Nouvelles

AIR FORCE Lockheed Martin Co., doing business as Lockheed Martin Space, Sunnyvale, California, has been awarded a $163,950,489 fixed-price, incentive-firm target modification (P00148) to previously awarded contract FA8810-13-C-0002 for space based infrared system contractor logistics support. This action is a bilateral supplemental agreement executed in accordance with justification and approval 18-14. Work will be performed at outside the continental U.S. locations; Peterson Air Force Base, Colorado; Buckley Air Force Base, Colorado; Greeley Air National Guard Station, Colorado; and Boulder, Colorado, and is expected to be completed by Sept. 30, 2020. Fiscal 2020 operations and maintenance funds are used and no funds are being obligated at the time of the award. The total cumulative face value of the modification is $163,950,489. The Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center, Peterson Air Force Base, Colorado, is the contracting activity. ASES LLC, doing business as Field Aerospace, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, has been awarded a $21,346,897 firm-fixed-price contract modification (P00023) to previously award contract FA8106-18-C-0002 to exercise Option One for full rate production to begin for the T-1A Avionics Modification Program. This contract provides for the replacement of the avionics suite in the Air Education and Training Command fleet of 178 T-1A trainer aircraft, 16 operational flight trainers and 14 part task trainers. Work will be performed at Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; Randolph Air Force Base, Texas; Laughlin Air Force Base, Texas; Vance Air Force Base, Oklahoma; Columbus Air Force Base, Mississippi; and Pensacola Naval Air Station, Florida, and is expected to be completed by Aug. 14, 2025. Fiscal 2018 aircraft procurement funds in the amount of $9,993,753; and 2019 aircraft procurement funds in the amount of $11,353,143 are being obligated at the time of the award. The Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, Tinker Air force Base, Oklahoma, is the contracting activity. The Texas Workforce Commission, Austin, Texas, has been awarded a $17,085,515 contract modification (P00003) to previously awarded contract FA3016-18-D-0009 to exercise the first option period for Joint Base San Antonio/Ft. Sam Houston full food services. The contract modification exercised the first option period. Work will be performed at Joint Base San Antonio Ft. Sam Houston and Camp Bullis, and work is expected to be completed by Sept. 30, 2020. The total cumulative face value of the contract is $32,640,593. Fiscal 2020 operations and maintenance funds in the amount of $4,459,745 are being obligated at the time of the award. The 502d Contracting Squadron, Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph, Texas, is the contracting activity. CACI Inc. - Federal, Chantilly, Virginia, has been awarded a $12,693,283 cost-plus-fixed-fee task order to previously awarded contract FA8723-19-D-0001 for support vehicle programmed depot maintenance. This action is an in-scope bilateral supplemental agreement executed in accordance with the terms of Mobile Command and Control Systems contract. Work will performed at Albuquerque, New Mexico; and Greeley Air National Guard Station, Colorado, and is expected to be completed by Sept. 30, 2023. The total cumulative face value of the contract is $12,693,283. Fiscal 2020 operations and maintenance funds in the amount of $4,916,938 are being obligated at the time of award. The Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center, Peterson Air Force Base, Colorado, is the contracting activity (FA8823-19-F-0013). DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY Eaton Aeroquip LLC, Jackson, Michigan, has been awarded a maximum $69,387,451 fixed-price contract for hoses, assemblies and other related parts. This was a competitive acquisition with one offer received. This is an eight year contract with no option periods. Location of performance is Michigan, with an Oct. 1, 2027, performance completion date. Using military services are Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2020 through 2028 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Land and Maritime, Columbus, Ohio (SPE7MX-20-D-0003). DEFENSE HEALTH AGENCY Four Points Technology LLC, Chantilly, Virginia (HT0015-19-F-0161), was awarded a firm-fixed-price order for $12,428,715 (12-months), using fiscal 2020 operations and maintenance funds, subject to availability. This is an enterprise level order on National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Solution for Enterprise Wide Procurement (SEWP) for InterSystems Software renewal. This procurement is for InterSystems Software maintenance renewal to support the existing InterSystems Software deployed across the Department of Defense. These products provide relational databases collating all patient health information into a query engine application for use by healthcare providers. The requirement was competed on NASA SEWP as a 100% service disabled veteran owned small business set aside for InterSystems renewal, and Four Points Technology LLC provided the lowest-price-technically-acceptable quote. The amount of $12,428,715 for the base year is obligated at the time of award. The Defense Health Agency Enterprise Medical Support – Contracting Division (EMS-CD), located in San Antonio, Texas, is the contracting activity. (Awarded Sept. 30, 2019) NAVY General Electric Co., Lynn, Massachusetts, is awarded a $10,592,822 modification (P00002) to a previously awarded firm-fixed-price contract (N00019-18-C-1061). This modification exercises an option to procure two F414-GE-400 production install engines, five engine devices, and 29 engine device K-seals in support of Lot 23 engine production for the F/A-18E/F aircraft. Work will be performed in Lynn, Massachusetts (48%); Evendale, Ohio (20%); Hooksett, New Hampshire (14%); Rutland, Vermont (9%); and Madisonville, Kentucky (9%), and is expected to be completed in August 2021. Fiscal 2018 aircraft procurement (Navy) funds in the amount of $10,592,822 will be obligated at time of award, all of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity. ARMY The Boeing Co., Mesa, Arizona, was awarded a $7,892,950 modification (P00038) to contract W58RGZ-16-C-0023 for the Communication Interface System Obsolescence for the Apache AH-64E full rate production. Work will be performed in Mesa, Arizona, with an estimated completion date of Dec. 31, 2022. Fiscal 2019 aircraft procurement, Army funds in the amount of $7,892,950 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, is the contracting activity. CORRECTION: The Sept. 6, 2019, announcement of an award to BAE Systems Inc., York, Pennsylvania, for a modification (P00015) to contract W56HZC-18-C-0133 included an incorrect estimated work completion date. The estimated completion date is March 31, 2022. All other information in the original announcement remains the same. U.S. TRANSPORTATION COMMAND Louis Berger Aircraft Services, Greenville, South Carolina (HTC711-17-C-C002), has been awarded a $7,226,021 modification (P00008) for air terminal ground handling services contract in Kuwait. The modification brings the total cumulative face value of the contract to $20,265,296 from $13,039,275. Work will be performed at Al Mubarak Air Base, Kuwait, with an expected completion date of Sept. 30, 2020. Fiscal 2020 transportation working capital funds were obligated at time of award. The U.S. Transportation Command, Directorate of Acquisition, Scott Air Force Base, Illinois, is the contracting activity. (Awarded Oct. 1, 2019) *Small Business https://www.defense.gov/Newsroom/Contracts/Contract/Article/1978068/source/GovDelivery/

