Air Force Base, Illinois, is the contracting activity. The Patriot Team, Tulsa, Oklahoma, has been awarded a modification on contract HTC711-18-D-CC39 in the estimated amount of $1,447,524,000. Team members include ABX Air Inc., Wilmington, Ohio; Air Transport International Inc., Wilmington, Ohio; JetBlue Airways Corp., Long Island City, New York; Kalitta Air LLC, Ypsilanti, Michigan; Northern Air Cargo LLC, Anchorage, Alaska; Omni Air International LLC, Tulsa, Okla.; United Airlines Inc., Chicago, Illinois; United Parcel Service Co., Louisville, Kentucky; and Western Global Airlines LLC, Estero, Florida. The modification provides continued international long-range and short-range charter airlift services for the Department of Defense. The option period of performance is from Oct. 1, 2020, to Sept. 30, 2022. Fiscal 2021 transportation working capital funds were obligated at award. This modification brings the total cumulative face value of the contract to $2,895,048,000 from $1,447,524,000. U.S. Transportation Command, Directorate of Acquisition, Scott Air Force Base, Illinois, is the contracting activity. National Air Cargo Group Inc., Orlando, Florida, has been awarded a modification (P00006) on contract HTC711-18-D-CC40 in the estimated amount of $110,406,000. The modification provides continued international long-range and short-range charter airlift services for the Department of Defense. The option period of performance is from Oct. 1, 2020, to Sept. 30, 2022. Fiscal 2021 transportation working capital funds were obligated at award. This modification brings the total cumulative face value of the contract to $220,812,000 from $110,406,000. U.S. Transportation Command, Directorate of Acquisition, Scott Air Force Base, Illinois, is the contracting activity. Sun Country Inc., doing business as Sun Country Airlines, Minneapolis, Minnesota, has been awarded an indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity, fixed-price with economic-price-adjustment contract HTC711-20-D-CC08 with an estimated amount of $59,112,000. This International Charter Airlift Services contract is in support of the Civil Reserve Air Fleet and provides international long-range and short-range charter airlift services for the Department of Defense. Work will be performed globally. The option period of performance is from Oct. 1, 2020, to Sept. 30, 2022. Fiscal 2021 transportation working capital funds were obligated at award. The U.S. Transportation Command, Directorate of Acquisition, Scott Air Force Base, Illinois, is the contracting activity. Delta Air Lines Inc., Atlanta, Georgia, has been awarded a modification (P00005) on contract HTC711-18-D-CC41 in the estimated amount of $28,026,000. The modification provides continued international long-range and short-range charter airlift services for the Department of Defense. The option period of performance is from Oct. 1, 2020, to Sept. 30, 2022. Fiscal 2021 transportation working capital funds were obligated at award. This modification brings the total cumulative face value of the contract to $56,052,000 from $28,026,000. U.S. Transportation Command, Directorate of Acquisition, Scott Air Force Base, Illinois, is the contracting activity. Phoenix Air Group, Inc., Cartersville, Georgia, has been awarded a modification (P00004) to task order HTC711-19-F-1554 in the amount of $7,051,282. This modification provides continued chartered passenger airlift services to the Naval Air Warfare Center. Work will be performed in Point Mugu, San Nicolas Island, and China Lake, California. The option period of performance is from Oct. 1, 2020, to Sept. 30, 2021. Fiscal 2021 transportation working capital funds were obligated at award. This modification brings the total cumulative face value of the task order to $18,350,249 from $11,298,967. U.S. Transportation Command, Directorate of Acquisition, Scott Air Force Base, Illinois, is the contracting activity. NAVY Ambyth Shipping Micronesia Inc., Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands (N68171-21-D-0001); American Roll-On Roll-Off Carrier Group Inc., Parsippany, New Jersey (N68171-21-D-0002); Bahrain Fujairah Marine Services, Manama, Bahrain (N68171-21-D-0003); Black Bull Group Inc., Miami, Florida (N68171-21-D-0004); Bahrain Maritime & Mercantile International BSC, Sitra, Kingdom of Bahrain (N68171-21-D-0005); Cox Logistics, Juffair, Kingdom of Bahrain (N68171-21-D-0016); Crane Worldwide, Houston, Texas (N68171-21-D-0007); Crowley Government Services Inc., Jacksonville, Florida (N68171-21-D-0008); DaeKee Global Co. Ltd., Pusan, South Korea (N68171-21-D-0009); Downie Jones