Senate moves forward on Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan aid bill

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  1 août 2019 | International, Aérospatial

  Integrated Hypersonic Plan Forms Amid Overlap Concerns

  WEST LAFAYETTE, Indiana—The U.S. Defense Department says data from an upcoming four-year test campaign covering 40 flights and three basic vehicle concepts will lay the foundation for a comprehensive hypersonic weapon road map that should allay growing congressional concerns over potential overlaps in costly weapons development capability. To a quarter of the tests, representing as many as 10 flights, will be focused on air-breathing scramjet-powered vehicles, says Mike White, assistant director for hypersonics at the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering. Speaking to Aerospace DAILY on the sidelines of the inaugural National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA) hypersonics capability conference at Purdue University here, White says test results from both boosted glide vehicle flights and powered missiles will form the basis for the integrated development plan. The overarching road map also will include the integration of a counter hypersonic development strategy, the preliminary steps toward which have been proposed by both the recently formed Space Development Agency (SDA) and the Missile Defense Agency. The SDA is studying a space-based distributed satellite architecture, while the latter has proposed a Hypersonic and Ballistic Tracking and Surveillance System (HBTSS). “Offensive and defensive coordination is my job,” White says. The bulk of the prototype tests will be conducted using the common hypersonic glide body (C-HGB). Developed by Sandia National Laboratories, the bi-conic re-entry vehicle has been adopted as the basis for near-term boosted glide weapons by the U.S. Air Force, Army and Navy, with only minor differences in each version planned to reflect the varying operational characteristics of each role. The Army, which plans to ground launch the Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon (LRHW) from transporter erector vehicles, is meanwhile making the first moves toward industrializing production of what up to now has been small batch manufacturing runs of experimental vehicles. The service has issued a solicitation for transition of the design and production capability of the initial prototype LRHW C-HGB variant out of Sandia into industry. A contract award is expected to be issued this month. Other versions of the C-HGB are in development for the Navy's vertically launched Intermediate Range Conventional Strike Weapon (IR-CPS), and the Air Force's Hypersonic Conventional Strike Weapon (HCSW). Underwater launch tests of the IR-CPS, which follows the successful Flight Experiment-1 test in October 2017, from the Pacific Missile Range Facility in Kauai, Hawaii, are due to run through 2024. The Air Force is scheduled to complete critical design review of the HCSW in 2020 prior to launch tests from a B-52. At least five other flight-test campaigns make up the remainder of the hectic four-year plan, three of which will be focused on the DARPA-led Tactical Boost Glide (TBG) vehicle and two proposed follow-on air-launched rapid response weapon (ARRW) vehicles in competitive development by Lockheed Martin and Raytheon. The balance are two air breathing vehicles, also in development by Lockheed/Aerojet Rocketdyne and Raytheon/Northrop Grumman, which will be evaluated under the Air Force's Hypersonic Air-Breathing Weapon Concept (HAWC) program. Despite the ongoing efforts to refine the hypersonic road map, the proliferation of prototype vehicle programs continues to cause concern in Congress. Warning that not all programs will receive the funding requested in the fiscal 2020 budget, Peter Visclosky, chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, says some reductions are planned. Commenting at the NDIA event, he says, “Justifications in the budget for this effort receive the same scrutiny as every other program in the department and unfortunately certain aspects of that 2020 budget request were lacking.” Without identifying particular initiatives, Visclosky adds, “There were cuts to those specific programs where the justifications did not lead to a review. Each of the services impacted have been made aware of the issues that the committee has raised and the need to better define the strategy for the investment in these systems.” Visclosky also cautions that hypersonics, which is provisionally funded with a budget of $2.3 billion for fiscal 2020 and $10.5 billion over the period to 2024, also faces broader threats at a time of increased spending on other high-profile defense programs. “I am concerned about affordability in the future because this is a competitive process,” he said. “We have a nuclear modernization process that is underway and there is going to be a bulge in the federal budget. There is a new submarine and there is going to be a bulge in the budget. It is the same for the new [B-21] bomber under development and, while the Army doesn't have that ‘one' new program, collectively for the modernization program there is going to be one. “We need to make sure there is a concerted effort for commonality and collaboration to a common technical standard and system architecture. I think this will drive better affordability into the sustainment of the system,” he adds. https://aviationweek.com/defense/integrated-hypersonic-plan-forms-amid-overlap-concerns

