Nouvelles

AIR FORCE United Launch Services, Centennial, Colorado, has been awarded a $441,761,778 firm-fixed-price contract, for launch services to deliver the SILENTBARKER, SBIRS GEO-5, and SBIRS GEO-6 missions to their intended orbits. This launch service contract will include launch vehicle production, mission integration, mission launch operations/spaceflight worthiness, and mission unique activities for SILENTBARKER and SBIRS GEO-5, with an option for an additional SBIRS GEO-6 launch service. The locations of performance are Centennial, Colorado; and Cape Canaveral, Florida. SILENTBARKER is expected to be completed by March 2022, SBIRS GEO-5 is expected to be completed by March 2021. This award is the result of a competitive acquisition and two offers were received. Fiscal 2018 and 2019 space procurement funds in the amount of $308,550,970 will be obligated at the time of award. The Contracting Division, Launch Systems Enterprise Directorate, Space and Missile Systems Center, Los Angeles Air Force Base, El Segundo, California, is the contracting activity (FA8811-19-C-0005). Space Exploration Technologies Corp., Hawthorne, California, has been awarded a $297,000,000 firm-fixed-price contract, for launch services to deliver the NROL-87, NROL-85, and AFSPC-44 missions to their intended orbits. This launch service contract will include launch vehicle production, mission integration, mission launch operations/spaceflight worthiness and mission unique activities for each mission. The locations of performance are Hawthorne, California; Cape Canaveral Air Force Space Station, Florida; and Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. NROL-85 and NROL-87 are expected to be completed by December 2021 and AFSPC-44 is expected to be completed by February 2021. This award is the result of a competitive acquisition and two offers were received. Fiscal 2018 and 2019 space procurement funds in the amount of $285,223,097 will be obligated at the time of award. The Contracting Division, Launch Systems Enterprise Directorate, Space and Missile Systems Center, Los Angeles Air Force Base, El Segundo, California, is the contracting activity (FA8811-19-C-0004). NAVY Marine Systems Corp., Boston, Massachusetts, is awarded a $29,111,774 indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity, cost-plus-fixed-fee, firm-fixed-price hybrid single award contract for engineering, logistical, and information technology services to support the Navy Habitability Projects. The contract will include a five-year base ordering period with a six-month ordering period option pursuant of Federal Acquisition Regulation 52.212-8 - option to extend services, which if exercised, will bring the total ceiling value to $32,191,928. Work will be performed in Norfolk, Virginia (84 percent); San Diego, California (5 percent); Pearl Harbor, Hawaii (5 percent); Mayport, Florida (2 percent); Washington, District of Columbia (1 percent); Bahrain (1 percent); Japan (1 percent); and Rota, Spain (1 percent). The base ordering period is expected to be completed by March 2024; if the option is exercised, the ordering period will be completed by August 2024. Fiscal 2019 operations and maintenance (Navy) funds in the amount of $25,000 will be obligated to fund the contract's minimum amount and funds will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was competitively procured with the solicitation posted to the Federal Business Opportunities and Navy Electronic Commerce Online websites, with five offers received. Naval Supply Systems Command Fleet Logistics Center Norfolk, Contracting Department Norfolk Office, Norfolk, Virginia, is the contracting activity (N0018919D0004). Vadum Inc.,* Raleigh, North Carolina, is awarded a $9,413,901 cost-plus-fixed-fee, level of effort, research and development contract with a five-year period of performance, to procure engineering support services. Technical instructions will be issued in accordance with the Statement of Work for this contract to support the Reactive Electronic Attack Measures project. Work will be performed in Raleigh, North Carolina, and will be completed by February 2024. Fiscal 2019 research, development, test and evaluation (Navy) funding in the amount of $1,000,000 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 10 U.S. Code 2304(c)(1) - only one responsible source and no other services will satisfy agency requirements. The Naval Surface Warfare Center, Crane Division, Crane, Indiana, is the contracting activity (N00164-19-C-WS30). Lockheed Martin, Rotary and Mission Systems, Moorestown, New Jersey, is awarded an $8,242,834 cost-plus-incentive-fee modification to previously awarded contract (N00024-15-C-5151) to exercise options for ship integration and test of the Aegis Weapon System (AWS) for AWS Baselines through Advanced Capability Build 16. Work will be performed in Camden, New Jersey (43 