News

By: Nathan Strout Inmarsat Government Inc. has been awarded a contract worth as much as $246 million over five years to provide commercial satellite communication services for the U.S. military. The single-award blanket purchase agreement with the Defense Information Systems Agency was announced June 18. The initial award covers a one-year span from June 19 to June 18, 2020, with four option years. The contract provides for commercial satellite bandwidth for U.S. Africa Command. “The government expects to order Ku-band services sufficient to support airborne intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and command and control missions,” a DISA spokesperson said in an email June 20. According to the announcement, DISA received two bids for the contract. Inmarsat declined to comment on the award until after the protest period was over. The company has faced issues due to protests in the recent past. In September 2015, DISA awarded Inmarsat a potential five-year $450 million contract to provide worldwide commercial telecommunications services on the Ku, Ka and X-Band for the Navy's Commercial Broadband Satellite Program. That award was protested by Intelsat, who successfully convinced the Government Accountability Office that DISA had given different companies different bid requirements. That decision led to a stop-work order on the new contract, though DISA ultimately lifted the stop work order through a contract modification in July 2016. A DISA spokesperson confirmed that the two contracts are not mission related. https://www.c4isrnet.com/battlefield-tech/2019/06/20/inmarsat-awarded-246-million-contract-for-satellite-services/

By Allen Cone June 20 (UPI) -- Lockheed Martin has been awarded a $76.7 million contract for operation and maintenance of AEGIS missile system development and test sites for the U.S. Navy, Missile Defense Agency, Japan, Australia, South Korea and Norway. Work by Lockheed's Rotary and Mission Systems is for the Combat Systems Engineering Development Site, SPY-1A Test Facility and Naval Systems Computing Center in Moorestown, N.J., the Defense Department announced Wednesday. This option exercise includes continued technical engineering, configuration management, associated equipment/supplies, quality assurance, information assurance, and other operation and maintenance efforts required for the AEGIS development and test sites. This option also includes work on upgrades for the Ticonderoga class of guided-missile cruisers, designated as CG-47, and Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyers, designated as DDG-51, through the completion of Advanced Capability Build 20 and Technology Insertion 16. Work is expected to be complete by June 2020. This contract modification combines purchases for the U.S. Navy at 34.7 percent, Missile Defense Agency at 22.7 percent, and the governments of Japan at 34.4 percent, Australia at 4.7 percent, South Korea at 2.1 percent and Norway at 1.4 percent under the foreign military sales program. Funding in the amount of $29.7 million has been obligated at time of award and funding in the amount of $4.6 million will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Besides foreign military sales, funding will come from the Navy's fiscal 2014 shipbuilding and conversion; fiscal 2019 Navy operation and maintenance; fiscal 2019 research, development, test and evaluation as well as MDA fiscal 2019 research, development, test and evaluation and fiscal 2019 operation and maintenance. The AEGIS Ballistic Missile Defense system is the naval component of the Missile Defense Agency's BMD system, providing warships with the capability of intercepting and destroying short- and medium-range ballistic missiles. As of October 2017, there are 33 ships with the AEGIS system, 17 are assigned to the Pacific Fleet and 16 to the Atlantic Fleet. Japan has four destroyers that have been upgraded with AEGIS BMD operational capabilities. The first deployment of European capabilities came on March 7, 2011, aboard the USS Monterey. AEGIS Ashore is the land-based component of the system. The deckhouse and launchers are designed to be nearly identical to the version installed aboard U.S. Navy destroyers and cruisers. https://www.upi.com/Defense-News/2019/06/20/Lockheed-Martin-awarded-767M-for-AEGIS-development-test-sites/3571561038521/

