26 mars 2024 | International, Terrestre
11 mai 2020 | International, C4ISR
Amazon challenges the Pentagon’s revised JEDI solicitation directly to the department
Andrew Eversden
Amazon Web Services filed a bid protest directly to the Department of Defense challenging “ambiguous aspects” of the Pentagon's revised solicitation for its embattled enterprise cloud contract.
AWS' challenge is in response to a revised solicitation from DoD regarding a specific technical requirement of the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure cloud contract that AWS had challenged. Back in mid-April, a Court of Federal Claims judge granted the department's motion allowing DoD to “reconsider certain aspects” of the JEDI award.
“AWS is committed to ensuring it receives a fair and objective review on an award decision that the court found to be flawed," an AWS spokesperson said. "AWS repeatedly sought clarity from the DoD around ambiguous aspects of the amended solicitation and the DoD refused to answer our questions. We simply want to ensure a common understanding of the DoD's requirements and eliminate ambiguity that could impact a fair evaluation.”
The JEDI cloud, potentially worth $10 billion over 10 years, was awarded to Microsoft in October last year. Amazon protested the award in the Court of Federal Claims in December and won a temporary restraining order in March preventing the DoD and Microsoft from building out the cloud infrastructure after the court decided that AWS was likely to show that DoD erred in its technical evaluation.
AWS also opposed the DoD's motion to reconsider specific aspects of the JEDI award because the DoD's request didn't account for all six technical errors Amazon alleged were made during the contract's evaluation process.
"Even if taken at face value, DoD's proposed corrective action fails to address in any meaningful way how it would resolve the technical issues AWS has raised, or which specific technical challenges it intends to address,” Amazon lawyers wrote in a March 24 court filing.
In response to Amazon's protest, the content of which is not publicly available, Microsoft spokesperson Frank Shaw wrote in a blog post that the filing by AWS was “disappointing but not surprising.”
“The only thing that's certain about Amazon's new complaint is that it will force American war fighters to wait even longer for the 21st-century technology they need – perpetuating Amazon's record of putting its own interests ahead of theirs,” Shaw wrote May 7.
A spokesperson for AWS called Shaw's post “not surprising," and touted AWS' cloud computing capabilities.
“We're eager to see the full array of mistakes considered and assessed,” the spokesperson said.
Lt. Col. Robert Carver, Department of Defense spokesman, said in a statement that the department is trying to get the JEDI capability to war fighters quickly.
“DoD continues to execute the procedures outlined in the Motion for Voluntary Remand granted last month with the intent of delivering this critically-needed capability to our warfighters as quickly as possible,” Carver said.
This story has been updated with a comment from the Department of Defense.
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21 septembre 2018 | International, Aérospatial
Dutch defense chief opens door for more F-35s
By: Sebastian Sprenger COLOGNE, Germany – Dutch defense minister Ank Bijleveld has eliminated the country's budget cap for F-35 purchases, opening the possibility of buying more planes in the future, a spokesman confirmed to Defense News. The defense ministry spokesman described the move as “just a formality” that would not require parliamentary approval, as the Dutch objective of buying 37 copies of the Lockheed Martin-made jet for €4.7 billion remains in place. But it means “we leave the option open to buy new planes” beyond those already envisioned in the budget, the spokesman said. The development was first reported by the Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf, which wrote that the air force was angling to eventually get 67 aircraft. That amount would be enough to field four squadrons in the Netherlands, according to the newspaper. Dick Zandee, a defense analyst at the Dutch Clingendael foreign policy think tank, said the recently released 2019 budget still reflects the government's target of buying 37 planes. But the budget cap elimination at this time could set the stage for additional contracts in a few years' time, once deliveries of the batch already on order are nearing completion. The Dutch are set to take delivery of eight F-35s in 2019. That's in addition to two test aircraft already produced. The fifth-generation aircraft are meant to replace the country's fleet of 60 or so F-16s, with yearly deliveries scheduled between six to eight planes until the target number of 37 is reached. That inventory will allow the Netherlands to field four F-35s for operations, considering that a certain number is always set aside for training, undergoing maintenance or otherwise unavailable to deploy, said Zandee. “There is a lot of pressure from NATO that 37 are not enough,” he said, adding that there has been talk in Dutch defense circles to up the number to 52. “The air force always wants more” of the planes, and the service would consider an increase to 52 as an intermediate step to get an even greater number later, Zandee told Defense News. Meanwhile, the jet is facing some pushback in the Netherlands over its development price tag and the high cost of ownership. “The criticism is that you're buying an aircraft that is not fully developed yet," said Zandee. But, he added,"The attitude is that the Americans are throwing so many billions at the program that problems will be solved." https://www.defensenews.com/global/europe/2018/09/20/dutch-defense-chief-opens-door-for-more-f-35s
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9 décembre 2023 | International, Terrestre
KNDS commissioned to supply 50 Dingo 2 vehicles to the Bundeswehr
The resupply project encompasses a framework agreement for 50 DINGO 2 protected command and special-function vehicles (GFF) of the A4 variant.