Debt Limit Set; DoD Budget Next

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.

The fiscal 2024 defense budget and annual defense authorization bill are expected to move quickly to the front of Capitol Hill agendas, reports Military Times. The recently concluded debt limit settlement set out $886 billion in military appropriations next year, but that target isn’t set in stone. Some senators in both parties say a defense supplemental budget will be needed to cover the shortfall.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) on Monday shot down the idea of Congress adopting an immediate bump in Pentagon spending, arguing that policymakers should be searching instead for places to create efficiencies — and glean savings — from the massive Defense Department, reports The Hill.

The day after McCarthy came out against exceeding the debt-limit deal, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) dug in to insist that more must be done to support the nation’s defense interests. Politico reports the schism opening between the top Republican leaders is over how much to hike defense spending and future aid to Ukraine.

Mike Rogers (R-AL), chair of the House Armed Services Committee, wants to pass a supplemental spending bill this year to address threats from China, reports Defense News. He also said the next Ukraine aid package would come in “at a much smaller level” than before.

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) urged leaders of the Senate Armed Services Committee to ensure the National Defense Authorization Act endorses the 5.2% troop pay raise included in the debt-limit deal, reports Military.com.

The Navy has relieved its fourth commanding officer this year, reports Military.com. CMDR Jeffrey Applebaugh of the Norfolk-based destroyer USS Stout was relieved last week. Last month, the Navy relieved the commander and executive officer of the destroyer USS John Finn, and in January, the commanders of the destroyer USS Carney and the amphibious ship USS Mesa Verde were also fired.

A new report finds the fleet’s materiel condition keeps getting worse; surface ships, submarines, and aircraft carriers “all declined slightly from FY 2021,” with the largest year-to-year drop in the Military Sealift Command Fleet. Navy Times reports the decline as a steady negative trend since fiscal 2017, based on the Navy’s annual Board of Inspection and Survey’s report released last week and sent to Congress.

The Department of Defense, NASA, and General Services Administration expanded the US government’s ban on the video app TikTok to future contracts, reports Washington Technology. The rule prohibits “having or using the social networking service TikTok or any successor application or service developed or provided by ByteDance Limited or an entity owned by ByteDance Limited.”

A Republican drafted  bill would empower the Commodities Futures Trading Commission and rein in the Securities and Exchange Commission, in a sweeping revamp of crypto currency rules, reports POLITICO.

Have you ever gotten the sense that your smartphone, television, or refrigerator was eavesdropping on you? Voice-activated technology can collect information to identify and profile you, from dialect to stress levels. To help keep your smart devices from violating your privacy, the intelligence community’s research branch is working on technology to anonymize voices, reports Next Gov.

Army National Guard recruitment is still below goals this year — down about 10% a month October through February — but this year is way better than last year, the worst recruiting year since the all-volunteer force, reports Military.com. Last year, in the same time frame recruitment was short an average of 40%.

The US Army conducted an exercise in Poland demonstrating its ability to deploy a brigade to Eastern Europe and operate alongside NATO allies within a week, reports Military.com.

Ukraine has cultivated a network of agents and sympathizers inside Russia to carry out acts of sabotage and has now begun providing them with drones to stage attacks, reports CNN.

Claims of a simulation where a drone outwitted its artificial intelligence training and killed its handler, went viral on social media. COL Tucker “Cinco” Hamilton, the chief of AI testing and operations, clarified his misconstrued statement in a Royal Aeronautical Society update, C4ISRNET reports, saying, “We’ve never run that experiment, nor would we need to in order to realize that this is a plausible outcome.”

Smoke from massive wildfires burning in Canada is filling the sky over the eastern US this week, and AccuWeather meteorologists say the smoke and air quality could get worse before it gets better.

More than 150,000 Allied troops landed on Normandy beaches June 6, 1944. A few dozen veterans returned last week to mark the 79th anniversary of the assault that led to the liberation of France and Western Europe from Nazi control, reports Military Times. On D-Day, 4,414 Allied soldiers lost their lives, 2,501 of them Americans. More than 5,000 were wounded.

DefSec Lloyd Austin spoke at the D-Day anniversary ceremony at Normandy American Cemetery on Tuesday, June 6, reports Stars and Stripes. “The eyes of the world are still upon the heroes of D-Day,” he said. “To the veterans of World War II: We salute you. You saved the world.”

Cyclists will be able to cross the Gov. Harry W. Nice Memorial/Sen. Thomas “Mac” Middleton Bridge between Maryland and Virginia on weekends and holidays, reports Maryland Matters. Eric Brenner, past chair of the Maryland Bicycle/Pedestrian Advisory Committee, expressed disappointment with the decision announced by Maryland Transportation Authority, but added, it was a “can’t-win situation.” Few bicycle options remained after former governor Larry Hogan’s administration dropped bike and pedestrian access options for the replacement bridge.

