Programmable EO/IR seeker emulator for Electronic Defence Countermeasures effectiveness assessment

On the same subject

• 

  October 5, 2018 | International, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security

  Contract Awards by US Department of Defense - October 4, 2018

  NAVY Asturian-Consigli JV LLC,* Virginia Beach, Virginia (N40085-18-D-1124); Edifice LLC, doing business as Edifice Solutions,* Beltsville, Maryland (N4008-18-D-1125); ED DesignBuild LLC,* Germantown, Maryland (N40085-18-D-1126); HCG-JCG JV,* Escondido, California (N40085-18-D-1127); and Military and Federal Construction Co. Inc.,* Jacksonville, North Carolina (N40085-18-D-1128), were each awarded a firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity multiple award contract for general construction projects in the Hampton Roads area of Virginia. The maximum dollar value for all five contracts combined is $249,000,000. The work to be performed provides for, but is not limited to, new construction, renovation, alteration, and repairs for general construction projects. Types of facilities include, but are not limited to warehouses, training facilities, personnel support and service facilities, housing facilities, etc. Asturian-Consigli JV LLC is awarded initial task order at $2,947,636 for the foundation and crawl space repairs at the advanced electronic guidance and instrumentation system facility (V-10) on Wallops Island, Accomack County, Virginia. Work for this task order is expected to be completed by December 2019. All work on this contract will be performed in the Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Mid-Atlantic Hampton Roads area, Virginia. The term of the contract is not to exceed 60 months, with an expected completion date of September 2023. Fiscal 2018 operations and maintenance, (Navy) contract funds in the amount of $2,967,636 are obligated on this award and expired at the end of fiscal 2018. Future task orders will be primarily funded by operation and maintenance, (Navy) and military construction. This contract was competitively procured via the Navy Electronic Commerce Online website, with 19 proposals received. These five contractors may compete for task orders under the terms and conditions of the awarded contract. The Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Mid-Atlantic, Norfolk, Virginia, is the contracting activity. (Awarded Sept. 29, 2018) MacDonald-Bedford | MBP JV,* Alameda, California, was awarded a maximum amount $98,000,000 indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract to provide construction management services in support of the Guam Defense Policy Review Initiative (DPRI) Program. The work to be performed will support the existing Naval Facilities Engineering Command (NAVFAC) workforce capabilities and provide increased capability to support construction projects and associated efforts undertaken by NAVFAC Pacific. The outcome to be achieved is the hiring of temporary supplemental construction management and engineering technician services. No task orders are being issued at this time. Work will be performed primarily in the Marianas region of operation (to include the following islands but not limited to: Guam, Tinian, Pagan, Palau, Chuuk, Saipan, and Northern Mariana Islands) (80 percent); Australia (10 percent); and Hawaii (10 percent), and is expected to be completed by September 2023. Fiscal 2018 operations and maintenance (Navy) contract funds in the amount of $10,000 are obligated on this award and expired at the end of fiscal 2018. Future task orders will be primarily funded by operation and maintenance (Navy). This contract was competitively procured via the Navy Electronic Commerce Online website, with six proposals received. The Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Pacific, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, is the contracting activity (N62742-18-D-1171). (Awarded Sept. 29, 2018) Davcon Inc.,* Virginia Beach, Virginia (N40085-18-D-1149); Delaware Corp.,* Topping, Virginia (N4008-18-D-1150); Doyon Project Services,* Federal Way, Washington (N40085-18-D-1151); Rand Enterprises,* Newport News, Virginia (N40085-18-D-1152); and Within Interior Design Inc., doing business as Tazewell Contracting,* Norfolk, Virginia (N40085-18-D-1153), were each awarded a firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity multiple award contract for heating, ventilating and air conditioning construction projects in the Hampton Roads area of Virginia. The maximum dollar value for all five contracts combined is $95,000,000. The work to be performed will primarily consist of new construction, demolition, repair, alteration, and renovation of heating, ventilating and air conditioning equipment, systems and infrastructure to include system components such as fans, motors, ductwork, controls, pumps, piping, supports, and insulation. Types of facilities on which work will be performed include administrative/industrial buildings, maintenance shops, warehouses, hangars, communications facilities, personnel support/instructional buildings, recreational facilities, lodging/dormitory facilities, medical clinics, training areas, indoor ranges, etc. Davcon Inc. is being awarded initial task order at $148,400 for the replacement of a chiller at Building 3889 at Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek-Fort Story, Virginia Beach, Virginia. Work for this task order is expected to be completed by February 2019. All work on this contract will be performed in the Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Mid-Atlantic Hampton Roads area, Virginia. The term of the contract is not to exceed 60 months, with an expected completion date of September 2023. Fiscal 2018 operations and maintenance (Navy) contract funds in the amount of $168,400 are obligated on this award and expired at the end of the fiscal 2018. Future task orders will be primarily funded by operations and