Ship Stores, Bulimba, Queensland, Australia (N68171-21-D-0010); Downie Jones Ship Stores Ltd., Wan Chai, Hong Kong Island, Hong Kong (N68171-21-D-0011); EMS Shipping & Trading GmbH, Leer (Ostfriesland), Niedersachsen, Germany (N68171-21-D-0012); Global Defense Logistics SRL, Constanta, Romania (N68171-21-D-0013); Global Maritime Logistics Support Inc., Olongapo City, Philippines (N68171-21-D-0014); Global Support Inc., Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan (N68171-21-D-0015); Inchcape Shipping Services Dubai LLC, Dubai, United Arab Emirates (N68171-21-D-0017); Kentucky Defense Services LLC, Covington, Kentucky (N68171-21-D-0018); Multinational Logistic Services Ltd., Gziza, Malta (N68171-21-D-0020); Multinational Logistic Services USA, Longmeadow, Massachusetts (N68171-21-D-0021); National Alliance Management LLC, Las Vegas, Nevada (N68171-21-D-0022); OPS Corp., Pusan, South Korea (N68171-21-D-0023); Parsh Marine (S) Pte. Ltd., Singapore (N68171-21-D-0024); Qube Ports Pty. Ltd., Sydney, New South Wales, Australia (N68171-21-D-0025); Rio Logistics (S) Pte. Ltd., Singapore, Singapore (N68171-21-D-0026); Royal Cargo Inc., Paranaque City, Metro Manila, Philippines (N68171-21-D-0027); Shipping Consultants Associated Ltd., Chatham, Kent, United Kingdom (N68171-21-D-0028); Seabulk Towing Inc. (doing business as Seabulk Logistics Services), Fort Lauderdale, Florida (N68171-21-D-0029); Seaway Filipinas Logistics Inc., Zambales, Zambales, Philippines (N68171-21-D-0031); Stirling Advanced Logistical Services, Amman, Jordan (N68171-21-D-0032); Toll Remote Logistics Pty. Ltd., Melbourne, Victoria, Australia (N68171-21-D-0033); Tsui Wah Ferry Services Co. Ltd., Yau Ma Tei, Kowloon, Hong Kong (N68171-21-D-0034); and Waypoint LLC, Brookings, South Dakota (N68171-21-D-0035), are awarded an estimated $1,061,000,000 multiple award of firm-fixed price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contracts to provide husbanding, management and integration services consisting of general charter and hire, utilities, force protection, communications and land transportation services to support maritime forces of the Department of Defense, other U.S. government agencies, and other nations to include Navy Ships, Marine Corps, Military Sealift Command (MSC), Air Force, Army, Coast Guard, North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), and other foreign vessels participating in U.S. military or NATO exercises and missions. The contracts will run concurrently and will include a five-year base ordering period with one five-year option with individual requirements performed under task orders when specific dates and locations are identified. If the option period is exercised, the total estimated value of the contracts combined will have a ceiling value of $2,122,000,000. The ordering period of the contract is expected to be completed by October 2025; if all options are exercised, the ordering period will be completed by October 2030. Work will be performed in thirty geographic regions: United Arab Emirates (14%); Philippines (10%); Djibouti (7%); Eastern U.S. and U.S. territories (6%); Southeastern Asia 2 (5%); Indian Ocean (5%); South Korea (5%); South America (5%); Singapore (4%); Western California (4%); Southeastern Asia 1 (3%); Bahrain (3%); Oman (3%); Oceania (2%); China and Russia (2%); United Kingdom/Western Europe (North Sea) (2%); Italy (2%); Eastern Europe/Black Sea (2%); Western Europe (Mediterranean) (2%); Northern Atlantic (2%); Panama (2%); North America (2%); Japan (1%); Greece (1%); Africa (1%); Middle East (1%); Central America (1%); Caribbean and Bermuda (1%); Eastern U.S. territories (1%); and Western U.S. territories (1%). Due to the fact that the specific requirements for husbanding support cannot be predicted at this time, more specific information about where the work will be performed cannot be currently provided. Fiscal 2021 operations and maintenance (Navy) funds in the amount of $96,000 will be obligated ($3,000 on each of the 32 contracts to fund the contracts' minimum amounts) and funds will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Additional funds will be obligated at the task order level with the appropriate fiscal year funding as issued by the main type commanders for each area of responsibility. Typical funding issued by each of the customers include operations and maintenance (Navy) funds from U.S. Fleet Forces Command; and working capital funds (Navy) from MSC. The requirement was competitively procured for the award of multiple contracts with the solicitation posted on beta.SAM.gov, Navy Electronic