Call for expressions of interest for the purchase the business complexes of Piaggio Aero Industries and Piaggio Aviation : FURTHER EXTENSION OF THE DEADLINE

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  29 septembre 2020 | International, C4ISR

  Microsoft Positions Itself To Win Space Data Market With Azure Orbital

  KELSEY ATHERTON Offering Ground-Stations-as-a-Service means customers are only obliged to pay for the amount of time they actually need to use on the station. ALBUQUERQUE: Azure Orbital, the space-connections wing of Microsoft's cloud service Azure, launched last week. By offering Ground-Stations-as-a-Service, Microsoft wants to position itself as the bridge between the Pentagon and commercial satellites. Ground stations are vital infrastructure for satellite communication, the physical node that makes all the images and information they collect useful. With the advent of lower-cost satellites, and the expansion of small satellite constellations in low earth orbit, the space industry is moving away from a locked-in model, where specific vendors only grant access to their satellites through their ground stations. “Space is just so critical to everything we do here on earth,” says Frank Rose, a former assistant secretary of state for arms control who is now at Brookings. “Deploying additional capabilities, especially small satellites, in low earth orbit will definitely improve the resiliency of our national security space architecture.” Earlier this year, Microsoft Azure won the $10 billion JEDI contract for Pentagon cloud services. Offering Ground-Stations-as-a-Service means that the customers are only obliged to pay for the amount of time they actually need on the station. Cloud service providers already have a great deal of experience in flexible demand management and in processing the data received in their servers. That makes ground stations a natural outgrowth of existing cloud competences, the company argues. In June 2020, the Space Development Agency said that rentable ground stations make it easier for the military to piggy-back on existing commercial infrastructure. When it comes to constellations of small satellites, what companies are “trying to do is to optimize their processing architecture, trying to minimize how much compute you need to do on board because of the [Size, Weight and Power] constraints, which inevitably leads them to do more on the ground,” says Mikhail Grinberg, principle at Renaissance Strategic Advisors. Yet that principal doesn't apply evenly across all applications. “For some military applications, given resiliency requirements,” says Grinberg, “they're trying to do more networking processing on board, as opposed to having an open pipe that can be tapped into.” While Azure Orbital appears aimed at the space sector broadly, it is specifically cultivating ties to the Pentagon and the defense contracting community. Partners signed up at launch include Amergint, Kongsberg Satellite Services, Viasat, and US Electrodynamics, all of whom have long histories of working with the Pentagon. Of particular note is Azure Orbital's partnership with Kratos, a company already actively working to make low-earth-orbit satellite space viable for military applications. “Right now, the current national security space architecture is very vulnerable to other countries' Anti-Satellite capabilities, primarily China's and Russia's,” says Rose. “If we can proliferate this constellation of small satellites, we can improve the resiliency of America's national security space architecture.” The military is planning for low earth orbit satellites in the battle management layer, ones that will primarily be processing data on board, having access to commercial infrastructure through Ground-Stations-as-a-Service increases the likelihood that they can be used when needed. “For satellites in low earth orbit it might be days, three to four days before it's overhead again. That's the core problem,” says Brian Weeden of the Secure World Foundation. “One way you can solve that is by building a lot of ground stations.” “The more you have commercial guys doing infrastructure on the ground,” says Grinberg, “if you can partition the data right, you can provide more resiliency.” As part of its bid to build strong ties between Azure and the Department of Defense, Microsoft has specifically hired career professionals of the military and intelligence communities. In late, Azure hired Chirag Parikh from the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. Parikh had previously served as the Director of Space Policy for the White House. William Chappell, CTO of Azure Global, announced Sept. 22nd that Azure Space had hired Stephen Kitay, former deputy assistant secretary of Defense for space policy, to head Azure's space industry division. It is, actively, a project to embed Microsoft in the infrastructure of orbit. By positioning itself as an intermediary between the space sector and its end users, Microsoft can become another almost-invisible piece of that same infrastructure. Azure Orbital would also offer Microsoft a greater role in other Pentagon satellite-based projects, like cloudONE and the Advanced Battle Management System. Being able to surge connections with sensors in orbits, on demand, makes space far more flexible for human commanders. “In the last 5 years, there's been a push from the military to move towards more common ground systems,” says Weeden. What remains to be seen is if the military will be comfortable with commercial companies operating those common ground systems, or if security concerns will instead preclude military traffic riding commercial channels. https://breakingdefense.com/2020/09/microsoft-positions-itself-to-win-space-data-market-with-azure-orbital/

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  6 septembre 2019 | International, Aérospatial, Naval, Terrestre, C4ISR, Sécurité

