DoD Trying to Return Osprey to Service

The CV-22 is a self-deployable aircraft, which offers increased speed and range over other rotary-wing aircraft, enabling Air Force Special Operations Command aircrews to execute long-range special operations missions. (US Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. John Bainter)

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 Pentagon believes it has identified the mechanical failure that led to a fatal crash of an Osprey aircraft in Japan and the grounding of the fleet for two months, reports AP News, but has not said what the failure was. The Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps are working on how the aircraft can be returned to service after the Nov. 29 crash led to the Dec. 6 grounding of about 400 Osprey aircraft across the three services and Japan’s fleet of 14.

The House Foreign Affairs Committee on Tuesday narrowly advanced an arms sale bill to raise from $14 million to $23 million what the president can approve without notifying congress, reports Federal Times. Rep. Mike Waltz (R-FL) introduced the legislation, which passed 26-20, largely along party lines, and pitted defense industry groups against arms control advocates. The bill would also raise the threshold for the sale of defense articles, upgrades, related training, or other services without congressional notification from $50 million to $83 million.

The US is exploring if the South Korea defense industry could help maintain, repair, and overhaul the US warships and weapons, according to a series of news releases from South Korea’s Defense Ministry. Defense News reports the two countries have held talks about ships for a year now, but only in December did they begin discussing MRO services for weapons as well.

F-16 Fighting Falcon jets from the DC Air National Guard’s 113th Wing joined American forces in the Middle East as the US military strikes Iranian-linked military infrastructure, reports Military Times. The wing is based at Joint Base Andrews, MD, and departed for US Central Command on Jan. 17.

As the US assesses infrastructure destroyed and people killed or injured after striking more than 100 targets across the Middle East over the weekend, Iran-funded groups continue to attack troops in Iraq, Syria, and aboard Navy ships in the region’s waters, reports Military Times.

The Navy took out at least 11 anti-ship cruise missiles belonging to Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen and participated in continued joint strikes on multiple Houthi positions as well, reports Military Times. According to CENTCOM, US forces struck five anti-ship missiles ready to launch against ships in the Red Sea in an act of “self-defense” on Sunday, after taking out six missiles on Saturday.

Two ships traveling in Middle East waters were attacked by suspected Yemen Houthi rebel drones early Tuesday, AP News reports, the latest assaults in the Iranian-backed fighters’ campaign of targeting vessels over Israel’s war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

The House on Tuesday failed to pass a stand-alone $17.6 billion Israel aid bill, which President Joe Biden had threatened to veto because it does not include Ukraine aid, border security or humanitarian assistance, reports Defense News. Meanwhile, Senate Republicans backtracked on the immigration policy deal they struck after two months of negotiations with Democrats to unlock aid to Ukraine. US aid to Israel and Ukraine aid remains stalled by a House Republican standoff with the Senate and White House over a roughly $118 billion foreign assistance and US southern border security bill.

The Senate had released on Sunday a revised foreign aid bill offering military support for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan after a bipartisan group of negotiators agreed to new immigration restrictions in the legislation, reports Defense News.

More than two dozen people, mostly journalists, were detained Saturday at a protest in central Moscow, VOA News reports from AP News, as wives and other relatives of Russian servicemen mobilized to fight in Ukraine called for their return, according to independent Russian news reports.

The Netherlands scrapped plans to sell six F-16 fighter jets to a US company and will prepare the planes for delivery to Ukraine instead, according to the Dutch Defence Ministry. Military Times reports the agreement increases the number of Dutch aircraft that will be handed over to the embattled country to 24. The Dutch had been negotiating with Draken International, a Lakeland, FL-based provider of adversarial training services to the US Air Force, after a deal to sell the company 12 F-16s fell through last year.

The Marines, with the smallest proportion of women in the ranks, appears disproportionately good at retaining them. Marine Corps Times reports reenlistment and retention data shows this trend has been observable since at least fiscal 2019 and the margin shows no signs of narrowing: In FY22 Marines retained 30% of enlisted women and 27% of enlisted men, the gap grew in FY23 to a 33% female enlisted retention rate compared with 28% for enlisted males.

The program providing $30-a-month internet services to nearly 23 million low-income households will begin winding down this month and is set to run out of money in April unless Congress can reach an agreement to increase funding, reports Route-Fifty.com. Without congressional action, the FCC will start turning people away on Thursday.