By: Megan Eckstein The Navy released the final request for proposals for its next guided-missile frigate (FFG(X)) today, outlining the program that will get the U.S. Navy into the business of operating high-end small combatants. The service is counting on the new frigate to help the fleet operate in a distributed manner in a contested maritime environment. To that end, the final solicitation for bids for the FFG(X) program highlights a particular interest in what industry can offer in range; margins for weight, cooling, electrical and arrangeable deck area, to allow the ship to bring in new technologies as they develop; acoustic signature management; undersea surveillance; and over-the-horizon capabilities. After previous iterations of the frigate were ditched as the Navy's view of what capability it wanted evolved, the current FFG(X) effort sought to bring in industry early to ensure that requirements were in line with what technologies were currently feasible at the right price point. Those ongoing discussions led the Navy to settle on a ship that would have at least 32 vertical launching system (VLS) cells, an Aegis-based combat system, the Cooperative Engagement Capability datalink so the frigate could share targeting data with other ships and aircraft, and advanced anti-submarine warfare and electronic warfare systems. The service announced earlier this year the frigate would include as government-furnished equipment: A fixed-face Raytheon Enterprise Air Surveillance Radar (EASR) that will serve as the primary air search radar. At least 32 Mark 41 Vertical Launch System cells that could field Standard Missile 2 Block IIICs or RIM-162 Evolved SeaSparrow Missiles (ESSM) and a planned vertically launched anti-submarine warfare weapon. COMBATSS-21 Combat Management System based on the Aegis Combat System. Cooperative Engagement Capability (CEC) datalink that would allow the frigate to share targeting information with other ships and aircraft. Space, weight and cooling for 8 to 16 Over-the-Horizon Anti-Ship Cruise Missiles An aviation detachment that includes an MH-60R Seahawk helicopter and an MQ-8C Firescout Unmanned Aerial Vehicle. AN/SQQ-89(V)15 Surface Ship Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) Combat System AN/SQS-62 Variable Depth Sonar. SLQ-32(V)6 Surface Electronic Warfare Improvement Program (SEWIP) Block 2 electronic warfare suite with allowances to include SEWIP Block 3 Lite in the future. Space, weight and cooling reservation for a 150-kilowatt laser. Further highlighting the focus on allowing the ships to be upgraded as technology evolves, the solicitation asks that bids include a “description of the flexibility in the design to accommodate efficient warfare systems upgrades by explaining equipment removal and upgrade paths with an emphasis on avoiding hull cuts or the need for dry docking,” as well as provisions for upgrading hull-mounted and towed undersea warfare sensors. Five industry teams have been involved in early design maturation efforts, which both helped industry refine their plans to be more in line with what the Navy wanted, and allowed the Navy to refine its idea of how much this new class might cost. Earlier this year, USNI News reported that costs were coming down as a result of the design maturation contracts. “$950 (million) was the threshold; $800 million is the objective,” frigate program manager with Program Executive Office Unmanned and Small Combatants Regan Campbell said in January at the Surface Navy Association symposium. “We started closer to the $950; we are trending to very close to the $800 now. We have taken some very significant costs out,” she said of the second through 10th ship of the class. The Navy intends to buy at least 20 frigates, though the first contract will only cover the first 10. After the first contract, the Navy could continue with the same builder or re-compete the program to potentially bring in a second builder, if it wanted to accelerate frigate production to keep in line with its drive to reach a 355-ship fleet and leadership acknowledgement that it will need more small combatants and fewer high-end destroyers going forward. After the release of today's final RFP, interested bidders will have until Aug. 22 to submit their technical proposals to the Navy and until Sept. 26 to submit their pricing proposal. A winner will be selected in Fiscal Year 2020 to build the frigate. Of the five companies that participated in the design maturation phase, four are expected to submit bids to the RFP. Austal USA, who builds the Independence-variant Littoral Combat Ship; Fincantieri Marine, which builds the Italian FREMM multipurpose frigate; General Dynamics Bath Iron Works, who will partner with Spanish F100-builder Navantia; and Ingalls Shipbuilding, who has declined to discuss its design, all worked with the Navy to take their existing parent designs and mature them to become in line with the Navy's vision for its guided-missile frigate. Lockheed Martin, which builds the Freedom-variant LCS, was part of that effort as well but announced it would not continue on with the frigate competition. Despite the earlier design work that the Navy funded, the frigate competition is open to any bidder who has a parent design to base the frigate offering on. https://news.usni.org/2019/06/20/navy-issues-final-rfp-for-ffgx-next-generation-frigate

