Dahlgren Testing Continues Through Friday
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.
NSWC Dahlgren continues range testing this week from 8am – 5pm through Friday, March 19. Testing requires a high volume of rounds fired at a rapid pace across several consecutive days. Test shots will produce continuous LOUD NOISE in communities surrounding NSF Dahlgren. Today, Wednesday, is another day of river testing. Access to the Potomac River Middle Danger Zone, will be restricted during testing. The Range/Weapons Testing Hotline is 877-845-5656 (toll free) for daily updates on range operation and test schedules as well as the link above.
Chaos, cash, and COVID-19, Defense News reports how the defense industry survived — and thrived — during the pandemic. A year into the pandemic, the full scope of damage is complex and still coming into focus, but prime contractors say the industry has largely returned to business as normal.
Military leaders report roughly a third of service members say they will decline the now-voluntary COVID vaccines when offered, according to Navy Times. Military leaders consider vaccinating the force a readiness issue. Outbreaks have hobbled units’ abilities to carry out missions. Many troops want the shots as soon as possible. Skeptics cite concerns with the speed the vaccines were developed, the temporary “emergency” authorization, even that higher-ups are pressuring them to get the shot.
The Navy has shown it can deliver an F-35 engine to an aircraft carrier deck using helicopters, reports UPI. Two helicopters transported a load simulator, matching the weight of an F-135 engine power module, from the cargo and ammunition ship USNS Richard E. Byrd to the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson.
Market Insight reports the global unmanned aerial vehicle market is expected to reach $32.83 billion by 2026 in terms of annual revenue, representing a 2019-2026 compound annual growth rate of 11.0%, according to the organization’s blog.
The International Space Station just ditched a 2.9-ton pallet of batteries, its most massive piece of space trash yet, reports Gizmodo. The pallet is packed with nickel-hydrogen batteries, and will stay in low Earth orbit for the next two to four years “before burning up harmlessly in the atmosphere,” according to NASA. The 2.9-ton heap of old batteries is traveling at 4.8 miles per second.
The rolling release of a previously secret report and investigation of the 1963 loss of USS Thresher (SSN-593), the Navy’s worst submarine disaster, is providing new lessons for today’s sailors and shipbuilders, said the former submarine commander who brought suit to declassify the documents, reports USNI. Now that the documents are declassified, submarine safety instructors, “can take it home, read it, and take it into the classroom,” said James Bryant, a retired Navy captain who served on three Thresher class submarines.
USNI News Fleet and Marine Tracker: March 15, 2021
Microsoft continues to investigate how intruders seemed to know in advance about planned security patches for vulnerabilities in Exchange servers. The hack occurred before the company publicly disclosed the information and patches, reports Breaking Defense. The number of threat actors involved as well as the timing sets this multi-step hack apart from others.
DoD launched a new center at the University of California-Riverside to research integrating computing and communications across the military’s large networked systems, reports C4ISRNET. The $7.5 million investment advances the Pentagon’s priority to connect the services across domains, sending targeting information and intelligence from any sensor to the best shooter.
The Drive says the United Kingdom is preparing to increase the size of its nuclear weapons arsenal by as much as 40%. This will be the first increase to the UK’s nuclear arsenal since the Cold War.
The US will attend Afghan peace talks in Moscow, reports The Washington Examiner, sending SecState Antony Blinken’s special envoy for Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad to the Thursday conference in Moscow, according to Aljazeera. The Taliban and government of Afghan President Ashraf Ghani have agreed to attend. China and Pakistan also were invited.
Blinken and DefSec Lloyd Austin have launched a multi-nation tour in Asia, starting with Japan where they will attempt to set the tone on China, reports The Washington Post, meeting with Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi and Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi, then on South Korea. Austin then heads to India, while Blinken meets with China’s foreign minister Wang Yi and top diplomat Yang Jiechi in Anchorage.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s powerful sister criticized the US and South Korea for holding military exercises and warned the US against further provocations if it wants a “good night’s sleep for the next four years,” reports Military Times.
Syria’s ruinous 10-year civil war remains on the US back burner, reports AL-MONITOR. The war that confounded his predecessors and has not yet emerged among President Joe Biden’s foreign policy priorities.