maintenance (Navy). This contract was competitively procured via the Navy Electronic Commerce Online website, with 11 proposals received. These five contractors may compete for task orders under the terms and conditions of the awarded contract. The Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Mid-Atlantic, Norfolk, Virginia, is the contracting activity. (Awarded Sept. 29, 2018) A&H-Ambica JV LLC,* Livonia, Michigan (N40085-18-D-8733); Building Associates Inc.,* Bloomington, Indiana (N4008-18-D-8734); Federal Construction Group Inc.,* San Diego, California (N40085-18-D-8735); Krempp Construction Inc., Jasper, Indiana (N40085-18-D-8736); Midnight Sun Global Services LLC,* South Bend, Indiana (N40085-18-D-8737); and SEI Group Inc., Huntsville, Alabama (N40085-18-D-8738), were each awarded a firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity multiple award contract for general construction projects in Crane, Indiana. The maximum dollar value for all six contracts combined is $95,000,000. The work to be performed provides for, but is not limited to, new construction, demolition, repair, alteration, and renovation of buildings, systems and infrastructure and may include civil, structural, mechanical, electrical, fire protection, and communication systems. Types of facilities include administrative, industrial, maintenance, warehouses, communications, personnel support, recreation, lodging, medical, training, ranges, roads, etc., in support of the Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Public Works Department Crane, Indiana. A&H-Ambica JV LLC is awarded initial task order at $1,876,276 for the renovation of Building 2724 Break Room Renovation at Public Works Department Crane, Indiana. Work for this task order is expected to be completed by October 2019. All work on this contract will be performed in the Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Mid-Atlantic Public Works Department Crane, Indiana area of responsibility. The term of the contract is not to exceed 60 months, with an expected completion date of September 2023. Fiscal 2018 Navy working capital contract funds in the amount of $1,901,276 are obligated on this award and expired at the end of fiscal 2018. Future task orders will be primarily funded by operations and maintenance (Navy); and military construction. This contract was competitively procured via the Navy Electronic Commerce Online website, with 19 proposals received. These six contractors may compete for task orders under the terms and conditions of the awarded contract. The Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Mid-Atlantic, Norfolk, Virginia, is the contracting activity. (Awarded Sept. 29, 2018) DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY BP Products North America Inc., Chicago, Illinois, has been awarded a maximum $47,075,766 fixed-price with economic price adjustment contract for aviation fuel. This was a competitive acquisition with 19 offers received. This is a one-year base contract with no option periods. Location of performance is Singapore, with a Dec. 31, 2019, performance completion date. Using military services are Army, Navy, and Air Force. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2019 defense working capital funds. The contracting agency is Defense Logistics Agency Energy, Fort Belvoir, Virginia (SPE602-19-D-0452). Olgoonik Technical Services LLC, Anchorage, Alaska, has been awarded a maximum $11,579,403 modification (P00027) exercising the third one-year option period of a one-year base contract (SP3300-16-C-5001) with four one-year option periods for warehousing and distribution support services. This is a fixed-price-incentive firm contract with cost-reimbursement line items. The modification brings the total cumulative face value of the contract to $40,706,113 from $29,126,709. Locations of performance are Alaska and California, with an Oct. 15, 2019, performance completion date. Using customer is Defense Logistics Agency. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2019 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Distribution, New Cumberland, Pennsylvania. AIR FORCE Onvoi LLC, De Funiak Springs, Florida, has been awarded a $39,951,581 contract for base operating services at March Air Reserve Base, California. This contract provides for all personnel, supervision, equipment, tools, materials, supplies, test equipment, and other items and services necessary to accomplish supply, vehicle operations and maintenance, traffic management, real property maintenance, fuels management, and airfield management. Work will be performed at March ARB, California, and is expected to be completed by Oct. 31, 2023. This award is the result of a competitive acquisition and 10 offers were received. Fiscal 2019 operations and maintenance funds in the amount of $8,106,974 are being obligated at the time of award. Air Force Reserve Command Robins Air Force Base, Georgia, is the contracting activity (FA4664-19-C-0001). CORRECTION: The Sept. 28, 2018, announcement of a $1,051,818,540 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract award to The Aerospace Corp., El Segundo, California (FA8802-19-C-0001), for Federally Funded Research and Development Center support, was not for a contract modification. All other information in the announcement is correct. ARMY Oshkosh Defense LLC, Oshkosh, Wisconsin, was awarded a $16,038,473 modification (P00151) to contract W56HZV-15-C-0095 for spares acquisition integrated with production. Work will be performed in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, with an estimated completion date of Dec. 31, 2018. Fiscal 2018 procurement Marine Corps; and other procurement, Army funds in the amount of $16,038,473 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Warren, Michigan, is the contracting activity. *Small Business https://dod.defense.gov/News/Contracts/Contract-View/Article/1654951/source/GovDelivery/

