May 9, 2024 | International, Security
November 16, 2023 | International, Land
Northrop Grumman is exploring producing 120 millimetre tank ammunition in Poland as the U.S. ally surges defence production capacity, the company's chief told Reuters on Thursday.
March 12, 2020 | International, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security
NAVY Raytheon Missile Systems, Tucson, Arizona, is awarded a $109,607,857 firm-fixed-price modification to previously-awarded contract N00024-19-C-5406 for MK 15 Close-In Weapon System upgrades and conversions, system overhauls and associated hardware. Work will be performed in Louisville, Kentucky (29%); Tucson, Arizona (20%); El Segundo, California (9%); Melbourne, Florida (5%); Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (3%); Andover, Massachusetts (2%); Ottobrunn, Germany (2%); Williston, Vermont (2%); Tempe, Arizona (1%); Grand Rapids, Michigan (1%); Hauppauge, New York (1%); Ashburn, Virginia (1%); East Syracuse, New York (1%); Camarillo, California (1%); Phoenix, Arizona (1%); Joplin, Missouri (1%); Murray, Utah (1%); Dallas, Texas (1%); Corona, California (1%); Huntsville, Alabama (1%); Minneapolis, Minnesota (1%); Valencia, California (1%); Palo Alto, California (1%); and various places below one percent (13%). Work is expected to be complete by October 2023. Fiscal 2020 operations and maintenance (Navy); fiscal 2020 shipbuilding and conversion (Navy); and fiscal 2020 weapons procurement (Navy) funding in the amount of $109,607,857 will be obligated at time of award and were not competitively procured. Funds in the amount of $61,492,849 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, District of Columbia, is the contracting activity. M.A. Mortenson Co., doing business as Mortenson Construction, Minneapolis, Minnesota (N62473-18-D-5850); RQ Construction LLC, Carlsbad, California (N62473-18-D-5851); R. A. Burch Construction Co. Inc.,* Ramona, California (N62473-18-D-5852); Harper Construction Co. Inc., San Diego, California (N62473-18-D-5853); Sundt Construction Inc., Tempe, Arizona (N62473-18-D-5854); SOLPAC Construction Inc., doing business as Soltek Pacific Construction Co., San Diego, California (N62473-18-D-5855); Bethel-Webcor Pacific JV,* Anchorage, Alaska (N62473-18-D-5856); and The Whiting-Turner Contracting Co., Baltimore, Maryland (N62473-18-D-5858), are awarded $92,000,000 to increase the aggregate capacity of the previously awarded suite of firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity, multiple award construction contracts. The contracts are for new construction, renovation and repair of commercial and institutional building construction projects at various government installations located in California, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Colorado and New Mexico. All work will be performed at various federal sites within the Naval Facilities Engineering Command (NAVFAC) Southwest area of responsibility. The maximum dollar value, including the base year and four option years for all eight contracts combined has increased from $750,000,000 to $842,000,000. No funds are being obligated on this award and contract funds will not expire. Future task orders will be primarily funded by military construction (Navy); operations and maintenance (O&M) (Navy); O&M Marine Corps; and Navy working capital funds. The original contract was competitively procured via the Navy Electronic Commerce Online website and 22 proposals were received. The NAVFAC Southwest, San Diego, California, is the contracting activity. Lockheed Martin Corp. Rotary and Mission Systems, Moorestown, New Jersey, is awarded a $65,008,603 cost-plus-incentive-fee and cost-only modification to previously-awarded contract (N00024-19-C-5603) for combat system and engineering support of the Ship Self-Defense System. Work will be performed in Moorestown, New Jersey, and is expected to be complete by June 2022. Fiscal 2020 and 2019 operations and maintenance (Navy); fiscal 2020 and 2019 research, development, test and evaluation (Navy); fiscal 2020 and 2019 other procurement (Navy); and fiscal 2018, 2017 and 2016 shipbuilding and conversion (Navy) funding in the amount of $4,707,191 will be obligated at time of award. Funds in the amount of $727,389 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, District of Columbia, is the contracting activity. Ocean Shipholdings Inc., Houston, Texas, is awarded a $13,445,617 modification under previously awarded firm, fixed-price contract (N32205-17-C-3001) to fund the second one-year option period. This contract option is being exercised for the operation and maintenance of two U.S. Naval Ship (USNS) Gordon-class, class surge, large, medium-speed roll-on/roll-off vessels; and two USNS Shughart class surge, large, medium-speed roll-on/roll-off vessels. This contract includes a 12-month base period, four 12-month option periods and a six-month option which, if exercised, would bring the cumulative value of this contract to $220,028,462. Working capital contract funds (Navy) in the amount of $13,445,617 are obligated for fiscal 2020 and fiscal 2021 and will not expire. The Navy's Military Sealift Command, Norfolk, Virginia, is the contracting activity (N32205-17-C-3001). American International Contractors Inc., Arlington, Virginia, is awarded a $10,017,893 firm-fixed-price contract