Commerce Online (NECO) and Euro NECO with 36 offers received. The Naval Supply Systems Command Fleet Logistics Center, Sigonella, Naples Detachment, Italy, is the contracting activity. BAE Systems Technology Solutions and Services Inc., Rockville, Maryland, is awarded a $94,022,896 cost-plus-fixed-fee, cost-reimbursable, firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract. This contract provides for airborne capabilities integration, including but not limited to sensors, communications systems, weapons systems and control technologies for a variety of manned and unmanned airborne platforms in support of the Airborne Systems Integration Division. Work will be performed in Saint Inigoes, Maryland (39%); Lexington Park, Maryland (29%); Patuxent River, Maryland (17%); Hollywood, Maryland (8%); Yuma, Arizona (4%); and California, Maryland (3%), and is expected to be completed in October 2025. 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; four offers were received. The Naval Air Warfare Command Aircraft Division, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity (N00421-21-D-0001). Systems Planning and Analysis Inc., Alexandria, Virginia, is awarded an $85,377,546 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for the acquisition of technical services, program support, assessments, special studies and systems engineering for the Trident II Submarine Launched Ballistic Missile Strategic Weapons system. Work will be performed in Alexandria, Virginia (86%); and Strategic Systems Programs Headquarters, Washington, Navy Yard, Washington, D.C. (14%), with an expected completion date of Sept. 30, 2025. Subject to availability of funding, fiscal 2021 operations and maintenance (Navy) contract funds in the amount of $5,168,031 will be obligated on base award. This contract was a sole-source acquisition in accordance with 10 U.S. Code 2304(c)(1). Strategic Systems Programs, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity (N00030-21-C-6019). The Lockheed Martin Corp., Rotary and Mission Systems, Mitchell Field, New York, is awarded a $68,603,033 cost plus incentive fee and cost plus fixed fee contract modification (P00005) to previously awarded and announced contract N00030-20-C-0045 for the U.S. and United Kingdom to provide Strategic Weapon System Trident fleet support, Trident II SSP Shipboard Integration (SSI) Increment 8, SSI Increment 16, Columbia class and U.K. Dreadnought class navigation subsystem development efforts. Work will be performed in Mitchel Field, New York (47%); Huntington Beach, California (36%); Clearwater, Florida (9%); Cambridge, Massachusetts (6%); and Hingham, Massachusetts (2%), with an expected completion date of Nov. 30, 2022. Subject to the availability of funding, fiscal 2021 operations and maintenance (Navy) contract funds in the amount of $42,869,626; fiscal 2021 research, development, test and evaluation (Navy) contract funds in the amount of $4,247,698; and United Kingdom funds in the amount of $21,485,709, will be obligated at time of award. No funds will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was a sole-source acquisition in accordance with 10 U.S. Code 2304(c)(1) and (4). Strategic Systems Programs, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity. The Boeing Co., Huntington Beach, California, is awarded a $59,097,371 cost-plus-incentive-fee, and cost plus fixed-fee level of effort contract (N00030-21-C-6002) to provide the U.S. and United Kingdom Trident II (D5) maintenance, rebuilding and technical services in support of the Navigation subsystem. Work will be performed at Huntington Beach, California (63%); and Heath, Ohio (13%), along with field engineering conducted at Puget Sound, Washington (4%); Heath, Ohio (4%); Mitchell Field, New York (4%); Norfolk, Virginia (4%); Kings Bay, Georgia (4%); Port Canaveral, Florida (2%), and Faslane, Scotland (2%). Work is expected to be completed Sept. 30, 2022 (inclusive of all option periods). United Kingdom funds in the amount of $893,383 are being obligated on this award. Subject to the availability of funds, fiscal 2021 operations and maintenance (Navy) contract funds in the amount of $27,877,125 will be obligated. No funds will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was a sole-source acquisition pursuant to 10 U.S. Code 2304(c)(1). Only one responsible source and no other supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements. Strategic Systems Programs, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity. Northrop Grumman Systems Corp.