Seven more top Barclays investment bankers have resigned to join UBS Group in the United States, reports Reuters. The hires show UBS beefing up to inherit Credit Suisse investment banking following a Swiss government-orchestrated takeover in March. Many Credit Suisse bankers are based in the US.

Contracts:

ECS Federal LLC, Fairfax, Virginia, was awarded a $60,158,458 modification (P00014) to contract W911QX-21-C-0022 for research and development of novel approaches to artificial intelligence. Work will be performed in Fairfax, Virginia, with an estimated completion date of June 30, 2024. Fiscal 2023 research, development, test and evaluation, defense-wide funds in the amount of $16,148,699 were obligated at the time of the award. US Army Contracting Command, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, is the contracting activity. 

Raytheon Technologies Corp., doing business as Pratt and Whitney Military Engines, East Hartford, Connecticut, is awarded a $2,023,073,136 fixed-price-incentive-firm, cost-plus-incentive-fee, cost reimbursable modification (P00015) to a previously awarded contract (N0001920C0011). This modification exercises options to procure materials, parts, and components for Lot 17 of the F135 Propulsion system for F-35 Lighting II Joint Strike Fighter aircraft as well as global spares requirements to include spare engines, power modules, and other hardware in support of the Air Force, Marine Corps, Navy, Non-US Department of Defense (DOD) participants, cooperative program partners, and Foreign Military Sales (FMS) customers. Work will be performed in East Hartford, Connecticut (17%) (labor surplus area); Indianapolis, Indiana (10%); Middletown, Connecticut (8%); Kent, Washington (7%); North Berwick, Maine (4%); El Cajon, California (3%) (labor surplus area); Cromwell, Connecticut (3%); Whitehall, Michigan (3%); Portland, Oregon (2%); San Diego, California (2%); South Bend, Indiana (2%); Columbus, Georgia (2%); Hampton, Virginia (1%); Manchester, Connecticut (1%); Cheshire, Connecticut (1%); Elmwood Park, New Jersey (1%); and various locations outside the continental U.S. (CONUS) (33%), and is expected to be completed in December 2025. Fiscal 2023 aircraft procurement (Navy) funds in the amount of $645,518,188; fiscal 2023 (Air Force) funds in the amount of $527,686,528; fiscal 2022 aircraft procurement (Air Force) funds in the amount of $30,393,808; fiscal 2022 aircraft procurement (Navy) funds in the amount of $1,412,449; non-U.S. DOD participant funds in the amount of $417,538,909; and FMS customer funds in the amount of $400,523,253 will be obligated at the time of award, none of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity.

AMP United LLC, Dover, New Hampshire (N42158-21-D-S001); International Marine and Industrial Applicators LLC, Spanish Fort, Alabama (N42158-21-D-S002); and Q.E.D. Systems Inc., Virginia Beach, Virginia (N42158-21-D-S003), were awarded a combined $53,055,567 firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity modification to exercise Option Year Two for the preservation and maintenance of Navy submarines. The contracts have a base one-year ordering period with four additional optional one-year ordering periods which, if exercised, would bring the cumulative value to $248,692,224 over a five-year period to the three vendors combined. Work for this option year will be performed in Portsmouth, Virginia (80%); and Kittery, Maine (20%), and be completed by June 2024. If all options are exercised, work will continue through June 2026. No funding will be obligated at time of modification. Funding will be obligated at the time of task order award. These contracts were competitively procured via the Federal Business Opportunities website, with three offers received. The Norfolk Naval Shipyard, Portsmouth, Virginia, is the contracting activity. (Awarded June 2, 2023)

General Dynamics Mission Systems (GDMS), Quincy, Massachusetts, is awarded an $11,817,904 cost-plus-incentive-fee and fixed-priced-incentive modification to previously awarded contract N00024-21-C-6304 as an equitable adjustment to Knifefish Block 0 to Block 1 retrofit performance. Work will be performed in Quincy, Massachusetts (75%); Reston, Virginia (20%); and Braintree, Massachusetts (5%), and is expected to be completed by June 2024. Fiscal 2023 other procurement (Navy) funds in the amount of $3,586,105 (46%); fiscal 2023 research, development, test and evaluation (Navy) funding in the amount of $3,000,000 (38%); fiscal 2022 research, development, test and evaluation (Navy) funding in the amount of $609,957 (8%); and fiscal 2021 other procurement (Navy) funds in the amount of $600,000 (8%) will be obligated at time of award, of which $1,209,957 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, DC, is the contracting activity.