Navy Wants One New Sub, Lawmakers Say the Service Needs Two
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 reflect opinions of the Leader’s owners or staff.
Congressional lawmakers are pushing for two attack submarines despite the US Navy wanting just one, reports Defense News. A House Armed Services subcommittee has made clear it wants the service to buy two submarines in fiscal 2025 in order to keep the submarine-industrial base on a path of recovery. The Navy elected to ask for six ships in its FY25 budget, including one Virginia-class attack submarine.
A network of military and government agencies make up the Unified Command leading the response to the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in March. The incident command post was set up within one day from the bridge collapse. The goal: reopen the Baltimore port and eventually start rebuilding the bridge. The Hill offers an inside look at the military’s role in this network of more than 370 personnel and 80 assets, like divers, boats, and cranes. During a recent visit to the Port of Baltimore, President Joe Biden called the military personnel and responders the “finest engineers in the world.”
NavSec Carlos Del Toro told a Senate Appropriations subcommittee last week that the Navy is out at least $1 billion in critical munitions because of recent operations in the Middle East, reports Breaking Defense. He is banking on a congressional supplemental to help replenish. “So, therefore the over $2 billion that’s provided for in the supplemental is direly critical to our Navy and Marine Corps to be able to replenish those munitions and continue to provide the types of defensive measures that we have this past six months now,” he said.
The NAS Patuxent River CO and the St. Mary’s County commissioners met earlier this month to discuss community and military base issues. Topics of discussion included the Lancaster Park lease, the designation of Lexington Park as a Sustainable Community, the redevelopment of Millison Plaza, and findings from the Military Installation Resilience Study, reports The Southern Maryland Chronicle on MSN.
During the joint meeting with the Navy and St. Mary’s commissioners, an update on Pax River Village Center, formerly Millison Plaza, was provided, reports The BayNet. The development project will mainly revolve around improvements to existing properties and the demolition of the vacant hotel. Two new businesses will be added, which will include an ALDI grocery store and a military-themed Starbucks, according to an Atlantic Realty Companies official.
Northern Virginia company Potomac Development Group wants to develop a 500-acre data center campus near the Naval Support Facility Dahlgren, reports Fredericksburg Free Lance Star. Currently, the property is a mix of commercial, industrial, and residential zoning.
Team Seahawks from St. Mary’s College of Maryland earned first-place honors at the College of Southern Maryland’s Velocity Center VelocityX Hackathon, co-sponsored by the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division, reports The Southern Maryland Chronicle. Seven teams comprised of coders and innovators demonstrated their skills in AI development with a focus on aircraft detection and classification tailored to support Navy operations.
US House lawmakers on Saturday passed a $95 billion foreign aid package that includes two bills with $60.8 billion in aid to Ukraine and $26 billion in aid to Israel, reports The Hill.
The House on Saturday also advanced a bill that would potientally ban TikTok in the US, reports The Washington Post. The Senate plans to take the matter up Tuesday.
Most of the military assistance to Ukraine that Congress has approved is being spent in the United States, reports The Washington Post. Citing analysis from the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the Post says that 90% of the $68 billion in military and related assistance thus far approved is not going to Ukraine but is being spent on defense production lines in the US.
Connecticut lawmakers want answers from Lockheed Martin-Sikorsky and the US Army about job cuts at Sikorsky’s helicopter unit, reports Breaking Defense. The rotorcraft company has plans to lay off about 400 employees as it reels from the announcement in February that the Army will cancel its Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft program. Officials at the Stratford, CT-based Sikorsky said upcoming layoffs are expected but will impact “less than one percent” of the total workforce of Lockheed Martin, the parent company of Sikorsky. While there are over 122,000 workers within Lockheed Martin, around 7,500 to 8,000 people work at Sikorsky, reports Fox61 WTIC Hartford.
