November 26, 2020 | International, C4ISR

US Army creates new office for integrating data and sensors

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Army's office for procuring sensors, electronic warfare systems, intelligence programs and cyber tools recently created an integration office designed to better align the various elements of its portfolio across the larger Army, joint force and commercial industry.

As the military looks to link sensors and information to shooters in a new concept it is calling Combined Joint All-Domain Command and Control, standardizing data and systems will be critical.

The new integration directorate within Program Executive Office Intelligence, Electronic Warfare and Sensors — established in April — is aligned under three offices, according to its director, Christian Keller, who virtually briefed members of industry Nov. 24. The three offices are:

Architectures, which is focused on system-of-systems engineering and common standards for interfacing with other programs.
Futures, which is focused on understanding threat analysis and conducting science and technology transitions from groups across the Army. It is also looking at how to better integrate demonstrations and experimentation efforts such as Project Convergence, Multi-Domain Operations Live and the Defender series.
The last group is looking at interfacing the program executive office with other elements of the Army such as Futures Command and its cross-functional teams, the Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Task Force, and the various centers of excellence within Training and Doctrine Command.

“We have [a] very complex system-of-systems environment we're dealing with,” Keller said. “We have various sensor capabilities out there, which have to interface to ground stations and may have to interface to various users, both maneuver wise and fires wise and everything like that.”

One of the main efforts the group is undertaking involves various stakeholders working to wrangle what systems — to include a variety of forthcoming systems such as Tactical Intelligence Targeting Access Node, the Army's next-generation ground station; the Terrestrial Layer System, the Army's first integrated signals intelligence, electronic warfare and cyber platform; and the Multi-Domain Sensing System, a high altitude ISR platform — along with existing systems to ensure data is provided seamlessly and effectively from sensors and nodes all the way to commanders and shooters.

“What we're trying to do within the group is work on understanding what systems are interfacing with what, understand what the data is going back-and-forth between those systems, how to do that effectively, and how to do that in somewhat of a seamless manner, although nothing is that easy,” Keller said.

https://www.c4isrnet.com/battlefield-tech/2020/11/24/us-army-creates-new-office-for-integrating-data-and-sensors/

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January 12, 2021 | International, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security

Contract Awards by US Department of Defense - January 11, 2021
DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY Beacon Point Associates LLC, Cape Coral, Florida, has been awarded a maximum $49,000,000 fixed-price with economic-price-adjustment, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for medical and surgical supplies. This was a competitive acquisition with 65 responses received. This is a five-year contract with no options. Location of performance is Florida, with a Feb. 28, 2026, ordering period end date. Using customers are Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps and federal civilian agencies. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2021 through 2026 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (SPE2DE-21-D-0002). Unimex Corp.,** Sterling, Virginia, has been awarded a maximum $12,000,000 firm-fixed-price with economic-price-adjustment, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for environmental controllers. This was a competitive acquisition with three responses received. This is a one-year base contract with four one-year option periods. Location of performance is Virginia, with a Jan. 10, 2022, ordering period end date. Using military service is Navy. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2021 through 2022 defense working capital funds. The contracting agency is the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (SPE8EG-21-D-0127). AIR FORCE Haight Bey & Associates, West Haven, Utah, has been awarded a $35,888,778 firm-fixed-price and cost-reimbursable, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for AN/TMQ-53 Tactical Meteorological Observing System contractor logistics support. This contract provides spares, repairs, obsolescence management, engineering change proposals and special projects in support of the TMQ-53 system. Work will be performed in West Haven, Utah, and is expected to be completed July 2027. Fiscal 2021 operation and maintenance funds in the amount of $578,060 are being obligated with the first delivery order at the time of contract award. The Aerospace Management Systems Division, Hanscom Air Force Base, Massachusetts, is the contracting activity (FA8730-21-D-0003). Merrill Corp., doing business as Mission Support Inc., Clearfield, Utah, has been awarded a $10,123,784 firm-fixed-price contract for B-52 strut repair. Work will be performed in Clearfield, Utah, and is expected to be complete by Dec. 28, 2021. The award is the result of a sole-source solicitation. Fiscal 2020 operation and maintenance funds in the amount of $2,885,422 are being obligated at the time of the award. The Air Force Sustainment Center, Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma, is the contracting activity (FA8119-21-C-0001). WASHINGTON HEADQUARTERS SERVICES Boston Consulting Group, Bethesda, Maryland (HQ0034-16-A-0003), has been awarded a firm-fixed-price contract with a maximum amount of $29,978,698. This contract is to provide Marine Corps programs and resources support for their organizational requirements, resourcing, risk and reporting requirements (similar to a 10-K). Work performance will take place at the Mark Center, Alexandria, Virginia. Appropriate fiscal 2021 operation and maintenance funds will be obligated at time of the award. The expected completion date is Jan. 10, 2022. Washington Headquarters Services, Arlington, Virginia, is the contracting activity. NAVY American Superconductor Corp.,* Devens, Massachusetts, is awarded a $14,940,659 hybrid firm-fixed-price, cost-plus-fixed fee, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract in support of the supplies and services required to deliver a high temperature superconducting degaussing system (HTS). This procurement is for the delivery of an HTS, in accordance with the landing platform docks-class configuration. This includes the fabrication, testing and delivery of a ship's set of components/materials; the analysis of configuration based engineering change proposals; and vendor representative support during installation. The HTS degaussing system components/materials include a control unit, power modules, junction boxes, cryo-coolers, accumulation tanks, HTS degaussing cable assemblies and cold gas lines. Work will be performed in Ayer, Massachusetts (95%); and Pascagoula, Mississippi (5%), and is expected to be completed by September 2023. Fiscal 2021 shipbuilding and conversion (Navy) funds in the amount of $10,497,232 will be obligated at time of award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was not competitively procured in accordance with 10 U.S. Code 2304(c)(1) (only one responsible source and no other supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements). The Naval Surface Warfare Center, Philadelphia Division, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is the contracting activity (N64498-21-D-4011). Raytheon Missiles and Defense, Tucson, Arizona, is awarded an $8,520,414 cost-type undefinitized contract for procurement of long lead material in support of Standard Missile-2 (SM-2) Foreign Military Sales (FMS) production requirements to include all up rounds, instrumental kits, engineering services and spares. This contract involves FMS to Korea, Denmark, Netherlands, Spain, Taiwan and Japan. Work will be performed in Hengelo Overijssel, Netherlands (51%); McKinney, Texas (32%); and Tucson, Arizona (17%), and is expected to be completed by March 2023. FMS Korea funding in the amount of $1,807,362 (42%); FMS Denmark funding in the amount of $1,073,800 (25%); Memorandum of Understanding Netherlands funding in the amount of $494,872 (12%); FMS Spain funding in the amount of $451,840 (11%); FMS Taiwan funding in the amount of $344,259 (8%); and FMS Japan funding in the amount of $86,064 (2%), will be obligated at time of award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was not competitively procured in accordance with the authority from 10 U.S. Code 2304 (c) (4) (international agreement). The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity (N00024-21-C-5411). ARMY Eastman Aggregate Enterprises LLC,* Lake Worth, Florida, was awarded an $11,013,889 firm-fixed-price contract for shore protection and beach renourishment. Bids were solicited via the internet with five received. Work will be performed in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, with an estimated completion date of April 30, 2022. Fiscal 2018 flood control and coastal emergencies funds in the amount of $11,013,889 were obligated at the time of the award. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Jacksonville, Florida, is the contracting activity (W912EP-21-C-0004). *Small business **Women-owned small business https://www.defense.gov/Newsroom/Contracts/Contract/Article/2468302/source/GovDelivery/
August 9, 2023 | International, Land

