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November 15, 2021 | International, Land

Poland to acquire 300 used Cougar MRAPs from the US

Poland's Defence Minister Mariusz Błaszczak has announced the country will acquire 300 second-hand Cougar mine-resistant, ambush-protected (MRAP) vehicles from the United States as part of efforts to modernize the country's land forces.

https://www.defensenews.com/global/europe/2021/11/12/poland-to-acquire-300-used-cougar-mraps-from-the-us/

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  • Contract Awards by US Department of Defense - May 21, 2020

    May 22, 2020 | International, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security

    Contract Awards by US Department of Defense - May 21, 2020

    U.S. TRANSPORTATION COMMAND Marine Terminals Corp., San Pedro, California, has been awarded a $95,835,034 firm-fixed-price contract (HTC711-20-D-R046) providing stevedoring and related terminal services at ports in Northern California. Work will be performed at the Military Ocean Terminal, Concord, California; and the Port of Oakland, California. The contract period of performance is from Aug. 7, 2020, to Aug. 6, 2025. Fiscal 2020 transportation working capital funds were obligated at award. U.S. Transportation Command, Directorate of Acquisition, Scott Air Force Base, Illinois, in the contracting activity. NAVY AECOM-BAKER-CARDNO NAVFAC Atlantic Planning JV, Arlington, Virginia, is awarded a $95,000,000 maximum amount, firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity, architect-engineering contract for architect-engineer services for preparation of Navy and Marine Corps planning and engineering services for work located primarily in the continental U.S. east coast, but also worldwide. The work to be performed provides for: (a) Plans: global shore infrastructure plans; installation development plans; regional integration plans; functional plans; maintenance and sustainment plans; integrated product support plans; encroachment action plans; family housing and bachelor quarters comprehensive neighborhood plans; activity overview plans; and installation appearance plans; (b) Project Planning Documents: the preparation of military construction project planning documentation; preparation of construction cost estimates, preliminary and parametric cost estimates and siting-land use studies/analyses; special site approvals; economic analyses; asset evaluations; basic facility requirements documentation; facilities planning documents; preliminary hazard analyses; preliminary hazard lists, and sustainable design studies; (c) Studies: concept studies; special planning studies, business case analysis studies and traffic/parking/movement studies; facilities planning studies, feasibility studies, safety studies and air installation compatible use zones; range air installation compatible use zones studies; site studies; facilities life cycle studies; activity planning and management models and electronic land use/planning tools/studies. Work is expected to be complete by May 2025. No task orders are being issued at this time. The term of the contract is not to exceed 60 months. Fiscal 2020 operations and maintenance (Navy) (O&M,N) contract funds in the amount of $10,000 are obligated on this award and will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Future task orders will be primarily funded by O&M, N. This contract was competitively procured via the Navy Electronic Commerce Online website and two proposals were received. The Naval Facilities Engineering Command Atlantic, Norfolk, Virginia, is the contracting activity (N62470-20-D-0006). Lockheed Martin Corp. Rotary and Mission Systems, Baltimore, Maryland, is awarded a $48,965,154 firm-fixed-price modification to previously awarded contract N63394-20-C0004 to exercise options for launch sequencer MK 5 Mod 2 production units in support of the Vertical Launch System. Work will be performed in Oldsmar, Florida. The Vertical Launch System provides area and self-defense, anti-air warfare capabilities, counter-air and land attack cruise missile defense and surface and subsurface warfare capabilities. Work is expected to be complete by April 2022. Fiscal 2019 shipbuilding and conversion (Navy) funds in the amount of $48,965,154 will be obligated at time of award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Surface Warfare Center, Port Hueneme Division, Port Hueneme, California, is the contracting activity. The Boeing Co., Seattle, Washington, is awarded a $27,770,370 modification (P00174) to previously awarded cost-plus-fixed-fee contract N00019-14-C-0067. This modification procures integrated logistics support for the Boeing P-8A Poseidon warfare aircraft for the Navy, the government of Australia, and the government of the United Kingdom. Work will be performed in Seattle, Washington (68%); Jacksonville, North Carolina (16%); Whidbey Island, Washington (4%); Sigonella, Italy (3%); Kadena, Japan (2%); Bahrain, Bahrain (2%); Misawa, Japan (2%); Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii (2%); and various locations within and outside the continental U.S. (1%). Work is expected to be complete by March 2023. Fiscal 2020 aircraft procurement (Navy) funds in the amount of $8,391,473; Royal Australian Air Force cooperative program funds in the amount of $256,187; and Foreign Military Sales funds in the amount of $133,083 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. DRS Laurel Technologies, Johnstown, Pennsylvania, is awarded a $26,047,878 firm-fixed-price modification to previously-awarded contract N63394-20-C-0002 to exercise options for launch control unit Mk 235 Mod 11 and Mod 12 production units in support of the Vertical Launch System (VLS). Work will be performed in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. This option exercise is for the manufacture, assembly, test and delivery of additional production units of the VLS launch sequencer launch control unit Mk 235 Mod 11 and 12, part numbers 7104280-119 and 7104280-129, respectively. The VLS provides area and self-defense, anti-air warfare, surface and subsurface capabilities, counter-air and land attack cruise missile defense, and is equipped with two redundant launch control units, each of which is electrically interfaced with all of the launch sequencers in the system. Work is expected to be complete by February 2021. Fiscal 2020 shipbuilding and conversion (Navy) funding in the amount of $26,047,878 will be obligated at time of award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Surface Warfare Center, Port Hueneme Division, Port Hueneme, California, is the contracting activity. Management Services Group Inc.,* doing business as Global Technical Systems, Virginia Beach, Virginia, is awarded a $24,385,746 firm-fixed-price modification to previously-awarded contract N00024-20-C-5608 for procurement of network, processing and storage (NPS) technical insertion (TI) 16, modification (MOD) 1 production equipment, which provides computer processing and memory, data storage and extraction, network systems and input/output interfaces to host software applications of Navy combat systems. This contract combines purchases for the Navy (62%) and the government of the Commonwealth of Australia (38%) under the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program. Work