News

ARMY Longbow Ltd., Orlando, Florida, was awarded a $32,154,552 modification (P00001) to contract W58RGZ-20-F-0464 for generic spare parts kits for AH-64E Apache helicopters. Work will be performed in Orlando, Florida, with an estimated completion date of April 30, 2024. Fiscal 2020 Foreign Military Sales (India, Morocco, Netherlands, and United Arab Emirates) funds in the amount of $32,154,552 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, is the contracting activity. Spence Brothers, Saginaw, Michigan, was awarded a $19,304,000 firm-fixed-price contract to modify the Union Street Dam and a bi-directional fish passage. Bids were solicited via the internet with five received. Work will be performed in Traverse City, Michigan, with an estimated completion date of Sept. 2, 2024. Fiscal 2021 Great Lakes Fishery Commission funds in the amount of $19,304,000 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Detroit, Michigan, is the contracting activity (W911XK-21-C-0001). DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY Altamira Ltd., Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, has been awarded a maximum $11,875,000 fixed-price with economic-price-adjustment, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for medical equipment and accessories for the Defense Logistics Agency electronic catalog. This was a competitive acquisition with 130 responses received. This is a five-year contract with no option periods. Location of performance is Pennsylvania, with an Oct. 12, 2025, ordering period end date. Using military services are Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2021 through 2026 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (SPE2DH-21-D-0051). https://www.defense.gov/Newsroom/Contracts/Contract/Article/2380512/source/GovDelivery/

Burak Ege Bekdil ANKARA, Turkey — The Canadian government's decision to suspend export of key drone parts to Turkey has once again thrown a spotlight on Turkey's ongoing efforts to develop a self-sufficient defense industry. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan often boasts at party rallies that his governance since 2002 has reduced Turkey's dependency on foreign weapons systems from 80 percent to 30 percent. There is truth in that, although the actual percentages remain a mystery, mainly due to the difficulty of defining what is truly a local or national system. Most Turkish “national” systems depend on various degrees of foreign input, often including critical parts only available abroad. The T129, an “indigenous” attack helicopter, is a Turkish variant of the Italian-British AgustaWestland A129 Mangusta chopper. Turkey's local industry has no engine technology. The “national” new generation tank Altay is facing major delays, due to the lack of a foreign engine and transmission system. Turkey's first “indigenous” landing platform dock, the TCG Anadolu, will enter into service next year, but the $1 billion or more ship is being built under license from Spain's Navantia. Even Turkey's biggest success in the past few years, a locally-built drone known as the Bayraktar TB-2, features critical foreign parts — an issue now in the spotlight following Canadian Foreign Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne's Oct. 5 announcement to suspend export permits of drone technology to Turkey, which is backing Azerbaijan in the recent Azeri-Armenian military conflict. Champagne issued the pause in exports alongside an order for his ministry to investigate claims that Canadian drone technology is being used in the fighting. The decision followed an announcement by disarmament group Project Ploughshares, which warned the multimillion-dollar exports of high-tech sensors and targeting technology produced by L3Harris WESCAM in Burlington, Ont., are in direct contravention of Canada's domestic laws and its international obligations under the United Nations Arms Trade Treaty, to which the Trudeau government acceded almost exactly a year ago. L3Harris WESCAM, the Canadian subsidiary of U.S. defense giant L3Harris, is one of the world's leading producers and exporters of electro-optical/infra-red (EO/IR) imaging and targeting sensor systems — both of which are featured on the Bayraktar drones. “These sensors are integral for their ability to conduct drone warfare, which they've done increasingly... in the past few years across several conflict zones,” Kelsey Gallagher, a Project Ploughshares researcher, told Radio Canada International. “If the exports of these sensors were completely halted, then Turkey would not have the sensors necessary to conduct modern airstrikes.” “This [the suspension of Canadian supplies] may cause disruption in the production line,” said one local aerospace analyst, “unless substituted immediately.” “There may be some other foreign suppliers to be used as a stop-gap solution," the analyst added. "But this is mostly a Western (including Israeli) technology and may not reach Turkish manufacturers due to political