  Contract Awards by US Department of Defense - September 5, 2019

  ARMY Ensign-Bickford Aerospace & Defense Co., Simsbury, Connecticut (W52P1J-19-D-0065); and Chemring Ordnance Inc., Perry, Florida (W52P1J-19-D-0066), will compete for each order of the $320,000,000 firm-fixed-price contract for the Anti-Personnel Obstacle Breaching System. Bids were solicited via the internet with two received. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of Sept. 4, 2024. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Rock Island Arsenal, Illinois, is the contracting activity. Honeywell International Inc., Clearwater, Florida, was awarded a $37,851,458 firm-fixed-price contract for procurement of the commercial Tactical Advanced Land Inertial Navigator 5000 Inertial Navigation Unit. Bids were solicited via the internet with one received. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of Sept. 8, 2023. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Warren, Michigan, is the contracting activity (W56HZV-19-D-0082). MW Builders, Pflugerville, Texas, was awarded a $30,477,000 firm-fixed-price contract to construct a completed fully functional Tactical Equipment Maintenance Facility. Bids were solicited via the internet with five received. Work will be performed in Fort Hood, Texas, with an estimated completion date of June 4, 2021. Fiscal 2018 military construction funds in the amount of $30,477,000 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Fort Worth, Texas, is the contracting activity (W9126G-19-C-0119). General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc., Poway, California, was awarded a $29,316,074 modification (P00016) to contract W58RGZ-19-C-0027 for performance based logistics support services for the MQ-1C Gray Eagle unmanned aircraft system. Work will be performed in Poway, California, with an estimated completion date of Sept. 4, 2020. Fiscal 2019 operations and maintenance, Army funds in the amount of $6,469,479 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, is the contracting activity. Ace Precision Machining Corp., Oconomowoc, Wisconsin, was awarded a $25,000,000 firm-fixed-price Foreign Military Sales (Kuwait and Saudi Arabia) contract for hot section parts for the Advanced Gas Turbine-1500 tank engine. Bids were solicited via the internet with one received. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of Sept. 4, 2024. U.S. Property and Fiscal Officer, Kansas, is the contracting activity (W912JC-19-D-5712). Nakasato Contracting LLC,* Honolulu, Hawaii, was awarded a $14,200,000 firm-fixed-price contract for the construction of an Operational Readiness Training Complex (Barracks) at Pohakuloa Training Area, Hawaii. Bids were solicited via the internet with six received. Work will be performed in Pohakuloa Training Area, Hawaii, with an estimated completion date of Dec. 1, 2021. Fiscal 2018 military construction funds in the amount of $14,200,000 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Honolulu, Hawaii, is the contracting activity (W9128A-19-C-0006). GP Strategies Corp., Columbia, Maryland, was awarded a $12,693,583 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for Life Cycle Logistics Support and Chemical Demilitarization Training Facility operations and maintenance in support of the U.S. Army Chemical Materials Activity, Recovered Chemical Materiel Directorate. Bids were solicited via the internet with one received. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of Sept. 23, 2020. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Rock Island Arsenal, Illinois, is the contracting activity (W52P1J-15-D-0087). General Dynamics Information Technology, Fairfax, Virginia, was awarded a $7,237,568 modification (P00017) to contract W81XWH-17-F-0078 for support services for the U.S. Army Medical Materiel Development Activity. Work will be performed in Fort Detrick, Maryland, with an estimated completion date of Sept. 30, 2022. Fiscal 2019 research, development, test and evaluation funds in the amount of $7,237,568 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Medical Materiel Development Activity, Fort Detrick, Maryland, is the contracting activity. NAVY Hexagon U.S. Federal Inc., Huntsville, Alabama, is being awarded a $107,067,910 firm-fixed-price, cost-plus-fixed-fee, and cost-only indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity (IDIQ) contract for surface ship Situational Awareness, Boundary Enforcement and Response (SABER) qualification testing and non-recurring engineering, computing hardware production, land-based site equipment, spare parts and engineering services. This IDIQ will support multiple program executive offices and ship programs. Work under this IDIQ contract will be performed in Huntsville, Alabama, and is expected to be completed by September 2023. No funding will be obligated with this IDIQ award; funds will be obligated with each order. This contract was competitively procured via the Federal Business Opportunities website using full-and-open competition procedures, with two offers received. This competition was conducted under the authority 10 U.S. Code 2304, which states that contracting officers shall promote and provide for full and open competition. Support under this IDIQ is for SABER systems to be installed on various surface ships. This procurement includes shipsets and test site sets, technical data, associated engineering services and spares. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, District of Columbia, is the contracting activity (N00024-19-D-4114). DynCorp International LLC, Fort Worth, Texas, is being awarded an $88,730,512 modification (P00052) to a previously awarded, firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract (N00019-15-D-0003). This modification provides organizational, intermediate, and depot-level maintenance and logistics support for 16 T-34, 54 T-44, and 287 T-6 aircraft. Work will be performed at the Naval Air Station (NAS) Corpus Christi, Texas (47%); Whiting Field, Florida (42%); NAS Pensacola, Florida (9%); and various locations through the continental U.S. (2%), and is expected to be completed in March 2020. No funds will be obligated at time of award, funds will be obligated on individual orders as they are issued. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity. General Electric Aviation Systems, Vandalia, Ohio, is being awarded a $56,594,358 modification (P00006) to a previously awarded firm-fixed-price contract (N00019-18-C-0004). This modification procures 320 Generator Conversion Unit (GCU) G3 to G4 conversion retrofit kits; 547 GCU G4 units; wiring harnesses; and associated technical, financial and administrative data in support of F/A-18E/F and E/A-18G aircraft. Work will be performed Vandalia, Ohio, and is expected to be completed in January 2022. Fiscal 2019 aircraft procurement (Navy) funds in the amount of $56,594,358 will be obligated at time of award, none of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity. PAE Applied Technologies LLC, Arlington, Virginia, is being awarded a $52,268,318 modification to previously awarded contract N66604-05-C-1277 to reinstate 6 month periods of performance and increase target cost for Atlantic Undersea Test and Evaluation Center. Atlantic Undersea Test and Evaluation Center (AUTEC) is the Navy's large-area, deep-water, undersea test and evaluation range. Underwater research, testing, and evaluation of anti-submarine weapons, sonar tracking and communications are the predominant activities conducted at AUTEC. The contractor performs services required to perform AUTEC range operations and maintenance of facilities and range systems. In addition, the contractor is responsible for operating a self-sufficient one square mile Navy outpost. This modification increases the value of the basic contract by $52,268,318. The new total value is $853,017,162. Work will be performed in Andros Island, Commonwealth of the Bahamas (80%); and West Palm Beach, Florida (20%), and is expected to be complete by March 2020. No funding will be obligated at time of this modification award. The Naval Undersea Warfare Center, Newport Division, Newport, Rhode Island, is the contracting activity. Pacific Shipyards International, Honolulu, Hawaii, is being awarded a $32,110,694 firm-fixed-price contract for the execution of USS Michael Murphy (DDG 112) fiscal 2020 selected restricted availability. This is a Chief of Naval Operations scheduled selected restricted availability. This availability will include a combination of maintenance, modernization and repair of USS Michael Murphy. The purpose is to maintain, modernize, and repair the USS Michael Murphy. This is a “short-term,” non-docking availability restricted to the vessel's homeport. Pacific Shipyards International will provide the facilities and human resources capable of completing, coordinating and integrating multiple areas of ship maintenance, repair, and modernization for USS Michael Murphy. Work will be performed in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and is expected to be complete by April 2020. This contract includes options which, if exercised, would bring the cumulative value to $36,916,612, and be complete by April 2020. Fiscal 2019 operations and maintenance (Navy) funding in the amount of $32,110,694 will be obligated at time of award and expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was competitively solicited via the Federal Business Opportunities website with one offer received in response to solicitation number N00024-19-R-4404. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, District of Columbia, is the contracting activity (N00024-19-C-4404). Utah State University Research Foundation - Space Dynamics Laboratory, North Logan, Utah, is being awarded a $24,999,998 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for electro-optical research and development. The contract provides research and development efforts in the areas of exploitation software and advanced sensor and processing technologies including digital cameras, processing, compression, command and control, analog systems, power, communications, telemetry, radio frequency/optical sensor payloads and electromechanical systems/support. The maximum total value for this 24 month contract, with no options, is $24,999,998. Work will be performed in North Logan, Utah, and is expected to be complete by Sept. 5, 2021. Fiscal 2019 working capital funds (Navy) in the amount of $5,793,000 will be obligated at time of award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. In accordance with 10 U.S. Code 2304(c)(3)(B), as stated in Federal Acquisition Regulation 6.302-3, this contract was not competitively procured. Only one responsible source and no other supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements. The U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, District of Columbia, is the contracting activity (N00173-19-C-2013). PrimeTech International Inc.,* North Kansas City, Missouri, is being awarded a $12,457,597 firm-fixed-price, time-and-materials six-month bridge contract for logistics services to manage, support, and operate the Marine Corps Consolidated Storage Program warehouse network. Work will be performed in Barstow, California (23%); Camp Lejeune, North Carolina (18%); Camp Pendleton, California (13%); Okinawa, Japan (10%); Miramar, California (9%); Camp Geiger, North Carolina (7%); Twenty-nine Palms, California (4%); Cherry Point, North Carolina (4%); Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii (3%); Yuma, Arizona (2%); Beaufort, South Carolina (2%); Iwakuni, Japan (2%); New River, North Carolina (2%); and Bridgeport, California (1%). Work is expected to be completed March 2020. Fiscal 2019 operation and maintenance funds (Marine Corps) in the amount of $12,457,597 will be obligated at the 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. Marine Corps Logistics Command, Albany, Georgia, is the contracting activity (M67004-19-P-2010). Oceanit Laboratories Inc.,* Honolulu, Hawaii, is being awarded a $9,500,000 cost-plus-fixed-fee delivery order (N68335-19-F-0393) against a previously awarded basic ordering agreement (N68335-16-G-0028) in support of the deputy assistant secretary of defense for emerging capability and prototype technology. This order is for a Small Business Innovation Research Phase III effort for the continued development of a Prototype Test Unit (PTU) sensor for integration, test and demonstration with a non-kinetic system. The PTU sensor will incorporate the necessary hardware and software subsystems to demonstrate the viability of a novel defensive capability in an at-sea-demonstration aboard a Navy ship. Work will be performed in Honolulu, Hawaii, and is expected to be completed in September 2021. Fiscal 2018 and 2019 research, development, test and evaluation (Navy) funds in the amount of $9,500,000 will be obligated at time of award, $7,500,000 of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Air Warfare Center, Aircraft Division, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity. DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY UPDATE: Maryland Industrial Trucks, Linthicum Heights, Maryland (SPE8EC-19-D-0043), has been added as an awardee to the multiple award contract for commercial trucks and trailers, issued against solicitation SPE8EC-17-R-0008, announced April 20, 2017. DEFENSE INFORMATION SYSTEMS AGENCY Booz Allen Hamilton, McLean, Virginia, was awarded a firm-fixed-price, single-award, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity (ID/IQ) contract, HC1047-19-D-5001, in support of the Defense Information Systems Agency's (DISA) Defense Collaboration Services (DCS) program. The primary place of performance will be at DISA, Fort Meade, Maryland. The ID/IQ ceiling value is $49,500,000, with the minimum guarantee of $5,000 funded by fiscal 2019 operations and maintenance funds. Proposals were solicited via FedBizOpps (FBO.gov), and one proposal was received. The ordering period is Sept. 8, 2019, through Sept. 7, 2024. The Defense Information Technology Contracting Organization, National Capital Region, is the contracting activity (HC1047-19-D-5001). *Small Business https://www.defense.gov/Newsroom/Contracts/Contract/Article/1953308/source/GovDelivery/

