Nouvelles

Andrew Eversden WASHINGTON — The U.S. Army is seeing improvements in anti-jam capabilities in new radios crucial to securing manned-unmanned communications at its annual Network Modernization Experiment. At NetModX '20, which runs from late July to early October at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in New Jersey, the Army's Combat Capabilities Development Command's C5ISR Center — or Command, Control, Communication, Computers, Cyber, Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance Center — is testing the resiliency of the new radios. The effort will help the service observe how they would perform in the field as the Army looks to partner humans and machines. Initial data from the event suggests the two companies involved — Silvus and Persistent Systems — have improved their radio capabilities from last year, specifically in regard to anti-jam, according to Daniel Duvak, chief of the C5ISR Center's Radio Frequency Communications division. But one major challenge is making the radios less detectable as the Army's tactical network team starts to focus on command post survivability — or reducing the electromagnetic signature of command post communications — while not sacrificing latency and throughput. “If you want to make it less detectable, you know oftentimes you have to trade off the throughput or the range or one of those other products,” Duvak said. “So that's the piece and the real technical challenge that they're continuing to work on over the next few months. We've seen progress that they've made in those areas, but that's the piece that they're still working on.” Robert Stevens, an electronics engineer at the Radio Frequency Communications division, told C4ISRNET that the radios are an important piece of the next-generation combat vehicle. And Duvak said the Army's tactical network modernization team — made up of the Network Cross-Functional Team and Program Executive Office Command, Control, Communications-Tactical — wants to use the radios as a mid-tier radio solution. The development and fielding of new science and technology projects can take more than five years; however, the Army wants to speed that up as it seeks to modernize systems in preparation for future conflicts with near-peer adversaries. At last year's Network Modernization Experiment, the C5ISR Center tested several vendors' radios to see where commercial technology stood. Alternative contracting options, like broad agency announcements as well as cooperative research and development agreements, have proved critical to quickening radio development. Under the contracting mechanisms, vendors and the Army have more flexibility to experiment with radios and make iterative modifications as requirements change. Duvak said this is different from how the Army did business years ago, when it would award yearslong contracts but eventually receive radios that no longer met current requirements. “What we were able to do at this program was, in just about a year and a half of development time, take a couple of those products that we saw that were very promising and we were able to add and actually fund vendors to enhance those radios with those resiliency features that we were just talking about for the contested environment,” Duvak said. “Things like making them anti-jam, or more difficult for the adversary to jam, making them more difficult for the adversary to detect or intercept our communications.” Duvak said the Army wants the new radio capabilities for Capability Set '23, a collection of new tactical network tools to be fielded to soldiers in fiscal 2023. The resiliency of communications is critical as the tactical network modernization team pivots to reduce the electronic signature of the service's command post under Capability Set '23. The team is looking to increase bandwidth and reduce latency as part of that set of tools. Preliminary design review for Capability Set '23 is scheduled for April next year. https://www.c4isrnet.com/battlefield-tech/it-networks/2020/09/21/new-us-army-radios-show-anti-jam-progress-at-network-experiment/

David B. Larter WASHINGTON — The U.S. Navy, beset by maintenance delays, is making progress on getting its ships out of the shipyards on time, fleet officials say. Over the past three years, the Navy is on track to more than double the percentage of ships getting out of maintenance on time, key to the service's efforts to make deployments more sustainable for its ships and sailors, Capt. Dave Wroe, U.S. Fleet Forces Command's deputy fleet readiness officer told Defense News in an email. “On-time ship maintenance availability completion rates in private shipyards improved from 24% in FY18 to 37% in FY19,” Wroe said. “Current performance trends in FY20 are projected to be 65%.” The improvement is a sign that the Navy may be turning the corner on a fight to restore readiness from its nadir in the early part of the last decade, when the Navy was running ragged filling unsustainable requirements for forces around the globe. Getting ships through their maintenance cycles on time is the linchpin of what the Navy calls its “optimized fleet response plan,” which is the system through which the Navy generates deployable ships that are maintained, manned and trained. Late last year and again in January, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Michael Gilday told audiences that repeated delays in the shipyards was undermining the Navy's Optimized Fleet Response Plan, and turning that around was vital. “We are getting 35 to 40 percent of our ships out of maintenance on time: that's unacceptable,” Gilday said at the USNI Defense Forum in December. “I can't sustain the fleet I have with that kind of track record.” A recent Government Accountability Office report found that between 2015 and 2019, only 25 percent of the Navy's maintenance periods for ships and submarines. Improvements Getting out of that hole has been difficult for a number of reasons: High operational demand for Navy forces makes planning maintenance difficult, and inevitably when the ships go into maintenance after years of hard use, workers discover more work that needs to be done, creating delays. And those delays make executing OFRP difficult, Wroe said. “OFRP provides the construct to best assess and optimize readiness production — down to a unit level — taking into account all the various competing factors to produced Navy readiness,” Wroe said. “Bottom line: OFRP helps mitigate fundamental points of friction, such as shipyard capacity and manning gaps at sea — but in itself doesn't solve key degraders like depot level maintenance delays and extensions.” But some key factors in the delays have been identified and the Navy is working to mitigate them, Fleet Forces Commander Adm. Chris Grady said this week at this week's Fleet Maintenance and Modernization Symposium. One area that has a tendency to drive delays is when workers discover things that need to be fixed, the fix may not cost much but the adjustment must go through an approval process that slows everything down. Those kinds of changes add up to about 70 percent of the so-called “growth work.” Part of it is anticipating and building in ways to deal with growth work into every maintenance period, and the other part is making it easier to address small changes to the scope of the work, Grady said. “When we began this initiative, cycle time for the small value changes averaged