By: Stephen Losey One of the top priorities of Lt. Gen. Brad Webb, the newly minted head of Air Education and Training Command, will be expanding the Air Force's experiment with virtual reality training. So far, the Air Force has had success with Pilot Training Next, which uses VR, biometrics and artificial intelligence to better teach aspiring pilots how to fly. Webb is eyeing similar technologies, under the name Learning Next, to improve other forms of technical training. This could include teaching airmen how to maintain aircraft, fly remotely piloted aircraft or perform other technical tasks. These programs allow students' education to proceed more at their own pace, since they are based on competency and are not tied to a timetable, Wright said. A student who already has the fundamentals down can skip the basics and go right to what he or she needs to learn. AETC is now in the process of broadening Pilot Training Next, which has been a demonstration, to the next phase of wider experimentation, Webb said. He and Maj. Gen. Craig Wills, commander of the 19th Air Force, are working on plans to expand Pilot Training Next. By next summer, Webb wants to have set up Pilot Training Next elements at several squadrons, though it wouldn't be across all undergraduate pilot training bases. A few classes after that, Webb expects, Pilot Training Next will be expanded to all UPT bases. The Pilot Training Next expansion will likely be done methodically, at one base first, Webb said, though he would not say which base AETC is looking at. “What has happened in our last couple of years with Pilot Training Next has been an explosion, out of the box, of innovation,” Webb said. “Make no mistake, the Air Force wants this inculcated as fast as we can go,” he said. AETC is already in the “nascent stages” of testing VR and other technology-enhanced training for maintenance and other technical training as part of Learning Next, Webb said. Maintenance Next is a particular priority and is happening on an experimental basis at Kelly Field at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland in Texas, he said, and using VR for RPA training is also proceeding. As the VR pilot training shows, such programs can accelerate in a hurry, he said. Ethics Webb also wants to cultivate an “environment of excellence, professionalism, ethics and character development” during his time at AETC. Webb, who was previously commander of Air Force Special Operations Command, pointed to the ethical clouds that have fallen over parts of the special operations community in recent years. For example, the Navy relieved the entire senior leadership team of SEAL Team 7 earlier this month over what it described as leadership failures that resulted in a breakdown of good order and discipline while deployed. AFSOC took a hard look at itself, Webb said, to make sure it doesn't allow similar lapses to fester. “For a leader, you can never ... talk about core values enough,” Webb said. “If I had to look myself in the mirror from my last command, I can tell you my team knew our mission and vision of priorities backwards and forwards.” But while airmen at AFSOC understood Air Force core values, he acknowledged he didn't always articulate those values in his everyday “walk-around, talk-around” encounters. That can create problems if leaders assume airmen already know about the core values, he said. When a unit starts to feel the pressure from high operations tempos and a lack of resources, Webb said, that “get-'er-done” mentality can lead to bad decisions if airmen don't have a firm foundation of the Air Force core values. “If you don't have a firm foundation, you can go to a dark place with that ... ‘find a way to yes' mentality,” Webb said. “We've got to always talk about professionalism and ethics, and also always talk about our core values. That will be a capstone” of his time at AETC. Webb said he plans to continue with AETC's recent improvements in how special warfare airmen are recruited and trained, which included standing up the new Special Warfare Training Wing and the special warfare-focused 330th Recruiting Squadron. More work needs to be done to “normalize” and fine-tune those units, and more firmly fold them into AETC's everyday culture, he said. https://www.airforcetimes.com/news/your-air-force/2019/09/16/virtual-reality-training-for-pilots-maintainers-and-more-expands-in-2020

By: Diana Stancy Correll Operating in austere conditions, beyond well-defended bases, is likely in the event of a conflict with a near-peer adversary like Russia or China, according to Air Force leaders. As a result, the service has increasingly focused on its ability to operate in degraded combat environments the past several years. The biennial Mobility Guardian exercise now underway in Washington state is testing mobility aircraft's readiness to conduct their missions in such contested environments. For Air Mobility Command's largest readiness exercise, more than 4,000 U.S. and troops, including members of the Air Force, Army, Navy and Marine Corps are now at Fairchild Air Force Base in Spokane and other Western locations to train for airlift, air refueling, aeromedical evacuation and global air mobility support. The exercise is also designed to sharpen participants' abilities to conduct forcible entry, airfield seizure, strategic deterrence and humanitarian relief operations, according to the service. As just one example of the kind of training going on, airmen from the 92nd Logistics Readiness Squadron employed a Fuels Operational Readiness Capability Equipment system, marking the first time the mobile fuel bladders have been used stateside in an uncontested environment. “We use the FORCE to help sustain bare bases and allow for fuel distribution anywhere around the world at a moment's notice,” said Master Sgt. Daniel Rey, 92nd LRS fuels information service center section chief. “The bladder can hold up to 50,000 gallons of fuel, which can help service a wide range of friendly aircraft.” Meanwhile, at Moses Lake, about 100 miles southwest of Fairchild, airmen from the 621st Contingency Response Wing provided tactical operations center support during a first-of-its-kind Ability to Survive and Operate scenario Sept. 16, according to an Air Force news release. In the scenario, aircrew from Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom aboard a KC-135 Stratotanker reported chemical contamination while performing an aeromedical evacuation. The Contingency Response Team at the TOC coordinated ground decontamination support and received the aircraft. “We provided command and control coverage, access to ramp space and a location to set up a decontamination line for aircrew flight equipment,” said Master Sgt. Jeremiah Ibarra, 321st CRT chief, in the release. “From the tactical operations center we coordinated with the air operations center to get AFE the equipment and supplies they needed.” CRTs deploy to locations that don't have established air support, and deploy forces that can open and operate an airfield. “We set up airfields and ramps, communicate aircraft landing, parking, maintenance, refueling and fleet service,” Ibarra said. “To my knowledge this is the biggest CRT operation that has ever happened.” The CRT is training alongside the 515th Air Mobility Operations Wing, Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii, and the 521st AMOW, Ramstein Air Base, Germany, at Moses Lake to demonstrate the capability to operate as an integrated team. “To have the CRT embedded with us here isn't something that we do often, but it has been super beneficial.” said Capt. Jennifer Krutka, officer in-charge of Moses Lake, in the news release. “It has truly been a team effort. We have port airmen learning how to do maintenance and maintenance personnel learning port duties. One of Gen. [Maryanne] Miller's initiatives was to be more versatile airman, and we are doing that here.” Miller, the head of Air Mobility Command, stressed the significance of the exercise as it related to the 2018 National Defense Strategy at the Air Force Association's Air, Space Cyber conference last week. “It is imperative that we outpace our adversaries and best position the mobility air forces to defeat the threats of tomorrow,” Miller said. She also said the exercises align with the command's evolution over the past year into a “warfighting component command” that streamlines the mobility of forces through direct coordinating authority. “The world has changed and through our transformation efforts, AMC has adapted to meet the growing requirements and accelerated global demands,” Miller said. “As a more agile organization, we have increased our ability to fully leverage the full complement of our mobility resources.” The Air Force says another element of the exercise is fostering relationships with allies. There are nearly 30 international partners participating in the exercise this year. “The future of warfare will be increasingly joint,” Lt. Col. Joseph Monaco, director of Mobility Guardian, said in an Air Force news release Sept. 9. “This exercise is an unparalleled opportunity to develop joint-minded airmen who can integrate seamlessly with soldiers, sailors and Marines to compete and if necessary, win amidst great power adversaries.” The exercise, which kicked off Sept. 8 and concludes Sept. 28, employs aircraft including the KC-10 Extender, KC-135 Stratotanker, C-5 Super Galaxy, C-17 Globemaster III and C-130H/J Hercules and Super Hercules. Of the 4,000 service members, 2,500 are from AMC. https://www.airforcetimes.com/news/your-air-force/2019/09/25/air-mobility-command-exercise-tests-ability-to-operate-in-degraded-combat-environments