By: Shawn Snow The Corps is gearing up to field its new lightweight body armor plates, designed to be worn in the Corps' low intensity or counterinsurgency style conflicts. On Friday the Defense Department announced the Navy awarded a nearly $216 million contract to Point Blank Enterprises for the purchase of up to 680,706 of the new lightweight plates. Maj. Ken Kunze, a spokesman for Marine Corps Systems Command, told Marine Corps Times that the Corps expects to kick off fielding the new plates during the second quarter of fiscal year 2020 and complete by 2023. The new body armor plates will protect “against the preponderance of likely threats while improving mobility” and will reduce the hard body armor weight burden on Marines by 38 percent, Kunze said. The Corps has been in the hunt for lighter body armor as the force tries to reduce the weight burden and combat load carried by Marines and grunts, which a government watchdog report said can be as high as 117 pounds to 119 pounds. One solution was to field a set a new set of armor plates that would provide commanders flexibility to match body armor with the threat in the region the Marines were operating in. That means Marines don't always need to slap on the nearly 15 poundenhanced small arms protective, or ESAPI plates, while operating in low intensity conflicts like Iraq and Afghanistan, where a lighter, more mobile armor plate would be sufficient. The heavy ESAPI plates will still be important, especially as the Corps faces down near-peer rivals equipped with better and more capable weapon systems. Nick Pierce, the armor team lead for infantry combat equipment at Marine Corps Systems Command, previously told Marine Corps Times that the Corps was seeking to shave the 15 pound ESAPI plate down to roughly 8.6 pounds for a medium-sized Marine. Marines can shed a total of 8 pounds to 10 pounds from their combat load when the lightweight plate is used in conjunction with the Corps' new Plate Carrier Gen III system, Pierce explained. The Corps is also looking at new polymer based ammunition and a lighter helmet for grunts to help shave the pounds carried by infantry Marines. https://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/your-marine-corps/2019/06/19/nearly-40-percent-lighter-body-armor-coming-in-2020/

By: Ben Werner WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Navy is grappling with how to securely share the vast amounts of data ship designers, operators and sustainers collect, a panel of engineers said Wednesday. Shipyards have the design systems they use to transmit plans from engineers to the shipbuilders. Once delivered, modern ships, submarines and even aircraft generate tremendous amounts of data gauging their performance. The Navy has more data than it knows what to do with, but Rear Adm. Lorin Selby wants to change this. “The problem we have is we don't do a great job of linking those together,” Selby said of the various data points. “That's what I'm driving for trying to link those together.” Selby, the chief engineer and deputy commander for ship design, integration and naval engineer at the Naval Sea Systems Command, was speaking as part of a panel discussing how the Navy and shipbuilding industry can use digital plans at the American Society of Naval Engineering's annual Technology, Systems & Ship symposium. Selby was joined by Rear Adm. Eric Ver Hage, the commander of the Naval Surface Warfare Center and Naval Undersea Warfare Center, and Zac Staples, a retired commander and current chief executive of Austin, Texas,-based maritime analytics firm FATHOM5. Staples' final tour in the Navy was the director of the Center for Cyber Warfare at the Naval Postgraduate School. “Today, we know the liability of many of our systems. We know the ship loadout. We know the type of baseline the ships have. We know the performance of tactical action officers and other key watchstanders when they're in the basic training cycle. We know the proficiency of the strike group when they go to sea,” Ver Hage said. “You have all this data; the problem is, we put missiles on ships, but the combat systems can't unlock all the capability that missile has in some instances,” he said, referring the possibility communications between ships and missiles could improve targeting. When quantum computing is developed, the ability to process this massive amount of data will become much easier, Selby said. Quantum computing is still being researched, with several nations trying to develop a way to tackle large data sets quickly, Selby explained. Within a year or two of mastering quantum computing, he predicts everyone will be able to use quantum computing. For the U.S. to have a decisive quantum computing edge, Selby said requires being ready now. “The key to being the one who can actually lever that technology and really take a huge leap forward in this century is going to be the nation that lays the foundation to be able to lever the capabilities of quantum with a software delivery mechanism,” Selby said. However, as