Biden Shifts Focus of DoD Budget

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.

President Joe Biden’s first military budget sets aside $30.8 million to address extremism among troops, declares climate change a “national security priority,” and enhances training at all levels, reports Military.com. It also includes $9.1 million to build upon findings from the military’s report on the 2019 shooting at NAS Pensacola, by a Saudi pilot who had self-radicalized.

Biden suspends oil leases in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, reports ABC News, reversing a drilling program approved by the Trump administration and reviving a political fight over a remote region that is home to polar bears and a rich reserve of oil. The order by Interior Secretary Deb Haaland follows the temporary moratorium Biden imposed his first day in office, suggesting a new environmental review was needed to address possible legal flaws in the drilling program Congress approved in 2017.

Although officially not requested, if Congress can find the money, the Navy wants a second new destroyer in FY22, reports Defense News. The Navy’s budget request includes eight ships – four warships, four support ships, and one destroyer. But a later document shows the Navy told lawmakers that its top need is $1.66 billion to buy a second destroyer in FY22, to meet contractual obligations for both Ingalls Shipbuilding and General Dynamics Bath Iron Works to each build one ship in FY22.

After 16 years of research and development, the Navy appears poised to kill its electromagnetic railgun program, reports The Drive. The service has not asked for any new funding for the project in its latest budget request and says it will wrap up all the work it has planned now by the end of the current fiscal year, before effectively putting what’s left of this effort into storage.

The Navy is keeping classified the FY22 funds it wants to develop the next-generation fighter aircraft set to replace the fleet of F/A-18E/F Super Hornets, reports USNI. This is the second consecutive budget cycle in which the Navy has classified information about its investment into the service’s sixth-generation fighter.

The Coast Guard is requesting $13.1 billion for fiscal 2022, according to Seapower Magazine, $38 million more than enacted in the 2021 budget.

The US Air Force’s full FY22 budget request is here. What it does not include is replacement of the small fleet of Boeing 757s that serve as Air Force Two — the jetliners that fly the vice president and other top-level cabinet officials, reports Defense One. What it does include is a request for nearly $48 million in additional funding — a nearly five-fold increase from the current budget — to conduct feasibility tests next year on the USAF plans to deliver payloads up to 100 tons — cargo and potentially personnel — via a space launch rocket, reports The Drive.

 

 

The campus of the Maritime Institute of Technology and Graduate Studies in Linthicum Heights, MD, is one of the signs that the growing offshore wind industry may reach Maryland’s Atlantic shore in just a few years, reports Maryland Matters. The arrival of powerful turbines off the coast of Ocean City, each about 800 feet tall, is likely to be a transformational development.

A Marine Corps F-35B currently deployed on the British Aircraft Carrier Queen Elizabeth was forced to conduct an emergency landing in Ibiza, Spain, as part of a “precautionary measure,” reports Marine Corps Times.

US military says its Afghan pullout is nearing the halfway mark, reports Voice of America. The pullout is speeding up, with military planners saying almost half of US forces and equipment has been sent home or destroyed. Central Command says the withdrawal is “between 30-44%” complete and that six facilities have now been turned over to Afghan security forces, with more bases likely to be handed over in the coming days and weeks.

US to hand Bagram base to Afghan forces in 20 days, according to Yahoo News. The vast base, built by the Soviets in the 1980s, is the biggest military facility used by US and NATO forces in Afghanistan, with tens of thousands of troops stationed there during the peak of America’s military involvement in the violence-wracked country.

Pentagon eyes new bombs for war with China, not ISIS  reports Military.com. The Air Force will buy fewer Joint Direct Attack Munitions, JDAMs, Hellfire missiles; and small-diameter bombs as it prepares to invest in state-of-the art, long-range weapons that are better-suited for operations in the Pacific, according to its fiscal 2022 budget request.

US Indo-Pacific commander reaffirms alliance with Japan amid contested territorial claims by China, reports API. The new head of the US Indo-Pacific Command, ADM John Aquilino, in talks with top Japanese officials, also agreed to further strengthen their joint response capability and deterrence to achieve a “free and open Indo-Pacific.”

