Nouvelles

The companies on Tuesday announced a deal to create the first Lockheed-licensed F-16 Falcon Debot in Kjeller, Norway, to support the global F-16 fleet. March 12 (UPI) -- Lockheed Martin will establish its first F-16 Falcon Depot in the world in Norway with government-owned AIM Norway. Sustainment services will be provided for the Royal Norwegian Air Force and other regional F-16 customers, Lockheed Martin said in a news release Tuesday. Full article: https://www.upi.com/Defense-News/2019/03/12/Lockheed-AIM-Norway-to-establish-F-16-sustainment-hub-in-Norway/2501552403028/

By Jon Harper The president's fiscal year 2020 budget request for the Defense Department would reduce procurement of existing systems while increasing research-and-development spending as the Pentagon pursues new technology to take on advanced adversaries. The Trump administration is asking for $718 billion for the Pentagon, including a whopping $164 billion in overseas contingency operations funding, also known as OCO, and $9.2 in “emergency spending” for border wall construction and post-hurricane reconstruction efforts, according to budget documents released March 12. The documents note that $98 billion of the OCO funding is for base budget needs. Putting base money in OCO accounts, which aren't subject to 2011 Budget Control Act caps, is a long standing gimmick that the executive branch and Congress have used in recent years to get around military spending limits. The proposed topline would be see a $33 billion boost relative to what was enacted in fiscal year 2019, a gain of 4.9 percent in nominal terms and 2.8 percent real growth when accounting for inflation. The Army would see the largest budget increase of $12.5 billion. The Air Force and Department of the Navy — which includes the Marine Corps — would see gains of $11.8 billion and $9.9 billion, respectively. Defense-wide accounts would decrease by $930 million. The administration is asking for a total of $750 billion in defense spending, which includes nuclear weapons programs and various projects carried out by the Department of Energy and other agencies. That is $34 billion, nearly five percent, more than was enacted in 2019. Officials said the 2020 budget request reflects a renewed focus on great power competition with adversaries such as Russia and China. “The national defense strategy has made it very clear that to preserve the peace, we must be prepared for the high-end fight against peer competitors,” David Norquist, the Pentagon's acting deputy secretary of defense, told reporters during a briefing at the Pentagon. “Future wars will be waged not just in the air, on the land or at sea, but also in space and cyberspace, dramatically increasing the complexity of warfare. This budget reflects that challenge.” It includes the largest research, development, test and evaluation funding request in 70 years, Norquist noted. “We have increased ... RDT&E and we have decreased procurement to reflect our focus on modernization,” Deputy Undersecretary of Defense (Comptroller) Elaine McCusker said. Under the budget blueprint, RDT&E funding would grow by more than $9 billion to $104.3 billion, nearly a 10 percent boost relative to 2019, according to budget documents. That includes $12.4 billion for the Army, $46.1 billion for the Air Force, $20.4 billion for the Department of the Navy and $25.4 billion for defense-wide projects. Spending on emerging technologies highlighted in the budget documents include: $3.7 billion for “unmanned/autonomous projects to enhance freedom of maneuver and lethality in contested environments;” $927 million in artificial intelligence/machine learning investments for initiatives like the new Joint Artificial Intelligence Center and advanced image recognition; $2.6 billion for hypersonic weapons development; and $235 million for directed energy capabilities to support implementation of directed energy for base defense, enable testing and procurement of multiple types of lasers, and increase R&D for high-power density applications. Meanwhile, total procurement across the department would decrease by $4.2 billion, or about three percent relative to 2019, to $143.1 billion. The decrease is largely driven by reductions in procurement quantities for the F-35 joint strike fighter, C-130 cargo aircraft, AH-64 Apache helicopter and KC-46 tanker, according to budget documents. The Army would see a $1.3 billion cut in procurement, while the Army and Department of the Navy procurement accounts would essentially stay flat with only $66 million and $64 million growth, respectively. Defense-wide programs would face a $3.1 billion decrease. Cyber capabilities would see $9.6 billion in spending across the department to support offensive and defensive cyber operations, cybersecurity technology and cloud computing initiatives. That is an increase of about 10 percent over 2019, according to Army Lt. Gen. Anthony Ierardi, director of force structure, resources and assessment on the Joint Staff. For procurement and RDT&E, space systems — including launch, satellites and support — would receive $11.9 billion, a $2.6 billion jump. About $72 million would resource the initial establishment of a new United States Space Force that President Donald Trump is calling for, according to budget documents. Total spending on the space enterprise would total $14.1 billion, a 15 percent increase relative to 2019, Ierardi said. Aircraft programs would receive $57.7 billion, a $2.5 billion increase compared to 2019. That would including 78 F-35s, which are being acquired by the Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps — a decrease of 15 joint strike fighters compared to the number procured last year. The budget also includes $1.1 billion for eight F-15EX fighters, a souped-up version of legacy F-15 platforms. Ground systems