about 30 days,” he said “We're now at six and aim to bring it down further to only two days.” Other things that have helped the problem has been bundling maintenance periods for ships, meaning that contractors bid on multiple ships to fix, and can plan hiring further out, Grady said. Additionally, improving base access for contractors has helped, as well. “Last year, we averaged 110 days delayed per ship in private avails,” Grady said, using the short-hand term for “maintenance availability.” “Things much better this year — even with COVID-19,” he continued. “We go from about one-third avails finishing on-time to two-thirds. That is great. But, again, each delay has real impact on our readiness, and we need to keep working together to do better.” What happened? Because the U.S. Navy is set up to meet standing presence requirements and missions around the world, it must cycle its ships through a system of tiered readiness. That means ships go on deployment fully manned, trained and equipped. Then the ships come home, and after a period of sustained readiness where the ship can be redeployed, it goes into a reduced readiness status while undergoing maintenance. Following maintenance, the ship and crew goes into a training cycle for another deployment as an individual unit, then as a group, then returns to deployment. The whole cycle takes 36 months: Rinse and repeat. OFRP was designed in the 2013-2014 time-frame when the Navy was deploying well beyond its means, with carrier strike groups and amphibious ready groups going out for nine-to-10 months at a time. The excess use wore hard on the ships and sailors who manned them and put more wear on the hulls than they were designed to sustain. That meant that when ships went in for maintenance they were more broken than they were supposed to be, and funding to fix them was hampered by spending cuts. For nuclear ships — submarines and aircraft carriers — the funding cuts were a double whammy of work stoppages and furloughs that contributed to a wave of retirements in the yards, meaning the public yards were understaffed and had to hire and train new workers. Work took longer, throwing a wrench into an already complicated system of generating readiness. All that added up to significant delays in getting ships through their maintenance cycles and contributed to astonishing delays in attack submarine maintenance especially. What OFRP was meant to do was create a system whereby the Navy could meet combatant commander demands but not break the system. That meant that the Navy would generate as much readiness as it possibly could but that the demand would have to be limited to what the Navy could reasonably maintain, man, train and equip. But getting to that system has been immensely difficult because of the deep hole the Navy dug meeting requirements that well outstripped funding and supply. For example, there was a two year period when the service was forced to supply two carrier strike groups to the Arabian Gulf at all times, a requirement only canceled when automatic across-the-board spending cuts in 2013 made it impossible for the Navy to fund the two-carrier requirement. Adding to the difficulty: some of OFRP's founding requirements were nigh impossible to pull off. One was that the all the ships in group would go into and come out of their maintenance availabilities on time and together. Another was that a group would go into the first phase of their training, the so-called basic phase right after coming out of maintenance, fully manned. Both have been immensely difficult to pull off. But Fleet Forces, headed then by OFRP architect Adm. Phil Davidson, was given ample warning that those assumptions would be difficult to achieve. Then-NAVSEA head Vice Adm. William Hilarides told USNI News in January 2015 that getting ships to come out of the yards simultaneously would be hard. “The challenge to me is, let's say you want four destroyers in a battle group, all to come out at the same time in one port? That's a real challenge,” Hilarides told USNI News. The current head of NAVSEA, who at the time was in charge of the Regional Maintenance Center enterprise, backed up his boss to USNI News, saying it would be particularly challenging in places with less infrastructure. “Your big rub there is, the challenge of OFRP is ... all those ships [in a carrier strike group], they go through maintenance together, they go through training together and they deploy together,” said then-Rear Adm. William Galinis. "So, what our challenge is, is to be able to take all that work from all those ships and try to schedule it for roughly about the same time, and to get all that work done on time. So that's our challenge. “Now, in a port like Norfolk or San Diego, we have big shipyards, a lot of people, a lot of ships. You can kind of absorb that type of workload. When you go to Mayport, they've got like 10 ships down there [and typically cannot work on more than one or two destroyers at a time.],” he told USNI. Galinis said that Fleet Forces would have to be responsive to the shipyards because at least that way they could plan for delays. “They know if they give us all this work at one time, it's going to go long anyway,” he told USNI. “So they'd rather be able to plan that and at least know when they're getting the ship back, as opposed to, ‘nope, we're not going to talk to you, you've got to go do it,' and then the ships go long because we don't have enough people to do the work.” Fleet Forces Command has been reviewing its assumptions this year and is preparing to release a revised OFRP instruction, but the core is likely to remain the same. In any case, Wroe said in the email, it was always going to take a long time to dig out of the hole the Navy found itself in when OFRP was implemented fully in 2015. “It was clear at the inception of OFRP, and remains clear today, that it will take the entire 2015-2025 period to recover readiness and establish stable readiness production,” Wroe said. “That makes sense when readiness production is planned over 9-years and large blocks of time have already been scheduled for depot maintenance periods.” Ultimately, if the process of OFRP is funded correctly and ships can get out of maintenance on time, it's a sound way of moving forward, Fleet Forces Commander Grady told the audience this week. “My bottom line here is that, as a process, OFRP works,” he said. “If we are looking where to improve upon it, each of these studies came to the same conclusion: the biggest inhibitor to fleet readiness is maintenance and modernization performance in the shipyards. We simply must get better, and I know you share my concern.” https://www.defensenews.com/naval/2020/09/19/is-the-us-navy-winning-the-war-on-maintenance/