- Marine Systems (NGSC-MS), Sunnyvale, California, is awarded a $29,541,061 cost-plus incentive-fee contract (N00030-21-C-1010) for fiscal 2021 ongoing support of the Trident II (D-5) deployed SSBN and the SSGN Underwater Launcher Systems (ULS), NGSC-MS will provide technical engineering support and integration for D5, and SSGN Attack Weapon System (AWS). This support provides field services at sites and shipyards. Work will be performed in Sunnyvale, California (52%); Bangor, Washington (18%); Kings Bay, Georgia (14%); Rocket Center West Virginia (7%); Cape Canaveral, Florida (4%); St. Charles, Missouri (3%); and Camarillo, California (2%). The base year performance period is Oct. 1, 2020, to Sept. 30, 2021. Subject to availability of funds, fiscal 2021 operations and maintenance (Navy) contract funds in the amount of $29,541,061 will be obligated on this award. No funds will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract includes firm-fixed-price, cost-plus-incentive-fee and cost-plus-fixed-fee option contract line items. The contract was not competitively procured. Strategic Systems Programs, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity. General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems, Bothell, Washington, was awarded a not-to-exceed $24,072,455 firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for the purchase of gas generators for use in the suppression system onboard the V-22 aircraft to provide explosion/fire suppression capabilities. The contract will include a three-year base ordering period with no options. Work will be performed in Moses Lake, Washington, and is expected to be completed by September 2023. This effort combines purchases with procurement and ammunition (Navy and Marine Corps) funds (82.9%); ammunition (Air Force) funds (14.7%); and Foreign Military Sales (FMS) funding (Japan) (2.4%) under the FMS program. Funds in the amount of $7,802,197 will be issued for delivery order N00104-20-F-B501 that will be awarded concurrently with the contract and funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. One source was solicited for this non-competitive requirement under authority 10 U.S. Code 2304 (c)(1), with one offer received. The Naval Supply Systems Command, Weapon Systems Support, Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, is the contracting activity (N00104-20-D-B501). (Awarded Sept. 29, 2020) Science Applications International Corp., Reston, Virginia, was awarded a $22,614,979 combination cost-plus-fixed-fee, cost reimbursable, and firm-fixed-price type contract. The contract is for the First Article testing and production of the All Up Round MK 28 MOD 2 Exercise and MK 29 MOD 0 Warshot fuel tank assemblies for the MK 48 heavyweight torpedo, engineering services with associated other direct costs and contract data requirements list in support of the Naval Undersea Warfare Center Keyport Undersea Warfare Systems. This contract includes options which, if exercised, would bring the cumulative value of this contract to $142,265,948. Work will be performed in Bedford, Indiana (90%); and Middleton, Rhode Island (10%), and is expected to be completed by March 2022. Fiscal 2020 Foreign Military Sales/Armament Cooperative Program funds in the amount of $19,639,611 (87%); fiscal 2017 Navy Replace in Kind funds in the amount of $2,354,790 (10%); and fiscal 2020 Navy Replace in Kind funds in the amount of $620,578 (3%), will be obligated at time of award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was competitively procured via the Federal Business Opportunities website, with one offer received. The Naval Undersea Warfare Center Division, Keyport, Keyport, Washington, is the contracting activity (N00253-20-C-0010). (Awarded Sept. 30, 2020) FLIR Surveillance Inc., Wilsonville, Oregon, is awarded a $14,565,377 firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract with a five-year ordering period for BRITE Star Block II systems, repair actions, data, provision item order, training and engineering services. Work will be performed in Wilsonville, Oregon, and is expected to be completed by September 2025. This contract includes purchases for the Czech Republic under the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program. FMS Czech Republic funding in the amount of $8,179,077 will be obligated at time of award and will not expire at the end of fiscal year. This contract was not competitively procured in accordance with 10 U.S. Code 2304(c)(1); only one responsible source and no other supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements. The Naval Surface Warfare Center, Crane, Indiana, is the contracting activity (N00164-20-D-JQ51). AIR FORCE The Boeing Co., El Segundo, California, has been awarded a $298,369,312 firm-fixed-price contract for the Evolved Strategic Satellite Communications program. This contract provides a prototype payload to develop hardware and software. Work will be performed in El Segundo, California, and is expected to be complete by May 2025. This award is the result of a sole-source acquisition. Fiscal 2020 research and development funds in the amount of $29,447,172 are being obligated at the time of award. The U.S. Space Force, Space and Missile Systems Center, Development Corps, Los Angeles Air Force Base, California, is the contracting activity (FA8808-20-C-0047). (Awarded Sept. 30, 2020) DynCorp International LLC, Fort Worth, Texas, has been awarded a $70,743,464 modification (P00042) to previously awarded contract FA4890-17-C-0005 for Air Force Central Command War Reserve Materiel (WRM). This modification provides for the exercise of Option Year Four for WRM services being provided under the basic contract. Work will be performed at Shaw Air Force Base, South Carolina; Kuwait; Oman; Qatar; and the United Arab Emirates, and is expected to be complete by September 2021. This modification brings the total cumulative face value of the contract to $326,492,114. Fiscal 2021 operations and maintenance funds in the amount of $69,799,021 are being obligated at the time of award. Headquarters Air Combat Command, Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Virginia, is the contracting activity. Gryphon Technologies L.C., Washington, D.C., has been awarded a $49,149,327 hybrid firm-fixed-price, cost-plus-fixed-fee with a cost reimbursable line item, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for the processing, analysis and quantitative evaluation of environmental samples and other associated services in support of the Air Force Technical Applications Center's (AFTAC) mission. This contract also analyzes calibration samples and conducts studies on analytical techniques, instrumentation and data handling advancements. Work will be performed in Sunol, California, and is expected to be completed Sept. 30, 2028. This award is the result of a sole-source acquisition. Fiscal 2021 operations and maintenance funds in the amount of $4,119,773 are being obligated at the time of award. Headquarters Air Combat Command, Acquisition Management and Integration Center, Patrick Air Force Base, Florida, is the contracting activity (FA7022-21-D-0001). Dark Wolf Solutions LLC, Chantilly, Virginia, has been awarded a $9,087,314 firm-fixed-price task order for cyber innovation services. This contract provides for software penetration testing and adversarial assessment. Work will be performed at Hill Air Force Base, Utah, and is expected to be completed April 11, 2022. Fiscal 2020 research, development, test and evaluation funds in the amount of $539,203 are being obligated at the time of award. The Air Force District of Washington, Joint Base Andrews – Naval Air Facility, Maryland, is the contracting activity (FA7014-21-F-0012). The Boeing Co., El Segundo, California, has been awarded a $7,176,568 cost-plus-fixed-fee modification (P00121) to previously awarded Wideband Global Satellite Communication (SATCOM) (WGS) Block II follow-on contract FA8808-10-C-0001. This contract modification provides for the acquisition of engineering support for a hosted payload accommodation effort. Work will be performed in El Segundo, California, and is expected to be completed December 2021. This modification brings the total cumulative face value of the contract to $2,514,827,988. Fiscal 2020 research, development, test and evaluation funds in the amount of $4,916,699 are being obligated at the time of award. The Space and Missile Systems Center, Los Angeles Air Force Base, California, is the contracting activity. DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY UPDATE: Federal-Fabrics-Fibers Inc.,* Lowell, Massachusetts (SPE1C1-21-D-1400), has been added as an awardee to the multiple award contract for commercial shelters issued against solicitation SPE1C1-18-R-0003 and awarded May 10, 2019. * Small business https://www.defense.gov/Newsroom/Contracts/Contract/Article/2369073/source/GovDelivery/

  • US Army scraps Abrams tank upgrade, unveils new modernization plan

    September 6, 2023 | International, Land

    US Army scraps Abrams tank upgrade, unveils new modernization plan

    The service is now pursuing a more significant modernization effort to increase mobility and survivability on the battlefield.

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