US, Georgia sign military training pact amid Russian threat on the Black Sea

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  January 20, 2022 | International, Aerospace

  MCO : les contrats verticalisés augmentent la disponibilité des aéronefs des armées

  La nouvelle stratégie de soutien des matériels aéronautiques des armées « commence à porter ses fruits », relève La Tribune. Lors d'un point presse en ce début d'année, le ministère des Armées a communiqué sur les succès de la stratégie de contrats verticalisés. En 2017, pour le MCO d'un aéronef, le ministère pouvait passer jusqu'à 30 contrats de maintenance différents, là où il y a désormais pour chaque flotte un maître d'œuvre de la maintenance, avec un guichet unique pour la logistique, explique La Tribune. La durée des contrats a également été allongée (jusqu'à 14 ans pour la flotte Mirage 2000). « L'industriel a tous les leviers en main. Il dispose de la visibilité, de la durée, il a l'ensemble de la chaîne à sa responsabilité. Il peut donc planifier, il peut donc recruter, il peut investir, il peut innover, il peut anticiper les obsolescences techniques. Il a une rémunération incitative qui est fondée majoritairement sur le nombre d'heures de vol, ce qui lui donne une motivation à ce que nos forces puissent voler », a fait valoir Monique Legrand-Larroche, directrice de la DMAé (Direction de la Maintenance Aéronautique). La Tribune du 19 janvier

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  June 18, 2020 | International, Land

  Army Reassures Anxious Industry Over Stryker Cannon Competition

  While at least two of six competitors have dropped out, the Army says it will still have plenty of 30mm turret options to choose from as it starts testing this fall. By SYDNEY J. FREEDBERG JR.on June 17, 2020 at 2:43 PM WASHINGTON: “This is a healthy competition,” the head of the Army Stryker program, Col. Bill Venable, reassured reporters. “My No. 1 mandate as the overall program manager was to protect the competition in this first phase.” Venable was allaying anxieties yesterday about the five-year-old effort to upgun the infantry transport version of the Stryker, an 8×8 armored vehicle that's become an Army workhorse worldwide since its controversial introduction in 2003. The wheeled Stryker was criticized for having lighter armor than the tracked M1 Abrams and M2 Bradley, although it's far better protected than Humvees. It often struggled over Afghan terrain. But its ability to move rapidly by road – with fewer stops for gas and maintenance than heavy armored vehicles – made it a favorite of US commanders from Iraq to Estonia. So, while overshadowed by high-tech prototypes from hypersonic missiles to high-speed helicopters to robotic tanks, the Army is doubling down on the proven Stryker in several ways: Two light infantry brigades are being converted into Stryker units, which increases the number of active-duty Stryker brigades from five to seven. (There are two more part-time units in the National Guard). Original manufacturer General Dynamics has a $2.4 billion contract to rebuild hundreds of existing Strykers as DVHA1 models with bigger engines, upgraded electronics, and mine-resistant “double-V” hulls. Leonardo DRS is developing a new anti-aircraft variant called IM-SHORAD. It is several months behind schedule due to COVID disruptions and software issues. And the Army is upgunning the basic infantry-carrier variant from an exposed 12.7mm (0.50 cal) machinegun, viable against infantry and unarmored trucks, to a turret-mounted Medium Caliber Weapon System (MCWS), a 30mm autocannon capable of killing light armored vehicles widely used by Russia General Dynamics urgently built 83 upgunned Strykers to reequip a single Europe-based brigade. Now the Army is holding an open competition for an official Program of Record (POR) to upgrade at least three more brigades with a more refined 30mm turret design – but we've heard some anxiety over whether any other vendor can really unseat the incumbent. Out of six companies awarded $150,000 design contracts last summer, Venable confirmed that at least two have dropped out. At the current — sensitive — stage of the competition, the program manager said after a quick consultation with his staff, he isn't allowed to disclose how many companies remain and how many have quit. But Venable did tell reporters that one vendor dropped out because it wasn't making adequate progress to meet the technical requirements, while another decided it didn't have a good enough chance of winning to justify the investment. While the Army gave competitors free Strykers and 30mm guns, they must provide their own turrets, electronics and other components to integrate the weapon and the vehicle into a functional fighting system, to be delivered to the Army for testing by August 10. “We're not funding their development,” Venable said, “[which is] in some cases millions of dollars they're going to invest.” While he won't second-guess any company's cost-benefit calculus, he's been working with all of them to try to keep them in the running, despite disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. “We have adjusted the evaluation strategy in order to maintain the competition as robust as we can,” he said. “This isn't the first competitive selection effort that I've run, and I will say we have more [viable competitors] than the incumbent, significantly more than the incumbent,” Venable told reporters. “We're going to present a variety of choices to the source selection authority to evaluate starting on 10 August.” Once the vehicles arrive in August, the Army will live-fire the 30 mm guns, check out the armor, and conduct a host of other tests. By January, Venable expects to have that data ready for the evaluation board, which aims to announce a winner by the end of April, 2021. After that, the winning company will start mass production, with the first vehicles scheduled for delivery to a Stryker unit in August or September 2022. That meets the Army's previously announced deadline to start fielding by the end of fiscal '22, Venable said. But the brigade will spend months more taking possession of the vehicles and training on them – a “Rubik's Cube” of logistics and scheduling, Venable said — before it's officially declared the “First Unit Equipped,” probably around March 2023. https://breakingdefense.com/2020/06/army-rebuffs-anxiety-over-stryker-cannon-competition