Nathan Strout Relativity Space wants to be the first company to launch an entirely 3D-printed rocket into orbit and it wants the Pentagon as a customer. While the COVID-19 pandemic has thrown a wrench into plans, a growing number of companies are looking to provide small and medium launch services to the U.S. government. The establishment of the U.S. Space Force, Space Development Agency and U.S. Space Command in 2019 signaled the Pentagon's ambitious plans for launching more payloads into space, and providing a vehicle for just a portion of those launches would prove lucrative to any company. For Vice President of Business Development and Government Affairs Josh Brost, Relativity Space stands out from the competition, bringing disruptive 3D printing technology to bear on the small launch sector. Prior to joining Relativity, he worked at SpaceX for nine years, where he was responsible for the company's government sales. Even as the company works toward the launch of its first Terran One rocket in fall 2021, Relativity has worked to secure contracts in the commercial world. In June, the company announced it had secured a deal with Iridium Communications for six dedicated launches to low Earth orbit, with the first launch taking place no earlier than 2023. That same month, Relativity also announced a Right of Entry Agreement with the 30th Space Wing for development of rocket launch facilities at Vandenberg Air Force Base. Recently, Brost and Relativity Space co-founder and CEO Tim Ellis spoke with C4ISRNET about how the company plans to win launch contracts with the U.S. government. https://www.c4isrnet.com/battlefield-tech/space/2020/09/21/how-relativity-space-plans-to-win-the-pentagons-launch-contracts/

Seapower Staff LOCKPORT, La.–Bollinger Shipyards LLC (“Bollinger”) will construct a state-of-the-art, floating dry dock for General Dynamics Electric Boat to support the construction and maintenance of the United States' new Columbia-class ballistic-missile submarines, the company said in a Sept. 16 release. “Bollinger Shipyards is pleased to expand our current relationship with Electric Boat and to play a critical role in increasing the number of U.S. built dry docks to meet the expanding need to modernize and refurbish our nation's aging fleet,” said Ben Bordelon, Bollinger president and chief executive officer. “We're honored to have been selected to build this dry dock, which will be a national asset, to meet the complex needs of our Navy's fleet modernization plans. To build 21st century American vessels, it requires 21st century American tools and equipment manufactured here in the United States. Bollinger is committed to continuing to be a leader in pushing our industry forward and ensuring that the U.S. industrial base is fully self-sufficient.” The detail design engineering will be performed at the Bollinger facility in Lockport, Louisiana. The concept and contract design for the 618-foot-by-140-foot dry dock was performed by the Bristol Harbor Group in Rhode Island. The dry dock is scheduled to be delivered to Electric Boat's Groton Connecticut shipyard in 2024. Electric Boat is the prime contractor on the design and build of the of the Columbia Class submarine, which will replace the aging Ohio-class ballistic-missile submarines. This is Bollinger Shipyards' second contract awarded with General Dynamics Electric Boat. In late 2019, Bollinger Shipyards was selected to construct the 395ft x 100ft Ocean Transport Barge for Electric Boat, scheduled to be delivered in 2021. https://seapowermagazine.org/bollinger-awarded-contract-for-floating-dry-dock-for-columbia-ssbn/

The British Armed Forces are engaged in a technology race—as opposed to an arms race—as they look to gain the advantage in the government's upcoming Integrated Review. Ministers have promised that the... https://aviationweek.com/defense-space/budget-policy-operations/raf-targets-technology-review-shapes-uk-armed-forces

Sebastian Sprenger COLOGNE, Germany — The defense ministers of Germany and France have pushed for speedy progress in the Eurodrone program, urging member nations to initiate the aircraft's development phase before the end of the year. The high-level endorsement means a shot in the arm for a weapons program that has slipped under the radar since Airbus, Dassault and Leonardo unveiled a mock-up drone at the April 2018 Berlin Air Show. While French Armed Forces Minister Florence Parly said she hopes to see the next phase begin by year's end, her German counterpart, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, expressed hope any outstanding issues, which mostly involve cost, could be resolved “in the next few weeks.” The two leaders spoke at Manching, Germany, Airbus' hub for the Eurodrone project and a company site for another key European program, the Future Combat Air System. The unmanned aircraft's official name is “European MALE RPAS,” using acronyms for medium-altitude, long-endurance, remotely piloted aircraft system. The pan-European Organisation for Joint Armament Cooperation manages it on behalf of Germany, France, Italy and Spain. The drone program sets out to field the first new unmanned aircraft certified to fully integrate into civilian airspace, though European authorities have not yet finalized the requisite regulatory framework. Company officials hope that key design features of the drone, such as a propulsion system of two engines — one as a fallback, if necessary — will be conducive to passing future safety checks. That means the technology could cut into the business strategy of American competitor General Atomics. The company aims to be the first to sell its drones, complete with automatic collision-avoidance kit, to Europeans. Officials at the German Defence Ministry did not immediately return a request for comment on how soon the government plans to present a financing and contract strategy to lawmakers — a prerequisite for letting the effort proceed. It remains to be seen if the weapons-capable Eurodrone, whose primary mission is intelligence gathering, will get wrapped up in Germany's debate on the ethical aspects of arming aerial and ground robots. Another program, the Israeli-made Heron TP drone, is still awaiting decision by Germany's parliament, the Bundestag, on whether the government can proceed with installing weapons on the aircraft. The German military is using the drones to watch over deployed forces under a leasing agreement with Israel Aerospace Industries. They are operationally managed by Airbus. It's possible that the Heron TP armament decision will be presented to the Bundestag first, thus capping what a Defence Ministry official told Defense News will likely be a lengthy public meditation on drones and war. But that sequence of approvals is not automatic, Airbus hopes. Either way, time is of the essence for the Defence Ministry, with election years looming in Germany and France starting in 2021. “It would be surprising if we had the Eurodrone first,” said Ulrike Franke, a London-based analyst with the European Council on Foreign Relations. “Because it would amount to a signal that the Heron TP decision had been needlessly stalled.” Questions surrounding the program include whether it can provide enough utility beyond offerings already on the market, including American-made hardware, Franke said. Its success also depends on countries purchasing the future drone in sufficient quantities to get the envisioned benefits of greater European interoperability, she added. https://www.defensenews.com/global/europe/2020/09/18/german-french-defense-ministers-push-for-eurodrone-progress/

