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  November 6, 2020 | International, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security

  Contract Awards by US Department of Defense - November 05, 2020

  NAVY General Dynamics Electric Boat Corp., Groton, Connecticut, is awarded a $9,473,511,245 cost-plus-incentive-fee modification to previously awarded contract N00024-17-C-2117. The contract modification exercises an option for construction and test of the lead and second ships of the Columbia class SSBN 826 and SSBN 827, as well as associated design and engineering support. This modification to the integrated product and process development (IPPD) contract supports the fiscal 2021 construction start of the lead ship (SSBN 826) and advance procurement, advance construction, coordinated material buys and full construction of the follow hull (SSBN 827) in fiscal 2024. Work will be performed in Groton, Connecticut (36%); Newport News, Virginia (25%); Quonset Point, Rhode Island (17%); with other efforts performed at various sites throughout the U.S. (each less than 1%) (22%), and is expected to be completed by April 2030. Efforts within the ship include the Common Missile Compartment which is a joint U.S./United Kingdom effort. Fiscal 2021 National Sea-Based Deterrence Fund (NSBDF) funding in the amount of $545,186,307 (96%); and fiscal 2020 NSBDF funding in the amount of $19,936,251 (4%) will be obligated at the time of award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This action leverages the acquisition authorities contained in 10 U.S. Code §2218a, NSBDF. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity. Raytheon Co., Tewksbury, Massachusetts, was awarded a $94,039,953 cost-plus-incentive-fee, cost-plus-fixed-fee and cost-only modification to previously awarded contract N00024-17-C-5145 to exercise options and realign funding for DDG 1000 ship class integrated logistics support and engineering services. Work will be performed in Portsmouth, Rhode Island (41%); Tewksbury, Massachusetts (36%); Los Angeles, California (8%); San Diego, California (5%); Ft. Wayne, Indiana (4%); Marlboro, Massachusetts (4%); Bath, Maine (1%); and Nashua, New Hampshire (1%), and is expected to be completed by October 2021. Fiscal 2021 operation and maintenance (Navy) funding in the amount of $10,980,000 was obligated at the time of award and will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity. (Awarded Nov. 2, 2020) The Boeing Co., Seattle, Washington, is awarded a $14,181,537 modification (P00009) to firm-fixed-price order (2017) against previously issued basic ordering agreement N00019-16-G-0001. This modification exercises options for production, delivery and installation of 24 P-8A Poseidon Increment III Block I retrofit kits for the Navy. Work will be performed in Seattle, Washington (98.7%); and Mesa, Arizona (1.3%), and is expected to be completed in November 2022. Fiscal 2021 aircraft procurement (Navy) funds for $14,181,537 will be obligated at time of award, none of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity. Progeny Systems Corp., Manassas, Virginia, is awarded a $9,428,513 cost-plus-fixed-fee and cost-reimbursable modification to previously awarded contract N00024-19-C-6267 to exercise options for engineering services. Work will be performed in Manassas, Virginia, and is expected to be completed in December 2021. Fiscal 2020 shipbuilding and conversion (Navy) (88%); and fiscal 2021 research, development, test and evaluation (Navy) (12%) funding in the amount of $3,900,000 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, D.C., is the contracting activity. AIR FORCE Lockheed Martin Corp., Fort Worth, Texas, has been awarded a $53,190,386 hybrid cost-plus-fixed-fee and firm-fixed-price modification (P00067) to contract FA8615-12-C-6016 for miscellaneous support for 50 retrofit aircraft to the Taiwan F-16 Peace Phoenix Rising program. This modification provides for contractor over and above support and acquisition of legacy aircraft hardware and equipment. Work will be performed in Fort Worth, Texas; and Taiwan, and is expected to be completed Dec. 31, 2023. Foreign Military Sales funds in the full amount are being obligated at the time of award. The Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, is the contracting activity. CORRECTION: The contract awarded on Oct. 30, 2020, to BAE Systems Technology Solutions & Services Inc., Rockville, Maryland, for $13,365,920, listed the incorrect contract number. The correct contract number is FA8720-21-F-0042. DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY Outdoor Venture Corp.,** Stearns, Kentucky, has been awarded a maximum $37,464,448 firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for the Modular General Purpose Tent System and components. This was a competitive acquisition with two responses received. This is a one-year base contract with four one-year option periods. Location of performance is Kentucky, with a Nov. 4, 2021, ordering period end date. Using military services are Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2021 through 2022 defense working capital funds. The contracting agency is the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (SPE1C1-21-D-1404). *Small business **Small business in historically underutilized business zones https://www.defense.gov/Newsroom/Contracts/Contract/Article/2406922/source/GovDelivery/

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  August 4, 2020 | International, Aerospace

