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November 26, 2023 | International, Aerospace

UN conference adopts 2030 goal on cleaner aviation fuels | Reuters

Nations at U.N.-led talks agreed on Friday an interim 2030 goal for reducing emissions from international aviation through the use of sustainable aviation fuel, but China, Russia and some others voiced reservations about the impact on their economies.

https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/climate-energy/un-conference-adopts-2030-goal-cleaner-aviation-fuels-2023-11-24/

On the same subject

  • Contract Awards by US Department of Defense - December 01, 2020

    December 2, 2020 | International, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security

    Contract Awards by US Department of Defense - December 01, 2020

    U.S. SPECIAL OPERATIONS COMMAND Raytheon Technologies, McKinney, Texas, (H92408-21-C-0001) was awarded a $235,576,667 C-Type, multi-year procurement contract for the production and delivery of the Silent Knight Radar in support of U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) requirements. Fiscal 2020 procurement funds in the amount of $8,181,918; and fiscal 2021 procurement funds in the amount of $61,181,024 are being obligated at time of award. The work will be performed in McKinney and Forest, Mississippi, and is expected to be completed by July 2025. This is a sole-source award in accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulation 6.302-1. USSOCOM, Tampa, Florida, is the contracting activity. ARMY Better by Design LLC,* New Boston, Missouri (W912P9-21-D-0011); Davinroy Mechanical Contractor Inc.,* Belleville, Illinois (W912P9-21-D-0012); Eagle Eye Electric LLC,* Las Vegas, Nevada (W912P9-21-D-0013); Gale Construction of Illinois,* Joliet, Illinois (W912P9-21-D-0014); Bloomsdale Excavating Co. Inc.,* Bloomsdale, Missouri (W912P9-21-D-0015); Keller Construction Inc.,* Glen Carbon, Illinois (W912P9-21-D-0016); Magruder Construction Co. Inc.,* Eolia, Missouri (W912P9-21-D-0017); Shinn Kellogg LLC,* Albia, Iowa (W912P9-21-D-0018); Syte Corp.,* Chicago, Illinois (W912P9-21-D-0019); Medvolt Construction Services LLC,* Kansas City, Missouri (W912P9-21-D-0020); and A&H Ambica JV LLC,* Livonia, Michigan (W912P9-21-D-0021), will compete for each order of the $95,000,000 firm-fixed-price contract for the construction of various civil and flood recovery projects. Bids were solicited via the internet with 13 received. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of Nov. 30, 2025. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, St. Louis, Missouri, is the contracting activity. Exp Federal Inc., Chicago, Illinois (W912HN-21-D-2000); Burns & McDonnell Engineering Co. Inc., Kansas City, Missouri (W912HN-21-D-2001); and Barge/Emersion JV, Nashville, Tennessee (W912HN-21-D-2002), will compete for each order of the $20,000,000 firm-fixed-price contract for architect-engineer general design services. Bids were solicited via the internet with 25 received. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of Nov. 30, 2025. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Savannah, Georgia, is the contracting activity. NAVY Kellogg Brown and Root Services Inc., Houston, Texas, is awarded a $28,324,156 indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity modification for the incorporation of additional services for Option Periods Three through Seven under the base operating service contract at Naval Support Activity (NSA) Kingdom of Bahrain. After award of this modification, the total cumulative contract value will be $139,809,309. The work to be performed provides for, but is not limited to, all management, supervision, tools, materials, supplies, labor and transportation services necessary to perform security operations, galley services, unaccompanied housing, facility management, emergency service requests, urgent service, routing service, facilities investment, custodial, pest control service, integrated solid waste, grounds maintenance, utility management, wastewater, operate reverse osmosis water treatment system, chiller and transportation, at NSA Kingdom of Bahrain. Work will be performed in Kingdom of Bahrain. Performance period is Dec. 1, 2020, to Nov. 30, 2021. No funds will be obligated at time of award. Fiscal 2021 operation and maintenance (O&M) (Navy); fiscal 2021 O&M (Coast Guard); and fiscal 2021 O&M (Army) contract funds in the amount of $912,863 for recurring work will be obligated on individual task orders issued during the option period. The Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command, Europe Africa Central, Naples, Italy, is the contracting activity (N62470-17-D-4007). Kellogg Brown and Root Services Inc., Houston, Texas, is awarded a $22,251,961 indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity modification for the exercise of Option Three under the base operating services contract at Naval Support Activity (NSA), Kingdom of Bahrain. After award of this option, the total cumulative contract value will be $168,133,467. The work to be performed provides for, but is not limited to, all management, supervision, tools, materials, supplies, labor and transportation services necessary to perform security operations, galley services, unaccompanied housing, facility management, emergency