20 juillet 2020 | International, Terrestre

OMFV: Army Wants Smaller Crew, More Automation

The draft RFP for the Bradley replacement, out today, also opens the possibility for a government design team to compete with private industry.

By SYDNEY J. FREEDBERG JR.on July 17, 2020 at 1:51 PM

WASHINGTON: The Army is giving industry a lot of freedom in their designs for its future armored troop transport, letting them pick the gun, weight, number of passengers and more. But there's one big exception. While the current M2 Bradley has three crew members – commander, gunner, and driver – a draft Request For Proposals released today says that its future replacement, the OMFV, must be able to fight with two.

Fewer humans means more automation. It's an ambitious goal, especially for a program the Army already had to reboot and start over once.

The other fascinating wrinkle in the RFP is that the Army reserves the right to form its own design team and let it compete against the private-sector contractors. This government design team would be independent of any Army command to avoid conflicts of interest.

If the Army does submit its own design, that would be a major departure from longstanding Pentagon practice. But the Army has invested heavily in technologies from 50mm cannon to automated targeting algorithms to engines, so it's not impossible for a government team to put all that government intellectual property together into a complete design.

The Army has embraced automation from the beginning of the Bradley replacement program, and that's been consistent before and after January's decision to reboot. OMFV's very name, Optionally Manned Fighting Vehicle, refers to the service's desire to have the option to operate the vehicle, in some situations, by remote control – eventually. But an unmanned mode remains an aspiration for future upgrades, not a hard-and-fast requirement for the initial version of the vehicle scheduled to enter service in 2028.

By contrast, the two-person crew is one of the few hard-and-fast requirements in the draft RFP released this morning. It's all the more remarkable because there few such requirements in the RFP or its extensive technical annexes (which are not public). Instead, in most cases, the Army lays out the broad performance characteristics it desires and gives industry a lot of leeway in how to achieve them.

That's a deliberate departure from traditional weapons programs, which lay out a long and detailed list of technical requirements. But the Army tried that prescriptive approach on OMFV and it didn't work.

Last year, in its first attempt to build the OMFV, the Army insisted that industry build – at its own expense – a prototype light enough that you could fit two on an Air Force C-17 transport, yet it had to be tough enough to survive a fight with Russian mechanized units in Eastern Europe. Only one company, General Dynamics, even tried to deliver a vehicle built to that specification and the Army decided they didn't succeed.

So the Army started over. It decided heavy armor was more important than air transportability, so it dropped the requirement to fit two OMFVs on a single C-17; now it'll be satisfied if a C-17 can carry one. In fact, it decided rigid technical requirements were a bad idea in general because it limited industry's opportunity to offer ingenious new solutions to the Army's problems, so the service replaced them wherever it could with broadly defined goals called characteristics.

And yet the new draft RFP does include a strict and technologically ambitious requirement: the two-person crew.

Now, since the OMFV is a transport, it'll have more people aboard much of the time, and when an infantry squad is embarked, one of them will have access to the vehicle's sensors and be able to assist the crew. But when the passengers get out to fight on foot, there'll just be two people left to operate the vehicle.

A two-person crew isn't just a departure from the Bradley. This is a departure from best practice in armored vehicle design dating back to World War II. In 1940, when Germany invaded France, the French actually had more tanks, including some much better armed and armored than most German machines. But a lot of the French tanks had two-man crews. There was a driver, seated in the hull, and a single harried soldier in the turret who had to spot the enemy, aim the gun, and load the ammunition. By contrast, most German tanks split those tasks among three men – a commander, a gunner, and a loader – which meant they consistently outmaneuvered and outfought the overburdened French tankers.

A lot of modern vehicles don't need a loader, because a mechanical feed reloads automatically. But in everything from the Bradley to Soviet tanks, the minimum crew is three: driver, gunner, and commander. That way the driver can focus on the terrain ahead, the gunner can focus on the target currently in his sights, and the commander can watch for danger in all directions. A two-person crew can't split tasks that way, risking cognitive overload – which means a greater risk that no one spots a threat until it's too late.

So how do fighter jets and combat helicopters survive, since most of them have one or two crew at most? The answer is extensive training and expensive technology. If the Army wants a two-person crew in its OMFV, the crew compartment may have to look less like a Bradley and more like an Apache gunship, with weapons automatically pointing wherever the operator looks. The Army's even developing a robotic targeting assistant called ATLAS, which spots potential targets on its sensors, decides the biggest threat and automatically brings the gun to bear – but only fires if a human operator gives the order.