Contracts:

Northrop Grumman Systems Corp., Linthicum Heights, Maryland, has been awarded an $11,061,573 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract to support a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency project. Work will be performed in Baltimore, Maryland (68%); San Jose, California (18%); and Fairfax, Virginia (14%), with an expected completion date of August 2025. Fiscal 2023 research, development, test, and engineering funds in the amount of $500,000; and fiscal 2024 research, development, test, and engineering funds in the amount of $1,027,575, are being obligated at time of award. DARPA is the contracting activity (HR001124C0310).

Atlantic Diving Supply Inc., Virginia Beach, Virginia, has been awarded a maximum $46,113,370 fixed-price with economic-price-adjustment, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for various medical and surgical products. This was a competitive acquisition with one response received. This is a one-year base contract with nine one-year option periods. The ordering period end date is Feb. 6, 2025. Using customers are Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, and federal civilian agencies. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2024 through 2025 warstopper funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (SPE2D0-24-D-0001).

CACI Inc. – Federal, Chantilly, Virginia, is awarded an $11,336,400 cost-plus-fixed-fee modification to previously awarded contract N00024-23-C-4122 to exercise options for an additional year of technical engineering services and program support for the Canadian Surface Combatant Program. This contract involves Foreign Military Sales to Canada. Work will be performed in Washington, D.C., and is expected to be completed by February 2025. Foreign Military Sales (Canada) funds in the amount of $10,000,000 will be obligated at time of award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity.

GE Medical Systems Information Technology & Innovation, Niskayuna, New York, was awarded a $10,040,188 cost-type modification to previously awarded contract N66001-21-C-4014 for research and development services. These services are aimed at developing a mobile automated manufacturing platform to provide just-in-time manufacturing of nucleic acid countermeasures to rapidly produce, formulate, and package doses of nucleic acid therapeutics and prophylactics. Work will be performed in Niskayuna, New York (38.5%); New Milford, Connecticut (0.5%); Manhattan, Kansas (9%); Baltimore, Maryland (9%); Seattle, Washington (3%); and Le Kremlin-Bicêtre, France (40%), and is expected to be completed by February 2026. Fiscal 2024 and fiscal 2025 research, development, test and evaluation funds from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency in the amount of $5,253,625 will be obligated upon award of the contract modification. Contract funds will expire Sept. 30, 2025. Naval Information Warfare Center Pacific, San Diego, California, is the contracting activity. (Awarded Feb. 2, 2024)

Gardner Technologies Inc.,* Annapolis, Maryland, is awarded an $8,334,768 firm-fixed-price contract to provide for various components in support of Digital Helicopter Operator Surveillance System pan, tilt, and zoom camera station manufacturing, acceptance testing, and delivery of production systems for the Navy. Additionally, this contract provides for associated spares, to include lower component spares, as well as engineering change proposal support. Work will be performed in Lakehurst, New Jersey, and is expected to be completed in February 2029. No funds will be obligated at the time of award; funds will be obligated on individual orders as they are issued. This contract was not competitively procured pursuant to 15 U.S. Code 637. Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division, Lakehurst, New Jersey, is the contracting activity (N6833524D0009).

Battelle Memorial Institute, Columbus, Ohio (FA8684-24-D-B018); The Boeing Co., St. Louis, Missouri (FA8684-24-D-B019); The Charles Stark Draper Laboratory Inc., Cambridge, Massachusetts (FA8684-24-D-B014); Chip Scan Inc., Rockaway Beach, New York (FA8684-24-D-B004); General Dynamics Mission Systems Inc., Dedham, Massachusetts (FA8684-24-D-B006); GE Aviation Systems LLC Grand Rapids, Michigan (FA8684-24-D-B008); Honeywell International, Clearwater, Florida (FA8684-24-D-B010); Idaho Scientific LLC, Boise, Idaho (FA8684-24-D-B012); Kratos SRE Inc., San Diego, California (FA8684-24-D-B005); L3Harris Technologies Inc., Palm Bay, Florida (FA8684-24-D-B007); Lockheed Martin Corp., Orlando, Florida (FA8684-24-D-B009); Mercury Systems Inc., Andover, Massachusetts (FA8684-24-D-B016); Microsemi SOC Corp., San Jose, California (FA8684-24-D-B011); Northrop Grumman Systems Corp., Linthicum Heights, Maryland (FA8684-24-D-B003); Radiance Technologies Inc., Huntsville, Alabama (FA8684-24-D-B013); Raytheon Co., McKinney, Texas (FA8684-24-D-B015); and Sabre Systems Inc., Warminster, Pennsylvania (FA8684-24-D-B017), were awarded a $499,000,000 multiple award, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for the design, build, test, and delivery of functioning anti-tamper solutions that will be ready for follow-on production to be integrated into a broad range of Department of Defense programs. The development of these solutions enables the necessary protection of critical program information from adversarial tamper efforts. Work will be performed in the continental United States and is expected to be completed Feb. 28, 2030. This contract was a competitive acquisition, and 20 offers were received. Fiscal 2024 research, development, test, and evaluation funds in the amount of $1,000 per awardee are being obligated at time of award. The Air Force Life Cycle Management, Wright Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, is the contracting activity. 