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  January 21, 2020 | International, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security

  Contract Awards by US Department of Defense - January 17, 2020

  NAVY Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems, Tewksbury, Massachusetts, is awarded a $30,358,285 cost-plus-fixed-fee and cost-only modification to previously-awarded contract N00024-19-C-5509 to exercise the option for dual band radar design agent support efforts. Work will be performed in Tewksbury, Massachusetts (69%); Port Hueneme, California (17%); and Arvonia, Virginia (14%), and is expected to be completed by January 2021. Fiscal 2020 shipbuilding and conversion (Navy); and fiscal 2019 research, development, test and evaluation (Navy) funding in the amount of $2,099,910 will be obligated at time of award, and funds in the amount of $1,069,769 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, District of Columbia, is the contracting activity. CACI International Inc./BIT Systems, Sterling, Virginia, is awarded a $13,336,559 firm-fixed-price, cost-plus-fixed-fee, cost reimbursable, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract. This contract provides engineering, program management and technical services to support the installation, integration and sustainment of counter unmanned aerial systems. Installation and integration includes modeling and simulation, hardware installation, software integration, verification testing and integration trouble shooting support. System sustainment includes maintainability and deployment upgrades of operational systems, reconfiguration of installed systems, training, system maintenance, software updates and hardware repairs. Work will be performed in Sterling, Virginia (34%); various locations within the continental U.S (33%); and various locations outside the continental U.S. (33%), and is expected to be completed in January 2022. No funds will be obligated at the time of award. Funds will be obligated on individual orders as they are issued. This contract was not competitively procured pursuant to 10 U.S. Code 2304(c)(1). The Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity (N00421-20-D-0020). ARMY Phillips Corp.,* Hanover, Maryland, was awarded a $28,570,997 firm-fixed-price contract for the procurement of Computer Numeric Control mill and lathe assemblies. Bids were solicited via the internet with one received. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of Jan. 16, 2025. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Rock Island Arsenal, Illinois, is the contracting activity (W9098S-20-D-0004). Four Tribes Enterprises Inc.,* Gaithersburg, Maryland, was awarded a $13,147,968 firm-fixed-price contract for the construction of a perimeter security entry point at Rome Laboratory. One bid was solicited via the internet with one bid received. Work will be performed in Rome, New York, with an estimated completion date of July 14, 2021. Fiscal 2020 civil construction funds in the amount of $13,147,968 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, New York, New York, is the contracting activity (W912DS-20-C-0005). Booz Allen Hamilton Inc., McLean, Virginia, was awarded an $8,873,629 firm-fixed-price contract for program management support services on the Integrated Personnel and Pay System-Army for the Functional Management Division, Deputy Chief of Staff, G-1, Technology and Business Architecture Integration Directorate. Fifty-five bids were solicited with one bid received. Work will be performed in Arlington, Virginia, with an estimated completion date of Jan. 17, 2023. Fiscal 2020 operations and maintenance, Army, funds in the amount of $8,873,629 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Contracting Command, New Jersey, is the contracting activity (W15QKN-20-F-0144). DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY Honeywell International, doing business as Honeywell Aerospace-Tucson, Tucson, Arizona, has been awarded a $25,664,750 firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for helicopter generators. This was a sole-source acquisition using justification 10 U.S. Code 2304 (c)(1), as stated in Federal Acquisition Regulation 6.302-1. This is a one-year base contract with four one-year options periods. Location of performance is Arizona with a Jan 17, 2026, performance completion date. Using military service is the Army. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2020 Army working capital funds. The contracting activity is Defense Logistics Agency Aviation, Redstone Arsenal, Alabama (SPRRA1-20-D-0016). *Small Business https://www.defense.gov/Newsroom/Contracts/Contract/Article/2060522/source/GovDelivery/