percent); Pascagoula, Mississippi (25 percent); Norfolk, Virginia (12 percent); Everett, Washington (10 percent); Virginia Beach, Virginia (6 percent); San Diego, California (3 percent); and Washington, District of Columbia (1 percent), and is expected to be completed by September 2024. Fiscal 2015 shipbuilding and conversion (Navy); and 2019 other procurement (Navy) funding in the amount of $8,242,834 will be obligated at the time of award. No contract funds will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, District of Columbia, is the contracting activity. ARMY T&H Services LLC,* Juneau, Alaska, was awarded a $26,468,671 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for base operations support services. Bids were solicited via the internet with six received. Work will be performed in Fort Carson, Colorado, with an estimated completion date of Feb. 18, 2020. Fiscal 2019 operations and maintenance Army funds in the amount of $5,019,250 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Mission and Installation Contracting Command, Fort Carson, Colorado, is the contracting activity (W911RZ-19-C-0002). Wood Environment & Infrastructure Solutions Inc., Blue Bell, Pennsylvania, was awarded a $12,000,000 firm-fixed-price contract for hazardous toxic and radiologic waste consulting services. 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 Feb. 19, 2024. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Concord, Massachusetts, is the contracting activity (W912WJ-19-D-0002). * Small business https://dod.defense.gov/News/Contracts/Contract-View/Article/1760766/

By Matthew Beinart The Army has selected a BAE Systems' electronic countermeasure capability for future evaluations after a successful demonstration at a soft-kill “rodeo” last fall, with plans to evaluate the system on a Bradley fighting vehicle during a layered active protection... https://www.defensedaily.com/army-selects-bae-systems-jammer-future-active-protection-testing-bradleys

President Trump on Monday signed an executive order establishing the U.S.' first artificial intelligence initiative, which directs federal agencies to prioritize research funds for AI development to stay ahead of peer competitors such as China. https://www.defensedaily.com/trump-signs-executive-order-establishing-first-national-artificial-intelligence-initiative

By: Kelsey D. Atherton A camera is never just a camera anymore. For FLIR — the company whose bread and butter may be lenses and images but whose product is best thought of as an intelligence add-on more than any pedestrian photography — was never just about the camera. FLIR's cameras and sensors have been incorporated into vehicles for decades, a platform on platforms. But in the past two years, FLIR has moved to acquire robotics companies of its own. A new deal, announced Feb. 11, 2019, is set to have FLIR acquire Endeavor Robotics. In November 2016, FLIR acquired Prox Dynamics, maker of the sparrow-sized Black Hornet micro-drone. It was FLIR's first foray into its own unmanned vehicles. In January 2019, FLIR acquired drone-maker Aeryon Labs, which produces vehicles that weigh less than 20 pounds for a number of militaries across the globe. “Now with Endeavor, we've started down that path of executing our inorganic phase of our growth strategy for unmanned,” said David Ray, president of the Government and Defense Business Unit at FLIR. “What that does is it allows us to have a platform to move the customer's vision forward for this whole notion of manned-unmanned teaming. It's driving an open architecture, an environment where you can have both manned vehicles and unmanned really cooperating and delivering missions like never before.” Endeavor Robotics is the largest get by FLIR of the lot. FLIR is set to buy Endeavor for $385 million — almost twice as much as FLIR paid for Aeryon Labs, and nearly three times as much as it spent on Prox Dynamics. With Endeavor Robotics comes a whole host of tracked unmanned ground vehicles, including the infantry-deployable (and -tossable) FirstLook, and the larger and heavier PackBot and Kobra. These robots can incorporate a variety of sensors from FLIR, for everything from video and infrared to chemical detection. Being in-house means FLIR can experiment and explore more fusion of its various platforms. “With our Black Hornet we can have a reconnaissance system that is connected to a vehicle,” Ray said, “a tank or whatever it may be, where you could actually launch Black Hornet aircraft from another vehicle. As we enhance our sensors across both, we're able to bring that power to bear in terms of layered surveillance.” While FLIR is still relatively new to robotics, it's used to working across sectors. FLIR sensors have been used by the military, government, law enforcement and in the security space, and have had to stay competitive with commercial companies. Lessons learned from an application in