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Mark Pomerleau The Army released its draft proposal March 10 for a contract that could worth as much as $1 billion to provide cyber training for the Department of Defense. The Cyber Training, Readiness, Integration, Delivery and Enterprise Technology (TRIDENT) is a contract vehicle to offer a more streamlined approach for procuring the military's cyber training capabilities. The largest part of that contact will be the Persistent Cyber Training Environment (PCTE). PCTE is an online client in which members of U.S. Cyber Command's cyber mission force can log on from anywhere in the world for training and to rehearse missions. Cyber Command leaders have said the component is one of the organization's most critical needs. Currently, no integrated or robust cyber training environment exists. The procurement is being organized by the Army on behalf of the Defense Department. According to slides from a December industry day, a final solicitation is slated for the end of second quarter 2020 with an award expected at the beginning of 2021. “The objective of Cyber TRIDENT is to provide for the managed evolution of the PCTE Platform and to provide support across all facets of the Acquisition Life Cycle for PCTE,” the documents read. “The goal of Cyber TRIDENT is to continue development operations with the integration of software and hardware enhancements from third party vendors as technology insertion occurs while conducting testing, providing periodic system updates, and fielding technology upgrades of PCTE to the Cyber Mission Forces (CMF) through an agile cadence. The vision is to leverage the existing PCTE baseline and investment in cyber training software and related infrastructure through Associate Contractor Agreements (ACAs) or subcontracts with current platform vendors.” The notice also describes how the program manager envisions management, maintenance, and evolution of the PCTE platform. This includes platform architecture and product management, agile development and delivery systems engineering processes, development and automation, hardware and software infrastructure management, user event support, development operations (DevOps) environment management, PCTE infrastructure tool management, help desk support and onsite and remote support. Using what are known as Cyber Innovation Challenges to award smaller companies a piece of the program, the program office is already incrementally building a platform, which is in use and is helping to prove out the concept for PCTE, refine requirements for the final contract, and reduce risk. Officials and members of industry have indicated that the awardee of TRIDENT will inherit the final prototype version of PCTE, dubbed Version C, and advance that forward. Industry officials noted that the draft document doesn't include many surprises and that DoD leaders have been receptive to feedback, through the prototyping process and industry engagements. https://www.fifthdomain.com/dod/2020/03/12/the-army-roughs-out-its-1b-cyber-training-contract/

By: Valerie Insinna WASHINGTON — The Air Force is looking for a replacement to the stalwart MQ-9 Reaper and intends to explore options ranging from commercial drones built by emerging tech firms to high-end unmanned aircraft, the service's top acquisition official said Tuesday. Will Roper, the Air Force's assistant secretary for acquisition, technology and logistics, said the service is working on a study that will inform the fiscal 2022 budget and lay out a path for replacing the MQ-9 Reaper made by General Atomics. "The Reaper has been a great platform for us. Four million flight hours, just undeniable overmatch in a low-end uncontested fight, and it is certainly saving lives,” Roper told lawmakers at a House Armed Services Committee hearing. “But as we look to the high end fight, we just can't take them into the battlefield. They are easily shot down.” The MQ-9 Reaper and its precursor, the MQ-1 Predator, have been the Air Force's workhorse drones in the Middle East over the past two decades, providing both real-time video surveillance and the ability to strike targets. But looking forward, the Reaper is ill-suited to a war with Russia and China while at the same time seen by the Air Force as requiring too much money and manpower to sustain for continued operations in low-threat environments. There likely won't be a single, one-size fits all solution for replacing the MQ-9, Roper said. The Air Force may need drones that “are more high-end, military-unique” systems, and “they'll likely be expensive,” he acknowledged. There may also be room for unmanned attritable aircraft, which are reusable but are cheap enough that they can be shot down in battle without incurring massive financial losses. For lower-end missions, the Air Force sees promise in the emerging unmanned systems market, where new entrants have begun creating long-loiter drones for applications in agriculture, communications and the oil and gas sector. “A lot of companies are targeting that market, not thinking about defense because we've been buying Reapers forever,” Roper said, who added that by buying from promising commercial drone makers, Air Force may be able to influence those companies to keep their supply chains out of China and to incorporate military-specific features — potentially even weapons. “I think if we do the program right on the commercial side, we might be able to bring a new entrant into defense without making them a defense prime,” he said, adding that funding from the Air Force could help a commercial company move from making prototypes to building up a stable production line that could further be grown to manufacture drones on a more massive scale. “Working with the Defense Department, you don't need the kind of production capacity that the globe does. So, we're a pretty good first stop,” he said. However, the Air Force may face an uphill battle in getting Congress to support a plan to replace the Reaper. The service in its FY21 budget request has asked for 24 more