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July 15, 2022 | International, C4ISR, Security

US urges speed in Booz Allen antitrust case as NSA intel contract nears

U.S. attorneys argue a speedier clip is necessary to preserve competition on a National Security Agency contract dubbed Optimal Decision, which deals with signals intelligence and simulation services.

https://www.c4isrnet.com/industry/2022/07/14/us-urges-speed-in-booz-allen-antitrust-case-as-nsa-intel-contract-nears/

On the same subject

  • British MoD shortlists four vendor teams for its multibillion-dollar Skynet satellite program

    June 17, 2020 | International, C4ISR

    British MoD shortlists four vendor teams for its multibillion-dollar Skynet satellite program

    By: Andrew Chuter LONDON – Four international consortia have been shortlisted by Britain's Ministry of Defence to enter the final stage of bidding to operate ground control facilities for its Skynet satellite communications network. Teams led by Airbus Defence & Space, Babcock Integrated Technology, BT and Serco, have been down-selected for the Skynet 6 Service Delivery Wrap program following the MoD's Defence Digital organization release of an invitation to tender document to the remaining contenders June 12. The make-up of one of the teams vying for the ground station operations contract is already known, while others have yet to announce who their partners are. Serco has declared its team will involve satellite operator Inmarsat, IT specialist CGI UK and the U.K. arm of defense giant Lockheed Martin. British communications company BT, Babcock and Airbus are all keeping their teaming arrangements under wraps for the time being. Airbus, Britain's biggest satellite builder, did though coincide the MoD Skynet 6 down-select with a separate space partnering announcement of its own. The company said June 16 it had teamed with KBR, Leidos UK, Northrop Grumman and QinetiQ to launch a new space initiative known as Open Innovation-Space aimed at increasing British involvement in future satellite communications efforts. No mention was made by Airbus of the Skynet 6 program. All the companies are working under strict Skynet 6 non-disclosure agreements with the MoD which forbid communication with the media and others. The ground station program is the second part of the MoD's wider Skynet 6 project to equip the military and government with a new generation of beyond-line-of-sight communications capabilities starting around 2028. The Skynet 6 program has already seen Airbus start work on a new satellite, called Skynet 6A, to act as a capability gap filler between 2025 and the introduction of the follow-on, new-generation capacity. A deal for preliminary design work and long-lead time manufacture was signed by Airbus and the MoD in March and the contract to build the Skynet 6A spacecraft is in the final stages of government approval and expected to be announced within weeks. The other two key parts of a program presently expected to cost in total around £6 billion ($7.6 billion) are the Enduring Capability project, to provide next generation communications capabilities, and the Secure Telemetry, Tracking and Command (STTC) project for providing assured sovereign control and management of satellites. The MoD has settled its STTC requirements for SkyNet 6A but its options for the longer term remain open. Work on defining what the Enduring Capability requirement might look like has been underway for a while and industry executives here expect the effort to be ramped up in the coming months with the first tranche of recommendations due to be presented to the MoD early next year, said people with knowledge of the program. The next-generation communications requirement is planned to get underway next year with the release by MoD of a pre-qualification questionnaire. One industry executive, who asked not to be named, said securing the Service Delivery Wrap deal was an important stepping stone towards satellite builders securing the big prize – the Enduring Capability requirement. “It will help the winning consortium secure local skills in the sector, help in understanding the customers communications requirements and assist in filling in the revenue gaps between what is often sporadic investment in satellites and payloads,” the executive said. Space is an industrial and military priority for the British, and while it remains unclear how the worsening economic picture here might impact defense spending it is hoped the sector ,and programs like SkyNet 6 and the Galileo global navigation satellite system replacement project, might escape the worst of the expected cuts. One cost cutting option the British are reckoned to have been looking at is to use future SkyNet 6 spacecraft to double up its use by carrying a GNSS capability as well. Skynet ground facilities are currently operated by Airbus as part of a wider private finance initiative (PFI) deal signed in 2003 to build, own and operate a constellation of communication satellites and associated capabilities on behalf of the British military. That deal expires Aug 2022. The winning Service Delivery Wrap contender is slated to take over ground operations from that point after a transition phase. In a contract note issued June 16 the MoD said the return date of the invitation to tender is set for June next year. The Service Delivery Wrap arrangement runs for five years, not including any transition phase, with two single-year extension options also expected to be included in the deal. The terms of the existing PFI arrangement entail the MoD paying a nominal fee of a Pound in exchange for which it will take ownership of hundreds of millions of Pounds worth of assets in the shape of ground infrastructure and the Skynet 4 and 5 satellite fleets currently operated by Airbus. This time around the MoD wants to retain overall ownership of the capability in order to help grow its space skills and management experience by way of owning the ground station assets with the winning consortium working under a straightforward service provision deal. https://www.defensenews.com/global/europe/2020/06/16/british-mod-shortlists-four-vendor-teams-for-its-multibillion-dollar-skynet-satellite-program/

  • Contract Awards by US Department of Defense - October 09, 2019

    October 10, 2019 | International, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security