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  8 juillet 2020 | International, Aérospatial, Naval, Terrestre, C4ISR, Sécurité

  Defense Industry’s Covid Closings Decline, Pentagon Agency Says

  By Anthony Capaccio The defense industry has made major strides reducing the impact of Covid-19 on operations, decreasing total closings of facilities to six on Monday from a high of 148 in mid-April, according to the Pentagon agency that oversees contracts. “We're seeing a significantly smaller fraction of the industrial base impacted on a daily basis” as contractors have become “better at restoring operational capability after potential exposures” to the coronavirus, Army Lieutenant General David Bassett, director of the Defense Contract Management Agency, said in an interview. “We've gone from having a substantial fraction of the industrial base impacted to today,” where it's “just a handful.” In total, 279 defense contracting locations were forced to shut down an average of 20 days since April because of the pandemic. In addition, 149 locations currently have reduced operations because of the virus, according to the agency, which tracks 10,509 locations of major defense contractors and their subcontractors. “These closures have generally been short-term in order to clean facilities” or to “reduce the potential exposure of employees,” according to agency spokesman Matthew Montgomery. Ellen Lord, the Defense Department's acquisitions chief, has warned that pandemic disruptions are expected to result in defense industry claims for reimbursement of more than $10 billion under the Cares Act, which provides economic aid including reimbursing contractors for payments to employees affected by disruptions such as plant closings. She has said a single contractor, which she didn't name, is estimated to have at least $1.5 billion in potential claims. Bassett said the decline in plant closings reflects that companies “have really got a plan in place so that they know what they have to do when they find people who have been exposed, how they have to handle the plant and then what they can do to get back up quickly and safely.” Bassett assumed command of the contract agency on June 3 after a career that included positions as the Army's top program manager for command-and-control networks and for ground-combat vehicles. “As we watch right now and cases are beginning to rise in certain areas of the country, I've asked all of our teams to really think about what we can do right now to make sure if we do end up in a shutdown we can avoid impacts to the industrial base and our deliveries,” he said. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-07-07/defense-industry-s-covid-closings-decline-pentagon-agency-says