MQ-9s before ending the programs of record — a move that would curtail the program from 363 to 337 Reapers. The early shutdown of the line would have major financial implications for General Atomics, said Chris Pehrson, the company's vice president of strategic development, in a February interview with Air Force Magazine. “We're actually going out about 22 months ahead of delivery and procuring the long-lead item parts, ... whether it's [satellite communication] equipment or engines ... to negotiate the best prices and get the best deals for the government,” Pehrson said. “Having the rug pulled out from under your feet at the last minute kind of disrupts all your supply chain investments that you're making.” Top generals in the Middle East and Africa have also raised concerns about the demands for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance and privately helped stave off retirements of the MQ-9 by the Air Force in FY21. In its unfunded wish list, U.S. Central Command included additional contractor-flown MQ-9 hours as its number one priority, at a cost of $238 million. https://www.defensenews.com/air/2020/03/12/could-a-commercial-drone-replace-the-mq-9-reaper-the-air-force-is-considering-it/

by Nick Zazulia The U.S. military is stepping up its efforts to enlist autonomous eVTOL aircraft for a variety of missions, especially those that would reduce risk to troops, such as moving cargo in combat zones. In early January, the U.S. Air Force issued a request for information to civil eVTOL developers in a bid to evaluate options for investing in the technology. For 2020 alone, the Pentagon has allocated almost $170 million to investigate options for what it calls unmanned logistic system-air (ULS-A) capability. In Iraq and Afghanistan, U.S. forces have faced difficulty moving supplies, according to Carmine Borrelli, deputy head for logistics innovation with the Marine Corps Warfighting Lab. Valuable military aircraft often need to be kept in reserve for higher-priority missions, and even when they are used, high sustainment costs make resupply an inefficient use for them. “They [eVTOLs] have the potential to have a platform that could be cost-effective, that could go far distances and that could carry stuff, potentially, at a lesser cost than what we were doing,” said Borrelli in a press briefing hosted by the Vertical Flight Society on March 10. The Marines are partnering with both the Army and the Air Force on different projects to realize that goal through what it calls small, medium, and large unmanned logistics systems. The Office of the Secretary of Defense is allocating approximately $120 million to the efforts of the Naval Air Systems Command (Navair) with small and medium ULS-A vehicles covered by the program objective memorandum (POM-19). Another $30 million for medium-size ULS-A in combined stakeholder investment and funding from the Office of the Secretary of Defense is being put toward joint capabilities technical demonstrations that need to be completed before the POM funding can be put to use. And the fiscal year 2020 budget from Congress includes $18.5 million to advance autonomous technology, particularly in large aircraft. There is more funding for the smaller ULS vehicles, because the use case is more clearly defined, and the work is further along. Instead of usual rigid requirements, the Marine Corps is now deliberately thinking about possible use cases in terms of range. Borrelli that this approach allows more flexibility in finding the best way to use the burgeoning eVTOL technology. The Department of Defense (DoD) considers “small” ULS to be vehicles with a 60- to 150-pound payload, designed for trips within 10 or 15 miles and a daily throughput of about 1,000 pounds per aircraft. Borrelli said the Marines are finding that it's realistic for vehicles of that size to weigh as much as or less than the payload they're designed to carry. The goal is to use them for squad resupply, leveraging highly automated routines to complete simple operations without requiring much manpower. Early operational capability is scheduled for 2023 with full operational capability on the docket for 2026. A medium ULS carries 300- to 500 pounds anywhere from a 20 to 125-mile combat radius, allowing for carrying up to 5,000 pounds of cargo in a day. As with a small ULS, medium ULS can keep their weight efficient enough that payload about meets vehicle weight, though they will be used for more complicated missions, such as supplying platoons, operations between advanced bases, and more. “We're trying to anticipate the future; potentially that size range could also do casualty evacuation...if these things prove out and they are reliable enough,” Borrelli said. The Marine Corps is working with the U.S. Army Research Laboratory on medium ULS efforts. At the end of January, Navair hosted a tactical resupply unmanned aircraft systems fly-off competition in Yuma, Arizona, won by Survice Engineering's TRV-150 system, which is based on the Malloy Aeronautics tactical resupply vehicle drone platform. Other competitors included Bell, Autonodyne, AirBuoyant, Pacific Aerospace Consulting, and Chartis Federal. Borrelli said medium ULS are targeted to enter service during fiscal year 2024 or 2025, with full operational capability in 2030. The category just finished its first year of successful joint-capabilities technical demonstration flight tests as part of a three-year effort. The large ULS category is still a bit more abstract. Initially, DoD conceived of vehicles with a 2,000- to 6,000-lb payload, in some ways a replacement for Bell Boeing V-22 Ospreys or Sikorsky CH-53 Sea Stallions on shorter trips. However, as the consumer market has defined and taken shape, the military realized that scaling back to vehicles with 1,000- to 2,000-lb payloads will make more sense. “We want to seriously consider and match industry's approach,” Borrelli said. “If the market is moving toward the 1,000-pound platform—a "flying car"—and many [new eVTOL aircraft] are going to be out there, it would be in our