Acquisitions So Slow, Technology Bypasses DoD

Morning Coffee is a robust blend of links to news around the internet concerning the Naval Air Station Patuxent River economic community. The opinions expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of the Leader’s owners or staff.

Pentagon acquisitions have become so cumbersome, cyber security and robotics firms are bypassing defense work to go directly into the commercial sector, reports Military.com. Officials are concerned the Pentagon could lose its edge.

DefSec Ashton Carter wants some retirement benefit changes for the military, and is taking his plans on the road hoping to get the changes made before the Obama Administration leaves office in 2017, reports The Hill. His short road trip is billed as promoting the need to build a force for the future, Defense.gov reports.

The Navy and Air Force are looking to partner up, again, as they advance to a next-generation Super Hornet and F-22 Raptor, reports USNI. The Navy already partners in the Air Force’s F-X program said the Navy’s director of air warfare.

The Pensacola News Journal commemorates the first Navy flight nurse sent to a Pacific battlefield, reprinting the iconic photograph of Jane Kendeigh kneeling over a wounded Marine at Iwo Jima. She was  one of 122 women trained in late 1944.

A VA Inspector General says over-prescribed opiates have been a problem within the VA for at least the 12 years he has been with the agency. The problem was officially addressed in 2012, reports Military.com, a result of a national study initiated in 2012 by the inspector, Dr. John D. Daigh Jr.

The Virginia-Pilot takes Norfolk Naval Station to task for inaction a year after a gate security breach turned deadly, leaving Petty Officer 2nd Class Mark Mayo and the shooter dead.

Breaking Defense publishes its second in a series about mines at sea, “Sowing The Sea With Fire: The Threat of Sea Mines.”

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Army Gen. Martin E. Dempsey met with his South Korean counterpart, Adm. Choi Yun-hee, last week regarding strategies to deter North Korean aggression, Defense.gov reports the US and South Korean militaries ties are stronger than ever.

Technology exists to wrest command from a pilot to save an aircraft from imminent collision, NASA and Lockheed developed it and the US Air Force started using it in 2014, and credits it with saving at least two F-16s and crews, reports Aviation Week. MarketWatch quotes an aviation litigator, in a story about the Germanwings crash, saying, “The airline has unlimited liability unless it can prove it is free from fault.”

Counting cards to bet when favorable cards are due is legal. But as increasing numbers of players are caught doing it, Maryland casinos are escorting them out the door, reports the Capital Gazette.

 

The Boeing Co., Seattle, Washington, is being awarded a $21,065,841 modification to a previously awarded cost reimbursement type contract (N00019-04-C-3146) for system development and testing to resolve open trouble reports on the existing P-8A Poseidon Test aircraft. Work will be performed in Huntington Beach, California (51 percent); Seattle, Washington (47 percent); and Patuxent River, Maryland (2 percent), and is expected to be completed in March 2017. Fiscal 2015 research, development, test and evaluation (Navy) funds in the amount of $19,970,000 will be obligated at time of award, none of which will expire at the end of the current year. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity.

 

BAE Systems Technology Solutions & Services Inc., Rockville, Maryland, is being awarded a $14,709,312 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for program and project management and systems logistics and engineering support of the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division’s air traffic control and landing system. These efforts will include system certification; technical assistance; systems test, evaluation and analysis; software and hardware development, installation and maintenance; test data acquisition, reduction and analysis; configuration management; training support; equipment manufacturing, refurbishing, overhaul, and repair; and quality control. Work will be performed in St. Inigoes, Maryland (49 percent); Patuxent River, Maryland (49 percent); Norfolk, Virginia (1 percent); and San Diego, California (1 percent), and is expected to be completed in March 2016. Fiscal 2015 Navy working capital funds in the amount of $1,250,000 are being obligated at time of award, none of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was not competitively procured pursuant to FAR 6.302-1. The Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity (N00421-15-C-0012).