March 28, 2024

Debate Over Military Budget Heating Up

force restructure plan

Morning Coffee is a robust blend of links to news around the Internet concerning the Naval Air Station Patuxent River Morning Coffee logoeconomic community. The opinions expressed here do not reflect opinions of the Leader’s owners or staff.

The debate over the military budget is heating up in Washington between the defense hawks on Capitol Hill and the fiscal hawks in the Trump administration, The Weekly Standard reports. What’s unknown is where DefSec James Mattis stands on the issue. Many Democrats say the budget cuts too much from domestic spending; some Republicans reject it because it raises too little for defense. The latest group to criticize President Donald Trump’s budget is the Navy League of the United States. The advocacy group has denounced the proposed $1.3 million cut to the Coast Guard.

VA officials say they need a 10 percent boost in funding next year to meet the department’s medical and program needs, Military Times reports.

Government Accountability Office study released last week found that while defense agency obligations to buy products and services decreased by almost 31 percent from fiscal 2011 through 2015, from $399 billion to $274 billion, civilian contracts remained fairly steady over the same period, FCW.com reports. The study says the decline coincided with the 2013 sequestration.

South Korean leader Park Geun-hye’s dismissal Friday followed months of political paralysis and turmoil over an influence-peddling scandal. The crisis has coincided with rising tension with North Korea and anger from China over the deployment in South Korea of a US missile-defense system, Reuters reports.

The F-35 Lightning II is taking center stage this week at the Pacific Air Forces’ inaugural F-35 Symposium, the US Air Force reports. The two-day conference will mark the largest gathering of F-35 experts to include officers from Japan, Australia, South Korea, as well as the US Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force.

Marine Corps F-35 Joint Strike Fighters based in Japan are taking part in a joint exercise with South Korea. “The addition of the F-35B is meant to deliver a strong message to the North that they could be used against the rogue state in case of a conflict breaking out on the Korean Peninsula,” The Aviationist reports.

Rep. William “Mac” Thornberry (TX-R), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said he would be willing to support speeding up the fielding of the nuclear-capable long range standoff weapon or the B61-12 nuclear bomb on the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, Military.com reports. This after US leaders debate how to deal with the latest arms treaty violation by Russia.

Air Test and Evaluation Squadron VX-1 Pioneers have returned from a detachment at Point Mugu in California where they conducted two ATM-84 Harpoon live fire missile events in the P-8A Poseidon aircraft, The Tester newspaper reports. Prior to the live fire events, multiple captive carry events were flown out of NAS Pax River.

Germany plans to buy MQ-4C Triton unmanned surveillance planes built by Northrop Grumman, Reuters UK reports. The drones will replace the Euro Hawk, which was canceled in 2013 due to costs. Deliveries of the Tritons are expected after 2025.

The US Army is considering new locations to base more soldiers in northern Germany. German officials said the Army told them it was considering stationing as many as 4,000 soldiers there, Army Times reports.

Contracts:

Great Mills Trading Post Co., Great Mills, Maryland, is being awarded a $40,900,000 firm-fixed-price contract for runway repair of Phase 2 and Phase 3 at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland. The work to be performed provides for the repair of Runways 14-32 and 6-24 including the design, restoration and modernization of two primary runways and the supporting airfield infrastructure. This project is a three-phased effort intended to maximize airfield capability and efficiency to address runway deterioration impacting the existing and emergent mission-critical programs that rely on the airfield for daily operations. Work will be performed in Patuxent River, Maryland, and is expected to be completed by January 2020. Fiscal 2017 operations and maintenance, (Navy) contract funds in the amount of $40,900,000 are obligated on this award and will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was competitively procured via the Navy Electronic Commerce Online website with one proposal received. The Naval Facilities Engineering Command Washington, Washington, District of Columbia, is the contracting activity (N40080-17-C-0002).

The Boeing Co., Seattle, Washington, is being awarded $11,911,693 for modification P00004 against a previously awarded cost-plus-fixed-fee, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract (N00421-15-D-0027) to exercise an option for P-8A aircraft on ground unscheduled airframe engineering assessment and repair. This work will be performed in Jacksonville, Florida (40 percent); Patuxent River, Maryland (10 percent); Whidbey Island, Washington (10 percent); Kadena, Japan (10 percent); Sigonella, Italy (10 percent); Atlanta, Georgia (5 percent); Misawa, Japan (5 percent); Adelaide, Australia (5 percent); and Kaneohe, Hawaii (5 percent), and is expected to be completed in June 2019. No funds will be obligated at time of award; funds will be obligated on individual delivery orders as they are issued. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity.