would receive $14.6 billion, about $1.3 billion less than 2019. That includes $1.6 billion for more than 4,000 joint light tactical vehicle that the Army and Marine Corps are buying. Shipbuilding and maritime systems would receive $34.7 billion, a $1.6 billon bump. Missiles and munitions investment would total $21.6 billion, a $900 million increase. High priority munitions such as the joint air-to-surface missiles, long range anti-ship missile, standard missile-6, joint direct attack munition, Hellfire and small diameter bomb are fully funded at the maximum production rate, budget documents noted. Missile defense and defeat systems would get $11.6 billion in acquisition accounts, a $400 million drop. However, there will be a total of $13.6 billion for these types of capabilities once spending on related initiatives are factored in, McCusker said. Nuclear programs would receive $31 billion in funding including $14 billion for next-generation systems such as the B-21 bomber, Columbia-class submarine and ground-based strategic deterrent. Command, control, communications, computers and intelligence systems would get $10.2 billion, a $200 million increase. Science and technology efforts would grow $400 million to a total of $14.1 billion for initiatives such as AI, offensive and defensive hypersonic capabilities, directed energy and quantum sciences. Mission support activities would receive $70.9 billion. In a move that is certain to be controversial, the budget request includes $3.6 billion for border wall construction, as well as another $3.6 billion to backfill construction projects that were delayed in 2019 because money was reprogrammed for Trump's promised border wall after he declared a national emergency, McCusker said. Analysts have attacked the idea of including money in the Pentagon budget to build barriers on the U.S.-Mexico border. American Enterprise Institute defense analysts Mackenzie Eaglen and Rick Berger said the border wall funding was “inappropriately included,” adding that the “real budget” for defense would be about $743 billion excluding the $7.2 billion for wall funding and backfilling delayed military construction projects. “That's basically just growth with inflation from 2019, and it continues a flat spending trajectory for years to come,” they said in a note to reporters. Looking longer term over the course of the future years defense program, the Defense Department topline would see relatively slow nominal growth, decreasing to $713 billion in fiscal year 2021, before increasing to $727 billion in 2022, $742 billion in 2023 and $747 billion in 2024, according to budget documents. Eaglen and Berger also criticized the Pentagon's focus on R&D while cutting procurement. “This strategy continues years of cutting existing weapons programs for the promise of future technological breakthroughs,” they said. “The military not only requires more advanced weapons to compete with Russia and China, but also needs immediate recapitalization for decades-old equipment. Carrying out the national defense strategy requires both military capacity and capability.” http://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/articles/2019/3/12/pentagon-plans-to-cut-procurement-boost-rd-in-2020

By: Burak Ege Bekdil ANKARA, Turkey — The Turkish government is pressuring its defense and aerospace industries to boost exports as part of an aggressive strategy aimed at addressing the country's account deficit and plunging national currency. In an annual ambassadors conference in August, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan urged Turkey's diplomatic missions in more than 150 countries to work harder to win contracts for Turkish manufacturers. The president told Turkish ambassadors to fully utilize diplomacy in marketing homegrown equipment. He has also since repeatedly ordered procurement and industry officials to find new markets to target. “Exports are increasingly important for the sustainability of the [local] industry,” said Murat Ceran, head of the International Cooperation Department at the Presidency of Defence Industries, the government's procurement agency. "Globally speaking, there are three main tiers of exporters: The United States and Russia together account for nearly 60 percent of all exports. The second group consist of exporters like China, France, Germany and the U.K. Turkey, along with Italy, Spain South Korea and Israel, make the third group,” Ceran explained. In recent years, Turkey's defense and aerospace industries reported an average export increase of 8 to 10 percent annually. Only in the past six years, Ceran said, have defense and aerospace exports risen by 61 percent, while Turkey's overall exports rose by 10.5 percent. “We are working to boost exports in a total of 130 countries. We are monitoring over 500 programs in 70 countries,” he said. Turkey's defense and aerospace exports have risen from an annual $1.388 billion in 2013 to $2.035 billion in 2018, according to the Turkish Exporters' Assembly. In comparison, total sales (both foreign and domestic) grew from $5.076 billion in 2013 to $6.693 billion in 2017 (sales growth for 2018 was unavailable via the Turkish Exporters' Assembly by press time). Full article: https://www.defensenews.com/industry/2019/03/13/turkey-targets-defense-and-aerospace-exports-to-counter-growing-national-deficit/

