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  • Navy awards $300M for C5ISR and radio systems

    4 février 2020 | International, Naval

    Navy awards $300M for C5ISR and radio systems

    By: Mark Pomerleau BAE Systems was awarded a pair of contracts worth $300 million that will support the Navy in digital endeavors. The first is a $212 million contract from the Navy's Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division to integrate and sustain critical communications systems. As part of the contract, BAE will design, acquire, integrate and test radio systems for new guided missile destroyers specifically, as well as other unspecified Navy and Coast Guard ships. The second contract is a $104.7 award from the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division for engineering and technical services for command, control, communications, computers, combat systems, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (C5ISR) systems both afloat and ashore. “Maintaining reliable lines of communication and situational awareness for those at the forefront of national security is a mission-critical priority for BAE Systems and our customers,” said Mark Keeler, vice president and general manager of BAE Systems' Integrated Defense Solutions business. “We're proud to continue supporting the integration of combat systems and solutions for the U.S. Navy as they defend against advanced air, surface, and subsurface threats.” https://www.c4isrnet.com/battlefield-tech/2020/02/03/navy-awards-300m-for-c5isr-and-radio-systems

  • Lord Says F-35s Safe Despite Fastener Problem

    4 février 2020 | International, Aérospatial

    Lord Says F-35s Safe Despite Fastener Problem

    By John A. Tirpak The F-35 fleet is safe to fly, despite an unknown number of under-strength fasteners being used to build critical areas of the jet, Pentagon acquisition and sustainment chief Ellen Lord said Jan. 31. Lockheed Martin workers mixed up titanium and Inconel bolts during manufacture of the F-35, and the Defense Contract Management Agency told Air Force Magazine neither the company nor the Joint Program Office knew how many aircraft were affected, or how far back the problem started. It said the whole fleet of 400-plus F-35s could potentially be affected. The titanium fasteners are lighter than the Inconel parts, and also have less shear strength. Lockheed is to present its 70-day root cause analysis of the “quality escape” to the government in February. At a press conference to discuss cyber security rules for Pentagon contractors, Lord said she had “looked at samples of that issue”—meaning the mixed-up fasteners—and said “right now we have assessed that there is no structural compromise of the aircraft.” She said the root cause analysis continues. “The JPO is working closely with Lockheed; we will continue to asses if there are any issues, but we have confidence in the integrity of the aircraft at this point.” Deliveries of the F-35 were halted briefly in November when the issue was discovered. A Lockheed spokeswoman said barrels of the two fasteners, which are visually similar and differ only in a number stamped into them, were mixed up at the company's Ft. Worth, Texas, factory, as well as the Final Assembly and Check-Out facility in Italy, though not at the FACO in Japan. Titanium fasteners were installed in places where the Inconel parts were specified, and vice versa. An inspection of some number of aircraft—it did not disclose how many—led the company to conclude the problem is not widespread, and there is no plan in the works to conduct fleetwide inspections. Each F-35 has some 50,000 fasteners, of which about 1.7 percent are supposed to be made of Inconel. The F-35C Navy version requires 3.5 percent Inconel fasteners because of the greater size and loads on that airplane. Lord said she's looking for “continuous improvement” in F-35 production, and reported seeing “incredible strides” in its quality over the last two-and-a-half years. However, “I think this is a journey that we will be on for the entire life of the F-35.” She expects Lockheed will continue to improve, “month over month, quarter over quarter, and year over year.” https://www.airforcemag.com/lord-says-f-35s-safe-despite-fastener-problem

  • U.S. Air Force Defines Radical Vision For Command And Control

    4 février 2020 | International, Aérospatial, C4ISR

    U.S. Air Force Defines Radical Vision For Command And Control

    By Steve Trimble The U.S. Air Force has released the full, sweeping vision for the Advanced Battle Management System (ABMS), a two-year-old concept that proposes to disrupt modern norms for the service's command-and-control doctrine, military acquisition policy and industrial participation. The newly released ABMS architecture defines not a traditional program of record but 28 new “product lines” divided into six major components. The implementation strategy is not focused around traditional acquisition milestones measured in years, but rather development “sprints” fielding morsels of new capabilities every four months. The rights for much of the technology, including a new radar, communication gateway and software-defined radio, are claimed not by an industrial supplier, but by the Air Force itself. USAF adopts lead systems integrator-like model ABMS architecture built on government ownership The release of the strategy on Jan. 21 comes three weeks before the Air Force plans to release a budget plan that would shift $9 billion over the next five years for a “Connect the Joint Force” initiative. The proposed funding would come from retiring certain capabilities, including aircraft fleets, within the next five years, with a clear implication: The Air Force is willing, if Congress approves, to trade some capability now to obtain the ABMS over time. “I think of it as we're finally building the ‘Internet of Things' inside the military, something that is very overdue,” says Will Roper, assistant secretary of the Air Force for acquisition, explaining the ABMS to journalists during the unveiling of the architecture in the Pentagon. The scale of the project's ambition has evolved since the ABMS was first proposed in 2018. Air Force leaders unveiled the concept two years ago as a replacement for the airborne Battle Management and Command and Control (BMC2) suite on the Northrop Grumman E-8C Joint Stars fleet. By September 2018, Roper first suggested the same technology could be applied to replace the aging fleet of Boeing RC-135 Rivet Joints and, sometime in the 2030s, the Boeing E-3C Airborne Warning and Control System. Those aims remain intact, but the revealed architecture clarifies that the goals of the ABMS are far broader. If the system is fully realized, the Air Force will create a “combat cloud” on a mobile ad hoc network, transposing the Internet of Things model from civilian technology to the battlefield. As a result, the nearly four-decade-old concept of a centralized command-and-control center—either ground-based or airborne—would be swept away by a future, decentralized digital network. Using computer processors and software algorithms instead of humans, machines would identify targets from sensor data, select the weapons and platforms to prosecute the target automatically, and finally notify the human operator when—or, crucially, whether—to pull the trigger. Roper compares the ABMS' effect on command and control to commercial services on a smartphone, such as the Waze app for drivers navigating traffic. Waze is not driven by a human staff monitoring and reporting traffic hazards, who then review each request for directions and customize a recommended route. Instead, Waze harvests traffic and hazard data from its users, while algorithms mine that information to respond to user requests for services. The Air Force's command-and-control system is constructed around the human staff model, but Roper wants to move the entire enterprise to the Waze approach. “If it didn't exist in the world around us, you'd probably say it was impossible,” Roper says, “but it does [exist].” The challenge for the Air Force is to defend and, if successful, execute that vision for the ABMS. The Air Force needs to secure the support of the other armed services, whose participation is vital to extracting the benefits of such a system. Moreover, the Air Force needs to sell the concept to Congress, despite a system that lacks obvious employment connections to specific legislative districts, such as future factory sites and operational bases. Roper acknowledges the problem of building support for an architecture, rather than a platform, such as a new fighter, bomber or ship. “Those are easy things to sell in this town. You can count them,” he says. “But the internet is not something that's easy to count or quantify, even though we're all very aware of its power.” The Air Force has briefed congressional defense committee staffs on the ABMS concept, but some remain skeptical. A Capitol Hill staffer familiar with the ABMS program doubts that other services will support the Air Force's vision. The ABMS model also appears unlikely to be embraced by industry, the staffer says. A key point of Roper's plan requires companies to cede some intellectual property rights on key elements of the ABMS architecture to the Air Force. But the Air Force is not waiting. Development of the ABMS started last year, even before an analysis of alternatives is completed. In December, the service staged the first demonstration of four new capabilities: transmitting data on a low-probability of intercept link via a gateway between stealthy Air Force and nonstealthy Navy fighters; connecting a C-130 to the SpaceX Starlink satellite constellation; demonstrating a cloud-based, command-and-control network up to a “secret” classification level; and setting up an unclassified common operational picture display at a remote command center inside a tent. As the second in the planned series of triannual events, the Air Force plans to stage the next ABMS demonstration in April, this time involving U.S. Space Force, Strategic Command and Northern Command. Roper, an Oxford-trained physicist, has little patience for the military's traditional development process, although he has made exceptions for complex, hardware-driven programs, such as the Northrop Grumman B-21 bomber and the Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent. For most other programs, Roper wants to trickle out new features at Silicon Valley-speed. A common refrain by military acquisition reformers for decades has been to emphasize delivering an incomplete, “80% solution” sooner than waiting for a system that meets each of sometimes hundreds of detailed requirements. However, for Roper the timeline for delivering even an 80% solution in certain cases is far too long. “[We should] covet the 10-15% solutions that take the next step forward,” Roper said. “Because the learning in that step is so valuable to keep the velocity.” To execute the ABMS vision, Roper appointed Preston Dunlap last year as the lead architect. Unlike a traditional program executive officer (PEO), the architect is a role introduced to the Air Force by Roper, who previously in his career served as the chief architect for the Missile Defense Agency. The six components and 28 production lines for the ABMS are spread across multiple program offices, rather than consolidated under a single PEO. Thus, the role of the architect is to define the vision and then shape acquisition schedules as the various technologies reach maturity. Under Dunlap's architecture, the ABMS is built around six components: new sensors feeding databases in a cloud-based computing environment using software-defined radios, with new apps fusing the data into a common operational picture and integrated effects allowing cruise missiles, for example, to automatically retask sensors on other platforms during flight. Among the 28 product lines, the Air Force proposes to own the rights to the radar, software-defined radio and communications gateway. The Air Force's role resembles the lead systems integrator (LSI) model used for a series of largely failed acquisition programs 15-20 years ago, including the Army's Future Combat System and Coast Guard's Deepwater. In this case, however, the LSI is the Air Force, not an industrial supplier. Such an approach is not unprecedented. The Navy is using a similar model to manage the MQ-25A program, with Boeing selected as a subcontractor to deliver the air vehicle and Naval Air Systems Command providing the ground station and integrating both on an aircraft carrier. The gateway used in the first ABMS demonstration in December offers an example, Roper says. “We took a radio system that was actually built in concert with Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin to be able to deal with both platforms with the waveforms, and then a Honeywell antenna was able to speak across the frequencies associated with both radio systems,” Roper said. “So we got those three primary vendors working together underneath our government leadership.” https://aviationweek.com/defense-space/us-air-force-defines-radical-vision-command-control