reasons.” Turkey's top procurement official, however, has a solution. Ismail Demir, president of the defense procurement agency SSB, twitted Oct. 6, the day after the Canadian decision, that Turkey would soon start to mass produce the CATS electro-optical system, to replace the WESCAM technology used in the TB-2 drone. CATS will be produced by military electronics specialist Aselsan, Turkey's biggest defense company. Demir said that Aselsan has also begun to work on developing a future version of the CATS system. Demir also talked up another new indigenous ambition: Project Özgür, or “free” in Turkish. Özgür is part of a broader upgrade effort designed to extend the life of the Turkish F-16 fleet. “This program aims to completely nationalize electronic systems on our F-16s,” Demir told the HaberTurk newspaper Oct. 6. The full upgrade work will also involve structural and avionic modernization. Turkey views the F-16 upgrades as a stop-gap solution before it builds its own indigenous fighter, the TF-X. But the TF-X effort has moved at a crawl, with no notable progress in the past few years, due mainly to the lack of an engine to power the planned fighter. https://www.defensenews.com/global/europe/2020/10/13/canadian-block-on-drone-parts-shows-turkeys-defense-industry-still-not-independent/

David B. Larter WASHINGTON — The U.S. Navy is looking to build a new generation of destroyers from a clean-sheet design, following the model of one of its most successful ship classes, the Arleigh Burke-class DDG, the service's top officer said Tuesday. The idea, colloquially referred to in-house as DDG Next, is to build a new hull smaller than the nearly 16,000-ton Zumwalt-class destroyer but still big enough to accommodate a larger missile magazine, Adm. Michael Gilday told a virtual audience at Defense One's State of the Navy event. “I don't want to build a monstrosity. But I need deeper magazines on ships than I have right now,” the chief of naval operations said. “I'm limited with respect to DDG Flight IIIs in terms of what additional stuff we could put on those ships. ... So the idea is to come up with the next destroyer, and that would be a new hull. The idea would be to put existing technologies on that hull and update and modernize those capabilities over time.” The Navy is supposed to start buying the new ship in 2025, according to the service's 2020 30-year shipbuilding plan, though it's unclear how its forthcoming force structure assessment will affect those plans. In his recent speech on the Defense Department's plan for a 500-plus ship Navy, Defense Secretary Mark Esper made no mention of the future large surface combatant. To avoid another costly failure, such as the canceled next-generation cruiser or severely truncated DDG-1000 program, the service is harkening back to its successful Arleigh Burke program, the mainstay of the Navy's surface combatant program for the past 30 years, Gilday said. Much like on the forthcoming Constellation-class frigates, the service plans to install fielded systems on the new ship and upgrade them over time. “So think DDG-51 (that's exactly what we did): We had a new hull but we put Aegis on it,” Gilday said. “We put known systems that were reliable and were already fielded out in the fleet. That's kind of the idea. I call it DDG Next to kind of right-size it. Smaller than a Zumwalt but packing some heat nonetheless.” The Navy estimates it would need $22 billion annually in constant year 2019 dollars to execute its old shipbuilding plan, though the Congressional Budget Office put the estimate more than 30 percent higher. A major driver in the difference between the CBO and Navy estimate was the cost of a future large surface combatant, according the Congressional Research Service. The emergence of hypersonic missiles has been a driving factor in the Navy's desire to field a new large surface combatant since such weapons wont fit in the current vertical launch system cells on Burke-class destroyers and existing cruisers. They will, however, fit in the Virginia Payload Module being built into the Block V Virginia submarines awarded last year. https://www.defensenews.com/naval/2020/10/13/the-us-navy-is-eyeing-a-next-generation-destroyer-from-a-new-design/

Jen Judson WASHINGTON — General Dynamics Land Systems debuted its new medium-class robotic combat vehicle — Tracked Robot 10-Ton, or TRX — at the Association of the U.S. Army's annual conference, which came together using AI-enhanced design and lightweight materials. TRX is an independent research project that GDLS has been working for over year that builds on the technologies from its successful Small Multipurpose Equipment Transport (SMET) robotic vehicle program, a GDLS spokesperson told Defense News in an interview ahead of AUSA. GDLS won the SMET competition this year after a recompete followed by a protest. GDLS also won the original contract. The 10-ton vehicle has a light chassis that can carry a lot by using some advanced design technologies