News

Despite disruptions worldwide, Future Vertical Lift flight tests, virtual industry days, and design reviews are all moving ahead on schedule or mere weeks behind. By SYDNEY J. FREEDBERG JR.on May 07, 2020 at 5:07 PM WASHINGTON: As the Army urgently develops weapons to counter Russia and China, it's largely staying on its tight schedule despite both the COVID-19 pandemic and the service's own history of dysfunction and delay. A prime example is the Future Vertical Lift initiative to replace existing helicopters and drones, which is on track for all but two of more than 20 major events – from field tests to contract awards – happening this year. Half a dozen are scheduled for May and June alone. What's the biggest impact COVID has had on FVL so far? Of the five project managers who spoke to reporters this morning, just one said he's definitely delaying something, a Critical Design Review for the new Improved Turbine Engine. How big was that delay? Just two weeks. The engine system CDR will start June 15th instead of June 1st, said the turbine PM, Col. Roger Kuykendall. But the deadline to complete the review wasn't until October, he went on, “so we're actually still ahead of our schedule.” The other major impact has been on combat units field-testing potential Future Tactical Unmanned Aerial System drones, but that's still in flux, said the unmanned aircraft PM, Col. Scott Anderson. Masked soldiers began flying one contending design, the Arcturus JUMP-20, began at Fort Riley a month ago. The second test unit, at Fort Campbell, started flying a different contender last week, as planned, Col. Anderson said. The third unit, at Fort Lewis, was scheduled to start in June: “The had asked to move back to July,” he said, “but it looks like, as of this morning, they're going to maybe try to come back to June.” That the FTUAS field tests are happening mostly on schedule is particularly remarkable, because it takes a team of soldiers to operate and maintain the drones, and they can't maintain social distancing all the time. Most of the other FVL projects are in different stages of development where schedules, while packed, are full of activities that are a lot easier to do online, like planning sessions and digital design. But even where physical objects have to be built or flown, the project managers stay they're staying on schedule. For the Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft to replace the Reagan-era UH-60 Black Hawk, PM Col. David Phillips said, “our demonstrators are continuing to fly.” Those are the Bell V-280 Valor tiltrotor and the Sikorsky-Boeing SB>1 Defiant compound helicopter, which despite the term of art “demonstrator” are de facto prototypes. The companies are now refining their designs and, in 2022, the Army will choose one for mass production. While Phillips didn't provide details like flight hours – the Defiant has had a lot fewer so far – he said both aircraft are still providing test data to mature key technologies like flight controls. FLRAA's smaller sister is the Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft, a light scout to replace the retired OH-58 Kiowa. Once again it's Bell and Sikorsky competing, but for FARA they haven't built the prototypes yet. Those are set to fly in 2023. (That said, Sikorsky's existing S-97 Raider is very close to their FARA design). Most of the work this year is being spent on digital design, said the FARA PM, Col. Gregory Fortier, but that should finish by December, so preparations to build the physical prototypes do have to get underway now. “We have currently seen no impact, [but] there are certainly concerns within Bell and Sikorsky about long lead materials and shipping and the [subcontractors] at the second and third tier,” Col Fortier said. “They are okay with the summer timeframe and into the fall,” Fortier said. “If this thing stretches six months to a year, then that's a different conversation.” The FARA scout, FLRAA transport, and future drones will all have as many components in common as possible, especially electronics, and need to seamlessly share both tactical and maintenance data. To make this happen, they're being designed to a common set of technical standards known as the Modular Open System Architecture, allowing the Army to plug-and-play MOSA-compliant components from any company for both maintenance and upgrades. While existing Army aircraft can't be retrofitted with the complete open architecture, the Army plans to upgrade them with a mini-MOSA called the Aviation Mission Common Server. AMCS will both provide some of the benefits of open architecture to the current fleet and real-world experience to help build the future system. AMCS, too, remains on schedule, the project manager said. “We are currently on track to award an OTA [Other Transaction Authority contract] in June 2020 and negotiations are currently ongoing,” Col. Johnathan Frasier said. The Schedule To Stay On Future Vertical Lift is doing a lot this year. Here's a list of most – not all – of the things they've accomplished so far and what they aim to do. A startling amount of it is due in June. Modular Open Systems Architecture (involves multiple project managers) April: Over 300 government and industry participants joined in a virtual meeting of the Architecture Collaboration Working Group fleshing out MOSA. June: A follow-on ACWG meeting is scheduled. The Army will award an Other Transaction Authority (OTA) contract for the Aviation Mission Common Server (AMCS). Engine & Electrical (PM: Col. Roger Kuykendal) May-June: Tentative date for an industry day on electrical systems, including batteries, generators, Auxiliary Power Units (APUs), and thermal management (i.e. cooling). June 15-19: Critical Design Review for the integrated engine system. October: Power management systems demonstration, conducted with the Army C5ISR center. Fall: Improved Turbine Engine testing begins. Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft (PM: Col. David Phillips) March 17: The Army awarded Bell and the Sikorsky-Boeing team contracts for Competitive Demonstration & Risk Reduction (CDRR) of their rival FLRAA designs. June: FLRAA and FARA will hold a joint industry day – virtually, of course – on their shared mission systems. And the FLRAA competitors will deliver conceptual designs to help shape the program's final requirements. Fall: Those FLRAA requirements will come up for review by the Army Requirements Oversight Council (AROC), a high-level body usually chaired by either the four-star boss of Army Futures Command or even the Army Chief of Staff himself. Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft (PM: Col. Gregory Fortier) March 25: The Army picked Bell and Sikorsky to build competing prototypes. May 15: Industry responses are due for a formal Request For Information (RFI) on FARA mission systems. June: FLRAA and FARA hold their joint industry day on shared mission systems. Boston Consulting Group will deliver the first of two studies on FARA-specific mission systems. Summer (month not specified): Deloitte will deliver the second FARA mission systems study. Sikorsky and Bell will both go through Preliminary Design Review. December: Sikorsky and Bell will submit their final designs. With those approved, they'll begin building the actual prototypes. Unmanned Aircraft Systems (PM: Col. Scott Anderson) April: The first FTUAS contender began field testing (formally “demonstrations”) at Fort Riley, Kan. May: The second FTUAS contender began field testing at Fort Campbell, Ken. May-June: This is the likely window for the Army to award three Other Transaction Authority contracts for the mini-drones known as Air-Launched Effects (ALE). June-July: Third FTUAS contender begins testing at Fort Lewis, Wash. July: Fourth contender begins testing at Fort Bliss, Tex. August-September: A fifth unit begins testing at Fort Bragg, NC. There are only four different designs being studied, so this brigade will double up on of the designs already in testing. Fall: The Army Requirements Oversight Council will review the final requirement for FTUAS – which will be based on how the contenders actually performed – as well as requirements for a highly automated Scalable Control Interface (SCI) for all future drones. https://breakingdefense.com/2020/05/covid-cant-stop-a-busy-summer-for-army-fvl

Jen DiMascio Tony Osborne Steve Trimble On the heels of Germany's proposal to purchase both Eurofighter Typhoons and Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornets, Aviation Week editors Jen DiMascio, Tony Osborne and Steve Trimble discuss ongoing fighter competitions around the world on Check 6, highlighting one of the most dynamic markets in aerospace. https://aviationweek.com/defense-space/podcast-international-fighter-competitions

Andrew Eversden The State Department awarded General Dynamics Information Technology an estimated $350 million contract for IT services, the company announced May 7. The indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contract will provide IT services to the Western Hemisphere Program of the State Department's Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs. The contract has a base period of one year, with four one-year options. Under the contract, GDIT will provide services to “enhance” the bureau's counternarcotics and anti-crime capabilities, increase the department's ability to deploy new technologies, improve information sharing across different regions and partners, and expand law enforcement capabilities across foreign governments. “GDIT's work with the INL will deliver new technical capabilities to counter-narcotics trafficking, money laundering and other transnational criminal activities,” said Paul Nedzbala, senior vice president for GDIT's Federal Civilian Division. “Our solution will directly support INL's critical mission to minimize the impact of international crime and illegal drugs, protecting both U.S. citizens at home and our partners abroad.” According to USAspending.gov, the State Department has spent about $550 million on services from General Dynamics in the last 12 months. In June last year, GDIT won a $2 billion contract to continue to manage the department's global technical security supply chain. That contract was awarded by the Bureau of Diplomatic Security. https://www.federaltimes.com/govcon/contracting/2020/05/07/state-department-awards-it-contract-to-help-combat-narcotics/