the ability to analyze data speeds up, the importance of protecting this data also grows. “If we're going to build capabilities in the era of great power competition, we have to assume our adversaries are trying to steal them – because they're trying to steal them,” Staples said. “The exact copy Chinese joint strike fighter is a good indication that whatever our shipboard capabilities might go for will be equally targeted.” The current secure method of transferring data classified up to the secret level is over the Secret Internet Protocol Router Network (SIPRNet). However, SIPRNet has limitations, such as the expense of operating the network and creating secure terminals so everyone has access to a SIPRNet terminal to send and receive classified secret information. A cloud-based data vault could prove to be a good solution. Under such a program, access can be restricted, Staples said. Vault monitors will also know which adversaries are denied access to the valuable data being stored. “When you think about encrypting data, there's probably a more efficient way to do that than on SIPRNet,” Staples said. https://news.usni.org/2019/06/20/navy-looking-for-better-ways-to-share-data

By Oriana Pawlyk SALON DU BOURGET, PARIS -- More than 400 F-35 Joint Strike Fighters are operating from 17 bases worldwide. From the near-Arctic region of Ørland, Norway, to a recent deployment in the Middle East, the fifth-generation jet is expanding its reach. But a recent news report shows that weather conditions have some effect on the Pentagon's stealthy fifth-gen fighter, raising concerns about its performance in extreme climate locations. In a recent Defense News report series, the outlet obtained documents showing that cold weather triggered a battery sensor in an F-35 Lightning II in Alaska. While the battery was not affected, the weather "overwhelm[ed] the battery heater blanket" that protects it, prompting the sensor to issue a warning and causing the pilot to abort his mission and land immediately, Defense News said. "We have already developed an update to the software and the battery's heater control system to resolve this issue, and this updated software is available for users today to load on their aircraft in the event they will be conducting extreme cold weather operations," Greg Ulmer, vice president of Lockheed's F-35 aircraft production business, said in an interview with Military.com at the Paris Air Show, adding the update will be in new planes by 2021. The U.S. military anticipated taking the Lockheed Martin-made F-35 around the world, with partners and allies flying the plane in both hot and cold regions, including some that are changing. "The [F-22 Raptor] and plenty of other aircraft have flown out [to Alaska] just fine for decades," Rebecca Grant of IRIS Independent Research told Defense News. Grant is a former director of the Mitchell Institute for Airpower Studies at the Air Force Association. "The F-35 should have had all that sorted out in the climatic lab." Ulmer, however, said all necessary steps were taken in lab testing, and the issue identified was a normal part of the design and development process. "You do the best you can relative to the engineering, understanding of the environment, to design the part. And then you actually perform, and [you realize] your model was off a little bit, so you have to tweak the design ... to account for it," Ulmer said. An F-35A from Hill Air Force Base, Utah, was on static display here during the show. "We're confident in the F-35s performance in all weather conditions," he said. The battery issue was first discovered during extreme cold weather testing at -30 degrees and below at Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska, in February 2018, he added. Ulmer explained there are various tests points done before the plane heads to the McKinley Lab at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, for robust experiments. The lab is responsible for high-range weather testing of military and commercial aircraft, munitions and weapons. The lab's refrigeration chamber can go as low as -70 degrees, lab chief Dwayne Bell told Military.com during a visit to the facility in 2017. He said at the time that the F-35 program had been one of the most expensive programs tested in the lab to date. There's a wide range of testing costs, but they average roughly $25,000 a day, he said. It cost about $7 million to test the Marine Corps' B-model from the Patuxent River Integrated Test Force, Maryland, over a six-month period, Bell said. The Lightning II was put through major weather testing -- the lab can do everything but lightning strikes and tornadoes -- such as wind, solar radiation, fog, humidity, rain intrusion/ingestion, freezing rain, icing cloud, icing build-up, vortex icing and snow. It handled temperatures ranging from 120 degrees Fahrenheit to -40 degrees, officials said in 2017. But even testing