Andrew Eversden WASHINGTON — U.S. Central Command needs industry's help in designing a network infrastructure that provides improved secure information sharing with allies and partners, its top IT official said Sept. 17. Brig. Gen. Jeth Rey, director of command and control, communications, and computer systems at CENTCOM, said his team is working to establish a data-centric architecture that uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to limit access to data based only on what a user needs. “What I have the team looking at is working in that transport agnostic, looking at a data-centric connection, and then how can we then use attributes to then release information to that person who is trying to access the data. And so that's where data centricity is at the end of the day trying to use machine learning and AI,” Rey said at the 2020 Intelligence and National Security Summit. “That's where we need help from industry.” Rey compared CENTCOM's need to the service provided by banks, where a person logs in with credentials, and then the bank reaches into its massive database, pulling out only the information specific to that person. CENTCOM, the largest combatant command, also has data and information sharing requirements with more than 50 nations, adding another degree of difficulty in developing a secure architecture where users can only access the necessary data. “We here at CENTCOM are going to work with partners, and we need to share our information with them,” Rey said. “We need that help in order to display from a single document with multiple security measures ... but release only that information on that document to that person by their credential.” The need Rey described is similar to an architecture developed by the U.S. intelligence community for its data access needs. That platform, known as IC GovCloud, enabled users to store data in one place and the community to implement security measures to limit personnel access to what they “need to know,” said Greg Smithberger, chief information officer at the National Security Agency and director of the agency's Capabilities Directorate. “We built the GovCloud from the ground up with this thought in mind so that with the data comes knowledge of where it came from and what the rules are in terms of how it needs to be handled and who has the need to know. And the systems are enforcing that need to know, so that if the humans make a mistake, there's a safety net there,” he said during the same webinar. https://www.c4isrnet.com/battlefield-tech/it-networks/2020/09/18/centcom-looks-to-industry-for-data-centric-network/

Brig. Gen. Shachar Shohat (ret.) Recent events in the Middle East have led some to wonder how countries, including Israel, can protect their own strategic installations. Israel's adversaries, such as Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah, have threatened to strike sensitive Israeli targets. Saudi Arabia absorbed a painful strike in September 2019 when an Iranian drone swarm combined with cruise missiles struck oil fields, causing heavy damage. The attack on Saudi Arabia is the latest tangible example of the evolving threat: precision-guided, sophisticated enemy air attacks. Each country designates its own strategic sites for special defense. They range from nuclear power plants to air force bases to Olympic stadiums. And the hardening of defenses around strategic sites was especially prominent until around three decades ago. At that time, attackers using close-range munitions had to approach a given site in order to attack it. Visual contact was often required, and simple air-to-ground munitions would suffice for an attack. Defense systems of that time were similarly simplistic. Air force bases might be protected by a 40mm anti-aircraft cannon, for example, in order to prevent a direct attack on a runway. That same concept would be applied to any sites deemed critical by a state. In addition to being limited in range, though, such defenses required many munitions and high numbers of personnel. The 1980s and 1990s witnessed a revolution in the world of weaponry. Precision, long-range (standoff) munitions entered the battle arenas, and close-range air defenses became largely obsolete. Once attackers no longer needed proximity to their targets, close-range defenses could neither hit the longer-range munitions nor their launchers. But over the past decade, we have seen the addition of GPS-guidance systems to those munitions. The advent of this technology, combined with the overall revolution of the '80s and '90s, has heightened the need for states to return to close-range air defenses — but in a new configuration. Additional systems are now in the pipeline. Small, affordable interceptor missiles and laser beam defenses are the answers to the new categories of close-range threats seen around the world, including gliding bombs, cruise missiles and drones. In 2019, the Iranians proved that if they have intelligence on their target and the ability to send munitions to the “blind spot” of radars, attacks can be successful. That attack should serve as a “wake-up call” for countries around the world. If states want to protect strategic sites, radars that look in every direction, 360 degrees, 24 hours a day, are needed. Effective new defense systems must now be multidirectional in their detection of incoming threats, a response to the enemy's ability to turn, steer and evade radar coverage and detection. That coverage must be combined with multiple layers of defense, including defense mechanisms very close to the asset being defended. Examples of what is now needed for strategic sites' defenses are already evident in the realm of military vehicles. The Israel Defense Forces installed the Trophy defense system on a growing number of tanks and armored personnel carriers as a result of a series of incidents in Lebanon and Gaza. Airframes also need such systems, as the downing of an Israeli transport helicopter by Hezbollah in the Second Lebanon War demonstrated, as do ships — and so too do strategic assets. The age-old military axiom asserts that lines of defense will always be breached. As such, we must develop the maximum number of opportunities for interception possible. Longer-range air defense systems, such as the Patriot, David's Sling or the S-400 can intercept threats at tens or hundreds of kilometers away. But today, because state enemies can bypass long-range defenses, countries must always have the ability to directly intercept the actual munitions. Without close-defense capabilities forming part of a country's multilayer defense systems, strategic sites are simply not adequately protected. In the context of multilayer defense development and deployment around strategic sites and sensitive targets, Israel has taken on the role of global leader. In 2020, short-range air defenses are making a comeback, and this time they are set to remain as a permanent fixture. Retired Brig. Gen. Shachar Shohat served as a chief commander of the Israel Air Defense Forces and a publishing expert at The MirYam Institute. https://www.defensenews.com/opinion/commentary/2020/09/18/short-range-air-defense-is-making-a-comeback/

DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY EFS Ebrex Sarl, Genève, Switzerland, has been awarded a maximum $250,000,000 fixed-price with economic-price-adjustment, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract under solicitation SPE300-17-R-0016 for full-line food distribution. This was a competitive acquisition with four responses received. This is a five-year contract with no option periods. Locations of performance are throughout the U.S., Europe and North Africa, with a Sept. 15, 2025, ordering period end date. Using customers are Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps and Coast Guard. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2020 through 2025 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (SPE300-20-D-4064). (Awarded Sept. 16, 2020) Theodor Wille Intertrade GbmH, Zug, Switzerland, has been awarded a maximum $220,000,000 fixed-price with economic-price-adjustment, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract under solicitation SPE300-17-R-0016 for full-line food distribution. This was a competitive acquisition with four responses received. This is a five-year contract with no option periods. Locations of performance are throughout the U.S. and Europe, with a Sept. 10, 2025, ordering period end date. Using customers are Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps and Coast Guard. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2020 through 2025 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (SPE300-20-D-4065). (Awarded Sept. 11, 2020) Federal Prison Industries, Inc.,** Washington, D.C., has been awarded a $39,270,400 firm-fixed-price, indefinite-quantity contract for Molle 4000 rucksack carriers. This is a three-year contract with no option periods. Locations of performance are Washington, D.C., North Carolina and South Carolina, with a Dec. 17, 2023, ordering period end date. Using military service is Army. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2020 through 2023 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (SPE1C1-20-D-F065). Zimmer, Warsaw, Indiana, has been awarded a maximum $36,322,721 indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for numerous pharmaceutical products. This was a competitive acquisition with 17 responses received. This is a nine-month base contract with eight one-year option periods and one 15-month option period. Location of performance is Indiana, with a June 26, 2021, ordering period end date. Using customers are Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps and federal civilian agencies. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2020 through 2021 Warstopper funds. The contracting agency is the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (SPE2D0-20-D-0017). EFS Ebrex Sarl, Genève, Switzerland, has been awarded a maximum $22,000,000 fixed-price with economic-price-adjustment, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract under solicitation SPE300-17-R-0016 for full-line food distribution. This was a competitive acquisition with four responses received. This is a five-year contract with no option periods. Locations of performance are throughout the U.S., Europe and West Africa, with a Sept. 15, 2025, ordering period end date. Using customers are Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps and Coast Guard. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2020 through 2025 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (SPE300-20-D-4067). (Awarded Sept. 16, 2020). L3Harris Technologies Inc., North Amityville, New York, has been awarded a maximum $21,685,177 firm-fixed-price contract for P-8 aircraft sonobouy rotary launchers. This was a sole-source acquisition using justification 10 U.S. Code 2304 (c)(1), as stated in Federal Acquisition Regulation 6.302-1. This is a three-year, six-month contract with no option periods. Location of performance is New York, with a March 18, 2024, performance completion date. Using customers are Navy, Australia, South Korea, Norway, New Zealand and United Kingdom. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2020 through 2024 Navy working capital funds; and Foreign Military Sales funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Aviation, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (SPRPA1-20-C-V024). Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co., Akron, Ohio, (SPE7LX-20-D-0215, $20,937,847); and Michelin North America Inc., Greenville, South Carolina, (SPE7LX-20-D-0214, $9,811,994), have each been awarded a firm-fixed-price requirements contract under solicitation SPE7LX-20-R-0159 for High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle tires. These were competitive acquisitions with two responses received. These are four-year contracts with no option periods. Locations of performance are Ohio and South Carolina, with a Sept. 17, 2024, performance completion date. Using military services are Army and Marine Corps. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2020 through 2024 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Land and Maritime, Columbus, Ohio. OJH Services Inc., San Antonio, Texas, has been awarded a maximum $16,000,000 fixed-price with economic-price-adjustment, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for medical and surgical supplies. This was a competitive acquisition with 63 responses received. This is a five-year contract with no option periods. Location of performance is Texas, with a Sept. 16, 2025, ordering period end date. Using customers are Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps and federal civilian agencies. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2020 through 2025 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (SPE2DE-20-D-0022). Transhield Inc., Elkhart, Indiana, has been awarded a maximum $7,705,846 firm-fixed-price, indefinite-quantity contract for tarpaulins and fitted vehicular covers. This was a sole-source acquisition using justification 10 U.S. Code 2304 (c)(1), as stated in Federal Acquisition Regulation 6.302-1. This is a three-year base contract with two one-year option periods. Location of performance is Indiana, with a Sept. 18, 2023, performance completion date. Using military services are Army and Navy. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2020 through 2023 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Land and Maritime, Columbus, Ohio (SPE7LX-20-D-0218). CORRECTION: The contract announced on Aug. 28, 2020, for Breton Industries Inc.,* Amsterdam, New York (SPE7LX-20-D-0166), was incorrectly announced. The awardee withdrew its offer and the contract was not awarded. NAVY Harper Construction Co. Inc., San Diego, California, was awarded a $96,492,383 firm-fixed-price task order (N62473-20-F-5462) under a multiple award construction contract for the design and construction of Michelson Mission Systems Integration Laboratory at Naval Air Weapons Station, China Lake, California. The work to be performed provides for the design and construction of the Michelson Mission System Integration Laboratory project, which includes the construction of a new building and adjacent vehicle parking lot. The facility will consolidate functions performed in several existing buildings that were damaged by the July 2019 earthquakes. The building will be a consolidated mission system integration laboratory for research, development, testing and evaluation. The options, if exercised, provide for extended contractor warranty, electronic security system requirements and physical security equipment. The planned modifications, if issued, provide for furniture, fixtures and equipment. The task order also contains five unexercised options and two planned modifications, which if exercised, would increase the cumulative task order value to $99,206,940. Work will be performed in Ridgecrest, California, and is expected to be completed by November 2022. Fiscal 2020 military construction (Navy) contract funds in the amount of $96,492,383 are obligated on this award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Four proposals were received for this task order. Naval Facilities Engineering Command Southwest, San Diego, California, is the