4 avril 2024 | International, Aérospatial
First MQ-4C Triton drone arrives at Naval Air Station Sigonella
The Navy's Triton drone reached initial operating capability last fall and is now being forward-deployed.
12 février 2024 | International, Aérospatial
4 avril 2024 | International, Aérospatial
The Navy's Triton drone reached initial operating capability last fall and is now being forward-deployed.
10 août 2020 | International, Naval
The disclosure comes as the Pentagon has been looking for ways to backstop key parts of its industrial base as supply chains slowed due to the COVID epidemic. By PAUL MCLEARY WASHINGTON: One of the Navy's primary suppliers of missile tubes for its nuclear submarines is planning to walk away from the military business, a move that will drop the number of domestic companies capable of doing the work to two at a time when the service is in a scramble to ramp up its sub-building efforts. BWX Technologies President Rex Geveden says that the company is “not likely to pursue” any more Navy business and will repurpose a factory in Indiana that makes the components once the next set of deliveries of missile tubes wrap up in 2022. The Navy work “just doesn't have the margin profile that we want to see in the business,” Geveden said in a Tuesday investor call. BWX was slated to build the missile tubes for the new Columbia subs, but prime contractor Electric Boat says it has options to replace the company in coming years. The company “works with multiple suppliers to ensure we can meet the Navy's schedule requirements on these important programs,” a spokesperson emailed. “These are Babcock Marine, BAE Systems, Precision Custom Components and BWX Technologies. BWX Technologies will complete all currently contracted work for EB by 2022.” This comes as the Pentagon has been looking for ways to bolster key parts of its industrial base as communities shut down and workers are told not to report to work or take time off, due to the COVID epidemic. In a call with reporters late last month, Navy acquisition chief James Geurts acknowledged that the service is deeply worried that such closures and slowdowns could have wide-ranging impacts on shipbuilding. “I am absolutely interested in ensuring that we don't lose large chunks of the industrial base,” he said. “Restarting an industrial base that you lose is really hard, really painful, and takes a long time. We are absolutely focused on ensuring we do not lose an industrial base because we don't have the time or resources to re-generate it later when we need it.” The winnowing of such a key part of the industrial base will place more pressure on the handful of other companies who can do this sort of work, something to which Pentagon leadership is particularly sensitive. Overall, the Navy plans to buy 12 Columbia-class submarines between 2021 and 2035, with 10 of those coming 2026 and after. In the near-term, it plans two Virginia-class subs per year between 2021 and 2026, meaning shipyards will have to pump out two to four submarines a year in the mid-2020s. The new Columbia submarines will begin being delivered to the Navy in 2030, just in time to begin replacing the Cold War-era Ohio-class subs as the Navy's leg of the nation's nuclear triad. The subs will carry 70 percent of the nation's stockpile of warheads allowed by the New Start treaty with Russia. Falling in to replace the Ohio's on time would be a critical failure for the nation's nuclear triad, as the aging ships will have next to no life left in them by the end of the decade, and leaving the sea leg of the nuclear enterprise in some jeopardy. Babcock Marine is a UK-based company, but does work on some components that are used for both the Columbia program and the UK's Dreadnaught submarines, which shares similar missile tubes with the Columbia effort. In 2018, Virginia-based BWX was forced to pay $27 million to fix welding problems on the Columbia tubes, after issues were found on a total of 44 tubes. So far, 21 of those have been fixed and 11 delivered to the Navy. Navy officials have closely tied the modernizing of the current Virginia-class subs with the building of new Columbia's, warning that since they share a base of companies who can make precision parts for nuclear-powered submarines. So any problem with one program will have knock-on effects to the other. Geurts and others have said the Navy would prioritize the health of the Columbia effort over Virginia if they had to. If the House of Representatives gets its way, however, billions more will flow into the Virginia program than the White House has called for. Last week, the House voted to fund the construction of a second Virginia-class submarine in the 2021 budget request, after the White House dropped the planned buy to one submarine in its submission. The push was led by Rep. Joe Courtney, chairman of the Seapower Subcommittee who represents the Connecticut district that's home to Electric Boat. The bill now includes $6.8 billion to produce two Virginia-class attack submarines, approximately $2.5 billion more than the White House's own request, and $2.2 billion more than the Senate's. “The budget request we received from the White House flew in the face of testimony that we've heard from Navy leaders, experts, and combatant commanders,” Courtney said in a statement. “It requested the fewest ships in over a decade, and it eliminated construction of the second Virginia-class submarine in 2021—a vessel that the Navy quickly listed as its most important unfunded priority in 2021.” https://breakingdefense.com/2020/08/major-submarine-contractor-drops-navy-missile-tube-biz