for alterations to the operation control center at Naval Support Activity I Bahrain. The work to be performed provides for the construction of a secure area requiring adherence to the National Counterintelligence and Security Center technical specifications for construction and management of sensitive compartmented information facilities, Version 1.4. Work will be performed in Manama, Bahrain, and is expected to be completed by August 2021. Fiscal 2020 operations and maintenance, (Navy) contract funds in the amount of $10,017,893 are obligated on this award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was not competitively procured via the Federal Business Opportunities website. This proposed contract action will be awarded pursuant to Federal Acquisition Regulation 6.302-2, Unusual and Compelling Urgency. The Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Europe Africa Central, is the contracting activity (N33191-20-C-0002). Cubic Defense Applications Inc., Austin, Texas, was awarded a $9,027,588 performance-based, cost-plus-fixed-fee, completion contract (N65236-20-C-8007). This contract is for research to develop and demonstrate software for real-time logistics and supply chain system situational awareness, future state prediction and assessment of resilience at unprecedented scale and speed. The contract includes an 18-month base period. Contract funds in the amount of $100,000 were obligated at the time of award. Work will be performed in Austin, Texas (61%); Minneapolis, Minnesota (22%); and Reston, Virginia (17%), and is expected to be completed by September 2021. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The contract was competitively procured, by full and open competition under the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Strategic Technology Office broad agency announcement HR0011-19-S-0053 via the Federal Business Opportunities website, with nine timely offers received. Naval Information Warfare Center Atlantic, Charleston, South Carolina, is the contracting activity. (Awarded March 9, 2020) ARMY AECOM Technical Services Inc., Los Angeles, California (W91278-20-D-0004); HDR Environmental, Operations and Construction Inc., Englewood, Colorado (W91278-20-D-0005); MSE Group LLC,* San Antonio, Texas (W91278-20-D-0006); Jacobs Engineering Group Inc., Dallas, Texas (W91278-20-D-0007); Phe-Baker JV LLC,* Rockville, Maryland (W91278-20-D-0008, W91278-20-D-0009); Tetra Tech Inc., Pasadena, California (W91278-20-D-0010); and Trinity/Jacobs JV LLC,* Shalimar, Florida (W91278-20-D-0011), will compete for each order of the $49,000,000 firm-fixed-price contract for architect and engineering services to support the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers South Atlantic Division. Bids were solicited via the internet with 20 received. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of March 10, 2023. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Mobile, Alabama, is the contracting activity. Salient CRGT, Fairfax, Virginia, was awarded a $38,078,488 modification (P00012) to contract W52P1J-18-C-0020 to provide mission critical information technology communications infrastructure and services in support of U.S. Special Operations military forces. Work will be performed in Fayetteville, North Carolina, and in Afghanistan, with an estimated completion date of March 14, 2023. Fiscal 2020 operations and maintenance, Army funds in the amount of $38,078,488 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Rock Island Arsenal, Illinois, is the contracting activity. Tetra Tech-Stanley JV, Gahanna, Ohio, was awarded a $12,000,000 firm-fixed-price contract for multi-disciplinary professional architect-engineer services primarily for civil works design. Bids were solicited via the internet with 10 received. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of March 11, 2025. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, St. Louis, Missouri, is the contracting activity (W912P9-20-D-0009). AIR FORCE Northrop Grumman Systems Corp., Woodland Hills, California, has been awarded a not-to-exceed $24,978,602 unpriced change order modification (P00013) to previously awarded contract FA8540-19-C-0001 for embedded Global Positioning System/Inertial Navigation System engineering, manufacturing and development. This modification provides for the incorporation of System Requirements Document Version 3.2.1 and the incorporation of Statement of Work Revision 4. Work will be performed in Woodland Hills, California, and is expected to be complete by June 30, 2021. Fiscal 2020 research and development funds in the amount of $7,500,000 are being obligated at the time of award. The total cumulative face value of the contract is $149,990,015. Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, Robins Air Force Base, Georgia, is the contracting activity. DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY SND Manufacturing, Dallas, Texas, has been awarded a maximum $8,130,915 modification (P00003) exercising the first one-year option period of a one-year base contract (SPE1C1-19-D-5038) with four one-year option periods for running suit jackets. This is an indefinite-delivery contract. Location of performance is Texas, with a March 17, 2021, performance completion date. Using military services are Navy and Marine Corps. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2020 through 2021 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. CORRECTION: The contract announced on March 6, 2020, for Quantico Tactical Inc.,* Aberdeen, North Carolina (SPE8EJ-19-D-0015), which is one of six companies sharing a $4,000,000,000 award, was announced with an incorrect contract number. The correct contract number is SPE8EJ-20-D-0015. *Small Business https://www.defense.gov/Newsroom/Contracts/Contract/Article/2109345/source/GovDelivery/