By: Sebastian Sprenger COLOGNE, Germany — Lockheed Martin has appointed Dennis Goege to the newly created job of vice president for operations in Central and Eastern Europe, according to a company statement. The move comes in response to what Lockheed foresees to be a “growing presence” in the region. Based at the company's office in Berlin, Germany, Goege is responsible for business in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Romania, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Croatia and the Baltics. Goege previously worked for the German Aerospace Center, or DLR, based in Cologne, Germany, where he oversaw defense and security research programs. According to the Lockheed announcement, he also “acted as an advisor” to the Germany Defence Ministry and the Munich Security Conference. The new job consolidates a smattering of director-level country leads, overseen by Jonathan Hoyle, vice president and chief executive for Europe. “I am pleased to welcome Dennis in his new role as vice president to support our organization of Lockheed Martin in Europe,” Hoyle was quoted as saying in the statement. “This new post has been created in response to significant business growth in Central and European markets and to set out a path for building on business opportunities in the region.” Goege's portfolio includes a few high-profile programs and prospects in Germany alone. Lockheed is going against Boeing in a bid to deliver a new heavy-transport helicopter to the Bundeswehr — Germany's military. A move by the German government to request a final offer is expected late this year or early next. In addition, the TLVS missile defense program has been languishing in uncertainty for months. Lockheed, in concert with local contractor MBDA, and the German government have so far failed to agree on a price and risk structure for an eventual contract. The Defence Ministry has yet to announce whether the contractor will be invited to submit a new offer. Lockheed also has not given up on selling F-35 fighter jets to the German Air Force should another opening present itself, though the aircraft is formally out of the race with Berlin's recent pick of Eurofighters and F-18s to replace the aging Tornado fleet by 2030. Switzerland is in the market for new fighter jets, too, and the F-35 is still in the running. https://www.defensenews.com/global/europe/2020/05/06/lockheed-creates-new-vp-job-to-push-sales-in-central-eastern-europe/

1 APRIL 2020 • In News Lockheed Martin has responded to the impact of the coronavirus outbreak, including support for those in the company's supply chain. Marillyn Hewson, CEO of Lockheed Martin said: “At Lockheed Martin, we recognize that the rapid spread of Covid-19 and its wide-ranging impacts have caused severe disruption across society and tragic loss of life around the world. We also recognize that the global pandemic has created a need for urgent action by government, business, communities and citizens. “In response to this crisis, our company will be guided by and operate with three clear priorities. First, we will continue to protect the health and safety of our men and women on the job and their families. Second, we will continue to perform and deliver for our customers because what they do for our national security, global communications, and infrastructure is critical to our nation and our allies. Third, we will do our part to use our know-how, resources, and leadership as a company to assist our communities and our country during this period of national crisis. “In this regard, today I am announcing that Lockheed Martin will take the following steps as an initial contribution to the national Covid-19 relief and recovery effort: We will advance more than $50 million to small- and medium-sized business partners in our supply chain to ensure they have the financial means to continue to operate, sustain jobs, and support the economy We will donate $10 million to non-profit organizations involved in Covid-19 related relief and assistance, with emphasis on veterans and military families We have activated a $6.5 million employee disaster relief fund to assist Lockheed Martin employees and retirees impacted with Covid-19 “These are our initial financial steps to help during this time of national need. In addition: We will offer Lockheed Martin's engineering and technical capabilities to help solve the most pressing challenges faced by federal, state, and local officials We will donate the use of our corporate aircraft and vehicle fleet for Covid-19 relief logistical support and medical supply delivery We will donate the use of our facilities for crisis-related activities including critical medical supply storage, distribution, and Covid-19 testing, where needed and practical Finally, during this time of economic uncertainty, we will continue our planned recruiting and hiring. Given the requirement for social distancing, Lockheed Martin will deploy virtual technology and other techniques to sustain our hiring activity during this crisis period “Lockheed Martin understands that the shared effort to combat COVID-19 and recover from its effects will be a long-term one. We will continue to engage national, state, and local leaders to undertake additional measures as needed. “And, throughout this crisis, Lockheed Martin remains committed to continuing to deliver critical capabilities for our nation and our allies, supporting job creation and economic recovery, and helping those in need wherever we operate.” www.lockheedmartin.com https://www.aero-mag.com/lockheed-martin-coronavirus-response-010420/