that the company has developed with partners as well as some unique manufacturing technologies and advanced materials, according to GDLS. The platform is designed to meet a variety of critical missions such as direct and indirect fires, autonomous resupply, complex obstacle breaching, counter-unmanned aerial systems, electronic warfare and reconnaissance. The robot can conduct semi-autonomous operations and is fast enough to keep up with high-speed maneuver formations like the Stryker Brigade Combat Team and the Armored BCT, GDLS said. In GD's virtual exhibit booth at AUSA, the TRX represents an indirect fires configuration that showcases its partnership with drone-maker Aerovironment. The vehicle sports a large payload consisting of a variety of Switchblade loitering munitions. In 2018, GDLS and Aerovironment announced its partnership at AUSA, revealing an armored reconnaissance vehicle for the Marine Corps competition with Switchblade and Shrike 2 unmanned aerial systems incorporated. The goal was to do something similar for the Army's Optionally Manned Fighting Vehicle (OMFV). GD is also providing footage of its combat robot paired with a manned vehicle at the platoon- or company-level at its virtual booth. While the Army did not select GDLS to build medium-class RCV prototypes to be used to determine the feasibility of integrating unmanned vehicles into ground combat operations, the company is prepared for when the Army moves forward with a competition to acquire those types of robots once it has defined requirements through experimentation over the next several years, according to company officials. The Army is planning to make a decision on how to proceed with robots on the battlefield in 2023. https://www.defensenews.com/digital-show-dailies/ausa/2020/10/13/general-dynamics-rolls-out-new-trx-ground-robot-at-ausa/

Jen Judson WASHINGTON — The Army will see a significant shift in funding from its current fleet to new and modern capability designed to fight in multidomain operations in fiscal 2023, Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy told Defense News in an Oct. 8 interview. The service has conducted several rounds of “night court” reviews already, a deep dive across the Army's portfolios to determine whether money is in the right place to ensure modernization priorities are getting what they need to progress. In FY18 and FY19, the Army focused on the science and technology portfolio, but in FY20 ramped up the process finding north of $25 billion to apply to modernization priorities across the next five years. The FY21 and FY22 process was similar and still resulted in a substantial amount of funding that was redirected, according to McCarthy. “We're basically lining ourselves up for the '23 program where you will see a much more aggressive effort like you saw in FY20,” McCarthy said. “The choices are going to get bigger and tougher, but that's necessary” as modernized programs begin to be fielded, he said. “That will force us to make harder calls with legacy systems that will have to be forced to end their service life.” The FY22 night court review has wrapped up, and the number of canceled, reduced or delayed programs is less than in previous years. The Army still had to make some hard decisions, Lt. Gen. James Pasquarette, the Army G-8, told Defense News in a separate Oct. 8 interview, but there were fewer. “It did still result in dozens of reductions and eliminations, but smaller, much smaller than in the past.” In FY20, for example, the Army canceled, delayed or reduced 186 programs. In FY21 that number was roughly 80. “I feel better now than I did on the front end of this thing a year ago,” Pasquarette said, “and how we were going to make ends meet.” Pasquarette, who manages the night court process, said a year ago that after two deep dives he was concerned there wouldn't be enough low-hanging fruit to move over to fund modernization at the levels needed in the coming years. But since the Army has already found $37 billion total from the previous night courts and no major changes have been made to the strategy or what is being prioritized, less needs to move around because everything is in the right place, according to Pasquarette. Yet in FY23 some big programs will begin to go out to units such as the Maneuver-Short Range Air Defense System (M-SHORAD), next-generation squad weapons, enhanced night-vision goggles, the Extended Range Cannon Artillery (ERCA) systems, the Precision Strike Missile (PrSM) and ground-launched hypersonic weapons. “So in our fires community, massive changeover,” McCarthy said, “so units will be taking on new weapon systems, changing their task organizations, so you have to start divesting legacy weapon systems at a much greater rate of speed. ... Then as you get towards the back end of the [five-year defense plan] FYDP, in '25 and '26, here come the helicopters.” In FY23, McCarthy said, the Army will also make trades in order to invest in logistics to accommodate new