  Lockheed dives into next-generation missile defense interceptor competition

  By: Jen Judson WASHINGTON — Lockheed Martin said it will compete to build the Missile Defense Agency's Next-Generation Interceptor designed to protect the homeland against intercontinental ballistic missile threats from North Korea and Iran. The company is “excited to confirm that we are putting in a bid for the Next-Generation Interceptor,” Sarah Reeves, Lockheed's vice president of missile defense programs, told reporters Aug. 3. Bids were due July 31. Boeing and a Raytheon-Northrop Grumman team have already announced their intentions to compete to develop and field the agency's new interceptor following the cancellation of the Redesigned Kill Vehicle meant to replace the warhead on the current Ground-Based Interceptors. Those missiles are part of the Ground-based Midcourse Defense System, which is operational at Fort Greely, Alaska, and Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. The RKV program was paused in May 2019 and then abruptly terminated in August 2019 due to insurmountable technical issues resulting in delayed schedules and cost increases. The Defense Department announced at the time that it would embark on an entirely new program to field a future interceptor. MDA now plans to downselect to two companies, which will then compete for the right to build the interceptor. While MDA struggled with RKV, Lockheed invested the last two decades on multi-kill vehicle technology,” Reeves said. Lockheed had one of three small contracts to design a kill vehicle that could take out multiple warheads several years ago that would lead to a program that would replace the RKV called the Multi-Object Kill Vehicle (MOKV) program. Raytheon and Boeing had won the remaining two contracts. Reeves stressed the need for the new interceptor to be able to go after threats that disperse multiple objects including decoys. “We are looking carefully at the lessons learned from RKV including parts survivability testing which, in that program, was done too late and caused a major system redesign, as well as ensuring early-and-often testing and fly-before-you-buy mentality,” Reeves said. Lockheed plans to conduct two successful flight tests before going into production, Reeves said, which as an MDA program requirement. “The time is right now,” Reeves said. “We have significant investments and the technology a couple of decades ago, when this was initially a vision of MDA, wasn't quite there, but now it is ready to go.” The company plans to take elements from its existing capabilities such as the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system, which Reeves said has had a 100 percent mission success rate, and the Aegis missile defense system. Lockheed also will garner experience from its partnership with the U.S. Navy on its Trident II submarine-launched ballistic missile system, which “has to survive these more hostile environments,” she said. And Lockheed's experience with space is another asset that will contribute to understanding technology needed for an NGI, which will need to travel through space, according to Reeves. Lockheed is also optimistic, Reeves said, that it can meet a faster schedule for NGI than currently planned. Some Defense Department officials said NGI could not be fielded until the 2030s but the MDA director and U.S. Northern Command's commander believe it is possible to move that timeline to at least 2028 or earlier. The company plans to use tools such as artificial intelligence, machine-to-machine learning, big data analytics and 3-D printing to “accelerate the schedule and to deliver products faster than we have had in the past,” Reeves said. https://www.defensenews.com/industry/2020/08/03/lockheed-dives-into-next-generation-missile-defense-interceptor-competition

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  May 7, 2019 | International, Aerospace

  NAVAIR: New Presidential Helicopter Production to Start Soon

  By: Ben Werner NATIONAL HARBOR, Md.—Naval Air Systems Command has a handshake deal in place to start production of the Sikorsky VH-92A, the next generation presidential helicopter, officials said on Monday. NAVAIR has already taken possession of three VH-92A aircraft and the program is scheduled to have a milestone decision meeting at the end of the month with Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development and Acquisition James Geurts. Based on the feedback from test pilots, VH-92A production is expected to start soon after the milestone meeting, Marine Maj. Gen. Gregory L. Masiello, the program executive officer for Air anti-submarine warfare, assault and special mission programs (PEO (A)) said during a presentation at the Navy League's 2019 Sea Air Space exposition. “I believe that things went reasonably well,” Masiello said of the recent VH-92A testing. “The reason I say that is because I know where the aircraft took off from every day and I know where they landed every day, and it was where it was supposed to. The feedback was relatively positive.” In one instance, a VH-92A flew into Washington D.C., swooping low over the National Mall on an otherwise quiet Saturday morning, and practicing landing on the White House lawn. That VH-92A was the first helicopter delivered to NAVAIR. The initial operational capability is expected to occur in late 2020, and the full production line is on track to complete in 2023. Assuming the end of May meeting with Geurts is positive, Masiello said the plan is to award Sikorsky a production contract and executive options to build the VH-92 throughout the life of the program as needed, Masiello said. As part of the Presidential Helicopter Replacement Program, Sikorsky was in 2014 awarded a $1.2 billion contract to build a fleet of six helicopters to start, but with options for the Navy to purchase up to 17 more helicopters. This is the second attempt to replace the current decades-old VH-3Ds presidential helicopters currently in use. In 2005, Lockheed Martin's proposed VH-71 helicopter beat the Sikorsky helicopter in the competition to build the Presidential helicopters. Years of delays and cost overruns caused the Pentagon to scrap the project in 2008 and start the process over with a new round of bidding, according to a Congressional Research Service report. A decade later, Sikorsky won a new competition with its VH-92A design, a variant of the Sikorsky S-92 helicopter which is used by 11 other nations to transport their heads of state. Lockheed Martin purchased Sikorsky for $9 billion in 2015. https://news.usni.org/2019/05/06/navair-new-presidential-helicopter-production-to-start-soon