CNO Confident Navy Gets Bigger Budget Portion
Two Navy F/A-18 Super Hornets launch from the USS Theodore Roosevelt in the Pacific Ocean on April 29, 2021. (US Navy Photo by Navy Petty Officer 3rd Class Erik Melgar)
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While competition for defense funds is high among the services, Chief of Naval Operations ADM Mike Gilday is confident the Navy Department has a “sound case” for getting a bigger piece of the defense budget since the Navy’s forward presence will be crucial in meeting threats from China and Russia, reports Military.com. DefSec Lloyd Austin and other service chiefs are expected to testify before several congressional panels before the end of June, reports Military Times.
The US Air Force’s F-35 fleet has surpassed the number of F-15 Eagle jets and A-10 Thunderbolt II attack aircraft, becoming the second largest fighter jet fleet in the service’s aircraft inventory, reports Military.com.
The first flight of the upgraded heavy-lift K-MAX Titan unmanned rotorcraft has been conducted, reports Seapower Magazine. The new Titan system will be available for existing K-MAX aircraft as well as on new production K-MAX helicopters.
Breaking Defense has a special series on “Who’s Who in Defense.” Read profiles of the key decision-makers in the Biden administration and Congress.
Industry experts are expecting further increases in gasoline prices in the wake of the ransomware attack that targeted Colonial Pipeline Co. last week that forced the company to shut down a major fuel pipeline, reports The Hill.
With the Colonial Pipeline struggling to resume operations, reports WTOP News, an industry expert is tempering fears of a gasoline shortage and spikes in prices — as long as the public doesn’t panic.
A Maryland Chamber of Commerce report found that the California-Lexington Park metropolitan statistical area had the best unemployment rate in the state, at only 4.3%, reports The Daily Record. Maryland is recovering but is still under water, according to the report. As of March, the state was still down 130,700 jobs from February 2020 (the official start of the current recession).
Nationwide housing affordability dropped slightly in the first quarter of 2021, reports Housing Wire. The California-Lexington Park area remains an “afffordable smaller market.”
The US Navy Naval Support Activity South Potomac laid out the role of the 18th Space Control Squadron, Detachment One at Dahlgren for the King George County, VA, government, reports fredericksburg.com. Dahlgren has become home to the squadron, whose job is to keep its eye on military satellites and other objects in the sky.
The Space Foundation held a virtual event to provide insight on the newly established US Space Command, reports Air Force Magazine. As space becomes more accessible, the command is looking ahead to when the military will want to operate beyond Earth’s orbit. The command’s senior enlisted leader, Marine Corps Master Gunnery Sgt. Scott H. Stalker said, “We are no longer the undisputed leaders in space,” during the two-hour May 7 event.
The Biden administration is considering ways to boost security assistance to Ukraine, reports Defense News. Ukraine wants to buy American air defense systems and anti-sniper technology, the Ukrainian foreign affairs minister said.
The US Navy said it seized thousands of assault weapons, machines guns, and sniper rifles on a ship in the Arabian Sea, reports Navy Times. Officials believe the arms shipment was bound for Yemen to support the country’s Houthi rebels.
A US Coast Guard cutter Maui fired two volleys of warning shots Monday as a group of Iranian boats sped toward US Navy vessels in the Persian Gulf’s Strait of Hormuz, reports The Associated Press, in what the Pentagon said were “unsafe and unprofessional” maneuvers by the naval arm of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard.
The US military is dismantling its portion of Bagram Air Base, its largest remaining outpost in Afghanistan, and anything that they are not taking home or giving to the Afghan military, they destroy, reports Politico.
Dozens of women graduated from Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego last week, reports Military.com, for the first time. Previously, women did not train at San Diego and could become enlisted Marines only at Parris Island, SC.
The Navy officially commissioned the expeditionary sea base Miguel Keith on Saturday, reports The San Diego Union-Tribune. The new $525 million, 785-foot warship will head to the western Pacific sometime in the summer.
A $2 million study is underway to examine the feasibility of extending the Metro from Fairfax, VA, to the Marine base in Quantico, reports Prince William Times. Options being studied include extending the Metro Yellow Line from Huntington to Quantico; extending the Metro blue line from Springfield to Quantico; and extending bus rapid transit service along US 1 from Fort Belvoir to Quantico.
Two local groups came together to help a local veteran who needed a wheelchair lift to get into his home, reports thebaynet.com. For the Patuxent Habitat for Humanity and Disabled American Veterans Chapter 26, it was the first time installing a lift instead of a ramp.
The National Desert Storm War Memorial Association wants to raise $20 million so it could possibly break ground on a memorial this year, the 30th anniversary of the war, reports Military Times. The nonprofit group wants the memorial located a short distance from the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC.