Lockheed Martin Space Systems Co., Sunnyvale, California, was awarded a $53,052,807 competitive cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for a 36-month period with no options for the Multi-Object Kill Vehicle Technology Risk Reduction (TRR) effort. This contract represents part of the Missile Defense Agency’s technology risk reduction strategy to improve performance and reduce risk for a gimbaled seeker assembly, integrated avionics assembly, component integration and testing, and an advanced seeker. The work will be performed in Sunnyvale, California; Bethesda, Maryland; and Goleta, California. This contract was competitively procured via publication on the Federal Business Opportunities website through an Advanced Technology Innovation broad agency announcement.  Fiscal 2016 research, development, test and evaluation funds in the amount of $3,600,000; and fiscal 2017 research, development, test and evaluation funds in the amount of $3,200,000 for a total of $6,800,000 are being obligated at the time of award. The Missile Defense Agency, Huntsville, Alabama, is the contracting activity (HQ0147-17-C-0002).

Lockheed Martin Space Systems Co., Sunnyvale, California, was awarded a $50,311,380 competitive cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for a 30-month period with no options for development and test of divert and attitude control systems technologies. This contract represents part of the Missile Defense Agency’s technology risk reduction strategy to improve performance and reduce risk for ballistic missile defense interceptor divert and attitude control systems. The work will be performed in Sunnyvale, California; Bethesda, Maryland; Elkton, Maryland; and Rancho Cordova, California. This contract was competitively procured via publication on the Federal Business Opportunities website through an Advanced Technology Innovation broad agency announcement.  Fiscal 2016 research, development, test and evaluation funds in the amount of $10,100,000 and fiscal 2017 research, development, test and evaluation funds in the amount of $8,500,000 for a total of $18,600,000 are being obligated at the time of award. The Missile Defense Agency, Huntsville, Alabama, is the contracting activity (HQ0147-17-C-0004).

ViON Corp., Herndon, California, is being awarded a $34,790,000 indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract to provide Capacity as a Service support to Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command (SPAWAR) Headquarters, SPAWAR System Center Pacific and SPAWAR System Center Atlantic. The Capacity as a Service acquisition model allows SPAWAR to more accurately scale, up and down, its information technology (IT) infrastructure to meet evolving mission requirements. Savings are realized through no up-front costs and a “pay as you go” acquisition model, reducing waste usually associated with overbuying of IT equipment to eventually meet an expectation of mission requirement. Under this contract, ViON is responsible for providing on-demand, on-premise computing, networking and storage solutions for a variety of systems and applications for the command’s research, development, testing and evaluation core infrastructures, laboratory and data center environments. This contract includes options, which if exercised, would bring the maximum contract value to $49,990,000. Work will be performed in Charleston, South Carolina (63 percent); San Diego, California (30 percent); New Orleans, Louisiana (5 percent); and Norfolk, Virginia (2 percent). Work is expected to be completed March 2022. If all options are exercised, work will continue through March 2024. Navy working capital funds in the amount of $326,120 will be obligated for the first delivery order to be issued at contract award. This delivery order satisfies the minimum order requirement of $100,000.  No funds will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was competitively procured with proposals solicited via the Federal Business Opportunities website. The Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command, San Diego, California, is the contracting activity (N00039-17-D-0003).

Logistics Management Institute (LMI), McLean, Virginia (W912HQ-17-D-0001); NOBLIS, Reston, Virginia (W912HQ-17-D-0002); Deloitte Financial Advisory Services, Arlington, Virginia (W912HQ-17-D-0003); The Building People LLC, Leesburg, Virginia (W912HQ-17-D-0004); J.G. Management Systems Inc., Grand Junction, Colorado (W912HQ-17-D-0005); and Unity Technologies Corp., Myersville, Maryland (W912HQ-17-D-0006), will share in an $8,000,000 firm-fixed-price contract for engineering services. Bids were solicited via the Internet with seven received. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order; with an estimated completion date of March 8, 2022. US Army Corps of Engineers, Alexandria, Virginia, is the contracting activity.

Mantech Advanced Systems International, Fairfax, Virginia, has been awarded an $8,689,932 firm-fixed-price and cost reimbursable contract for human space flight services. Contractor will provide support of US Strategic Command’s Human Space Flight Support program operations and National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Orion and Commercial Crew program requirements. This includes planning, coordination, procedural development, testing, training, evaluation, lessons learned, and command and control communication. Work will be performed at Patrick Air Force Base, Florida, and is expected to be complete by April 9, 2021. This award is the result of a competitive acquisition solicited on General Services Administration One Acquisition Solution for Integrated Services contract (GS00Q14OADU124) with two offers received. Fiscal 2017 operations and maintenance funds in the amount of $1,837,756 are being obligated at the time of award. The 45th Contracting Squadron, Patrick Air Force Base, Florida, is the contracting activity (FA2521‐17-F-0173).

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