28 septembre 2022 | International, C4ISR
Lockheed, Verizon testing 5G-linked drone swarm for intel collection
Army, Air Force and Pentagon representatives, among others, attended a demonstration in May.
25 août 2020 | International, Aérospatial, Naval, Terrestre, C4ISR, Sécurité, Autre défense
ARMY
Veraxx Engineering Corp., Chantilly, Virginia, was awarded a $218,000,000 hybrid (cost-plus-fixed-fee, firm-fixed-price, fixed-price-incentive and time-and-materials) contract for advanced planning and preview systems, mission simulators and rehearsal capabilities that enable live, virtual and constructive training in support of special operation's unique joint training and mission requirements. Bids were solicited via the internet with three received. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of Aug. 23, 2028. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Orlando, Florida, is the contracting activity (W900KK-20-D-0014).
Astlanda Ehitus Ou, Harjumaa, Estonia (W912GB-20-D-0017); Framaco International Inc., Rye Brook, New York, (W912GB-20-D-0018); Relyant Global LLC, Maryville, Tennessee (W912GB-20-D-0019); Semi SA, Madrid, Spain (W912GB-20-D-0020); SKE Support Services GmbH, Goldbach, Germany (W912GB-20-D-0021); and Tartu Bryan JV, Colorado Springs, Colorado (W912GB-20-D-0022), will compete for each order of the $49,950,000 firm-fixed-price contract for providing real property repair and maintenance, design build, environmental work, force protection work and construction services for U.S. forces and/or facilities throughout Estonia. Bids were solicited via the internet with 11 received. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of Aug. 23, 2025. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Wiesbaden, Germany, is the contracting activity.
Southwest Water Design LLC,* Albuquerque, New Mexico, was awarded a $40,000,000 firm-fixed-price contract for civil works and hydrology and hydraulics services. Bids were solicited via the internet with 15 received. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of Aug. 24, 2025. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Albuquerque, New Mexico, is the contracting activity (W912PP-20-D-0003).
Phillips Contracting Co. Inc.,* Columbus, Mississippi, was awarded a $24,000,000 firm-fixed-price contract for rental of construction equipment. 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 Aug. 23, 2025. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Mobile, Alabama, is the contracting activity (W91278-20-D-0076).
B&K Construction Co. LLC,* Mandeville, Louisiana, was awarded a $15,218,859 firm-fixed-price contract for construction of hurricane protection features in Plaquemines Parrish, Louisiana. Bids were solicited via the internet with four received. Work will be performed in New Orleans, Louisiana, with an estimated completion date of Aug. 21, 2025. Fiscal 2020 civil construction funds in the amount of $15,218,859 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Vicksburg, Mississippi, is the contracting activity (W912P8-20-C-0050).
Sikorsky Aircraft Corp., Stratford, Connecticut, was awarded a $13,500,000 order-dependent contract for technologies to be developed and demonstrated in the Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft technology risk mitigation and maturation effort. 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 Aug. 23, 2025. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, is the contracting activity (W911W6-20-D-0005).
GiaCare and MedTrust JV LLC,* Fort Lauderdale, Florida, was awarded a $7,779,386 modification (P00001) to contract W81K04-19-D-0021 for registered nursing services for the San Antonio Military Health System. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of Sept. 30, 2024. U.S. Army Health Contracting Activity, San Antonio, Texas, is the contracting activity.
AIR FORCE
SRC Tec, North Syracuse, New York, has been awarded a not-to-exceed $90,000,000 indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for force protection Counter-small Unmanned Aerial System (C-sUAS) with Medusa sustainment. This contract provides for the acquisition, upgrade, sustainment, installation support and design and analysis support of C-sUAS and subsystems manufactured by SRC Tec. Work will be performed at locations to be determined in each delivery order and is expected to be completed Aug. 24, 2028. This award is the result of a sole-source acquisition. Fiscal 2020 procurement funds in the amount of $2,137,000 are being obligated at the time of award. Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, Hanscom Air Force Base, Massachusetts, is the contracting activity (FA8730-20-D-0045).
DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY
Aurora Industries LLC,** Orocovis, Puerto Rico, has been awarded a maximum $25,608,088 firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for coats. This is a one-year base contract with four one-year option periods. This was a competitive acquisition with 10 responses received. Location of performance is Puerto Rico, with an Aug. 23, 2021, ordering period end date. Using military services are Army and Air Force. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2020 through 2021 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (SPE1C1-20-D-1283).
NAVY
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc., Poway, California, is awarded a $15,485,103 modification (P00009) to previously awarded firm-fixed-price contract N00019-18-C-1063. This modification adds performance for site relocation activities and exercises an option to extend intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance services utilizing contractor-owned/contractor-operated MQ-9 unmanned air systems. Work will be performed in Yuma, Arizona (34%); Poway, California (14%); and various locations outside the continental U.S. (52%), and is expected to be completed in December 2020. Fiscal 2020 operations and maintenance (Navy) funds in the amount of $15,485,103 will be obligated at time of award, all of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity.
Management Services Group Inc.,* doing business as Global Technical Systems, Virginia Beach, Virginia, is awarded a $13,601,735 firm-fixed-price modification to previously-awarded contract N00024-20-C-5608 for procurement of network, processing, and storage technical Insertion 16 (NPS), Modification 1 storage equipment, which will be incorporated into area storage area network cabinets during production. The NPS program consists of enterprise products in use across surface Navy combat systems which introduce powerful commercially available off-the-shelf processors as part of a general strategy to achieve a modular and open architecture design. Work will be performed in Virginia Beach, Virginia, and is expected to be completed by June 2021. Fiscal 2020 shipbuilding and conversion (Navy); fiscal 2020 other procurement (Navy); fiscal 2019 shipbuilding and conversion (Navy); fiscal 2018 shipbuilding and conversion (Navy); fiscal 2018 other procurement (Navy); fiscal 2015 shipbuilding and conversion (Navy); fiscal 2014 shipbuilding and conversion (Navy); and government of Australia funding in the amount of $13,601,735 will be obligated at time of award and funding in the amount of $2,069,033 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity.
Areté Associates, Northridge, California, is awarded a $9,745,580 cost-plus-fixed-fee, firm-fixed-price, cost-with-no-fee contract for integration services supporting incremental upgrades, block upgrades and future generations of MK 18 Family of Systems unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs), additional UUVs and remotely operated vehicles. This 17-month contract includes no options. Work will be performed at Tucson, Arizona (75%); and Valparaiso, Florida (25%). The period of performance is from Aug. 24, 2020, through Jan. 23, 2022. Fiscal 2020 funds will be obligated using other procurement (Navy). Funds in the amount of $6,885,495 will be obligated at the time of award. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract is awarded using other than full and open competition in accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulations Subpart 6.302-5 and 10 U.S. Code 2304(c)(5). Naval Information Warfare Center Pacific in San Diego, California, is the contract activity (N66001-20-C-0025).
*Small Business
**Small disadvantaged business
https://www.defense.gov/Newsroom/Contracts/Contract/Article/2323086/
28 septembre 2022 | International, C4ISR
Army, Air Force and Pentagon representatives, among others, attended a demonstration in May.