  • The Pentagon is racing against inflation for military might

    3 février 2020 | International, Aérospatial, Naval, Terrestre, C4ISR, Sécurité

    The Pentagon is racing against inflation for military might

    By: Aaron Mehta WASHINGTON — In 2017, the top two officials at the Pentagon — then-Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and then-Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joe Dunford — testified to Congress that the defense budget needs to have 3-5 percent annual growth over inflation each year through 2023 to ensure America's military success. Dunford, speaking to the Senate Armed Services Committee in June 2017, went as far as to say: “We know now that continued growth in the base budget of at least 3 percent above inflation is the floor necessary to preserve just the competitive advantage we have today, and we can't assume our adversaries will remain still." Three years later, as the Trump administration prepares to unveil its fiscal 2021 budget request on Feb. 10, such growth appears impossible. The budget is expected to be largely flat, as a two-year budget deal reached last summer calls for $740 billion in defense spending in the next fiscal year, up just $2 billion from the enacted FY20 amount. “The 3-5 percent goal was reasonable enough and absolutely needed,” said Mackenzie Eaglen, a budget analyst with the American Enterprise Institute. “But it is not happening. The defense top line for 2021 is negative real growth, aka declining.” Susanna Blume, a defense analyst with the Center for a New American Security, said that certain parts of the defense budget, particularly maintenance and personnel costs, grow faster than the rate of inflation. “That's what's behind these comments about requiring a certain amount of real budget growth in order to sustain the joint force as it is today,” she said. But there is a wild card, according to Ellen Lord, the Defense Department's top acquisition official: a series of reform efforts led by now-Defense Secretary Mark Esper, which so far have accounted for $5 billion in savings. “We're getting more and more efficient. That is obviously what Secretary Esper is focused on with his defensewide review, that we are cutting out administrative tasks and a variety of portions of programs to make sure we return those savings to our critical modernization efforts such as [artificial intelligence], hypersonics and so forth,” Lord said during a Jan. 31 news conference at the Pentagon. “We are always having to look very carefully at our budgets and make sure we triage them to focus on the critical few. So we're always concerned, but we're always going to work it.” How much of that expected growth gap can be filled by Esper's efficiency drive is difficult to pin down. Blume said its “certainly possible that efficiencies could make up some of that gap,” but whether the work that has been done now and is planned in the near term will be enough “are questions we don't have answers to today.” Added Eaglen: “Efficiencies alone will not get the Pentagon its 3-5 percent growth in actual dollars to reinvest. The defensewide review only yielded $5 billion, and the way it works with these drills is that the money doesn't necessarily move from pot A to pot B as a result." “But that doesn't mean it is not worth doing. Any money amount is helpful. And the exercise is also about getting the bureaucracy to shift its time, tasks and attention to great power competition as much as it's about shifting funds into higher priorities that support the strategy,” Eaglen said. If one of the Pentagon's big bets work out, that could be a real game-changer, Blume said. Those bets include efforts to replace a Defense Logistics Agency warehouse using a 3D printer as well as attempts by the Air Force to rapidly develop, prototype and produce fleets of planes. If one of them goes well, Blume said, “you can potentially start to bend some of those cost curves.” https://www.defensenews.com/pentagon/2020/01/31/the-pentagon-is-racing-against-inflation-for-military-might/