True Velocity and sister company Lone Star Future Weapons have filed a complaint in Vermont Superior Court alleging that gunmaker Sig Sauer “brazenly and wrongfully misappropriated Plaintiff’s trade secrets to obtain an unfair competitive advantage,” reports Defense News. The companies competed to produce the US Army’s Next-Generation Squad Weapon worth an estimated $4.5 billion. Sig Sauer won, and the first weapons were delivered to the 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, KY.
The Marine Corps has chosen three companies — AeroVironment, Anduril Industries, and Teledyne FLIR — to compete for its light loitering munitions program, which seeks to equip small units with an armed drone for over-the-horizon fire missions, reports C4ISRNET. The firms will compete for the potential $249 million, five-year contract for the Organic Precision Fires-Light.
The US Navy’s ship underway to the Gaza Strip on the pier building mission caught on fire and had to return to Florida, reports Navy Times. The cargo ship suffered a fire in its engine room and returned under its own power on one engine to Jacksonville.
Marine Corps MAJ Shane Gentry has been selected as the 2024 Marine Aviator of the Year, reports USNI News. The Corps also announced last month that Gentry will receive the Alfred A. Cunningham Award, one of the service’s Marine Corps Aviation Association annual recognitions. Gentry, a third-generation Marine, is currently assigned to Marine Aircraft Group 24, 1st Marine Aircraft Wing at Marine Corps Base Hawaii.
Army Reserve major Caz Craffy pleaded guilty to using his position as an Army financial counselor to defraud Gold Star families, reports Army Times. Craffy, 41, admitted to taking advantage of his role to swindle deceased troops’ grieving loved ones out of millions, according to a release from the US Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey.
Two veterans have been convicted for helping bilk more than $65 million from the military health care program Tricare, reports Military Times. Both received prison sentences and orders to pay back millions of dollars they assisted in stealing. Marine veteran Joshua Morgan, 31, was sentenced to 21 months while Navy veteran Kyle Adams, 36, secured a sentence of 15 months for their roles in the multilevel scheme to recruit service members and their dependents to carry out prescription drug fraud, according to a US Attorney’s Office Southern District of California news release.
The Army is continuing the suspension of horse-drawn services at Arlington National Cemetery after roughly a year of no operations, reports Military.com. The original suspension followed a string of military working horse deaths, reports of unsanitary and potentially life-threatening living conditions, as well as congressional scrutiny directed at the Army’s 3rd Infantry Regiment. “The Old Guard,” as it is known, is the service’s premier ceremonial unit, which is in charge of conducting the horse-drawn services.
The family of Tara Lunardi says the Air Force colonel has been denied burial at Arlington National Cemetery, reports WUSA9. The decorated, active-duty Air Force colonel of nearly 30 years was denied burial on a paperwork technicality. The last thing they thought they’d be dealing with after Lunardi lost her battle with cancer would be bureaucratic red tape.
A Supreme Court ruling last week on veterans education benefits could provide an extra year of federal tuition payments to millions of student veterans, but when officials might start doling out the payouts remains unclear, reports Navy Times.
The US Navy’s ARTEMIS program has received its first repatriated Swiss F-5 at Cecil Field in Jacksonville, FL, reports Seapower magazine. The aircraft will be used for the second phase of the Avionics Reconfiguration and Tactical/Modernization for Inventory Standardization program.
LT CMDR Kyle Shepard, a resident audiologist at the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division, is designing new hearing protection for Navy personnel, reports Patient Daily. “There is no other injury more reported than hearing damage,” Shepard said. He emphasized the impact of noise-induced hearing loss on military readiness, with at least 10% of service members being affected by this issue.