After decades of building traditional helicopters in traditional ways, contractors must get ready for the Army's new high-speed Future Vertical Lift aircraft. Small makers of key parts need help. By SYDNEY J. FREEDBERG JR.on May 06, 2020 at 2:14 PM WASHINGTON: What worries the Army's aviation acquisition chief as he helps industry get ready to build a revolutionary new generation of aircraft in the midst of a global pandemic? “It's the mom and pop shops,” Patrick Mason said today. “It's the Tier 3 suppliers, typically on the hardware side.” “Those are the ones we remain focused on, because those are those are the ones that can end up in a single point failure,” the program executive officer for Army aviation continued. “That's what we're doing right now through COVID and we're going to continue to do that as we look ...to Future Vertical Lift.” While the big Tier 1 prime contractors should be fine, they depend on smaller Tier 2 suppliers for key components, and they depend on yet smaller Tier 3 suppliers. As you trace the provenance of a crucial component down that supply chain, you all too often find a single point of failure. That's some tiny, easily overlooked company that happens to have the only people who know how to build a particular part, like an actuator or a valve, or the only one who can apply a particular heat treatment or protective coating to someone else's part so it can survive the stresses of flight. It would be easier if the Army was just winding down production of one kind of traditional helicopter and ramping up another. Then industry could build any new parts required in the old way. But Future Vertical Lift is about building new kinds of aircraft in new ways. Even the most traditional-looking competitor, Bell's proposal for the FARA scout helicopter, is being designed, built, and tested using new digital tools. Those tools allow much greater precision and efficiency than traditional blueprints, but only for facilities that have the necessary technology installed. Bell and its rivals, Sikorsky and Boeing, are also all eager to use 3D printing and other advanced manufacturing techniques to improve the performance and reliability of key parts while reducing their cost. That's another set of new technologies that small firms can't easily afford. Will increasing sales of drones help make up the revenue? In addition to the optionally manned FARA scout and FLRAA transport, which will have human crews aboard for most missions, FVL is also building a whole family of completely unmanned aircraft. The major companies can get in on much of that business, Mason said, but some of their smaller suppliers can't. If you build electronics or write flight control software, then. you can work on either manned or unmanned aircraft. But, Mason said, if you specialize in building a particular kind of hardware for manned aircraft, most drones are so much smaller that they use entirely different systems, such electric actuators instead of hydraulics. So for small manufacturing shops, he said, “there's less synergy.” Mason's concerns were well supported by a study of the FVL industrial base by the Center for Strategic & International Studies, released today. “The primes are all in,” said Andrew Hunter, director of defense industrial studies at CSIS, who hosted yesterday's call, “[but] it's a big challenge for those Tier 3 and lower suppliers to make this transition.” During months of workshops with industry, “the concern that we heard expressed repeatedly was lower down the supply chain, [with] Tier 3 and lower suppliers,” Hunter said. “It's an expensive investment that they may be challenged to raise the capital to do, [and] it certainly will involve retraining their workforce to use these new manufacturing techniques.” “Industry has to see they're going to get a return on that investment,” he said. “Even optimistic management who are true believers and think they are definitely going to get a return on this investment because they're going to win [FVL contracts], they've still got to justify it to the banks. They've still got to justify it to their corporate boards.” Changing The Rules What complicates the business case for contractors is that the Army wants a new approach, not just to building the new aircraft, but also to how it keeps them flying. Over an aircraft's decades in service, the long tail of operations, maintenance, and upgrades dwarfs the up-front cost of research, development, and acquisition. While the CSIS study calculated that the Army could afford to build the Future Vertical Lift if budgets remain near historical averages – not guaranteed in the wake of the pandemic – the bigger risk is whether or not the service can control those Operations & Sustainment costs in the long term. Army Futures Command's director for aviation modernization, Brig. Gen. Walter