will be performed in Virginia Beach, Virginia. The NPS program consists of enterprise products in use across surface Navy combat systems which introduce powerful, commercially available, off-the-shelf processors as part of a general strategy to achieve a modular and open architecture design. NPS is comprised of two different common processing system enclosure assemblies and three variants: advanced storage area network, core computing system, and air-cooled processing and storage subsystem. Aegis weapon system Aegis modernization upgrade equipment systems are also included in this procurement and align requirements to include the Aegis local area network interconnect system, Aegis conversion equipment group Input/Output 1 and 2, and digital video display system. Work is expected to be complete by December 2021. Fiscal 2020 shipbuilding and conversion (Navy) funds; FMS Australia funds; 2015 shipbuilding and conversion (Navy) funds; 2016 shipbuilding and conversion (Navy) funds; and 2020 other procurement (Navy) funds in the amount of $24,385,746 will be obligated at time of award, and funds in the amount of $39,356 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity. Innovative Defense Technologies LLC,* Arlington, Virginia, is awarded a $22,506,572 modification (P00007) to previously awarded cost-plus-fixed-fee contract N00014-19-C-1054 for the Cloud to Edge Environment. This modification adds Options 5 through 10, and exercises Options 5, 9 and 10, which increases the contract value by $22,506,572. Under this modification, the contractor will continue work to deliver a secure development and operations (SecDevOps) environment enabling cloud-based collaborative development, simulation, testing and certification of evolving Navy software systems. Work will be performed in Arlington, Virginia (68%); Mount Laurel, New Jersey (23%); Washington, D.C. (6%); Rhode Island (2%); and various places below 1%. Work is expected to be complete by February 2022. Fiscal 2019 research, development, test and evaluation (Navy) funds in the amount of $77,844 are obligated at the time of award and will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Fiscal 2020 research, development, test and evaluation (Navy) funds in the amount of $20,453,641 are obligated at the time of award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Office of Naval Research, Arlington, Virginia, is the contracting activity. Alere San Diego Inc., doing business as Immunalysis Corp., San Diego, California, is awarded a $7,066,152 firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for U.S. Food and Drug Administration and quality management documented fentanyl/norfentanyl immunoassay reagent kits for use with the currently installed Beckman Coulter AU5800 series systems for the Department of Defense Drug Demand Reduction Program. This is a two-year single award contract, and deliveries are expected to be complete by May 2022. Fiscal 2020 defense-wide, one-year operations and maintenance funds will be obligated on decentralized individual delivery orders during the base period. No funds will be obligated at the time of award and the minimum guarantee under the contract is 100 kits. The contract was competitively procured via the Federal Business Opportunities website, and three offers were received. The Naval Medical Logistics Command, Fort Detrick, Maryland, is the contracting activity (N62645-20-D-5004). ARMY Raytheon Co., Tewksbury, Massachusetts, was awarded a $92,370,000 hybrid (cost-no-fee, cost-plus-fixed-fee, and firm-fixed-price) contract for sustainment, maintenance, training, refurbishment, overhaul, engineering services and spares to support ongoing operations of the National Advanced Surface to Air Missile System. Bids were solicited via the internet with one received. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of Feb. 14, 2024. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, is the contracting activity (W31P4Q-20-D-0008). AECOM Management Services Inc., Germantown, Maryland, was awarded a $10,507,113 modification (0001BW) to contract W52P1J-12-G-0028 for logistics support services, including maintenance, supply and transportation. Work will be performed at Fort Polk, Louisiana, with an estimated completion date of Nov. 17, 2020. Fiscal 2020 operations and maintenance (Army) funds in the amount of $10,507,113 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Rock Island Arsenal, Illinois, is the contracting activity. Integration Innovation Inc.,* Huntsville, Alabama, was awarded an $8,310,128 modification (000117) to contract W31P4Q-18-A-0089 for the International Apache Technical Lifecycle Support task order. Work will be performed in Huntsville, Alabama, with an estimated completion date of June 4, 2021. Fiscal 2020 Foreign Military Sales (Egypt, India, Indonesia, Israel, Japan, Kuwait, Netherlands, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Republic of Korea, Taiwan, United Arab Emirates and United Kingdom) funds in the amount of $8,310,128 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, is the contracting activity. DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY Creighton AB Inc.,* Reidsville, North Carolina, has been awarded a maximum $12,080,120 indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for men's and women's dress coats. This was a competitive acquisition with two responses received. This is a one-year base contract with four one-year option periods. Locations of performance are North Carolina and New York, with a May 20, 2021, performance completion date. Using military service is Air Force. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2020 through 2021 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (SPE1C1-20-D-1274). AIR FORCE LinQuest Corp., Los Angeles, California, has been awarded an $11,008,552 firm-fixed-price modification (P00047) to contract FA8819-15-F-0001 for the Space and Missile Systems Center technical support follow-on task order bridge extension. This modification provides continued technical support services for the Special Programs Directorate, Los Angeles Air Force Base, California. Work will be performed at Los Angeles AFB, California, and is expected to be completed May 31, 2021. Fiscal 2020 operations and maintenance funds in the amount of $856,651; and fiscal 2020 research, development, test and evaluation funds in the amount of $3,000,000 are obligated at the time of award. The U.S. Space Force, Space and Missile Systems Center, Special Programs Directorate, Los Angeles AFB, California, is the contracting activity. Central Coast Water Authority, Buellton, California, has been awarded a $7,600,000 indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity delivery order to provide Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, and outlying municipalities with potable water. Work will be provided at Vandenberg AFB, California, and is expected to be completed June 14, 2032. The cumulative value of this contract is $165,443,388. Fiscal 2020 operations and maintenance funds in the amount of $7,593,715 are being obligated at the time of award. The 30th Contracting Squadron, Vandenberg AFB, California, is the contracting activity (F04684-92-D-0013). *Small business https://www.defense.gov/Newsroom/Contracts/Contract/Article/2194990/source/GovDelivery/