    Contract Awards by US Department of Defense - October 09, 2019

    ARMY Arrowhead Contracting Inc.,* Lenexa, Kansas (W9128F-20-D-0001), Bristol Construction Services LLC,* Anchorage, Alaska (W9128F-20-D-0009), Ashford Leebcor Enterprises II LLC,* Williamsburg, Virginia (W9128F-20-D-0010), Gideon Contracting LLC,* San Antonio, Texas (W9128F-20-D-0011), RM Builders JV,* Alamogordo, New Mexico (W9128F-20-D-0012), Trusted Construction and Facility Support,* Chevy Chase, Maryland (W9128F-20-D-0013), and HHI Corp.,* Ogden, Utah (W9128F-20-D-0014), will compete for each order of the $225,000,000 firm-fixed-price contract for demolition, hazardous and toxic waste remediation, disposal services, facilities sustainment, restoration and modernization design-build and design-bid-build projects. Bids were solicited via the internet with 35 received. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of Oct. 8, 2024. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Omaha, Nebraska, is the contracting activity. DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY US Foods Inc., Los Angeles, California, has been awarded a maximum $90,298,694 fixed-price with economic-price-adjustment, indefinite-quantity contract for full-line food distribution on Navy ships in the San Diego area. 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 310-day bridge contract with no option periods. Location of performance is California, with an Aug. 15, 2020, performance completion date. Using military services are Army, Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2020 defense working capital funds. The contracting agency is the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (SPE300-20-D-3240). US Foods Inc., Port Orange, Florida, has been awarded a maximum $56,100,000 fixed-price with economic-price-adjustment, indefinite-quantity contract for full-line food distribution for Department of Defense customers in Mayport, Florida and the surrounding area. 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 262-day bridge contract with no option periods. Location of performance is Florida, Cuba and the Bahamas with a June 27, 2020, performance completion date. Using military services are Army, Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps. Type of appropriation is Fiscal Year 2020 defense working capital funds. The contracting agency is the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (SPE300-20-D-3245). Tulsa Dental Products LLC, Tulsa, Oklahoma has been awarded a maximum $39,000,000 fixed-price with economic-price-adjustment, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for hospital equipment and accessories for the Defense Logistics Agency electronic catalog. This is a five-year contract with no option periods. This was a competitive acquisition with 94 responses received. Twenty-four contracts have been awarded to date. Using military services are Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps. Location of performance is Oklahoma, with an Oct. 8, 2024, performance completion date. The type of appropriation is Fiscal Year 2020 through 2025 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (SPE2DH-20-D-0020). AIR FORCE Spartan Air Academy Iraq LLC, Irving, Texas has been awarded a $24,863,731 firm-fixed-price contract for contractor logistics support (CLS) services. The contract provides for CLS services and material support for 15 T-6A aircraft. Work will be performed at Balad Air Base, Iraq and is expected to be completed by June 30, 2020. This contract involves 100 percent foreign military sales to Iraq. Funding provided by Iraq in the amount of $24,863,731 is being obligated at the time of award. The Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, Training Aircraft Division, International Support Branch, Wright Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio is the contracting activity (FA8617-20-C-6232). NAVY Raytheon Co., El Segundo, California is awarded an $11,954,744 firm-fixed-price delivery order (N00383-20-F-UX00) under a previously-awarded basic ordering agreement (N00383-19-G-UX01) for the procurement of 101 spare part units across nine assemblies used in support of the F-18 APG-79 active electronically scanned array radar system. Work will be performed in Forest, Mississippi. This contract contains no options, and work is expected to be completed by December 2022. Annual working capital funds (Navy) in the amount of $11,413,201, and Foreign Military Sales funds (Kuwait) in the amount of $541,543 will be obligated at the time of award in the full amount of the contract, and funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. One firm was solicited for this non-competitive requirement under authority 10 U.S. Code 2304 (c)(1) with one offer received. Naval Supply Systems Command Weapon Systems Support, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania is the contracting activity. Complete Parachute Solutions, Deland, Florida is awarded a $9,640,800 firm-fixed-price modification to previously awarded contract M00264-18-C-0007 to exercise Option Year Two for the Multi-Mission Parachute Course. The Multi-Mission Parachute Course provides training and technical support for all military free-fall training to ensure compliance with all Federal Aviation Administration regulations and Marine Corps orders to safely meet the Marine Corps training input requirements. Work will be performed in Coolidge, Arizona, and is expected to be completed by September 2020. Fiscal 2020 operation and maintenance (Marine Corps) funds in the amount of $9,640,800 will be obligated at the time of award and will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Marine Corps Installation, National Capital Region-Regional Contracting Office, Quantico, Virginia, is the contracting activity. *Small Business https://www.defense.gov/Newsroom/Contracts/Contract/Article/1985367/source/GovDelivery/

  • Navy will extend service life of destroyer Arleigh Burke

    March 16, 2023 | International, Naval

    Navy will extend service life of destroyer Arleigh Burke

    The first of its class warship was originally slated to retire in FY 2026 after 35 years of service.

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