Rugen, said he was confident that extensive physical prototyping and digital modeling would help the service get a handle on those costs. “Our requirements... are still in draft form, so if we need to trade one away to maintain our budgets, we will do that,” he said. “We are going to understand to the greatest degree possible what our O&S costs are and make sure that it's within our budget.” For helicopters, Hunter said, O&S is typically 65 percent of the total cost over the lifetime of a program. Now, not all that money goes to aerospace contractors, since sizable chunk goes to pay military maintenance personnel, buy fuel, and so on. But contracts to sustain existing aircraft are a more important revenue stream for most contractors than actually building new ones. While projected spending on R&D (blue) and procurement (red) rise and fall, remaining under $2.5 billion a year, Operations & Sustainment costs (green) remain largely constant at over $7.5 billion — a crucial source of cash for industry. (CSIS graphic) So any Army effort to economize on operations & sustainment hits contractors where they live. What's more, the Army isn't just trying to squeeze savings out of the existing process; it's changing the rules of the game. Historically, companies could bid low to build a new weapons system because, once they got the contract, they had a de facto monopoly on maintaining and upgrading that system for decades. Now the Defense Department is pushing hard to break this “vendor lock” in two main ways: It's increasingly requiring companies to hand over their intellectual property and technical data. The government can then give that data to potential competitors trying to build cheaper alternatives, as on the Army-run Joint Light Tactical Vehicle program. Second, it's requiring companies to make their products compatible with government standards for how different components fit together physically and connect electronically, with the aim of creating Modular Open System Architectures where you can swap out one company's component and replace it with another vendor's. Developing a common MOSA for all manned and unmanned aircraft is a top priority for the Army's Future Vertical Lift initiative. “Part of what we're doing [over] the next year, year and a half, is the strategy associated with the operational availability, that we want out of these platforms, the intellectual property we want to obtain,” Mason said. “What's the valuation of the IP, the intellectual property? Because intellectual property drives their ability to control the aftermarket, and the aftermarket is where you see the year over year cash flow [that's] critical to most of their business models.” “As you look at Modular Open System Architecture...the business case and the business model associated with it is something that we're working through with industry right now,” Mason said. “It is critical that we have the right incentive structure, it is critical that we provide the right framework so that industry continues to invest and they continue to see a return on that invested capital.” To prevail in future conflicts, “we can't afford not to do Future Vertical Lift,” Brig. Gen. Rugen said. “What this report talks to is national interest we have in preserving the rotorcraft industrial base as we go forward.” https://breakingdefense.com/2020/05/armys-shift-to-fvl-poses-big-risks-for-small-suppliers/

"We need to find a balance of vehicle designs that enables the cost to be cheap enough that we can afford them, but it's not so highly optimized towards the purely unmanned spectrum that it's cost prohibitive to maintain them." By PAUL MCLEARYon May 06, 2020 at 3:27 PM WASHINGTON: The Navy needs to comb through a host of thorny issues before deploying a new fleet of unmanned ships to confront China, Russia, and Iran. “You don't hear me talking about artificial intelligence and machine learning and things like that just yet,” said Capt. Pete Small, the Navy's program manager for Unmanned Maritime Systems at a C4ISRnet conference this morning. “Those aren't my first concerns. My first concerns are about the field stability and sustainability of these systems right now.” The Navy just isn't equipped to deploy or sustain a new fleet of unmanned vessels yet. “Our infrastructure right now is optimized around manned warships,” Small said. “We're gonna have to shift that infrastructure for how we prepare, deploy, and transit” over large bodies of water before large numbers of unmanned vessels can be effective, he said. It's not clear where that planning stands, but the service has already invested tens of millions in the early work of developing a family of large and medium unmanned vessels, and is looking to vastly ramp that up in the 2021 budget, asking for $580 million for research and development. In 2019 an unmanned Sea Hunter prototype autonomous vessel sailed from San Diego to Hawaii, but it needed to repair several broken systems along the way, forcing sailors to board the ship. It was the first experiment of its kind, one the Navy has not repeated. Those mechanical problems point to work the Navy must do to reconfigure its logistics tail to meet the needs of a new class of