March 29, 2024

DoD Creates New UFO Task Force

UFO

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 Defense Department will streamline the collection and analysis of UFO reports across the government, reports CNN, following the government’s acknowledgment earlier this year that these reports are worth studying and might pose a threat to national security.

The US Navy is sending a salvage ship to help recover the United Kingdom’s F-35B that crashed in the Mediterranean Sea, reports International Business Times. The fear is that the Russians might get the jet’s wreckage. Italy is also thought to be joining the effort to recover jet.

The US Navy’s USS Connecticut that hit a seamount in the South China Sea on October 2 and propelled itself back to Guam for damage assessment and repairs has now left Guam, reports Naval News. The submarine is headed back to the US for further repairs.

The Navy’s Office of Naval Research is soliciting proposals from industry for technologies that could help address the problems the US Second Command is facing as it tackles illegal trafficking operations, Breaking Defense. Proposals are due on January 14, 2022.

Taiwan scrambled combat aircraft over the weekend to “warn” China after 27 of its planes entered Taiwan’s air defense buffer zone, reports Navy Times.

Russia has test-fired a prospective hypersonic missile, reports Military.com. The Russian Defense Ministry said that the Admiral Gorshkov frigate in the White Sea launched the Zircon cruise missile, hitting a practice target 215 nautical miles away.

Navy aerial warfare experts at NAS Pax River are moving forward with a project to hire Boeing to integrate the Lockheed Martin Long Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM) onto early versions of Boeing’s P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft, reports Military & Aerospace Electronics.

Former DefSec Mark Esper claims in a lawsuit against the DoD that material is being improperly withheld from his use as he seeks to publish a memoir of his time in President Donald Trump’s cabinet, reports The Associated Press. Esper was Army secretary from 2017 to 2019 and defense secretary for 18 months.

Discussions have begun to revive the Iran nuclear deal, reports UPI News. Though it’s the seventh round of meetings between the US, China, Iran, Britain, France, and Germany, it’s the first time in half a year that world powers have met.

Lawmakers are returning to Capitol Hill this week and have 10 scheduled days before adjourning for the year on December 13, reports The Hill. One item on the agenda: figure out a way to fund the government and avoid a shutdown that would otherwise start on December 4.

 

 

NASA is loading fuel into the James Webb Space Telescope in the Guiana Space Center in French Guiana ahead of a launch set for December 22, reports UPI News. The telescope, an international partnership among NASA and the space agencies of Canada and Europe, is expected to reveal new and unexpected knowledge about the universe.

The Pentagon says that COVID-19 vaccinations are working, reports Military Times. The number of deaths of service members from the coronavirus has decreased after a surge at the end of the summer. “This is a clear indicator of the success of the vaccine mandate, as 98.5% of the active force has had at least one shot,” Army MAJ Charlie Dietz said.

The Navy is strictly enforcing the federal mandate that service members and civilian employees be vaccinated, but it appears to be taking a different approach with its largest shipbuilding contractor, reports Federal News Network. Huntington Ingalls Industries said it is suspending the vaccination requirement for its shipbuilding divisions because it is not contractually obligated to implement the federal mandate.

The Pentagon says that COVID-19 vaccinations are working, reports Military Times. The number of deaths of service members from the coronavirus has decreased after a surge at the end of the summer. “This is a clear indicator of the success of the vaccine mandate, as 98.5% of the active force has had at least one shot,” Army MAJ Charlie Dietz said.

The US Air Force says airmen who haven’t received the COVID vaccine will not be moved to new assignments, reports Air Force Times. They will be barred from current and future permanent change of station moves.

The US is imposing restrictions on travelers from South Africa and seven other countries in the region after a new variant of COVID has been detected there, reports CBS News. Already, the new omicron variant has been confirmed in Canada. “I think there’s good reason to be worried. I don’t think that means that we’re powerless,” professor Anne Van Gottberg of South Africa’s Institute for Communicable Diseases said.

COVID symptoms linked to the new omicron variant have been described as “extremely mild” by South African doctor Dr. Angelique Coetzee, chair of the South African Medical Association, reports CNBC News. Coetzee first raised the alarm over the new strain.

University of Maryland infectious disease expert Dr. Gregory Schrank said he would not be surprised if there were cases here already in the United States that “we were not yet aware of,” reports WTOP News.

Maryland Matters interviewed three Marylanders who attended the recent Conference of the Parties, or COP26, in Glasgow, Scotland. They were Rebecca Boyd, a Bethesda resident and longtime Sierra Club leader who was at the conference as part of a delegation of observers sent by the League of Women Voters; state Secretary of the Environment Ben Grumbles; and state Del. Patrick G. Young Jr. of Baltimore County. The trio spoke about their experiences at the climate conference and gave their impressions of the COP accomplishments and shortfalls.

