March 29, 2024

F-35C Completes First Deployment

US Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Haydn N. Smith

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 first-ever operational deployment of an F-35C Joint Strike Fighter squadron concluded Feb. 14. Carrier Air Wing 2 returned home after the six-and-a-half-month deployment of the aircraft carrier Carl Vinson Strike Group, reports Defense News. The squadron worked with a detachment of CMV-22 Ospreys as the carrier onboard delivery aircraft. Strike group commander RADM Dan Martin said Carrier Air Wing 2 showed “seamless integration” of the F-35C and the CMV-22 into the air wing.

As Ukraine braces for a possible Russian invasion, C4ISRNET reports, the US government issued an alert warning of a heightened potential for cyberattacks. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency posted a “Shields Up” warning, which the Pentagon emailed to the defense industry this week.

Russia began Tuesday saying that some of its military units were returning to their bases after exercises near Ukraine and mocked repeated Western warnings about a looming invasion, Reuters reported, but updates throughout the day turned toward a cyber attack launched at Ukraine, believed by Russia. DEFSEC Lloyd Austin departed Tuesday for Europe to speak with defense officials in Belgium, Poland, and Lithuania regarding the potential of a Russian invasion of Ukraine, reports Stars and Stripes.

In Eastern Europe, all eyes are on Ukraine, where as many as 130,000 Russian troops are staging near the border, but, reports Task & Purpose, some of the Russian tanks are stuck in the mud. A video posted to Twitter by Liveuamap on February 10, shows a formation of tanks stuck in the mud with a lone excavator trying to dig them out. Defence-Blog says the video was reportedly taken at a military range in the Rostov region of Russia, near the southeastern border with Ukraine.

Russia and China have each dedicated significantly more military cyber forces to conducting cyber effects than the United States, reports C4ISRNET. According to research by a London-based think tank, 33% of Russia’s military cyber forces are focused on effects, compared to 18.2% of Chinese military forces, and 2.8% of US forces.

A series of small earthquakes has struck near North Korea’s shuttered nuclear test site, South Korea has said, highlighting the area’s geological instability as Pyongyang hints it could resume testing for the first time since 2017, reports Reuters.

 

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Monday became the only Canadian leader since his father 50 years ago to declare a state of emergency in peacetime as he struggles with truckers’ protests hampering cross border trade, reports Reuters. Trudeau announced measures to tackle funding for the protests, including letting banks freeze accounts linked to the protests without a court order, and said federal police will help end the blockades.

Business Insider reports the country’s inflation is growing, placing pressure on the Fed to cool the economy. Fed Chair Jerome Powell said in January that policymakers are “of a mind” to start raising interest rates in March. Rate hikes represent the Fed’s best tool for slowing inflation. But fighting inflation in 2022 probably won’t be so simple. Higher rates can place a drag on demand, but a large part of the current inflation problem exists on the supply side.

The US Navy is considering adding unmanned Israeli boats to its joint Middle East operations, Reuters reports, a move that could deepen Israel’s growing role in regional military arrangements as the nation seeks to normalize ties with former foes in the Gulf.

Metallurgist Elaine Marie Thomas, 67, of Auburn, WA, was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison and a $50,000 fine after she spent decades faking the results of strength tests on steel used to make US Navy submarines, reports Navy Times. Thomas was the director of metallurgy at a foundry that supplied steel castings used by Navy contractors Electric Boat and Newport News Shipbuilding to make submarine hulls. Thomas suggested that in some cases she changed the tests to passing grades because she thought it was “stupid” that the Navy required the tests to be conducted at negative-100 degrees Fahrenheit (negative-73.3 degrees Celsius). Subsequent Navy testing costing $14 million has found no problems with the 30 impacted submarines. The Navy says it will incur further costs as it continues monitoring the subs.

Navy nuclear engineer Jonathan Toebbe pleaded guilty Monday to trying to pass information about American nuclear-powered warships to a foreign country, Navy Times reports. The sentencing range agreed to by lawyers calls for a potential punishment between 12 and 17 years in prison. His wife Diana Toebbe was accused of serving as a lookout at several prearranged dead-drop locations. She has pleaded not guilty and the case against her remains pending.

Contracts:

Samyak Solutions Inc., Centreville, Virginia, has been awarded a maximum $45,000,000 fixed-price with economic-price-adjustment, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract under solicitation SPE2DE-17-R-0001 for laboratory equipment for the Defense Logistics Agency Electronic Catalog. This was a competitive acquisition with 33 offers received. This is a five-year contract with no option periods. Location of performance is Virginia, with a Feb. 14, 2027, ordering period end date. Using military services are Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2022 through 2027 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (SPE2DE-22-D-0010).