nuclear reactor security might be applicable to a sensor on an explosive ordnance disposal robot. Those updates and lessons have stayed fixed to the specific sensor. With the new robotics companies acquired by FLIR, it can adapt its vehicles and sensors in a more holistic way. “Our latest Black Hornet III is able to operate in GPS-denied environments,” Ray said. “And so the beauty of Endeavor being part FLIR is we can go look at how we take an investment and enhancements we've made and see what it takes to go transfer that into a vehicle. The ultimate goal is being able to build world-class R&D and generate world-class capability, and then be able to expand that across multiple platforms.” FLIR's past, present and future remain very much about the core business of providing sensors for others to incorporate. Also in that future we can anticipate FLIR adapting and designing its own vehicles around its sensors. That means looking at the way the data collected by those sensors can be turned into everything from useful navigational information for an autonomous system on the vehicle, to vital information relayed by tablet to soldiers commanding the robot nearby. https://www.c4isrnet.com/unmanned/2019/02/15/flir-set-to-add-endeavor-robotics-to-its-unmanned-future

Goliath grouper, black sea bass, and snapping shrimp, along with bioluminescent plankton and other microorganisms, are set to be the unlikely heroes of DARPA's Persistent Aquatic Living Sensors (PALS) program. Five teams of researchers are developing new types of sensor systems that detect and record the behaviors of these marine organisms and interpret them to identify, characterize, and report on the presence of manned and unmanned underwater vehicles operating in strategic waters. This new, bio-centric PALS technology will augment the Department of Defense's existing, hardware-based maritime monitoring systems and greatly extend the range, sensitivity, and lifetime of the military's undersea surveillance capabilities. DARPA first announced the PALS program in February 2018 with the goal of incorporating biology into new solutions for monitoring adversary movements across the seemingly endless spaces of the world's oceans and seas. Ubiquitous, self-replicating, self-sustaining sea life is adaptable and highly responsive to its environment, whereas maritime hardware is resource intensive, costly to deploy, and relatively limited in its sensing modalities. According to PALS program manager Lori Adornato, “Tapping into the exquisite sensing capabilities of marine organisms could yield a discreet, persistent, and highly scalable solution to maintaining awareness in the challenging underwater environment.” The DARPA-funded PALS teams must develop or apply technologies to record stimulus responses from observed organisms, and develop combined hardware and software systems that interpret those responses, screen out false positives, and transmit analyzed results to remote end users. The teams' solutions will incorporate technologies such as hydrophones, sonar, cameras, and magnetic, acoustic, and kinetic sensors. The team led by Northrop Grumman Corporation, under principal investigator Robert Siegel, will record and analyze acoustics from snapping shrimp and optical activity by bioluminescent organisms. The team led by the Naval Research Laboratory, under principal investigator Lenny Tender, will integrate microbial organisms into a sensing platform to detect and characterize biological signals from natural microorganisms that respond to the magnetic signatures of underwater vehicles. The team led by Florida Atlantic University, under principal investigator Laurent Cherubin, will record and analyze vocalization cues from goliath grouper in tropical and subtropical environments. The team led by Raytheon BBN Technologies, under principal investigator Alison Laferriere, will use snapping shrimp as sources of opportunity for long-range detection, classification, and tracking of underwater vehicles. The team led by the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, under principal investigator David Secor, will tag black sea bass with sensors to track the depth and acceleration behaviors of schools of fish that are perturbed by underwater vehicles. DARPA is also funding the Naval Undersea Warfare Center, Division Newport, under principal investigator Lauren Freeman, to develop a seafloor system that uses a hydrophone array and acoustic vector sensor to continuously monitor ambient biological sound in a reef environment for anomalies. The system will analyze changes in the acoustic signals radiated by the natural predator-avoidance response of coral reef ecosystem biota, which could offer an indirect mechanism to detect and classify underwater vehicles in near-real time. DARPA conceived of PALS as a four-year research program with the expectation that researchers will be able to publish results for review by the broader scientific community. However, if DARPA identifies any of the data, results, or technical specifications as controlled unclassified information, DARPA will require the PALS researchers to protect them to prevent proliferation outside of official channels. https://www.darpa.mil/news-events/2019-02-15

