Lockheed reveals new LMXT refueling tanker, firing the opening salvo in US Air Force competition

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

  Contract Awards by US Department of Defense - July 20, 2020

  NAVY Lockheed Martin Corp., Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co., Fort Worth, Texas, is awarded an $861,731,778 modification (P00040) to previously-awarded fixed-price incentive (firm target), firm-fixed-price contract N00019-17-C-0001. This modification exercises options to procure eight Lot 14 F-35A Lightning II repositioned aircraft as a result of the Republic of Turkey's removal from the F-35 program, and six Lot 14 F-35A aircraft for the Air Force. Additionally, this modification establishes undefinitized line items that provides recurring engineering in support of the modification of the eight Lot 14 F-35A Lightning II repositioned aircraft to a full operationally capable F-35A Air Force configuration. Work will be performed in Fort Worth, Texas (63%); El Segundo, California (14%); Warton, United Kingdom (9%); Orlando, Florida (4%); Nashua, New Hampshire (3%); Baltimore, Maryland (3%); San Diego, California (2%); various locations within the continental U.S. (1.3%); and various locations outside the continental U.S. (0.7%). Work is expected to be completed by May 2026. Fiscal 2020 aircraft procurement (Air Force) funds for $848,881,778 will be obligated at time of award. No funds will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity. Undersea Signal Systems Inc., Columbia City, Indiana, is awarded a $28,323,687 cost-plus-fixed-fee-contract to develop a prototype sonobuoy, known as Extended Range Directional Frequency Analysis and Recording (ER-DIFAR), to address new and quiet threat submarine targets. Work will be performed in Columbia City, Indiana, and is expected to be completed by July 2024. The total cumulative value of this contract is $28,323,687. This is a three-year base contract with one one-year option period. The base period is $24,128,769 and the option year is $4,194,918. Fiscal 2019 research, development, test and evaluation (Navy) funds in the amount of $50,000; and fiscal 2020 research, development, test and evaluation (Navy) funds in the amount of $4,061,000 are obligated at time of award. Funds in the amount of $50,000 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was competitively procured under N00014-19-S-B001, “Long Range Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) for Navy and Marine Corps Science and Technology.” Since proposals are received throughout the year under the long range BAA, the number of proposals received in response to the solicitation is unknown. The Office of Naval Research, Arlington, Virginia, is the contracting activity (N00014- 20-C-2015). General Dynamics Missions Systems Inc., McLeansville, North Carolina, is awarded a $13,553,807 cost-plus-fixed-fee and cost-only modification to previously-awarded contract N61331-11-C-0017 to exercise an option for engineering support for ongoing development, test and production of the Surface Mine Countermeasure Unmanned Undersea Vehicle (SMCM UUV) program, also known as Knifefish. Work will be performed in Quincy, Massachusetts (52%); McLeansville, North Carolina (27%); Braintree, Massachusetts (10%); Hanover, Maryland (5%); Reston, Virginia (5%); and Ann Arbor, Michigan (1%). The Knifefish program will provide persistent volume and bottom mine hunting capability in a contested environment. This option exercise is for engineering support hours to support a number of efforts, including test and evaluation, engineering change proposal development and upgrade initiatives. Work is expected to be completed by September 2021. Fiscal 2020 research, development, test and evaluation (Navy); and fiscal 2020 other procurement (Navy) funding in the amount of $12,500,000 will be obligated at time of award. Funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity. Navatek LLC,* Honolulu, Hawaii, is awarded a $9,170,852 cost-plus-fixed-fee completion contract with no option periods for the talent and technology for Navy Power and Energy Systems. Work will be performed in Honolulu, Hawaii (50%); and Columbia, South Carolina (50%). The work to be performed will advance the state-of-the-art autonomous command and control of shipboard power systems, to include next-generation integrated power and energy systems, in order to harness the full energy available in the Navy's ships to meet critical mission needs. Work is expected to be completed by July 2023. The total cumulative value of this contract is $9,170,852. Fiscal 2020 research, development, test and evaluation (Navy) funds in the amount of $9,170,852 are obligated at time of award. Funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was competitively procured under N00014-19-S-B001, “Long Range Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) for Navy and Marine Corps Science and Technology.” Since proposals are received throughout the year under the long range BAA, the number of proposals received in response to the solicitation is unknown. The Office of Naval Research, Arlington, Virginia, is the contracting activity (N00014-20-C-1106). AIR FORCE BAE Systems Technology Solutions and Services Inc., Rockville, Maryland, has been awarded a $495,482,136 firm-fixed-price, cost-plus-fixed-fee and cost-reimbursable indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for the Instrumentation Range Support Program. This contract provides for serviceable components and subsystems for instrumentation tracking systems, worldwide for both foreign and domestic government agencies to include radars, telemetry and optical range mission systems, flight termination systems, data acquisition systems and Global Positioning Systems. Work will be performed on participating ranges in the program, including Air Force, Army, Navy, NASA, Department of Energy, as well as foreign ranges in the United Kingdom, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Republic of Korea and Switzerland. Work is expected to be completed Sept. 30, 2027. This award is the result of a competitive acquisition and three offers were received. Fiscal year 2020 operations and maintenance funds in the amount of $116,235 are being obligated, on a delivery order, at the time of award. This contract has a ceiling amount of $945,234,462. The 45th Contracting Squadron, Patrick Air Force Base, Florida, is the contracting activity (FA2521-20-D-0005). National Native American Construction Inc., Coeur D Alene, Idaho (FA4620-20-D0005); Northcon Inc., Hayden, Idaho (FA4620-20-D-0006); Alutiiq General Contractors LLC, Tacoma, Washington (FA4620-20-0008); RORE Inc., San Diego, California (FA4620-20-0009); M.J. Takisaki Inc., Seattle, Washington (FA4620-20-D-0010); and WHH Nisqually-Garco JV 2, Olympia, Washington (FA4620-20-D-0012), have been awarded a not-to-exceed $95,000,000 firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for design-build construction efforts at Fairchild Air Force Base, Washington. Work will be performed at Fairchild AFB, Washington, and is expected to be completed June 30, 2025. This award is the result of a competitive acquisition, and 10 offers were received. Fiscal 2020 operations and maintenance funds in the amount of $500 are being obligated to each at the time of award. The 92nd Contracting Squadron, Fairchild AFB, Washington, is the contracting activity. Richland Industries LLC, Pulaski, Tennessee, has been awarded a $24,800,000 indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity, firm-fixed-price contract for simplified acquisition of base engineering requirements. This contract will provide for a streamlined means to complete minor construction projects that encompass a broad range of sustainment, maintenance and repair and research development testing and evaluation projects on real property at Arnold Engineering Development Complex, Arnold Air Force Base, Tennessee. Work will be performed at Arnold AFB, Tennessee, and is expected to be completed July 19, 2025. This award is the result of a competitive service-disabled, veteran-owned, small-business, set-aside acquisition with 10 offers received. Fiscal 2020 operations and maintenance funds in the amount of $123,731 are being obligated at the time of award. Air Force Test Center, Arnold Air Force Base, Tennessee, is the contracting activity (FA9101-20-D-0001). Vanguard Pacific LLC, Foley, Alabama, has been awarded a $7,304,129 firm-fixed-price contract for protective coating and sign maintenance. This contract provides for airfield rubber removal, striping of airfield, streets and parking lots, protective coating and sign maintenance. Work will be performed at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, and Davidsonville and Brandywine communications sites, and is expected to be completed Aug. 4, 2025. This award is the result of a competitive service disabled veteran owned small business set aside acquisition and one offer was received. Fiscal 2020 operations and maintenance funds in the amount of $3,776 are being obligated at the time of award. The 316th Wing, Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, is the contracting activity (FA2860-20-D-0003). ARMY DRS Sustainment Systems Inc., St. Louis, Missouri, was awarded an $189,828,895 hybrid (cost-no-fee, cost-plus-fixed-fee, firm-fixed-price) contract for development, production, deployment and support of the Mobile-Low, Slow, Small Unmanned Aircraft System Integrated Defeat System. 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 July 30, 2025. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, is the contracting activity (W31P4Q-20-D-0031). Russell Construction Co. Inc., Davenport, Iowa, was awarded a $10,284,300 firm-fixed-price contract to construct a Special Operations Forces assessment and selection training complex. Bids were solicited via the internet with 10 received. Work will be performed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, with an estimated completion date of Sept. 17, 2022. Fiscal 2020 military construction, defense-wide funds in the amount of $10,284,300 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Wilmington, North Carolina, is the contracting activity (W912PM-20-C-0018). *Small Business https://www.defense.gov/Newsroom/Contracts/Contract/Article/2280473/source/GovDelivery/

