Pentagon wants a cheap, ground-launched and hand-held counter-drone capability

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  October 29, 2020 | International, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security, Other Defence

  Contract Awards by US Department of Defense – October 28, 2020

  AIR FORCE Megan-PCI JV LLC, Dayton, Ohio (FA8601-21-D-0002); CPM-AWA LLC, Dayton, Ohio (FA8601-21-D-0003); Peak Runge Co. JV, Port Clinton, Ohio (FA8601-21-D-0004); John Cecil Construction Co., Columbus, Ohio (FA8601-21-D-0005); NISOU LGC JV LLC, Detroit, Michigan (FA8601-21-D-0006); CAM Management and Services, Dayton, Ohio (FA8601-21-D-0007); Pontiac Drywall Systems Inc., Pontiac, Michigan (FA8601-21-D-0008); OAC Action Construction, Miami, Florida (FA8601-21-D0009); Butt Construction Co., Dayton, Ohio (FA8601-21-D-0010); Dawn Inc., Warren, Ohio (FA8601-21-D-0011); A&H Ambica JV LLC, Livonia, Michigan (FA8601-21-D-0012); and Pinnacle Construction & Development, Independence, Ohio (FA8601-21-D-0013), have been awarded a $247,000,000 multiple award, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for construction projects. Work will be performed at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, and is expected to be completed Aug. 31, 2025. These awards are the result of a competitive acquisition and 21 offers were received. Fiscal 2021 operations and maintenance funds in the amount of $2,500 are being obligated to each contractor at the time of award. The Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, is the contracting activity. Lockheed Martin Corp., Syracuse, New York, has been awarded a $25,000,000 ceiling indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for the Atmospheric Early Warning System AN/FPS-117 Radar program. This contract provides for contractor logistics support and radar hardware/spares procurement. Work will be performed in Syracuse, New York, as well as various sites in Alaska, Hawaii, Canada, Puerto Rico and Utah. The work is expected to be complete by March 2026. This award is the result of a sole-source acquisition. Fiscal 2020 operations and maintenance funds in the amount of $3,946,336 are being obligated at the time of award. Hill Air Force Base, Utah, is the contracting activity (FA8217-20-D-0006). NAVY Q.E.D. Systems Inc., Virginia Beach, Virginia, is awarded a $76,360,281 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for specification development and availability execution support, formerly known as third party planning services for guided missile cruiser (CG), guided missile destroyer (DDG), landing helicopter assault, landing helicopter dock landing platform dock, and dock landing ship class vessels. This contract includes options which, if exercised, would bring the cumulative value of this contract to $229,411,097. Work will be performed in Norfolk, Virginia (51%); San Diego, California (43%); and Everett, Washington (6%), and is expected to be completed by October 2023. Fiscal 2021 operations and maintenance (Navy) funding in the amount of $2,825,931 is being obligated at time of award and funding in the amount of $2,825,931 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was not competitively procured; a history of one bids and a lack of sources sought responses form the basis of the justification and approval for this effort. This single source contract to Q.E.D. will allow the government additional time to conduct extensive market research in preparation for a follow-on competitive effort. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity (N00024-21-C-4200). DRS Systems Co. Inc., Melbourne, Florida, is awarded a $10,503,852 cost-plus-fixed-fee modification to previously awarded contract N00024-13-C-4229 for an engineering change to the Energy Magazine Prototype design for the DDG51-class destroyer program. This award is for an engineering change proposal to the Energy Storage Module that will provide capability to supply power to a directed energy load and includes design, build and testing for a total of two prototype units. Work will be performed in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and is expected to be completed by June 2022. No funding will be obligated at time of award. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity. Lockheed Martin Corp., Missiles and Fire Control, Orlando, Florida, is awarded a $9,835,348 cost-plus-fixed-fee order (N00019-21-F-0062) against previously issued basic ordering agreement N00019-19-G-0029. This order provides non-recurring engineering for the production of target designator sets and electro-optical in support of AH-1Z Light Attack helicopters for Foreign Military Sales (FMS) customers. Work will be performed in Orlando, Florida (97%); and Ocala, Florida (3%), and is expected to be completed in November 2022. FMS funds in the amount of $9,835,348 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. ARMY General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc., Poway, California, was awarded a $70,706,229 modification (P00019) to contract W31P4Q-15-D-0003 for engineering and technical services required to accomplish research, development, integration, test, sustainment and operation across the family of General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc. unmanned aircraft systems. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of Jan. 27, 2022. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, is the contracting activity. *Small business https://www.defense.gov/Newsroom/Contracts/Contract/Article/2397509/source/GovDelivery/

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  September 29, 2020 | International, Aerospace

