September 12, 2023 | International, Aerospace
Aerospace suppliers and airlines around the world warned of rising costs and a squeeze on plane capacity after U.S. engine maker RTX disclosed that a rare manufacturing flaw could ground hundreds of Airbus jets in coming years.
February 22, 2023 | International, Aerospace
Collins will provide its extensive Unmanned Aerial Systems or UAS integration experience to SRB Aerial Systems
October 10, 2019 | International, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security
ARMY Arrowhead Contracting Inc.,* Lenexa, Kansas (W9128F-20-D-0001), Bristol Construction Services LLC,* Anchorage, Alaska (W9128F-20-D-0009), Ashford Leebcor Enterprises II LLC,* Williamsburg, Virginia (W9128F-20-D-0010), Gideon Contracting LLC,* San Antonio, Texas (W9128F-20-D-0011), RM Builders JV,* Alamogordo, New Mexico (W9128F-20-D-0012), Trusted Construction and Facility Support,* Chevy Chase, Maryland (W9128F-20-D-0013), and HHI Corp.,* Ogden, Utah (W9128F-20-D-0014), will compete for each order of the $225,000,000 firm-fixed-price contract for demolition, hazardous and toxic waste remediation, disposal services, facilities sustainment, restoration and modernization design-build and design-bid-build projects. Bids were solicited via the internet with 35 received. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of Oct. 8, 2024. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Omaha, Nebraska, is the contracting activity. DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY US Foods Inc., Los Angeles, California, has been awarded a maximum $90,298,694 fixed-price with economic-price-adjustment, indefinite-quantity contract for full-line food distribution on Navy ships in the San Diego area. This was a sole source acquisition using justification 10 U.S. Code 2304 (c)(1), as stated in Federal Acquisition Regulation 6.302-1. This is a 310-day bridge contract with no option periods. Location of performance is California, with an Aug. 15, 2020, performance completion date. Using military services are Army, Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2020 defense working capital funds. The contracting agency is the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (SPE300-20-D-3240). US Foods Inc., Port Orange, Florida, has been awarded a maximum $56,100,000 fixed-price with economic-price-adjustment, indefinite-quantity contract for full-line food distribution for Department of Defense customers in Mayport, Florida and the surrounding area. This was a sole source acquisition using justification 10 U.S. Code 2304 (c)(1) as stated in Federal Acquisition Regulation 6.302-1. This is a 262-day bridge contract with no option periods. Location of performance is Florida, Cuba and the Bahamas with a June 27, 2020, performance completion date. Using military services are Army, Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps. Type of appropriation is Fiscal Year 2020 defense working capital funds. The contracting agency is the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (SPE300-20-D-3245). Tulsa Dental Products LLC, Tulsa, Oklahoma has been awarded a maximum $39,000,000 fixed-price with economic-price-adjustment, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for hospital equipment and accessories for the Defense Logistics Agency electronic catalog. This is a five-year contract with no option periods. This was a competitive acquisition with 94 responses received. Twenty-four contracts have been awarded to date. Using military services are Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps. Location of performance is Oklahoma, with an Oct. 8, 2024, performance completion date. The type of appropriation is Fiscal Year 2020 through 2025 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (SPE2DH-20-D-0020). AIR FORCE Spartan Air Academy Iraq LLC, Irving, Texas has been awarded a $24,863,731 firm-fixed-price contract for contractor logistics support (CLS) services. The contract provides for CLS services and material support for 15 T-6A aircraft. Work will be performed at Balad Air Base, Iraq and is expected to be completed by June 30, 2020. This contract involves 100 percent foreign military sales to Iraq. Funding provided by Iraq in the amount of $24,863,731 is being obligated at the time of award. The Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, Training Aircraft Division, International Support Branch, Wright Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio is the contracting activity (FA8617-20-C-6232). NAVY Raytheon Co., El Segundo, California is awarded an $11,954,744 firm-fixed-price delivery order (N00383-20-F-UX00) under a previously-awarded basic ordering agreement (N00383-19-G-UX01) for the procurement of 101 spare part units across nine assemblies used in support of the F-18 APG-79 active electronically scanned array radar system. Work will be performed in Forest, Mississippi. This contract contains no options, and work is expected to be completed by December 2022. Annual working capital funds (Navy) in the amount of $11,413,201, and Foreign Military Sales funds (Kuwait) in the amount of $541,543 will be obligated at the time of award in the full amount of the contract, and funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. One firm was solicited for this non-competitive requirement under authority 10 U.S. Code 2304 (c)(1) with one offer received. Naval Supply Systems Command Weapon Systems Support, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania is the contracting activity. Complete Parachute Solutions, Deland, Florida is awarded a $9,640,800 firm-fixed-price modification to previously awarded contract M00264-18-C-0007 to exercise Option Year Two for the Multi-Mission Parachute Course. The Multi-Mission Parachute Course provides training and technical support for all military free-fall training to ensure compliance with all Federal Aviation Administration regulations and Marine Corps orders to safely meet the Marine Corps training input requirements. Work will be performed in Coolidge, Arizona, and is expected to be completed by September 2020. Fiscal 2020 operation and maintenance (Marine Corps) funds in the amount of $9,640,800 will be obligated at the time of award and will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Marine Corps Installation, National Capital Region-Regional Contracting Office, Quantico, Virginia, is the contracting activity. *Small Business https://www.defense.gov/Newsroom/Contracts/Contract/Article/1985367/source/GovDelivery/
May 27, 2020 | International, Aerospace