at McKinley is limiting, Ulmer said. "What doesn't happen is that they don't stay there a long time, so once we released [Block] 3F [software] capability, now the operational fleet can actually" test new extremes, he said, referring to both speed and temperature changes. Defense News also found that supersonic speeds caused "bubbling and blistering" on the JSF's low-observable stealth coating, and that hot environments impeded sufficient engine thrust to vertically land the Marine variant. "So they take it" to new environments "and they expose it more than flight test exposed the airplane. I'm an old flight test guy. You expect to learn in the operational environment more than you do in the [developmental test] environment because you don't necessarily fly the airplane [in that environment] all the time," Ulmer said. "So we learned a little bit, and you refine the design, and you solve it," he said, adding that the design and maintenance tweaks are ongoing. "The probability of the issue reoccuring on aircraft in the operational fleet is very low and with minimal impact to safety of flight or operational performance." Thirteen Category 1 deficiencies were found and reported by operators, according to the for-official-use-only documents Defense News obtained. Cat 1 is a label for problems that would directly impact safety or the mission. Those ranged from coating fixes; pressure anomalies in the cockpit that gave pilots ear and sinus pain; and washed-out imagery in the helmet-mounted display, among others. The Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps each fly a variant of the aircraft designed for different scenarios, from landing on conventional runways on land, to catching arresting cables on aircraft carriers, to landing like a helicopter on amphibious assault ships. Responding to the Defense News article series, Lockheed Martin said each deficiency "is well understood, already resolved or on a near-term path to resolution." "We've worked collaboratively with our customers, and we are fully confident in the F-35's performance and the solutions in place to address each of the items identified," the company said in a statement June 12. Growing pains with new planes and weapons programs are common. But the F-35 program has been under scrutiny since its inception, mainly for cost-effectiveness and functionality. A new estimate suggests that operating and supporting fighters for the next 60-plus years will cost the government $1.196 trillion. The older F-22 Raptor has had similar issues, especially with its stealth coating, which officials have said is more cumbersome to fix than the F-35, which was built with a more functional and durable coating in mind. "The [low-observable] system has significantly improved on the F-35 when compared to the F-22," Ulmer said Tuesday. "That's all lessons learned from F-22, applied to F-35." https://www.military.com/daily-news/2019/06/20/did-f-35-testing-extreme-weather-conditions-fall-short.html

By COLIN CLARK PARIS AIR SHOW: Raytheon, which has increasingly focused on its growing cyber and network business, has won contracts to find and fix cyber vulnerabilities in the Air Force's F-15 fighter and C-130 transport fleets. Those are the company's latest deals in what is a business worth at least hundreds of millions of dollars in the last 18 months. It's a big shift, says Dave Wajsgras, president of Raytheon intelligence, information and services. “I think a few years ago there was a lot of talk, and not a lot of action.” But the 2016 National Defense Authorization Act required that all weapons begin to be assessed for cyber vulnerabilities, and the 2019 bill kept pressing ahead. The F-15 and C-130 contracts are among those that have resulted from the NDAA language, Todd Probert, Raytheon's VP for mission support, told me. Because so much of this is classified, Raytheon had to get Air Force permission to talk about the F-15 and the C-130 projects. So what kind of cyber vulnerabilities does an aircraft have? “It's a flying network in and of itself,” Todd said. Aircraft, it turns out, are just as vulnerable as cars, and we've all read stories how hackers have been able to take autos over remotely and stop cars in their tracks. Airplanes have similar points of access, and thus vulnerabilities. Maintainers hook into a plane to find out what's wrong with it. Smart weapons connect to the plane's network. The pilot's helmet mounted display taps into onboard and offboard data. “All these are potential threat vectors we're concerned about,” Todd said. https://breakingdefense.com/2019/06/raytheon-wins-air-force-f-15-c-130-cyber-contracts/