BY MARCUS WEISGERBER The F-35 makers sees the Pentagon's plans to buy new F-15s for the first time in 19 years as a threat. The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter has reportedly been racking up kills against older warplanes during U.S. military drills in Nevada — even the F-15, whose record in real combat is a flawless 104 to zero. Now the two jets are heading into a fierce dogfight, one that doesn't involve missiles or guns. The battle between Lockheed Martin's F-35 and Boeing's F-15EX is being fought by lobbyists in and around Congress, which is beginning to review the Pentagon's fiscal 2020 budget request. Tens of billions of dollars are up for grabs over the coming decade. This week, Pentagon officials proposed buying new F-15s for the first time since 2001, even though top Air Force officials have said as recently as two weeks ago that they didn't necessarily want the the planes. For nearly two decades, Air Force officials have argued against buying so-called fourth-generation planes, preferring for stealthier fifth-generation planes with newer technology. The proposed F-15 purchase is rather small: eight jets in 2020 and a total of 80 through 2024. By comparison, the Pentagon wants to buy 78 F-35s in 2020, with 48 going to the Air Force. SUBSCRIBE Receive daily email updates: Subscribe to the Defense One daily. Be the first to receive updates. But Pentagon budget documents also signal that the Air Force could buy hundreds of F-15s over the next decade. A tranche of 144 planes would “initially refresh” squadrons that fly Cold War-era F-15C Eagles designed for air-to-air combat. And the plane has the “potential to refresh the remainder of the F-15C/D fleet and the F-15E fleet.” In all, that's more than 400 planes. That was enough to draw a full-court press from Lockheed. One day after that announcement, company officials began circulating a three-page white paper detailing the “F-35's decisive edge” over unnamed fourth-generation warplanes. Defense One reviewed the white paper. Lockheed's arguments boil down to bang-for-the-buck: The F-35 will cost about the same or less than the F-15 soon (the long-criticized price has in fact been coming down), its operating costs will be less than the F-15's within six years, and it can fly a more diverse set of missions. Boeing's argument: The F-35 was never intended to replace the air-to-air F-15C — but the F-15EXcould do so while expanding those squadrons' capabilities. Pilots would not need to extensive training to fly the jet, which could carry heavy loads of weapons, plus Eagle bases would not need major infrastructure upgrades. And the new F-15EX is multirole, similar to the F-15E Strike Eagle, meaning that it could strike targets in the air, on the ground or at sea. Boeing has been pitching new F-15s to the Air Force on and off for more than a decade, most recently offering a similar version of the plane it builds for Saudi Arabia and Qatar. The latest effort started to pick up steam last summer. The idea was embraced within parts of the Air Force, but not by top Air Force leaders. Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson acknowledged on Feb. 28 that the planes were not in the service's initial budget plans. But analysis by the Joint Staff and Pentagon Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation Office “on the kinds of capabilities that we require in the aviation realm” led officials to recommend buying the F-15EX, a senior defense official said. Elaine McCusker, the Pentagon deputy comptroller, said Tuesday that former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis made the decision to include the F-15EX in the Defense Department's budget request. “The F-35 remains a critical program for the joint force as we look to the future and the kinds of capabilities we require,” Lt. Gen. Anthony Ierardi, director of force structure, resources and assessment on the Joint Staff, said Tuesday. “The F-15EX provides additional capacity and readiness, especially in the near years to mid years, as we look at the threats and the kinds of combat potential that we needed to bring to bear.” Whether Congress agrees with that rationale is yet to be seen. In February, five Republican senators — all with ties to Lockheed F-35 manufacturing work or F-35 bases — sent a letter to President Trump in opposition of the F-15EX. “We are extremely concerned that, over the last few years, the DoD has underfunded the F-35 Program and relied on Congress to fund increases in production, sustainment, and modernization,” they group led by Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, wrote. “In order to meet the overmatch and lethality goals laid out in the National Security Strategy, the DoD needs to make these investments in the F-35 to affordably deliver and operate this fifth-generation fighter fleet. The F-35 is the most affordable, lethal, and survivable air dominance fighter, and now is the time to double down on the program.” The 2020 budget request includes $11.2 billion to buy 78 F-35s — 48, which would be Air Force jets. That money would also go toward improving jets already built. Lawmakers have routinely added F-35s to the Pentagon's request. For instance, last year they added 16 planes to the 77 requested by the Defense Department. The 2020 budget request includes $1.1 billion for the eight F-15EX jets. Some of that money would go toward standing up the production line. About a month after Bloomberg first reported in December that eight F-15EX jets would be in the budget request, Marillyn Hewson, Lockheed's CEO, said Pentagon leaders told her that F-15 buys would not be at the expense of the F-35. “The combat proven F-35 is the National Defense Strategy in action and the program continues to see strong support throughout the Pentagon, the U.S. Services, Congress and the White House,” the company said in an emailed statement. Pentagon officials have been insisted that any F-15EX buys would not eat into planned F-35 buys. In all, the Pentagon plans to buy a total 2,443 jets over the coming decades. “If Congress changes that to all F-35s, they'll be all F-35s, we understand that,” Maj. Gen. David Krumm, director of strategic plans in the office of the deputy chief of staff for strategic plans and requirements at the Pentagon, said Thursday at the Mitchell Institute. “But based upon the resources we have and the ownership costs of the platforms, we think that this is the best way that we can present the nation's Air Force and the best way we can get to a capabilities and capacities that we have. “If we have more resources, I think we need to have a conversation about what it is we go for,” he said. “But based upon the resources that we have, we think that this is the right way to go.” https://www.defenseone.com/business/2019/03/lockheed-martin-waging-war-boeings-f-15ex/155598

