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  December 4, 2020 | International, Aerospace

  The US Air Force wants to buy a big robot to help with bomb disposal

  By: Valerie Insinna and Jen Judson UPDATE — This story has been updated to add comment from L3Harris on its participation in the competition. WASHINGTON — A year after the U.S. Army awarded a contract to build a heavy-duty robot able to dispose of bombs and other explosives, the Air Force is looking for its own system — and it wants to see what's on the market before committing to purchasing what the Army buys. The Air Force in October released a solicitation for a large explosive ordnance disposal robot, a commercial off-the-shelf system equipped with a maneuverable arm and a camera system that can function in all terrain types, environments and weather conditions. An Air Force spokesman declined to confirm how many companies submitted bids for the program, which were due Nov. 20. One competitor has already come forward: FLIR, which is set to rake in as much as $109 million building its Kobra robot for the Army's Common Robotic System-Heavy program. The company began full-rate production of Kobra last month and is confident the Air Force will follow the Army's example by choosing the same system. “As the chosen provider for the Army's Common Robotic System-Heavy (CRS-H) program, FLIR believes its extensively tested and proven unmanned ground system meets the Air Force needs in the large EOD robot category, while enabling commonality of equipment with other services' EOD forces,” said Tom Frost, who runs FLIR's unmanned ground systems business. QinetiQ, which lost out to FLIR in the CRS-H competition, did not respond to a query about whether it had bid on the Air Force program. An L3Harris spokesperson confirmed to Defense News that it had submitted its T7 EOD robot to the Air Force competition. L3Harris said it wanted to be chosen for the CRS-H program in 2018. The company unveiled the robot at the Association of the US Army's annual conference in 2016 letting show attendees take a crack at operating the arm on the robot. The controller looks like the back end of a gun making it easy to hold, and is hooked to sensors that transfer information to the robotic arm on the T7. The United Kingdom is a customer of the T7 for EOD missions. At times, the Air Force has joined Army robot programs without needing to hold a competition. But in the case of larger EOD robots, the two services have differing requirements that have led the Air Force to seek out its own system instead of jumping into the CRS-H program, said S. Chase Cooper, a contracting officer who is managing the EOD robot solicitation on behalf of the Air Force's 772nd Enterprise Sourcing Squadron “The major difference is that the Army's mission is primarily to operate ‘outside the wire' ” — that is, outside of a secure military installation — “where the Air Force's mission is primarily ‘inside the wire.' These are two entirely different environments,” he said in a statement to Defense News. Cooper also pointed to additional considerations such as the size and weight of the system. Most Air Force EOD missions occur after bombs or other improvised explosive devices are found at a base or installation. When that happens, teams load robots and other gear into a Base Response Vehicle or Bomb Squad Emergency Response Vehicle, drive out to the location of the explosive device, and safely dispose of the explosive. Whatever robot the Air Force chooses must be small enough to fit inside those vehicles, Cooper said. That includes passing through a 32-inch-wide door opening and parking into a space 91 inches long and 63 inches high. The Air Force's requirement for weight, which is set at a maximum of 1,000 pounds, is less stringent than the Army's 700-pound limit. The Air Force also called for a system with a minimum 800-meter, line-of-sight radio range, and a 3-hour runtime that will allow it complete the majority of EOD missions. Cooper noted that the Air Force's decision to pursue an open competition does not preclude the FLIR robot from being chosen by the service. “It is unknown at this time if that system would meet our requirements,” Cooper said. “Through our contracting process, we are evaluating all of the proposed large robot systems against the Air Force's requirement so we can make sure the system we purchase is the best one for our airmen.” The Air Force has a history of both collaborating with the Army on EOD robots and going its own way. For its medium-sized unmanned ground vehicle, the Air Force opted to use the Army's existing contract under the Man Transportable Robotic System Increment II program for FLIR's Centaur UGV, which is also being purchased by the Navy and Marine Corps. But while QinetiQ beat out FLIR in the Army's competition for CRS-Individual — a man-packable robot that is less than 25 pounds — the Air Force ended up pursuing a separate contract to meet its own unique needs for small unmanned ground vehicles. https://www.defensenews.com/air/2020/12/03/the-air-force-wants-to-buy-a-big-robot-to-help-with-bomb-disposal/

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  December 21, 2020 | International, Land

  Solicitation for Bradley replacement offers flexibility for foreign participation

