2nd Fleet Readies for Baltic Sea Exercise

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.

After the US Navy’s new 2nd Fleet stands up later this month, its commander will push the USS Mount Whitney command ship, along with dozens of other NATO vessels, into the Baltic Sea to direct a major exercise, reports Breaking Defense.

The Pentagon is looking into whether Boeing’s heavy-lift helicopter for the Army, the CH-47 Chinook, could replace Lockheed Martin’s King Stallion chopper for Marine Corps missions, Blomberg reports.

The US and Poland are in talks about increasing American troops in that country, reports Stars and Stripes. For months, military and diplomatic officials have worked on a deal in connection with Warsaw’s offer to spend up to $2 billion to fund a permanent American base.

Textron is flight testing a new Block 3 version of its AAI-developed RQ-7 Shadow unmanned aircraft system, which the US Army has been using for 20 years and plans to use for at least 10 more, reports Rotor & Wing International.

StateSec Mike Pompeo said the Trump administration is making contingency plans for US military intervention in Venezuela, but he wouldn’t say whether the administration would seek congressional authorization first, reports The Washington Post.

Turkey is continuing its efforts to enrich its armed combat drone portfolio, reports Daily Sabah. UAV developer Baykar Makina is set to begin test flights of the Akıncı, a 5.5-ton attack UAV.

The US Army Corps of Engineers has recovered a five-foot propeller and a .30-caliber machine gun in the waters off Chappaquiddick in Martha’s Vineyard that is leading researchers to think they have discovered a Curtiss SB2C Helldiver that crashed in 1946, reports Navy Times.

DoD and the Office of Personnel Management will cut down on redundant and outdated training programs offered to both service members and civilian employees, reports Federal Times. The Pentagon will now join 22 other cabinet-level agencies on the USALearning platform, which offers contract vehicles for agencies to acquire online training courses that can be shared and streamlined across the government.

Pilots of a chartered jet that ran into a river at Naval Air Station Jacksonville made a last-minute change to the runway where they would make a landing, reports MSN News. The 9,000-foot-long runway where the Boeing 737 landed was essentially limited to 7,800 feet since there was a wire barrier set up to recover Navy aircraft in instances they couldn’t land on a carrier during training.

Pressing ahead after an April 20 test mishap that destroyed a Crew Dragon astronaut ferry ship, SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket early Saturday that boosted an unpiloted Dragon cargo capsule into orbit with supplies for the International Space Station, reports CBS News.

It was a historic week in Annapolis, and media coverage last week was dominated by the election of new House of Delegates Speaker Adrienne A. Jones, a Democrat from Baltimore County, and the tense and unpredictable events that led up to it, reports Maryland Matters.

The bodies of two men were recovered after a helicopter crashed into the Chesapeake Bay, near Bloody Point on the Eastern Shore, over the weekend, reports Capital Gazette. The helicopter, which was not military, had taken off from Tipton Airport near Fort Meade.

So with a kicker competition set for the Cleveland Browns, General Manager John Michael Dorsey brought in University of Arkansas Pine-Bluff punter Jamie Gillan who has been signed to a training camp contract to compete for the starting job, reports SBNation. Gillan is a graduate of Leonardtown High School and his father works at NAS Pax River. And for those who don’t know, Mr. Dorsey was born and raised in Leonardtown.

Contracts:

Metis Solutions LLC, Arlington, Virginia, has been awarded a $10,301,762 fixed-price level-of-effort contract for financial services. This contract provides for counter-threat finance services to US Central Command, US.Africa Command, and the US European Command areas of responsibility. Work will be performed in several locations worldwide, and is expected to be complete by Oct. 20, 2019. This award is the result of a non‐competitive bridge acquisition and one offer was received. Fiscal 2019 operations and maintenance funds in the full amount are being obligated at the time of award. Headquarters Air Combat Command, Acquisition Management and Integration Center, Joint Base Langley‐Eustis, Virginia, is the contracting activity (FA4890‐19‐C-A007). (Awarded March 20, 2019)

Cray Inc., Seattle, Washington, was awarded a $22,549,000 firm-fixed-price contract for Department of Defense High Performance Computing Modernization Program’s Technology Insertion. Four bids were solicited with four bids received. Work will be performed in Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, with an estimated completion date of Nov. 5, 2025. Fiscal 2018 other procurement, Army funds in the amount of $22,549,000 were obligated at the time of the award. US Army Corps of Engineers, Huntsville, Alabama, is the contracting activity (W912DY-19-F-0296).

AAI Corp., doing business as Textron Systems, Hunt Valley, Maryland, was awarded an $8,928,378 cost-plus-fixed-fee Foreign Military Sales (Australia) contract for logistics support. Bids were solicited via the internet with two received. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of Feb. 7, 2020. US Army Contracting Command, Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, is the contracting activity (W58RGZ-19-F-0407).

n~Ask Inc., Fairfax, Virginia, was awarded a $7,816,490 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract (H92401-19-C-0014) for demonstration of a prototype, modular intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance small-satellite in support of US Special Operations Command (USSOCOM). Fiscal 2019 research and development funds in the amount of $2,000,000 were obligated at time of award. The work will be performed primarily at the n~Ask Colorado facility. The period of performance is scheduled to run through September 2020. USSOCOM headquarters, Tampa, Florida, is the contracting activity.