Now, industry does not have to solve these problems right away. The current document is a draft Request For Proposals, meaning that the Army is seeking feedback from interested companies. If enough potential competitors say the two-man crew is too hard, the Army might drop that requirement. The current schedule gives the Army about nine months, until April 2021, to come out with the final RFP, and only then do companies have to submit their preliminary concepts for the vehicle. The Army will pick several companies to develop “initial digital designs” – detailed computer models of the proposed vehicle – and then refine those designs. Physical prototypes won't enter testing until 2025, with the winning design entering production in 2027 for delivery to combat units the next year.

https://breakingdefense.com/2020/07/omfv-army-wants-smaller-crew-more-automation/

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30 juillet 2020 | International, Aérospatial

Raytheon to design weather satellite prototype for US Space Force
Nathan Strout WASHINGTON — The U.S. Space Force has selected Raytheon Intelligence & Space to build an advanced weather satellite prototype that can provide the military with theater weather imaging and cloud characterization, the company announced July 22. The Next Generation Electro-Optical Infrared Weather Satellite is intended to replace the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program, or DMSP, a series of satellites that have provided weather data for military operations since the 1960s. In 2015, Congress directed the Air Force to replace DMSP with a new weather system. As of last year, the satellites in the DMSP constellation were reaching the end of their service life, and the Pentagon expressed concerns that they may not last until a new satellite is launched in 2024. ORS-8, a planned replacement slated to launch in 2020 in partnership with NASA, was canceled by the space agency following protests. A free-flying spacecraft that could help provide weather data in the interim was scrapped by the Pentagon last year in favor of a distributed low-Earth orbit architecture. Raytheon says it can design the new satellite in eight months by leveraging weather system technology used on the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer. Raytheon did not disclose the prototype contract value. “Our system will gather all the info needed to not only build an accurate weather forecast, but to really understand what's going on in the atmosphere — both of which are essential to planning and executing a mission,” said Wallis Laughrey, vice president of space and command-and-control systems at Raytheon Intelligence & Space. “Understanding clouds and cloud movement could be used for things as simple as route planning for air-to-air refueling or to know where clouds might be covering an area of interest.” https://www.c4isrnet.com/battlefield-tech/space/2020/07/29/raytheon-designing-weather-satellite-prototype-for-the-space-force/
13 décembre 2019 | International, Aérospatial, Naval, Terrestre, C4ISR, Sécurité

