October 7, 2022 | International, Aerospace, C4ISR
Maj. Gen. Sean Gainey spoke with C4ISRNET about what it takes to protect American interests against drone warfare.
https://www.c4isrnet.com/unmanned/2022/10/07/seven-questions-with-the-us-armys-counter-drone-boss/
May 2, 2022 | International, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR
In its effort to quickly arm Ukraine against Russia, the Pentagon has announced the equivalent of an open casting call for companies to offer weapons and commercial systems that can be rushed to the fight.
August 10, 2020 | International, Naval
The disclosure comes as the Pentagon has been looking for ways to backstop key parts of its industrial base as supply chains slowed due to the COVID epidemic. By PAUL MCLEARY WASHINGTON: One of the Navy's primary suppliers of missile tubes for its nuclear submarines is planning to walk away from the military business, a move that will drop the number of domestic companies capable of doing the work to two at a time when the service is in a scramble to ramp up its sub-building efforts. BWX Technologies President Rex Geveden says that the company is “not likely to pursue” any more Navy business and will repurpose a factory in Indiana that makes the components once the next set of deliveries of missile tubes wrap up in 2022. The Navy work “just doesn't have the margin profile that we want to see in the business,” Geveden said in a Tuesday investor call. BWX was slated to build the missile tubes for the new Columbia subs, but prime contractor Electric Boat says it has options to replace the company in coming years. The company “works with multiple suppliers to ensure we can meet the Navy's schedule requirements on these important programs,” a spokesperson emailed. “These are Babcock Marine, BAE Systems, Precision Custom Components and BWX Technologies. BWX Technologies will complete all currently contracted work for EB by 2022.” This comes as the Pentagon has been looking for ways to bolster key parts of its industrial base as communities shut down and workers are told not to report to work or take time off, due to the COVID epidemic. In a call with reporters late last month, Navy acquisition chief James Geurts acknowledged that the service is deeply worried that such closures and slowdowns could have wide-ranging impacts on shipbuilding. “I am absolutely interested in ensuring that we don't lose large chunks of the industrial base,” he said. “Restarting an industrial base that you lose is really hard, really painful, and takes a long time. We are absolutely focused on ensuring we do not lose an industrial base because we don't have the time or resources to re-generate it later when we need it.” The winnowing of such a key part of the industrial base will place more pressure on the handful of other companies who can do this sort of work, something to which Pentagon leadership is particularly sensitive. Overall, the Navy plans to buy 12 Columbia-class submarines between 2021 and 2035, with 10 of those coming 2026 and after. In the near-term, it plans two Virginia-class subs per year between 2021 and 2026, meaning shipyards will have to pump out two to four submarines a year in the mid-2020s. The new Columbia submarines will begin being delivered to the Navy in 2030, just in time to begin replacing the Cold War-era Ohio-class subs as the Navy's leg of the nation's nuclear triad. The subs will carry 70 percent of the nation's stockpile of warheads allowed by the New Start treaty with Russia. Falling in to replace the Ohio's on time would be a critical failure for the nation's nuclear triad, as the aging ships will have next to no life left in them by the end of the decade, and leaving the sea leg of the nuclear enterprise in some jeopardy. Babcock Marine is a UK-based company, but does work on some components that are used for both the Columbia program and the UK's Dreadnaught submarines, which shares similar missile tubes with the Columbia effort. In 2018, Virginia-based BWX was forced to pay $27 million to fix welding problems on the Columbia tubes, after issues were found on a total of 44 tubes. So far, 21 of those have been fixed and 11 delivered to the Navy. Navy officials have closely tied the modernizing of the current Virginia-class subs with the building of new Columbia's, warning that since they share a base of companies who can make precision parts for nuclear-powered submarines. So any problem with one program will have knock-on effects to the other. Geurts and others have said the Navy would prioritize the health of the Columbia effort over Virginia if they had to. If the House of Representatives gets its way, however, billions more will flow into the Virginia program than the White House has called for. Last week, the House voted to fund the construction of a second Virginia-class submarine in the 2021 budget request, after