Contracts:
The Bell Boeing Joint Project Office, California, Maryland, has been awarded a maximum $11,395,042 modification (P00029) to a one-year base contract (SPRPA1-17-D-009U) with four one-year option periods for V-22 spare consumable and depot level repairable parts. This is a firm-fixed-price requirements contract. Locations of performance are Texas and Pennsylvania, with a May 10, 2024, performance completion date. Using customers are Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2023 through 2024 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Aviation, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Awarded April 16, 2024)
Airborne Tactical Advantage Co., Newport News, Virginia (N0042119D0058); Coastal Defense Inc., Mill Hall, Pennsylvania (N0042119D0059); Draken International Inc., Lakeland, Florida (N00042119D0060); and Tactical Air Support Inc., Reno, Nevada (N00042119D0061), are awarded a $124,475,454 modification P00011, P00010, P00016 and P00010 respectively, to previously awarded firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contracts. This modification exercises options on each contract to extend the current period of performance through April 2029 to provide continued air support services to include regionally based, geographically distributed aviation training capabilities to support adversary and offensive air support for the Navy and Marine Corp. Work will be performed in Cherry Point, North Carolina (35%); Twentynine Palms, California (35%); and Fallon, Nevada (30%), and is expected to be completed in April 2029. No funds will be obligated at the time of award; funds will be obligated on individual orders as they are issued. Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity.
Huntington Ingalls, Inc., Newport News, Virginia, is awarded a $120,300,000 modification to previously awarded contract (N00024-16-C-2116) to establish a quality-of-service improvements incentive. This special incentive will support the improved Quality of Life for Navy sailors stationed at Newport News Shipbuilding. Work will be performed in Newport News, Virginia, and is expected to be completed by April 2026. Fiscal 2024 shipbuilding and conversion (Navy) funds in the amount of $40,000,000 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 US Code 3204(a)(1) (only one responsible source and no other supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements). Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, DC, is the contracting activity.
Deloitte Consulting LLP, Arlington, Virginia, was awarded a $99,779,000 indefinite-delivery-indefinite-quantity other transaction production agreement for enterprise-wide digital manufacturing data vault (DMDV) and advanced manufacturing support. This agreement will transition sufficiently matured prototypes and associated advanced manufacturing process design and project management activities into a new DMDV capability and services. This agreement includes a single seven-year ordering period. The period of performance of the base award is April 2024 to April 2031. Work will be performed in Arlington, Virginia (98%); and Department of Defense facilities (2%, if applicable), and will be annotated at the order level. Funding will be obligated via orders. The predominant types of funding anticipated to be obligated are operations and maintenance (Marine Corps), research, development, test and evaluation (Marine Corps), and Procurement (Marine Corps). This single-award contract was not competitively procured due to circumstances permitting other than full and open competition pursuant to 10 US Code §4022(f), Follow-on Production Contracts or Transactions. Naval Information Warfare Center Pacific in San Diego, California, is the contracting activity (N66001-24-9-0016). (Awarded April 17, 2024)
HPI Federal LLC, Washington, DC, was awarded $25,008,543 firm-fixed-price contract delivery order with $13,873,347 in options. The delivery order will provide for procurement of general-purpose laptops with warranties and docking stations. Supplies will be delivered within the continental US. (Ordering period is Jan. 31, 2024, through Sept. 30, 2026). Fiscal 2024 procurement (Marine Corps) funds in the amount of $25,008,543 was obligated under this delivery order award and funds will expire Sept. 30, 2026. This contract was competitively procured using full and open competition via the NASA Solutions for Enterprise-Wide Procurement indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity contract NNG15SD47B. Marine Corps Systems Command, Quantico, Virginia, is the contracting activity (M67854-24-F-4008). (Awarded Jan. 31, 2024)
BAE Systems Information and Electronic Systems Integration, Merrimack, New Hampshire, has been awarded a $12,008,850 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract to support the Strategic Chaos Engine for Planning, Tactics, Experimentation and Resiliency program. Work will be performed in Arlington, Virginia (45%); Durham, North Carolina (15%); Merrimack, New Hampshire (15%); Burlington, Massachusetts (10%); and Santa Barbara, California (15%), with an expected completion date of November 2025. Fiscal 2024 research, development, test, and engineering funds in the amount of $2,029,998 are being obligated at time of award. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is the contracting activity (HR001124C0422).