BY C. TODD LOPEZ Rebuilding "strategic momentum" and growing advantages in the maritime domain are challenges Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John M. Richardson addressed in "A Design for Maintaining Maritime Superiority, Version 2.0," which updated a 2016 document. At an annual meeting of the American Society of Naval Engineers today in Washington, Richardson said meeting those challenges is a "human problem" that must be met, in part by naval engineers. His plan for how the Navy will maintain maritime superiority relies in part on three aspects of agility. "With the joint force, we will restore agility — conceptual, geographic, and technological — to impose cost[s] on our adversaries across the competition-conflict spectrum," the report reads. For engineers, Richardson focused on their contribution to technological agility. "The technological landscape is changing so fast across all of technology," Richardson said. "It's really fueled by this information revolution that we are in the middle of right now. And so as we think about the Navy as a learning engine in and of itself, restoring these technical agilities is really important. We do need to move at pace." For comparison, the admiral referred back to Dec. 8, 1941 — a day after the bombing at Pearl Harbor. It was then, Richardson said, that the Navy began a quick transition from battleship-based tactics to aircraft carriers and aerial battles. He said the switch in strategy wasn't a surprise for the Navy, because it had been researching and engineering for that possibility for years. "We had been 20 years into naval aviation," he said. "This was not just something that we did as a pickup team on Dec. 8. We had been putting investments in with folks like [Joseph] Reeves and [William] Moffett and all those pioneers of naval aviation. We had evidence. A lot of experimentation, a lot of engineering that had gone into that." Now, Richardson said, the Navy must again have that kind of experimentation, engineering and prototyping to ready it for the next conflict — and it must get on that mission quickly to stay ahead of adversaries. "We do not want to be the second navy on the water with these decisive technologies: the directed energy, unmanned, machine learning, artificial intelligence, etc., you name it," he said. "That's the great challenge now: to get out, start prototyping, get at this pace, plus evidence ... to yield a relevant Navy that is ready to defend America from attack and protect our interests around the world." The admiral said that a knee-jerk reaction might be to cite Defense Department acquisition regulations, like DOD 5000, for inhibiting the type of rapid development, engineering and research he thinks will be needed to maintain maritime dominance. But he said that's not entirely correct. "I think a new set of rules would help," he said. "But this is, I think, a human problem at the end of the day. If we are all biased for action, if we all lean into this, we will get it done. There is nothing that will prohibit us or inhibit us from getting that done if we are all leaning in." https://www.defense.gov/explore/story/Article/1882567/naval-engineers-must-lean-in-to-advance-technological-agility/

MISSILE DEFENSE AGENCY Coleman Aerospace, a wholly owned subsidiary of Aerojet Rocketdyne, Orlando, Florida, is being awarded a $140,184,433 firm-fixed-price modification (P00114) to a previously awarded contract (HQ0147-14-C-0001). The value of this contract is being increased from $366,376,257 by $140,184,433 to $506,560,690 by exercising this option. Under this modification, the contractor will provide six additional Medium Range Ballistic Missile targets and associated nonrecurring engineering. The work will be performed in Orlando, Florida. The performance period is from June 2019 through December 2027. Fiscal 2019 research, development, test and evaluation funds in the amount of $22,469,742 are being obligated on this award. One offeror was solicited and one offer was received. The Missile Defense Agency, Huntsville, Alabama, is the contracting activity. NAVY BAE Systems Land and Armaments L.P., Sterling Heights, Michigan, is awarded a not-to-exceed $67,000,000 modification for firm-fixed-price, cost-plus-fixed-fee contract line item numbers 8000, 8001, 8002, and 8100 to a previously awarded contract (M67854-16-C-0006), for the development of engineering drawings, manufacture, and test support for three Amphibious Combat Vehicle (ACV) command and control Mission Role Variants (MRVs), and the development of engineering drawings for the ACV medium caliber cannon MRV. The ACV program is managed within the portfolio of Program Executive Officer Land Systems, Quantico, Virginia. Work will be performed in York, Pennsylvania (85 %); and Aiken, South Carolina (15 %), and is expected to be completed by Sept. 30, 2022. Fiscal 2018 research, development, test and evaluation (RDT&E) funds in the amount of $2,500,000; and fiscal 2019 RDT&E funds in the amount of $20,075,743 will be obligated at the time of award, and funding in the amount of $2,500,000 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract modification was not competitively procured, in accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulation 6.302-1 and 10 U.S. Code § 2304(c)(1). The Marine Corps Systems Command, Quantico, Virginia, is the contracting activity. Leidos Innovations Corp., Gaithersburg, Maryland, is awarded a $29,962,608 cost-plus-incentive-fee, cost-plus-fixed-fee, cost-only modification to previously-awarded contract N00024-16-C-5202 to exercise the options for integrated logistic support, fleet support and life cycle sustainment of the Navy's AN/SQQ-89A(V)15 surface ship Undersea Warfare (USW) Systems. The AN/SQQ-89A(V)15 is the USW combat system, with the capabilities to search, detect, classify, localize and track undersea contacts and to engage and evade submarines, mine-like small objects and torpedo threats. Work will be performed in Norfolk, Virginia (61 %); San Diego, California (18 %); Pascagoula, Mississippi (6 %); Bath, Maine (4 %); Manassas, Virginia (4 %); Yososuka, Japan (2 %); Pearl Harbor, Hawaii (2 %); Everett, Washington (1 %); Mayport, Florida (1 %); and Rota, Spain (1 %), and is expected to be completed by June 2020. Foreign Military Sales; fiscal 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019 shipbuilding and conversion (Navy); fiscal 2017, 2018 and 2019 other procurement (Navy); and fiscal 2019 operation and maintenance (Navy) funding in the amount of $15,418,688 will be obligated at time of award, and $2,846,455 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, District of Columbia, is the contracting activity. General Electric Co., Lynn, Massachusetts, is awarded $24,891,442 for modification P00020 to a previously awarded firm-fixed-price contract (N00019-17-C-0047) to procure 72 F/A-18 F-414-GE-400 install engines devices for the Navy (24); and the government of Kuwait (48). In addition, this modification provides for two spare and six test F414-GE-400 install engines devices for the government of Kuwait. Work will be performed in Evandale, Ohio, and is expected to be completed in December 2020. Fiscal 2018 aircraft procurement (Navy); and Foreign Military Sales (FMS) funds in the amount of $24,891,442 will be obligated at time of award, none of which will expire at the end of the fiscal year. This modification combines purchases for the Navy ($7,316,280; 31 %); and the government of Kuwait ($17,575,162; 69 %) under the FMS program. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity. Austal USA, Mobile, Alabama, is awarded a $13,197,241 cost-plus-fixed-fee, firm-fixed-price, and cost-only modification to previously awarded contract N00024-17-C-2301 for littoral combat ship class design services and integrated data and product model environment (IDPME) support. Austal USA will provide efforts to support littoral combat ship class ships, including but not limited to technical analyses, non-recurring engineering, configuration management, software maintenance and development, production assessments, and diminishing manufacturing sources and seaframe reliability analysis. Austal USA will also maintain an IDPME that will enable the Navy to access enterprise data management, visualization, program management applications, and network management and control. Work will be performed in Mobile, Alabama (60 %); and Pittsfield, Massachusetts (40 %), and is expected to be complete by June 2025. Fiscal 2016 shipbuilding and conversion (Navy); 2018 other procurement (Navy); and 2019 research, development, test, and evaluation (Navy) funding in the amount of $13,197,241 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, District of Columbia, is the contracting activity. Gravois Aluminum Boats LLC, doing business as Metal Shark Boats,* Jeanerette, Louisiana, is awarded a $12,818,790 firm-fixed-price modification to previously awarded indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract N00024-17-D-2201 to exercise options for the construction of Near Coastal Patrol Vessels in support of U.S. Southern Command partner nations and Foreign Military Sales program. Work will be performed in Jeanerette, Louisiana, and is expected to be complete by August 2021. No funding will be obligated at this time. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, District of Columbia, is the contracting activity. Fairmount Automation Inc.,* West Conshohocken, Pennsylvania, is awarded a maximum value $12,439,633 firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity, supplies/services contract for the commercial procurement of Fairmount Automation's G4 Design Pad family of controller models and accessories, Windows based configuration software package licenses and engineering services to work with the government design teams to assist in programming and troubleshooting network interfaces. The services under this contract cover system design, software programming, program logistic support, and equipment analysis and repair. Work will be performed in West Conshohocken, Pennsylvania (90 %); and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (10 %), and is expected to be complete by June 2024. Fiscal 2019 operations and maintenance (Navy) funding in the amount of $261,175 will be obligated at time of award and will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was not competitively procured in accordance with 10 U.S. Code 2304(c)(1) - only one responsible source and no other supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements. The Naval Surface Warfare Center, Philadelphia Division, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is the contracting activity (N64498-19-D-4023). SR Technologies Inc., Sunrise, Florida, is awarded a $12,360,400 indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity, cost-plus-fixed-fee, firm-fixed-price contract for engineering services, materials, and support for integration and operation of information operations payloads into multiple unmanned aerial vehicles used by the U.S. Special Operations Command and Navy. This two-year contract includes one three-year option which, if exercised, would bring the potential value of this contract to an estimated $23,433,021. All work will be performed in Sunrise, Florida. The period of performance of the base period is from June 20, 2019, through June 19, 2021. If the option is exercised, the period of performance would extend through June 19, 2024. No funds will be obligated at the time of award. Funds will be obligated as task orders are issued using operations and maintenance (Navy); other procurement (Navy); and research, development, test and evaluation (Navy). This sole-source procurement is issued using other than full and open competition in accordance with 10 U.S. Code 2304(c)(1), as implemented by Federal Acquisition Regulation 6.302-1. The Naval Information Warfare Center Pacific, San Diego, California, is the contracting activity (N66001-19-D-3404). Bell Boeing Joint Project Office, Amarillo, Texas, is awarded not-to-exceed $7,458,000 for modification P00005 to a delivery order N0001918F0016 previously issued against basic ordering agreement N00019-17-G-0002. This modification provides for non-recurring engineering to facilitate additional structural improvements, tooling assessment, and test aircraft retrofit tooling in support of theV-22 Nacelle Improvement effort. Work will be performed in Fort Worth, Texas (84 %); Ridley Park, Pennsylvania (5 %); Patuxent River, Maryland (4 %); Fort Walton Beach, Florida (4 %); and Amarillo, Texas (3 %), and is expected to be completed in August 2020. Fiscal 2019 aircraft procurement (Navy) funds in the amount of $1,923,688 will be obligated at time of award, none of which will expire at the end of the fiscal year. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity. DEFENSE INFORMATION SYSTEMS AGENCY DRS Global Enterprise Solutions Inc., Dulles, Virginia, was awarded a firm-fixed-price task order to support the Army's Wideband Enterprise Satellite Systems Commercial Satellite Communications (COMSATCOM) Network. The face value of this action is $23,756,299 funded by fiscal 2019 operations and maintenance funds. The total cumulative face value of the task order is $127,496,857. Proposals were solicited via the General Services Administration's Complex Commercial SATCOM Solutions (CS3) multiple award, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contracts, and two proposals were received from the 20 proposals solicited. Performance will be at the contractor's facility in Dulles, Virginia. The period of performance is June 24, 2019, to June 23, 2020, with four one-year options. The Defense Information Technology Contracting Organization, Scott Air Force Base, Illinois, is the contracting activity. (GS00Q17NRD4006 / HC101319F0092). DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY Oshkosh Defense LLC, Oshkosh, Wisconsin, has been awarded a maximum $10,200,705 firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for vehicular axle assemblies. This was a sole-source acquisition using justification 10 U.S. Code 2304 (c)(1), as stated in Federal Acquisition Regulation 6.302-1. This is a five-year contract with no option periods. Location of performance is Wisconsin, with a June 20, 2024, performance completion date. Using military service is Army. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2019 through 2024 Army working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Land and Maritime, Warren, Michigan (SPRDL1-19-D-0129). ARMY Longbow LLC, Orlando, Florida, was awarded a $9,267,724 modification (P00087) to contract W31P4Q16-C-0035 for Laser and Longbow Hellfire engineering services. Work will be performed in Orlando, Florida, with an estimated completion date of June 19, 2020. Fiscal 2017 and 2018 missile procurement, Air Force funds in the amount of $9,267,724 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, is the contracting activity. *Small business