Black Construction/Mace International JV, Harmon, Guam (N40084-21-D-0079); ECC Diego Garcia LLC, Burlingame, California (N40084-21-D-0080); JSK Diego Services LLC, Fort Worth, Texas (N40084-21-D-0081); MVL Bromgrove JV LLC, Houston, Texas (N40084-21-D-0082); and PARSONS-COLAS UKP JV, Centreville, Virginia (N40084-21-D-0083), are awarded a combined-maximum-value $99,500,000 firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity modification to their respective previously-awarded contracts for commercial and institutional building construction at Naval Support Facility (NSF) Diego Garcia. This award brings the total combined cumulative value of all five contracts to $348,500,000. This modification provides for additional capacity to order construction services until Sept. 2, 2026. Work will be performed at NSF Diego Garcia, British Indian Ocean Territory, and will be completed by September 2026. No funds will be obligated at time of award; funds will be obligated on individual task orders as they are awarded. Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command Far East is the contracting activity.

TKC Global Solutions LLC, Henderson, Virginia (FA8604-24-D-B001); and HPI Solutions LLC, Omaha, Nebraska (FA8604-24-D-B004), were awarded a combined $750,000,000 hybrid, firm-fixed-price and time-and-materials, multiple award, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for communication and enterprise information technology (IT) support services. This contract provides support for information technology services including network hardware support; physical and virtual servers, workstation deployment, laptop and peripheral support; facility access control and intrusion detection IT support; storage and backup system support; Linux, Solaris, and RedHat system administration support; RedHat operating system support; IT infrastructure installation and maintenance; storage and backup administration support; IT asset management; software vulnerability and testing support; information assurance and circuit management support. Work will be performed at Springfield Air National Guard, Springfield, Ohio; Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling, Washington, DC; and Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, and is expected to be completed by Feb. 28, 2034. This contract was a competitive acquisition, and 16 offers were received. No funds are being obligated at time of award. The Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, is the contracting activity.

American Systems Corp., Chantilly, Virginia, is awarded a modification (P00017) valued at $31,775,730 on a task order (HQ003422F0091) off a firm-fixed-price, level-of-effort, cost contract (HQ003421D0003) to exercise an option year. Fiscal 2024 research, development, test, and evaluation funds in the amount of $6,823,976 are being obligated at the time of award. The cumulative total of the contract is $31,775,730. The total if all options are exercised is $54,025,384. The purpose of this contract is to provide research, development, test, and evaluation, engineering and technical support services for the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering’s Directorate of Defense Research and Engineering for Advanced Capabilities. Tasks typically include providing software, systems, and specialty engineering; modelling and simulation of engineering tools and environments; subject matter expertise; data collection and analysis; facilitation of working groups; consultation on creation and maintenance of policy, guidance, and standards; software modernization; technical assessments and reviews of programs and projects; and modernization of technologies, procedures, handbooks, tools, and training for the Joint Staff, military departments, and Defense agencies. The work will be performed at the Pentagon Reservation, Arlington, Virginia; the Mark Center, Alexandria, Virginia; and the contractor facility, Chantilly, Virginia. The estimated completion date is Feb. 28, 2027. Washington Headquarters Services, Arlington, Virginia, is the contracting activity.

Systems Application and Technologies Inc., Largo, Maryland, is awarded an $18,510,797 cost-plus-fixed-fee, cost contract. This contract provides operational and intermediate level maintenance for aerial assets, to include subsonic and supersonic aerial targets and seaborne assets, to include a combination of target and training support vessels, as well as vessels used for manned and unmanned training and test events for the Navy. Work will be performed in Port Hueneme, California (57%); Point Mugu, California (35%); Ridgecrest, California (2%); Las Cruces, New Mexico (2%); Salt Lake City, Utah (1%); Lompoc, California (1%) (labor surplus area); Kauai, Hawaii (1%); and Hebrides, Scotland (1%), and is expected to be completed in Sept 2024. Working capital funds (Navy) in the amount of $3,129,500 will be obligated at the time of award, none of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was competitively procured as a small business set-aside; three offers were received. Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division, Point Mugu, California, is the contracting activity (N6893624C0006).