weapons. Questions center on determining whether there are appropriate hangars, maintenance facilities and ranges that accommodate greater lethality and range for things like the Long-Range Precision Fires capabilities. More difficult decisions could be around the corner should the defense budget face cuts in the future. Some are projecting numbers as high as a 20 percent cut in military spending if there is a change in the administration. “If we see a reduced top line, I do wonder what would be the impact to some of the things that we put in place,” Lt. Gen. Thomas Horlander, the Army's comptroller, told Defense News earlier this month. “How will things like our modernization plan become pressurized? And so definitely a reduced top line will pressurize some of the programs and we'll be making some tough decisions.” Should the Army face cuts, McCarthy said, “we'll have a hard look at our readiness portfolio.” The Army has “been very blessed” to have 27 or 28 brigades at the highest levels of readiness, he added. “So you look at your readiness portfolio and are there ways to do it more efficiently? Do you need that many ready at any given point in time? Can you make an adjustment to that large bucket of funding in the readiness portfolio?” McCarthy asked. On the modernization side, the Army will have to continue to divest legacy platforms, according to McCarthy. “But you also need to take a very hard look” at priority programs to ensure they are correctly lined up, he said. As for quality of life, the Army “will not take much risk there,” McCarthy said. “We're very concerned that we spent over a decade at deficit spending on that side and we've made some pretty substantial moves. We're going to make some more here in the next week or two that you'll hear about ways that we're working to improve upon that.” The Army will do what it can to manage the balance sheet “as efficiently as possible,” McCarthy said. “If the cuts come, they will come. You have to face that down. The fiscal posture of the country has been challenged with the COVID-19 pandemic and we're going to do the best we can with the budgets we are granted.” https://www.defensenews.com/digital-show-dailies/ausa/2020/10/13/us-army-pegs-fy23-as-tipping-point-for-ending-old-weapons/

Seapower Staff MCLEAN, Va. — The U.S. Navy awarded Science Applications International Corp. a $49.5 million single-award task order to continue to provide the Royal Saudi Naval Forces support services for command, control, communications, computers, and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (C4ISR) upgrade and refurbishment, the company said in an Oct. 12 release. The work will take place in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Under the cost-plus fixed-fee task order, awarded as part of the SeaPort-NxG contract, SAIC will leverage repeatable solutions such as engineering, design and integration, integrated product support and sustainment capabilities on critical networks. These networks fulfill the Naval Information Warfare Systems Command's requirement for Program Executive Office C4I International Integration Program Office (PMW 740) Royal Saudi Naval Forces (RSNF) In-Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) Support Services. “For more than 40 years, SAIC has supported the Navy's mission to help maintain the Royal Saudi Naval Forces' C4ISR capability modernization, engineering and logistics,” said Jim Scanlon, SAIC executive vice president and general manager of the Defense Systems Group. “As a leader in technology integration, SAIC is excited to continue its assistance to the Navy as it continues to build this strategic partnership with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.” SAIC will deliver solutions and services to include program management, systems engineering and integration, maintenance engineering, and integrated logistics for the modernization and refurbishment of RSNF systems. These services are enabled by SAIC's legacy of support to RSNF, and SAIC's investments in digital engineering and end-to-end logistics and supply chain solutions. The prime contract has a five-year base period of performance. https://seapowermagazine.org/saic-wins-49-5m-u-s-navy-contract-for-saudi-c4isr-upgrades-refurbishment/