  By: Jen Judson WASHINGTON — The request for proposals from industry for the U.S. Army's optionally manned fighting vehicle, or OMFV, intended to replace the Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicle, has hit the street and allows for greater flexibility for foreign companies to compete. In the service's second stab at holding a competition for OMFV, the Army is driving as much flexibility as it can across the board, from avoiding stringent requirements in favor of loose characteristics and creating a phase for industry to design concepts without much company investment that will form requirements along the way. The Army's previous attempt required the delivery of physical bid samples, which hamstrung foreign competitor Rheinmetall of Germany and drove Bradley-maker BAE Systems to avoid the competition. Ultimately, the service received just one bid sample from General Dynamics Land Systems, which forced the Army to rethink the effort and come back with a new approach. The OMFV competition has foreign industry jumping to join in with new and modernized platforms, and the Army appears to be ditching much of the restrictions that would typically keep them out. Rheinmetall has already partnered with American firms Raytheon and Textron to solidify its participation in the competition, but many other companies are poised to submit bids to design concepts. The pool needs to be deep because the Army anticipates awarding up to five contracts to design platforms. “The challenges we've typically had in getting foreign participation is we often have a lot of classified material that we release up front, and we have some detailed specification that has very detailed performance requirements that's classified,” Brig. Gen. Glenn Dean, the new Army program executive officer for ground combat systems, said in a Dec. 18 press briefing. Foreign competitors “have to have clearances in place to be able to take that information,” Dean said. This means foreign companies must either be partnered with a prime contractor in the United States, have a subsidiary stateside, or have other clearances that take time to get through the approval process in order to exchange the classified information. Working through consortiums, which the Army regularly does, also makes it hard for foreign contractors to come through the door, Dean said. This time, the Army isn't working with a consortium and is using a more traditional federal acquisition regulation-based contract, according to Dean. Furthermore, he said, classified reports will not be required in order to submit a bid or receive an initial design contract award. “We've eliminated the limitation on primes and, because we don't have classified information we are providing at the front end, that allows us to share more broadly and gives those companies time if they're going to continue to play as lead, to establish their facilities, clearances and have the necessary structures in place to receive classified information when we get to that point,” he said. Dean expects more classified requirements to kick in toward the end of the concept design phase where requirements begin to take shape, which translates to specifications. “Obviously, every company is going to make their own determination about what strengths and partners may bring to the table, whether they want to come in as a sub, whether they want to be prime with a bunch of U.S. subs,” Dean said, “but the response has been very promising.” He also said there is strong interest from abroad. “I would say that we at least heard from or have participation ... from all the major companies in the West capable of doing a full combat vehicle. Companies from Israel, South Korea, Singapore, Germany, in addition to companies both you're familiar with in the U.S. who've [supplied] combat vehicles, but also some companies that operate in the defense space but haven't traditionally been combat vehicle suppliers,” he said. “We will see how many of them ultimately decide they want to throw their hat in the ring and participate. I think we've done what we need to do to make it as open at an initial point.” Sources following the competition are expecting to see participation from South Korea's Hanwha, which is in a head-to-head competition in Australia with Rheinmetall to produce a new infantry fighting vehicle. Germany-based Krauss-Maffei Wegmann has also touted an infantry fighting vehicle option, most recently at the last in-person Association of the U.S. Army's annual conference in Washington, D.C., in 2019. Belgium's CMI Defense is also rumored to be forging a partnership with a U.S. prime to participate in the competition. Now that the solicitation has been posted to Beta.Sam.Gov, companies have until April 16, 2021, to submit a conceptual bid. The Army will award contracts in July, according to Dean, which will kick off 15 months of funded work. During the phase, industry will work on designs without bending metal that will inform an abbreviated capabilities development document — or an initial set of requirements. Once the design phase ends, the Army will take a pause and then open the competition back up for a more detailed design effort ahead of prototyping, where up to three bids will be selected to proceed. The detailed design phase will be executed over the course of fiscal 2023 and fiscal 2024. The prototyping phase will begin in FY25, according to slides presented at the OMFV industry day. Vehicle testing will begin in FY26 and wrap up in FY27, with a production decision planned for the fourth quarter of FY27. Full-rate production is expected to begin in the second quarter of FY30. In parallel to the concept design phase, the Army will develop an open architecture for OMFV. An open architecture has risen to the top of the OMFV planner's list of required capability, particularly after seeing the need to be networked with other capabilities across the battlefield and at the forward edge at Project Convergence at Yuma Proving Grounds, Arizona, over the summer. The Army will establish a voluntary consortium beginning in January 2021 that will represent industry, government and academia in order to develop such an open architecture, according to the statement. https://www.defensenews.com/land/2020/12/18/bradley-replacement-request-for-proposals-hits-street-with-flexibility-for-foreign-participation/

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  February 3, 2021 | International, Naval

  Huntington Ingalls wins $175 million Navy contract for aircraft carrier maintenance work

  By DAVE RESS Huntington Ingalls Industries will provide maintenance, training and planning support for aircraft carriers over the next five years under a new contract worth up to $175 million. The contract covers engineering services, maintenance and operator training as well as technical and repair services. The focus is on continuing maintenance of the carriers' shipboard elevators and cargo-handling equipment, as well as on planning for the overhaul, modernization and repair of these systems. The work, contracted by Naval Sea Systems Command, will be performed onboard U.S. naval aircraft carriers in Norfolk, San Diego, Washington State and Japan. The elevators on the new USS Gerald R. Ford-class carriers built at HII's Newport News Shipbuilding yard represent a major redesign, using electric motor systems to replace hydraulic mechanisms that can leak flammable fluids in areas where bombs and other munitions are prepared. Last year, a team of Newport News Shipbuilding engineers and shipbuilders worked up a new design for the rails on which Ford-class carrier weapons elevators travel. The adjustable bedplate, deemed a “total rethinking of the entire stator installation process,” turned a 56-step installation process into a 16-step effort, eliminating 95% of the welding and 50% of the rigging. That simplifies the work of aligning the rails -- a task which much meet tolerances of a sixteenth of an inch or less over distances equivalent to several stories of a building. Those alignments are a key issue for certifying the 11 elevators on the Ford, work set for completion this spring. Separately, the Military Sealift Command awarded East Coast Repair and Fabrication a $12.1 million contract for repairs and maintenace work on the USNS Kanawaha to be done at East Coast's new Newport News facility. Kanawaha is a fleet oiler, designed to supply fuel to Navy ships at sea. It has been in service since 1991 and is assigned to the Atlantic Fleet. The work includes some structural and electrical work, and the contract includes options which if exercised would increase its value to $13.6 million. The work is expected to be completed by April 19. Dave Ress, 757-247-4535, dress@dailypress.com https://www.dailypress.com/business/shipyards/dp-nw-hii-navy-contract-20210202-m4frhwji2bba3hdwqh5jb2ubay-story.html