DoD Loses $28B in Expired Funds
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The Pentagon let nearly $28B in funds expire in 2018, reports The Hill, which prevents the military from using such dollars for new projects. The findings in a new government watchdog report released Tuesday are a follow-up to the Pentagon’s first-ever audit, which discovered the expired funds.
The Chesapeake Bay’s health is declining, receiving a D+, reports The Washington Post, the first time in a decade that the health of the bay has decreased.
In theory, anyone preventing cybersecurity calamities is still showing up for work, Axios reports, but experts fear the loss of support staff is bad in the short term and worse in the long term. “Defending federal networks is already an act of triage,” said a former White House cybersecurity adviser.
NavSec Richard Spencer told President Donald Trump elevators will be working when the aircraft carrier Gerald Ford returns to sea, or “you can fire me,” reports USNI.org.
Are we leaving Syria or not? asks Military Times in an article recapping the US military’s three years in Syria. NPR speaks with SecState Mike Pompeo about his reassurance trip to the Middle East, to resolve confusion about President Trump’s plans to withdraw troops from Syria.
SpaceX has offered an extraordinary glimpse into a stealthy program of Falcon fairing recovery research and development, reports Teslarati.com. They have utilized drop tests and iterative hardware and software upgrades to inch ever closer to fairing reuse over the last 6 to 9 months. Pictured in the article is Mr. Steven, the net boat, used to catch fairings for reuse.
NASA’s new planet-hunting TESS telescope has found an exoplanet three times the size of Earth only 53 light-years away, reports CNN. It has also discovered a super-Earth and a rocky world, making three exoplanet discoveries in the first three months since it began surveying the sky in July.
The Navy may follow up October’s carrier strike group operations in the Arctic with another foray into a trans-Arctic shipping lane this summer, reports USNI.org. As ice melts and shipping lanes open, commercial shipping and tourism are expected to grow, adding urgency to US Coast Guard’s plans to build a fleet of icebreakers, as well as the Navy’s interest in having a more visible presence in the region.
Is the Navy’s new boot a flop? The Navy’s quest for a single safety boot for sailors at sea continues and an optional upgrade is on Navy Exchange shelves now, but few are buying it, reports Navy Times.
Does CBD work for pain relief? US News seeks answers on the cannabis plant component that is wildly popular and misunderstood.
Navy quietly fired 20 hyper velocity projectiles through the destroyer USS Dewey’s deck gun, reports USNI News, in a quiet experiment last summer to add new utility to the weapon found on almost every US warship.
China offers Trump a trade peace deal, reports The New York Times, by buying American soybeans again, cutting tariffs on American cars, offering to keep its hands off valuable corporate secrets, and allowing foreign investors into more industries. Beijing hopes this will let President Trump declare victory and end the trade war between the two largest economies.
Contracts:
Federal Prison Industries Inc., Washington, D.C, has been awarded a maximum $27,189,820 firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for extreme cold/wet weather jackets. This is an 18-month base contract, with one one-year option period. Locations of performance are Kentucky, Georgia, and Washington, D.C, with a July 8, 2020, performance completion date. Using military services are Army and Air Force. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2019 through 2020 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (SPE1C1-19-D-F019).
Johns Hopkins University, Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, Maryland, has been awarded an $8,565,000 cost-plus fixed-fee contract to provide assessments and alternatives of offensive capabilities within the domains of air, land, sea, space and cyberspace, missions and warfare areas that asymmetrically mitigate threat effectiveness, impose cost, and/or create ambiguity in adversary decision-making. Work performance will take place in the National Capital Region, including Arlington, Virginia; and Alexandria, Virginia. Fiscal 2018 research, development, test and evaluation funds in the amount of $100,000; fiscal 2019 research, development, test and evaluation funds in the amount of $8,115,000; and fiscal 2019 operations and maintenance funds in the amount of $350,000 are being obligated on this award. The expected completion date is Dec. 29, 2019. Washington Headquarters Services, Arlington, Virginia, is the contracting activity (HQ0034-13-D-0003).