service requests, urgent service, routing service, facilities investment, custodial, pest control service, integrated solid waste, grounds maintenance, utility management, wastewater, operate reverse osmosis water treatment system, chiller and transportation at NSA Kingdom of Bahrain. Work will be performed in Kingdom of Bahrain. Performance Period is Dec. 1, 2020 to Nov. 30, 2021. No funds will be obligated at time of award. Fiscal 2021 operation and maintenance (O&M) (Navy); fiscal 2021 O&M (Army); and fiscal 2021 O&M (Coast Guard) contract funds in the amount of $22,251,962 for recurring work will be obligated on individual task orders issued during the option period. The Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command, Europe Africa Central, Naples, Italy, is the contracting activity (N62470-17-D-4007). Lockheed Martin Corp., Owego, New York, is awarded a $12,350,767 modification (P00021) to previously awarded firm-fixed-price, cost-plus-fixed-fee contract N00019-19-C-0013. This modification adds scope to provide non-recurring engineering and obsolescence services in support of the Airborne Low Frequency Sonars integration into MH-60R production aircraft for the governments of India and Denmark. Work will be performed in Brest, France (58%); and Owego, New York (42%), and is expected to be completed in October 2024. Foreign Military Sales funds in the amount of $12,350,767 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. Advanced Acoustic Concepts LLC, Haupauge, New York, is awarded a $9,322,942 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for the Angler System for Seabed Warfare effort. This contract provides for the design and development, fabrication, assembly, integration and test and operational utility assessment of a weapon technology that is capable of operating in a deep-water environment. Work will be performed in Haupauge, New York, with an estimated completion date of Nov. 2, 2022. The total cumulative value of this contract is $9,322,942. Fiscal 2020 research, development, test and evaluation (Navy) funds in the amount of $9,322,942 are obligated at time of award and will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was competitively procured under N00014-20-S-B001, “Long Range Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) for Navy and Marine Corps Science & Technology.” Since proposals are received throughout the year under the long range BAA, the number of proposals received in response to the solicitation is unknown. The Office of Naval Research, Arlington, Virginia, is the contracting activity (N00014-21-C-1006). Kellogg Brown and Root Services Inc., Houston, Texas, is awarded a $7,826,832 cost-reimbursement task order modification (N33191-18-F-4417) to exercise Option Period Two and provide additional services under the cost-plus-award-fee contract for base operating support services at Naval Support Facility (NSF) Redzikowo, Poland. After award of this modification, the total cumulative contract value will be $19,712,582. The work to be performed provides for furnishing all labor, supervision, management, tools, materials, equipment, facilities, transportation, incidental engineering and other items necessary to provide the base operating support services at NSF Redzikowo. Work will be performed in Slupsk, Poland. This option period is from Dec. 1, 2020, to Nov. 30, 2021. No funds will be obligated at time of award. Fiscal 2021 operation and maintenance (Navy); and fiscal 2021 research and development (Department of Defense) contract funds in the amount of $7,826,832 will be obligated on individual modifications to this task order during the option period. The Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command, Europe Africa Central, is the contracting activity (N62742-16-D-3551). Lockheed Martin Rotary and Mission Systems, Moorestown, New Jersey, is being awarded a $7,654,990 cost-plus-fixed-fee and cost (no fee) modification to previously awarded contract N00024-14-C-5104 to exercise options for ship integration and test of the AEGIS Weapon System (AWS) for AWS baselines through Advanced Capability Build (ACB) 12. This option exercise will provide AEGIS shipboard integration engineering, AEGIS test team support, AEGIS modernization team engineering support, ballistic missile defense (BMD) test team support and AWS element assessments. Work will be performed in Norfolk, Virginia (33%); San Diego, California (25%); Everett, Washington (25%); Bath, Maine (10%); Moorestown, New Jersey (3%); Camden, New Jersey (2%); and various locations across the U.S., each less than 1% (2%), and is expected to be completed by November 2021. Fiscal 2013 shipbuilding and conversion (Navy) funding in the amount of $1,409,269 will be obligated at the time of award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity. (Awarded Nov. 30, 2020) AIR FORCE CORRECTION: A contract announced on Nov. 23, 2020, to Northrop Grumman Systems Corp., Clearfield, Utah (FA8202-21-D-0001), in the amount of $185,700,000 for the A-10 Aircraft Structural Integrity Program Legacy VII has not yet been awarded. *Small business https://www.defense.gov/Newsroom/Contracts/Contract/Article/2431502/

  • In a Trump win, 'buy-the-dip' opportunity seen in European defence
  • Why 5G is a big deal for militaries throughout the world