Virginia lawmakers will battle the Pentagon again over proposed cuts to the carrier fleet, reports Defense News. “This is one of the things that gets revisited again and again,” said House Armed Services Committee Vice Chair Elaine Luria (D-VA). “We’ve invested a lot in our carriers, and it’s not time to decommission them halfway through their life.”
The Marine Corps’ force redesign continues, its major aviation overhaul beginning in Hawaii with removal of two of 10 Super Stallion helicopters off the island, reports Marine Times. The CH-53E squadron prepares to divest itself of aircraft and decommission. The aviation overhaul includes plans to double the number of UAS squadrons. The force redesign also shed all tanks.
Two men have been charged in the assault of Brian Sicknick, the US Capitol police officer who died after the Jan. 6 riot, reports Military Times. George Tanios, 39, of Morgantown, WV, and Julian Khater, 32, of PA, were arrested on an array of charges, including assaulting a federal officer with a dangerous weapon, conspiracy, and other offenses. The idea that Sicknick died after being sprayed by a chemical irritant has emerged in recent weeks as a new theory in the case.
Contracts:
First Division Consulting Inc., Burke, Virginia, is awarded a $24,140,408 firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract to procure full-time equivalents for field service representative support for current and future electronic warfare systems. Field service representative support will be performed at various locations outside the continental US. This contract will have a five-year ordering period and will expire in March 2026. This contract was solicited as a 100% set-aside for small business concerns. Fiscal 2021 operation and maintenance (Navy) funding in the amount of $218,091 will be obligated at time of award and will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Surface Warfare Center, Crane Division, Crane, Indiana, is the contracting activity (N00164-21-D-WQ83).
Phoenix International Holdings Inc., Largo, Maryland, is awarded a $20,000,000 cost-plus-award-fee modification to previously awarded contract N00024-14-D-4102 for worldwide undersea deep ocean search and recovery operations and associated services to support the Director of Ocean Engineering, Supervisor of Salvage and Diving. Work will be performed worldwide as individual task orders are assigned and is expected to be completed by September 2021. No funding will be obligated at the time of contract modification. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, DC, is the contracting activity.
Progeny Systems Corp., Manassas, Virginia, is awarded a $10,359,672 cost-plus-fixed-fee modification to the previously awarded contract N00024-19-C-6115 to exercise options for information assurance tool kit products, controlled interface devices and cross-domain solution technical insertions. Work will be performed in Manassas, Virginia, and is expected to be completed by May 2023. Fiscal 2021 other procurement (Navy) funds in the amount of $3,471,231 (51%); and fiscal 2021 research, development, test and evaluation (Navy) funds in the amount of $3,338,427 (49%) will be obligated at time of award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, DC, is the contracting activity.
Sikorsky Aircraft Corp., a Lockheed Martin Co., Stratford, Connecticut, is awarded a $9,788,692 cost-plus-fixed-fee, firm-fixed-price order (N61340-21-F-7002) against previously issued basic ordering agreement N00019-19-G-0029. This order provides for modifications and updates to the CH-53K 2F243-1 Containerized Flight Training Device. Additionally, this order provides flight test data analysis required to update and validate the CH-53K flight model with available flight test data; produces materials focused on pilot and aircrew conversion courseware and maintainer conversion courseware; and trains the schoolhouse instructors at the Center for Naval Aviation Technical Training Marine Unit, New River, North Carolina; and Marine Heavy Helicopter Training Squadron 302, in order to support initial operational capability. Work will be performed in New River, North Carolina (28%); Chantilly, Virginia (24%); Orlando, Florida (24%); Shelton, Connecticut (17%); and Binghamton, New York (7%), and is expected to be completed in September 2022. Fiscal 2021 aircraft procurement (Navy) funds in the amount of $9,788,692 will be obligated at the time of award, none of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Air Warfare Center, Training Systems Division, Orlando, Florida, is the contracting activity.
Capps Shoe Co., Lynchburg, Virginia, has been awarded a maximum $15,705,000 modification (P00004) exercising the first one-year option period of a one-year base contract (SPE1C1-20-D-1246) with two one-year option periods for men’s poromeric shoes. This is a firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract. Location of performance is Virginia, with a March 16, 2021, ordering period end date. Using military services are Army, Air Force and Marine Corps. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2021 through 2022 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.