best interest to figure out how best we can use that platform to do what we need to do. We look to ride the coattails of industry.” The military is still interested in larger vehicles that can move up to 6,000 lb, but it recognizes that isn't where the bulk of innovation is taking place right now. In the large ULS category, the Marine Corps is working with the Air Force, whose Agility Prime program was started last year to leverage the commercial VTOL industry to find more efficient ways to execute resupply missions than through its high-sustainment-cost aircraft. The military wants to use these larger ULS for company resupply in remote areas with austere landing zones and launched from a new class of small, minimally-manned ships, as well as potentially to transport troops. The vehicles would work in a radius of up to 350 miles, each handling throughputs ranging from 15,000 to 30,000 pounds per day. Early operational capability for large ULS is scheduled for 2023, with full operational capability in 2030. While the military has done less work on large ULS, it hopes to rely more on the investment of the commercial UAM industry. For large ULS, Borrelli said the same weight efficiency won't be possible, so it will take a heavier vehicle to lift 2,000 pounds. Both hybrid and fully-electric propulsion is on the table and, in either case, new propulsion technology brings infrastructure questions with it. “That's something that we have constantly in the back of our minds,” Borrelli said. “So, as we're moving to the rest of the ULS space, the ground and surface and sub-surface, we're considering where those charging stations could be or where a battery inventory would be. If we don't have a charging station, we have to have a battery inventory. It's not going to do us any good to have a considerable amount of inventory unless we can be able to charge efficiently.” https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/defense/2020-03-12/us-military-exploring-evtol-solution-resupplying-troops

Space Force will ask for 2022 money for commercial satcom, but the funds will not be for buying services as industry would like -- rather for R&D. By THERESA HITCHENS SATELLITE 2020: The Space Force is drafting a new Transformative Acquisition Strategy for buying commercial satellite communications capacity, Clare Grason, the chief of the service's Commercial Satellite Communications Office (CSCO), told a panel here today. The new strategy is bouncing off of the new “Vision for Satellite Communications” signed Jan. 23 by Space Command head, and Space Force chief, Gen. Jay Raymond. It's designed to enable the creation of seamless web of communications capabilities to warfighters, even during conflict. David Myers, president of Peraton's Communications sector, told me in an interview that CSCO will likely replace it's current program, known as the Future Commercial SATCOM Acquisition Program, “with something unique to Space Command that better suits this mission of interoperability between between commercial and government.” Indeed, Peraton on March 3 announced they had been granted a $218.6 million contract to provide commercial satellite communications services for Africa Command (AFRICOM). According to the company's March 3 announcement, the “single award, blanket purchase agreement” is a first of its kind, whereby the company “will provide communications services leveraging satellites and emerging technologies from across multiple satellite fleet operators.” At the same time, Grason told me afterwards, the office is in the process of putting together a funding request for 2022 for a newish, congressionally-mandated program of record to buy commercial satcom directly from operators — although she did not reveal the sum. “We are POMing against the commercial satcom program of record,” she said. “We're going through that process right now.” Congress created the independent program element for commercial satcom within the DoD budget in the 2019, putting $49.5 million into the pot. It added $5 million to the program in 2020, although DoD did not ask for funding. There is no money in the 2021 budget request, Grason explained, although she is working on an unfunded requirements request that might be able to fill that gap. The program of record, however, will not be used — at least in the near term — to provide satellite communications services to military users in a manner similar to how terrestrial telecom providers like AT&T sell you a data plan for your phone, as a number of commercial satcom operators have been advocating. Instead, those congressionally appropriated funds would be used “for research and development purposes, to assess capabilities that are emerging,” Grason told me. Once proven, new capabilities might be fed back into the operational program. “Or we could do isolated projects in cooperation with others,” she said. “There's a lot of flexibility and potential for the arrangement.” CSCO is leery of crossing the working capital and congressionally appropriated funding streams, Grason explained. “It's key when it comes down to the program of record that those activities are outside of the scope of our core ... transactions,” she told me. “There are legalities there.” Currently, the CSCO buys commercial satellite bandwidth using a DoD working capital fund — a kind of revolving fund that works a bit like a checking account. CSCO negotiates one-on-one contracts between a satcom provider and a military customer, Grayson said. At any one time, she told the Satellite 2020 audience, the office is negotiating about 30 different deals. “Our office is responsible for connecting a customer to the marketplace,” she explained. Under that system, DoD essentially leases commercial bandwidth for short periods of time — an acquisition model that has been widely disparaged by commercial satcom operators. Indeed, Congress in the 2018 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) shifted Grason's office from its original home within the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) to Air