An Iranian-backed militia’s New Year’s 2020 attack on the US Embassy in Baghdad caused $35 million in fire damage, reports Stars and Stripes.

As coalition troops prepare to withdraw from Afghanistan after 20 years, elite soldiers from Australia, UK, and US face a reckoning, reports The Guardian, asking what went wrong with some special forces. “Whatever we do … ,” one Australian special forces soldier said of his service in Afghanistan, “I can tell you the Brits and the US are far, far worse.”

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron demand answers on a report that Denmark helped the US spy on allies, reports NBC News. The renewed spotlight on the issue could create a headache for Biden, who is set to travel to Europe later this month for the Group of Seven summit of world leaders. The uproar comes after Denmark’s public broadcaster reported on Sunday that the country’s intelligence service helped the US eavesdrop on European officials almost a decade ago.

Navy Times reports nearly four years after two fatal ship collisions were found to have been exacerbated by crew exhaustion, the Navy is still struggling to get its surface fleet sailors adequate rest, according to a Government Accountability Office report released last week.

Contracts:

Comcast Government Services LLC, Reston, Virginia, was awarded a competitive firm-fixed-price, single-award, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract with a ceiling value of $102,808,400 for the Commercial Ethernet Gateway Region 3 to provide mission partner access, via ethernet connections, to the Department of Defense Information Network and to enable the replacement of legacy, time division multiplexing-based circuits. The contract, with a $500 minimum guarantee, will be funded by fiscal 2021 operations and maintenance funds. Primary performance will be at the contractor’s above-identified facility in Reston, Virginia. Proposals were solicited via the beta.sam.gov website, and four proposals were received. The period of performance, which consists of a six-year base period and two two-year option periods, is June 16, 2021, to June 15, 2031. The Defense Information Technology Contracting Organization, Scott Air Force Base, Illinois, is the contracting activity (HC1013-21-D-0003).

Becton Dickinson, Sparks, Maryland, has been awarded a maximum $49,000,000 fixed-price with economic-price-adjustment, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for laboratory supplies. This was a competitive acquisition with 33 responses received. This is a five-year contract with no option periods. Location of performance is Maryland, with a June 1, 2026, ordering period end date. Using customers are Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps and federal civilian agencies. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2021 through 2026 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (SPE2DE-21-D-0029).

Chinook Systems Inc., Cocoa Beach, Florida (HQ0034-21-A-0005), has been awarded a firm-fixed-price blanket purchase agreement for a maximum amount of $44,000,000. The purpose of this contract is to provide commissioning (Cx) support services for the Project Controls Division and the Standards and Compliance Division of Washington Headquarters Services. Cx is the process of achieving, verifying, and documenting the performance of building systems in accordance with the design intent and the client’s functional and operational requirements. This contract shall provide all personnel, equipment, supplies, facilities, transportation, tools, materials, supervision, and other items and non-personal services necessary to perform commissioning, code enforcement, and document management services. Work performance will take place at the Pentagon. No funds are being obligated at the award of the agreement. The expected completion date is Nov. 8, 2026. Washington Headquarters Services, Arlington, Virginia, is the contracting activity.

Tecolote Research Inc., Goleta, California, was awarded a firm-fixed-price and time-and-materials contract (HQ0034-21-F-0246) in the amount of $8,311,713 to provide cost analysis and technical support services to the Cost Assessment Data Enterprise within the Office of the Director of Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation. Work performance will take place at the Pentagon, and the Mark Center in Alexandria, Virginia. The work is expected to be completed on Feb. 3, 2026. The following contract funds were obligated on this award in the amount of $3,163,234: fiscal 2021 Air Force Cost Analysis Agency funds for $2,038,024; fiscal 2021 Joint Integrated Analysis Tool maintenance funds for $599,273; and fiscal 2021 Cost Assessment Data Enterprise (CADE) maintenance, and Army Cost and Software Data Report support funds for $525,937. Washington Headquarters Services, Arlington, Virginia, is the contracting activity.