Contract Awards by US Department of Defense - December 12, 2019
NAVY Ameresco Select Inc., Framingham, Massachusetts, is awarded a firm-fixed-price task order (N39430-19-F-9901) at $402,833,556, under a multiple award indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for energy conservation measures at Norfolk Naval Shipyard, Portsmouth, Virginia. The work to be performed provides for the construction, operations and maintenance of energy conservations to improve energy efficiency and reliability, which include steam distribution upgrades to decrease steam energy loss, energy security upgrades for energy related process improvements, replacement of transformers to improve equipment reliability and water treatment plant improvements to reduce operational and safety risks. Work will be performed at Norfolk Naval Shipyard, Portsmouth, Virginia, and is expected to be completed by January 2043. No funds will be obligated with this award as private financing obtained by the contractor, will be used for the 36-month construction (i.e. implementation) phase of the project. Two proposals were received for this task order. The Naval Facilities Engineering Command Engineering and Expeditionary Warfare Center, Port Hueneme, California, is the contracting activity for the task order. Department of Energy, Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy, Golden, Colorado, is the contracting activity for the basic contract (DE-AM36-09GO29029). Lightforce USA Inc., doing business as Nightforce Optics,* Orofino, Idaho, is awarded a $53,735,930 firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract with a five-year ordering period for Precision-Variable Power Scopes (P-VPS). This procurement is for the P-VPS Standard and the P-VPS Standard, Long Range. The P-VPS is a precision direct view optic with continuously variable magnification ranging from 3x to less than or equal to 7x and greater than or equal to 25x continuous zoom for U.S. Special Operations Command. Work will be performed in Orofino, Idaho, and is expected to be complete by December 2024. Fiscal 2020 defense procurement funding in the amount of $2,351,124 will be obligated at the time of award and will expire at the end of the current continuing resolution period. This contract was competitively procured via the Federal Business Opportunities website with two offers received. The Naval Surface Warfare Center, Crane Division, Crane, Indiana, is the contracting activity (N00164-20-D-JQ57). Orion Construction Corp.,* Vista, California, is awarded a $32,363,000 firm-fixed-price contract for the construction of potable water distribution improvements at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, California. The work to be performed provides for the construction of potable water supply pipelines to transport potable water from the 24 Area to the 20 Area potable water storage tanks on Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton. This project provides necessary waterline valves, appurtenances and tie-ins to meet operational needs of the Southern Water System and meet applicable standards and codes. The contract also contains one unexercised deductive option, which, if exercised, would decrease cumulative contract value to $30,893,000. Work will be performed in Oceanside, California, and is expected to be completed by May 2022. Fiscal 2019 military construction, (Navy) contract funds in the amount of $32,363,000 are obligated on this award and the funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was competitively procured via the Navy Electronic Commerce Online website with two proposals received. The Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Southwest, San Diego, California, is the contracting activity (N62473-20-C-0612). Jacobs Technology Inc., Tullahoma, Tennessee, is awarded a $30,429,224 indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity modification for the exercise of Option One to extend services for base operations support services at Naval Station Mayport, Marine Corps Support Facility, Blount Island, and outlying areas. The work to be performed provides for base operations support services to include port operations, facility investment, custodial, pest control, integrated solid waste management, other (swimming pools), grounds maintenance and landscaping, utilities management, electrical, wastewater, steam, water, base support vehicles and equipment and environmental. After award of this option, the total cumulative contract value will be $61,139,761. Work will be performed in Jacksonville, Florida, Naval Station Mayport (62%); Blount Island (37%); and outlying areas (1%). This option period is from January 2020 to December 2020. No funds will be obligated at time of award. Fiscal 2020 operations and maintenance (Navy) (O&M,N); fiscal 2020 operations and maintenance (Marine Corps); fiscal 2020 Navy working capital funds; and fiscal 2020 family housing O&M,N contract funds in the amount of $24,895,628 for recurring work will be obligated on individual task orders issued during the option period. The Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Southeast, Jacksonville, Florida, is the contracting activity (N69450-18-D-1800). VLJM LLC,* Fullerton, California, is awarded a maximum $25,000,000 indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for paving construction alterations, renovations and repair projects at Naval Bases Ventura County, Port Hueneme, California. Projects will be primarily design-bid-build (fully designed) task orders or task order with minimal design effort (e.g. shop drawings). Projects may include, but are not limited to, alterations, repairs and construction of road paving projects. Work will be performed in Port Hueneme (50%); and Point Mugu (50%), California. The term of the contract is not to exceed 60 months with an expected completion date of December 2024. Fiscal 2020 operations and maintenance (Navy) (O&M,N) contract funds in the amount of $5,000 are obligated on this award and will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Future task orders will be primarily funded by O&M,N. This contract was competitively procured via the Navy Electronic Commerce Online website with three proposals received. The Naval Facilities Engineering Command Southwest, San Diego, California, is the contracting activity (N62473-20-D-0014). Lockheed Martin Corp., Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co., Fort Worth, Texas, is awarded an $18,055,674 modification (P00055) to a previously awarded cost-plus-incentive-fee contract (N00019-16-C-0004). This modification provides for the maintenance and operation of the Australia, Canada, United Kingdom Reprogramming Laboratory (ACURL). This effort includes sustainment support for all ACURL systems to include consumables for the F-35 aircraft in support of the governments of Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom. Work will be performed in Eglin, Florida, and is expected to be completed in February 2021. Non-U.S. Department of Defense participant funds in the amount of $18,055,674 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. Northrop Grumman, Charlottesville, Virginia, is awarded a $16,055,006 indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity (IDIQ), cost-plus-fixed-fee and firm-fixed-price delivery order for engineering and technical services for the design, development, testing, integration and system support of the AN/BPS-16(V)5 radar system. The work will be performed in Charlottesville, Virginia, and is expected to be completed by December 2020. The IDIQ ordering vehicle includes options, which, if exercised, would bring the cumulative value of this contract to $83,253,974 and expire in December 2024. Fiscal 2013 shipbuilding and conversion (Navy) funding in the amount of $410,000 will be obligated at time of award and will expire on Aug. 30, 2020. Fiscal 2019 other procurement (Navy) funding in the amount of $300,000 will be obligated at time of award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was not competitively procured under the authority of 10 U.S Code 2304(c)(1), as implemented by Federal Acquisition Regulation 6.302-1(a)(2)(ii), only one responsible source and no other supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington Navy Yard, District of Columbia, is the contracting activity (N00024-20-D-6203). Zero Waste Solutions Inc.,* Concord, California, is awarded a maximum $14,288,305 indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity firm-fixed-price contract for integrated solid waste management services at various Navy and Marine Corps installations within the San Diego metropolitan area, as well as three outlying naval training installations in the San Diego County area. The work to be performed provides for labor, supervision, management and materials (except those specified as government furnished), to perform various integrated solid waste management service functions as follows: refuse and recycling collection and disposal services. Initial task order is being awarded at $371,768 for integrated solid waste management services at Naval Base San Diego (45%); Marine Corps Air Station Miramar (24.2%); Naval Base Point Loma (23.7%); Marine Corps Recruit Depot (5.8%); Camp Michael Monsoor (0.6%); Remote Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape Camp Warner Springs (0.4%); and Camp Morena, California (0.3%). Work for this task order is expected to be completed by December 2020. The term of the contract is not to exceed 60 months with an expected completion date of December 2024. Fiscal 2020 operations and maintenance, Navy (O&M,N); operations and maintenance, Defense Health Program (O&M, DHP); and Navy working capital (NWC) contract funds in the amount of $371,768 are obligated on this award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Future task orders will be primarily funded by O&M,N; O&M, DHP; and NWC contract funds. This contract was competitively procured via the Federal Business Opportunities website with four proposals received. The Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Southwest, San Diego, California, is the contracting activity (N62473-20-D-0015). DMR Consulting Inc.,* Panama City Beach, Florida, is awarded an $8,991,202 firm-fixed-price modification to previously awarded contract N61331-19-D-0002 to exercise the option for the depot level repair, overhaul and modification for the MK-105 Magnetic Minesweeping Gear. This option exercise is for depot level repair and maintenance of the MK105 Magnetic Minesweeping Gear. The MK105 Magnetic Influence Minesweeping System, better known as the "sled," is a high-speed catamaran hydrofoil platform, which is towed behind the MH-53E helicopter and is used to sweep magnetic influence mines. Work will be performed in Panama City, Florida, and is expected to be completed by December 2020. The Naval Surface Warfare Center, Panama City Division, Panama City, Florida, is the contracting activity. ARMY HDR Architecture Inc., Seattle, Washington, was awarded a $25,000,000 firm-fixed-price contract for architectural and engineering. One bid was solicited with five bids received. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of Dec. 11, 2024. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Portland, Oregon, is the contracting activity (W9127N-20-D-0001). Weeks Marine Inc., Covington, Louisiana, was awarded a $13,071,000 firm-fixed-price contract for maintenance dredging. Bids were solicited via the internet with one received. Work will be performed in Plaquemines, Louisiana, with an estimated completion date of Dec. 31, 2020. Fiscal 2020 Recovery Act; civil works and operation and maintenance funds in the amount of $13,071,000 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, New Orleans, Louisiana, is the contracting activity (W912P8-20-C-0007). AIR FORCE The Boeing Co., Seattle, Washington, has been awarded a $12,011,819 firm-fixed-price contract modification (P00047) to previously-awarded contract FA8625-16-C-6599 for the incorporation of two engine Airworthiness Directives (ADs) and 29 engine service bulletins (SBs) on the program's eight Genx-2B engines. This contract modification will allow for VC-25B operational benefits and cost efficiencies with the work being performed concurrently with the VC-25B-specific modifications to the program's 747-8 aircraft engines under the engineering and manufacturing development activity. This contract modification will allow for the avoidance of increased costs and operational capability interruptions to the presidential aircraft by allowing for the incorporation of the ADs and SBs prior to final delivery of the VC-25B aircraft. Work will be performed at San Antonio, Texas; and Peebles, Ohio, and is expected to be completed by November 2021. This award is the result of a sole-source acquisition. Fiscal 2019 research and development funds in the amount of $7,831,032 are being obligated at the time of award. The Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, is the contracting activity. *Small Business https://www.defense.gov/Newsroom/Contracts/Contract/Article/2039244/source/GovDelivery/
1 avril 2020 | International, Naval