the White House dropped the planned buy to one submarine in its submission. The push was led by Rep. Joe Courtney, chairman of the Seapower Subcommittee who represents the Connecticut district that's home to Electric Boat. The bill now includes $6.8 billion to produce two Virginia-class attack submarines, approximately $2.5 billion more than the White House's own request, and $2.2 billion more than the Senate's. “The budget request we received from the White House flew in the face of testimony that we've heard from Navy leaders, experts, and combatant commanders,” Courtney said in a statement. “It requested the fewest ships in over a decade, and it eliminated construction of the second Virginia-class submarine in 2021—a vessel that the Navy quickly listed as its most important unfunded priority in 2021.” https://breakingdefense.com/2020/08/major-submarine-contractor-drops-navy-missile-tube-biz
October 29, 2019 | International, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security
NAVY Lockheed Martin Corp., Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co., Fort Worth, Texas, is awarded a $7,027,643,109 modification to a previously awarded firm-fixed-price, fixed-price-incentive-firm-target, cost-reimbursable contract (N00019-17-C-0001). This modification provides for the procurement of 114 F-35 aircraft for Air Force, Marine Corps and Navy; non-Department of Defense (DoD) participants, and Foreign Military Sales (FMS) customers. Specifically the modification procures 48 F-35A aircraft for the Air Force, 20 F-35B aircraft for the Marine Corps, nine F-35C aircraft for the Navy, 12 F-35A aircraft for the government of Norway, 15 F-35A aircraft for the government of Australia, and eight F-35A and two F-35B aircraft for the government of Italy. The above U.S. aircraft quantities are inclusive of fiscal 2019 (Lot 13) plus up aircraft. In addition, this modification adds scope for the Air System Diminishing Manufacturing Sources integration, software data loads, critical safety items, red gear, non-recurring engineering, recurring engineering and the Joint Strike Fighter Airborne Data Emulator. Work will be performed in Fort Worth, Texas (57%); El Segundo, California (14%); Warton, United Kingdom (9%); Cameri, Italy (4%); Orlando, Florida (4%); Nashua, New Hampshire (3%); Baltimore, Maryland (3%); San Diego, California (2%); Nagoya, Japan (2%); and various locations outside the continental U.S. (2%), and is expected to be completed in March 2023. Fiscal 2019 aircraft procurement (Air Force, Marine Corps and Navy); non-DoD participants; and FMS funds in the amount of $7,027,643,109 will be obligated at time of award, none of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This modification combines purchases for the Air Force ($2,812,512,346); Marine Corps ($1,297,487,314); Navy ($612,389,812); non-DoD participants ($2,243,321,947); and FMS ($61,931,690) customers. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity. IAP Worldwide Services Inc., Cape Canaveral, Florida, is awarded an $84,573,278 modification (P00058) to a previously awarded firm-fixed-price, cost-reimbursable contract (N00019-15-C-0120). This modification exercises an option to provide logistics services in support of the E-6B aircraft and the requirement for parts industry management and support equipment maintenance for the E-6B Take Change and Move Out and Airborne Command Post aircraft. Logistics support to the aircraft weapon system as well as systems engineering, associated support sites, and supporting organizations. Work will be performed in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma (70%); Bellevue, Nebraska (10%); Fairfield, California (10%); and Patuxent River, Maryland (10%), and is expected to be completed in November 2020. Fiscal 2020 operations and maintenance (Navy) funds in the amount of $26,592,990 will be obligated at time of award, all of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity. Lockheed Martin Rotary Mission Systems, Owego, New York, is awarded a $43,439,773 modification (P00015) to a previously awarded cost-plus-incentive-fee, cost-plus-fixed-fee contract (N00019-18-C-1066). This modification increases the scope and ceiling of the contract to provide electronic warfare capability development and integration in support of the design, development, and integration of the advanced digital receiver/processor upgrade to the existing E-2D AN/ALZ-217 electronic support measures receiver/processor, active front end, and receive antenna weapons replaceable assemblies. Work will be performed in Owego, New York (99%); and Clearwater, Florida (1%), and is expected to be completed in September 2023. Fiscal 2019 research, development, test and evaluation (Navy) funds in the amount of $9,382,120 will be obligated at time of award, all of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity. The