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  19 juin 2020 | International, Aérospatial

  Future Combat Air System: Owning the sky with the Next Generation Weapons System

  June 17, 2020 - When facing today's uncertainties, air superiority, which was underpinning western military operations for over 40 years, is no longer a given thing. The playing field is levelled by opponents' constant investment in integrated air defence systems, hypersonic weapon technologies and low observability technologies. Western air forces need to regain their ability to counter threats by accessing highly contested environments in a scalable, flexible and dynamic way rather than a local and static one. By intelligently teaming sixth generation manned fighters with unmanned platforms, the Next Generation Weapon System or NGWS will provide European air forces & navies with capabilities well beyond existing fighters. With no agreed definition of a sixth-generation fighter, Airbus' understanding is that such a New Generation Fighter or NGF will be a more sophisticated and connected platform than what currently exists. The NGF will set the next level of survivability in terms of passive stealth (signature reduction and electromagnetic emission control) and active stealth (electronic counter measures). The heart of the NGF will be provided by its extremely capable avionics and sensor suite. The increase in processing power, storage and connectivity will grant the pilot with greatly heightened situational awareness and the ability to rely not only on its own sensors and effectors, but also on other platforms' ones. Combined with the introduction of artificial intelligence and the ability to team with unmanned platforms, the NGF will become a battlefield management platform capable of operating deep within the enemy airspace. Powerful engines equipped with thrust-vectoring nozzles combined with high-performance flight control system will ensure the NGF's manoeuvrability, speed, and range. Innovative effectors will provide the fighter with unprecedented firepower, ranging from stand-off kinetic loads (including hypersonic ones) to directed energy weapons (lasers and microwaves) to electronic warfare capabilities (including cyberattack). However, more sophistication also means higher development costs leading to a declining number of platforms and/or effectors. Eventually such dangerously low levels result in critical availability levels. This is problematic, as operational studies indicate that penetrating contested environments will require an adequate number of manned platforms. Hence, it is important to set the right level of capabilities for the NGF by taking a holistic approach when right sizing its stealth, velocity, manoeuvrability, range, sensing and effects generation's capabilities. The NGF alone will not suffice for the most demanding missions in highly contested environments. To counter such threats, the NGF will team with unmanned platforms called Remote Carriers or RCs acting as force multipliers. Adding capabilities in a scalable and flexible manner will enhance the overall mission effectiveness, efficiency and survivability of the NGWS. RCs will be a family of unmanned platforms ranging from 200 kilograms for disposable RCs, to under 2 tons for recoverable ones and even several tons in the case of loyal wingmen. Airbus is currently studying and optimising with users their design. The RCs will provide various non-kinetic effects (Target Acquisition and Reconnaissance, Airborne Electronic Warfare) as well as kinetic ones (A2G SEAD/DEAD and Strike). With “packs” of RCs teaming with NGFs, the NGWS will clearly establish a new operational dimension. An augmented level of effectiveness will be achieved by opening new fields of tactics based on collaborative combat, the use of deception and numeric superiority. Efficiency will improve by ensuring the required mix of capabilities for a given mission is deployed. The NGF will stay at a safe stand-off distance whilst closer RCs deal with the threats, thus keeping the pilots out of harm's way and increasing the manned platform's survivability. Within the NGWS, the Air Combat Cloud or ACC will connect the manned and unmanned platform and provide the teaming intelligence for faster collaborative combat. The ACC will deliver common situational awareness by instantaneously capturing, sharing, merging and processing massive amounts of data from all connected NGFs and RCs. The ACC's warfare analytics and real-time coordination will provide better situational awareness, tactical options, decisions and collaborative effects Airbus has a leading role within the Next Generation Weapon System programme programme which will be the core of FCAS. Airbus is Dassault's main partner for the NGF and the lead for the RCs and the ACC with MBDA and Thales as its respective main partners. This will benefit Airbus' sites in securing work and maintaining technological excellence for decades to come. More on FCAS here View source version on Airbus: https://www.airbus.com/newsroom/stories/Future-Combat-Air-System-Owning-the-sky-with-the-Next-Generation-Weapons-System.html

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  2 juin 2022 | International, Sécurité

  How Sweden and Finland could reshape NATO's northern security

  The accession of Finland and Sweden, historically neutral nations, is expected to transform Europe's security landscape for years to come. Their armed forces and geography would seriously complicate any further aggression Russia might want to try in the region, defense officials and national security experts say.