DARPA aims to apply the power of social networks to research and development via a novel social media platform purpose-built to quicken the pace of U.S. technology development. Polyplexus, which was recently launched as a public platform, is designed to increase access to scientific evidence and accelerate hypothesis development, research proposal generation, and research sponsor engagement. The platform's real-time interactions and functionality are designed to dramatically shorten the time between the emergence of concepts and the submission of worthy proposals. The platform facilitates connections among experts across academic disciplines so they can propel novel research opportunities together. Beta-launched for academics only in 2018, Polyplexus is now open to the broader research and development community and features an initial offering of research topics for collaboration and potential funding. DARPA seeks participation from anyone who is interested in sharing and learning about emerging science and technology including researchers, practitioners, and even retirees. “Crowdsourcing on the internet works when the solution exists and can be found,” said John Main, program manager in DARPA's Defense Sciences Office. “However, no amount of crowdsourcing will ever work if it's a research and development problem that must be solved, because the solution does not yet exist. That's why we built Polyplexus as a productivity platform rather than a crowdsourcing platform.” Polyplexus is composed of three integrated components: a public information feed where users can promote interesting research and connect it to other research via tweet-like summary statements called micropubs; a private tool for synthesizing new ideas, known as micropub portfolios; and an incubator environment. Incubators allow research sponsors in government and industry to post specific topics of interest and find research and development specialists to address their challenges. Following a 2018 test phase that was restricted to academic researchers, Version 1 of Polyplexus is now open to the public. Researchers and research sponsors across disciplines and industries are invited to sign up and become “Plexors” at https://polyplexus.com/users/login. During the Beta test phase, DARPA awarded funding to multiple proposals generated by founding members on the platform. Recipients included researchers from the University of Arkansas, Arizona State University, University of North Carolina, University of Miami, and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. With the public launch of Polyplexus, DARPA's Defense Sciences Office intends to fund up to 30 one-year seedling efforts developed through Polyplexus incubators over the next 18 months. These funding opportunities are capped at a maximum of $100,000 each. They will roll out at a pace of approximately two per month. DARPA just announced the first three Polyplexus incubators focused on Quantum Machine Learning (https://go.usa.gov/xEFpV), Human Learning (https://go.usa.gov/xEFpA), and Strategic Technological Surprise (https://go.usa.gov/xEFpm). To learn more about the incubator topics visit the incubators section on https://Polyplexus.com. Abstracts and proposals resulting from DARPA incubators will be submitted directly to DARPA as specified in the Polyplexus BAA: https://go.usa.gov/xEFpE. Abstracts and proposals are not submitted on the Polyplexus site. Anyone may create an account and contribute to the public areas of the site. Retired scientists, engineers, and researchers are especially encouraged to continue to share their expertise by engaging as Plexors. Plexors can also contribute suggestions for new features that will be included in Polyplexus Versions 2 and 3, which are planned for development over the next 18 months. “Polyplexus maintains a balance between public information exchange and protection of private intellectual property,” Main said. “It also creates an avenue for broader participation in DARPA research and development, including by those who aren't looking for a research project but who have knowledge to contribute, such as retirees.” Researchers should monitor the announcement and evolution of each individual incubator on the platform to fully understand the topic, opportunity, and requirements. Follow @polyplexors on both Instagram and Twitter for updated information. https://www.darpa.mil/news-events/2019-03-19