Alion Science and Technology Corp., Norfolk, Virginia (N6893622D0019); Amentum Services Inc., Germantown, Maryland (N6893622D00020); Leidos Inc., Reston, Virginia (N6893622D00021); SAAB Inc., East Syracuse, New York (N6893622D0022); and Scientific Research Corp., Atlanta, Georgia (N6893622D0023), are awarded a maximum ceiling $249,961,209 cost-plus-fixed-fee, cost reimbursable, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract. These provide for research, development, upgrades, sustainment, engineering, integration, testing, and cybersecurity to tactical and electronic warfare threat systems and peripheral instrumentation, including threat simulators, radars, and training instrumentation capable of operating in network-centric warfare and battlespace environments, in support of pre-deployment aircrew training and weapons and countermeasures development to improve aircrew lethality and survivability. Companies have an opportunity to compete for individual orders. Work will be performed in Norfolk, Virginia; Germantown, Maryland; Reston, Virginia; East Syracuse, New York; and Atlanta, Georgia (90%); and various location within the continental US (10%), and is expected to be completed in February 2027. No funds will be obligated at the time of award; funds will be obligated on individual orders as they are issued. This contract was competitively procured via an electronic request for proposal; five offers were received. The Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division, China Lake, California, is the contracting activity.

Lockheed Martin Rotary and Mission Systems, Manassas, Virginia, is awarded a $59,457,395 cost-plus-incentive fee and cost modification to previously awarded contract (N00024-18-C-5218) for delivery of Technical Insertion-22 (TI-22) shore sites systems, exercise options, and incrementally fund existing contract line items for engineering labor, travel, material, and other direct costs to support AN/SQQ-89A(V)15 development, integration, manufacture, production, and testing. Work will be performed in Manassas, Virginia (60%); Lemont Furnace, Pennsylvania (33%); Syracuse, New York (4%); Clearwater, Florida (2%); and Hauppauge, New York (1%), and is expected to be completed by August 2023. Fiscal 2021 shipbuilding and conversion (Navy) funds in the amount of $8,686,282 (33%); fiscal 2022 research, development, test, and evaluation (Navy) funds in the amount of $8,663,820 (32%); fiscal 2020 shipbuilding and conversion (Navy) funds in the amount of $5,058,787 (19%); fiscal 2019 shipbuilding and conversion (Navy) funds in the amount of $1,633,306 (6%); fiscal 2022 other procurement (Navy) funds in the amount of $1,460,217 (5%); fiscal 2021 research, development, test, and evaluation (Navy) funds in the amount of $1,085,404 (4%); and fiscal 2013 shipbuilding and conversion (Navy) funds in the amount of $88,300 (1%) will be obligated at time of award, and funds in the amount of $1,085,404 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, DC, is the contracting activity.

Flightfab Inc., Westminster, Maryland, is awarded a $9,598,391 firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for the procurement of plastic waste processing equipment and spare parts for Navy ships. Work will be performed in Westminster, Maryland, and is expected to be completed by February 2027. Fiscal 2022 operations and maintenance (Navy) funds in the amount of $224,752 will be obligated at the time of award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was procured competitively via the beta.sam.gov website, with two offers received. The Naval Surface Warfare Center, Philadelphia Division, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania is the contracting activity (N64498-22-D-4003).

Innovative Defense Technologies LLC, Arlington, Virginia, is awarded an $8,132,379 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract modification to previously awarded contract N00024-20-C-6116 to exercise and fund options for Navy engineering services and supporting material procurements. Work will be performed in Fall River, Massachusetts, and is expected to be completed by September 2022. Fiscal 2021 research, development, test and evaluation (Navy) funding in the amount of $167,750 will be obligated at time of award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, DC, is the contracting activity.

Trace Systems Inc., Vienna, Virginia, was awarded a competitive, single award, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract not to exceed $181,600,000 to supply various Iridium-certified equipment, provisioning support, and 24/7/365-dedicated help desk support to all authorized Enhanced Mobile Satellite Services (EMSS) customers, including the Department of Defense and federal government, state and local government, approved foreign and allied governments, and other sponsored customers. The guaranteed minimum amount is $2,000 and will be funded by fiscal 2022 defense working capital funds. Primary performance will be at the contractor’s integration facility in Tampa, Florida.  Proposals were solicited via www.sam.gov and three proposals were received in response to the solicitation. The period of performance is five years, with a one-year base period and four one-year option periods beginning Feb. 15, 2022, through Feb. 14, 2027. The Defense Information Technology Contracting Organization, Scott Air Force Base, Illinois, is the contracting activity (HC1013-22-D-0005).

Cashman Dredging and Marine Contracting Co. LLC, Quincy, Massachusetts, was awarded a $29,735,640 firm-fixed-price contract for maintenance dredging of the Baltimore Harbor and channels. Bids were solicited via the internet with three received. Work will be performed in Baltimore, Maryland, with an estimated completion date of July 5, 2022. Fiscal 2020 civil construction funds; and fiscal 2021 and 2022 civil operation and maintenance funds in the amount of $29,735,640 were obligated at the time of the award. US Army Corps of Engineers, Baltimore, Maryland, is the contracting activity (W912DR-22-C-0007).

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