  • The carrier Ford is trying to shake years of controversy and find its groove

    3 février 2020 | International, Naval

    The carrier Ford is trying to shake years of controversy and find its groove

    By: David B. Larter ABOARD THE CARRIER GERALD R. FORD IN THE VIRGINIA CAPES — Capt. J.J. Cummings is literally jumping up and down with excitement. “Ahhhhhh I love that s---!” he shouts as the roar of an F/A-18 Super Hornet's twin engines fades into the distance. The fighter jet's low flyby a few hundred yards off the port side of the U.S. Navy's most expensive-ever warship is a loud reminder that the aircraft carrier Gerald R. Ford isn't a construction project anymore. For Cummings, the ship's Massachusetts-born commanding officer, and for the ship's crew, Ford is now a living, breathing warship with jets operating from its $13 billion flight deck. “I could watch flybys all day,” the career fighter pilot said Jan. 27 during a visit by Defense News aboard the vessel. Standing on the deck of the first-in-class Ford, Cummings is showing off the major redesign of the flight deck, which expanded the available space to maneuver and refit fighters to get back in the air. “This spot right here is what defines the Ford class,” he said, stopping in front of the in-deck refueling stations. “On the Nimitz class, if you want to refuel an aircraft you have to pull a hose across the flight deck and you can't drive over it so you can't maneuver aircraft the way you might like. “Now you just open this hatch, pull the aircraft up and hook up right here.” The redesigned flight deck, which was developed in consultation with NASCAR pit engineers, gives the Ford an extra half acre of real estate over its predecessors. The extra space is key to the Navy's newest platform, built from the keel up to maximize how efficiently the ship can generate sorties, as well as be adaptable to new aircraft and weapons systems over time. But the 23 new technologies incorporated into the Ford, while making the ship a technological marvel, have also been the cause of ongoing controversy as delays and cost overruns marred the program. Over the coming year, Ford will be underway 11 times over 220 days, working out the kinks, training sailors and writing the book on how the new class of carriers will operate. In the mind of the Cummings, that puts his crew in the history books. “What the American people should know is that this ship is absolutely amazing, and our crew is even more amazing than that,” Cummings said. “What people should know is that we are, no kidding, pioneers in naval aviation. Every [major] system on this ship is different from Nimitz class, so these people are pioneers. We're writing the book for the Ford class for the rest of history.” One of the enabling technologies to help them increase sortie generation is the advanced weapons elevators. The system is designed to cut the time it takes to move bombs from lower decks — where they are assembled and tested — to the flight deck for arming the Super Hornets. Delays with that technology contributed to the downfall of former Secretary of the Navy Richard Spencer and have been the latest in a long line of headaches caused by new technologies the Navy packed into the Ford. To date, four of the planned 11 advanced weapons elevators work as advertised. As secretary, Spencer made a public pledge to have the weapons elevators ready by last summer, but now they may not all work until 2021, delays he blamed on shipbuilder Huntington Ingalls Industries. Ensuring the Ford's readiness has been a major focus of the acting Navy secretary, Thomas Modly. For Modly, the continued troubles with the Ford are hurting the organization. "There is nothing worse than having a ship like that, our most expensive asset, being out there as a metaphor for why the Navy can't do anything right,” Modly said at a December U.S. Naval Institute forum. 'Managing the complexity' The high-level attention on Ford, which has become a favorite topic of President Donald Trump when he talks about major defense programs, has made the Navy eager to highlight efforts dedicated to preparing the ship for theater operations. For the crew and officers, many of the headaches come from managing the sheer number of new technologies on the ship, said Cmdr. Mehdi Akacem, the air boss on Ford. “The biggest challenge is managing the complexity,” Akacem said. “I think there is more technical complexity packed into this ship than the Apollo program. I learn so much every day, I have to constantly refocus on what's in my lane. “There are so many new systems. ... The challenge is sustaining that focus on one new thing after another. I don't think there are any five people who understand all the complexity on this ship, all these technical challenges happening in parallel.” That has made it difficult to develop maintenance and qualification procedures for the crew. However, slowly but surely the crew is figuring it out, Akacem said. “One of the parts of the overall system that's still maturing is the maintenance documentation, the technical manuals, parts lists, periodicity of preventive maintenance,” Akacem said. “One of the neat modifications on the Advanced Arresting Gear, very simple to look at but a huge time saver: We used to have to take the system offline, climb into the Advanced Arresting Gear, climb all around it with a grease gun to go grease the bearings," he added. “Now there is a manifold so the sailor can just walk up with a gun — pump, pump, pump and done. And it saves about 45 minutes out of the grease process. Those are the kinds of things we've learned through the post-shakedown availability.” That's what the officers and crew of Ford hope to figure out this year: How does this ship work, and what is the best way to man and maintain it? And for sailors, the only way to figure that out is to get the ship underway. “All good things come from ships at sea,” Akacem said. “We've sat around and philosophized about, ‘Well, can we get by with less?' or ‘Do we need more here?' Now we're proving that out." “With the Advanced Arresting Gear — that's probably where the steepest learning curve exists for our sailors — we were feeling overwhelmed the first couple days with preventative maintenance, corrective maintenance and a bunch of the technical preparations. But our level of uncertainty has gone down so much in just a couple of weeks,” he added. “Just the confidence growth has been tremendous.” The learning process has even led to some firsts for the Navy, said Cummings. “We have aviation boatswains mates — typically some our roughest, toughest people up here — and we're making them be electricians and fiber-optics experts, which is a different theme," the ship's commanding officer explained. “So now we're putting [interior communications specialists] into the air department, which is a first. So now you have your ICs, who are your techie fiber-optics people, with your hardcore, hydraulic fluid-drinking, grease-wearing hard-chargers. It's a very interesting mix in the air department," he added. “So is the manning right? Absolutely not. We're still figuring it out. Some of these systems are a little immature, and we're figuring it out, but it's going to take time.” A training challenge A major hurdles for the crew has been getting sailors trained and qualified to operate, maintain and fix their own gear, Cummings said. “Self-repair: That's a challenge” he said. “The ability to get underway, operate and fix our gear ourselves without having to pull in and bring in tech reps out from all over.” In the absence of new schoolhouses, which are on the way, sailors have relied on shore-based testing sites and simulators from vendors for training, Cummings said. “It's a challenge. The infrastructure to train up our sailors — well, it's coming and we're working toward that end,” he said. “[There's] a lot of on-the-job training." As far as schools, General Atomics will host sailors at Rancho Bernardo, a neighborhood in San Diego, California. From there, the sailors will have access to a simulator to practice catapult launches. The Navy will also send sailors to the test site for Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System and Advanced Arresting Gear in Lakehurst, New Jersey. “The schoolhouses are coming, but it's a challenge. We're a first-in-class, we get a lot of Nimitz-class stock projected on to our ship, but it doesn't work for our ship,” Cummings explained. Another challenge has been rack space. According to a recent Congressional Research Service report, the Navy is 100 racks short of what it would need to house a full crew and air wing. And while that isn't an immediate issue for this event, it could prove a problem closer to its first deployment. But Naval Sea Systems Command said in a statement that the ship has what it needs for its first deployment already. “The ship's bunks will be sufficient to meet ship's crew, air wing, and embarked staff requirements for first deployment, based on overall berthing numbers identified in the manpower estimates for the Gerald R. Ford class,” NAVSEA said in a statement. “For ship's crew, specifically, USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78) is designed to operate with hundreds fewer Sailors than required on the Nimitz class.” ‘Off and running' But for all the myriad issues that come from fielding a radically different first-in-class ship, Cummings and his crew are jazzed about how it's performing. Many of the key technologies, such as the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System and the Advanced Arresting Gear have performed remarkably well — a significant improvement over some of the bugs the ship faced when aircraft started landing on and launching from the carrier in 2017. “I just spoke to some of the first ones to use the flight deck back in 2017 and 2018: exponential improvement in performance,” Cummings said. “For the catapult, we smoothed out many of the software issues and tolerances. We reduced those tolerances to a right number and we've had very few issues with the catapults. “Our Advanced Arresting Gear is performing spectacularly. A couple hiccups here and there, a quick reset: off and running.” Ford has been using its time at sea to develop wind envelopes for all the aircraft currently flying in the fleet. The process included generating a series of wind conditions, launching and landing an aircraft, and downloading the technical data; then rinse and repeat. “By the time we pull in at the end of January, every fleet aircraft — C-2, E-2D, F/A-18 Super Hornet, Growler and T-45 (our jet trainer) — will be validated to be given their full envelopes for these aircraft to go on deployment or to train our young aviators,” Cummings said. The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter will ultimately be integrated into the ship, which is a matter of reconfiguring some spaces to handle classified materials and storing parts, among other things, but the ship will not deploy with the jet at first. As the ship keeps to a breakneck schedule over the next year, Cummings hopes to rack up a significant number of “cats and traps” (meaning individual catapult launches and recoveries) to get a stronger idea of how the ship will stand up to the crushing operations tempo of a carrier on deployment. “Our goal is to get about 7,000-8,000 cats and traps to figure out: ‘Hey, what's going to break?' ” he said. “What parts do we need on order?' Let's refine our procedures. So through post-delivery test and trial period, that's our goal. And with an embarked air wing in the April time frame, we're going to be able to start getting after that. We've got a big year ahead of us." The Ford is doing about 10-15 traps per day as it works through the data set, and ultimately it should have about 1,000 by the time it pulls back in at the end of January, Cummings said. To get to that 7,000-8,000 goal, the Navy must get its student pilots lots of traps on Ford. “For the Next year, the only carrier on the East Coast able to provide carrier qualification capability is the Gerald R. Ford,” Cummings said. “When we get our flight deck certified in March, after that we're going straight into carrier qualifications. So all year, any chance we can: ‘Hey, bring 'em out because we need some time in the batting cage. Hit off the tee and see where we have holes in our swing.' ” The post-delivery test and trial period is supposed to last 18 months. After PDT&T, the ship is headed to full-ship shock trials, where live explosives are set off next to the ship to see how the class stands up to shock damage. Navy officials previously testified the entire process could delay the Ford's deployment by up to a year. So taking a year to conduct the trials, then fix all the broken crockery: That would allow Ford to enter the 7.5-month carrier predeployment workup cycle in the second half of 2022, and then it would likely be able to deploy by mid-2023. So, after years of delays, cost overruns and controversy, the ship is finally getting into its groove. And that's the message Cummings wants to send over the next year of operations. “This ship is kick-ass,” Cummings said. “I came here a year and a half ago, I heard all the stories, heard from the critics, came here, and they were all wrong in their assumption about our ship. What people should know is that this ship is amazing.” https://www.defensenews.com/naval/2020/01/30/the-carrier-ford-is-trying-to-shake-years-of-controversy-and-find-its-groove/

