Sikorsky nabs $91.2M contract to support U.S. Army Black Hawks

On the same subject

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  August 29, 2018 | International, C4ISR

  Is this the new wave of submerged communications?

  By: Kelsey Atherton The ocean hides what it contains, and it is in that hiding that submarines have their power. Lurking under seas, at first with just enough capability for an attack run and now with the ability to lurk for months at a time, submarines remain power out of reach, unseen until engaged in combat or resupplying in a friendly port. That stealth comes at a cost, however, besides the simple perils of existing underwater. When submerged, submarines are more or less on their own until they resurface again, since radio waves do not travel well through seawater. Or they are for now. New research by MIT, presented at a conference in late August, devised a way for submerged submarines to communicate wirelessly with people on the surface by combining hydroacoustics and acoustic radars. Presently, submarines communicate either across normal radio frequencies when surfaced or through hydroacoustic signals and listening posts underwater that can transmit the messages back to counterparts on shore. Very and extremely low-frequency radio waves can be transmitted in a way that submarines can listen to below the surface, but it's a one-way form of communication, from stations on land to submarines. To get something responsive, with the flexibility to communicate away from static seabed hydrophones, needs something else. Specifically, it needs a way to combine hydroacoustic transmission from the submarine through water that can then be converted into a useful data. “We present a new communication technology, translational acoustic-RF communication (TARF),” write paper authors Francesco Tonolini and Fadel Adib of the MIT Media Lab. “TARF enables underwater nodes to directly communicate with airborne nodes by transmitting standard acoustic signals. TARF exploits the fact that underwater acoustic signals travel as pressure waves, and that these waves cause displacements of the water surface when they impinge on the water-air boundary. To decode the transmitted signals, TARF leverages an airborne radar which measures and decodes these surface displacements.” In testing, they demonstrated that the communication technique can transfer data at standard underwater bitrates up to 400bps, and even do so with surface waves 6.3 inches crest-to-crest, or 100,000 times larger than the surface perturbations made by the acoustic transmitter. Right now, this communication is one-way. While the signal transmitted up from the water produces useful information at the boundary with the air, a signal transmitted through the air downwards would disintegrate on integration with water. This one-way is distinct from previous forms of communication with submarines, however, as it lets the submarine talk without revealing its position to surface sensors. Despite the limitations, and the earlierness of the research, Tonolini and Adlib see a bright future for the technology, as a way to enable a host of new technology in machines. The technology, they write, can enable “many applications including submarine-to-drone communication, deep-sea exploration, and subsea IoT (Internet of Things). https://www.c4isrnet.com/c2-comms/2018/08/28/mit-discovers-way-for-submarines-to-talk-to-drones

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  May 7, 2020 | International, C4ISR

  Pentagon reports boost in predatory foreign investment to US tech firms amid pandemic

  Valerie Insinna Since the coronavirus pandemic began, the Defense Department has seen a small increase in predatory foreign investment in U.S. companies, such as small drone manufacturers, the Pentagon's head of industrial policy said Wednesday. “In general terms, there has been of an uptick, but it's always been pretty high,” Jennifer Santos, deputy assistant secretary of defense for industrial policy, said Wednesday during the C4ISRNET Conference. The Pentagon has become increasingly concerned about what it calls “adversarial capital” — a tactic whereby foreign nations, particularly China, make investments into U.S. technology startups that are part of the defense market. Once those countries make their investments, they could own or have access to unique American technologies, while the Pentagon loses its own access due to security considerations. With the U.S. economy increasingly fragile due to COVID-19, the Defense Department must be vigilant about potential risk to American companies, Santos said. “We simply cannot afford during this period of economic uncertainty the loss of American know-how in critical tech.” But Santos stopped short of saying the uptick in predatory foreign investment was a direct result of the pandemic, instead noting that the Defense Department recently expanded its existing tools to monitor adversarial capital. One tool, known as the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, or CFIUS, allows the government to block a foreign investment attempt on national security grounds. The jurisdiction of that tool increased in February, so the Defense Department has seen a boost in the number of cases it is tracking, Santos said. “Twenty percent of our [gross domestic product] is foreign direct investment, which is fantastic. But there's some areas where there are threats associated with some of that capital, and we want to protect those industry partners,” she said. Over the past eight weeks, the Pentagon hosted 25 teleconferences with industry to help guide companies that might be experiencing financial distress caused by COVID-19. Some of that outreach, such as a webinar held last week, centered around avoiding adversarial capital, Santos said. While her comments on adversarial capital did not center specifically on the small drone industry, she noted that the pandemic has made supply chain vulnerabilities in that sector more apparent to the department. “The market for UAS [unmanned aerial systems] in the United States is dominated primarily by foreign companies, especially Chinese companies,” she said, adding that Chinese firms hold 97 percent of the small UAS market, with about 75 percent of sales in the U.S. commercial market coming from Chinese drone maker DJI. “U.S. firms have struggled to compete in this drone area,” she said. "Even commercial drones manufactured in the United States often use components made in China. We don't know what the exact effects of COVID will be on this small UAS sector, but I know one thing: We will emerge from this stronger.” Brent Ingraham, the Pentagon's unmanned systems technical director, pointed to the American Drone Security Act currently under proposal by Congress. If passed, the legislation would apply the same security restrictions on UAS used by the Defense Department to the rest of the federal government, which would secure industrial opportunities for U.S. vendors that have a trusted supply chain, he said. As the Defense Department looks to expand its base of small UAS manufacturers, one of the military's legacy providers offered a word of caution. "We as a community are all in favor in faster, cheaper, better, but we need to have an exercise in caution when you do that,” said Gorik Hossepian, AeroVironment's vice president of UAS product line management. “Our past is full of examples of when we do those kinds of things, we tend to sacrifice one versus the other. We need to not lose sight that what we need is a balance.” "At the end of the day, the war fighter at the edge of the battlefield ... needs to have a product that is trusted,” he said. “Members of some of our community, to some extent, have that as some of our DNA — the DNA of working with the end user to solve those problems.” https://www.c4isrnet.com/unmanned/2020/05/06/pentagon-reports-boost-in-predatory-foreign-investment-to-us-tech-firms-since-pandemic-start/