4 octobre 2019 | International, Aérospatial, Naval, Terrestre, C4ISR, Sécurité
DEFENSE HEALTH AGENCY CORRECTION: Shoreland Inc., Milwaukee, Wisconsin, was awarded a firm-fixed-price contract with a maximum value of $21,650,000. HT0038-19-C-0002 provides for the renewal of the commercial-off-the shelf enterprise publications licenses in support of the Military Health System. Licenses allow continuing access to a multinational collaborative database that provides up-to-date international unclassified medical intelligence data supporting patient movement, preventative medicine, and clinical contingencies planning for military medical and deployment planners and providers. This effort has a one-year base period of performance, and three one-year option periods. The estimated completion date is Sept. 30, 2023. Work will occur in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The base task order will be funded by fiscal 2020 operation and maintenance funds. The award is the result of a non-competitive solicitation in accordance with FAR 6.302-1. The contracting activity is the Defense Health Agency. NAVY BAE Systems Technology Solutions and Services, Rockville, Maryland, is awarded an $18,351,068 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract to provide engineering and technical services for integrated communications and information systems radio communications on various Navy ships in support of the Ship and Air Integration Warfare Division, Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division, Webster Outlying Field. Work will be performed in St. Inigoes, Maryland (60%); California, Maryland (30%); Bath, Maine (5%) and Pascagoula, Mississippi (5%), and is expected to be completed in June 2029. Fiscal 2020 shipbuilding and conversion (Navy) funds in the amount of $18,351,068 will be obligated at time of award, none of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was competitively procured via an electronic request for proposal; one offer was received. The Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity (N00019-20-C-0003). General Atomics, San Diego, California, is awarded a $12,255,842 modification (P00019) to a cost-plus-fixed-fee delivery order (0001) against a previously issued basic ordering agreement (N00019-16-G-0006). This modification increases the level of effort for repair of repairables (ROR) and technical assistance. ROR includes efforts and materials required to inspect and repair or remanufacture unserviceable repairable components that are provided to the contractor as government furnished property and return the electromagnetic aircraft launch systems (EMALS) and advanced arresting gear (AAG) repairable items to a fully operational status. Technical assistance includes the necessary services to provide "on-call/on-site" emergency repairs. Repair services and technical assistance will also be provided for EMALS and AAG shipboard systems. Work will be performed in Tupelo, Mississippi (55%); San Diego, California (35%); Norfolk, Virginia (6%); Waltham, Massachusetts (2%); Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (1%); and San Leandro, California (1%), and is expected to be completed in September 2020. Fiscal 2019 shipbuilding and conversion (Navy) funds in the amount of $12,255,842 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. AIR FORCE Mississippi Department of Rehabilitation Services, Madison, Mississippi, has been awarded a $7,706,151 modification (P00012) to exercise an option on previously awarded contract FA3010-18-C-0007 for full food services. The location of performance is Keesler Air Force Base, Mississippi, and the work is expected to be complete by Sept. 30, 2020. Fiscal 2020 operations and maintenance funds in the amount of $7,706,151 will be obligated when they become available. The 81st Contracting Squadron, Keesler Air Force Base, Mississippi, is the contracting activity. ARMY KBRwyle Technology Solutions LLC, Columbia, Maryland, was awarded a $7,142,371 modification (0001 49) to contract W52P1J-12-G-0061 for logistics support services, maintenance, supply and care of supplies in storage. Work will be performed in Waegwan, South Korea, with an estimated completion date of May 28, 2020. Fiscal 2020 operation and maintenance funds in the amount of $600,000 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Rock Island Arsenal, Illinois, is the contracting activity. https://www.defense.gov/Newsroom/Contracts/Contract/Article/1979758/source/GovDelivery/