• 

  July 31, 2020 | International, Aerospace

  U.S. Air Force Launches Three-Year Fielding Plan For Skyborg Weapons

  Steve Trimble July 07, 2020 The next combat aircraft to enter the U.S. Air Force inventory will not be a manned sixth-generation fighter or even the Northrop Grumman B-21. By fiscal 2023, the Air Force expects to deliver the first operational versions of a new unmanned aircraft system (UAS) called Skyborg, a provocative portmanteau blending the medium of flight with the contraction for a cybernetic organism. The Skyborg family of aircraft is expected to fill an emerging “attritable” category for combat aircraft that blurs the line between a reusable UAS and a single-use cruise missile. July 8 award date for Skyborg contracts Leidos is managing autonomy mission system As the aircraft are developed, Skyborg also will serve as the test case of a radical change in acquisition philosophy, with ecosystems of collaborative software coders and aircraft manufacturers replacing the traditional approach with a supply chain defined by a single prime contractor. The Air Force also plans to manage the Skyborg aircraft differently than other UAS. Although Air Combat Command (ACC) is considering the Skyborg family as a replacement for pre-Block F-16s after 2025 and MQ-9s after 2030, the aircraft is not likely to fit neatly into an existing force structure with dedicated Skyborg squadrons. “Even though we call Skyborg an attritable aircraft, I think we'll think of them more like reusable weapons,” says Will Roper, assistant secretary of the Air Force for acquisition, technology and logistics. The Skyborg is an attritable weapon, which means key components such as the jet engine will be designed with a short service life. Credit: AFRL via YouTube The Skyborg propulsion systems—including expendable subsonic and supersonic jet engines—will be rated with a fraction of the service life expected of a fully reusable UAS or manned aircraft. “We'll do whatever number of takeoffs and landings they're ‘spec'd' for, and then we'll attrit them out of the force as targets and just buy them at a steady rate,” Roper says. Starting in fiscal 2023, a concept of operations for a formation of four Lockheed Martin F-22s will include Skyborgs as part of the manned aircraft's load-out. “I expect that the pilots, depending on the mission, [will] decide: Does the Skyborg return and land with them and then go to fight another day, or is it the end of its life and it's going to go on a one-way mission?” Roper explains. In some cases, the pilot may decide a target is important enough that it is worth the loss of a Skyborg, even if its service life has not been used up, he adds. As the concept evolves, a diverse array of Skyborg aircraft designs will likely find roles beyond the air combat community, Roper says. “I don't think it'll just be fighters,” he says. “I think they'll fly with bombers. I think they'll fly with tankers to provide extra defensive capability. That's what I love about their versatility and the fact that we can take risks with them.” Skyborg is often presented as the epitome of the “loyal wingman” concept, in which one or multiple UAS are controlled or managed by a manned aircraft to perform a variety of surveillance, support and strike tasks during a mission. But the aircraft also could have the ability to operate independently of a manned aircraft, with the capability to launch and recover hundreds of such systems without the need for runways or even bases. The Kratos XQ-58A, which achieved first flight in March 2019, is one of several potential members of the Skyborg UAS family. Credit: U.S. Air Force “If [China and Russia] know that they have to target only tens or even hundreds of ports and airfields, we have simplified their problem,” says ACC chief Gen. Mike Holmes. The new class of attritable aircraft, he says, are designed so that “we can still provide relevant high-tempo combat power to be freed up from a runway.” If Skyborg is the future, it begins on July 8. The Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) is due on the second Wednesday of this month to award a contract to start developing the first in a family of experimental UAS bearing the name Skyborg. The AFRL already has a stable