  • Pentagon finalizes first set of cyber standards for contractors

    3 février 2020 | International, Aérospatial, Naval, Terrestre, C4ISR, Sécurité

    Pentagon finalizes first set of cyber standards for contractors

    Mark Pomerleau The Pentagon has finalized the long anticipated cybersecurity standards contractors will have to follow before winning contracts from the Department of Defense, a new process called the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) 1.0. The model is a tiered cybersecurity framework that grades companies on a scale of one to five based on the level of classification and security that necessary for the work they are performing. “The government and the contractor community must keep working together to address real and growing cybersecurity threats, and we need a robust response to protect our infrastructure, information, and supply chains,” said David Berteau, president and chief executive of the Professional Services Council, a trade association for federal contractors. “With today's announcement, DoD has achieved a significant milestone. Here's what industry officials need to know about the version finalized Jan. 31. Why it was needed Previously, the Pentagon did not have unified standard for cybersecurity that businesses needed to follow when bidding for contracts. Companies could claim to meet certain industry standards for cybersecurity, but those assertions were not tested by auditors, nor did the standards take into account the type of work a company was bidding to complete. Since then, defense officials have said that cybersecurity is not a one size fits all approach. In the meantime, adversaries have discovered it is easier to target unsuspecting down tier suppliers, rather than prime contractors. “Adversaries know that in today's great power competition environment, information and technology are both key cornerstones and attacking a sub-tier supplier is far more appealing than a prime,” Ellen Lord, the under secretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment, told reporters in a briefing at the Pentagon Jan. 31. Officials have said cyber theft by adversaries costs the United States about $600 billion a year. What will change? Contracts will mandate bidders reach a certain level of certification to win specific jobs. For example, if businesses aren't bidding on a contract that has extremely sensitive information, they must only achieve the first level of certification, which involves basic cybersecurity such as changing passwords and running antivirus software. More sensitive programs will require more stringent controls. Smaller companies down the supply chain will not, however, have to have the same level of certification as primes, said Katie Arrington, chief information security officer for the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and the point person for the certification. Another significant change with the new process is the creation of an accreditation board and assessors. The board is an outside entity, separate from DoD, that will be charged with approving assessors to certify companies in the process. The accreditation body was formed earlier this month and officials are working on identifying and training the assessors, which will be called Certified Third-Party Assessment Organizations (C3PAO). What's next? Officials explained Jan. 31 that CMMC will follow a crawl, walk, run approach to ensure companies aren't unprepared for the change. The accreditation board is in the process of training the auditors that will oversee the certificaion. Once the requirements are met, a company's certification is good for 3 years. In the meantime, DoD plans to release 10 requests for information and 10 requests for proposals that will include the new cyber standards this year. The first solicitation could come as early as June. Arrington said earlier this week that she expects 1,500 companies to be certified by the end of 2021. She added that all new contracts starting in fiscal year 2026 will contain the cybersecurity requirements, however, Lord noted that they will not be not retroactive to previous contracts. https://www.fifthdomain.com/dod/2020/01/31/pentagon-finalizes-first-set-of-cyber-standards-for-contractors/