  Switzerland’s $6.5 billion fighter jet plan narrowly passes referendum

  Sebastian Sprenger COLOGNE, Germany — Swiss voters have approved a government plan to spend $6.5 billion on new fighter aircraft by a margin of 8,670 votes, with the two U.S. vendors in the race feeling the backlash of anti-Trump sentiments. Sunday's vote translates into a razor-thin majority of 50.1 percent, or 1,605,700 votes, in favor of the acquisition. There was 49.9 percent, or 1,597,030 votes, against. The voter turnout was 59.4 percent, according to figures published online Sunday evening by the Federal Chancellery. Defence Minister Viola Amherd told reporters she considers the result, however close, a mandate to continue ongoing evaluations of the Eurofighter, the Rafale, the F-18 Super Hornet and the F-35A. “The vote represents a long-term investment in the security of the Swiss population and infrastructure,” she said. Prodded by reporters about the the narrowness of the vote, she said: “In a democracy it's a given that we respect the majority decision.” The Swiss legislature last week approved the budget for the Air 2030 modernization program, which includes $6.5 billion for 30-40 new aircraft and $2 billion for a complementary ground-based, air defense system. Amherd stressed that the aircraft budget is to be seen as a ceiling. “If we can get suitable aircraft for less, we will certainly look at that,” she said. All vendors must meet a deadline of Nov. 18 to deliver final proposals. The government will then evaluate the bids throughout the first half of 2021 and make a decision on the aircraft type and missile defense hardware by June. Opponents of the plan could still derail it by seeking another referendum, a step that would require 100,000 signatures and could take years to unfold. The Swiss opposition was energized in part by voters' views about the government of U.S. President Donald Trump, according to local media reports. During the pre-referendum campaign, the two U.S. vendors in the running, Boeing and Lockheed Martin, saw themselves lumped in with his foreign policy approach, considered reckless by many in the wealthy European countries such as Switzerland. https://www.defensenews.com/global/europe/2020/09/28/switzerlands-65-billion-fighter-jet-plan-narrowly-passes-referendum/

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  April 21, 2020 | International, Aerospace

  Is the Air Force’s Advanced Battle Management System program gearing up to be the next major acquisition failure?

  Valerie Insinna WASHINGTON — Since Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Dave Goldfein took over as the service's top general in 2016, the Air Force has made figuring out how to connect its weapons with those of the Army, Navy and Marine Corps its biggest priority. The Air Force is set to have spent $300 million on the Advanced Battle Management System through fiscal year 2021. However, the service is still struggling to define what ABMS needs to do and how much it will cost, the Government Accountability Office said in a report released April 16. "The Air Force has not established a plan or business case for ABMS that identifies its requirements, a plan to attain mature technologies when needed, a cost estimate, and an affordability analysis. ... To date, the Air Force has not identified a development schedule for ABMS, and it has not formally documented requirements,” it read. That could have significant consequences for the program down the road, GAO continued: “GAO's previous work has shown that weapon systems without a sound business case are at greater risk for schedule delays, cost growth, and integration issues.” The GAO made four recommendations: create a cost estimate and a plan laying out how to afford the program, formalize the decision-making authorities of those involved in ABMS, and develop a list of technologies that are expected to fit into the initial system. In a response to the report, Kevin Fahey, the assistant secretary of defense for acquisition, concurred with all four recommendations — a sign that, going forward, the Air Force may be required to solidify more of its ABMS plans. The Air Force has maintained that the program's unconventional structure and methodology is a feature, not a bug. It wants to use a series of experiments to help discover and mature new technologies that can be weaved in alongside legacy platforms. For instance, the first ABMS experiment connected SpaceX's Starlink constellation with an AC-130 gunship, and the next demo will employ a Kratos Valkyrie drone carrying communications gear that enables the F-22 and F-35 to securely share data while allowing them to maintain stealth. Air Force officials have said technologies that are proven to be successful and mature during the experiments could become programs of record inside the ABMS family of systems. However, the Air Force does not seem to have a firm plan for what technologies it needs and when to bring them online, the GAO said. The service has identified 28 development areas that includes a new cloud network, a new common radio, and apps that provide different ways of presenting and fusing data. However, none of those areas are linked to specific technical requirements, and the Air Force hasn't explained what organizations are responsible for the development of those products. In one damning section, GAO compared ABMS with several cancelled programs with similar aims, such as the Army's Future Combat Systems program that sought to field a family of manned and unmanned technologies and the Joint Tactical Radio System, which was intended to create a government-owned software defined radio. These programs publicly flamed out after millions of dollars were spent in development, in part because certain technologies were not mature enough and caused the schedule to unravel. The scope of ABMS will be far larger than those previous programs, the Pentagon's Office of Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation told the GAO. But because the Air Force has not provided a detailed acquisition strategy, CAPE does not have confidence that the Air Force will be able succeed where those programs have failed. “Given the criticality of the battle management command and control mission and the planned retirement of legacy programs, the lack of an ABMS business case introduces uncertainty regarding whether the needed capabilities will be developed within required time frames,” the GAO said. Figuring out who has responsibility and decision-making authority for ABMS is also a messy proposition, the GAO said. The ABMS effort is led by a chief architect, Preston Dunlap, who is responsible for managing tradeoffs among the portfolio of technologies and guide experimentation efforts. However, existing programs that will be part of the ABMS family will retain their separate program office with their own independent management, and the Air Force has yet to clarify whether Dunlap will be able to redirect those program's funding to fall in line with ABMS objectives. For example, the Air Force's program office for space is currently working on a data integration project that could correspond with ABMS efforts to field a cloud network. But “although some ABMS funds have been obligated for this project, there is no documentation to support that the Chief Architect will be able to direct the PEO to change the project objectives or timeline to align with ABMS requirements once they are defined,” the GAO said. The role of the Air Force Warfighting Integration Capability or AFWIC, which was established in 2017 to help define how the service will fight wars in the future, is also unclear. An AFWIC senior official told the GAO that the organization began leading the service's multidomain command and control initiatives in 2019, but it is uncertain whether AFWIC also has the power to change the direction of the ABMS program. https://www.c4isrnet.com/c2-comms/2020/04/20/is-the-air-forces-advanced-battle-management-system-program-gearing-up-to-be-the-next-major-acquisition-failure/