Force Space Command. That, of course, has now been subsumed by the new Space Force. The goal of the new acquisition strategy, Grason said, is to streamline that process via a kind of bundling of current contracts with providers. “We do have a Transformative Acquisition Strategy under development now, that will evolve how we acquire and deliver commercial satcom on an aggregated basis through a smaller number of contracts,” she said, that will “centralize procurement with industry.” CSCO will then turn around and sign so-called ‘service letter agreements' with military customers that, in effect, make them subscribers to commercial services. “So in essence we'd become like a Direct TV with different cable plans,” she told me, and would managing the relationship between the user and the providers. “It's a challenging objective, but we believe the benefit lies in the fact that we're aggregating buying power, we won't have duplication, we'll have [broad] coverage, and the ability to shift resources without having to set up new contracts.” A first draft of which is due at the end of the year, she said. DoD currently contracts for satcom bandwidth with a number of providers, such as Peraton and Intelsat, which has been vocal in pushing the Pentagon to move to a ‘satellite-as-a-service' model. “There's going to be a very significant change required in the mindset,” Rebecca Cowen-Hirsch, senior vice president for government strategy and policy at Inmarsat Government, told the panel. But the bulk of DoD's satcom services and bandwidth comes via the Enhanced Mobile Satellite Services (EMMS) program, for which Iridium Communications was awarded a $738.5 million, seven-year, fixed-price contract in December 2019. The US military is heavily reliant on commercial satcom, given the fact that military comsat networks, such as the Advanced Extremely High Frequency satellites built by Lockheed Martin and the Wideband Global SATCOM satellites built by Boeing, have limited bandwidth to go around. In fact, Grason told me, access to milsatcom bandwidth is granted via a “prioritization scheme that customers generally speaking are highly dissatisfied with.” That said, she admitted that military users of CSCO's services are naturally a bit skeptical about a new approach.They want to know “how are you going to ensure that the capabilities that we're getting today are not degraded?” she said. “The linchpin is that the customer will pay for the capability in the form of a service level agreement with us.” Myer said one model DoD might want to think about is “buying a pool of capacity that gives them portability to move capacity around.” This would it to leverage buying power, he said. https://breakingdefense.com/2020/03/dod-drafts-new-acquisition-strategy-for-commercial-satcom

NAVY Raytheon Missile Systems, Tucson, Arizona, is awarded a $109,607,857 firm-fixed-price modification to previously-awarded contract N00024-19-C-5406 for MK 15 Close-In Weapon System upgrades and conversions, system overhauls and associated hardware. Work will be performed in Louisville, Kentucky (29%); Tucson, Arizona (20%); El Segundo, California (9%); Melbourne, Florida (5%); Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (3%); Andover, Massachusetts (2%); Ottobrunn, Germany (2%); Williston, Vermont (2%); Tempe, Arizona (1%); Grand Rapids, Michigan (1%); Hauppauge, New York (1%); Ashburn, Virginia (1%); East Syracuse, New York (1%); Camarillo, California (1%); Phoenix, Arizona (1%); Joplin, Missouri (1%); Murray, Utah (1%); Dallas, Texas (1%); Corona, California (1%); Huntsville, Alabama (1%); Minneapolis, Minnesota (1%); Valencia, California (1%); Palo Alto, California (1%); and various places below one percent (13%). Work is expected to be complete by October 2023. Fiscal 2020 operations and maintenance (Navy); fiscal 2020 shipbuilding and conversion (Navy); and fiscal 2020 weapons procurement (Navy) funding in the amount of $109,607,857 will be obligated at time of award and were not competitively procured. Funds in the amount of $61,492,849 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, District of Columbia, is the contracting activity. M.A. Mortenson Co., doing business as Mortenson Construction, Minneapolis, Minnesota (N62473-18-D-5850); RQ Construction LLC, Carlsbad, California (N62473-18-D-5851); R. A. Burch Construction Co. Inc.,* Ramona, California (N62473-18-D-5852); Harper Construction Co. Inc., San Diego, California (N62473-18-D-5853); Sundt Construction Inc., Tempe, Arizona (N62473-18-D-5854); SOLPAC Construction Inc., doing business as Soltek Pacific Construction Co., San Diego, California (N62473-18-D-5855); Bethel-Webcor Pacific JV,* Anchorage, Alaska (N62473-18-D-5856); and The Whiting-Turner Contracting Co., Baltimore, Maryland (N62473-18-D-5858), are awarded $92,000,000 to increase the aggregate capacity of the previously awarded suite of firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity, multiple award construction contracts. The contracts are for new construction, renovation and repair of commercial and institutional building construction projects at various government installations located in California, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Colorado and New Mexico. All work will be performed at various federal sites within the Naval Facilities Engineering Command (NAVFAC) Southwest area of responsibility. The maximum dollar value, including the base year and four option years for all eight contracts combined has increased from $750,000,000 to $842,000,000. No funds are being obligated on this award and contract funds will not expire. Future task orders will be primarily funded by military construction (Navy); operations and maintenance (O&M) (Navy); O&M Marine Corps; and Navy working capital funds. The original contract was competitively procured via the Navy Electronic Commerce Online website and 22 proposals were received. The NAVFAC Southwest, San Diego, California, is the contracting activity. Lockheed Martin Corp. Rotary and Mission Systems, Moorestown, New Jersey, is