ARMY Sevenson Environmental Services Inc.,* Niagara Falls, New York, was awarded a $99,000,000 firm-fixed-price contract for remedial action at the Raymark Superfund Site in Stamford, Connecticut. Bids were solicited via the internet with eight received. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of March 15, 2024. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Concord, Massachusetts, is the contracting activity (W912WJ-19-D-0012). Hensel Phelps Construction Co., Orlando, Florida, was awarded a $59,456,363 firm-fixed-price contract for construction of Advanced Munitions Technology complex. Bids were solicited via the internet with four received. Work will be performed in Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, with an estimated completion date of Aug. 11, 2021. Fiscal 2017 military construction funds in the amount of $59,456,363 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Mobile, Alabama, is the contracting activity (W91278-19-C-0006). SourceAmerica, Vienna, Virginia, was awarded a $24,969,056 firm-fixed-price contract to re-purpose legacy body armor vests into the newly-designed Modular Scalable Vest configuration. One bid was solicited with one bid received. Work will be performed in Lansing, Michigan; Miami, Florida; and Austin, Texas, with an estimated completion date of June, 30, 2020. Fiscal 2019 research, development, test and evaluation funds in the amount of $24,969,056 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, is the contracting activity (W911QY-19-C-0043). Wara Construction Company LLC, Tustin, California, was awarded a $22,206,641 firm-fixed-price contract for construction of unaccompanied officer's quarters for the Kuwait Ministry of Defense. Bids were solicited via the internet with nine received. Work will be performed in Camp Arifjan, Kuwait, with an estimated completion date of Dec. 9, 2021. Fiscal 2016 military construction funds in the amount of $22,206,641 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Winchester, Virginia, is the contracting activity (W912ER-19-C-0004). California Department of Rehabilitation, Sacramento, California, was awarded a $19,865,600 firm-fixed-price contract for full food service operations at Fort Irwin, California. Bids were solicited via the internet with four received. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of March 31, 2024. U.S. Army Mission and Installation Contracting Command, Fort Sam Houston, Texas, is the contracting activity (W9124J-19-D-0006). Anthony Allega Cement Contractor Inc., Cleveland, Ohio, was awarded a $13,770,342 firm-fixed-price contract for the repair of airfield paving, taxiways D & B2 and short runway at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio. Bids were solicited via the internet with three received. Work will be performed in Fairborn, Ohio, with an estimated completion date of Dec. 3, 2020. Fiscal 2019 operations and maintenance, Army funds in the amount of $13,770,342 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Louisville, Kentucky, is the contracting activity (W912QR-19-C-0013). Aerovironment,* Simi Valley, California, was awarded an $11,176,242 modification (P00014) to contract W31P4Q-17-C-0193 for All Up Rounds. Work will be performed in Simi Valley, California, with an estimated completion date of Sept. 30, 2019. Fiscal 2018 other procurement, Army funds in the amount of $11,176,242 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, is the contracting activity. NAVY Sentient Digital Inc., doing business as Entrust Government Solutions,* of New Orleans, Louisiana, is being awarded a $49,000,000 indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for information technology (IT) engineering support services. IT services in this contract will assist Military Sealift Command's (MSC) Command, Control, Communications, And Computer Systems (C4S) Division (N6) in providing and sustaining Department of Defense (DoD) and Department of the Navy (DoN) compliant technical C4S solutions. Additionally, this contract will satisfy emerging requirements, enhance and develop IT capabilities in support of MSC's mission, and assist in the development of governance to ensure IT capabilities align to MSC N6's strategic business support plan, MSC N6's technical architecture road maps, DoD, and DoN mandates. The solutions primarily satisfy emergent cyber security mandates and technical refreshes for end of life hardware and software. Work will be performed at Norfolk, Virginia, and is expected to be completed by April 2024. This contract includes a five-year ordering period. Fiscal 2019 Navy Working Capital funding in the amount of $10,000 will be obligated at the time of award. Funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was a small business set-aside, with more than 10 companies solicited via the Federal Business Opportunities website, and 10 offers received. The U.S. Navy's Military Sealift Command, Norfolk, Virginia, is the contracting activity (N3220519D1003). Northrop Grumman Systems Corp., Bethpage, New York, is being awarded a $45,529,117 cost-plus-fixed-fee and cost-only modification to a previously awarded contract (N00024-17-C-6311) for engineering services to support the Littoral Combat Ship Mission Modules Program. Engineering services will be provided to support the existing efforts of the Littoral Combat Ships Mission Modules Program. Incidental other direct cost items are also provided in support of said engineering services. Work will be performed Bethpage, New York (34 percent); Mayport, Florida (19 percent); San Diego, California (17 percent); Port Hueneme, California (14 percent); Pittsfield, Massachusetts (8 percent); Panama City, Florida (3 percent); Washington, District of Columbia (1 percent); Dahlgren, Virginia (1 percent); Newport, Rhode Island (1 percent); Baltimore, Maryland (1 percent); and various other locations less than one percent (1 percent), and is expected to be completed by March 2020. Fiscal 2019 operations and maintenance (Navy); fiscal 2019 other procurement (Navy); and fiscal 2019 research, development, test, and evaluation (Navy); and weapons procurement (Navy) funding in the amount of $24,194,392 will be obligated at time of award, and funds in the amount of $19,575,683 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, District of Columbia, is the contracting activity. Ultra Electronics Ocean Systems, Braintree, Massachusetts, is being awarded a $27,978,119 cost-plus-fixed-fee and cost contract for the development and production of Next Generation Surface Search Radar qualification systems (NGSSR). The primary objective of NGSSR is to find a replacement for legacy systems due to current military threats