May 8, 2020 | International, Aerospace
Nathan Strout The U.S. Air Force has begun deploying thousands of personal devices to military personnel and health care providers that allow them to access classified information from home or outside of the office, even though the devices themselves are unclassified. The devices were supposed to be demonstrated during a test of the Air Force's Advanced Battle Management System in April, which was delayed to August or September due to the ongoing COVID-19 situation. With the test pushed back, the Air Force decided to begin rolling out the devices to support the fight against COVID-19. “Even in a virtual, COVID environment, the team pulled together very rapidly to do something that we were going to demonstrate in April as a prototype,” said Air Force Chief Architect Preston Dunlap during a virtual Mitchell Institute event May 7. The devices are loaded with SecureView, a software architecture built on an “unclassified at rest” model. “(The software has) the ability to process classified information on a device that's unclassified when you're not using it. So you could literally throw it on the street—no problem. I wouldn't recommend it, but no problem. But then when you use it, you actually can operate and access the information you need much like you would in your office,” explained Dunlap. “We're deploying about 1,000 of those in about three week sort of cycles now to get them out to the force,” said Dunlap. In addition, the Northern Command ABMS team was able to deploy unclassified tablets with SecureView to healthcare workers in New York City and aboard the hospital ship previously deployed to New York City, the USNS Comfort. The team is also pushing out data and applications to those devices to give users real time awareness of patients' health status, Dunlap said. He also said they were using artificial intelligence algorithms to predict how COVID-19 will spread. The software was developed by the Air Force Research Laboratory as part of DeviceOne, a line of effort under the Air Force's ABMS family of systems. ABMS is the Air Force's contribution to the Department of Defense's Joint All-Domain Command and Control concept, an ongoing effort to ensure connectivity between the services. Under JADC2, the Department's leaders want sensors to feed data to shooters in near-real time, regardless of domain. As envisioned, JADC2 systems should enable National Reconnaissance Office satellites to feed data to U.S. Army shooters, or U.S. Navy sensors to feed data to Air Force shooters. Dunlap noted that the use of DeviceONE to fight COVID-19 represented a real world on ramp of ABMS. “So from both a classified and unclassified world, seamless devices, mobility, data and applications where you need it, when you need it, are actually being demonstrated before our eyes in a real world current operation,” said Dunlap. “In some sense, you could call that we're actually doing a current ops on ramp to be able to support people and keep people safe.” The Air Force is largely agnostic towards which hardware is used for DeviceONE, said Dunlap. The program utilizes off-the-shelf consumer devices, enabling easy upgrades and keeping costs low compared to other DoD technology efforts. “For DeviceONE, all of the work that the team did was software-based and software security-based, and the hardware piece of that (we) are procuring and competing across the vendors that can provide the laptops, the tablets, the servers in the backend and so forth,” said Dunlap. While the system can be used to access any classification level, the configuration rolled out for COVID-19 support was limited to just the secret level. However, Dunlap said the software can be used for any classification level and was currently in use around the world by several combatant commanders. “It's incumbent for us to be able to provide the security and software on top of (the hardware) that enables our operators to be on that island, on that aircraft, in that Humvee, in the tents, and be able to get the information they need,” said Dunlap. And Dunlap added that the delayed ABMS test will be expanded when it does occur, incorporating Strategic Command and Space Command. Dunlap also hinted that the ABMS test after the August/September test will include Indo-Pacific Command, bringing the on ramp to the operational edge. “There's going to be a variety of key adjustments there,” said Dunlap. “Before, in December, it was mostly a Northern Command focus. We now have a Space Command and a Space Force, and so the predominant thing here is we're going to have the U.S. Space Command Commander, Gen. (John) Raymond, actually be the supported commander for the first time as opposed to a supporting commander.” https://www.c4isrnet.com/air/2020/05/07/air-force-rolls-out-advanced-battle-management-system-devices-in-covid-19-fight/