awarded a $65,008,603 cost-plus-incentive-fee and cost-only modification to previously-awarded contract (N00024-19-C-5603) for combat system and engineering support of the Ship Self-Defense System. Work will be performed in Moorestown, New Jersey, and is expected to be complete by June 2022. Fiscal 2020 and 2019 operations and maintenance (Navy); fiscal 2020 and 2019 research, development, test and evaluation (Navy); fiscal 2020 and 2019 other procurement (Navy); and fiscal 2018, 2017 and 2016 shipbuilding and conversion (Navy) funding in the amount of $4,707,191 will be obligated at time of award. Funds in the amount of $727,389 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, District of Columbia, is the contracting activity. Ocean Shipholdings Inc., Houston, Texas, is awarded a $13,445,617 modification under previously awarded firm, fixed-price contract (N32205-17-C-3001) to fund the second one-year option period. This contract option is being exercised for the operation and maintenance of two U.S. Naval Ship (USNS) Gordon-class, class surge, large, medium-speed roll-on/roll-off vessels; and two USNS Shughart class surge, large, medium-speed roll-on/roll-off vessels. This contract includes a 12-month base period, four 12-month option periods and a six-month option which, if exercised, would bring the cumulative value of this contract to $220,028,462. Working capital contract funds (Navy) in the amount of $13,445,617 are obligated for fiscal 2020 and fiscal 2021 and will not expire. The Navy's Military Sealift Command, Norfolk, Virginia, is the contracting activity (N32205-17-C-3001). American International Contractors Inc., Arlington, Virginia, is awarded a $10,017,893 firm-fixed-price contract for alterations to the operation control center at Naval Support Activity I Bahrain. The work to be performed provides for the construction of a secure area requiring adherence to the National Counterintelligence and Security Center technical specifications for construction and management of sensitive compartmented information facilities, Version 1.4. Work will be performed in Manama, Bahrain, and is expected to be completed by August 2021. Fiscal 2020 operations and maintenance, (Navy) contract funds in the amount of $10,017,893 are obligated on this award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was not competitively procured via the Federal Business Opportunities website. This proposed contract action will be awarded pursuant to Federal Acquisition Regulation 6.302-2, Unusual and Compelling Urgency. The Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Europe Africa Central, is the contracting activity (N33191-20-C-0002). Cubic Defense Applications Inc., Austin, Texas, was awarded a $9,027,588 performance-based, cost-plus-fixed-fee, completion contract (N65236-20-C-8007). This contract is for research to develop and demonstrate software for real-time logistics and supply chain system situational awareness, future state prediction and assessment of resilience at unprecedented scale and speed. The contract includes an 18-month base period. Contract funds in the amount of $100,000 were obligated at the time of award. Work will be performed in Austin, Texas (61%); Minneapolis, Minnesota (22%); and Reston, Virginia (17%), and is expected to be completed by September 2021. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The contract was competitively procured, by full and open competition under the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Strategic Technology Office broad agency announcement HR0011-19-S-0053 via the Federal Business Opportunities website, with nine timely offers received. Naval Information Warfare Center Atlantic, Charleston, South Carolina, is the contracting activity. (Awarded March 9, 2020) ARMY AECOM Technical Services Inc., Los Angeles, California (W91278-20-D-0004); HDR Environmental, Operations and Construction Inc., Englewood, Colorado (W91278-20-D-0005); MSE Group LLC,* San Antonio, Texas (W91278-20-D-0006); Jacobs Engineering Group Inc., Dallas, Texas (W91278-20-D-0007); Phe-Baker JV LLC,* Rockville, Maryland (W91278-20-D-0008, W91278-20-D-0009); Tetra Tech Inc., Pasadena, California (W91278-20-D-0010); and Trinity/Jacobs JV LLC,* Shalimar, Florida (W91278-20-D-0011), will compete for each order of the $49,000,000 firm-fixed-price contract for architect and engineering services to support the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers South Atlantic Division. Bids were solicited via the internet with 20 received. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of March 10, 2023. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Mobile, Alabama, is the contracting activity. Salient CRGT, Fairfax, Virginia, was awarded a $38,078,488 modification (P00012) to contract W52P1J-18-C-0020 to provide mission critical information technology communications infrastructure and services in support of U.S. Special Operations military forces. Work will be performed in Fayetteville, North Carolina, and in Afghanistan, with an estimated completion date of March 14, 2023. Fiscal 2020 operations and maintenance, Army funds in the amount of $38,078,488 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Rock Island Arsenal, Illinois, is the contracting activity. Tetra Tech-Stanley JV, Gahanna, Ohio, was awarded a $12,000,000 firm-fixed-price contract for multi-disciplinary professional architect-engineer services primarily for civil works design. Bids were solicited via the internet with 10 received. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of March 11, 2025. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, St. Louis, Missouri, is the contracting activity (W912P9-20-D-0009). AIR FORCE Northrop Grumman Systems Corp., Woodland Hills, California, has been awarded a not-to-exceed $24,978,602 unpriced change order modification (P00013) to previously awarded contract FA8540-19-C-0001 for embedded Global Positioning System/Inertial Navigation System engineering, manufacturing and development. This modification provides for the incorporation of System Requirements Document Version 3.2.1 and the incorporation of Statement of Work Revision 4. Work will be performed in Woodland Hills, California, and is expected to be complete by June 30, 2021. Fiscal 2020 research and development funds in the amount of $7,500,000 are being obligated at the time of award. The total cumulative face value of the contract is $149,990,015. Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, Robins Air Force Base, Georgia, is the contracting activity. DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY SND Manufacturing, Dallas, Texas, has been awarded a maximum $8,130,915 modification (P00003) exercising the first one-year option period of a one-year base contract (SPE1C1-19-D-5038) with four one-year option periods for running suit jackets. This is an indefinite-delivery contract. Location of performance is Texas, with a March 17, 2021, performance completion date. Using military services are Navy and Marine Corps. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2020 through 2021 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. CORRECTION: The contract announced on March 6, 2020, for Quantico Tactical Inc.,* Aberdeen, North Carolina (SPE8EJ-19-D-0015), which is one of six companies sharing a $4,000,000,000 award, was announced with an incorrect contract number. The correct contract number is SPE8EJ-20-D-0015. *Small Business https://www.defense.gov/Newsroom/Contracts/Contract/Article/2109345/source/GovDelivery/

By Mark Pomerleau U.S. Cyber Command nearly doubled the amount of money it issued in defense contracts between fiscal years 2018 and 2019, according to figures provided in written testimony to Congress. In 2019, the command awarded $74.9 million through 81 contracting actions, Gen. Paul Nakasone, the command's leader told the House Armed Services Committee March 4. Those figures are up from the 32 contracts valued at $43 million in fiscal year 2018 that Nakasone provided in testimony in February 2019. Congress gave Cyber Command limited acquisition authority in 2016 following the model of Special Operations Command. It capped acquisition funds at $75 million per year, with a clause that is scheduled to sunset in 2021. However, some members of Congress questioned whether it needed $75 million. Nakasone lauded the role of DreamPort, a public-private partnership in Columbia, Maryland created by Cyber Command to engage with businesses, in increasing the aperture of organizations it works with. “Over the past 18 months, Dreamport has allowed the Command to engage more than 1,000 private companies, educate over 1,000 military personnel on innovative technologies, and involve more than 350 students and interns from 65 colleges and high schools on STEM initiatives,” he wrote. “It has been home to Cyber Command's effort to begin implementing the principles of zero-trust networking on the military's networks. Dreamport also hosted the public-private collaboration that resulted in kits that help enable the Cyber National Mission Force to conduct Hunt Forward operations. The traditional ways of doing business would have been too cumbersome and too slow. Dreamport is key to the command's ability to engage in public-private partnerships at the unclassified level.” Nakasone also told the committee in his written statement that the command has hired its first command acquisition executive responsible for leading the organization's acquisitions and to develop capabilities for the joint cyber force. In total, the command requested a $636 million budget for 2021, compared to the $596 million it used in fiscal year 2020. The executive is largely responsible for procuring and developing capabilities under what Cyber Command calls the Joint Cyber Warfighting Architecture, which was established in the last two years to guide capability development priorities. These capabilities fall under five buckets; Common firing platforms to be used at the four cyber operating locations of the service cyber components. These platforms will be worked into a comprehensive suite of cyber tools; Unified Platform, which will integrate and analyze data from offensive and defensive operations with partners; Joint command and control mechanisms for situational awareness and battle management at the strategic, operational and tactical levels; Sensors that support defense of the network and drive operational decisions, and; The Persistent Cyber Training Environment, which will provide individual and collective training as well as a way to rehearse for a mission. The Army is managing PCTE on behalf of Cyber Command and the joint force. The cornerstone of this architecture is the command's data tool called Unified Platform. Nakasone told the House Armed Services Committee that Unified Platform is starting to come online and over the next year it will be the central focus of building the architecture allowing the force to store data and conduct worldwide operations. Budget documents from the Air Force, the service procuring Unified Platform on behalf of Cyber Command and the joint cyber force, for fiscal year 2021 indicate flat funding for the tool for 2021 as compared to 2020. https://www.fifthdomain.com/dod/cybercom/2020/03/09/cyber-command-doubled-its-contract-spending-in-the-past-year/