  • The drive to advance missile defense is there, but there must be funding

    3 février 2020 | International, Aérospatial

    The drive to advance missile defense is there, but there must be funding

    By: Richard Matlock Over the past five years, missile threats have evolved far more rapidly than conventional wisdom had predicted. Best known is North Korea's accelerated development and testing of sophisticated, road-mobile ballistic missiles. But the U.S. National Defense Strategy requires renewed focus on greater powers. China has adopted an anti-access strategy consisting of new offensive missiles, operational tactics and fortifications in the South China Sea. Russia, too, has developed highly maneuverable hypersonic missiles specifically designed to defeat today's defenses. Grappling with these sobering realities demands change. The 2019 Missile Defense Review called for a comprehensive approach to countering regional missiles of all kinds and from whatever source, as well as the increasingly complex intercontinental ballistic missiles from rogue states. But programs and budgets have not yet aligned with the policy. The upcoming defense budget submission presents an important opportunity to address these new and complex challenges. The Missile Defense Agency's current top three goals are sustaining the existing force, increasing capacity and capability, and addressing more advanced threats. The first two are necessary but insufficient. The third goal must be elevated to adapt U.S. missile defense efforts to the geopolitical and technological realities of our time. For the last decade, less than 2 percent of MDA's annual funding has been dedicated to developing advanced technology, during which time our adversaries have begun outpacing us. As President Donald Trump said last January, we “cannot simply build more of the same, or make incremental improvements.” Adapting our missile defense architecture will require rebalance, discipline and difficult choices. Realigning resources to develop advanced technologies and operational concepts means investing less in single-purpose systems incapable against the broader threat. It also requires we accept and manage new kinds of risk. Indeed, meeting the advanced threat may, in the short term, require accepting some strategic risk with North Korea. The beginning of this rebalance requires more distributed, elevated and survivable sensors capable of tracking advanced threats. The most important component here is a proliferated, globally persistent space layer in low-Earth orbit consisting of both passive and active sensors. MDA may be the missile defense-centric organization best suited to developing and integrating this capability into the architecture, but there is considerable opportunity for partnering with others to move out smartly, as recently urged by Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. John Hyten. Partnerships with the Space Development Agency and the Air Force can be supplemented by collaborative efforts with commercial space companies. We need not do this all at once. Space assets could be fielded in phases, with numbers, capability (sensors, interceptors, lasers), missions, and orbits evolving over time. MDA demonstrated a similar paradigm with the Delta experiments, Miniature Sensor Technology Integration series and the Near Field Infrared Experiment in the past. Meanwhile, other sensors could alleviate the cost of building new, billion-dollar radar on islands in the Pacific Ocean — efforts which continue to suffer delay. Adding infrared tracking sensors to high-altitude drones, for instance, has already been demonstrated experimentally in the Indo-Pacific theater with modified Reaper unmanned aerial vehicles. These need not be dedicated assets. Sensor pod kits could be stored in theater to be deployed aboard Reapers or other platforms during heightened tensions. We must revisit boost-phase defenses and directed energy. In 2010, the Airborne Laser program demonstrated that lasers could destroy missiles in the boost phase, but deploying toxic chemical lasers aboard large commercial aircraft was fiscally and operationally untenable. Fortunately, considerable operational promise exists with recently developed solid-state lasers (the cost of which is around $2 of electricity per shot). We must move these systems out of the laboratory and build and test operational prototypes. Near-term actions to better manage risk against the rogue-state ballistic missile threat must not overtake the pursuit of these larger goals. Although the Pentagon is currently considering a 10-year, $12 billion program for a next-generation interceptor, nearer-term, cheaper options are available. Replacing each existing kill vehicle on the Ground-Based Interceptors with several smaller kill vehicles would multiply each interceptor's effectiveness dramatically. The U.S. has been developing this technology since 2006, including a “hover” flight test in 2009. Affordable solutions like this must be found. Missile defense cannot do it all. Denying, degrading and destroying enemy missile systems prior to launch must be part of the mix. But left-of-launch activities can be expensive and difficult, and reliance on a cyber magic wand carries risk, too. We need to broaden our approach to attack all parts of our adversary's kill chain. The National Defense Strategy urges that we contend with the world as it is, not as we might wish it to be — or as it previously was. To meet the threats of today and tomorrow, we must radically transform our U.S. missile defenses. It falls to the 2021 budget to do so. https://www.defensenews.com/opinion/commentary/2020/01/31/the-drive-to-advance-missile-defense-is-there-but-there-must-be-funding/

  • Pentagon’s top artificial intelligence official to retire

    3 février 2020 | International, C4ISR

    Pentagon’s top artificial intelligence official to retire

    By: Mike Gruss and Jeff Martin The Pentagon plans to announce Jan. 31 that Lt. Gen. Jack Shanahan, the Department of Defense's top artificial intelligence official, will retire from the Air Force this summer, C4ISRNET has learned. Shanahan has served as the first director of the Pentagon's Joint Artificial Intelligence Center, an effort to accelerate the Pentagon's adoption and integration of AI at scale, since December 2018. Lt. Cmdr. Arlo Abrahamson, a spokesman for the center, confirmed the retirement in a Jan. 30 email and said a search for the next director is underway. Shanahan previously oversaw the Pentagon's algorithmic warfare cross-functional team, better known as Project Maven, a pathfinder effort to apply AI and machine learning in analyzing full-motion video. Pentagon leaders created the JAIC after noting nearly 600 projects and programs across the department had come to touch on artificial intelligence in some way. Officials wanted a central hub to help facilitate progress. In late 2018, Dana Deasy, the Defense Department's chief information officer, appointed Shanahan to lead the new center. During his tenure, Shanahan served as a voice of reason on how artificial intelligence could be used by the military and avoided the often popular science fiction comparisons that accompany discussions of AI. In an interview with C4ISRNET last year, Shanahan said the center has focused on using artificial intelligence for predictive maintenance efforts and to improve humanitarian relief. He also advocated for a greater understanding of the subject. “On one side of the emerging tech equation, we need far more national security professionals who understand what this technology can do or, equally important, what it cannot do,” Shanahan said during a talk at the Naval War College in December. “On the other side of the equation, we desperately need more people who grasp the societal implications of new technology, who are capable of looking at this new data-driven world through geopolitical, international relations, humanitarian and even philosophical lenses,” he said. Lawmakers approved $183 million for the center in the fiscal year 2020 budget. Shanahan also has been a vocal proponent for improving the department's cloud capabilities and specifically the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) contract, which is expected to provide the infrastructure the Pentagon needs to boost artificial intelligence. https://www.c4isrnet.com/artificial-intelligence/2020/01/31/pentagons-top-artificial-intelligence-official-to-retire/