Polish MOD to Acquire Batch of SPIKE LR Missiles in a New Deal with RAFAEL & Polish MESKO
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November 12, 2018 | International, C4ISR

TOP US INTELLIGENCE OFFICIAL SUE GORDON WANTS SILICON VALLEY ON HER SIDE
SUE GORDON, THE principal deputy director of national intelligence, wakes up every day at 3 am, jumps on a Peloton, and reads up on all the ways the world is trying to destroy the United States. By the afternoon, she has usually visited the Oval Office and met with the heads of the 17 intelligence agencies to get threat reports. The self-described “chief operating officer of the intelligence community” has a lot to worry about, but the nearly-30-year veteran is generally optimistic about America's future. Now, she says, she just needs Silicon Valley to realize that tech and government don't have to be opposed. On a recent trip to Silicon Valley, Gordon sat down with WIRED to talk about how much government needs Silicon Valley to join the fight to keep the US safe. She was in town to speak at conference at Stanford, but also to convince tech industry leaders industry that despite increasing employee concerns, the government and tech have a lot of shared goals. “I had a meeting with Google where my opening bid was: ‘We're in the same business'. And they're like ‘What?' And I said: ‘Using information for good,'” Gordon says. That's a hard sell in Silicon Valley, especially in the post-Snowden years. After Snowden's leaks, tech companies and tech workers didn't want to be seen as complicit with a government that spied on its own people—a fact Gordon disputes, saying that any collection of citizen's information was incidental and purged by their systems. This led to a much-publicized disconnect between the two power centers, one that has only grown more entrenched and public in 2018, as Silicon Valley has undergone something of an ethical awakening. Gordon agrees with and supports a broader awareness that technology can be abused, but came to Silicon Valley to explain why government and tech should solve those problems hand in hand. Pairing Up Gordon knows from public-private partnerships. The CIA's venture capital accelerator In-Q-Tel—which for nearly 20 years has invested in everything from malware-detection software to biochemical sensors to micro-batteries—was Gordon's idea. Groundbreaking at its conception, In-Q-Tel directly funds startups that could be of interest to national security, without limits on how that money can be used, and without owning the intellectual property. Among other successful investments, In-Q-Tel backed a company called Keyhole, which Google would go on to acquire and turn into Google Earth. Full article: https://www.wired.com/story/sue-gordon-us-intelligence-public-private-google-amazon

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US Army creates new office for integrating data and sensors

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Polish MOD to Acquire Batch of SPIKE LR Missiles in a New Deal with RAFAEL & Polish MESKO As RAFAEL’s local Polish industrial partner, MESKO has already manufactured SPIKE Missiles for the Polish MOD, and this will be the third such deal involving the SPIKE Missile Family.

Polish MOD to Acquire Batch of SPIKE LR Missiles in a New Deal with RAFAEL & Polish MESKO
As RAFAEL’s local Polish industrial partner, MESKO has already manufactured SPIKE Missiles for the Polish MOD, and this will be the third such deal involving the SPIKE Missile Family.