BySommer Brokaw Oct. 1 (UPI) -- Pratt & Whitney has been awarded more than $2 billion in a contract modification to a previously awarded contract for F-35 strike fighter jet propulsion system. The $2.1B contract, announced Monday by the Department of Defense, calls for the production and delivery of F135 propulsion systems for the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II fighter jet, including 112 F135-PW-100s for the Air Force, 46 F135-PW-600s for the Marine Corps, and 25 F-135-PW-100s for the Navy. The company also will deliver non-U.S. Department of Defense participants and foreign military sales customers with long lead components, parts and materials associated with 129 F135-PW-100s and 19 F135-PW-600s propulsion systems under the contract modification. Work will be performed mostly in East Hartford, Conn., where Pratt and Whitney, a division of United Technologies, is based, and remaining work will be performed in Indianapolis, Ind., and Bristol, Britain. Work on the contract is expected to be finished in February 2023. Pratt & Whitney has been chronically late in delivering engines for the F-35 program and was placed under a previously unreported "Corrective Action Request" last year by the the Defense Contract Management Agency, citing "poor delivery performance" for a batch of engines. Mark Woodbury, DCMA spokesman, said at the time that the company needed to demonstrate that it has delivered on its promise to solve the problems that led to DCMA's request for action. The $428 billion F-35 program is expected next year to enter full-rate production, which is the most lucrative phase of weapons program for contractors. A source close to the program told Military.com the fighter jet will not complete its already-delayed formal operational test phase this fall because of a setback in the testing process. The setback involved an unfinished phase of Joint Simulation Environment, according to the source. The JSE projects weather, geography and range, allowing test pilots to prove the aircraft's "full capabilities against the full range of required threats and scenarios," according to a 2015 Director, Operational Test & Evaluation report. Pratt & Whitney was awarded a $3.4 billion contract in June for F-35 engines, in that case 233 propulsion systems, more than half of which are for foreign military sales customers and non-Department of Defense participants in the program. The F-35 Lightning II is a single-seat, single-engine fighter aircraft with a range of more than 1,350 miles with internal fuel, according to the U.S. Air Force. It was introduced to the Air Force in 2016. https://www.upi.com/Defense-News/2019/10/01/Pratt-and-Whitney-awarded-219B-for-F-35-engines/7751569946503/

EVERETT, Wash., October 1, 2019 – The U.S. Air Force today awarded Boeing [NYSE: BA] a $2.6 billion contract for 15 KC-46A tanker aircraft, spares, support equipment, spare engines and wing air refueling pod kits. With this fifth production lot, Boeing now is on contract for 67 KC-46 tankers. Boeing received its first two production lots, for 7 and 12 aircraft, in August 2016. The third lot, for 15 aircraft, was awarded in January 2017; the fourth lot for 18 aircraft in September 2018. “We're honored to build the Air Force's next-generation tanker and appreciate the importance of this program for our nation,” said Jamie Burgess, Boeing KC-46A tanker vice president and program manager. “This has been a milestone year for KC-46 and a big reason for that is our great partnership with the Air Force. We expect to accomplish great things together in the years to come.” Boeing plans to build 179 of the 767-based refueling aircraft for the Air Force to replace its legacy tanker fleet. The company delivered the first tankers to the Air Force in January 2019. Boeing received its initial contract in 2011 to design and develop the Air Force's newest tanker aircraft. The KC-46A is a multirole tanker that can refuel allied and coalition military aircraft compatible with international aerial refueling procedures and can carry passengers, cargo and patients. Boeing is assembling KC-46 aircraft at its Everett, Wash., facility and recently started production of the first KC-46 for Japan. For more information on Defense, Space & Security, visit www.boeing.com. Follow us on Twitter: @BoeingDefense and @BoeingSpace. Caution Concerning Forward-Looking Statements Certain statements in this release may be "forward-looking" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as "expects," "intends," "plans," "projects," "believes," "estimates," "anticipates," and similar expressions are used to identify these forward-looking statements. Examples of forward-looking statements include statements relating to our future plans, business prospects, financial condition and operating results, as well as any other statement that does not directly relate to any historical or current fact. Forward-looking statements are based on our current expectations and assumptions, which may not prove to be accurate. These statements are not guarantees and are subject to risks, uncertainties, and changes in circumstances that are difficult to predict. Actual outcomes and results may differ materially from these forward-looking statements. As a result, these statements speak only as of the date they are made and we undertake no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement, except as required by federal securities laws. Specific factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, the effect of economic conditions in the United States and globally, general industry conditions as they may impact us or our customers, and our reliance on our commercial customers, our U.S. government customers, our suppliers and the worldwide market, as well as the other important factors disclosed previously and from time to time in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. # # # Contact: Kym Vandlac Defense, Space & Security Office: +1 425-266-5365 Mobile: +1 425-210-7851 kymberly.y.vandlac@boeing.com https://boeing.mediaroom.com/2019-10-01-Boeing-Awarded-2-6-Billion-for-Fifth-KC-46A-Tanker-Production-Lot

AIR FORCE Faxon Machining Inc., Cincinnati, Ohio (FA8681-20-D-0001); and Major Tool & Machine Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana (FA8681-20-D-0002), have been awarded a $600,000,000 indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for BLU-136/B next generation area attack warhead case production. This contract provides for the procurement of 15,000 BLU-136/B next generation area attack warhead cases. Work will be performed at Cincinnati, Ohio; and Indianapolis, Indiana, and is expected to be complete by Sept. 30, 2026. This award is the result of a competitive small business set-aside acquisition. Fiscal 2019 ammunition production funds in the amount of $109,500 is being obligated at the time of award. The Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, Direct Attack Division, Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, is the contracting activity. United Launch Services, Centennial, Colorado, has been awarded a $98,549,235 firm-fixed-price contract for Atlas V Completion launch services. This contract provides launch service completion for three National Security Space Launch Atlas V missions (two Air Force and one National Reconnaissance Office) previously ordered under contract FA8811-13-C-0003. Work will be performed at Centennial, Colorado; Decatur, Alabama; and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, and is expected to be completed by Nov. 30, 2020. This award is the result of a sole source acquisition. Fiscal 2019 and 2020 procurement funds are being obligated at the time of award. The Space and Missile Systems Center, Los Angeles Air Force Base, California, is the contracting activity (FA8811-20-C-0001). Tunista Logistics Solutions LLC, Honolulu, Hawaii, has been awarded a $90,000,000 contract for Barry M. Goldwater Range operations and maintenance services. This contract provides for operation and maintenance services of the government-owned, contractor-operated facilities at Gila Bend Air Force Auxiliary Field, Gila Bend, Arizona, and support services for operation of the Barry M. Goldwater Range in support of training missions for the F-35, F-16 and A-10 aircraft pilots for Air Force and other Department of Defense agencies. Ranges are broadly