27 février 2020 | International, Aérospatial
Steve Trimble The U.S. Air Force has adopted a three-phase strategy to select small, innovative companies outside the traditional defense industry to perform advanced development work and to tap Silicon Valley-style venture capital firms to help taxpayers finance the new technology. A new process could help rationalize the one-year-old Air Force effort to attract high-tech startups with dozens of Air Force Pitch Day events. These conferences have led to hundreds of small contract awards but no obvious path to guide the aspiring defense contractors further into the byzantine military acquisition process. U.S. Air Force plans to make 50 large “bets” on technology New acquisition training to be based on Fighter Weapons School For the private startups and venture capitalists involved, the Air Force Ventures initiative is designed to offer a new route to the commercial market for potentially game-changing technologies that could benefit from a risk-tolerant government customer providing funding and early support. “We don't really think of ourselves as a [stand-alone] market, but we purchase things in quantities that [are] meaningful enough that we can bridge companies until they reach a level for commercial success,” says Will Roper, assistant secretary of the Air Force for acquisition, technology and logistics. “That's one reason that [venture capitalists] are interested in this.” The Air Force Ventures process starts with the Pitch Day events, during which the Air Force can place initial “bets” worth up to about $50,000 each in Phase I Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grants on promising, potentially game-changing ideas, says Roper, speaking to about 1,000 Air Force acquisition officials during a Feb. 14 webinar. As the companies transition toward Phase II SBIR awards, the Air Force plans to grant about 300 contracts worth up to $1 million each—with a program office agreeing to fund about one-third of the costs. The funding match is meant to link the SBIR award to a program office, creating a path for the technology to potentially transition beyond the laboratory stage and into a program of record. The third and final step in the Air Force Ventures concept whittles the pool of awards to about 50 recipients. The amount of the award is potentially “unlimited,” Roper says, but is generally regarded as at least $10 million. The first of the “big bets” in Phase III are now under evaluation, Roper says. The contract awards could be announced at South by Southwest, a week-long technology conference and entertainment festival scheduled for March 13-22 in Austin, Texas. The initiative explicitly seeks to help the Air Force break from traditional defense contractors. As the Air Force attempts to field leap-ahead capabilities within the next decade for the Advanced Battle Management System and Next-Generation Air Dominance, leveraging the innovative ideas and technology flowing into the commercial market is seen as critical. “[R&D] in this country is 80% commercial,” Roper explains. “So in the 21st century, the [defense] industrial base should be dual-use. And so we've got to crack the code on how to have public and private funding work seamlessly inside an Air Force program.” But there are significant challenges as the Air Force tries to leverage commercial-sector technology investments: Small companies often need to find a market quickly to generate revenue and cash flow, whereas government program offices tend to make decisions slowly—and inconsistently. “In many cases, their commercialization [strategy] is devalued [by investors] if they have government funds,” Roper adds. The Air Force's program managers also face a learning curve. “If we're making 1,000 small bets a year, the reason we're making 1,000 is that we know most of them aren't going to pan out. So we can't manage the companies the way we would a traditional program,” Roper says. “But we can manage them as a portfolio—the same way that a private investor or a venture capitalist would.” To prepare, the Air Force is sending acquisition officials back to school. Next year, a cadre of program managers will be enrolled in a six-month course at Stanford University, which will teach the Air Force to manage technology investments like a venture capitalist, Roper says. The next step is to expand educational opportunities within the Air Force. A new acquisition curriculum, modeled on operational training centers such as the Fighter Weapons School, will be created, Roper says. https://aviationweek.com/shows-events/air-warfare-symposium/new-air-force-ventures-set-transform-technology-strategy
3 août 2020 | International, C4ISR
Nathan Strout WASHINGTON — BAE Systems has completed its $1.9 billion purchase of Collins Aerospace's military GPS business from Raytheon Technologies Corporation, BAE announced July 31. “Today marks the culmination of a tremendous team effort, and we are extremely proud to welcome the Military GPS employees to our company,” said John Watkins, vice president and general manager of precision strike and sensing solutions at BAE. “Together, we will build on our rich histories of providing superior, innovative capabilities to help protect our U.S. and allied warfighters.” The acquisition follows the merger of defense contracting giants United Technologies Corp. and Raytheon into Raytheon Technologies Corporation in June. The U.S. Department of Justice had approved that merger in March, but only on the condition the companies divest UTC's military GPS and large space-based optical systems businesses, as well as Raytheon's military airborne radios business. The two companies had already struck a deal with BAE in January, which saw BAE purchasing Collins Aerospace's military GPS business from UTC for $1.9 billion and Raytheon's airborne tactical radio business for $275 million. The military GPS business includes a workforce of 700 employees that design and build advanced, hardened, secure GPS products, including devices that can utilize M-Code, a more secure U.S. military GPS signal. The business boasts more than 1.5 million GPS devices installed on more than 280 weapons systems. “This partnership will enable us to build on our market leadership and bring new discriminating capabilities to our customers, including the U.S. Department of Defense and its allies,” said Greg Wild, director of military GPS. “We're excited to be joining the BAE Systems family. They appreciate our legacy of innovation and will provide opportunities for continued business growth and success.” https://www.c4isrnet.com/industry/2020/07/31/bae-systems-completes-19-billion-acquisition-of-raytheons-military-gps-business/