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  23 juillet 2020 | International, Naval

  ManTech wins IT contract to support US Navy ship maintenance

  Andrew Eversden WASHINGTON — ManTech has won an $87 million contract for IT work on U.S. Naval Sea Systems Command's ship maintenance mission, the company announced July 22. Under the five-year contract, ManTech will support the Navy Maritime Maintenance Enterprise Solution, or NMMES, run by NAVSEA. ManTech will provide the command with advanced IT software research, development and engineering, according to a news release. The defense contractor will “accelerate cost-efficient software development cycle times, speeding maintenance activity access to the highest quality high-technology solutions with greater leverage on an expansive data library,” the release said. “ManTech will improve the quality, integration and efficiency of the NMMES architecture to enhance ship maintenance operations and improve readiness for the Navy's most critical surface and submarine platforms,” said Andy Twomey, ManTech executive vice president and general manager of the defense sector. The executive added that the solutions include robotic process automation, agile DevSecOps software modeling and artificial intelligence-automated cybersecurity. NNMES is an IT system used for ship repair at its four public shipyards: Norfolk, Virginia; Portsmouth, Virginia; Puget Sound, Washington; and Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The award was made under the Department of Defense Information Analysis Center's multiple award contract vehicle, which is awarded by the Air Force Installation Contracting Center for work with various military organizations https://www.c4isrnet.com/battlefield-tech/it-networks/2020/07/22/mantech-wins-it-contract-to-support-us-navy-ship-maintenance/

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  25 juillet 2019 | International, Autre défense

  Newly installed SecDef: The budget deal provides a ‘good’ number for defense

  By: Aaron Mehta WASHINGTON – Newly installed U.S. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper says he is happy with the two-year budget deal's recommendation for the Pentagon, despite it being $12 billion less than what the White House requested for fiscal 2020. Speaking to press just hours after taking office, Esper also said he is focused on filling empty spots at the Pentagon as quickly as possible to “make sure we have that civilian control of the military” firmly in place. The Trump administration's request for defense in FY20 was $750 billion, a number Democrats in Congress tried to reduce to $733 billion. The nearly $1.4 trillion spending plan announced Monday — which would prevent a government shutdown this fall and do away with the final two years of budget caps known as sequestration — includes about $738 billion in military funding for FY20. That's a 3 percent increase from current-year levels, which seems fine with the man now running America's military. “$738 [billion] is a good number. We also have two years. We expect to see two years' worth of numbers. To the degree we have predictability, to the degree we can avoid [continuing resolutions], those things allow us to plan and make more efficient use of our dollars,” Esper said. “So I'm good with those dollars. No complaints.” Esper is the first confirmed defense secretary since Jim Mattis resigned at the end of last year. But a number of spots — including 14 of 59 political spots, and four of the top six roles in the department — are still filled by acting individuals, something Esper highlighted as an issue he's hoping to quickly address. “My perspective was from a service secretary and I think it's always challenging — people in acting jobs, when you don't feel the full confidence in the role, sometimes folks tend to maybe not behave as confidently because you're unsure and you also don't want to bind the person-who-may-actually-be-confirmed's hands,” he said, adding he does not think the open spots impacted operations. “We need to get staffed up quickly,” he said. “We have to get stable leadership.” One of those empty spots is Army secretary, now vacant with Esper's promotion. Ryan McCarthy, the service undersecretary, has been nominated to fill the full role. Asked about advice for his successor, Esper joked that he hopes McCarthy won't “break anything,” before saying he expects McCarthy's nomination to arrive at the Senate in a “matter of days.” “His paperwork is at the White House, and everybody we put forth needs to be thoroughly vetted. So I think he should soon be coming out of the process,” Esper said. “The question is if it will be soon enough for the Senate Armed Services Committee to do its due diligence in a timely matter.” The secretary has also asked for new guidance to be issued to the field to inform service members on the “very important role of media and press” in society. https://www.defensenews.com/pentagon/2019/07/24/newly-installed-secdef-the-budget-deal-provides-a-good-number-for-defense/

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  25 février 2019 | International, Terrestre, C4ISR

  Raytheon will participate in Army missile defense radar ‘sense-off’

  By: Jill Aitoro WASHINGTON — Raytheon will participate in a missile defense radar “sense-off” to test designs that could be included in the U.S. Army's Integrated Air and Missile Defense system under development. The Army announced plans for the sense-off in October, resetting the approach for the Lower Tier Air and Missile Defense Sensor, or LTAMDS, program that has struggled to bring about a new radar for well over a decade. The sense-off is “separate and distinct” from contracts awarded to Raytheon and Lockheed Martin last fallto come up with design concepts for a new missile defense radar, according to Bob Kelly, Raytheon's director for integrated air and missile defense in the company's Integrated Defense Systems division, who spoke with reporters Thursday. According to an Oct. 29 notice posted to the Federal Business Opportunities website, the sense-off will take place this spring at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico. Each vendor with a radar will have roughly two weeks on the range to demonstrate capabilities. A down-select will happen by the end of the year. “We can meet the timeline for both the sense off and initial operational capability in fiscal year 2022,” Kelly said. However, it's unclear what this means for the prior technology development program. Kelly said that effort remains relevant, with the contract ongoing, but referred any further questions about its status to the Army. “Our developmental efforts — what we do for one, it serves the other as well,” he said. “We were both [Raytheon and Lockheed Martin] going to develop prototypes. But with the sense-off, we're doing it faster,” and with more competitors. The sense-off strategy accelerates the timeline by a couple of years, Kelly said. The other lingering question is whether the LTAMDS will include 360-degree coverage — a high priority for the Army, but seemingly one downsized in importance for the LTAMDS effort. “The threshold is not for a 360-degree radar,” Kelly said, adding that Raytheon's base design does include the capability. “We have a lot of scalability in our system, so if the Army decides they don't want [360-degree coverage], we can give them the opportunity in the future to upgrade.” The Raytheon-made Patriot air and missile defense radar was first fielded in the 1980s, and the Army attempted to replace the system with Lockheed Martin's Medium Extended Air Defense System through a co-development effort with Germany and Italy. But that program was canceled in the U.S. after closing out a proof-of-concept phase roughly six years ago. Since then, the Army has studied and debated how to replace the Patriot radar with one that has 360-degree detection capability, while Raytheon continues to upgrade its radar to keep pace with current threats. It is acknowledged that there will come a point where that radar will not be able to go up against future threats. “The Patriot remains exceptional” today, Kelly said. “LTAMDS is looking out beyond tomorrow.” https://www.defensenews.com/land/2019/02/21/raytheon-will-participate-in-army-missile-defense-sense-off/