categorized as either primary training ranges or major range and test facility bases. The Barry M. Goldwater Range is considered a primary training range. Services include airfield management, target and range maintenance, civil engineering, fire and emergency services, security, logistics, air traffic control, custodial, trash and refuse, environmental engineering, biological and environmental monitoring. Work will be performed at Gila Bend Air Force Auxiliary Field, and is expected to be completed by Sept. 30, 2026. This award is the result of a competitive acquisition and three offers were received. Fiscal 2020 operations and maintenance funds in the amount of approximately $13,000,000 are being obligated at the time of award. The 56th Contracting Squadron, Luke Air Force Base, Arizona, is the contracting activity (FA4887-20-D-0001). Teletronics Technology Corp., Newtown, Pennsylvania, has been awarded a $90,000,000 indefinite-quantity contract, for high speed data acquisition systems (HSDAS) and support. This contract provides the 59th Test and Evaluation Squadron with HSDAS and ancillary support services. The contract provides for configured systems, signal conditioning, data acquisition, multiplexing, recording and radio frequency telemetry functionality primarily used for flight and ground test. The contractor shall provide HSDAS commercial-off-the-shelf products and associated HSDAS services. Work will be performed at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada, and is expected to be complete by March 2025. This award is the result of a sole source acquisition. Fiscal 2019 research and development funds in the amount of $58,967 are being obligated at the time of award. The 99th Contracting Squadron, Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada, is the contracting activity (FA4861-19-D-A006). Intelligent Waves LLC, Reston, Virginia, has been awarded an $89,200,000 indefinite-quantity contract for crowd sourced data support services. This contract provides the 59th Test and Evaluation Squadron with crowd support data support services. The contractor shall provide flight test mission instrumentation modifications, improvements and operations for 53rd Wing test aircraft test instrumentation packages at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada, and other operational flight-testing locations. The contractor shall evaluate, upgrade, modify and operate instrumentation systems before, during, and after test missions. This work may include design, integration, functional checkouts and mission data capture activities for each period of performance. Work will be performed at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada; Yuma, Arizona; Patuxent River, Maryland; Norfolk, Virginia; Wright Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio; and Hill Air Force Base, Utah, and is expected to be completed by March 2025. This award is the result of a sole source acquisition. Fiscal 2019 research and development funds in the amount of $1,600,000 are being obligated at the time of award. The 99th Contracting Squadron, Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada, is the contracting activity (FA4861-19-D-A005). DynCorp International LLC, Fort Worth, Texas, has been awarded a $68,400,284 modification (P00033) to previously awarded contract FA4890-17-C-0005 for Air Force Central Command war reserve materiel. The contract modification provides for the exercise of Option Year Three period of performance for services being provided under the basic contract. The location of performance is Shaw Air Force Base, South Carolina; Kuwait; Oman; Qatar; and United Arab Emirates, and work is expected to be completed by Sept. 30, 2020. The total cumulative face value of the contract is $255,195,955. Fiscal 2020 operations and maintenance funds in the amount of $68,379,284 are being obligated at the time of award. The Acquisition Management and Integration Center, Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Hampton, Virginia, is the contracting activity. ASRC Communications Ltd., Beltsville, Maryland, has been awarded a $66,954,742 firm-fixe-price single contract modification (P00039) to previously awarded contract FA3002-16-C-0004 for acquisition of base operations support services. Work will be performed at Vance Air Force Base, Oklahoma, and is expected to be completed by Sept. 30, 2020. This award is the result of a competitive source acquisition and six offers were received. Fiscal 2020 operations and maintenance funds are being used and no funds are being obligated at the time of the award. The Air Force Installation Contracting Center, the 338th Specialized Contracting Squadron, Joint Base San Antonio, Texas, is the contracting activity. Reliance Test & Technology, Crestview, Florida, has been awarded a $49,032,036 modification (P00056) to previously awarded contract FA2486-16-C-0002 for Eglin Operation and Maintenance Support Service. This contract modification increases the value of cost-type contract line item numbers for Option Period One. Work will be performed at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, and is expected to be completed by March 31, 2020. The total cumulative face value of the contract to $1,266,287,845. Fiscal 2019 research and development funds in the amount of $6,200,000 are being obligated at the time of award. The Air Force Test Center, Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, is the contracting activity. Crew Training International Inc., Memphis, Tennessee, has been awarded a $42,279,639 firm-fixed-price modification (P00009) to previously awarded contract FA4890-19-C-0003 for the MQ9 Aircrew Training and Courseware Development contract. The contract modification is for the exercise of option year one. Work will be performed at Creech Air Force Base, Nevada; Holloman Air Force Base, New Mexico; March Air Reserve Base, California; and Hancock Air National Guard Base, New York, and is expected to be completed by Sept. 30, 2020. The total cumulative face value of the contract is $223,630,953. Fiscal 2020 operations and maintenance funds in the amount of $30,376,922 are being obligated at the time of award. The Air Combat Command Acquisition Management and Integration Center, Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Virginia, is the contracting activity. L-3 Communications Integrated Systems, Greenville, Texas, has been awarded a $17,518,309 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract modification for aircraft engineering, procurement and fabrication. Work will be performed in Greenville, Texas, and is expected to be completed by December 2022. This contract involves 100% foreign military sales. This award is the result of a sole-source acquisition. Foreign Military Sales funds in the amount of $17,518,309 are being obligated at the time of award. The 645th Aeronautical Systems Group, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, is the contracting activity (FA8620-18-F-4802 P00006). SES Electrical LLC, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, has been awarded an $11,298,386 firm-fixed-price contract to repair main perimeter fence. As the result of Hurricane Michael, the contract is comprised of the removal and disposal of old damaged fence, removal and disposal of previously installed temporary fencing and replacement with new approved fencing materials at specific locations identified on Tyndall Air Force Base, Florida. Work will be performed at Tyndall Air Force Base, Florida, and is expected to be completed by Sept. 30, 2020. This award is the result of a sole source 8(a) Alaska Native Corporation acquisition. Fiscal 2019 operations and maintenance funding in the amount of $11,298,386 are being obligated at the time of award. The 325th Contracting Squadron, Tyndall Air Force Base, Florida, is the contracting activity (FA4819-19-C-A033). U.S. TRANSPORTATION COMMAND Twelve companies have been awarded task orders under the following International Charter Airlift Services in Support of the Civil Reserve Air Fleet contracts: HTC71118DCC37 -- Atlas Air Inc., Purchase, New York (HTC71120F1025, HTC71120F1026; $287,285,594); Federal Express, Memphis, Tennessee (HTC71120F1027; $38,903,491); Amerijet International, Fort Lauderdale, Florida (HTC71120F1041; $2,496,649); HTC71118DCC38 -- Miami Air International, Miami, Florida (HTC71120F1028; $7,084,737); Sun Country Airlines, Eagan, Minnesota (HTC71120F1029; $3,025,704); HTC71118DCC39 -- ABX Air, Wilmington, Ohio (HTC71120F1030; $9,394,053), Air Transport International Inc., Wilmington, Ohio (HTC71120F1031; $17,450,997); Kalitta