of potential concepts. The Kratos XQ-58A Valkyrie, which has flown four times since March 2019, is the most visible example of the AFRL's Low-Cost Attritable Aircraft Technology platform. Meanwhile, the Low-Cost Attritable Aircraft Platform--Sharing project quietly kept several UAS industry leaders involved in design studies, including Boeing, General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc., Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman. Each company selected will be awarded a contract with a maximum value of $400 million over a five-year ordering period. But the core of the Skyborg program is the software; specifically, the military aviation equivalent of the algorithm-fed convolutional neural networks that help driverless cars navigate on city streets. In announcing Leidos on May 18 as the Skyborg Design Agent (SDA), the AFRL selected the same company that delivered the software “brain” of the Navy's Sea Hunter unmanned surface vehicle, which navigated from San Diego to Honolulu in 2018. As SDA, Leidos' role is to deliver a software core that uses artificial intelligence to learn and adapt as the aircraft flies. The autonomy mission system core—as integrated by Leidos from a combination of industry and government sources—will be inserted into multiple low-cost UAS designed by different companies, with each configured to perform a different mission or set of missions. That is how the Skyborg program is set up today, but that is not how it started. Roper created the original “Skyborg” term and concept when he led the Strategic Capabilities Office within the Office of the Secretary of Defense in 2012-17. Roper transferred Skyborg to the AFRL, where it was renamed Avatar. A year after taking over Air Force acquisition in 2017, Roper changed the name back to Skyborg and created a program office in October 2018. In March 2019, Roper revealed the Skyborg concept to a group of reporters a week before the AFRL issued the first request for information to industry about the program. At that time, Skyborg was still organized more traditionally, with plans to select a single contractor to serve as a prime integrator. By early 2020, program officials reorganized Skyborg into modular hardware and software subcomponents built on an open architecture that requires no prime integrator. As the acquisition strategy has evolved, so has the Air Force's thinking about how to use the Skyborg family of systems. “The whole idea was [that] the contested environment is going to be challenging, it's going to be uncertain, and so it makes the most sense to have something that doesn't have a pilot in it to go into the battlefield first,” Roper says. “But once you agree that's a self-evident operational concept, it opens up the door for a lot of nontraditional thinking for the Air Force.” After a 2-3 year experimental phase, the AFRL plans to deliver an early operational capability in fiscal 2023. Follow-on operational Skyborgs could be funded within the Next-Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) project or through a separate program of record. The Skyborg concept even has links to the Air Force's architecture for the Advanced Battle-Management System (ABMS). “Attritable-ONE,” which is defined as having “multirole attritable capabilities,” is one of about 30 product lines in the ABMS architecture. “Skyborg and the AttritableONE teams are closely coordinated for planning and collaboration purposes,” the AFRL informed industry in response to questions about the Skyborg solicitation. The aircraft supplier must deliver a highly flexible design. Leidos, the design agent, will provide the autonomous mission system that will serve as the pilot, flight control computer and mission systems operator for the aircraft. But the “size, weight, power and cooling details for the Skyborg core autonomy system have not been finalized,” the AFRL told the bidding companies. “The majority of the system will be software-based and integrate with the sensors onboard the host aircraft,” the AFRL says. “Extensive collaboration between the Skyborg system design agent and the participants in this [contract] is expected.” https://aviationweek.com/ad-week/us-air-force-launches-three-year-fielding-plan-skyborg-weapons