  • Lockheed Aims For Laser On Fighter By 2025

    September 18, 2020 | International, Aerospace, Land

    Lockheed Aims For Laser On Fighter By 2025

    SYDNEY J. FREEDBERG JR. How do you keep a laser focused on a target moving at hundreds of miles per hour? The answer is crucial to Lockheed lasers being fitted on Army trucks and Air Force fighters over the next few years. WASHINGTON: “Lockheed Martin is working to fly a laser on tactical fighters within the next five years,” Lockheed laser expert Mark Stephen told reporters yesterday afternoon. “We're spending a lot of time to get the beam director right.” That beam director, which keeps the laser beam on target, is a crucial but easily overlooked component of future laser weapons. The Air Force Research Lab's SHiELD program aims to put defensive laser pod on fighters to defend them against incoming anti-aircraft missiles. An offensive laser to shoot down enemy aircraft would have to hit harder and at longer distances, so it's a more distant goal: Such weapons are envisioned for a future “sixth generation” fighter — like the NGAD prototype now in flight test — to follow the 5th-gen F-35, while the SHiELD pod will go on non-stealthy 4th gen aircraft like the F-16, as in this Lockheed video. But the company's new beam-director design is actually getting its first workout on an Army system, the truck-mounted IFPC Energy Laser, which will defend against artillery rockets, drones, and, potentially, subsonic cruise missiles. https://breakingdefense.com/2020/09/lockheed-aims-for-laser-on-fighter-by-2025/

  • From crowd control to ‘wireless energy beaming,' the Army’s new vehicles must have more power but use less fuel

    November 9, 2018 | International, Land

    From crowd control to ‘wireless energy beaming,' the Army’s new vehicles must have more power but use less fuel