Air LLC, Ypsilanti, Michigan (HTC71120F1032; $159,942,597); Omni Air International Inc., Tulsa, Oklahoma (HTC71120F1033; $77,654,435); United Parcel Service Co., Louisville, Kentucky (HTC71120F1034; $13,710,325); Western Global Airlines, Estero, Florida (HTC71120F1035; $17,812,110); and HTC71118DCC40 -- National Airlines, Orlando, Florida (HTC71120F1036; $12,464,771). The task orders provide international long-range and short-range charter airlift services for the Department of Defense. Work will be performed globally. The task order period of performance is from Oct. 1, 2019, to Sept. 30, 2020. Type of appropriation is Fiscal 2020 transportation working capital funds. U.S. Transportation Command, Directorate of Acquisition, Scott Air Force Base, Illinois, is the contracting activity. Air Transport International, Wilmington, Ohio, has been awarded task order (HTC71120F1037) on contract HTC71118DCC16 in the estimated amount of $86,633,164. This contract provides global air charter transportation services utilizing part 121 aircraft configured to simultaneously transport both passengers and cargo. Services required include full planeload port to port airlift transportation services, commercial equivalent economy passenger services, 463L pallet cargo services, and mission coordination. Work will be performed globally. Task order period of performance is Oct. 1, 2019, to Sept. 30, 2020. Fiscal 2020 transportation working capital funds were obligated at time of award. This task order will bring the total cumulative face value of the contract to $212,167,393 from $125,534,229. U.S. Transportation Command, Directorate of Acquisition, Scott Air Force Base, Illinois, is the contracting activity. Jacobs Technology Inc., Tampa, Florida, has been awarded a contract modification (P00029) on contract HTC71117CD001 obligating funds in the amount of $22,360,471. This modification provides continued information technology service management enterprise support to the U.S. Transportation Command. Work will be performed primarily on-site at Scott Air Force Base, Illinois, and other locations: Defense Information Systems Agency Defense Enterprise Computing Center, St. Louis, Missouri; U.S. TRANSCOM Office, Washington, District of Columbia; Joint Enabling Capabilities Command, Norfolk, Virginia; and the Pentagon. The option period of performance is from Oct. 1, 2019, to Sept. 30, 2020. Fiscal 2020 transportation working capital funds, operations; and operations and maintenance funds were obligated at award. This modification brings the total cumulative face value of the contract to $74,346,425 from $51,985,954. U.S. TRANSCOM, Directorate of Acquisition, Scott Air Force Base, Illinois, is the contracting activity. DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY Rolls-Royce Corp., Indianapolis, Indiana, has been awarded a maximum $109,252,327 requirements contract for supplies related to the support of the T56 family of aircraft engines. 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 five-year base contract with one five-year option period. Location of performance is Indiana, with a Sept. 30, 2024, performance completion date. Using military services are Air Force and Navy. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2020 through 2024 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Aviation, Richmond, Virginia (SPE4AX-20-D-9400). Woodward Inc., Loves Park, Illinois, has been awarded a maximum $113,429,656 firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for aviation turbine engine main fuel controls. This was a competitive acquisition with one offer received. This is a five-year contract with no option periods. Location of performance is Illinois, with a Sept. 20, 2025, performance completion date. Using military service is Army. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2019 through 2024 Army working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Aviation, Redstone Arsenal, Alabama (SPRRA1-19-D-0133). (Awarded Sept. 28, 2019) NAVY Progeny Systems,* Manassas, Virginia, was awarded a $25,689,916 cost-plus-fixed-fee, cost-plus-incentive-fee, and cost only contract for the procurement of Navy systems engineering. This contract includes options, which, if exercised, would bring the cumulative value of this contract to $98,044,894. Work will be performed in Middletown, Rhode Island (70%); and Manassas, Virginia (30%), and is expected to be completed by September 2021. If all options are exercised, work will continue through September 2027. Fiscal 2019 research, development test and evaluation (Navy) funding in the amount of $800,000 will be obligated at time of award. This contract was competitively procured via the Federal Business Opportunities website, with one offer received. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington Navy Yard, Washington, District of Columbia, is the contracting activity (N00024-19-C-6201). (Awarded Sept. 30, 2019) Systems Application and Technologies Inc.,* Oxnard, California, is awarded a $25,275,828 modification (P00016) to a previously awarded cost-plus-fixed-fee/cost contract (N68936-18-C-0046) to maintain and operate aerial and seaborne assets and associated equipment for the Pacific Targets and Marine Operations Division of the Naval Air Warfare Center, Weapons Division (NAWCWD), Point Mugu, California. Work will be performed at Naval Base Ventura County, California (85%); China Lake, California (6%); and Las Cruces, New Mexico (3%); Kauai, Hawaii (2%); Salt Lake City, Utah (2%); Lompoc, California (1%); and various locations outside the continental U.S. (1%), and is expected to be completed in September 2020. Major range and test facility base; and working capital (Navy) funds in the amount of $11,690,000 will be obligated at time of award, none of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The NAWCWD, Point Mugu, California, is the contracting activity. Life Cycle Engineering Inc., North Charleston, South Carolina, was awarded an $8,696,376 firm-fixed-price task order (N32253-19-F-3000) off of the SeaPort-e multiple-award contract N00178-07-D-4077 for the procurement of technical, engineering, management, programmatic, logistics, and education (TEMPLE) services at Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard and Intermediate Maintenance Facility, Hawaii. This procurement of TEMPLE services will provide advisory and assistance services to various departments (C135 Quality Assurance, C200 Engineering, C300 Operations, C710 Lifting and Handling, C900T Resource and Training, and C2300 Nuclear Engineering Planning Department) at the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard. This task order includes one option period which, if exercised, would bring the cumulative value of this task order to $17,563,077. Work will be performed in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and is expected to be completed by September 2020. If the option period is exercised, work will continue through September 2021. Fiscal 2019 operation and maintenance (Navy) funding in the amount of $8,696,376 was obligated at time of award and would have expired at the end of fiscal year 2019. This task order was competitively procured via SeaPort-e, with one offer received. The Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard and Intermediate Maintenance Facility, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, is the contracting activity. (Awarded Sept. 28, 2019) CORRECTION: The Sept. 30, 2019, announcement of a $43,889,245 delivery order (N0002419F5637) under previously awarded contract N00024-15-D-5217 to Lockheed Martin Rotary and Mission Systems, Manassas, Virginia, for 281 Technical Insertion Sixteen (TI-16) Common Display System Variant A water-cooled and air-cooled production consoles, included the incorrect completion month. The work is expected to be complete by September 2020. All other information in the announcement is correct. CORRECTION: The Sept. 30, 2019, announcement of an $8,004,622 modification (P00006) to a previously awarded contract (N00019-19-C-0004) to Lockheed Martin Corp., Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co., Fort Worth, Texas, included an incorrect work location. The correct location is Edwards Air Force Base, California. All other information in the announcement is correct. CORRECTION: The $67,371,583 contract awarded to EMCube Inc., Alexandria, Virginia (N00030-20-C-0009), to provide services for the U.S. and United Kingdom Trident II D5 Strategic Weapon System programs and the United Kingdom Dreadnought program, was incorrectly announced on Sept. 