Whiting-Turner Contracting Co., Greenbelt, Maryland, is being awarded a $30,464,008 firm-fixed-price task order (N62473-20-F-4023) under a multiple award construction contract for an applied instruction facility, a training facility, and site utility infrastructure at Naval Base Coronado, California. The work to be performed provides for construction of two facilities and utilities infrastructure to support the Special Operations Forces Naval Special Warfare Center Advanced Training Command mission to train Maritime Special Operations Forces to meet operational requirements. The options, if exercised, provide for recycled water plumbing, additional parking area with permeable pavers, exterior trellis structures, additional floor area for the training facility, aircraft fuselage trainer and concrete pads and helicopter training fuselages. The planned modifications, if issued, provides for furniture, fixtures, and equipment, audio-visual equipment and physical security equipment. The task order also contains 11 unexercised options and six planned modifications, which if exercised would increase cumulative task order value to $37,782,887. Work will be performed in Coronado, California, and is expected to be completed by May 2022. Fiscal 2019 military construction (Defense-wide) contract funds in the amount of $30,464,008 are obligated on this award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Three proposals were received for this task order. Naval Facilities Engineering Command Southwest, San Diego, California, is the contracting activity (N62473-17-D-0822). Jopana Technologies Inc.,* Oxnard, California, is awarded an $11,474,563 firm-fixed-price, cost-plus-fixed-fee, cost reimbursable, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract. This contract provides for the procurement of AN/ALQ-231(V) Intrepid Tiger (IT II) family of systems hardware and incidental engineering services for the Electronic Warfare and Electronic Attack communications jamming, airborne (Fixed Wing, Rotary Wing, and Unmanned Air Systems), ground based systems, and laboratories. Work will be performed in Oxnard, California (95%); Point Mugu, California (2%); Yuma, Arizona (2%); and China Lake, California (1%), and is expected to be completed in October 2024. No funds will be obligated at the time of award. Funds will be obligated on individual orders as they are issued. This contract was not competitively procured pursuant to 10 U.S. Code 2304(c)(1). The Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division, China Lake, California, is the contracting activity (N68936-20-D-0003). AIR FORCE The Superior Forge & Steel Corp., Lima, Ohio (FA8681-20-D-0020); and Ellwood National Forge, Irvine, Pennsylvania (FA8681-20-D-0021), have been awarded $90,000,000 multiple award, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contracts. These contracts provided for the procurement of GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrators BLU-J 27C/B Penetrator warhead case assemblies with associated components. Work will be performed at Lima, Ohio; and Irvine, Pennsylvania, and is expected to be complete by Oct. 28, 2027. This award is the result of two sole source acquisitions. Fiscal 2018 ammunition production funds in the amount of $3,000 per contractor for the initial delivery order are being obligated at the time of award. The Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, is the contracting activity. Industries of the Blind and Visually Impaired, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, has been awarded an estimated $30,000,000 firm-fixed-price requirements contract for the customization and distribution of Air Force Sales Promotional Items (SPIs). This contract provides for the customization and distribution of SPIs. Work will be performed at Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and is expected to be complete by Oct. 31, 2024. This award is the result of a sole source acquisition. Fiscal 2020 operations and maintenance funds are being used and no funds are being obligated at the time of award. The Air Force Installation Contracting Center, the 338th Specialized Contracting Squadron, Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph Air Force Base, Texas, is the contracting activity (FA3002-20-D-0004). ARMY Vigor Marine LLC, Portland, Oregon, was awarded an $8,074,147 firm-fixed-price contract for dredge vessel Essayons ship repair and overhaul. Bids were solicited via the internet with one received. Work will be performed in Portland, Oregon, with an estimated completion date of Feb. 28, 2020. Fiscal 2020 revolving funds in the amount of $8,074,147 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Portland, Oregon, is the contracting activity (W9127N-19-G-0002). *Small Business https://www.defense.gov/Newsroom/Contracts/Contract/Article/2001094/source/GovDelivery/