Contracts:
On March 25, 2019, John Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, Maryland, was awarded an indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract (HQ0034-19-D-0006) with a maximum amount of $873,000,000. To date, $678,040,449 has been awarded on seven exercised options. The purpose of the contract is to provide robust end-to-end systems engineering, operational analysis of component architectures across all aspects of the kill chain, technology concept exploration, and analysis and performance assessments in multiple warfare domains areas across regions and theaters of operation. The domains include air, land, sea, space and cyberspace. The warfare areas include air and missile defense; air-to-air combat (including manned and unmanned aircraft); countering unmanned vehicles (in all domains); time-critical target defeat; anti- surface warfare (including small-boats and gun-boats), anti-submarine warfare, and mining; offensive strike; electromagnetic maneuver warfare; electronic attack; negating counter-space capabilities, i.e. command and control (C2) systems, direct satellite attack, hardening, and replenishment; command, control, computers, communications (C4); intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (C4ISR); counter-integrated air defense systems (IADS); offensive and defensive cyber capabilities; and nuclear systems to include nuclear command, control and communications (NC3) systems. These efforts provide assessments and alternative methods for countering contested environment capabilities. The seven exercised options provide a broad range of services which include engineering, research, development, test and evaluation, and analytic capabilities using operational knowledge of the national defense and security environments for the Office of the Secretary Defense (OSD). The contractor shall provide subject matter expertise, independent, objective system engineering and analysis to conduct studies, and assist OSD in resolving technical issues. The work will be performed in Alexandria, Virginia; and Laurel, Maryland. The work is expected to be completed on March 24, 2024. Washington Headquarters Services, Arlington, Virginia, is the contracting activity.
Strategic Alliance Solutions LLC, Fairfax, Virginia, is being awarded a competitive cost-plus-fixed-fee, level-of-effort contract with a three-year base value of $51,418,192, two two-year options, one one-year option, and one six-month option to extend services. The total value of this contract is $215,593,239. Under this new contract, the contractor will provide warfighter operational integration advisory and assistance services. The work will be performed in Huntsville, Alabama; Fort Belvoir, Virginia; Dahlgren, Virginia; Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska; Fort Greely, Alaska; Mayport Naval Station, Florida; Schriever Air Force Base, Colorado; Fort Drum, New York; Vandenberg Air Force Base, California; San Diego, California; and other locations as directed with an estimated completion date of January 2030. This contract was competitively procured via publication on the government-wide point of entry website with three proposals received. Fiscal 2021 research, development, test and evaluation funds in the amount of $5,675,000 are being obligated at time of award. The Missile Defense Agency, Schriever Air Force Base, Colorado, is the contracting activity (HQ0858-21-C-0012).
Progeny Systems Corp., Manassas, Virginia, is awarded a $38,876,284 indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract (N66604-21-D-H100) containing cost type provisions. This contract is for continued development of the Data Acquisition and Retrieval System. Work will be performed in Groton, Connecticut (90%); Manassas, Virginia (5%); and Newport, Rhode Island (5%). The ordering period will be completed by May 2026. Fiscal 2021 research, development, test and evaluation (Navy) funds in the amount of $245,606 will be obligated at time of award on the first task order and will not expire at the end of this fiscal year. This contract is a Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) Phase III sole-source contract related to SBIR topic N99-100 and was not competitively procured on the beta.sam.gov website, in accordance with 10 US Code 2304(b)(2), as implemented by Federal Acquisition Regulation 6.302-5 —authorized or required by statute. The Naval Undersea Warfare Center Division, Newport, Newport, Rhode Island, is the contracting activity.
Serco Inc., Herndon, Virginia, is awarded a $14,101,733 non-commercial, cost-plus-fixed-fee, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract that will include terms and conditions for the placement of firm-fixed-price task orders for engineering-based cost analysis, logistics support, training and technical services in support of the price fighters department at Naval Supply Systems Command Weapon Systems Support. The contract will include a five-year base ordering period with no options and is expected to be completed by May 2026. Work will be performed in Herndon, Virginia (75%); and Norfolk, Virginia (25%). Working capital funds (Navy) in the amount of $250,000 will be obligated to fund the contract’s minimum amount and funds will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Individual task orders will be subsequently funded with appropriate fiscal year appropriations at the time of their issuance. This contract was competitively procured with the solicitation posted on Navy Electronic Commerce Online and beta.sam.gov, with three offers received. Naval Supply Systems Command Fleet Logistics Center Norfolk, Contracting Department Philadelphia Office, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is the contracting activity (N00189-21-D-Z027).
Serco Inc., Herndon, Virginia, has been awarded a maximum $19,783,501 modification (P00030) exercising the fourth one-year option period of a one-year base contract (SP3300-17-C-5003) with four one-year option periods for chemical management services. This is a firm-fixed-price with cost-reimbursement and cost-plus-fixed-fee contract. Locations of performance are Virginia, North Carolina, Florida and California, with a May 15, 2022, performance completion date. Using customer is Defense Logistics Agency Aviation. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2021 through 2022 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Distribution, New Cumberland, Pennsylvania.
Intellidyne, Falls Church, Virginia, was awarded a sole-source bridge contract to expiring bridge contract HT0011-20-F-0004 in the amount of $14,313,317. This contract provides the full integration of all areas of local support into the new Defense Health Agency Integrated Enterprise Support Model including, but not limited to, desk side support; remote or onsite troubleshooting; onsite IT touch labor; local IT support activity program/project management support; network security; and infrastructure assurance activities to include risk management framework/authorization to operate support, in room/on-site video teleconferencing support and assistance, Defense Health Headquarters (DHHQ) site asset management activities, and limited network/systems engineering support where required at DHHQ in Falls Church, Virginia. Period of performance for the base period is from May 1, 2021, to Oct. 31, 2021. The contracting office is the Defense Health Agency, Falls Church, Virginia (HT0011-21-F-0030). (Awarded April 30, 2021)