ship. “We're going to have to transition from a [system] more optimized around our manned fleet infrastructure to a more distributed mix of these large manned platforms to smaller platforms,” Small said, “we're gonna need to talk about things like, tenders for heavy lift ships, or forward operating bases, things like that.” The early thinking is the service will use the ships as sensors deployed well forward of manned ships and carrier strike groups, which could be at risk if they maneuvered too close to contested waters. But the Navy isn't going to pin everything on a nascent fleet of robot boats — a new class of manned frigates is also being built to operate inside the range of enemy precision weapons. The frigates are going to be smaller and faster than current destroyers, with the ability to generate much more power so they can use lasers and other weapons for both offensive and defensive missions. The Navy is considering several sizes of USVs, including a large variant between 200 and 300 feet in length and having full load displacements of 1,000 tons to 2,000 tons. The ships should be low-cost, and reconfigurable with lots of room capacity for carrying various payloads, including mine hunting and anti-surface warfare. The 2021 budget submission proposes using research and development funding to acquire two more prototypes and another in 2022. Plans then call for buying deployable LUSVs at a rate of two per year. Medium unmanned ships will likely come in at between 45 to 190 feet long, with displacements of roughly 500 tons. The medium ships are thought to skew more toward mission modules revolving around intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance payloads and electronic warfare systems. The first MUSV prototype was funded in 2019, and the Navy wants to fund a second prototype in 2023. Fundamental issues need to be sorted out before the Navy buys one of these ships. “We need to find a balance of vehicle designs that enables the cost to be cheap enough that we can afford them, but it's not so highly optimized towards the purely unmanned spectrum that it's cost prohibitive to maintain them,” Small said. If the maintenance is too complicated and time consuming, and “we have to take the whole vehicle out of the water and take it apart in some explicit manner to replace the parts, it's not gonna really support what we need in the field. So really, the sustainability of the technology is as important — if not more important — in the near-term than the technology itself.” https://breakingdefense.com/2020/05/navy-wants-robot-boats-but-will-still-need-sailors-to-fix-them/

DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY Intuitive Surgical Inc., Sunnyvale, California, has been awarded a maximum $420,000,000 firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for surgical robots, instruments and their related accessories. This is a five-year contract with no option periods. This was a competitive acquisition with 105 responses received. Location of performance is California, with a May 5, 2025, performance completion date. Using customers are Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps and federal civilian agencies. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2020 through 2025 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (SPE2D1-20-D-0006). Hartford Provision Co., doing business as HPC Foodservice, South Windsor, Connecticut, has been awarded a maximum $49,473,750 fixed-price with economic-price-adjustment, indefinite-quantity contract for full-line food distribution. This was a competitive acquisition with one response received. This is a four-year contract with no option periods. Locations of performance are Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut, with a May 6, 2024, performance completion date. Using customers are Air Force, Army, Marine Corps, Navy and federal civilian agencies. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2020 through 2024 defense working capital funds. The contracting agency is the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (SPE300-20-D-3271). The Will-Burt Co., Orrville, Ohio, has been awarded a maximum $43,186,213 fixed-price long term contract for masts. This was a competitive acquisition with one offer received. This is a five-year contract with no option periods. Location of performance is Ohio, with a May 5, 2025, performance completion date. Using military services are Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2020 through 2025 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Land and Maritime, Columbus, Ohio (SPE7MX-20-D-0078). CORRECTION: The contract announced on April 29, 2020, for Raytheon Co., Andover, Massachusetts (SPRRA2-20-C-0023), for $13,688,190 was announced with an incorrect award date. The correct award date is May 4, 2020. NAVY Huntington Ingalls Industries Inc., Newport News, Virginia, is awarded an $187,126,853 modification to previously awarded contract N00024-18-C-2106 to prepare and make ready for the refueling complex overhaul (RCOH) of USS John C. Stennis (CVN 74). Work will be performed in Newport News, Virginia (65%); and Norfolk, Virginia (35%). This modification will extend the period of performance