The U.S. Army is leading what looks to be the biggest rotorcraft program in history. Called Future Vertical Lift, it could eventually buy thousands of aircraft to replace over a dozen different helicopters in the joint inventory. FVL, as it is usually called, has been a long time coming. So long that technologies now commonplace in commercial aviation such as “fly-by-wire” flight controls are nowhere to be found in the Army fleet. So long that the Army was forced to retire all of its aged scout helicopters even though it lacked a replacement. The U.S. Army is leading what looks to be the biggest rotorcraft program in history. Called Future Vertical Lift, it could eventually buy thousands of aircraft to replace over a dozen different helicopters in the joint inventory. FVL, as it is usually called, has been a long time coming. So long that technologies now commonplace in commercial aviation such as “fly-by-wire” flight controls are nowhere to be found in the Army fleet. So long that the Army was forced to retire all of its aged scout helicopters even though it lacked a replacement. The bad news is that if Future Vertical Lift falters the way some past efforts have, much of the U.S. rotorcraft industry might falter with it. FVL isn't the only game in town, but it is by far the biggest. If production of legacy rotorcraft ceases to make room for new ones and then FVL fails to deliver, industry might not have enough cashflow to sustain essential skills and suppliers. Army leaders are acutely aware of the potential industrial-base fallout. I know that because earlier this month my colleagues and I at the Lexington Institute had a lengthy exchange with the two top Army officials managing FVL. They are Brigadier General Walter T. Rugen, leader of the service's cross-functional team for vertical lift, and Mr. Patrick H. Mason, the Army's program executive officer for aviation. I thought we would spend most of the conversation discussing the Army's need to “overmatch” future adversaries in the air. But early on, Gen. Rugen observed that Future Vertical Lift “isn't just about overmatch, it's about the industrial base.” It was a theme he kept coming back to throughout the exchange, noting that top Army leaders have been briefed on the consequences for industry if FVL doesn't come to fruition. Apparently those consequences are potentially grave, particularly at lower levels of the supply chain, where fragile, single points of failure support the entire sector. That phrase—single points of failure—was used frequently in an interagency assessment of the defense industrial base prepared early in President Trump's tenure. It detailed how a domestic industrial complex once dubbed the “arsenal of democracy” has gradually hollowed out in recent decades as manufacturers moved offshore. There has been concern about the loss of skills and suppliers in the rotorcraft industry for some time. The U.S. Army is by far the biggest operator of rotorcraft in the world, but since the Cold War ended 30 years ago it has mainly been upgrading what it already had rather than developing new helicopters. It isn't easy to sustain design and engineering talent when your top customer never buys anything genuinely new. So in addition to addressing the increasingly harsh operational environment in which Army Aviation will need to wage future wars, FVL must also provide most of the resources needed to revitalize a key part of the domestic aerospace industry. So far that effort is progressing nicely, using paperless design techniques, digital modeling and prototyping to develop strikingly new rotorcraft that will take the place of retired Kiowa scouts and Black Hawk assault helicopters in the future. The service has recently made awards to two industry teams for each effort, which will competitively develop solutions for final down-selects in a few years. The service has also awarded funding for developing a new helicopter propulsion system, and has made steady progress in developing an electronic architecture for future combat rotorcraft. One way of controlling costs and assuring interoperability on the battlefield is to equip diverse airframes with the same hardware and software for functions such as communication and navigation. It will likely take another 8-10 years before new rotorcraft developed by FVL begin reaching the operational force in large numbers, but managers have been thinking since the program's inception about how to make them reliable and maintainable for users. A big part of the affordability challenge unfolds after production, when 68% of life-cycle costs are incurred. One facet of this challenge is how and where to provide maintenance for the future fleet. There is a long-running debate in military circles about how best to sustain rotorcraft in the operational fleet, with warfighters and legislators usually favoring organic depots over industry sources for much of the maintenance. But doing that requires access to data and intellectual property generated by the companies that build the airframes. This inevitably creates tension with industry, which is as eager to protect its intellectual property in the rotorcraft sector as in other sectors. Intellectual property is a crucial source of competitive advantage. However, Rugen and Mason emphasize that FVL is trying to strike a reasonable balance between military and industry needs in securing access to sensitive information. As one of them put it, “The Army recognizes industry's need for cashflow and adequate returns. It doesn't want to undermine industry's business model.” So while they have carefully analyzed the impact of intellectual property access on the ability of the Army's organic support base to do its job, they are mindful of the need not to impair the capacity of suppliers to make money. This is not the way the Army has typically looked at such matters in the past. Its usual approach has been to find the best deal for warfighters and taxpayers, and let industry fend for itself. But what comes through in a conversation with FVL managers is a recognition that the business pressures faced by companies must be taken into account if the Army is to have an adequate industrial base for its aviation initiatives in the future. They are also working hard to find overseas partners who might be customers for the rotorcraft that FVL ultimately produces. The bigger the international footprint that Future Vertical Lift has, the cheaper each aircraft will likely be for the Army and the more business there will be for American industry. But what Rugen and Mason would most like in the near term is a multiyear funding commitment from Congress to keep FVL on track, because if the program falters the outlook for both Army Aviation and the domestic rotorcraft industry will be bleak. https://www.forbes.com/sites/lorenthompson/2020/05/26/army-fears-if-future-vertical-lift-falters-serious-fallout-for-industry-might-follow