  • Contract Awards by US Department of Defense - January 31, 2020

    3 février 2020 | International, Aérospatial, Naval, Terrestre, C4ISR, Sécurité

    Contract Awards by US Department of Defense - January 31, 2020

    NAVY Lockheed Martin Corp., Owego, New York, is awarded $2,338,000,000 for a firm-fixed-price, performance-based logistics requirements contract for the repair, upgrade or replacement, required availability, configuration management and inventory management for approximately 1,049 weapon replaceable assemblies and shop replaceable assemblies associated with both the MH-60R and MH-60S helicopters. Work will be performed in various contractor supplier locations throughout the U.S. (48%) of which one percent of the supplier work will be performed by five organic depots via commercial service agreements; Stratford, Connecticut (38%); and Owego, New York (14%). This contract includes a five-year base period with one two-year option period. Work is expected to be completed by January 2025; if the option is exercised, work will be completed by January 2027. Annual working capital funds (Navy) for $182,462,250 will be issued for delivery order (N00383-20-F-0W00) that will be awarded concurrently with the contract and will initially be obligated at the time of award as an undefinitized contract action with a commitment of an additional $60,820,750 for period of performance through September 2020. Funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. One company was solicited for this sole-source requirement under authority 10 U.S. Code 2304 (c)(1) and Federal Acquisition Regulation 6.302-1, with one offer received. Naval Supply Systems Command, Weapon Systems Support, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is the contracting activity (N00383-20-D-W001). APTIM-Harper Construction JV, LLC, Alexandria, Virginia (N62478-20-D-4001); B.L. Harbert International LLC, Birmingham, Alabama (N62478-20-D-4002); Hensel Phelps Construction Co., Honolulu, Hawaii (N62478-20-D-4003); Kiewit Infrastructure West Co., Honolulu, Hawaii (N62478-20-D-4004); Mortenson Construction, Minneapolis, Minnesota (N62478-20-D-4005); RQ-ABSHER JV, Carlsbad, California (N62478-20-D-4006); Stronghold Engineering Inc., Riverside, California (N62478-20-D-4007) are each being awarded an indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity multiple award design-build/design-bid-build construction contract for construction projects located primarily within the Naval Facilities Engineering Command (NAVFAC) Hawaii area of operations (AO). The maximum dollar value including the base period and four option years for all seven contracts combined is $990,000,000. No task orders are being issued at this time. The work to be performed provides for, but is not limited to, labor, supervision, tools, materials and equipment necessary to perform new construction, repair, alteration and related demolition of existing infrastructure based on design-build, or design-bid-build (full plans and specifications) for infrastructure within the state of Hawaii. Work will be performed within the NAVFAC Hawaii AO. The term of the contract is not to exceed 60 months, with an expected completion date of January 2025. Operations and maintenance, Navy (O&M, N) funds for $175,000 are obligated on this award and will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Future task orders will be primarily funded by O&M, N and Navy working capital funds. This contract was competitively procured via the Navy Electronic Commerce Online website with 12 proposals received. These seven contractors may compete for task orders under the terms and conditions of the awarded contract. NAVFAC Hawaii, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, is the contracting activity. Lockheed Martin Space, Titusville, Florida, is awarded a $473,832,955 cost-plus-incentive-fee and cost-plus-fixed-fee contract (N00030-20-C-0101) for TRIDENT II (D5) Life Extension 2 Strategic Systems Programs Alteration Advanced Development Program efforts. Work will be performed in Denver, Colorado (78.7%); Sunnyvale, California (5.6%); Beltsville, Maryland (1.9%); Titusville, Florida (1.5%); Cape Canaveral, Florida (1.3%); Palo Alto, California (1.3%); Folsom, California (1.1%); and other various locations (less than 1% each, 8.6% total). Work is expected to be completed by Sept. 30, 2026. Fiscal 2020 research, development, test and evaluation (Navy) funds for $2,800,000 are being obligated on this award, none of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract is being awarded to the contractor on a sole source basis under 10 U.S. Code 2304(c)(1) and was previously synopsized on the Federal Business Opportunities website. Strategic Systems Programs, Washington, District of Columbia, is the contracting activity. Lockheed Martin Corp., Owego, New York, is awarded a $185,874,486 firm-fixed-price, cost-plus-fixed-fee, cost-reimbursable indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract. This contract provides program management, various levels of maintenance, training and logistics support to sustain the operational capability of 24 Royal Australian Navy MH-60 Romeo aircraft. Work will be performed at Yerriyong, Australia (79%); Owego, New York (18%); Edinburgh, Australia (1%); Stratford, Connecticut (1%) and Orlando, Florida (1%), and is expected to be completed in January 2024. No funds will be obligated at the time of award. Funds will be obligated on individual orders as they are issued. This contract was not competitively procured pursuant to Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation 206.302-4. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity (N00019-20-D-0001). Phoenix International Holdings Inc., Largo, Maryland, is awarded a $97,000,000 (maximum value) cost-plus-award-fee and fixed price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity (IDIQ) contract for diving and diving related services. The primary purpose of this contract is to provide the necessary engineering and technical support to provide operational and non-operational support to the Navy's air, mixed gas and saturation diving services program to support the office of the Supervisor of Salvage and Diving, Director of Ocean Engineering. Work will be performed worldwide based on each individual task order, and is expected to be completed by January 2027, with no new orders being placed after January 2025. Fiscal 2020 operations and maintenance (Navy) funding for $45,000 will be obligated at the time of award and will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was competitively procured via Federal Business Opportunities website, with one offer received. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, District of Columbia, is the contracting activity. Kay and Associates Inc., Buffalo Grove, Illinois, is awarded a $67,314,436 modification (P00009) to a previously awarded cost-plus-fixed-fee contract (N00421-17-C-0044) to exercise an option for maintenance and support services for F/A-18 C/D and associated equipment in support of the government of Kuwait. Work will be performed in Kuwait, and is expected to be completed in January 2022. Foreign military sales funds for $47,657,218 are being obligated at time of award, none of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity. Lockheed Martin Rotary and Mission Systems, Moorestown, New Jersey, is awarded a $51,706,014 firm-fixed-price modification to a previously-awarded contract (N00024-14-C-5114) for the production and delivery of four SPY-1 low noise amplifier (LNA) radar arrays. The contract provides upgraded SPY-1 LNA phased arrays that will enhance in service ballistic missile defense-capable destroyers. These radar arrays will be used as a continuing effort to facilitate AEGIS Baseline 5.4.1 (BMD 4.2) to the AEGIS fleet. Work will be performed in Moorestown, New Jersey (80%), and Clearwater, Florida (20%), and is expected to be completed by March 2022. Fiscal 2020 Defense-wide procurement funding for $51,706,014 will be obligated at time of award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, District of Columbia, is the contracting activity. Huntington Ingalls Inc., Ingalls Shipbuilding Division, Pascagoula, Mississippi, is awarded a $44,707,851 cost-plus-fixed fee modification to a previously awarded contract N00024-16-C-2415 to exercise options for life cycle engineering and support for the LPD-17 class Amphibious Transport Dock Ship program. This contract modification is for the exercise of options for post-delivery planning and engineering, homeport technical support, Class Integrated Product Data Environment, data maintenance and equipment management, systems integration and engineering support, LPD 17 class design services, research engineering, obsolescence management, class material readiness, emergent repair provision, training and logistics support, ship alteration development and installation, material management, operating cycle integration, availability planning and configuration data management. Work will be performed in Pascagoula, Mississippi (96%); Norfolk, Virginia (1%); San Diego, California (1%); Mayport, Florida (1%); and Sasebo, Japan (1%); and is expected to be completed by December 2020. Fiscal 2016 and 2017 shipbuilding and conversion (Navy/SCN) and fiscal 2020 other procurement (Navy/OPN) funds in the amount of $9,474,186 will be obligated at time of award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Fiscal 2019 research and development, test and evaluation (RDT&E) funds for $5,000 will be obligated at time of award and will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Funding: fiscal 2016 SCN (53.6%), fiscal 2020 OPN (25.2%), fiscal 2017 SCN (21.1%), and fiscal 2019 RDT&E (0.1%). The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, District of Columbia, is the contracting activity. EA Engineering, Science, and Technology Inc.,* Hunt Valley, Maryland, is awarded a maximum amount $36,791,892 indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for long-term monitoring, operations and maintenance environmental remediation services for facilities in the Naval Facilities Engineering Command (NAVFAC) Northwest (NW) area of operation. The work to be performed includes a full-range of environmental services for Navy installations