and obsolescence issues. The contract aims to outline the requirements and approach for NGSSR development, production, integration, test, demonstration, product support, and systems engineering. The new NGSSR system will then replace all variants of the current AN/SPS-67, AN/SPS-73, BridgeMaster E series, and commercial-of-the-shelf radar systems. This contract includes options which, if exercised, would bring the cumulative value of this contract to $34,563,961. The primary objective of NGSSR is to find a replacement for legacy systems due to current military threats and obsolescence issues. The contract aims to outline the requirements and approach for NGSSR development, production, integration, test, demonstration, product support, and systems engineering. The new NGSSR system will then replace all variants of the current AN/SPS-67, AN/SPS-73, BridgeMaster E series, and commercial-of-the-shelf RADAR systems. Work will be performed in Chantilly, Virginia (58 percent); Wake Forest, North Carolina (39 percent); Braintree, Massachusetts (3 percent); and is expected to be complete by July 2021. Fiscal 2018 other procurement (Navy) funding in the amount of $5,500,000 will be obligated at time of award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was not competitively procured in accordance with 15 U.S. Code 638(r)(4) (under the SBIR Phase III program/2018 National Defense Authorization Act). The Naval Surface Warfare Center, Port Hueneme Division, Port Hueneme, California, is the contracting activity (N6339419C0007). Northrop Grumman Systems Corp., Linthicum Heights, Maryland, is being awarded an $8,542,569 modification to the cost-plus-fixed-fee portion of a previously awarded contract (M67854-16-C-0211) for software release and advanced electronic protection required to support ongoing Ground/Air Task Oriented Radar (G/ATOR) Gallium Nitride (GaN) efforts in support of Program Executive Office Land Systems, Quantico, Virginia. Work will be performed in Linthicum Heights, Maryland (65 percent); East Syracuse, New York (20 percent); Farmingdale, New York. (14 percent); and New Brighton, Minnesota (one percent), and is expected to be completed by April 22, 2021. Fiscal 2019 research, development, test and evaluation (Marine Corps) funds in the amount of $6,124,095 will be obligated at the time of award and will not expire at the end of the current year. The contract was not competitively procured, in accordance with 10 U.S. Code 2304(c)(1)(B), with only one proposal solicited and one proposal received. The Marine Corps Systems Command, Quantico, Virginia, is the contracting activity. DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY Golden Manufacturing Inc.,* Golden, Mississippi, has been awarded a maximum $18,234,851 firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for Army Combat Uniform coats and the Improved Hot Weather Combat Uniform. This was a competitive acquisition with nine responses received. This is a two-year contract with no option periods. Location of performance is Mississippi, with a Sept. 14, 2021, performance completion date. Using military services are Army and Air Force. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2019 through 2021 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (SPE1C1-19-D-1138). AIR FORCE Northrop Grumman Systems Corp., Information Systems, Chantilly, Virginia; and Redondo Beach, California, has been awarded a $16,271,270 cost-plus-incentive-fee modification (P00079) to previously awarded contract FA8808-13-C-0001 for post operational support for the Enhanced Polar System Control and Planning Segment. This modification provides for factory expertise/support to ongoing operations, support transition from development to sustainment activities, and the delivery and installation of two software updates. Work will be performed in Redondo Beach, California, and is expected to be complete by January 2020. Fiscal 2019 research, development, test, and evaluation funds in the full amount are being obligated at the time of award. This modification brings the total cumulative face value of the contract to $221,970,679. The Space and Missile Systems Center, Military Satellite Communications Directorate, Los Angeles Air Force Base, California, is the contracting activity. (Awarded Jan. 31, 2019). DEFENSE HEALTH AGENCY B.E.A.T. LLC., San Antonio, Texas, was competitively awarded a firm-fixed-price contract for a potential period of performance of 60 months and a total estimated value of $10,441,035 if all options are exercised. This award provides a non-personal services contract to provide Infrastructure Testing Center (ITC) management services and support for the day-to-day operations of all ITC infrastructure applications, networks, and environments. These services include systems management; system, application, and database administration; environment configuration, monitoring; management; and other support services. The place of performance is Joint Base San Antonio (Ft. Sam Houston), San Antonio, Texas. This contract is an acquisition under GSA's IT Schedule 70, obligating $1,027,347 in fiscal 2019 operations and maintenance funds at time of award. Six quotes were received in response to the solicitation. The Defense Health Agency, Health Information Technology-Contracting Division, San Antonio, Texas, is the contracting activity (HT0015-19-F- 0038). DEFENSE INFORMATION SYSTEMS AGENCY Siemens Government Technologies Inc., Arlington, Virginia (HC1028-19-C0006), was awarded a competitive, single award, firm-fixed-price contract on March 15, 2019 for commercially available off-the-shelf brand-name Siemens software licenses and support in support of the Navy. The face value (and total cumulative face value) of this action is $8,324,661 funded by fiscal 2019 research, development, test and evaluation