F-35As Join Deployment to Central Europe

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 is sending Air Force F-35A Joint Strike Fighters, as well as Army AH-64 Apache attack helicopters and ground forces, to various locations along NATO’s eastern flank, reports The Drive. President Joe Biden announced the deployments as response to the growing thousands of Russian troops positioned to attack Ukraine. Russia’s parliament approved the use of military force in Ukraine on Tuesday, an authorization President Vladimir Putin could use to launch a larger military intervention into that country. Ukraine declared a nationwide state of emergency on Wednesday after Russia ordered troops into eastern Ukraine, reports Business Insider.

Central Europe is bracing for a migrant crisis as Ukraine’s Western neighbors make preparations to welcome millions of refugees in the event of a large-scale Russian invasion into Ukraine, reports Aljazeera. Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, and the Czech Republic have all signaled that they are planning for a surge of incoming Ukrainians as the threat of a Russian attack looms.

A prototype spy plane is tracking Russian force movements for the US Army, reports Breaking Defense. The ARTEMIS, which stands for Airborne Reconnaissance and Target Exploitation Multi-Mission System, is a novel intelligence-gathering aircraft — a Bombardier Challenger 650 that’s been souped up with military-grade sensors for tracking ground troops. It is flown on behalf of the US Army by defense contractor Leidos.

DefSec Lloyd Austin approved requests for National Guard assistance with traffic flow in the nation’s capital, in the face of planned protests against pandemic restrictions beginning next week, reports Military Times. The requests made by District of Columbia Metropolitan Police Department and the US Capitol Police were approved Tuesday.

A quiet supersonic plane designed and built by NASA to usher in a new era of superfast air travel made a pitstop in Texas to perform crucial structural testing ahead of a debut flight later this year, reports Space.com. NASA’s X-59 moved in late December from Palmdale, CA, to access specialized equipment available in Fort Worth, TX, that will make sure the speedy vehicle won’t face too much stress in mid-air.

At least one Black Hawk helicopter crashed Tuesday morning near a Utah ski resort, about 28 miles from Salt Lake City, during a Utah National Guard training exercise, reports Army Times. Two helicopters were involved in the accident near Snowbird ski resort, but no crew members were hurt, the National Guard posted on Twitter. Both UH-60 helicopters were damaged.

Four people died in the crash on Tuesday of a Navy contractor’s Sikorsky S-61N helicopter on the Hawaii island of Kauai, reports Military Times. The aircraft crashed on the north side of the Pacific Missile Range installation shortly after 10 am. There were no survivors. The names of those who died were not yet available. The helicopter was being flown by Croman Corp. in support of a training operation, the missile range facility said in a news release. The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the crash.

Defense News has photos of the military aircraft that made it to the 2022 Singapore Airshow this year. Among the attendees, a US Marine Corps F-35B that performed daily aerial displays.

 

 

House leaders will bring sweeping military toxic exposure legislation to the chamber floor next week in a bid to force Congress to create a comprehensive plan to help ailing veterans instead of opting for smaller, piecemeal efforts, reports Military Times.

The Navy’s Mideast-based 5th Fleet has launched a new joint fleet of unmanned drones with allied nations to patrol vast swaths of the region’s volatile waters as tensions simmer with Iran, reports Navy Times. VADM Brad Cooper, who leads the 5th Fleet, told The Associated Press that 100 unmanned drones, both sailing and submersible, would dramatically multiply the surveillance capacities of the US Navy, allowing it to keep a close eye on waters critical to the flow of the global oil and shipping. Trade at sea has been targeted in recent years as Tehran’s nuclear deal with world powers collapsed.

Military Times reports the Wounded Warrior Project has found many veterans, even those already receiving benefits for other injuries, aren’t sure where to access mental health services to help with issues like depression, anxiety, and suicidal thoughts. Nearly 18,000 responded to the survey. Roughly one in four veterans surveyed said they had suicidal thoughts within the last year.

A young corporal based on Okinawa, Japan, was sentenced to two years in a Japanese prison for attempting to smuggle cannabis products into the country, reports Marine Times. Marine Cpl. Nicholas Garner was sentenced to two years in prison with hard labor and fined $4,344 after pleading guilty to two counts of violating Japan’s Cannabis Control and Customs laws.

A new sensor aims to send information about volcanic activity and air quality from a tiny satellite as swiftly as possible, to speed responses to eruptions, reports Space.com. The Nanosat Atmospheric Chemistry Hyperspectral Observation System, or NACHOS, will fly roughly 300 miles in altitude above Earth, scanning the ground using a hyperspectral imager.

A training exercise with Ghana Armed Forces and Army advisers out of Fort Bragg, NC, became a humanitarian mission when, on January 21, a mining truck carrying explosives collided with a motorcycle, the resulting blast killing at least 17 people and injuring or displacing hundreds more, reports Army Times. Soldiers from the 2nd Security Force Assistance Brigade made the call to deliver aid and humanitarian support to the Apiate community near Bogoso, where the incident occurred.

A federal judge on Tuesday blocked a redistricting plan from the Baltimore County Council that included just one majority Black council district and ordered county officials to adopt a new plan by March 8, reports Maryland Matters.

CPO Magazine reports on evolving case law holding boards of directors liable for failing to adequately address and oversee their company’s cybersecurity and data privacy risks. Failing to do so not only increases risks for the company, but may also expose board members to personal liability. Developments in Delaware’s Caremark doctrine for breaches of fiduciary duty have paved a narrow path for plaintiffs to hold directors liable.

John R. “Jack” Breihan, emeritus professor of history at Loyola University Maryland who wrote several books and numerous articles on Maryland aviation history, Baltimore history, and architectural preservation, died of complications from Parkinson’s disease Friday at Edenwald Retirement Community in Towson, reports The Baltimore Sun. The former Roland Park and Ellicott City resident was 74.

Contracts:

Sikorsky, a Lockheed Martin Co., Stratford, Connecticut, is awarded a $36,007,409 cost-plus-fixed-fee order (N0001922F2230) against a previously issued basic ordering agreement (N0001919G0029). This order provides a CH-53K Flight Control Computer (FCC) redesign due to obsolescence and will include non-recurring engineering efforts to integrate, test, and qualify an updated FCC. The redesigned FCC will undergo qualification testing to ensure all changes meet the performance requirements of the current CH-53K FCC technical requirements specification and to maintain backward compatibility at a shipset level with all CH-53K flight control system hardware and software interfaces. Work will be performed in Stratford, Connecticut (73%); Windsor Locks, Connecticut (19%); Patuxent River, Maryland (7%); and Fort Worth, Texas (1%), and is expected to be completed in September 2025. Fiscal 2022 aircraft procurement (Navy) funds in the amount of $36,007,409 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.

Emergent LLC, Virginia Beach, Virginia, has been awarded an $80,030,000 firm-fixed-price delivery order for the Oracle Enterprise Software License Agreement II. This delivery order provides for unlimited Oracle software licenses against the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Solutions for Enterprise-Wide Procurement indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract vehicle. Work will be performed at all Air Force installations and is expected to be completed by Feb. 23, 2027. This award is the result of a competitive acquisition, and five offers were received. Fiscal 2022 operations and maintenance funds in the amount of $80,030,000 are being obligated at the time of award, and the total cumulative face value of the contract is $419,737,159. Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, Maxwell Air Force Base Gunter Annex, Montgomery, Alabama, is the contracting activity (FA8771-22-F-0022).