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  7 juillet 2020 | International, Aérospatial

  Europe must take on its own defense responsibilities

  By: Ian Bond As they look at the state of their coronavirus-hit economies and U.S. President Donald Trump's poor standing in opinion polls, many European leaders may be tempted to put on hold any plans to meet NATO's target of spending 2 percent of gross domestic product on defense. But Europeans need to wake up. Trump is not a reliable ally, and the damage he has done to the trans-Atlantic partnership is likely to linger. Trump's hostility to NATO has been obvious since he called into question its Article 5 mutual defense guarantee during his last presidential campaign. We now know, according to former national security adviser John Bolton's tell-all memoir, that Trump was ready to pull the U.S. out of NATO at its 2018 summit. In recent weeks Trump announced without warning that the U.S. will withdraw 9,500 — more than one quarter — of the 34,500 troops it has stationed in Germany because the German government is not spending enough on defense. Then at a Washington press conference with Polish President Andrzej Duda, Trump said a large number of NATO countries were “delinquent” and declared that Europe was taking “tremendous advantage of the United States on trade.” Trump may not understand how NATO works or the value to the U.S. of having troops in Germany, but it is true that the U.S. carries a disproportionately large share of the financial burden of defending Europe. During his presidency, Barack Obama also accused Europe of being “complacent” about its own defense — though he was rather more diplomatic. Only a handful of European NATO members have met the alliance's target of spending 2 percent of GDP on defense over the past 20 years, while the U.S. has consistently exceeded it, spending 3.1-4.9 percent. But Europe's problem is not just the amount it spends on defense, but the inefficiency and ineffectiveness of its spending: Europeans get far too many systems and far too little military capability for their money. The European Commission's 2017 fact sheet on European defense reported that European Union member states operated 178 different major weapons systems; the U.S. had only 30. EU member states have 17 different types of main battle tank; the U.S. has one. This proliferation of weapons systems leads to high unit costs for short production runs, and a lack of interoperability. And European spending is not directed to ensuring that troops can fight when needed. The European members of NATO have almost 1.9 million active-duty troops, while the U.S. has 1.3 million and Russia about 900,000. But very few of the European forces can be deployed in a crisis. Politically and economically, this is a bad time to try to get European politicians to think seriously about increasing and rationalizing defense spending. The EU's economic forecast for spring 2020 foresees a contraction in real GDP of 7.4 percent this year, albeit followed by an increase of 6.1 percent in 2021. Some of Europe's biggest investors in defense are in NATO but not in the EU. The U.K. accounted for 16 percent of defense spending in Europe in 2019, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. But despite some early promise, Britain seems to have lost interest in any institutionalized cooperation with the EU on foreign and security policy. Relations between the EU and NATO member Turkey, which accounted for another 7 percent of European defense spending last year, have rarely been worse. Despite such difficulties, the fact that NATO and the EU are currently both reassessing the security environment presents an opportunity for a more joint approach. NATO is engaged in the #NATO2030 process, which Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg hopes will strengthen political consultation in the alliance. Meanwhile, by the end of 2020 the EU aims to complete a process to assess the threats it faces, which the bloc calls its “strategic compass.” These two efforts need to complement each other to produce a shared view of the threats to Europe, and the creation of a forum for political dialogue on security where European countries, regardless of whether they belong to both the EU and NATO, can discuss appropriate responses. Europe's ability to counter threats will depend on making its money go further by spending it efficiently, both nationally and multilaterally. The commission should do more to ensure that more defense procurement involves competitive tendering, rather than member states awarding contracts to national champions. But it should not try to shut defense firms from non-EU NATO countries out of the European market. The commission stands more chance of influencing the research and procurement decisions of member states if it has a substantial budget to dangle in front of them. It should keep pushing back against cuts proposed earlier in the year to the defense elements of the EU's next seven-year budget. And the commission needs to be more open to the participation of “friendly” countries in EU-funded programs. Joe Biden, a former U.S. vice president and a contender in the current presidential race, would be an easier president for Europeans to work with than Trump has been. But Biden's victory in November is not guaranteed. Moreover, the forces in U.S. society that propelled Trump to power in 2016 will still exist, and may return in 2024. Even if they would rather pretend that nothing is changing, the EU and as many non-EU, Europe-based NATO members as are willing to do so need to pay attention to Trump's message. And they need to start thinking about how to defend Europe and deter potential adversaries with reduced U.S. help. Ian Bond is the director of foreign policy at the Centre for European Reform think tank. He was a member of the British diplomatic service for 28 years, most recently serving as political counselor and joint head of the foreign and security policy group in the British Embassy in the United States. https://www.defensenews.com/opinion/commentary/2020/07/03/europe-must-take-on-its-own-defense-responsibilities/