Current AI systems excel at tasks defined by rigid rules – such as mastering the board games Go and chess with proficiency surpassing world-class human players. However, AI systems aren't very good at adapting to constantly changing conditions commonly faced by troops in the real world – from reacting to an adversary's surprise actions, to fluctuating weather, to operating in unfamiliar terrain. For AI systems to effectively partner with humans across a spectrum of military applications, intelligent machines need to graduate from closed-world problem solving within confined boundaries to open-world challenges characterized by fluid and novel situations. To attempt this leap, DARPA today announced the Science of Artificial Intelligence and Learning for Open-world Novelty (SAIL-ON) program. SAIL-ON intends to research and develop the underlying scientific principles and general engineering techniques and algorithms needed to create AI systems that act appropriately and effectively in novel situations that occur in open worlds. The program's goals are to develop scientific principles to quantify and characterize novelty in open-world domains, create AI systems that react to novelty in those domains, and to demonstrate and evaluate these systems in a selected DoD domain. A Proposers Day for interested proposers is scheduled for March 5, 2019, in Arlington, Virginia: https://go.usa.gov/xEUWh “Imagine if the rules for chess were changed mid-game,” said Ted Senator, program manager in DARPA's Defense Sciences Office. “How would an AI system know if the board had become larger, or if the object of the game was no longer to checkmate your opponent's king but to capture all his pawns? Or what if rooks could now move like bishops? Would the AI be able to figure out what had changed and be able to adapt to it?” Existing AI systems become ineffective and are unable to adapt when something significant and unexpected occurs. Unlike people, who recognize new experiences and adjust their behavior accordingly, machines continue to apply outmoded techniques until they are retrained. Given enough data, machines are able to do statistical reasoning well, such as classifying images for face-recognition, Senator said. Another example is DARPA's AI push in self-driving cars in the early 2000s, which led to the current revolution in autonomous vehicles. Thanks to massive amounts of data that include rare-event experiences collected from tens of millions of autonomous miles, self-driving technology is coming into its own. But the available data is specific to generally well-defined environments with known rules of the road. “It wouldn't be practical to try to generate a similar data set of millions of self-driving miles for military ground systems that travel off-road, in hostile environments and constantly face novel conditions with high stakes, let alone for autonomous military systems operating in the air and on sea,” Senator said. If successful, SAIL-ON would teach an AI system how to learn and react appropriately without needing to be retrained on a large data set. The program seeks to lay the technical foundation that would empower machines, regardless of the domain, to go through the military OODA loop process themselves – observe the situation, orient to what they observe, decide the best course of action, and then act. “The first thing an AI system has to do is recognize the world has changed. The second thing it needs to do is characterize how the world changed. The third thing it needs to do is adapt its response appropriately,” Senator said. “The fourth thing, once it learns to adapt, is for it to update its model of the world.” SAIL-ON will require performers and teams to characterize and quantify types and degrees of novelty in open worlds, to construct software that generates novel situations at distinct levels of a novelty hierarchy in selected domains, and to develop algorithms and systems that are capable of identifying and responding to novelty in multiple open-world domains. SAIL-ON seeks expertise in multiple subfields of AI, including machine learning, plan recognition, knowledge representation, anomaly detection, fault diagnosis and recovery, probabilistic programming, and others. A Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) solicitation is expected to be posted in the near future and will be available on DARPA's FedBizOpps page: http://go.usa.gov/Dom https://www.darpa.mil/news-events/2019-02-14