ERProsource360 LLC, Washington, DC, was awarded a modification estimated at $10,667,342 to exercise Option Period 4 on a time-and-materials, firm-fixed-price General Services Administration contract (47QRAA19D00AK) with an estimated overall value of $43,266,617 inclusive of all options. This task order (W81XWH20F0072) is for materiel fielding and medical liaison support services in support of U.S. Army Medical Materiel Development Agency and the US Army Medical Materiel Activity. Specifically, these services provide materiel fielding and medical liaison support services across the Force Integration Division, USAMMDA, and the Force Projection Directorate, USAMMA at Fort Detrick, Maryland. The overall period of performance is Feb. 3, 2020, to Feb. 2, 2025. The Option Period 4 period of performance is Feb. 3, 2024, to Feb. 2, 2025. The type of solicitation was a competitive set-aside (total small business set-aside). Fiscal 2023, 3-year, Army other procurement funds; and fiscal 2024, 1-year, Army operations and maintenance funds, will be used for the modification. The US Army Medical Research Acquisition Activity, Fort Detrick, Maryland, is the contracting activity.

UPDATE: The following firms were added as awardees on Jan. 31, 2024, to the global multiple award, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity total small business set-aside contract with a $2.4 billion ceiling value announced on June 30, 2023, to provide support for non-personal standardized enterprise information technology support services to Defense Health Agency medical treatment facilities and other lines of business: RDBow LLC, Baltimore, Maryland (HT0015-24-D-0008); Syneren Technologies Corp., Vienna, Virginia (HT0015-24-D-0009); Synergist JV2 LLC, McLean, Virginia (HT0015-24-D-0010); Alpha Communications Services LLC, Fairfax Station, Virginia (HT0015-24-D-0011); American Tech Solutions LLC, Reston, Virginia (HT0015-24-D-0012); Creek-DDC JV LLC, Beavercreek, Ohio (HT0015-24-D-0013); CVTEK LLC, McLean, Virginia (HT0015-24-D-0014); INTEROP-ISHPI JV LLC, doing business as IOIJV, Virginia Beach, Virginia (HT0015-24-D-0015); Koniag Technology Solutions Inc., Anchorage, Alaska (HT0015-24-D-0016); RSC2 Inc., Baltimore, Maryland (HT0015-24-D-0017); Seneca Strategic Partners LLC, Salamanca, New York (HT0015-24-D-0018); Systems Plus Inc., Rockville, Maryland (HT0015-24-D-0019); T and T Consulting Services Inc., Falls Church, Virginia (HT0015-24-D-0020); Techwerks LLC, Arlington Heights, Illinois (HT0015-24-D-0021); 2Tech JV LLC; Woodbridge, Virginia (HT0015-24-D-0022); MicroTechnologies LLC, doing business as MicroTech, Vienna, Virginia (HT0015-24-D-0023); Galapagos-IntelliDyne Solutions LLC, doing business as G&I Solutions, Kihei, Hawaii (HT0015-24-D-0024); Echelon Services LLC, Manassas, Virginia (HT0015-24-D-0025); Strategic Data Systems Inc, Keller, Texas (HT0015-24-D-0026); AccelGov LLC, Bethesda, Maryland (HT0015-24-D-0027); CompTech Computer Technologies Inc., Dayton, Ohio (HT0015-24-D-0028); Envision Unlimited Solutions LLC, Vienna, Virginia (HT0015-24-D-0029); ASG CQS JV LLC, Frederick, Maryland (HT0015-24-D-0030); Trillion ERP Next Generation LLC, Reston, Virginia (HT0015-24-D-0031); VTPM Government Solutions LLC, Towson, Maryland (HT0015-24-D-0032); KL3 LLC, Apex, North Carolina (HT0015-24-D-0033); Cherokee Nation Operational Solutions LLC, Tulsa, Oklahoma (HT0015-24-D-0034); and Alesig Consulting LLC, Falls Church, Virginia (HT0015-24-D-0035).