    By: Todd South As Army leadership looks to transform ground operations and logistics experts shave supply requirements such as fuel, work being done to generate more electric power with less fuel is at the heart of the land fight in the next wave of warfare. The two paths converge at work being done to “electrify” the future vehicle fleet at the Army's center for vehicle research – the Tank Automotive Research Development and Engineering Center. A November forum at TARDEC focused on advances in vehicle electrical power as service leaders, industry experts and researchers pursue ways to give more soldiers more power to run complex systems of the future. The first such forum took place in June and laid out an overview of what will need to happen to reach Army goals. Over the next year, participants will refine their plans to build a complex fleet of vehicles capable of a host of tasks not yet fielded. Vehicles have come a long way from moving forward and backward and carrying troops and ammo. “The electrical demands on the Army's vehicles today are growing far beyond anything we've seen before,” said George Hamilton, TARDEC's lead for Vehicle Electronics Architecture. “Our focus is on developing and providing a modular, flexible and adaptable vehicle architecture that can expand to meet future demands of all kinds.” And the goals are ambitious. The Army wants most of the electrification infrastructure in place or ready for testing by mid-2024 and a working, all-electric power train for the fleet by 2027. The systems and capabilities that the electrification project is pursuing are aimed at enabling seamless Multi-Domain Operations in which forces can access limited windows in the fight at various domains, from the traditional air-land-sea to cyber-electronic warfare-space domains. But, power demands on legacy vehicles only grow as more systems are added, experts said. Over time, that's meant entirely new wiring, amplifiers and other electronics architecture for the same vehicles that have been in service for decades. For example, in 2001, the standard vehicle only required a 150 amp alternator to power its onboard systems. Today, that same vehicle needs 10 times the amperage to run all of the weapon systems, computers, radios, monitors and cameras on current vehicles. At a recent talk at the Association of the U.S. Army, Lt. Gen. Aundre Piggee, the Army G-4, said that future combat operations will not be able to rely on forward operating bases. Logisticians will need to find expeditionary ways to move supplies, especially fuel, to combat units. Current brigade combat teams are able to operate for about three days before a full resupply. But Piggee said that the goal is to stretch that to seven days. To meet that end, a variety of options are being explored, but the main supply saver is reducing demand, specifically fuel. BCTs will need to use at least one-third less fuel to keep their standalone abilities at the one-week mark, he said. That extends beyond petroleum and to battery life, power consumption on smart grids, and anywhere else that technology procedures and advancements can make the formation lethal as long with less fuel or power consumption. So, at the same time that larger formations must be more self-sustaining and use less fuel, the systems that enable their fighting might will need more power. Tomorrow's vehicles will need to do much more than what's being demanded now. On the Army wish list are energy weapon systems to counter rockets, missiles and drones, wireless energy beaming to help with running unmanned ground vehicles and aerial drones with remote power, non-lethal energy weapons for crowd disbursement, silent modes for vehicle movement, high-power electronic jamming, electronic armor to deflect electromagnetic spectrum and projectile attacks, and long-range electromagnetic guns for multiple uses. And the backbone of those capabilities is an open architecture powering system on the next wave of ground vehicles that nearly any system built today or decades from now can plug into, and it will provide the power needed to run. Part of that, the Next-Generation Combat Vehicle Electrical Power Architecture, has been in development at TARDEC since 2012. Once implemented, the system is expected to provide fuel efficiency that will reduce fuel consumption by more than 10 percent and provide 20 percent more efficient power generation and energy transfer. That will put less strain on the vehicle systems while using less fuel and providing more power. And, it can take powerful hybrid vehicles, those using both petroleum-based fuels and battery or fuel cell power. This effort is coupled with a recent partnership between TARDEC and the U.S. Department of Energy into hydrogen fuel cell technology. “We think hydrogen as a fuel source, and the fuel cells that generate electricity from the hydrogen, will enable enormous capability for our warfighters,” Paul Rogers, director of TARDEC, said in a release. The applications go beyond fuel efficiency and reducing fuel logistics burdens. “Vehicles using hydrogen run on electric motor propulsion, giving very low noise and thermal signatures while in operation,” Rogers said. “Additionally, we can generate valuable electrical power using hydrogen fuel cells that currently requires noisy and heavy generators.” Both of those efforts could help not only operational forces in the tactical fight but the surrounding support that brings them their supplies. https://www.armytimes.com/news/your-army/2018/11/08/from-crowd-control-to-wireless-energy-beaming-the-armys-new-vehicles-must-have-more-power-but-use-less-fuel

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