Jen Judson WASHINGTON — The U.S. Army's ambitious first Project Convergence, an exercise that measured the progress of the service's modernization strategy within its future operational concept, concluded last month, but the service already has a sense of what it wants to accomplish in 2021. The series of exercises and experiments that made up the Project Convergence “campaign of learning” took place at Yuma Proving Grounds, Arizona. The event, held over a six-week period in the harsh desert at America's southwest border, was deemed the most important Army event outside of global operations, and future annual iterations are expected to continue shaping the future force. “We're going to have even further transformation of the battlefield geometry,” Brig. Gen. Wally Rugen, who is in charge of future vertical lift modernization, told Defense News in an Oct. 6 interview ahead of the Association of the U.S. Army's annual conference. “We want to go deeper. We made it to 61.9 kilometers, across the forward line of troops in the scenario we fought in 2020,” Rugen said. “We will want to go farther than that.” The Army will also join forces with all of the other military services in 2021, according to Gen. John Murray, the head of Army Futures Command. It will be up to those other services the kinds of capabilities and technologies they each bring to the equation, but the intention is to have the Air Force's F-35 fighter jet integrated into the architecture of the operation. Earlier this month, the Army and the Air Force signed a two-year collaboration agreement to develop a concept for Joint All-Domain Command and Control, or JADC2, which carries over the Army's future war-fighting doctrine, “Multi-Domain Operations” — which is still in the concept phase — to the world of joint operations. JADC2 essentially connects sensors to shooters — which was the bread and butter of Project Convergence this year — across the joint force. The exercise involved about 500 people at Yuma; most were data collectors. The event represented a platoon-sized operation. But in 2021, according to Murray, an entire operational headquarters element will be brought in to drive the learning in terms of how “we organize and how we fight the capability in the future.” Additionally, the Army wants to bring in a multidomain task force from Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state, which would likely be the centerpiece of Project Convergence 21, said Brig. Gen. John Rafferty, who leads the Army's long-range precision fires efforts, which is the service's top modernization priority. There will also be other operational units brought in “to help explore and to help test on a larger scale,” Rafferty told Defense News in an interview this month. Starting in 2021, the exercise will have a foreign flavor. The United Kingdom signed on to participate next year, Murray said, and Australia may join. In 2022, the focus of the exercise will build significantly in terms of involving coalition forces. The Army also plans to tie Project Convergence to other exercises happening at roughly the same time. For example, since the event has an objective to operate in denied and degraded environments, the Army's Position Navigation and Timing Assessment Exercise will likely be a part of Project Convergence in 2021. In its first year, the Army had elements from the modernization teams focused on future vertical lift, long-range precision fires, the next-generation combat vehicle, the network, and positioning, navigation and timing. Next year, more teams will join, including those dedicated to air and missile defense, soldier lethality, and the Synthetic Training Environment. The Army also plans to involve its developmental missile, meant to replace the Army Tactical Missile System for a long-range shot. The Precision Strike Missile — a weapon with an expected range of 500 kilometers — will likely have a test shot that aims to surpass that during Project Convergence. The missile has an aggressive test schedule next year. The Extended Range Cannon, or ERCA, which participated this year, will have new technology rolled in by 2021, Rafferty said. The service also plans to demonstrate the Excalibur Hit-to-Kill capability, which is one of the competitors for the Dual-Purpose Improved Conventional Munition replacement effort. “That really is the lethality component of ERCA at extended ranges,” he added. The future vertical lift team will bring its 20mm gun planned for its future attack reconnaissance aircraft to the event as well as its Modular Effects Launcher prototype, which will carry both lethal and nonlethal effects to deploy from the air, Rugen said. The Army has begun firing live rounds from the gun, and will fire roughly 285,000 rounds through it this fiscal year. The Air-Launched Effects, or ALE, capability played a critical role in Project Convergence this year, and is to return with increased capability and improved technology. “The lower tier of the air domain is decisive,” Rugen said. “I think '20 proved that yet again like it did in '19. We need a broader acceptance of that from the joint force and from defensewide. There is a capability to show up at the time and place of our choosing with vertical lift from relative sanctuary and have operational effects, and that's really what we intend to show in '21.” The network underpins everything at Project Convergence, and improvements will continue to be made so the network that shows up in 2021 is more robust and geared beyond what it was originally designed to do, which is to support a tactical brigade. “I think you'll see better discipline on our data management and message traffic, message formats, which, again, is going to help that