CBO Still Sees Billions in Savings in the Military

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.

It’s a familiar list the Congressional Budget Office released last week, plus an additional 120 ways to reduce federal spending or boost revenues. This year it shows the military could save hundreds of billions, reports Military Times, by capping pay, scrapping aircraft, slashing benefits and a host of already discussed military and veterans program reforms in the  CBO’s annual “options for reducing the deficit” report.

President Donald Trump plans to sign an executive order creating a US Space Command before the end of the year, reports Military Times.

Defense News considers how OMB director Mick Mulvaney’s additional White House chief of staff duties could impact defense spending. As a budget hawk, Mulvaney has pushed for lower defense spending in the past.

Russia is positioned to quickly defeat forward-deployed US and NATO forces and grab land before reinforcements could arrive, Military Times reports on a new paper from the Atlantic Council, an international affairs think tank. Russia has amassed “significant military capacity” on Ukraine’s borders, a top US diplomat confirmed, reports Washington Examiner.

For Russian misinformation-mongers, 2017 was the year of Instagram, reports Wired. As Facebook and Twitter cracked down on foreign influence campaigns amid media scrutiny, the Kremlin’s Internet Research Agency found unprecedented success in shifting its disinformation efforts to the photo-sharing app, according to a new report by New Knowledge commissioned by the Senate Intelligence Committee.

The Navy and Marine Corps search for the voice and data recorders of the lost KC-130J and F/A-18 in a Dec. 6 accident off Japan that killed six Marines, reports Marine Corps Times. The recorders emit a signal to help detection up to 30 days after a crash.

Military officials report no civilian casualties were among the 62 people killed in a coastal Somali town by six US airstrikes to pre-empt a major extremist attack, reports Military Times. The strikes were carried out in close coordination with Somalia’s government and were “conducted to prevent al-Shabab from using remote areas as a safe haven to plot, direct, inspire, and recruit for future attacks,” according to the US military statement.

Military Times reports the Taliban say they’re meeting US officials to negotiate the end of war, this time in the United Arab Emirates and also involving Saudi, Pakistani, and Emirati representatives in the latest attempt to negotiate an end to Afghanistan’s 17-year war.

Boeing’s KC-390 joint venture with Brazilian company, Embraer, is still short on details, but long on speculations, reports Defense News. Embraer will own a 51 percent stake, Boeing owning the rest.

About half of the 5,900 active duty troops sent to the US-Mexico border have returned home, reports The Hill. Of the 3,150 active-duty troops remaining, 1,200 are in California, 1,050 in Texas, and 900 in Arizona.

Interior Secretary and former Navy SEAL Ryan Zinke resigns in the face of federal investigations into his travel, political activity, and potential conflicts of interest, reports Military.com.

Contracts:

Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Reston, Virginia, was awarded a competitive, single award indefinite-delivery/indefinite–quantity, firm-fixed-price contract for X86 processor capacity services. The total lifecycle amount of the contract is $323,921,060. The minimum guarantee for this effort is $770,000, $675,000 of which is being met by the first delivery order under HC1084-19-F-0001, and is funded by fiscal 2019 research, development, test and evaluation funds. Performance will be at current Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) data centers or future DISA centers in the continental U.S. (CONUS), DISA outside CONUS (OCONUS) data centers, and other DISA or DISA-approved locations worldwide in which DISA may acquire an operational responsibility. Proposals were solicited via the Federal Business Opportunities websites, and six proposals were received from the proposals solicited. The period of performance is for a base of five years beginning Dec. 19, 2018, and five one-year periods through Dec. 18, 2028. The Defense Information Technology Contracting Organization, Scott AFB, Illinois, is the contracting activity (HC1084-19-D-0002).

L3 Adaptive Methods, Centreville, Virginia, is awarded a $7,674,780 cost-plus-fixed-fee modification to a previously awarded contract (N00024-15-C-5220) to exercise an option for the accomplishment of services for the Undersea Warfare and Surface Warfare command and control systems. The services include systems engineering, program management, software development, risk management, prototype development, information assurance, training, and integrated logistics support. Work will be performed in Centreville, Virginia (50 percent); and Keyport, Washington (50 percent), and is expected to be completed by December 2019. Fiscal 2019 research, development, test, and evaluation (Navy); and fiscal 2019 operations and maintenance (Navy) funding in the amount of $4,279,000 will be obligated at time of award and funding in the amount of $420,000 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, District of Columbia, is the contracting activity.

General Dynamics Mission Systems, Inc., San Antonio, Texas, has been awarded a $24,916,847 modification (P00036) to previously awarded contract HR0011-16-C-0001 for classified information technology services. The modification brings the total cumulative face value of the contract to $105,016,388 from $80,099,541. Work will be performed in Arlington, Virginia, with an expected completion date of February 2020. Fiscal 2018 and 2019 research and development funds in the amount of $20,949,939 are being obligated at time of award. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Arlington, Virginia, is the contracting activity.