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  January 28, 2019 | International, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security, Other Defence

  Contract Awards by US Department of Defense - January 25, 2019

  NAVY The Boeing Co., Seattle, Washington, is awarded a $2,458,707,154 modification to a previously awarded firm-fixed-price, cost-plus-fixed-fee contract (N00019-14-C-0067). This modification provides for the production and delivery of 19 P-8A lot 10 aircraft to include 10 for the Navy, four for the government of the U.K. and five for the government of Norway. In addition, this modification includes engineering change proposal 4 SilverBlock for the government of the U.K. and Lot 10 segregable efforts consisting of unknown obsolescence, Class I change assessments and obsolescence monitoring. Work will be performed in Seattle, Washington (80.6 percent); Baltimore, Maryland (2.6 percent); Greenlawn, New York (2.4 percent); Cambridge, U.K. (1.6 percent); and various locations within and outside the continental U.S. (12.8 percent),and is expected to be completed in March 2022. Fiscal 2019 aircraft procurement (Navy); and Foreign Military Sales (FMS) funds in the amount of $2,458,707,154 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 Navy ($1,256,865,203; 51 percent); the government of Norway ($694,971,086; 28 percent); and the government of the U.K. ($506,870,865; 21 percent), under the FMS program. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity. BAE Systems San Diego Ship Repair, San Diego, California (N00024-16-D-4416); Huntington Ingalls Industries Inc., San Diego, California (N00024-16-D-4417); and General Dynamics, National Steel and Shipbuilding Co., San Diego, California (N00024-16-D-4418), are each awarded firm-fixed-price modifications under previously-awarded indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity multiple-award contracts to exercise Option Period Three for complex, emergent and continuous maintenance and Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) availabilities on surface combatants (DDG and CG) homeported in San Diego, California. These three contractors will have the opportunity to provide offers for individual delivery orders during option period three, with an estimated cumulative value of $90,275,086. Exercising these options ensures continued facilities and human resources capable of completing complex, emergent and continuous maintenance, repair, modernization and CNO availabilities on surface combatant ships assigned to or visiting the port of San Diego, California. Work will be performed in San Diego, California, and is expected to be completed by March 2020. No funding will be obligated at time of award. Operations and maintenance (Navy) funds will be obligated as the delivery orders are issued. The Southwest Regional Maintenance Center, San Diego, California, is the contracting activity. Rolls-Royce Corp., Indianapolis, Indiana, is awarded a $26,332,225 firm-fixed-price requirements contract for the depot repair of T56-A-427 engines, utilized on E-2 Hawkeye aircraft, including the repair of the power section, torque meter, gearbox, and accessories in accordance with Navy depot manuals and approved repair practices. Work will be performed in San Antonio, Texas (55 percent); Winnipeg, Canada (25 percent); Indianapolis, Indiana (15 percent); and Oakland, California (5 percent), and is expected to be completed in January 2020. No funds will be obligated at time of award; funds will be issued against individual task orders as they are issued. This contract was competitively procured via an electronic request for proposals; two offers were received. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity (N00019-19-D-0024). Ocean Ships Inc., Houston, Texas, is awarded a $20,800,875 firm-fixed-price contract for the operation and maintenance of Expeditionary Transfer Dock (ESD) vessels. This contract includes a 12-month base period, four 12-month option periods and a six-month option under Federal Acquistion Regulation 52.217-8, which, if exercised, would bring the cumulative value of this contract to $118,985,659. Work will be performed at sea worldwide and is expected to be completed, if all options are exercised, by November 2024. Working capital contract funds in the amount of $20,800,875 are obligated for the base period, and will not expire. The Navy's Military Sealift Command, headquartered in Norfolk, Virginia, is the contracting activity (N3220519C3003). Northrop Grumman Systems Corp., San Diego, California, is awarded a $19,590,756 modification (P00020) to a previously awarded cost-plus-fixed-fee contract (N00019-17-C-0033). This modification provides for the procurement of software design and system integration, qualification testing, and cybersecurity activities as well as engineering services in support the MQ-8 Fire Scout Unmanned Air System. Work will be performed in San Diego, California, and is expected to be completed in December 2019. Fiscal 2019 operations and maintenance; and aircraft procurement (Navy) funds in the amount of $19,590,756 will be obligated at time of