funds. Performance will be at a Navy facility in Norfolk, Virginia. Proposals were solicited via Federal Business Opportunities, and two proposals were received. The period of performance is March 15, 2019, through March 14, 2020. The Defense Information Technology Contracting Organization, Scott Air Force Base, Illinois, is the contracting activity (HC1028-19-C0006). DEFENSE ADVANCED RESEARCH PROJECTS AGENCY Agile Defense Inc.,* Reston, Virginia, has been awarded a $7,157,890 modification (P00042) to previously awarded task order HR0011-15-F-0002 for unclassified information technology services. The modification brings the total cumulative face value of the task order to $139,054,004 from $131,896,114. Work will be performed in Arlington, Virginia, with an expected completion date of June 2019. Fiscal 2019 research and development funds in the amount of $7,157,890 are being obligated at time of award. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Arlington, Virginia, is the contracting activity. *Small business https://dod.defense.gov/News/Contracts/Contract-View/Article/1786958/source/GovDelivery/

By: Valerie Insinna WASHINGTON — The U.S. Air Force will procure a handful of A-29 Super Tucano planes from Sierra Nevada Corp. and AT-6 Wolverines from Textron to continue light-attack demonstrations, the service's top general said Wednesday. That purchase provides a modest, but much-needed show of confidence for the two companies, which have invested internal funding over the past two years on the Air Force's light-attack experiment and are still hoping the service moves forward with a bigger buy of light-attack aircraft. The Air Force plans to place small detachments of AT-6 and A-29 turboprop planes at Nellis Air Force Base — the Nevada-based installation that hosts Red Flag and other training exercises — and Hurlburt Field, Florida, where Air Force Special Operations Command is based, Chief of Staff Gen. Dave Goldfein said during a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing. Air Force spokeswoman Ann Stefanek told Defense News that the service would likely buy two or three of each aircraft, but Goldfein told lawmakers at the hearing that the exact numbers would be dependent on the price tag of the planes. “The United States Marine Corps has already said they're joining us,” Goldfein said. “We're going to invite allies and partners, and with the authorities you've given us now that we own those prototypes, we will continue to experiment to build the interoperable network that we've already advanced.” Full article: https://www.defensenews.com/smr/federal-budget/2019/03/13/air-force-to-buy-handful-of-light-attack-planes-but-will-a-bigger-program-follow

Le gouvernement du Canada accorde une aide financière de 1,2 million de dollars à l'entreprise lavalloise Mecaer Amérique Le 13 mars 2019 – Laval (Québec) – Développement économique Canada pour les régions du Québec (DEC) Mecaer Amérique inc. est un chef de file dans la fabrication de trains d'atterrissage pour les hélicoptères, les avions de transport régional et d'affaires et pour les avions d'entraînement militaire. Afin de répondre plus adéquatement aux exigences de sa clientèle et pour assurer sa croissance, l'entreprise bénéficiera d'une contribution remboursable de 1,2 M$ de Développement économique Canada pour les régions du Québec. Gr'ce à cette aide financière, l'entreprise pourra investir dans de nouveaux procédés menant à la création d'un centre d'excellence unique et de renommée mondiale pour la conception, la fabrication et la qualification de ses systèmes d'atterrissage intégrés. Ce financement a été annoncé aujourd'hui par le député de Marc-Aurèle-Fortin, Yves Robillard. L'aide du gouvernement du Canada permettra à Mecaer Amérique de répondre à la demande mondiale croissante de production d'aéronefs, de consolider la grappe aérospatiale du Grand Montréal et de mieux positionner celle-ci sur la scène internationale. La création du centre d'excellence et la transformation technologique de l'usine lavalloise entraineront également des retombées positives chez les fournisseurs canadiens auprès desquels Mecaer Amérique effectue des achats de dizaines de millions de dollars annuellement. Mecaer Amérique est entièrement détenu par Mecaer Aviation Group (MAG), l'un des principaux fournisseurs internationaux de solutions aéronautiques utilisées dans quatre secteurs d'activité : systèmes d'actionnement et de commande de vol, systèmes de trains d'atterrissage, systèmes de confort de cabine et services aéronautiques. MAG est une entreprise italienne employant 600 personnes établies en Italie, au Canada et aux États-Unis. Mecaer Amérique est sise à Laval depuis 2002 et se spécialise dans la conception, la fabrication et la qualification de systèmes intégrés de trains d'atterrissage. La filiale lavalloise compte 125 employés hautement qualifiés, dont 20 % se consacrent à la recherche et au développement. Les travailleurs qui œuvrent dans l'industrie aérospatiale sont hautement qualifiés et contribuent à la vitalité économique du pays gr'ce à leurs emplois bien rémunérés. Voilà pourquoi le gouvernement du Canada effectue des investissements stratégiques qui permettent aux entreprises de ce secteur d'accroître leur savoir-faire et leur expertise. Citations « Conformément à notre engagement visant à favoriser la croissance de l'économie canadienne, le gouvernement du Canada s'est donné pour objectif d'offrir un meilleur soutien aux entreprises qui investissent pour améliorer leur productivité afin d'assurer leur croissance et celle de l'économie du Canada. » Yves Robillard, député de Marc-Aurèle-Fortin « À titre de ministre de l'Innovation, des Sciences et du Développement économique, j'ai pour objectif d'aider les entreprises à croître et à innover, afin qu'elles puissent accroître leur compétitivité