BY PATRICK TUCKER Defense officials want to accelerate the delivery of artificial-intelligence tools from the lab to the field. But it's hard to obtain the massive data streams that make AI work. The Pentagon's new artificial-intelligence strategy, released on Tuesday, aims to get AI out of research labs and into the hands of troops and employees across the Defense Department. But truly transforming the Defense Department into an “AI First” institution will require help from tech companies — and the military to rethink its approach to the massive data streams that AI needs to work. In a conversation with reporters on Tuesday, Dana Deasy, chief information officer of the Defense Department, and Lt. Gen. Jack Shanahan, who runs its new Joint Artificial Intelligence Center, said the JAIC will develop AI tools and programs to assist with everything the Pentagon does. That will eventually include combat operations, although both said the military won't deviate from its core doctrine that dictates how humans are to have authority over autonomous systems. They said near-term projects include efforts to predict forest fires, better spot network anomalies that can indicate cyber attacks, and, most prominently, predictive maintenance. It's an area where some smaller tech firms are already working with the Pentagon. SUBSCRIBE Receive daily email updates: Subscribe to the Defense One daily. Be the first to receive updates. One such firm is Uptake, run by GE alum Ganesh Bell, which has a contract with the Defense Innovation Unit to better predict and accelerate repairs for Bradley Fighting Vehicles. The company is building a virtual Bradley, using data streams from sensors on real Bradleys in the field — what Bell has called a learning, digital twin. “We are able to collect what the best-performing Bradley would look like because we are able to go into many of the subsystems and pull the data,” he said. “Just from a single vehicle, we were able to pull terabytes of data.” Bell aims to also incorporate data from external sensors, and use it to digitally recreate the vehicles' operating environments. It's a process that could be relevant to larger military endeavors, such as the Army's effort to design a new combat vehicle, Bell said. “If we prove the value here, imagine what we can do in that environment as we build that system out? We do the same thing in wind turbines. There's so much to learn from all the unused data in these industries; less than one percent of the data is ever actually used.” Bell says that he's had promising conversations with Army officials about helping out. “It's better to get in all the data right now while you're designing the next generation of vehicles,” he said. Or take California-based C3, whose nine Pentagon contracts include predictive-maintenance work on the Boeing E-3 Sentry for the Air Force's AFWERX office. Here, too, massive amounts of diagnostic data plays the essential role. But finding that data wasn't easy. “You go through the wild goose chase with DOD to get the data that you need,” Lt. Col. Dave Harden, AFWERX chief operating officer, said in December. “I had another project where I literally had people with 10-terabyte hard drives going around the country to get the data. I talk to people who are in charge of the data. The data in the database isn't what we needed. I wonder, ‘Who put these people in charge of the data?'” The main thing that the Defense Department brings to the process isn't the algorithms or machine-learning methodologies. Those are increasingly coming from the private sector and companies like Uptake and C3. It's the unique data sets. Thus, if getting that data is a problem, then the Department has a major obstacle in terms of realizing its ambitions. In their briefing on Tuesday, Deasy and Shanahan said they are willing to work with companies on intellectual property issues, which have deterred some companies from taking government contracts. But Shanahan made one condition clear: “The government owns the government's data.” That begs a few questions: How will contractors get the data that they need if the Department is so bad at collecting and keeping it internally? Who owns a datastream that combines private and government data? AFWERX's Harden said getting the Defense Department to change how it collects and makes data available on systems like the E-3 aircraft is less than totally straightforward. Another challenge is getting the department to actually accept AI-generated recommendations. “All of the processes and procedures need to change,” he said. “When I get a prediction now that says, ‘Hey, this aircraft battery, the data shows you were parked in Alaska and it's cold in Alaska and you were there for years. You don't have to swap out this battery on a regular cycle like you're doing,' how are the policy and guidance and procedures changing to allow that to occur? That is our billion-dollar question for DoD. We haven't solved that. How do we get the technology win that we get and turn that into true ROI?” https://www.defenseone.com/technology/2019/02/department-has-rolled-out-its-ai-strategy-now-hard-part-begins/154864/