for continued advance planning efforts including material forecasting, long lead time material procurement, purchase order development, technical document and drawing development, scheduling, resource forecasting and planning, development of cost estimates for work to be accomplished, data acquisition, pre-overhaul tests and inspections, pre-overhaul preparations, refueling preparations and other technical studies as required to prepare and make ready for the CVN 74 RCOH accomplishment. Work is expected to complete by January 2021. This modification constitutes the award of an existing option for an additional six months of effort. The original contract and this modification will be accomplished by Huntington Ingalls Industries Inc., Newport News, Virginia, under the authority of 10 U.S. Code 2304(c)(1). Huntington Ingalls Industries Inc. is the original building yard contractor for all ships of the CVN-68 class, the reactor plant planning yard, the lead design refueling yard and the only private shipyard capable of refueling and overhauling nuclear powered aircraft carriers. Therefore, it is the only source with the knowledge, experience and facilities required to accomplish this effort in support of the CVN 74 RCOH. Fiscal 2020 shipbuilding and conversion (Navy) funding in the amount of $187,126,853 will be obligated at time of award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity. The Boeing Co., Seattle, Washington, is awarded a $29,059,944 modification (P00172) to previously awarded firm-fixed-price contract N00019-14-C-0067 for the production and delivery of 10 P-8A A-kits, 10 turret deployment units and eight mechanism units in support of Lot 10 P-8A production aircraft. Work will be performed in Seattle, Washington (91%); and Mesa, Arizona (9%), and is expected to be complete by January 2024. Fiscal 2019 aircraft procurement (Navy) funds in the amount of $29,059,944 will be obligated at time of award, none of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity. W.M. Jordan Co. Inc., Newport News, Virginia, is awarded $26,929,000 for firm-fixed-price task order N40085-20-F-5271, under a multiple award construction contract for the design-build repair and renovation of Bachelor Enlisted Quarters Building (BEQB) 3609, Joint Expeditionary Base, Little Creek-Fort Story, Virginia. Work will be performed in Virginia Beach, Virginia. The work will provide for the design and construction renovation of BEQB 3609 to meet current quality standards and facility criteria for unaccompanied housing for the Navy. The site and building will be modified to meet anti-terrorism force protection requirements. Major building systems such as plumbing, heating, ventilation, and air condition, electrical and fire protection will be replaced with new systems. Work is expected to be complete by October 2022. Fiscal 2020 operations and maintenance (Navy) contract funds in the amount of $26,929,000 are obligated on this award and will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Three proposals were received for this task order. The Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Mid-Atlantic, Norfolk, Virginia, is the contracting activity (N40085-19-D-9089). L3 Adaptive Methods Inc., Centreville, Virginia, is awarded a $12,719,770 cost-plus-fixed-fee and cost contract for engineering services and capability development in support of the Undersea Warfare and Surface Warfare systems. Work will be performed in Keyport, Washington (30%); Centreville, Virginia (25%); Rockville, Maryland (15%); Manassas, Virginia (10%); Herndon, Virginia (5%); Dahlgren, Virginia (5%); Newport, Rhode Island (5%); Austin, Texas (1%); Moorestown, New Jersey (1%); Honolulu, Hawaii (1%); Fairfax, Virginia (1%); and Laurel, Maryland (1%), and is expected to be complete by April 2021. If all options are exercised, work will continue through April 2025. This contract includes options which, if exercised, would bring the cumulative value of this contract to $69,458,660. This contract combines purchases for the Navy (98%) and the government of Japan (2%) under the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program. Fiscal 2020 research, development, test and evaluation (Navy); 2020 operations and maintenance (Navy); 2020 shipbuilding and conversion (Navy); and FMS Japan funding in the amount of $6,142,292 will be obligated at time of award. Funding in the amount of $1,191,829 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was not competitively procured in accordance with Section 1709 of the 2018 National Defense Authorization Act that modifies 15 U.S. Code 638(r), this Small Business Innovative Research Phase (SBIR) III contract is being awarded to L3 Adaptive Methods Inc., which is the same firm that was competitively selected for the SBIR Phase I and II awards. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity (N00024-20-C-5211). The Boeing Co., Seattle, Washington, is awarded a $7,039,596 cost-plus-fixed-fee order (N00019-20-F-0647) against previously issued basic ordering agreement N00019-16-G-0001. This order procures non-recurring engineering for the design, fabrication and correction of deficiencies required for the delivery and installation of retrofit kits for Navy P-8A aircraft with Increment 3 Engineering Change Proposal (ECP) 6 capabilities. Work will be performed in Puget Sound, Washington. The P-8A ECP 6 provides a significant modification to the baseline aircraft, installing new airframe racks, radomes, antennas, sensors and wiring, while incorporating a new combat system suite with an improved computer processing and security architecture capability at the higher than secret level, a wide band satellite communication system, an anti-submarine warfare signal intelligence capability, a minotaur track management system and additional communications and acoustics systems to enhance search, detection and targeting capabilities. Work is expected to be complete by May 2021. Fiscal 2020 aircraft procurement (Navy) funds in the amount of $7,039,596 will be obligated at time of award, none of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity. ARMY Stantec Consulting Services Inc., Lexington, Kentucky, was awarded a $45,000,000 firm-fixed-price contract for U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Dam Safety Modification Mandatory Center of Expertise, national dam and levee safety, and geotechnical services. Bids were solicited via the internet with two received. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of May 5, 2025. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Huntington, West Virginia, is the contracting activity (W91237-20-D-0010). Thomas Instrument Inc.,* Brookshire, Texas, was awarded an $8,788,301 firm-fixed-price contract for maintenance and overhaul of UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters. Bids were solicited via the internet with five received. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of May 6, 2025. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, is the contracting activity (W58RGZ-20-F-0368). AIR FORCE Space Exploration Technologies Corp., Hawthorne, California, has been awarded an $8,904,146 firm-fixed-price modification (P00007) to contract FA8811-19-C-0004 for non-National Security Space (NSS) Fleet surveillance. This contract provides for non-NSS Fleet surveillance efforts across the Space Exploration family of launch vehicles for non-NSS missions. The location of performance is Hawthorne, California; Vandenberg, California; and Cape Canaveral Air Force Space Station, Florida. The work is expected to be completed by Nov. 8, 2020. Fiscal 2019 missile procurement funds in the amount of $2,226,037; and fiscal 2019 space procurement funds in the amount of $6,678,110 will be obligated at the time of award. Space and Missile Systems Center, Los Angeles Air Force Base, California, is the contracting activity (FA8811-19-C-0004). AT&T Government Solutions Inc., Oakton, Virginia; and El Segundo, California, has been awarded a $8,449,798 modification (P00047) to contract FA8819-15-F-0005 for continued mission support services to the Space Force, Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center, Special Programs Directorate. Work will be performed at Los Angeles Air Force Base, California; and Colorado Springs, Colorado, and is expected to be completed by Jan. 31, 2021. Fiscal 2020 research, development, test and evaluation funds in the amount of $1,976,668; fiscal 2020 operations and maintenance funds in the amount of $453,295; and fiscal 2019 Space production funds in the amount of $76,500 are being obligated at the time of award. Total cumulative face value of the contract is $54,074,819. The Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center, Los Angeles Air Force Base, California, is the contracting activity. *Small business https://www.defense.gov/Newsroom/Contracts/Contract/Article/2178741/source/GovDelivery/

Industry, government, and academia established consensus in several areas regarding NORAD, Overland and Maritime ISR capabilities. There is room in the present for intermediate technological solutions and for adapting existing equipment for near-term impact. While it has been agreed that the technological solutions required to meet future challenges do exist, it is unclear how to best address the security, organizational, and financial implications that come with proposed technical solutions. There are still many unanswered questions regarding continental defense, however individuals from various backgrounds have come together and can continue doing so to determine a path forward. Looking ahead, this document should serve as a basis of insight and discussion that can be elaborated upon for future force development exchange events. This event successfully helped bridge the gap between industry and DND and illustrated what the RCAF and CFD are doing in preparing for a radically different approach to NORAD and the defence of North America. Establishing academic, government, and industry consensus on several key points has been an important first step, constructive collaboration like this will allow more creative visioning for solutions going forward, hopefully with eventual implementation by DND/CAF. Brainstorming how to overcome security, organizational, and financial constraints on implementing technical solutions will be a key area to explore as this discussion progresses.