• 

  July 7, 2020 | International, Aerospace, Land

  Army on path to use space sensors to help guns on the ground see farther

  Jen Judson WASHINGTON — The Army is on a path to use space sensors to help its artillery see and shoot well beyond current capability. The service has already wrapped up an effort to achieve this capability, which took place in Europe in February and March, Gen. Mike Murray, Army Futures Command commander, told reporters in a media call. Murray was discussing how Army modernization would proceed despite COVID-19 social isolation measures in April. The Army will continue to build upon these early successes tapping into space assets to help guns on the ground hit long-range targets, an Army spokesperson told Defense News in a written statement. Conducted through Futures Command's cross functional team in charge of Assured Position, Navigation and Timing (A-PNT), the service was able to link space sensors with shooters in live-fire demonstrations in Grafenwoehr, Germany, on three separate occasions with the latest on March 23, the spokesperson wrote. Over the course of the demonstrations, the team “successfully sensed and hit targets at ranges beyond line of sight using satellite capabilities that have not been accessible to ground forces until now,” the spokesperson said. The exercise showed the “Army's ability to engage and defeat time sensitive targets with timely and accurate fires anywhere on the battlefield.” Tapping sensors that can help guide missiles and munitions to targets deep into the battlefield is critical to the Army's future long-range precision fires capability and key to operating across multiple domains. But achieving such distances requires connecting sensors and shooters that have never worked together before Long-Range Precision Fires (LRPF) is the Army's top modernization priority as it plays a critical role in the future battlefield and will be a centerpiece in the service's future Multi-Domain Operations doctrine currently in development. The LRPT cross functional team will continue to push the capabilities to far greater ranges than previously capable or than those distances previously allowed prior to the United States' withdrawal from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty in 2019. During the initial live-fire demonstrations, a unit conducted an operation using the weapons and ammunition associated with their mission — in this case the Army integrated the capability with the Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS) and the M777 howitzer. The demonstrations used high explosive rounds equipped with a precision guidance kit fuze fired from the M777 howitzer or MRLS launcher. The Advanced Miniaturized Data Acquisition and Dissemination Vehicle accessed various sensors and target data was transmitted through the Joint Automated Deep Operations Coordination System and the Advanced Field Artillery Database System for the technical and tactical fire direction processes, the spokesperson detailed. The demonstrations gave “insight” into current capabilities “and their ability to link in novel ways to provide a capability down to the division operational level of combat,” the Army spokesperson said. Originally, pre-pandemic, the Army had planned to work on the capability throughout the scaled-back Defender Europe 2020 exercise using space-based sensors to pursue deep targets that “have not been responsive to ground forces until now,” according to the spokesperson. The APNT team will build upon the demonstrations by finding ways to reduce the sensor-to-shooter timeline to meet capability needs in the future anticipated operating environments. Ultimately, the Army will integrate the capability into the future Extended Range Cannon and a “full suite of Army fires platforms.” The ERCA cannon has already reached ranges of roughly 40 miles in recent tests at Yuma Proving Ground, Arizona. The service also plans to begin integrating with aviation platforms, the spokesperson said. The demonstrations are feeding into a “targeting process multi-domain operational strategy,” according to the spokesperson. The Army also plans to work on an architecture that connects both kinetic and non-kinetic assets from across joint, interagency and multinational partners. https://www.c4isrnet.com/2020/07/06/army-on-path-to-use-space-sensors-to-help-guns-on-the-ground-see-farther/