award, $12,080,557 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 Boeing Co., St. Louis, Missouri, is being awarded a $13,930,396 cost-plus-fixed-fee, cost indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract for engineering, training, integrated logistics support, installation/checkout of developed systems and support services for Harpoon Ship Command Launch Control Set, Encapsulated Harpoon Command and Launch Systems, and Advanced Harpoon Weapon Control System, Standoff Land Attack Missile Expanded Response, and Harpoon missiles. These efforts are in support of the Navy and the governments of Brazil, Chile, Israel, Korea, Japan, Australia, Canada, Turkey, U.K., Malaysia, Taiwan, Singapore, Bahrain, Egypt, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Denmark, Germany, India, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Mexico, Thailand, Greece, Qatar, and Belgium. Work will be performed in St. Charles, Missouri, and locations inside and outside the continental U.S., and is expected to be completed in December 2021. No funds will be obligated at time of award; funds will be issued against individual task orders as they are issued. This contract was not competitively procured pursuant to Federal Acquisition Regulation 6.302-1. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity (N00019-19-D-0010). Joyce & Associates Construction Inc.,* Newport, North Carolina, is awarded $9,058,945 for firm-fixed-price task order N4008519F4580 under a previously awarded multiple award construction contract (N40085-16-D-6302) for repairs to waste water collection system core area at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, North Carolina. The work to be performed provides for various repairs to the sanitary and industrial waste water system including gravity lines, force mains, lift stations and appurtenances and incidental related work. Work will be performed in Havelock, North Carolina, and is expected to be completed by April 2020. Fiscal 2019 operations and maintenance, (Marine Corps) contract funds in the amount of $9,058,945 are obligated on this award and will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Five proposals were received for this task order. Naval Facilities Engineering Command Mid-Atlantic, Norfolk, Virginia, is the contracting activity (N40085-16-D-6302). Lyon Shipyard, Inc.,* Norfolk, Virginia, is awarded a $7,994,140 firm-fixed-price, single-award contract for the repair, maintenance and modernization of USNS Prevail (TSV 1) during the ship's docking phased maintenance availability. The work of this contract consists of temporary services, structural repairs, hull gauging, electrical, mechanical, piping and other miscellaneous repair work. Work will be performed in Norfolk, Virginia, and is expected to be completed by July 2019. Fiscal 2019 operations and maintenance (Navy) funding in the amount of $7,994,140 will be obligated at time of award and will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was competitively procured via the Federal Business Opportunities website, with two offers received. This contract was procured as a competitive small business set-aside under the North American Industry Classification 336611 for shipbuilding and repair. The Mid-Atlantic Regional Maintenance Center, Norfolk, Virginia, is the contracting activity (N50054-19-C-0002). DEFENSE COMMISSARY AGENCY Military Produce Group LLC, Norfolk, Virginia, is being awarded an indefinite-delivery, requirements type contract to provide fresh fruits and vegetable products for commissaries located in the east areas of the continental U.S. The award amount is estimated at $146,066,237 for the base year. Actual obligations using Resale Stock Activity Group, Defense Working Capital Funds will occur upon issuance of delivery orders during the period of performance. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The contract is for a 24-month base period beginning Feb. 11, 2019, through Feb. 7, 2021. The contract includes three one-year option periods. If all three option periods are exercised, the contract will be completed Feb. 4, 2024. The Defense Commissary Agency, Fort Lee, Virginia, is the contracting activity (HDEC02-19-D-0001). AIR FORCE Robbins-Gioia LLC, Alexandria, Virginia (FA7014-19-D-5001); and Synergy Solutions and Innovations, Arlington, Virginia (FA7014-19-D-5000), have been awarded a ceiling $50,000,000 indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity, firm-fixed-priced with time and material elements, multiple award contract for the Business Capability Lifecycle Management Projects. This contract is for exploring more effective and efficient ways to support Air Force business operations and refine the development of Defense Business System requirements supporting the business mission area information technology by leveraging existing technologies owned by the Air Force, streamlining and standardizing business processes across the Air Force, and developing integrated solutions that are achievable in a constrained fiscal environment. This contract shall also be used for technical and engineering; information and data management, process engineering, performance assessment, change management, facilitation, project management, and scheduling. Work will be performed primarily in Washington, District of Columbia., and is expected to be completed Jan. 24, 2024. This award is the result of a competitive acquisition and seven offers were received. A total of two task orders using fiscal 2019 operations and maintenance funds in the amount of $27,405 are being obligated at the time of award. Air Force District of Washington, Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, is the contracting activity. Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Corp., Marietta, Georgia, has been awarded a $33,732,110 ceiling requirements contract for C-130J long-term sustainment support for the Royal Norwegian Air Force. The estimated value of the first order is $6,155,584. Contractor will provide the Royal Norwegian Air Force with return and repair support, spares support, engineering support, and in-country representative support for their C-130J aircraft platform. Work will be performed in Marietta, Georgia, and Gardermoen Air Station, Norway, and is expected to be completed by Dec. 31, 2019. This award is the result of a sole-source acquisition and is 100 percent Foreign Military Sales for Norway. Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, Robins Air Force Base, Georgia, is the contracting activity (FA8553-19-D-0001). Gulfstream Aerospace Corp., Savannah, Georgia, has been awarded a maximum $18,728,697 modification (P00007) to exercise an option on contract FA8106-16-D-0006 for engineering services to provide support the C-20 and C-37 fleet for Air Force, Army, Navy, and Marine Corps. This modification adds the third increment of the five-year, multi-year basic contract. Work will be performed in Savannah, Georgia, and is expected to be completed by Jan. 31, 2020. Fiscal 2019 Air Force, Army, and Navy operations and maintenance funds in the amount of $10,495,503 are being obligated at the time of award. Total cumulative face value of the contract is $83,700,000. Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma, is the contracting activity. Space Dynamics Laboratory, North Logan, Utah, has been awarded a not-to-exceed $18,295,163 undefinitized contract action for the tasking, collecting, processing, exploitation, and dissemination (TCPED) capability to support the Republic of Korea Global Hawk program. This contract provides for the procurement of the TCPED system, spares and support equipment, sustainment support, and system familiarization. Work will be performed at North Logan, Utah, and is expected to be completed by May 2020. This contract involves Foreign Military Sales to the Republic of Korea. This award is the result of a sole-source acquisition. Foreign Military Sales funds in the amount of $9,000,000 are being obligated at the time of award. Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, is the contracting activity (FA8620-19-C-1002). ARMY Pate Construction Company Inc.,* Pueblo West, Colorado, was awarded a $23,978,896 firm-fixed-price contract for a procurement project consisting of 8,100 feet of reinforced concrete lined channel or concrete box culvert for the existing McKinley ditch. Bids were solicited via the internet with four received. Work will be performed in Alamogordo, New Mexico, with an estimated completion date of Nov. 15, 2020. Fiscal 2019 operations and maintenance, Army funds in the amount of $23,978,896 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Albuquerque, New Mexico, is the contracting activity (W912PP-19-C-0014). Vertex Aerospace, Madison, Mississippi, was awarded a $9,086,502 modification (P00300) to contract W58RGZ-13-C-0044 for aviation field maintenance services. Work will be performed in Fort Rucker, Alabama, with an estimated completion date of July 31, 2019. Fiscal 2019 operations and maintenance, Army funds in the amount of $9,086,502 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, is the contracting activity. Shilog LTD,* McAlester, Oklahoma, was awarded a $7,777,536 firm-fixed-price contract for Polybutadiene, Liquid, Hydroxyl-Terminated, Type II. Bids were solicited via the internet with four received. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of Jan. 31, 2022. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Rock Island Arsenal, Illinois, is the contracting activity (W52P1J-19-D-3015). DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY Bren-Tronics Inc.,* Commack, New York, has been awarded a maximum $9,832,972 firm-fixed-price contract for storage batteries. This is a six-month base contract with a five-month option that is being exercised at the time of award. This was a competitive acquisition with three responses received. Location of performance is New York, with a Dec. 23, 2019, performance completion date. Using military services are Army and Navy. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2019 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Land and Maritime, Columbus, Ohio (SPE7L719C0005). *Small business https://dod.defense.gov/News/Contracts/Contract-View/Article/1741001/source/GovDelivery/