June 9, 2020 | International, C4ISR, Security
U.S. Special Operations Command wants ideas from industry to improve the organization's large data analytics platform, an initiative that could lead to as much as $600 million in contracts in the next decade.
A request for information released June 5 outlines two lines of effort for changes to the Global Analytics Platform: development and system upgrades, and maintenance and sustainment.
SOCOM is exploring both a single-award, indefinite delivery, indefinite delivery contract for each lines of effort or a multi-award ID/IQ for each one.
SOCOM, headquartered at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Fla., expects the contract to be worth as much $600 million for 10 years of work. Analysts use the platform to search, discover and analyze large quantities of data.
The platform contains applications that are “interfacing with robust data ingest, enrichment, transport, and dissemination across intelligence and operations portfolios.” It is also deploy into the Intelligence Community's Commercial Cloud Services (C2) environment, the solicitation reads.
Under the first line of effort, the combatant command wants to upgrade the platform to apply more data science and machine learning/artificial intelligence capabilities to “to improve analyst workflow and free trapped technical capacity.” Agile software will be added “to implement iterative methodologies for the development of applications” to add to the current system architecture. The contractor will also provide technical experts to build and deploy tools to “aggregate and analyze intelligence data for real time exploitation in support of USSOCOM missions.”
The request states that the expected places of performance are Arlington, Va., Fort Bragg, N.C., the National Geospatial Agency at Fort Belvoir, Va., and locations outside the continental United States. The performance period is Nov. 1, 2021 to Oct. 31, 2031.
It also said the platform provides “intelligence targeting support to the find, fix, finish, exploit, and analyze cycle and direct intelligence support to ongoing operations.”
SOCOM is investing heavily to improve its data environment. In a separate effort, USSOCOM wants to place all the data commanders need into a single pane of glass, SOCOM Acquisition Executive James Smith said at a May conference.
Responses are due July 31.
August 28, 2023 | International, C4ISR
US institutions try to boost their domestic semiconductor industry as the commodity becomes a hot topic in the nation’s tech war with China.
March 25, 2021 | International, Aerospace, C4ISR
The DoD Small Business and Technology Partnerships Office announces the opening of the following Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) topics: Space Development Agency (SDA), HQ085021S0001 SBIR Topic HQ085021S0001-07: “Target Recognition and Acquisition in Complex Environments,” published at: https://beta.sam.gov/opp/8e5e2483aaac4ab9834601e7d2888581/view STTR Topic HQ085021S0001-08: “Target Recognition and Acquisition in Complex Environments,” published at: https://beta.sam.gov/opp/12f9af5e67a34384a5b0bd38dc3c079b/view IMPORTANT DATES: March 25, 2021: Topic Q&A opens; BAA opens, begin submitting proposals in DSIP April 13, 2021: Topic Q&A closes to new questions at 12:00 p.m. ET April 27, 2021: BAA closes, full proposals must be submitted in DSIP no later than 12:00 p.m. ET Full topics and instructions are available at the links provided above.
June 2, 2020 | International, Naval
Work on the missile tubes for the Navy's part of the nation's nuclear triad is months behind schedule after Babcock was smacked hard by the pandemic. By PAUL MCLEARYon June 01, 2020 at 5:23 PM WASHINGTON: The Navy's top priority — its new nuclear-powered Columbia-class submarine — has been struck by the COVID-19 virus. Workers' absences at a critical supplier have delayed construction and welding of the boat's missile tubes by several months a senior Navy official said today, and the service is scrambling to make that time up. While the service and its contractors are looking for ways to reclaim that time, the situation is something that Navy and Pentagon officials have most feared. Large-scale work on the first of the twelve planned Columbia submarines is slated to kick off in 2021, with deliveries starting 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 warheads allowed by the New Start treaty with Russia. Head of the Columbia program, Rear Adm. Scott Pappano, said during a video conference sponsored by the Advanced Nuclear Weapons Alliance today that the work experienced “a hiccup” earlier this year when less than 30 percent of workers at UK-based Babcock Marine showed up for work during the height of the COVID outbreak, leading to setbacks in the work schedule. “There was an interruption in our ability to do work,” Pappano said, calling the delay of several months a “worst case” scenario that would stick if no actions were taken to speed up work going forward. “We're analyzing the plan right now,” he added. “Prioritizing what tubes go where and then coming up with mid-term and long-term recovery plans to go deal with that.” Pappano said the Navy and industry may hire more workers and bring in more vendors to buy that time back. The missile tubes have already caused the service some pain. In 2018, contractor BWX, contracted to deliver three tubes to Electric Boat, discovered problems before the tubes were delivered, eventually paying $27 million to fix the problems. The company later said it is considering getting out of the missile tube business with the Navy, leaving BAE Systems as the only US-based company capable of doing the work. The Navy is walking a tightrope on its Virginia and Columbia programs, and any slip on one program will affect the other. The two share the same missile tube design, which will also be fitted onto the UK's forthcoming Dreadnaught class of submarines. “One of the biggest risks to Columbia is if Virginia gets out of its cadence,” James Geurts, the Navy's acquisition chief, told reporters late last year. Once the Columbia subs begin rolling out of Electric Boat's shipyard, the Navy will have to produce one Columbia and two Virginias per year, a pace of submarine building the service has not seen in decades. But Columbia will remain the Navy's top focus. Geurts said he's structured both programs in a way that the shared supplier base is aware of what's needed well in advance, but “if not, we can back off a little to make sure Columbia is successful.” Despite the setback, Babcock's workforce has recovered in recent weeks, “and essentially they're above 90% capacity” on the production line, Pappano said. “So my assessment is they're essentially back up — or close to it — not where they were before” the virus struck. https://breakingdefense.com/2020/06/covid-19-hits-navys-newest-nuke-submarine-program/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=EBB%2006.02.20&utm_term=Editorial%20-%20Early%20Bird%20Brief