Snowflake Breach Exposes 165 Customers' Data in Ongoing Extortion Campaign

On the same subject

• 

  August 21, 2019 | International, Land

  Pentagon terminates program for redesigned kill vehicle, preps for new competition

  By: Jen Judson UPDATE: This story has been updated to include a statement from Raytheon. WASHINGTON — The Pentagon has moved from taking a “strategic pause” on the Redesigned Kill Vehicle program to outright killing it. The Department of Defense decided to terminate the current Boeing contract to develop the RKV — effective Aug. 22 — “due to technical design problems,” according to an Aug. 21 statement by the department. Raytheon is the actual developer of the RKV and serves as a sub-contractor to Boeing. The RKV would have replaced the current Exoatmospheric Kill Vehicle (EKV) on the Ground-Based Interceptor, which makes up the Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system designed to protect the homeland from ballistic missile threats. It would have also been fielded on all future ground-based interceptors — a total of 64 ultimately. The EKV is designed to destroy targets in high-speed collisions after separating from the booster rocket. The EKV required technical changes in the past several years due to issues in tests. The Missile Defense Agency decided to initiate a program to redesign the kill vehicle. In the meantime, MDA has had several successful tests of the GMD system with the EKV following engineering changes. Now that the RKV is dead in the water, the Pentagon plans to move forward with a new, next-generation interceptor competition, the statement said. According to a defense official, no more ground-based interceptors will be built, and all future interceptors that are fielded as part of the GMD system will be the new interceptors. “Ending the program was the responsible thing to do,” Mike Griffin, undersecretary of defense for research and engineering, said in the statement. “Development programs sometimes encounter problems. After exercising due diligence, we decided the path we're going down wouldn't be fruitful, so we're not going down that path anymore. This decision supports our efforts to gain full value from every future taxpayer dollar spent on defense.” With the blessing of the undersecretary of defense, Griffin made the decision on Aug. 14 to terminate the program, one week after he told reporters at the Space and Missile Defense Symposium in Huntsville, Alabama, to expect a decision on the way forward for RKV soon. MDA and Boeing in December 2018 deferred a critical design review of the RKV “due to the failure of certain critical components to meet technical requirements as specified in the development contract,” the statement noted. After MDA assessed the issues, it issued a stop work order on the contract in May to analyze alternative options. “The department ultimately determined the technical design problems were so significant as to be either insurmountable or cost-prohibitive to correct,” the statement said. The DoD plans to take data garnered from research and testing of the RKV prior to its cancellation to inform the next-generation interceptor program, “which will include a new kill vehicle,” according to the statement. “The U.S. Missile Defense Agency is updating its requirements in the face of an increasingly complex threat environment," Raytheon said in a statement. The company “supports their decision to cease work on the Redesigned Kill Vehicle (RKV) and initiate a competition for the next-generation interceptor to meet these advanced threats. Raytheon will continue to develop and offer a wide range of advanced missile defense technologies available to protect the United States now and in the future.” There are 44 ground-based interceptorss in place at Fort Greely, Alaska, and Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, with plans to add 22 additional missile silos at Fort Greely to support 20 more ground-based interceptors. The defense official said the Pentagon is still working through the details of a new, next-generation interceptor competition, including when it will be initiated and the pace at which the technology will be developed and fielded. https://www.defensenews.com/pentagon/2019/08/21/dod-tanks-redesigned-kill-vehicle-program-for-homeland-defense-interceptor/

• 

  August 10, 2022 | International, C4ISR

  Maxar to aid L3Harris in tracking missiles from space

  The United States, Russia and China are among countries developing hypersonic missiles, which can exceed the speed of sound and are harder to track than conventional missiles.