contracting activity (N62473-18-D-5853). (Awarded Sept. 17, 2020) Hiller Measurements Inc.,* Austin, Texas (N64267-20-D-0039); Logisys Technical Services Inc.,* Huntsville, Alabama (N64267-20-D-0042); and Artisan Electronics Inc.,* Odon, Indiana (N64267-20-D-0043), are awarded a $66,300,000 combined firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity, multiple award contract with a minimum of award of $1000 each for the Marine Corps Automatic Test Systems program. This contract involves Foreign Military Sales to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Foreign Military Sales (Saudi Arabia) funding in the amount of $3,000 will be obligated at the time of award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Work is expected to be completed at each awardees facility (Hiller Measurements, Dripping Springs, Texas; Artisan Electronics, Odon, Indiana; and Logisys Technical Services Inc., Huntsville, Alabama) according to each individual delivery order and is expected be completed by September 2025. This contract was competitively procured via the beta.sam.gov website, with 10 offers received. The Naval Surface Warfare Center, Corona Division, Norco, California, is the contracting activity. Goodrich Corp., Jacksonville, Florida, is awarded a $64,183,265 combination firm-fixed-price and cost-plus-fixed-fee indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for the manufacture of surface ship sonar domes to support ship classes DDG-51, CG-47, and FFG-7 antisubmarine warfare requirements. This contract combines purchases for the Navy (82%); and the governments of Taiwan (11%); Egypt (3%); Japan (3%); and Spain (1%) under the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program. Work will be performed in Jacksonville, Florida, and is expected to be completed by September, 2025. If all options are exercised, work will continue through September 2027. Fiscal 2020 shipbuilding and conversion (Navy) (49%); FMS (27%); and fiscal 2020 other procurement (Navy) (24%) funding in the amount of $6,195,000 will be obligated at time of award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was not competitively awarded in accordance with 10 U.S. Code 2304(c)(1), as implemented by Federal Acquisition Regulations 6.302-1; only one responsible source and no other supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements. The Naval Surface Warfare Center, Crane Division, Crane, Indiana, is the contracting activity (N00164-20-D-GP57). Raytheon Missile Systems, Tucson, Arizona, is awarded a $60,484,968 cost-plus-fixed-fee modification to previously awarded contract N00024-18-C-5431 to exercise options for design agent and engineering support services for the Rolling Airframe Missile (RAM) MK-31 Guided Missile Weapon System improvement program. The MK-31 RAM Guided Missile Weapon System is a cooperative development and production program conducted jointly by the U.S. and the Federal Republic of Germany under memoranda of understanding. The support procured under contract N00024-18-C-5431 is required to maintain current weapon system capability as well as resolve issues through design, systems, software maintenance, reliability, maintainability, quality assurance and logistics engineering services. Work will be performed in Tucson, Arizona (99%); and Louisville, Kentucky (1%), and is expected to be completed by December 2021. Fiscal 2020 operations and maintenance (Navy) (47%); non-Foreign Military Sales, German (17%); fiscal 2017 (12%) and 2018 (9%) shipbuilding and conversion (Navy); fiscal 2020 research, development, test and evaluation (Navy) (8%); fiscal 2020 other procurement (Navy) (5%); fiscal 2019 research, development, test and evaluation (Navy) (1%); and fiscal 2015 shipbuilding and conversion (Navy) (1%) funding in the amount of $4,260,151 will be obligated at time of award, of which funds in the amount of $2,046,931 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was not competitively procured under the exception 10 U.S. Code 2304(c)(4), International Agreement. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity. Orbis Sibro Inc., Mount Pleasant, South Carolina (N39040-18-D-0003); Q.E.D. Systems Inc., Virginia Beach, Virginia (N39040-18-D-0004); Delphinus Engineering, Eddystone, Pennsylvania (N39040-18-D-0005); and Oceaneering International, Chesapeake, Virginia (N39040-18-D-0006), are awarded a combined cumulative $54,535,105 cost-plus-fixed-fee, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity multiple award modification to exercise Option Period Two to provide non-nuclear production support for Naval submarine projects/repairs. The services under these contracts cover marine electrician, industrial fire watch/laborer, marine pipefitter, outside marine machinist, marine painter, weight handler, marine ship fitter, shipwright, welder, sheet metal, marine insulator, abrasive blaster, deck tile setter, and sound tile setter for upcoming submarine availabilities. Work will be performed in Kittery, Maine, and is expected to be completed by October 2021. No funding is being obligated at time of award. The Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, Kittery, Maine, is the contracting activity. BAE Systems Technology Solutions and Services Inc., Rockville, Maryland, was awarded a $52,157,824 cost-plus-incentive-fee, cost-plus-fixed-fee contract modification (P00046) to previously awarded and announced contract N00030-17-C-0001 to provide services for the U.S. and United Kingdom Trident II D5 strategic weapon system programs, U.S. Guided Missile Submarine (SSGN) attack weapon systems, nuclear weapon surety, and future concepts. Work will be performed at Rockville, Maryland (60.4%); Washington, D.C. (18%); St. Mary's, Georgia (5%); Silverdale, Washington (3%); Rochester, United Kingdom (1.3%); Cape Canaveral, Florida (1.3%); Portsmouth, Virginia (1.3%); Bremerton, Washington (1.3%); Tucson, Arizona (0.7%); Mechanicsburg, PA (0.7%); Wexford, Pennsylvania (0.7%); Groton, Connecticut (0.3%); Miami, Florida (0.3%); Ocala, Florida (0.3%); Rockledge, Florida (0.3%); Clarksburg, Maryland (0.3%); Columbia, Maryland (0.3%); Frederick, Maryland (0.3%); Gaithersburg, Maryland (0.3%); Ijamsville, Maryland (0.3%); Middletown, Maryland (0.3%); North Potomac, Maryland (0.3%); Olney, Maryland (0.3%); Jenison, Michigan (0.3%); Winston Salem, North Carolina (0.3%); Hudson, New Hampshire (0.3%); Buffalo, New York (0.3%); Valatie, New York (0.3%); Plain City, Ohio (0.3%); Downingtown, Pennsylvania (0.3%); Franklin, Tennessee (0.3%); and Plano, Texas (0.3%), with an expected completion date of Sept. 30, 2021. Subject to the availability of funding, fiscal 2021 operations and maintenance (Navy) contract funds in the amount of $40,214,390; and United Kingdom funds in the amount of $11,943,434 will be obligated. No funds will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was a sole-source acquisition in accordance with 10 U.S. Code 2304(c)(1) and (4). Strategic Systems Programs, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity (N00030-17-C-0001). (Awarded Sept. 14, 2020). Ocean Ships Inc., Houston, Texas (N32205-17-C-3100) is awarded a $48,441,377 modification for the fixed-price portion of a previously awarded firm-fixed-price contract to exercise a one-year option period for the operation and maintenance of six oceanographic survey ships (T-AGS 60) and the navigation test support ship USNS Waters (T-AGS 