30, 2019. The contract is being awarded Oct. 1, 2019. All other information in the announcement is correct. DEFENSE HEALTH AGENCY Alutiiq Solutions LLC, Anchorage, Alaska, has been awarded a $11,910,439 firm-fixed-price contract, HT0014-19-C-0012. This contract provides support to the Defense Health Agency for continuation of information management and information technology services at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, the Fort Belvoir Community Hospital, and other joint medical facilities and components within the National Capital Region. The work includes, but is not limited to, project management, application and web development, clinical informatics, information assurance, help desk, data center and network operations, system architecture and engineering, and telecommunications support. Work will be performed in Maryland and Virginia, beginning Sept. 30, 2019, with an estimated completion date of March 29, 2020. The contract includes a six-month base period. Fiscal 2019 operations and maintenance funds in the amount of $11,910,439 are obligated on this award. This was an 8(a) direct award. The Defense Health Agency, Falls Church, Virginia, is the contracting activity. *Small Business https://www.defense.gov/Newsroom/Contracts/Contract/Article/1976774/source/GovDelivery/

by Sandra Erwin In a few months the Air Force will start a series of experiments to try to connect fighter aircraft and other weapon systems into a single network so they can all share critical data and intelligence, much of which is collected by satellites in space. Will Roper, the assistant secretary of the Air Force for acquisition, described the venture as the “first demonstration of what you could call ‘step 1' of ABMS.” ABMS is short for Advanced Battle Management System, and it is a hard concept to explain because it is not like a traditional piece of hardware or software. It can be best described as a network where data is piped in from sensors located in space, at sea, in the air or on the ground. That information would be instantly analyzed with artificial intelligence tools and shared across the network. This is the type of technology that will “allow us to be more collaborative,” Roper told reporters at the recent 2019 Air Space & Cyber symposium. Chief of Staff Gen. David Goldfein is “driving this idea across the Air Force,” said Roper. Goldfein has been a champion of ABMS and wants to make it a “large dollar item in our 2021 budget,” said Roper. The thinking is that the Air Force will spend less money on shiny new platforms and more on exploiting data and advanced networks. It would be like the “Internet of Things, but applied to military systems,” said Roper. Air Force leaders initially pitched the ABMS idea to Congress two years ago as a vision of the future where access to timely data is key to success in the battlefield. They suggested that the Air Force should invest in ABMS rather than spend billions on new command-and-control airplanes. Congress gave the plan a skeptical reception but the Air Force will continue to press its case. In a keynote speech at Air Force Association's Air Space & Cyber conference last week, Goldfein described the future as one of “multi-domain operations” where all weapons and military forces receive up-to-the-minute intelligence and are able to share that data, something that ABMS would make possible. “What I'm talking about is a fully networked force where Air Force paints a digital future where data from satellites play central role each platform's sensors and operators are connected,” said Goldfein. While the concept seems straightforward, putting it into practice is not. One of the challenges is how to handle the vast amounts of data available from satellites and the infrastructure required to bring this data to the ground, analyze the data and then transport it to where it's needed. Some of the crucial technologies that will enable ABMS or any similar efforts will come from the world of commercial space and cloud computing. The Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center has recognized this as it pursues a project called CASINO, short for Commercially Augmented Space Inter Networked Operations. CASINO is a spinoff of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's Blackjack program that is attempting to demonstrate the military utility of small satellites in low Earth orbit. SMC has made CASINO one of its signature efforts to show how commercial technology could be used to process and distribute data from large LEO constellations. The Pentagon's Silicon Valley-based Defense Innovation Unit on Sept. 10 awarded a contract of undisclosed value to Ball Aerospace and Microsoft to demonstrate cloud processing capabilities in support of the CASINO project. The companies will have to show how simultaneous, worldwide data streams from large, distributed constellations of small satellites can be processed quickly using Microsoft's Azure cloud and Ball Aerospace algorithms. This is about making satellite data more actionable more quickly, Azure Global vice president Tom Keane said. One of the questions this project seeks to answer is “what would it take to completely transform what a ground station looks like, and downlink that data directly to the cloud?” Keane said. Perhaps one option is to place electronically steered flat panel antennas on the roof of a data center to connect multiple LEO satellites. Ball Aerospace algorithms in this project will process data streams from up to 20 satellites. With the data in the cloud, customers can direct it to where it's needed. Clearly, there is a long way to go to achieve what Goldfein calls the “Air Force That We Need” — one where all U.S. and allied forces are connected and get relevant information quickly. But you have to start somewhere. https://spacenews.com/air-force-paints-a-digital-future-where-data-from-satellites-play-central-role/

By Murray Brewster · In order to know what most of the major parties think about the uncertain state of the world, and Canada's place in it, you have to dig — really dig — to find it. The ideas, solutions and proposals around security and defence from the Liberals, New Democrats and the Green Party are buried, in some cases, at the very back of their platform documents. The Conservatives issued a policy statement last spring but have yet to state their campaign platform. And that — along with the dearth of debate about the turbulence beyond the country's borders — has alarmed defence policy experts who say now is not the time for politics as usual. "This is the time we need the clearest, most strategic thinking since the end of the Second World War, in terms of how we do Canadian security," said Rob Huebert, a defence expert at the University of Calgary. "It is not an exaggeration to say we are on the cusp of the most dangerous geopolitical environment we've seen in our lifetime." The rise of authoritarianism throughout the globe, notably in China and Russia, and the undermining of Western democracies through a variety of circumstances has increased the likelihood of conflict in the eyes of many experts. The retreat of the United States from its traditional role in the globe has enormous consequences for Canadian domestic policy. Yet, Huebert said, there is "a total lack of meaningful discussion about the type of direction we need to be taking" by the Liberals and the other parties in the campaign. The conventional Canadian political calculus is that issues of security and defence policy are not vote-getters and previous elections, with one or two exceptions, have borne out that notion with ballot box issues being defined by either social or pocketbook considerations. Huebert, however, describes it as a "very disturbing calculation" at this moment in time. He is not alone in his concern. "There's a lot going on, but near radio silence," said Dave Perry, a senior analyst at the Canadian Global Affairs Institute. "I'm surprised every political party in this country has been muted on these topics." The Liberal platform, released Sunday, recycles the title of their marquee defence policy, delivered in 2017 — Strong, Secure and Engaged. The new campaign document's foreign policy and defence section is titled: "Keeping Canada Strong, Secure and Engaged," and offers up as a pledge to "renew Canada's commitment to peacekeeping efforts," which harkens back to the Liberal election platform in 2015. "To ensure that Canada continues to make a positive contribution to international peace and security, we will move forward with new investments to support United Nations