throughout the Navy Region NW area of operations and includes pre-priced line items in accordance with the statement of work, as well as, non-pre-priced work to be negotiated on a task order basis. Work on this contract will be performed at various installations including but not limited to Washington (78 %), Alaska (18%), Idaho (1%), Montana (1%), Oregon (1%), and Wyoming (1%). The term of the base contract is not to exceed 66 months with an expected completion date of July 31, 2025. Fiscal 2020 operations and maintenance, Navy contract funds for $10,000 (the minimum guarantee) are obligated for task order number one and will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The contract was competitively procured via the Navy Electronic Commerce Online website with five proposals received. NAVFAC NW, Silverdale, Washington, is the contracting activity (N44255-20-D-6006). Haskell, Jacksonville, Florida, is awarded a $25,630,550 firm-fixed-price contract for construction of welding and body shop facility at Marine Corps Logistics Base, Albany. The work to be performed will construct a single-story steel frame welding and light/heavy body shops facility to include concrete foundation, insulated exterior steel panels with brick veneer and standing seam metal roof. The project will provide high bay areas to support heavy vehicle and equipment loads and exterior staging areas. The building interior will be painted concrete masonry unit (CMU) walls with hollow metal insulated and glazed doors, aluminum frame windows, resinous epoxy flooring in restrooms and administrative areas and finished concrete flooring and CMU walls with industrial finishes in shop and high by areas and roll-up doors. The administrative area, break room, information technology room, restroom and locker rooms will be air-conditioned. This project will provide anti-terrorism/force protection (AT/FP) features and comply with AT/FP regulations and physical security mitigation in accordance with Department of Defense (DoD) Minimum AT Standards for Buildings. User generated unit costs were used for this project and include the cost of features to meet the minimum DoD AT/FP standards. Work will be performed in Albany, Georgia, and is expected to be completed by April 2022. Fiscal 2019 military construction, (Navy) contract funds for $25,630,550 are obligated on this award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was competitively procured via the Navy Electronic Commerce Online website with three proposals received. The Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Mid-Atlantic, Norfolk, Virginia, is the contracting activity (N40085-20-C-8504). Rockwell Collins Simulation and Training Solutions, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, is awarded a $20,337,451 modification (P00016) to a previously awarded firm-fixed-price contract (N61340-17-C-0014). This modification procures updates to the Delta Software System Configuration #3 software baseline to include the visual system and cyber security on tactics and flight trainer devices. Additionally, this modification provides technology refresh and aircraft concurrency updates on tactics devices, aircraft concurrency and aerial refueling updates on the flight devices, tactics and flight device training and associated technical data in support of the E-2D Hawkeye Integrated Training System. Work will be performed in Point Mugu, California, and is expected to be completed in June 2022. Fiscal 2018 aircraft procurement (Navy) funds in the amount of $2,016,274; fiscal 2019 aircraft procurement (Navy) funds in the amount of $13,061,234 and fiscal 2020 aircraft procurement (Navy) funds in the amount of $5,259,943 will be obligated at time of award, $2,016,274 of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Air Warfare Training Systems Division, Orlando, Florida, is the contracting activity. Coastal Enterprises of Jacksonville Inc., Jacksonville, North Carolina, is awarded a $10,168,933 indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for custodial services at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune. The work to be performed provides for various custodial services including but not limited to emptying trash cans, sweeping, dusting, mopping and cleaning restrooms for various buildings throughout the base. The maximum dollar value including the base period and four option years is $10,168,933. Work will be performed in Jacksonville, North Carolina, and is expected to be completed by January 2025. No funds will be obligated at time of award. Fiscal 2020 operations and maintenance, (Navy) contract funds for $1,755,820 for recurring work will be obligated on individual task orders issued during the base period. This contract was procured via AbilityOne in accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulation 8.603. The Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Mid-Atlantic, Norfolk, Virginia, is the contracting activity (N40085-20-D-4001). Chemring Energetic Devices, Downers Grove, Illinois, is awarded a $7,196,463 firm-fixed-price modification to a previously awarded, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract N00174-17-D-0009 to exercise option-ordering period for development, product improvement and prototyping support. Pacific Scientific Energetic Materials Co. will provide engineering, technical, administrative and programmatic management support for total Life Cycle Management of the various aircrew escape systems managed under the Joint Program Office for Cartridge Actuated Device/Propellant Actuated Device Tri-Service Charter. Work will be performed in Downers Grove, Illinois, and is expected to be completed by January 2021. No contract funds are being obligated at the time of this action. The Naval Surface Warfare Center, Indian Head Explosive Ordnance Disposal Technology Division, Indian Head, Maryland, is the contracting activity. EaglePicher Technologies, Joplin, Missouri, is awarded a $7,161,581 firm-fixed price modification to a previously awarded, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract N00174-17-D-0012 to exercise option-ordering period for development, product improvement and prototyping support. Pacific Scientific Energetic Materials Co. will provide engineering, technical, administrative and programmatic management support for total Life Cycle Management of the various aircrew escape systems managed under the Joint Program Office for Cartridge Actuated Device/Propellant Actuated Device Tri-Service Charter. Work will be performed in Joplin, Missouri, and is expected to be completed by January 2021. No additional funds are being obligated at the time of this action. The Naval Surface Warfare Center, Indian Head Explosive Ordnance Disposal Technology Division, Indian Head, Maryland, is the contracting activity. CH2M HILL Inc. Englewood, Colorado, is awarded a $2,920,835 cost-plus-award-fee modification that will increase the maximum dollar value of an indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity task order to complete a preliminary assessment (PA) and site investigation (SI) assessing the extent of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances concentration in groundwater and soil at various Naval facilities. The work to be performed provides for additional tasks related to addressing the PA and SI to meet the requirements of the Comprehensive Environmental Response Compensation and Liability Act sections 104 and 121; Executive Order 12580; and the National Oil and Hazardous Substances Pollution Contingency Plan. The PAs and SIs include the main installations, fence-line to fence-line and all other areas historically owned by the Navy associated with these installations. After award of this modification, the total cumulative task order value will be $7,990,707. Work will be performed in the Naval Facilities Engineering Command (NAVFAC) Northwest (NW) area of operations, including but not limited to, Washington state (84%) and Alaska (16%), and is expected to be completed by December 2021. Fiscal 2020 environmental restoration, (Navy) contract funds for $2,920,835 are obligated on this award and will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. NAVFAC NW, Silverdale, Washington, is the contracting activity (N62470-16-D-9000). ARMY iina' ba' Inc., Farmington, New Mexico, was awarded a $240,000,000 contract and task order for professional land survey services. Bids were solicited via the internet with 12 received. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of Jan. 30, 2025. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Little Rock, Arkansas, is the contracting activity (W9126G-20-D-6007 and W9126G-20-D-6008). Burns & McDonnell Engineering Co. Inc., Arlington, Virginia, was awarded a $40,000,000 contract for military projects for the Baltimore District and within the North Atlantic Division area of responsibility. Bids were solicited via the internet with 26 received. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of Jan. 30, 2025. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Baltimore, Maryland, is the contracting activity (W912DR-20-D-0002). AECOM Technical Services Inc., Arlington, Virginia, was awarded a $40,000,000 contract for military projects for the Baltimore District and within the North Atlantic Division area of responsibility. Bids were solicited via the internet with 26 received. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of Jan. 30, 2025. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Baltimore Maryland, is the contracting activity (W912DR-20-D-0001). Stantec Consulting Services Inc., Raleigh, North Carolina, was awarded a $40,000,000 contract for military projects for the Baltimore District and within the North Atlantic Division area of responsibility. Bids were solicited via the internet with 26 received. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of Jan. 30, 2025. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Baltimore, Maryland, is the contracting activity (W912DR-20-D-0005). GF-D Design Partners JV, Fairfax, Virginia, was awarded a $40,000,000 contract for military projects for the Baltimore District and within the North Atlantic Division area of responsibility. Bids were solicited via the internet with 26 received. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of Jan. 30, 2025. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Baltimore, Maryland, is the contracting activity (W912DR-20-D-0003). HDR Engineering Inc., Washington, District of Columbia, was awarded a $40,000,000 contract for military projects for the Baltimore District and within the North Atlantic Division area of responsibility. Bids were solicited via the internet with 26 received. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of Jan. 30, 2025. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Baltimore, Maryland, is the contracting activity (W912DR-20-D-0004) Whitman, Requardt and Associates LLP, Baltimore, Maryland, was awarded a $40,000,000 contract for military projects for the Baltimore District and within the North Atlantic Division area of responsibility. Bids were solicited via the internet with 26 received. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of Jan. 30, 2025. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Baltimore, Maryland, is the contracting activity (W912DR-20-D-0006) DynCorp International LLC, Fort Worth, Texas, was awarded a $30,179,883 modification (P00025) to contract W58RGZ-16-C-0016 for maintenance support services for the government of Saudi Arabia's Royal Saudi Land Forces Aviation Command Aviation Program. Work will be performed in Saudi Arabia with an estimated completion date of Jan. 31, 2021. Fiscal 2020 Foreign Military Sales funds in the amount $30,179,883 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, is the contracting activity. Facility Services Management Inc., Clarksville, Tennessee, was awarded a $14,262,848 modification (P00010) to contract W9124A-19-C-0002 to plan, manage and perform operations and maintenance for the Directorate of Public Works at Fort Huachuca. Work will be performed at Fort Huachuca, Arizona, with an estimated completion date of Jan. 31, 2024. Fiscal 2020 operations and maintenance, Army funds in the amount of $14,262,848 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, is the contracting activity. AIR FORCE Jacobs Technology Inc., Tullahoma, Tennessee, has been awarded a $225,155,326 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for Rocket and Propulsion Technology Research. This contract provides on-site research and development to the Air Force Research Laboratory across a wide spectrum of propulsion-related areas. Work will be performed at Edwards Air Force Base, California, and is expected to be complete by Jan. 31, 2028. This award is the result of a competitive acquisition and with two offers received. Fiscal 2019 and 2020 research, development, test and engineering funds in the amount of $197,000 are being obligated at the time of award. The Air Force Test Center, Edwards Air Force Base, California, is the contracting activity (FA9300-20-F-9801). Dynetics, Huntsville, Alabama, has been awarded a $92,999,625 basic, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for Test Systems and Equipment Capabilities (TSEC) support and $30,934,550 delivery order for the Guided Weapons Evaluation Facility (GWEF) Radio Frequency (RF) Modernization Design. The contract provides for the specific needs to include: Hardware-in-the-loop simulators for the GWEF RF Modernization and AFRL Kinetic Kill Vehicle Hardware in the Loop Simulator system upgrades; joint multi-platform advanced combat identification development; calibration sets integration, and software updates; Air Defense Artillery Phased Technology Digital Command Link, and immediate need technologies to support Department of Defense (DoD) ranges. Work will be performed in Huntsville, Alabama and other DoD locations. The contract has a five year ordering period with work expected to be completed by Jan. 2025. This award is the result of a sole-source acquisition. Fiscal 2020 research, development, test and evaluation funds in the amount of $2,500,000 are being obligated at the time of award via incremental funding. The Air Force Test Center, Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, is the contracting activity (FA2487-20-D-0071; first delivery order FA2487-20-F-0072). Rolls-Royce Corp., Indianapolis, Indiana, has been awarded $62,973,620 delivery order modification (P00001) to previously awarded contract FA8504-17-D-0002 for C-130J Propulsion Long Term Sustainment. This order provides funding for option 3 and Power By The Hour Flying Hours. The work is expected to be completed Feb. 1, 2021. Fiscal 2020 operations and maintenance funds in the amount of $62,973,620 are being obligated at the time of award. The total cumulative face value of the contract is $62,973,620. The Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, Robins Air Force Base, Georgia, is the contracting activity. Valdez International Corp., Colorado Springs, Colorado, has been awarded a firm-fixed-price contract in the amount of $38,102,027 for support services to operate, sustain and assure the availability of Air Force Information Network (AFIN) to enable war-fighter mission execution. Work will be performed at Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Virginia; Peterson Air Force Base, Colorado; Scott Air Force Base, Illinois, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio; and Lackland Air Force Base, Texas. This award is the result of a competitive acquisition, with 11 proposals received. Fiscal 2020 operations and maintenance funds in the amount of $38,102,027 are being obligated at the time of the award. The 38th Cyberspace Engineering Installation Group, Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma, is the contracting activity (FA8773-17-C-0002). Ultra Electronics Advanced Tactical, Austin, Texas, has been awarded an indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity type, firm‐fixed-price contract for the Link-16 Alaska (LAK) program with a ceiling of $30,750,000. This contract provides contractor logistics support (CLS) services. Work will be performed in Austin, Texas, effective June 22, 2020, and is expected to be completed by March 21, 2025. This award is the result of a competitive acquisition. Fiscal 2020 operations and maintenance funds in the amount of $100,000 are being obligated at the time of award of the first order. The Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, Robins Air Force Base, Georgia, is the contract activity (FA8574‐20-D-0001). Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co., Fort Worth, Texas, has been awarded a $23,512,260 firm-fixed-price contract modification (P00070) to previously awarded contract FA8615-12-C-6016 for F-16 retrofit. This modification provides for the unclassified purchase of an additional quantity of ten Active Electronically Scanned Array Radar Spares Units being acquired under the basic contract. This contracting action is the result of a long term agreement reached between Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co. and Northrop Grumman Systems Corp. Work is expected to be completed by Dec. 31, 2022. The entire acquisition is fully funded by a Taiwan Foreign Military Sales appropriation in the amount of $23,512,260 obligated at the time of award. Total cumulative face value if the contract is $2,595,704,750. The Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, is the contracting activity. General Dynamics Information Technology, Falls Church, Virginia, has been awarded a $15,191,692 firm-fixed-price contract modification (P00003) to previously awarded task order FA4890-19-F-A022 issued under GSA Alliant 2 Unrestricted Government-Wide. The contract modification provides for the exercise of option year one – period of performance Feb. 1, 2020, to Jan. 31, 2021, for services being provided under the basic task order. Work will be performed at Langley Air Force Base and Beale Air Force Base, but could expand to Ft. Smith, Arkansas; Republic of Korea; McConnell Air Force Base, Kansas; Birmingham, Alabama; Otis Air National Guard Base, Massachusetts.; Reno, Nevada; Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii; Terra Haute, Indiana; Ramstein Air Base, Germany; and Ogden, Utah. Fiscal 2020 operations and maintenance funds in the amount of $15,191,692 are being obligated at the time of award. The total cumulative face value of the contract is $217,425,053. Headquarters Air Combat Command, Acquisition Management & Integration Center, Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Virginia, is the contracting activity. Akima Logistics Services LLC, Herndon, Virginia, has been awarded a $6,923,402 firm-fixed-price option indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for full contractor logistics support of 58 United States Air Force Academy (USAFA) aircraft. Work will be performed at the United States Air Force Academy, Colorado Springs, Colorado, Peterson Air Force Base, Colorado, and USAFA auxiliary airfield and is expected to be completed by Jan. 31, 2021. The Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma, is the contracting activity (FA8106-19-F-8002). DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY Teva Pharmaceuticals USA Inc., North Wales, Pennsylvania, has been awarded an estimated $189,694,350 firm-fixed-price requirements contract for the supply of Adenovirus Vaccine Type 4 and Type 7. This is 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 contract with five one-year options periods. Location of performance is Pennsylvania, with a Dec. 31, 2024, performance completion date. Using customers are military recruitment centers throughout the U.S. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2020 through 2025 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (SPE2DP-20-D-0002). Honeywell International Inc., Tucson, Arizona, has been awarded a $22,417,763 firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for generators. 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 contract with no option periods. Location of performance is Arizona, with a Feb. 1, 2025, performance completion date. Using military service is Army. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2020 through 2025 Army working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Land and Maritime, Warren, Michigan (SPRDL1-20-D-0043). *Small Business https://www.defense.gov/Newsroom/Contracts/Contract/Article/2071889/source/GovDelivery/

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