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  18 janvier 2021 | International, Aérospatial, Naval, Terrestre, C4ISR, Sécurité

  Contract Awards by US Department of Defense - January 15, 2021

  MISSILE DEFENSE AGENCY Lockheed Martin Space, Sunnyvale, California, is being awarded a sole-source, cost-plus-incentive-fee, cost-plus-fixed-fee, firm-fixed-price definite contract under a Foreign Military Sales (FMS) case to the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The total value of this contract is $254,708,912. Under this follow-on contract, the contractor will provide maintenance and sustainment for two Terminal High Altitude Area Defense batteries for UAE. The maintenance and sustainment scope of work includes providing logistics management, logistics product database, training, missile and ground repair and return, hardware/software development and sustainment, hardware in the loop, engineering services, missile field surveillance program and country unique specialty engineering for FMS client. The work will be performed in Sunnyvale, California; Grande Prairie, Texas; Camden, Arkansas; Huntsville, Alabama; Anniston, Alabama; and Troy, Alabama. The performance period is from Jan. 15, 2021, through Jan. 14, 2026. One offer was solicited and one offer was received. UAE FMS funds in the amount of $254,708,912 will be used to fund this effort. The Missile Defense Agency, Huntsville, Alabama, is the contracting activity (HQ0147-19-C-5001). NAVY Huntington Ingalls Industries Fleet Support Group, Newport News, Virginia, is awarded a $174,910,371 cost-plus-fixed-fee, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract to provide Navy aircraft carrier Elevator Support Unit maintenance and repair. Work will be performed aboard Navy CVNs (aircraft carrier nuclear propulsion) within the continental U.S.; outside the continental U.S.; and forward deployed locations according to individual task orders, and is expected to be completed by January 2026. No funds will be obligated at the time of award. Funding will be obligated on individual orders as they are issued. This contract was competitively procured and solicited via the beta.SAM.gov website. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity (N00024-21-D-4103). CSRA LLC, Washington, D.C., is awarded a $57,000,000 modification (P00002) to previously awarded, firm-fixed-price, cost-plus-fixed-fee, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract N61340-18-D-0002. This modification increases the ceiling to provide the Navigation Seamanship Shiphandling Trainers program, training systems and upgrades to meet fleet emergent requirements based on the Chief of Naval Operations mandated expansion in navigation related training hours and navigation related training capability at schoolhouses throughout the world. Work will be performed in Norfolk, Virginia (44%); Everett, Washington (14%); Pearl Harbor, Hawaii (14%); Yokosuka, Japan (14%); Rota, Spain (13%); San Diego, California (0.5%); and Sasebo, Japan (0.5%), and is expected to be completed in September 2022. No funds will be obligated at time of award and funds will be issued against individual orders as they are issued. The Naval Air Warfare Center, Training Systems Division, Orlando, Florida, is the contracting activity. EG Designbuild LLC,* Germantown, Maryland, is awarded a $16,239,000 firm-fixed-price task order (N69450-21-F-0872) under previously-awarded multiple-award contract N69450-19-D-0919 for construction of a Special Operations Forces watercraft maintenance facility at Naval Air Station, Key West, Florida. The task order also contains three unexercised options which, if exercised, would increase the cumulative task order value to $18,385,020. The work to be performed includes construction of a new maintenance facility for the repair of special operations forces' hard-hulled and soft-hulled watercraft, including electrical, mechanical, plumbing and fire protection utilities. This includes demolition of the existing bunker, KW-800, currently used as a climate-controlled exercise facility by facility personnel; construction of a new vehicular entrance ramp and exit ramp to the maintenance