peacekeeping efforts — with more help to advance the women, peace, and security agenda; support conflict prevention and peacebuilding; and respond to grave human rights abuses," said the Liberal 2019 platform. The document does not explain what the new investment might look like, but the Liberals say they're committed to spending additional $50 million per year on UN peacekeeping commitments. Liberal commitment in 2019 echoes 2015 However, Walter Dorn, a professor of defence studies at the Canadian Forces College and one of the country's preeminent experts on peacekeeping, said he finds the overall language of the Liberal promise curious. "Those were the same words used by Liberals in 2015," he said. "So, are they renewing it because they haven't done it in the last four years?" Dorn said the Liberal government, for a variety of reasons, did not get substantially engaged in peacekeeping during its mandate. It made a number of splashy commitments at an international meeting in Vancouver in 2017, but only delivered a year-long deployment of helicopters to Mali and the more recent secondment of a C-130J Hercules transport for United Nations operations in Africa. "I hope they can learn from their first term," said Dorn. "Their performance is going to have to be much better if they're going to renew Canada's commitment to peacekeeping and secure a seat on the [UN] Security Council." He also noted the "average number" of uniform personnel deployed in UN peacekeeping missions under the Liberals was lower than during the former Conservative government era. There's a promise in the Liberal platform to focus international military training activities to include instruction for other countries on how to respond to "disasters due to climate change." NDP, Greens light on detail The NDP's platform, released weeks ago, also leans heavily on peacekeeping, but also promises to work toward nuclear disarmament. The Green Party makes a similar pledge, but also nods tentatively toward the instability beyond our borders. "Canada now needs a general purpose, combat-capable force that can provide realistic options to the government in domestic security emergencies, continental defence and international operations," said the Green's recently released platform. Last spring, the Conservatives released a detailed foreign and defence policy statement that promised to buy new submarines, join the U.S. ballistic missile defence program and expand the current military mission in Ukraine. But how much of that will make it into the party's campaign platform is unclear. It is expected to be unveiled soon. The Liberal platform pays specific attention to the Arctic, but within a foreign policy context promising to "strengthen continental defence" and in the North, moving "forward with better developed surveillance and rapid response capabilities." Huebert was left scratching his head. "That blurs together so many talking points, it creates a sense of nothingness," he said. There is no mention of NORAD modernization, including the planned replacement of the North Warning System chain of radar stations, a cost-shared endeavour with the United States that some experts have estimated could cost up to $11 billion (with Canadian taxpayers on the hook for 40 per cent or roughly $5 billion of that bill.) Huebert said, when the Liberals talk about "rapid response capabilities," they're referring to better search and rescue coverage in the North, something he said will become a necessity as more and more regions become ice-free in the summer. "Problem is: We just don't know what they're talking about," he said. A Liberal campaign spokeswoman said the party understands how crucial it is to support the Canadian military and pointed to the government's defence policy as well as all of the social improvements that have been made for serving members. "Our platform lays out our vision for moving our country forward and how we plan to build on the progress we have made over the past four years," said Eleanore Catenaro. Canada supported the UN with "real capabilities," she said, adding that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau addressed the uncertainty in the world in a foreign policy speech at the end of August. New framework for intelligence Interestingly, the platform specifically promises to create "a new framework governing how Canada gathers, manages and uses defence intelligence." That caught the attention of Perry who said the promise was likely red-circled by officials at the Department of National Defence. Few Canadians realize that the military is home to the largest intelligence organization in the federal government, in terms of sheer numbers. Precise figures are hard to establish, but the defence intelligence establishment is believed to be the country's second-best-funded intelligence organization The National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians, earlier this year, signalled it wanted to see the military's intelligence branch put on a tighter legislative leash, similar to legal constraints on civilian spy agencies. The committee recommended the Liberal government think seriously about drafting specific laws to govern how and under what circumstances military intelligence missions can take place. The Liberal platform promises to create a specific defence procurement agency, which is curious in the sense that a series of government ministers and senior officials have lauded how well military procurement has been going since the Liberals came to power. "There is a bit of a disconnect here," said Perry. "The message [with the platform promise] is that you're not happy with the way procurement has gone and you want it to go differently, better or make some substantive change." https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/fed-elxn-world-1.5303672

By: Nathan Strout Space technology is developing so fast that by the time the tech makes it through the acquisitions process and into orbit, it's practically obsolete. “The technology is moving at such an accelerated pace and these technologies are on such a steep trajectory that the traditional acquisition system just frankly can't keep up,” explained Ken Peterman, president of government systems for Viasat. To combat this trend, the U.S. Air Force's space acquisition arm, the Space and Missile Systems Center, is focused on quickly building prototypes as a way to speed up development and bring nontraditional companies into the Pentagon's space. Using tools such as other transaction authorities, Section 804 — a rapid acquisition approach that aims to field capabilities within two to five years — the Space Enterprise Consortium and Air Force pitch days, SMC is encouraging an acquisitions model focused on prototyping over the slower, more cumbersome Pentagon procurement procedure. The missile warning example Under the Pentagon's normal acquisition process, it could take the better part of a decade — or longer — from contract award to launching a satellite into orbit. Consider the Next Generation Overhead Persistent Infrared satellite system. OPIR is supposed to replace the Space-Based Infrared System as the nation's premier early warning missile detection and tracking satellite system, providing significantly more capacity than the current constellation. But under traditional acquisitions, OPIR wouldn't be available until nine years after contract award. That wasn't going to cut it. So service leaders took a new approach. Instead of going through the traditional acquisition process, the Air Force would adopt a rapid prototyping approach to accelerate development. And rather than develop large, exquisite satellites meant to last generations, new satellites would be smaller, less expensive and built for replacement in three- to four-year cycles. “We have existing programs of record ... that continue to take the four or five or six years or whatever that we originally contracted for. I think our goal going into the future is to get more on a three- to four-year cycle for our satellites, not just in production but also in terms of their amount of principal time on work,” said SMC Commander Lt. Gen. John Thompson. Lockheed Martin used this approach to build three OPIR satellites. Instead of subcontracting with one company to build the satellites' payloads, Lockheed Martin is having two teams compete to build the best OPIR payload. This not only mitigates the risk of failure by having two competing prototypes, but also moves to a fail-early model where a successful prototype is less likely to lead to issues later on. Applied to OPIR, rapid prototyping has