machine-to-machine targeting,” Rugen said. To further improve the ground and air assets connectivity, there will be a few more waveforms incorporated “to see if they can produce the bandwidth we need.” The Army wants the mesh network established through ALEs to be “more resilient and have greater goals on distance,” he added. FIRESTORM is also expected to return next year. The system uses artificial intelligence to help select the optimal shooter for engagement. Surrogate robotic combat vehicles and an optionally manned fighting vehicle will continue to play a major role as well. The hope is also to bring in the Army's Integrated Air and Missile Defense Battle Command System, known as IBCS, which is currently undergoing development to connect sensors and shooters for the purpose of countering missile threats. The system recently completed a by-and-large successful limited-user test and will head into its initial operational test and evaluation in 2021. Murray noted that if the test and evaluation conflicts with the Army's schedule, the system will not participate in next year's Project Convergence, noting that the evaluation is a top priority for the program to remain on track. The Army is also hoping the Integrated Visual Augmentation System — which will provide soldiers with AI-enhanced goggles that assist with navigation, targeting, and advanced night and thermal vision — will be ready for next year's experimentation. Overall, the Army has collected “70-plus technologies” — to include a few capabilities from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency — that it might incorporate into the event, Murray said, noting not all 70 will end up participating. https://www.defensenews.com/digital-show-dailies/ausa/2020/10/12/transforming-battlefield-geometry-whats-to-come-in-proje

PATRICK DÉSAVIE Le spécialiste des équipements complexes de radiofréquences et de télécommunications Bowen a inauguré le 8 octobre son nouveau centre de R&D aux Ulis (Essonne) où travaillent une cinquantaine de salariés. Spécialisé dans la conception et la fabrication d'équipements complexes de radiofréquence et de télécommunications, le groupe Bowen a inauguré, le 8 octobre son nouveau centre de R&D situé dans la grande zone d'activités de Courtabœuf aux Ulis (Essonne). Spécialisé dans la conception et la fabrication d'équipements complexes de radiofréquence et de télécommunications, le groupe Bowen a inauguré, le 8 octobre son nouveau centre de R&D situé https://www.usinenouvelle.com/article/bowen-inaugure-son-centre-de-r-d-aux-ulis.N1014414 .

NAVY Electric Boat Corp., Groton, Connecticut, is awarded a $327,822,562 cost-plus-fixed-fee modification to previously awarded contract N00024-20-C-2120 for lead yard support and development studies and design efforts related to Virginia class submarines. Work will be performed in Groton, Connecticut (92%); Newport News, Virginia (7%); and Newport and Quonset Point, Rhode Island (1%), and is expected to be completed by April 2021. Fiscal 2020 research, development, test and engineering (Navy) (41%); and fiscal 2020 (25%); 2019 (12%); 2014 (9%); 2017 (7%); 2015 (3%); and 2018 (3%) shipbuilding and conversion (Navy) funding in the amount of $134,585,918 will be obligated at time of award. Fiscal 2020 research, development, test and engineering (Navy) funds in the amount of $55,000,000; and fiscal 2014 shipbuilding and conversion (Navy) funds in the amount of $11,792,469 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was not competitively procured. The statutory authority for this sole-source award is in accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulation 6.302-1(a)(2)(iii); only one responsible source and no other supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity. D Square LLC & AU Authum KI,* Tucson, Arizona (N62478-17-D-4018); Hawk-Niking LLC,* Wahiawa, Hawaii (N62478-17-D-4019); MACNAK-BCP JV,* Lakewood, Washington (N62478-17-D-4020); and Tokunaga Elite JV LLC,* Pearl City, Hawaii (N62478-17-D-4021), are each awarded an $80,000,000 firm-fixed-price modification to their respective previously awarded indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity, multiple-award, design-build/design-bid-build construction contracts for construction projects located primarily within the Naval Facilities Engineering Command (NAVFAC), Hawaii area of responsibility (AOR). The work to be performed provides for, but is not limited to, labor, supervision, tools, materials and equipment necessary to perform new construction, repair, alteration and related demolition of existing infrastructure based on design-build or design-bid-build (full plans and specifications) for infrastructure within the state of Hawaii. This modification increases the total cumulative value of the combined contracts to $178,000,000. No task orders are being awarded at this time. Work will be performed at various Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force and miscellaneous federal and other facilities