• 

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

  Contract Awards by US Department of Defense - November 2, 2018

  ARMY American Mechanical Inc.,* Fairbanks, Alaska (W911KB-19-D-0001); Osborne Construction Co.,* Kirkland, Washington (W911KB-19-D-0002); and Patrick Mechanical LLC,* Fairbanks, Alaska (W911KB-19-D-0003), will compete for each order of the $48,000,000 firm-fixed-price contract for design, construction and repair of various utilidor systems in military family housing on Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska. Bids were solicited via the internet with six received. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of Oct. 31, 2023. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Anchorage, Alaska, is the contracting activity. DynCorp International LLC, Fort Worth, Texas, was awarded an $18,153,589 modification (P00199) to contract W58RGZ-13-C-0040 for aviation field maintenance services. Work will be performed in Afghanistan, Iraq and Germany, with an estimated completion date of Dec. 31, 2018. Fiscal 2019 operations and maintenance funds in the amount of $18,153,589 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, is the contracting activity. U.S. SPECIAL OPERATIONS COMMAND Boeing Co., Ridley Park, Pennsylvania, has been awarded a $42,835,847 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract modification under delivery order H92241-18-F-0022-P00002 for four new build MH-47G rotary wing aircrafts. The contract modification satisfies an urgent need to sustain U.S. Special Operations Forces heavy assault, rotary wing aircrafts. The contract modification is funded with fiscal 2018 procurement; and aircraft procurement, Army funds. The majority of the work will be performed in Ridley Park. This contract modification is a non-competitive award and is in accordance with Fair Acquisition Regulation 6.302.1. U.S. Special Operations Command, Tampa, Florida, is the contracting activity. AIR FORCE The Boeing Co., St. Louis, Missouri, has been awarded a $14,592,654 firm-fixed-price, cost-plus-fixed-fee, time-and-material contract for the F-15 Royal Saudi Air Force (RSAF) Aircraft Maintenance Debrief System (AMDS). This contract provides administration and support to the RSAF F-15C, D, S and SA aircraft sustainment program at up to six locations throughout the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Services acquired under this effort include, but are not limited to, providing fully-trained AMDS personnel to operate, maintain AMDS equipment and to provide AMDS familiarization training to RSAF members that will enable them to safely and efficiently operate all AMDS equipment. Work will be performed in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and is expected to be completed Nov. 4, 2023. Foreign military sales in the amount of $8,744,949 are being obligated at the time of award. This award is the result of a sole-source acquisition. Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, Robins Air Force Base, Georgia, is the contracting activity (FA8505-19-C-0001). (Awarded Oct. 31, 2018) NAVY Detyen's Shipyards Inc.,* North Charleston, South Carolina, is awarded an $8,175,517 firm-fixed-price contract for a 59-calendar day shipyard availability for the mid-term availability of USNS Arctic (T-AOE 8). Work will include furnishing general services for the ship, collection holding tank, piping repairs, 4 overhead steel replacement, tank top steel replacements, main switch board cleaning, refurbish unrep saddles, winches, and drive chains, vent systems cleaning, underwater propellers cleaning and generator cleaning. The contract includes options which, if exercised, would bring the total contract value to $8,175,517. Work will be performed in Charleston, South Carolina, is expected to be completed by Jan. 23, 2019. Navy working capital funds in the amount of $8,175,517 are obligated and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal. This contract was a small business set-aside with companies solicited via the Federal Business Opportunities website, with one offer received. The Navy's Military Sealift Command, Norfolk, Virginia, is the contracting activity (N3220519C6001). Raytheon Co., Space and Airborne Systems, McKinney, Texas, is being awarded a $7,676,741 cost-plus-fixed-fee delivery order (N0001919F0270) against a previously issued basic ordering agreement (N00019-15-G-0003). This order provides for completion of Engineering Change Proposal (ECP) 0043 for the Advanced Targeting Forward Looking Infrared Processor and Video Obsolescence Avoidance system upgrade. This ECP productionizes the Input Image Processor Version 2 (I2P2) Circuit Card Assembly (CCA); updates associated support test equipment; and performance of I2P2 CCA qualification to enable future growth and mitigate potential obsolescence issues. Work will be performed in McKinney, Texas, and is expected to be completed in November 2019. Fiscal 2018 aircraft procurement (Navy) funds in the amount of $7,676,741 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. *Small Business https://dod.defense.gov/News/Contracts/Contract-View/Article/1680751/source/GovDelivery/