Contracts:

Bell Boeing Joint Project Office, California, Maryland, has been awarded a maximum $149,067,738 modification (P00013) exercising the third one-year option period of a one-year base contract (SPRPA1-17-D-009U) with four one-year option periods for performance-based logistics and engineering support for the V-22 platform. This is a firm-fixed-price requirements contract. Locations of performance are Texas and Pennsylvania, with a Nov. 30, 2022, performance completion date. Using customers are Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps and Foreign Military Sales to Japan. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2022 through 2023 Air Force, US Special Operations Command, Navy and FMS appropriated funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Aviation, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Rockwell Collins Inc., Cedar Rapids, Iowa, is being awarded a $16,618,510 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract. This contract provides for sustaining engineering support services and diminishing manufacturing sources and material shortages management in support of the E-6B Take Charge and Move Out and airborne command post aircraft. Work will be performed in Richardson, Texas (70%); Oklahoma City, Oklahoma (20%); and Patuxent River, Maryland (10%), and is expected to be completed in November 2022. Fiscal 2022 operation and maintenance (Navy) funds in the amount of $5,996,945 will be obligated at time of award, all of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was not competitively procured pursuant to Federal Acquisition Regulation 6.302-4. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity (N0001922C0014).

Science Applications International Corp., Reston, Virginia, has been awarded a $99,000,000 indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for Weapon Engagement Simulation Technology for Advanced Research (WESTAR). The contract provides for the development of multi-spectral and multi-modal phenomenology modeling capabilities towards the research, development and transition of Air Force munitions. Work will be performed at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, and is expected to be completed by Nov. 30, 2026. This award is a result of a competitive acquisition and one offer was received. Fiscal 2021 research, development, test and evaluation funds in the amount of $2,843,404 are being obligated at the time of award. Air Force Research Laboratory, Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, is the contracting activity (FA8651-22-D-1001).

Agile Defense Inc., Reston, Virginia, was awarded a $50,028,195 firm-fixed-price contract to support information technology (IT) systems design/integration/consolidation, IT education/training, systems operation and maintenance, enterprise network support, cyber security, information assurance and information systems security. Bids were solicited via the internet with 34 received. Work will be performed at Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, with an estimated completion date of May 31, 2027. Fiscal 2021 aircraft procurement, Army funds in the amount of $50,028,195 were obligated at the time of the award. US Army Contracting Command, Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, is the contracting activity (W9124P-22-F-0036).

Emergent LLC, Virginia Beach, Virginia, was awarded an $8,969,923 firm-fixed-price contract for Oracle software licenses and databases products. Bids were solicited via the internet with two received. Work will be performed in Fort Detrick, Maryland, with an estimated completion date of Nov. 29, 2022. Fiscal 2022 research, development, test and evaluation, Army funds in the amount of $8,969,923 were obligated at the time of the award. US Army Medical Research Acquisition Activity, Fort Detrick, Maryland, is the contracting activity (W81XWH-22-F-0017).

KBR Services LLC, Houston, Texas, is awarded $39,382,915 for a cost-plus-award-fee modification to task order N6247021F9101 for a previously announced contract (N62742-16-D-3551). This modification provides for the mobilization, operation and maintenance, and demobilization for the expeditionary staging area at Marine Corps Base Quantico. This contract modification is for increasing the maximum dollar value of a Global Contingency Services Multiple Award contract for the base period and Option Period 01, Contract Line Item Number (CLIN) 0002 and CLIN 0004, for the Quantico Expedition Staging Area in support of Operation Allies Welcome. Work will be performed in Quantico, Virginia, and is expected to be completed by December 2021. Fiscal 2022 operation and maintenance (Marine Corps) contract funds in the amount of $39,382,915 are obligated on this award and will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. After the award of this modification, the total cumulative contract value will be $174,086,066. The Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command, Washington, DC, is the contracting activity.

W. M. Jordan Co., Newport News, Virginia, is awarded a $22,750,582 firm-fixed-price task order (N4008522F4169) under a previously-awarded contract (N40085-19-D-9089) for design-bid-build Ships Maintenance Facility, Norfolk Naval Shipyard. The task order also contains three unexercised options and one planned modification which, if exercised, would increase the cumulative task order value to $25,507,072. This project converts the fifth and sixth floors in Building 510 to accommodate the relocation of workshops. The altered floor plan will include shop equipment areas, maintenance space, pallet racks, fire-rated walls around storage areas, administrative office, break room, personnel support areas, bathrooms, and a conference room. The Ships Maintenance Facility is located within the 100-year flood plain. The facility is required to be co-located with the existing piers and dry docks to permit secure, close proximity to the ships and equipment undergoing maintenance. Mitigation includes elevating new equipment, inside or outside of the building, to at least two feet above the 100-year flood level. Work will be performed in Portsmouth, Virginia, and is expected to be completed by January 2024. Fiscal 2020 military construction (Navy) funds in the amount of $22,750,582 will be obligated at time of award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Three proposals were received for this task order. The Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command Mid-Atlantic, Norfolk, Virginia, is the contracting activity.

UPDATE: A multiple-award contract announced on Sept. 28, 2021, with a combined maximum value of $900,000,000, has added B.L. Harbert International, Birmingham, Alabama (N69450-22-D-0011); Balfour Beatty Construction LLC, Charlotte, North Carolina (N69450-22-D-0012); and Whiting-Turner Contracting Co., Baltimore, Maryland (N69450-22-D-0013), as three of 10 awardees for construction projects located primarily within the Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command (NAVFAC) Southeast area of operations. These three contractors are being added to the previously-awarded suite of seven contractors due to a decision to expand the range of awardees. The maximum dollar value for the five-year ordering period for all ten contracts combined remains $900,000,000. The Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command Southeast, Jacksonville, Florida, is the contracting activity.

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