Damen making Progress with First two Contracts for the Combat Support Ship (CSS)
March 27, 2020 - Even during the Corona crisis, Damen is committed to remaining operational in order to continue the important projects for the Defence sector. The first two contracts for the Combat Support Ship (CSS) for the Royal Netherlands Navy were signed earlier this week, with a modified working method in accordance with the current guidelines of the Netherlands National Institute for Public Health and Environment. RH Marine, leading system integrator and innovator of bridge systems, electrical and automation systems in the maritime industry, and Heinen & Hopman, worldwide specialist in the field of heating, ventilation, air conditioning and refrigeration systems (HVAC + R systems), will immediately start engineering, while the first supplies of equipment for the CSS are expected by mid-2021. The Dutch subcontractors, our partners for all new construction projects for the Royal Netherlands Navy in recent decades, can now work together on more than 200 man-years of Dutch content. Together with Damen as main contractor and many other subcontractors participating, a large part of the Dutch naval shipbuilding sector are cooperating on this new and much needed ship. The delivery of the CSS is scheduled for the second quarter of 2024. A year later, in the second quarter of 2025, the CSS must be operational. (In the photo Mr. Hein van Ameijden, Managing Director, Damen Schelde Naval Shipbuilding) View source version on Damen: https://nlnavy.damen.com/damen-making-progress-with-first-two-contracts-for-the-combat-support-ship/

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