facility; and modifications to the existing storm water permit to address the new construction. The options, if exercised, provide for a hard-hull shop, vehicular ramp and overhead cooling door, and furniture, fixtures and equipment. Three proposals were received for this task order. Work will be performed in Key West, Florida, and is expected to be completed by October 2022. Fiscal 2020 military construction (Army) funds in the amount of $16,239,000 will be obligated at time of award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command, Southeast, Jacksonville, Florida, is the contracting activity. Lockheed Martin Corp., Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co., Fort Worth, Texas, is awarded a $13,036,252 cost-plus-fixed-fee order (N00019-21-F-0227) against previously issued basic ordering agreement N00019-19-G-0008. This modification procures non-recurring site stand-up activity, capability development, information technology systems integration and associated changes to F-35 Lightning II program and industry processes as needed to allow the Defense Logistics Agency and U.S. Transportation Command to assume North American regional warehouse and global transportation and distribution product support provider responsibilities. Work will be performed in Fort Worth, Texas (63.9%); Orlando, Florida (26.6%); Bethesda, Maryland (8.5%); and Greenville, South Carolina (1%), and is expected to be completed in March 2022. Fiscal 2021 aircraft procurement (Navy) funds in the amount of $6,518,126; and fiscal 2019 aircraft procurement (Air Force) funds in the amount of $6,518,126, will be obligated at time of award, $6,518,126 of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity. EC America Inc., McLean, Virginia, is awarded a $9,053,930 firm-fixed-price order (M67854-21-F-4906) against previously issued Department of Defense Enterprise Initiative blanket purchase agreement N66001-19-A-0057. This blanket purchase agreement call order provides for the renewal of Tanium brand software license subscriptions currently deployed in the Marine Corps Enterprise Network environment and associated onsite technical support in Quantico, Virginia (100%). Fiscal 2021 operation and maintenance (Marine Corps) funds in the amount of $9,053,930 will be obligated at the time of award and funds will expire Sept. 30, 2021. This was a limited-source acquisition in accordance with the policy and guidelines in the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement, Section 208.74 and the Federal Acquisition Regulation, Part 8.405-6. The Marine Corps Systems Command, Quantico, Virginia, is the contracting activity (M67854-21-F-4906). Raytheon Missiles & Defense, Tewksbury, Massachusetts, is awarded an $8,963,961 cost-plus-incentive-fee modification to previously awarded contract N00024-17-C-5145 to exercise options for DDG 1000 ship class integrated logistics support. The Total Ship Activation (TSA) contract includes mission system activation, hull mechanical and electrical activation efforts to include waterfront integration, activation and test of Zumwalt class mission systems and mission system equipment at the system and subsystem levels; development and conduct of the Zumwalt class TSA test program; personnel, program management, planning, training and other efforts required to effectively support the execution of the Zumwalt class TSA; development and review of design drawings, technical data packages, installation control drawings and change documentation in support of Zumwalt class TSA; and development and implementation of government-approved proposed changes and the implementation of Zumwalt class cybersecurity/information assurance requirements. Work will be performed in Portsmouth, Rhode Island (50%); and Tewksbury, Massachusetts (50%), and is expected to be completed by January 2022. Fiscal 2020 shipbuilding and conversion (Navy) funding in the amount of $138,349 will be obligated at time of award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was procured under the statutory authority of 10 U.S. Code 2304(c)(1). Only one responsible source and no other supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity. AIR FORCE Continuus Pharmaceuticals Inc., Woburn, Massachusetts, has been awarded a $69,300,000 firm-fixed-price contract to develop a domestic production capability for critical active pharmaceutical ingredients and final dosage form medicines using their proprietary integrated continuous manufacturing technology. These medicines are currently used to treat critically ill COVID-19 patients. Work will be performed in Woburn, Massachusetts, and is expected to be completed April 15, 2023. Fiscal 2021 other procurement funds in the full amount are being obligated at the time of award. Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, Robins Air Force Base, Georgia, is the contracting activity (FA8505-20-S-0002). Mile Two LLC, Dayton, Ohio, has been awarded a $14,788,874 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for support to the Air Force Research Laboratory Autonomy Capabilities Team Three mission through the development of production level software systems and rapid prototyping of new operational concepts that leverage best practices for application development operations by expanding, extending, or enhancing work performed under the Air Force Small Business Innovation Research Phase II, Air Force Topic 183-005, FA8751-19-C-A048, entitled “TechSuite: TechScout and Project Tracking Prototype Applications.” Work will be performed in Dayton, Ohio, and is expected to be completed Jan. 15, 2026. Fiscal 2020 research, development, test and evaluation funds in the amount of $2,297,394, will be obligated at the time of award. Air Force Research Laboratory, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, is the contracting activity (FA8751-19-C-A048). ARMY Nordic Industries Inc., Olivehurst, California, was awarded a $29,554,401 firm-fixed-price contract for construction of approximately 1.8 miles of varying types of seepage cutoff walls. Bids were solicited via the internet with four received. Work will be performed in Sacramento, California, with an estimated completion date of Dec. 15, 2021. Fiscal 2018 civil construction funds in the amount of $29,554,401 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Sacramento, California, is the contracting activity (W91238-21-C-0010). DynCorp International LLC, Fort Worth, Texas, was awarded a $27,700,947 modification (P00028) to contract W58RGZ-16-C-0016 for maintenance support services for Saudi Arabia's Royal Saudi Land Forces Aviation Command Aviation program. Work will be performed in Saudi Arabia, with an estimated completion date of Jul. 31, 2022. Fiscal 2021 Foreign Military Sales funds in the amount of $27,700,947 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, is the contracting activity. DEFENSE ADVANCED RESEARCH PROJECTS AGENCY Raytheon Co., Tewksbury, Massachusetts, was awarded a $10,448,906 cost-plus-fixed-fee completion contract for a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency research project for the Joint All-Domain Warfighting Software (JAWS) program. JAWS seeks to develop a software suite to maximize the effectiveness of military force through theater scale battle management command and control with automation and predictive analytics. This capability would develop the enabling software for the warfighter to adaptably setup and execute synchronized kill webs encompassing the undersea, sea surface, land, air, space and electromagnetic domains. Work will be performed in Tewksbury, Massachusetts (59%); Cambridge, Massachusetts (11%); Richardson, Texas (3%); McKinney, Texas (8%); Centennial, Colorado (1%); Nashua, New Hampshire (3%); and Woburn, Massachusetts (15%), with an expected completion date of April 2022. Fiscal 2020 research, development, test and evaluation funds in the amount of $1,000,000; and fiscal 2021 research, development, test and evaluation funds in the amount of $2,918,181, are being obligated at the time of award. This contract was a competitive acquisition in which 12 offers were received. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Arlington, Virginia, is the contracting activity (HR0011-21-C-0010). *Small business https://www.defense.gov/Newsroom/Contracts/Contract/Article/2474326/source/GovDelivery/