By: Sebastian Sprenger COLOGNE, Germany — Germans and Americans remain far apart on defense issues, ranging from when to use the military, how much to spend on defense and which country poses a bigger challenge — Russia or China — according to a new study unveiled Monday. “Three years into a turbulent period of American-German relations, with Donald Trump at the helm of American foreign policy and Angela Merkel leading Germany, there continues to be a wide divergence in views of bilateral relations and security policy between the publics of both countries,” said a Pew Research Center study published in cooperation with Koerber Stiftung, a German think tank. The two organizations each polled about 1,000 adults in September 2019 in the United States and Germany. Also included in the data are results from Pew's “global attitudes” survey conducted in both countries during the spring and summer of 2019. The results are unlikely to surprise anyone following trans-Atlantic relations, but they put into perspective why deep-seated differences persist in crafting a more coherent political show of force between the two nations. While roughly 80 percent Americans believe that using military might is sometimes necessary to maintain order in the world, Germans were almost split evenly on the same question, with a slight majority disagreeing. On the question of defending a fellow NATO ally against Russia in the event of a conflict, 6 in 10 Americans said the United States should help, whereas 6 in 10 German respondents said their country should not get involved. At the same time, Germans saw the United States high up in the list of key foreign policy allies, much higher than Americans viewed Germany. Asked to name their most or second-most important partner, 42 percent of Germans mentioned the United Sates, surpassed only by the their top choice of France, at 60 percent. For Americans, the British ranked highest on the same question, at 36 percent, followed by China (23 percent), Canada (20 percent) and Israel (15 percent). “One area of convergence is the broad support in both the U.S. and Germany for more cooperation with France and Japan. And similar majorities in the U.S. and Germany want to cooperate more with China,” the study read. As for cooperation with Russia, “Germans are almost twice as likely as Americans to want greater collaboration,” it added. When it comes to defense spending, 35 percent of Americans felt that Europeans should up their military budget, with 50 percent saying it should stay the same and 9 percent saying it should decrease. In 2017, the share of Americans wanting an increase was 45 percent. In Germany, the acceptance for defense budget increases has grown since 2017, when only 32 percent of those polled voiced support and 50 percent wanted it to remain the same. In 2018, 43 percent of respondents supported an increase. At the mid-February Munich Security Conference, much was made about the European Union's need to “learn to use the language of power,” as Josep Borrell, the bloc's defense and foreign policy chief, put it. That, of course, would cost money. Germans have traditionally frowned upon that kind of talk, though there is an increasing awareness of geopolitical perils in the wake of Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014, Jeffrey Rathke, president of the American Institute for Contemporary German Studies at Johns Hopkins University, said in an interview last month. “Germany has been able to get by with its rhetorical response to the deteriorating security environment,” he said. “Now it's increasingly obvious that that is no longer enough.” While the country has significantly upped its defense spending, sensitizing the public for operational contributions to Europe's security will be a crucial next step for this government and the next, Rathke argued. The Pew and Koerber figures point to a generational change in the general attitudes of Germans and Americans about one another. “Despite these divergences in opinion, young people in both countries have more positive views of the U.S.-German relationship,” the study read. “In the U.S., for example, 82 percent of people ages 18 to 29 say the relationship is good, compared with 73 percent of those ages 65 and older. Similarly, in Germany, four-in-ten young people say relations with the U.S. are good, compared with only 31 percent of those 65 and older.” Notably, the two countries' militaries enjoy a much closer level of cooperation than the political discourse suggests, especially during the Trump administration, a fact that officials in both countries keep stressing when the tone between Berlin and Washington turns particularly icy. “There is an instinctive perception in the German public to defense matters anchored in Europe and the trans-Atlantic alliance,” Rathke said. https://www.defensenews.com/global/europe/2020/03/09/poll-germans-americans-far-apart-on-use-of-military-defense-spending/

By: Christina Mackenzie PARIS – France's spectacular 72 percent jump in weapons' exports in the 2015-2019 period from five years prior is largely thanks to two companies: Dassault Aviation and Naval Group. The first of those companies sold Rafale fighters to Egypt, India and Qatar, while the second has become the most successful exporter of warships in the world — if one includes orders — selling submarines to Brazil and India, frigates to Malaysia and the United Arab Emirates, and mine-sweepers to Belgium and the Netherlands. A report released on March 9 by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute notes that “French arms exports reached their highest level for any five-year period since 1990 and accounted for 7.9 percent of total global arms exports in 2015-19.” Diego Lopes Da Silva, a SIPRI researcher adds: “The French arms industry has benefited from the demand for arms in Egypt [which accounted for 26 percent of France's defense exports], Qatar and India [14 percent each].” Both politicians and defense industry leaders in France have understood that without exports they cannot afford to provide France's own armed forces with the most innovative and high-performing weapons. Furthermore, buying weapons from the United States brings red tape, including requirement for congressional authorization on all foreign military sales, which can delay the process and some argue shackle France's sovereignty. In the words of Hervé Guillou, the out-going CEO of Naval Group, “no European country can maintain the competitivity of its defense industry based on just its own domestic market.” https://www.defensenews.com/global/europe/2020/03/10/heres-whats-behind-frances-72-jump-in-weapons-exports/