et créer des emplois de bonne qualité et de la richesse pour les Canadiens. Voilà pourquoi nous apportons notre soutien à Mecaer Amérique, dont le succès rejaillit sur la région et sur l'économie canadienne dans son ensemble. » L'honorable Navdeep Bains, ministre responsable de DEC « L'aide financière des deux ordres de gouvernement est essentielle pour notre développement stratégique. Elle démontre d'ailleurs l'accueil important envers une entreprise italienne qui a investi des sommes importantes au Québec. Merci à DEC pour son appui. » Chris O'Neill, président, Mecaer Amérique Faits en bref L'annonce d'aujourd'hui est faite au nom de l'honorable Navdeep Bains, ministre responsable du portefeuille de l'Innovation, des Sciences et du Développement économique, qui regroupe 17 ministères et organismes fédéraux, dont DEC et les cinq autres agences de développement régional. Les fonds ont été consentis en vertu du Programme de développement économique du Québec de DEC. Pour en savoir davantage sur DEC et ses priorités, consultez le Plan ministériel 2018-2019 ou visitez le www.dec-ced.gc.ca. L'année 2018 marque le 50e anniversaire du développement économique régional fédéral au Québec : un demi-siècle d'actions concrètes consacrées à l'essor des régions et des entreprises d'ici. https://www.canada.ca/fr/developpement-economique-regions-quebec/nouvelles/2019/03/mecaer-amerique-pourra-consolider-sa-place-a-lechelle-internationale.html

Jane Adey · CBC News Imagine you're an offshore worker on a helicopter flying to an oil platform and you hear the words "prepare to ditch" from your pilot. Adrenalin surges through your body as you raise your arms across your chest and assume the brace position. But will you remember what to do? Will panic take over? A St. John's company is working with the Marine Institute to help offshore workers become more comfortable in the air and better prepared for emergencies. Brainstorming a solution Ten years ago, in the days after the crash of Cougar 491, Anthony Patterson began thinking about how to improve safety in the offshore. His company, Virtual Marine, was in the early days of developing simulators for lifeboat training in the water. But Patterson, whose team specialized in marine simulations, knew his company had some technologies that could apply to the air. "We brainstormed on how we could create a better training experience," said Patterson, and they developed a small helicopter simulator. "We're very good at modeling boats in the water and then even the helicopter floating in the water, but the part about the helicopter flying through the air, of course, we had no expertise with that whatsoever," said Patterson. That's when Cougar Helicopters got on board. Virtual Marine brought its helicopter simulator to the lead pilots at the company. With the simulator, they flew the different kinds of manoeuvres they'd use if they had to ditch at sea. The simulator collected the data. and Virtual Marine embedded it into their simulation system to create the flight paths in an emergency. The simulator consists of a large box made to look like exactly like the inside of a helicopter. A motion bed, attached to the underside and controlled by a computer, allows workers to feel the same kind of movement as they would during a flight. The seatbelts are the same, the windows are the same and the views out the windows are the same as they would be in real life. It's important that the simulator be as realistic as possible for Liz Sanli, a researcher in ocean safety at the Marine Institute with expertise in skill learning over time. She's focused on how workers learn and how much they retain when asked to perform a task again at a later date. "So we're looking at how we can train during practice to help them remember all those steps when they're in a stressful situation down the road," said Sanli. Right now, workers are trained in a swimming pool on how to escape a helicopter submerged in water but training for the actual flight occurs in a classroom. By sitting inside a helicopter flight simulator, Sanli says, the workers' experience is more accurate. "You're getting that experience of physically doing the task so you get to go through the steps you get to experience them you can sometimes experience mistakes in a safe environment and learn from those mistakes rather than just watching somebody else do it, for example," said Sanli. "You also can simulate some of the feelings, so you can hear the sounds, you know that you're in a different environment and that can better match some of the more advanced training or perhaps even a real emergency." Sanli measures anxiety levels of participants and follows how well the protocol sequence is followed under a variety of conditions. She monitors what happens when trainees are seated in different positions and when they train in light and in darkness, getting as much information as possible to make training efficient and effective. "It's a big responsibility to have this evidence to make decisions when it comes to regulations, when it comes to decisions about training to have it based in evidence. It's safety that's at stake," said Sanli. For now, research on the simulator continues with hopes it will soon augment the training done by offshore workers. Patterson,says ten years after 17 lives were lost in the offshore, he's glad to have contributed what he could to try and make the industry safer. "This really was something that was more than a job," he said. "It was something that we had to do, to do our part to bring safety to the community. Everybody in the company, we all worked extra hours. I'd say this is the one that all of our engineers have the most pride in, accomplishing this task." https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/helicopter-cougar-crash-safety-offshore-1.5048792