cut the projected timeline for the project in half. “It is harder to move fast if you haven't done the underlying innovation, prototyping and technology development that allows those systems to go forward. So even when you look at things like Next Gen OPIR, which is not a three- to four-year cycle, we're bringing that from what would have been 108 months down into the five-year timeline; that was the fuel,” said Col. Dennis Bythewood, program executive officer for space development at SMC. Hither the Space Enterprise Consortium OPIR is one example of the rapid prototyping approach the Air Force is taking with space procurement. But perhaps the best example of SMC's rapid prototyping approach is the Space Enterprise Consortium, or SpEC. Established in 2017 through an other transaction authority, or OTA, SpEC is an organization comprised of 325 members who can apply to build space-related prototypes. To date, the Air Force has issued more than 50 awards to the group to develop prototypes, ranging from a ground system for OPIR to a new space vehicle that could extend the Link 16 network to beyond line-of-sight communications. Often, the consortium awards multiple contracts for one project, allowing companies to compete to produce a viable technology. Although not every prototype succeeds, the approach allows for failure earlier in the development process than the traditional acquisition model. “[This strategy] allows individual components to fail, but us to continue to move forward. And that's a place where you can see competitive prototyping with multiple vendors going head-to-head. I don't know which one will be successful when we start, but there's a much higher likelihood that I'm going to end up with multiple success at the tail end,” Bythewood said. Because the consortium specializes in OTAs, it's able to open the door to nontraditional companies that don't have the time or resources to go through the regular acquisition process under the Department of Defense. “OTAs are good in the sense that they're a lot more flexible, they're not hard contracts — they're just agreements. And in that respect, they attract nontraditional suppliers, people who haven't been working with DoD and don't want to recall all their accounting systems, so that they can comply with all the cost-reporting requirements for DoD and everything like that. So for a lot of companies, they're attractive,” said Cristina Chaplain, director of the Government Accountability Office's contracting and national security acquisitions team. Small startups and venture capital-funded companies are a big part of commercial growth in space. But for a long time, these companies have been frustrated in their attempts to engage with the Pentagon on space, Chaplain said. OTAs, and the consortium in particular, knock down barriers between the DoD and small, commercial, space-focused companies. Of course, working with less traditional companies also opens the door to increased risk. These companies aren't necessarily familiar with the way the Pentagon does business. And even if OTAs offer flexibility, working with the government be a major challenge. That's why SpEC was designed with mentorship in mind. In the SpEC framework, there's room for these small companies to partner with larger, more established players. Kay Sears, Lockheed Martin's vice president and general manager for military space, explained that defense contractors can work with SpEC to find innovative startup companies that need help bringing their new technologies to bare for the Pentagon. The result is a symbiotic relationship, where prime contractors such as Lockheed can take smaller companies under their wing as they navigate the complex world of the DoD, while the startups can help Lockheed innovate. “We're not asking those companies to become defense companies, we're asking them to actually stay commercial and stay motivated to their original business plan, but to work with us and we can mentor them to help develop that technology,” Sears said. “So we have to find those nuggets of commercial capability and commercial innovation, and then bridge that into the mission understanding that we have and the mission systems that we can contract (for) and deliver.” ‘The darker side' While the Air Force is quick to tout the expected benefits of the SpEC approach, there are potential downsides. For one, transparency. “The darker side is that it's harder to have good management and oversight if you're not requiring all the same things from the contractors. You're not getting the same kind of reporting,” Chaplain said. The Government Accountability Office can help hold the Pentagon and contractors accountable over the long lifetime of a program contract, tracking spending increases, delays and failures. And the GAO is able to provide some oversight for OTAs, however it's more difficult than programs going through the regular acquisitions process, Chaplain explained. Another problem is funding. The rapid prototyping approach requires more money up front and a less risk-averse approach. Next Gen OPIR will be a test run for whether Congress can get on board with that approach for space. As the Air Force sped up OPIR's timeline with rapid prototyping, it created a significant increase in their near-term budget. For fiscal 2020, the Pentagon asked for $1.4 billion for the program. That's a $459 million increase over what was projected for FY20 during the last budget cycle. The House has balked at that amount, authorizing $1 billion of the requested funding. The Senate Appropriations Committee has taken the opposite approach. Not only did Senate appropriators vote to fully fund the request; they threw in an additional $536 million to fully fund the program. As the senators noted in their report on the bill, OPIR will serve as a test case for whether Congress will support SMC's rapid prototyping approach. “The Committee believes the program will be a[n] exemplar for rapid acquisition of space programs, whether the program succeeds or fails,” the report read. “Failure will have implications for Congress's willingness to fund future programs using the National Defense Authorization Act section 804 rapid prototyping and fielding authorities for similarly large, or even middle tier programs, for years to come. Alternatively, if the program is to have any chance of success, the [Defense] Department cannot continue to rely on reprogramming requests for its funding.” The once and future SpEC Even as the fight over OPIR funding continues in Congress, the Space Enterprise Consortium and its funding has grown by leaps and bounds. “It has been a vast success story for [SpEC]. We began that contract with a $100 million ceiling, which meant that we could execute many different actions within it up to about $100,000. We took that five times higher within the first year,” Bythewood said. And SMC seems keen to build on that approach. On Aug. 20, the Space and Missiles Systems Center issued a request for information expressing an interest in re-competing the SpEC OTA agreement. This new SpEC would have a $12 billion ceiling over 10 years. “We're not going to be awarding a $1 billion contract within SpEC OTA. We're looking at having smaller competitive prototyping efforts that get our products off on the right start in order to deliver capabilities sooner. So if there's a fear ... that we're going to be executing huge programs of record under the SpEC OTA vehicle, that's a kind of [unfounded] fear,” Thompson said. Another example of the rapid prototyping initiative is the Air Force's new pitch days concept, where on designated days, companies can present new technologies to the government and potentially win a Section 804 contract within minutes. The Air Force has been holding pitch days this year for a variety of platforms. The Air Force will be holding its first “Space Pitch Day” from Nov. 4-8 with a focus on launch systems, data mining, space visualization and space communications. Whether it's SpEC, pitch days or working closely with contractors, it's clear SMC sees rapid prototyping as the way forward for military space. “We recognize that when you try new things, some will work great, some will work moderately well and some you might fail fast on. But that's OK because clearly we need to do things differently,” said Peterman of Viasat. “We applaud the kinds of things these senior leaders are doing to try to drive change, get these cutting-edge capabilities into the war fighters' hands as quickly as possible.” https://www.c4isrnet.com/battlefield-tech/space/2019/09/30/is-rapid-prototyping-the-key-to-space/