    February 6, 2019 | International, C4ISR

    Why 5G is a big deal for militaries throughout the world

    By: William Schneider, Jr The public discussion of 5th generation (5G) mobile telephone service has been seen by many – perhaps most – in the United States as just another step in the evolution of mobile communications, a remarkable scientific and commercial development that has wrought a wide range of benefits world-wide over the preceding quarter-century. More recently, the focus has shifted to 5G as a proxy for the U.S.-China trade and technology rivalry. The Trump administration's effort to change the terms-of-trade with China has brought the subject of commercial and international trade consequences of the proliferation of advanced technologies into sharp relief. The U.S. efforts to extradite the chief financial officer of the Chinese telecommunication equipment developer and producer, Huawei from her detention in Canada for export control violations have added a geopolitical spin to what has become an increasingly tangled issue. These aspects of the story, while true, do not begin to describe why 5G is such a big deal. The technologies of 5G communication will create a backbone technology for high speed low latency telecommunication. It will serve as the basis for the global internet-based “Internet of Things” (IoT) with fundamental changes in how goods and services of every imaginable types (and many, perhaps most not yet imagined) can be developed, employed, supported, and replaced. The importance of new technologies is not their ability to do what existing technology can do now, only faster, better, and cheaper even though that is a likely consequence. In the case of 5G, its ultra-low latency (potentially hundreds of times faster than current 4G LTE) produced by its vast bandwidth that allows users to do things that previously could not be done by any practical application of existing technologies. The enormous scale of capital expenditure involved in rapidly bringing 5G technology to market – $325 billion by 2025 – to develop and produce the hardware and software needed to deliver early 5G capabilities is unlike any other infrastructure project. Reflecting its national commitment to 5G, nearly half of the world-wide investment in 5G development and employment will be made by China. The extraordinarily low latency of 5G will allow services such as augmented and virtual reality and an immersive and tactile internet that cannot be delivered by 4G or earlier technology. 5G technology also inverts the classic paradigm of computational scarcity at the network's edge (e.g. the mobile device) and computational abundance at the center. With computational abundance now at the network edge, the employment of computationally intense emerging technologies (e.g. AI, quantum computing and cryptography, facial recognition) can be performed by mobile devices throughout the network. 5G as part of China's belt-and-road initiative While Western governments have tended to see 5G as an important but incremental extension of existing telecommunications services, China has recognized the value of 5G technology with its belt-and-road initiative (BRI). That effort is China's $1 trillion global infrastructure project to expand its economic presence and support for its interests on a global scale. China sees it as a key step in becoming the world's leading economic power by 2049, the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist state. The project has several components, one of which has become known as the “digital road.” It anticipates projecting the deployment of China's 5G telecommunication infrastructure over the dozens of countries now affiliated with the initiative. The 5G telecommunications network would be integrated with another Chinese project, its Beidou (“Big Dipper”) precision navigation and timing system (now in the latter stage of fielding) to displace the U.S. Global Positioning System enabling China's telecommunications and PNT system to dominate the future IoT and other in areas affected by China's belt-and-road project. 5G as an instrument of China's international security policy China's global security ambitions overlap its economic aspirations. The 19th Congress of the Communist Party of China, the belt-and-road initiative and its associated activities were incorporated in the Chinese Constitution at the 19th CPC. In that context belt and road is a project of the Party, and not the State which significantly elevates its security role and importance to its national leadership. The BRI creates a global economic presence that has become a combination of commercial enablers for its “Maritime Silk Road” and forward air and naval installations for China's armed forces. These include air and naval facilities in Djibouti in the Horn of Africa, Jiwani, Pakistan (~80-km west of its large commercial port at Gwadar, and a naval base in Sri Lanka (Hambantota, which China acquired in a debt-for-sovereignty swap when Sri Lanka could not service its BRI debt to China). China's switch from a regional to an aspiring global power reflect its aspirations that have shaped the CPC's rule since Mao: the deconstruction the old-world order in favor of one which gives China its rightful place at the zenith of a new international order. The incorporation of the technology 5G telecommunication and Chinese controlled PNT parallels a trend in US military practice. DoD military communications, like China's is moving to a wireless, mobile, and cloud-based IT systems built around 5G technology. China's convergence of its 5G, BRI presence (military and civil), PNT and dominant role in the BRI member states are aimed at becoming the world's leading economic and military power by the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist State in 2049. 5G is both an enabler and product of China's remarkable economic growth since 1979 and is likely to become a central element of China's economic and military power for the 1st half of the 21st century. William Schneider, Jr. is a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and former under secretary of State and chairman of the Defense Science Board. https://www.c4isrnet.com/opinion/2019/02/05/why-5g-is-a-big-deal-for-militaries-throughout-the-world

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