45) in support of the Navy. This contract includes a one-year base period, four one-year option periods, and one six-month option period. Work for this option period will be performed at sea world-wide, and is expected to be completed by Sept. 30, 2021. Fiscal 2021 working capital funds (Navy) in the amount of $48,441,377 are obligated and will not expire at the end of the fiscal year. This contract was issued on an other than full and open competition basis. The Military Sealift Command, Norfolk, Virginia, is the contracting activity (N32205-17-C-3100). Lockheed Martin Corp., Orlando, Florida, is awarded a $20,019,391 delivery order N00383-20-F-0QW0 under previously awarded basic ordering agreement N00019-19-G-0029 for the procurement of five infrared receivers and four control processors in support of the F/A-18 Infrared Search and Track System. All work will be performed in Orlando, Florida, and work will be completed by December 2023. Aircraft procurement funds (Navy) in the full amount of $20,019,391 will be obligated at the time of award and funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. One company was solicited for this non-competitive requirement under authority 10 U.S. Code 2304 (c)(1), with one offer received. Naval Supply Systems Command Weapon Systems Support, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is the contracting activity. Rockwell Collins Simulation and Training Solutions, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, is awarded a $10,729,836 contract modification (P00027) to previously awarded firm-fixed-price contract N61340-17-C-0014. This modification procures initial spare parts, aircraft common equipment and aerial refueling equipment in support of the E-2D Hawkeye Integrated Training System suite of flight and maintenance trainer devices. Work will be performed in Norfolk, Virginia (95%); and Point Mugu, California (5%), and is expected to be completed in May 2022. Fiscal 2018 aircraft procurement (Navy) funds in the amount of $1,198,491; and fiscal 2020 aircraft procurement (Navy) funds in the amount of $9,531,345 will be obligated at time of award, $1,198,491 of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Air Warfare Center Training Systems Division, Orlando, Florida, is the contracting activity. Colonna's Shipyard Inc., Norfolk, Virginia, is awarded an $8,555,702 firm-fixed-price contract (N32205-20-C-4048) for a 90-calendar day shipyard availability for the mid-term availability of the cable laying, repair ship USNS Zeus (T-ARC 7). The $8,555,702 consists of the amounts listed in the following areas: Category “A” work item costs, additional government requirement, other direct costs and the general and administrative costs. Work will include the furnishing of general services, structural repairs, ships service diesel generator repair and maintenance, switchboard cleaning, ship's whistle repair, repair vent and drain piping, port cable drum and shoe brakes replacement, shower stall replacement, repair fiber and Ethernet cable runs, galley crew and office laundry duct cleaning and rebalancing. The contract includes eight options which, if exercised, would bring the total contract value to $9,456,252. Fiscal 2021 capital working funds (Navy) in the amount of $8,555,702 will be obligated at the time of the award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Work will be performed in Norfolk, Virginia, and is expected to be completed by Feb. 13, 2021. This contract was competitively procured, with proposals solicited via the beta.sam.gov website and five offers were received. The Military Sealift Command, Norfolk, Virginia, is the contracting activity (N32205-20-C-4084). I.E.-Pacific Inc.,* Escondido, California, is being awarded an $8,261,000 firm-fixed-price task order (N62473-20-F-5233) under a multiple award construction contract for boiler plant repairs onboard Naval Air Weapons Station, China Lake, California. The work to be performed provides for the repair and seismic improvement of Steam Plant 4 Boiler Building 14530. The scope of work includes repair and seismic upgrade of the building structure, as well as repair by replacement of various facility systems due to the severity of the interior and exterior damage. Work will be performed in Ridgecrest, California, and is expected to be completed by October 2021. Fiscal 2020 operations and maintenance (Navy) contract funds in the amount of $8,261,000 are obligated on this award and will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Two proposals were received for this task order. Naval Facilities Engineering Command Southwest, San Diego, California, is the contracting activity (N62473-17-D-4637). ARMY New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, New Mexico, was awarded a $92,870,000 cost-no-fee contract to support the information operations, vulnerability/survivability assessment and analysis. 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 Sept. 17, 2030. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, is the contracting activity (W911QX-20-D-0001). BAE, Kingsport, Tennessee, was awarded a $91,919,386 modification (P00004) to contract W52P1J-19-D-0074 for the production and delivery of explosives. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of Dec. 31, 2023. Army Contracting Command, Rock Island, Illinois, is the contracting activity. ACC Construction Co. Inc., Augusta, Georgia, was awarded a $24,885,638 firm-fixed-price contract to construct training, shower and locker space. Bids were solicited via the internet with six received. Work will be performed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, with an estimated completion date of Sept. 21, 2022. Fiscal 2020 military construction (defense-wide) funds in the amount of $24,885,638 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Wilmington, North Carolina, is the contracting activity (W912PM-20-C-0031). ITES Venture LLC,* Fairfax, Virginia, was awarded a $21,698,218 firm-fixed-price contract to provide support services for the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command and the U.S. Army Aviation Center of Excellence. Bids were solicited via the internet with 26 received. Work will be performed at Fort Rucker, Alabama; Fort Eustis, Virginia; and Fort Huachuca, Arizona, with an estimated completion date of Sept. 18, 2020. Fiscal 2020 through 2024 operations and maintenance (Army) funds in the amount of $21,698,218 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Field Directorate Office, Fort Eustis, Virginia, is the contracting activity (W911S7-20-F-0425). Lynxnett LLC, Suffolk, Virginia, was awarded a $19,131,298 hybrid (firm-fixed-price, time-and-materials) contract for support of the operations and maintenance of the command and control and infrastructure operations for U.S. Army Intelligence and Security Command. Bids were solicited via the internet with one received. V Work will be performed at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, with an estimated completion date of Sept. 18, 2021. Fiscal 2020 operations and maintenance (Army) funds in the amount of $18,091,660 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Detroit Arsenal, Michigan, is the contracting activity (W50NH9-20-C-0016). Lewis Machine and Tool, Eldridge, Iowa, was awarded a $17,031,520.00 firm-fixed-price contract to order M203/M203A2 grenade launchers and spare parts. Bids were solicited via the internet with three received. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of Sept. 18, 2025. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Detroit Arsenal, Michigan, is the contracting activity (W56HZV-20-D-0107). General Dynamics Land Systems, Sterling Heights, Michigan, was awarded a $14,305,952 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for receipt, inspection, diagnosis, repair, testing, storage, issue and unique identification marking to parts for the M1A1/M1A2 Abrams tank, M2A3/M3A3 Bradley fighting vehicle and the M104 Wolverine platforms. Bids were solicited via the internet with two received. Work will be performed in Fort Hood, Texas; Anniston, Alabama; Sterling Heights, Michigan; and Tallahassee, Florida, with an estimated completion date of Sept. 30, 2023. Fiscal 2020 Army working capital funds in the amount of $14,305,952 were obligated at the time of the award. Army Contracting Command, Detroit Arsenal, Michigan, is the contracting activity W56HZV-20-C-0216). D. Wheatley Enterprises Inc.,* Belcamp, Maryland, was awarded an $11,500,000 hybrid (cost-plus-fixed-fee, firm-fixed-price) contract to procure modular-powered air-purifying respirator systems and spare components. 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 Sept. 17, 2025. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, is the contracting activity (W911SR-20-D-0006). Weeks Marine Inc., Covington, Louisiana, was awarded an $11,143,240 firm-fixed-price contract for beach nourishment. Bids were solicited via the internet with two received. Work will be performed in Bethany Beach, Delaware, with an estimated completion date of March 18, 2021. Fiscal 2020 civil construction funds in the amount of $11,143,240 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is the contracting activity (W912BU-20-C-0045). Koontz Electric Co., Morrilton, Arkansas, was awarded a $7,828,828 firm-fixed-price contract for the installation of transformers at Fort Peck Dam, Montana. Bids were solicited via the internet with two received. Work will be performed in Fort Peck, Montana, with an estimated completion date of Feb. 4, 2022. Fiscal 2020 Western Area Power Administration funds in the amount of $7,828,828 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Omaha, Nebraska, is the contracting activity (W9128F-20-C-0045). SSI Technology,* Sterling Heights, Michigan, was awarded a $7,181,000 firm-fixed-price contract to provide auxiliary power units for sustainment of the M88 Tank Recovery Vehicle fleet. Bids were solicited via the internet with three received. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of Sept. 30, 2025. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Detroit Arsenal, Michigan, is the contracting activity (W56HZV-20-D-0106). AIR FORCE One Network Enterprises Inc., Dallas, Texas, has been awarded a $61,861,916 indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for the item master logistics capability initiative. This contract provides for commercial off-the-shelf software licenses and related technical support services. Work will be performed at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, and is expected to be completed September 2025. This award is the result of a competitive acquisition and five offers were received. Fiscal 2020 research, development, test and evaluation funds in the amount of $2,833,576 are being obligated at the time of award. Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, is the contracting activity (FA8770-20-D-0004). Vertex Aerospace LLC, Madison, Mississippi, has been awarded an estimated $56,808,158 modification (P00056) to exercise the option on contract FA3002-14-C-0013 for support of T-1, T-6, and T-38 undergraduate pilot training. Work will be performed at Vance Air Force Base, Oklahoma, and is expected to be completed Sept. 30, 2021. No funds are being obligated at the time of award. Air Force Installation Contracting Center, Joint Base San Antonio- Randolph, Texas, is the contracting activity. Industries for the Blind and Visually Impaired Inc., West Allis, Wisconsin, has been awarded a $12,000,000 firm-fixed-price contract for a contractor-operated civil engineering supply store at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. Work is expected to be completed Oct. 30, 2025. Fiscal 2021 operations and maintenance funds in the amount of $2,400,000 will be obligated during the first base year. The 30th Contracting Squadron, Vandenberg AFB, California, is the contracting activity (FA4610-20-P0070). University of Dayton Research Institute, Dayton, Ohio, has been awarded an $11,499,335, cost-plus-fixed-fee modification (P00037) to contract FA8650-18-C-2808 for Air-Launched Small Unmanned Air Systems (SUAS) services development, including pre-launch, launch and post-launch command and control, system integration, capability development and flight testing to provide additional warfighter capability through air-launched off-board operations. This modification is for within-scope effort for development and integrating autonomy, cooperative control and pointing, navigation and tracking activities, system integration and expansion of SUAS capability development and field testing. Work will be performed at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, and is expected to be completed March 1, 2023. Fiscal 2020 research, development, test and evaluation funds in the amount of $10,000 are being obligated at the time of award. Total cumulative face value of the contract is $26,499,215. Air Force Research Laboratory, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, is the contracting activity. Mississippi Department of Rehabilitation Services, Madison, Mississippi, has been awarded a $7,800,476 modification (P00021) to exercise an option on contract FA3010-18-C-0007 for full food services. Work will be performed at Keesler Air Force Base, Mississippi, and is expected to be completed by Sept. 30, 2021. Fiscal 2021 operations and maintenance funds in the full amount will be obligated when they become available. The 81st Contracting Squadron, Keesler AFB, Mississippi, is the contracting activity. DEFENSE HEALTH AGENCY SPN Solutions Inc., Tyson Corner, Virginia, was awarded a $48,831,385 firm-fixed-price contract (HT0014-20-C-0012), for an information management and information technology (IM/IT) initiative that will provide both existing and ongoing comprehensive support to nine task areas: application and web development support services, data center operations support services, IT help desk end user device support services, information assurance support services, network operations support services, telecommunications support services, interagency support, clinical informatics support services and information business operations. The contractor will perform IM/IT related services to support the IT department at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, Maryland. This contract was a competitive acquisition with 43 proposals received. The base period of performance is Sept. 30, 2020, through April 30, 2021, and two 12 month options. The base year will be funded by fiscal 2020 operations and maintenance funds. The Defense Health Agency, Contract Operations Division, Falls Church, Virginia, is the contracting activity. (Awarded Sept. 11, 2020) *Small business **Mandatory source https://www.defense.gov/Newsroom/Contracts/Contract/Article/2353697/source/GovDelivery/