NAVY The Charles Stark Draper Laboratory, Cambridge, Massachusetts, is awarded a $191,029,190 fixed-price-incentive-fee contract for the production of TRIDENT II D5 Strategic Weapon System MK6 Guidance Equivalent Units. This contract contains options which, if exercised, would bring the total contract value to $391,767,950. Work will be performed in Cambridge, Massachusetts (30.5 percent); Clearwater, Florida (20.6 percent); Pittsfield, Massachusetts (43.2 percent); and McKinney, Texas (5.7 percent). The work is expected to be completed by July 31, 2022. If the option is exercised, work will continue through July 31, 2023. Fiscal 2019 weapons procurement (Navy) funds in the amount of $189,489,000; and United Kingdom funds in the amount of $1,540,190 are being obligated on this award, none of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was awarded on a sole-source basis in accordance with 10 U.S. Code 2304 (c)(1)&(4) and was previously synopsized on the Federal Business Opportunity website. Strategic Systems Programs, Washington, District of Columbia, is the contracting activity (N00030-19-C-0008). Lockheed Martin Rotary and Mission Systems, Syracuse, New York, is awarded a $20,000,000 indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity, cost-plus-incentive-fee and firm-fixed-price contract for engineering and technical services for the design, development, testing, integration, technology insertion/refreshment and system support of the AN/BLQ-10 Electronic Warfare System (Technology Insertion (TI)-20, TI-22, and TI-24) on new-construction and in-service submarines. This contract includes options which, if exercised, would bring the cumulative value of this contract to $970,083,614. Work will be performed in Syracuse, New York (95 percent); and Manassas, Virginia (5 percent), and is expected to be completed by February 2020. If options are exercised, work will continue through February 2029. Fiscal 2019 research, development, test and evaluation funding in the amount of $8,500,000 will be obligated at time of award and will not expire at the end of current fiscal year. This contract was competitively procured via the Federal Business Opportunities website, with two offers received. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, District of Columbia, is the contracting activity (N00024-19-D-6200). The Boeing Co., St. Louis, Missouri, is awarded a $17,777,048 modification to a previously awarded, cost-plus-fixed-fee, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract (N00019-18-D-0001). This modification increases the ceiling of the contract to procure up to an additional quantity of two F/A-18E/F aircraft, modified to extend the service life of the aircraft. Work will be performed in St. Louis, Missouri (75 percent); and El Segundo, California (25 percent), and is expected to be completed in October 2020. No funds are being obligated at time of award, funds will be obligated on individual orders as they are issued. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity. Su-Mo Builders Inc.,* Honolulu, Hawaii, is awarded $9,989,777 for firm-fixed-price task order N6247819F4051 under a previously awarded, multiple award construction contract (N62478-18-D-4023) to provide repair to the mess hall and replace the walk-in freezer and cooling systems at Building 1089, Marine Corps Base, Hawaii. The project includes repairs to various areas and components of the mess hall, as well as electrical work, landscaping, the construction of two mechanical enclosures, and the installation of hand wash stations, an entry vestibule, and air conditioning. Work will be performed in Kaneohe, Hawaii, and is expected to be completed by September 2020. Fiscal 2019 operations and maintenance (Marine Corps) contract funds in the amount of $9,989,777 are obligated on this award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Six proposals were received for this task order. The Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Hawaii, Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii, is the contracting activity. Seemans Composites, Gulfport, Mississippi, is awarded a $9,125,520 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for the machining center proposal. This effort will evaluate Navy unmanned underwater vehicles launch and recovery needs and define target areas for further evaluation and design definition. Work will be performed in Gulfport, Mississippi, and is expected to be completed Feb. 11, 2022. Fiscal 2019 research, development, test and evaluation (Navy) funds in the amount of $9,125,520 are obligated at the time of award. No funds will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was competitively procured under N00014-18-S-B001 lLong range broad agency announcement (BAA). Proposals will be received throughout the year under the long range BAA; therefore, the number of proposals received in response to the solicitation is unknown. The Office of Naval Research, Arlington, Virginia, is the contracting activity (N00014-19-C-2015). DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY SupplyCore Inc.,* Rockford, Illinois, has been awarded a maximum $90,000,000 firm-fixed-price, bridge contract for facilities maintenance, repair, and operations items. 