By: Jen Judson WASHINGTON — The U.S. Army plans to conduct a shoot-off to evaluate the best options for a future indirect fires protection capability to defend against rockets, artillery and mortars as well as cruise missile and drones, according to a report sent to Congress and obtained by Defense News. The shoot-off that will take place at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico, is fashioned much in the same way the Army recently conducted its “sense-off” to choose a new air and missile defense radar that will replace the sensor in the Army's current Patriot system, Brig. Gen. Brian Gibson, who is in charge of the Army's air and missile defense modernization effort, told Defense News in a March 9 interview. The Army has been trying to formulate its enduring Indirect Fires Protection Capability Increment 2 (IFPC Inc 2) system for several years. It purchased two Iron Dome batteries, produced through a partnership between Rafael and Raytheon, to serve as an interim solution for cruise missile defense. The acquisition was congressionally mandated. Those batteries will be delivered by the end of the year, Gibson said. The enduring system will defeat subsonic cruise missiles with an objective requirement to defeat supersonic variants as well as group two and three UAS and RAM threats, according to the report. The Army's Sentinel A3 and future A4 version will serve as the radar for IFPC, and its command-and-control system will be the Integrated Air and Missile Defense Battle Command System, or IBCS, which is also the brains for the Army's future Integrated Air and Missile Defense system that will replace Patriot. The intention for IFPC is to protect critical fixed or semi-fixed assets and is intended to be a more mobile solution than one that would suffice at a forward operating base, Gibson described, and it will fill in gaps between tactical short-range air defense and strategic air and missile defense such as the Patriot and the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense System. The Army's analysis, according to the report, included looking at solutions both from the Israel Missile Defense Organization and from U.S. industry. It determined, when considering integration with IBCS and Sentinel as well as the possible schedule, that risks exist for both the U.S. and Israeli solutions. “Given the assessed risks with the potential enduring IFCP Inc 2 solutions, the Army requires additional performance data against IFPC Inc 2 threats,” the report stated. “The Army will use a competitive process consisting of two phases to reduce program risk, while considering cost and schedule parameters.” In the first phase, industry will participate in a shoot-off demonstration using proposed launcher and interceptor solutions integrated into IBCS and Sentinel. IBCS is entering a limited-user test in May after struggling through a previous limited-user test several years ago. The system has been delayed for various reasons and likely won't reach initial operational capability until the third quarter of fiscal 2022. Sentinel A4 is also not operational, so the shoot-off will use the less capable A3 variant. Following the shoot-off, the Army will evaluate proposals and data from the event, analyzing digital simulation data to make a “Best Value determination” to pick one vendor to move forward, according to the report. The shoot-off is planned for the third quarter of FY21. The Army aims to deliver initial capabilities by FY23. To make a determination on the way forward, the Army conducted analysis for an enduring IFPC solution in FY19 to include taking technical data from its Expanded Mission Area Missile program of candidate interceptors. The verification phase evaluated Raytheon's Low-Cost Active Seeker as well as its SkyHunter interceptor (the U.S. variant of Rafael's Tamir missile used in Iron Dome) and Lockheed Martin's Miniature Hit-to-Kill missile. All three of the interceptors were characterized as possible candidates for an IFPC interceptor. The Army originally planned to develop and field its own multimission launcher as part of the enduring IFPC solution but canceled that program in favor of finding a more technologically mature launcher. The service evaluated whitepapers for IFPC launchers and determined that those proposed required further development, prototyping and integration work to be used as a dedicated IFPC component, according to the report. The analysis also found the Iron Dome launcher and Tamir interceptor's performance “is highly reliant” on its own battle management system and multimission radar, and the report determined that “for Iron Dome's launcher and Tamir interceptors to be a viable option for Enduring IFPC Inc 2, the [battle management and weapons control] and [multimission radar] functions require transferring into the Army's IBCS.” And current data provided from the Israeli organization has not included component-level models such as the missile seeker, missile guidance and control, and missile fusing needed to verify that the launcher and missile would work with IBCS, the report stated. “The tightly coupled nature of Iron Dome components within the Iron Dome architecture and a lack of sufficient technical data requires further development, prototyping and integration in order to provide a potential Enduring IFPC Inc 2 capability,” the report noted. Through analysis, the service determined that the U.S.-based Expanded Mission Area Missile candidates met range and maneuverability requirements and would be able to tie into Sentinel A3 by FY23 and A4 by FY25. The Tamir interceptor's performance data proves its effectiveness when used within the Iron Dome system, but since data is lacking, it's uncertain how well it might perform when linked through IBCS to the Sentinel radar. Tamir, however, is likely to perform similarly to the LCAS missile, according to the report. While analysis shows that the interceptors are “likely” to meet enduring requirements, the shoot-off demonstration will “increase the Army's confidence in interceptor performance within the AIAMD architecture,” the report states. https://www.defensenews.com/land/2020/03/09/army-to-conduct-shoot-off-for-future-indirect-fires-protection-capability/