in the NAVFAC Hawaii AOR and is expected to be completed by July 2022. No funds will be obligated at time of award; funds will be obligated on individual task orders as they are issued. Task orders will be primarily funded by operations and maintenance (Navy); and Navy working capital funds. The Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Hawaii, is the contracting activity. Tekla Research Inc.,* Fredericksburg, Virginia, is awarded a $24,405,000 commercial firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract to provide test and evaluation support services for Commander, Operational Test and Evaluation Force Expeditionary Warfare Division. The contract will include a 60-month base ordering period with an additional six-month ordering period option pursuant of Federal Acquisition Regulation 52.217-8 – to extend services, which if exercised, will bring the total value to $27,000,000. The base ordering period is expected to begin November 2020, and be completed by November 2025; if the option is exercised, the ordering period will be completed by May 2026. All work will be performed in Norfolk, Virginia. Fiscal 2020 research, development, test and evaluation (Navy) funds in the amount of $2,500 will be obligated to fund the contract's minimum amount and funds will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Individual task orders will be subsequently funded with appropriate fiscal year appropriations at the time of their issuance. This contract was competitively procured with the solicitation posted on beta.SAM.gov as a service-disabled, veteran-owned small business set-aside using commercial items procedures, with two offers received. The Naval Supply Systems Command, Fleet Logistics Center Norfolk, Contracting Department, Norfolk, Virginia, is the contracting activity (N00189-21-D-0001). ARMY SKE Support Services Gmbh, Goldbach, Germany (W912GB-21-D-0001); Sociedad Espanola De Montajes Industriales, Madrid, Spain (W912GB-21--D-0002); RCI Gulbene SIA, Gulbene, Latvia (W912GB-21-D-0003); Relyant Global LLC, Maryville, Tennessee (W912GB-21-D-0004); Tartu Bryan JV, Colorado Springs, Colorado (W912GB-21-D-0005); Infes UAB, Vilnius, Lithuania (W912GB-21-D-0006); and Mitnija UAB, Kaunas, Lithuania (W912GB-21-D-0007), will compete for each order of the $49,950,000 firm-fixed-price contract to provide design-build and design-bid-build construction services in Latvia and Lithuania. Bids were solicited via the internet with 24 received. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of Oct. 8, 2025. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Europe District, is the contracting activity. DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY Bren-Tronics Inc.,* Commack, New York (SPE7LX-21-D-0009, $14,817,852); and Mathews Associates Inc.,** Sanford, Florida (SPE7LX-21-D-0010, $9,758,182), have each been awarded a firm-fixed-price, indefinite-quantity contract under solicitation SPE7MX-20-R-0106 for lithium-ion batteries used in multiple communications platforms. These were competitive acquisitions with five responses received. These are three-year base contracts with two one-year option periods. Locations of performance are New York and Florida, with an Oct. 8, 2023, performance completion date. Using military services are Army, Navy and Marine Corps. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2021 through 2024 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Land and Maritime, Columbus, Ohio. Belleville Shoe Co.,* Belleville, Illinois, has been awarded a maximum $9,939,099 modification (P00004) exercising the first one-year option period of one-year base contract (SPE1C1-20-D-1208) with three one-year option periods for temperate weather men's and women's coyote boots. This is a firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract. Location of performance is Illinois, with an Oct. 10, 2021, ordering period end date. Using military service is Air Force. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2021 through 2022 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. U.S. SPECIAL OPERATIONS COMMAND Arcticom LLC, Anchorage, Alaska, was awarded a $9,950,000 maximum single award, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract (H92240-21-D-0002) with an ordering period of up to five years for contractor-provided non-personal services for Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL (BUD/S) training support. Fiscal 2021 operations and maintenance funds in the amount of $2,500 are being obligated at the time of award. The work will be performed in various locations inside and outside the U.S. and may continue through fiscal 2025 depending on timing of orders placed by Naval Special Warfare Command (NSWC). The contract was awarded competitively with four proposals received. NSWC, Coronado, California, is the contracting activity. * Small business **Woman-owned small business https://www.defense.gov/Newsroom/Contracts/Contract/Article/2378667/source/GovDelivery/