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 an eight-month contract with no option periods. Location of performance is Illinois, with an Oct. 25, 2019, performance completion date. Using military services are Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2019, through 2020 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (SPE8E3-19-D-0004). Excel Garment Manufacturing Ltd.,* El Paso, Texas, has been awarded a maximum $15,526,032 firm-fixed-price, definite-quantity contract for Navy utility coveralls. This was a competitive acquisition with three offers received. This is an eight-month contract with no option periods. Location of performance is Texas, with an Oct. 14, 2019, performance completion date. Using military service is Navy. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2019 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (SPE1C1-19-C-0004). ARMY Oshkosh Defense LLC, Oshkosh, Wisconsin, was awarded a $74,189,379 modification (P00004) to contract W56HZV-18-F-0153 for procurement of Family of Medium Tactical Vehicles variants. Work will be performed in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, with an estimated completion date of Sept. 30, 2021. Fiscal 2019 other procurement, Army funds in the amount of $74,189,379 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Warren, Michigan, is the contracting activity. Abt Associates Rockville, Maryland (W912HQ-19-D-0002); AECOM Technical Services Inc., Los Angeles, California (W912HQ-19-D-0003); Booz Allen Hamilton Inc., McLean, Virginia (W912HQ-19-D-0004); and CDM Federal Programs Corp., Carbondale, Illinois (W912HQ-19-D-0005), will compete for each order of the $47,200,000 firm-fixed-price contract for navigation, data and systems analytical and professional support services. Bids were solicited via the internet with seven received. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of Feb. 14, 2024. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Fort Belvoir, Virginia, is the contracting activity. The Boeing Co., Mesa, Arizona, was awarded a $12,850,128 firm-fixed-price foreign military sales (Qatar) contract for post-production support services for the Qatar Armed Forces AH-64E Apache helicopter fleet. Bids were solicited via the internet with one received. Work will be performed in Mesa, Arizona, with an estimated completion date of Feb. 14, 2024. Fiscal 2019 foreign military sales funds in the amount of $3,078,195 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, is the contracting activity (W58RGZ-19-C-0020). AIR FORCE Apogee Engineering, Colorado Springs, Colorado, has been awarded a $28,193,611 firm-fixed-price contract for Space Logistics Infrastructure Support Services (SLISS) – 2. The SLISS-2 contract will provide services to the Space and Missile System Center Space Logistics Directorate and related space organizations. The SLISS-2 contract will be used to acquire non-personal services in support of various missions, command, control, communications and intelligence activities within Air Force Space Command. Additionally, the contract will provide logistical support to various space organizations such as, Air Force Satellite Control Network, Space Lift Range System, Global Positioning System, Defense Meteorological Satellite Program, Military Satellite Communications, and Space Based Infrared Systems. Work will be performed at Peterson Air Force Base, Colorado; and Schriever AFB, Colorado, and is expected to be completed Feb. 28, 2025. This award is the result of a competitive acquisition and four offers were received. Fiscal 2019 operations and maintenance funds in the amount of $4,515,781 are being obligated at the time of award. Space and Missile Center/Sustainment Directorate at Peterson AFB, Colorado, is the contracting activity (FA8823-19-F-0001). Jackpine Technologies Corp., Maynard, Massachusetts, has been awarded a $12,000,000 single-award, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for the Hanscom Development, Security and Operations Cloud. This contract provides for on and off premise cloud-based service provider to the Department of Defense (DoD) community, acting as a collaborative and secure platform to test, develop and connect a multitude of DoD-wide users. Work will be performed at Hanscom Air Force Base, Massachusetts, and is expected to be completed Feb. 14, 2021. This award is the result of a sole-source acquisition. Foreign military sales funds in the amount of $45,000 are being obligated at the time of award. Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, Hanscom AFB, Massachusetts, is the contracting activity (FA8730-19-D-0003). DEFENSE INFORMATION SYSTEMS AGENCY Intelligent Waves LLC, Reston, Virginia, was awarded a competitive firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract with the Defense Information Systems Agency to provide global logistical service management and field service representatives in support of the Distributed Tactical Communication System and the Department of Defense Enhanced Mobile Satellite Services program. The cumulative face value of this action is $48,000,000 with the base year funded by fiscal 2019 defense working capital funds. The basic proposal was solicited via electronic means through FedBizOps with six proposals received. The period of performance is from Feb. 25, 2019, to Feb. 24, 2020, with four 12-month option periods. Performance will be at various locations within the U.S. and deployed locations worldwide. The Defense Information Technology Contracting Organization, Scott Air Force Base, Illinois, is the contracting activity (HC1013-19-D-0003). IntelSat General Corp., McLean, Virginia, was awarded a firm-fixed-price contract modification to exercise Option Period Three on task order GS-35F-0478U/HC1013-16-F-0020 for commercial satellite communications service in direct support of the U.S. Air Force's Central Command network architecture, which includes fixed and mobile platforms, including remotely piloted aircraft and communications on-the-move assets. The face value of this action is $8,553,756 funded by fiscal 2019 operations and maintenance funds. Primary performance will be at the contractor's facility. The period of performance is Feb. 16, 2019, through Feb. 15, 2020. The Defense Information Technology Contracting Organization, Scott Air Force Base, Illinois, is the contracting activity (HC1013-16-F-0020-P00007). * Small business https://dod.defense.gov/News/Contracts/Contract-View/Article/1759513/source/GovDelivery/

By: Chirine Mouchantaf BEIRUT — Leonardo DRS' land electronics unit has signed an agreement with the International Golden Group based in the United Arab Emirates to support key projects for the country's armed forces. As part of the settlement, U.S.-based Leonardo DRS will establish an innovative engineering and support facility in IGG's industrial park in Abu Dhabi to support projects and assist in hiring and training locals to fill new high-tech manufacturing positions, the company said in a statement. “Leonardo has a long history in working to support the armed forces of the UAE, and this partnership within our subsidiary and IGG has us very excited," Lorenzo Mariani, Leonardo chief commercial officer, told Defense News The two parties are expected to collaborate on advanced communication systems integration in support of tactical C4I projects, as well as onboard vehicle power systems that provide combat vehicles with up to 120 kilowatts of mobile electrical power for complex C4ISR systems, mobile command posts, radars, weapon systems and other power-hungry expeditionary capabilities. “The high technology of Leonardo DRS and the capabilities of IGG will lead to next-level products for the country's armed forces now and well into the future,” Mariani added. The agreement deepens an already strong relationship between Leonardo DRS and the government of the UAE. In 2017, Leonardo and IGG signed a strategic collaboration agreement to supply cybersecurity capabilities in the UAE, and to identify and implement advanced solutions including security operations centers. The agreement's aim was to integrate the solutions and market knowledge offered by IGG with Leonardo's state-of-the-art know-how in a long-term strategic and international partnership. Bill Guyan, vice president and general manager of the Leonardo DRS land electronics unit, considers the Emirati-American military relationship a robust one full of new growth potential over the next few years. “The recent growth of the Leonardo DRS land electronics business in the UAE has produced this natural next step. We are proud to lay down enduring roots and a strong business presence and remain committed to the success of our UAE customer and UAE Vision 2021,” he said, referring to the country's effort to prioritize health care, economic competitiveness, sustainable infrastructure, education, a cohesive society and an improved judiciary. “We are eager to work with IGG to provide the guidance, technology and support required to increase interoperability between the U.S. and Emirati forces, allowing them to strategically operate more closely,” he added. https://www.defensenews.com/digital-show-dailies/idex/2019/02/15/leonardo-drs-joins-uae-based-firm-to-support-key-projects-of-the-countrys-armed-forces/