FAA: Drones Hurricane Response ‘Landmark’

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.

“I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that the hurricane response will be looked back upon as a landmark in the evolution of drone usage in this country,” says FAA chief Michael Huerta at the InterDrone Conference in Las Vegas, reported by FCW.

DefSec Jim Mattis orders an additional brigade-sized force to Afghanistan, about 3,500 troops, reports Military Times.

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) continues his aggressive push for a new BRAC as debate begins on the national defense authorization bill, reports Politico. While McCain succeeded in introducing his BRAC proposal, reports the Hill, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) threatens to hold up debate for 30 hours and the bill unless he can get a vote on his proposal to repeal two war authorizations, the 2001 and 2002 Authorizations for the Use of Military Force passed in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attack and to green light the Iraq War.

The 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron is the US military’s only unit charged with flying aircraft into dangerous storms, Stars and Stripes reports from on of its 10 Super Hercules aircraft inside Hurricane Irma. Every flight into a hurricane is different, some calm and some violent. The unit, based at Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi, Mississippi, was outfitted with special sensory equipment to measure storm data.

Military Times reports more than 16,700 soldiers and civilians from the Army Corps of Engineers are assisting recovery from Irma in the US Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, and continental US. More than 150 boats, 3,400 trucks, and 680 generators are in use or have been made available to governors of states and territories where the hurricane made landfall.

Navy warships and 101st Airborne await a Florida call-up, reports the Miami Herald. The USS Abraham Lincoln dispatched helicopters to assess potential landing sites on Key West to deliver supplies and assist in rescue operations. The USS New York, forged in part from steel salvaged from the World Trade Center, paid homage to those lost on the 16th anniversary of Sept. 11 as they waited for assignment in relief efforts.

President Donald Trump commemorated the Sept. 11 attacks at a Pentagon ceremony, reports Military Times, with DefSec Mattis, the Chair of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Joseph Dunford, and more than 300 family members of the 59 passengers and crew on American Flight 77 and the 125 Pentagon personnel killed on the ground.

The Navy ships McCain and Fitzgerald, in recent deadly collisions, had dismal training records, reports CNN. Theirs were worse than the average warship in the Pacific, but not the only ones with training problems. GAO testimony released last week revealed that expired training certifications for the Navy’s 11 cruisers and destroyers based in Japan had skyrocketed five-fold from 7 percent in January 2015 to 37 percent in June 2017.

Retired Navy commander David Kapaun must spend 18 months in federal prison for lying about his relationship with a Malaysian defense contractor nicknamed “Fat Leonard.” The Navy Times reports that a federal judge sentenced him Monday saying that he abused his position in the Navy and gave unfair advantage to the contractor.

The UN Security Council agreed on toughest-ever sanctions against North Korea, but only after the US softened demands to win support from China and Russia, reports The Washington Post. The sanctions set limits on North Korea’s oil imports and banned its textile exports in an effort to deprive the reclusive nation of the income it needs to maintain its nuclear and ballistic missile program and increase the pressure to negotiate a way out of punishing sanctions. China and Russia came onboard once revisions dropped a total ban on oil exports, reports nikkei.com.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Russia was seriously considering 155 additional cuts to US personnel at diplomatic missions, reports The LA Times. Washington and Moscow are basing their tit-for-tat on differing interpretations of “parity,” the principle that each government have an identical numerical presence in the other’s country.

Contracts:

FGS LLC, La Plata, Maryland, has been awarded a $7,328,166 increase due to an exercise of option period 1 (000205) to a previously awarded contract for weapon systems and command, control, communications, computers and intelligence systems information technology services. This modification provides for the exercise of an option for an additional year of labor and travel to perform the above referenced services. Work will be performed at Air Force intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance organizations and associated units located both in the continental US.and outside the continental US. The work under this option period is expected to be completed by Oct. 2, 2018. Fiscal 2018 operations and maintenance funds are being obligated if/when Fiscal 2018 funds are available. Acquisition Management and Integration Center, Detachment 2, Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, Texas, is the contracting activity (FA7037-16-D-0005-0002).

URS Federal Services Inc., Germantown, Maryland, has been awarded a $49,157,150 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for rotary-wing flight instructor support services at Fort Rucker, Alabama. Bids were solicited via the Internet with three received. Work will be performed in Daleville, Maryland, with an estimated completion date of Sept. 30, 2023. Fiscal 2018 operations and maintenance, Army funds in the amount of $1 were obligated at the time of the award. US Army Mission and Installation Contracting Command, Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Virginia is the contracting activity (W9124G-17-C-0005).

Cape Henry Associates Inc., Virginia Beach, Virginia, has been awarded a $49,128,462 hybrid contract (cost-plus-fixed-fee and firm-fixed-price) to mature an advanced HSE Lighthouse framework and discrete functional modules. One bid was solicited with one bid received. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of Sept. 11, 2020. US Army Contracting Command, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, is the contracting activity (W911NF-17-D-0021).

Washington Office Interiors LLC, Quantico, Virginia, has been awarded a $19,900,000 firm-fixed-price contract for furniture disassembly, delivery, installation and trash removal. Bids were solicited via the Internet with four received. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of Sept. 11, 2022. US Army Mission and Installation Contracting Command, Fort Knox, Kentucky, is the contracting activity (W9124D-17-D-0071).

Engility LLC, Chantilly, Virginia, is being awarded a $29,862,080 indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity, cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for the procurement of engineering and technical services in support of the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division, Lakehurst, New Jersey’s Support Equipment and Aircraft Launch and Recover Equipment Department. Engineering and technical services includes the development of operational requirements and the translation of requirements into configured systems through a systematic approach to an integrated design using standard processes. Work will be performed at Lakehurst, New Jersey, and is expected to be completed in September 2022. Fiscal 2017 operations and maintenance (Navy) funds in the amount of $189,000 will be obligated at time of award, none of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was competitively procured via an electronic request for proposal; two offers were received. The Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division, Lakehurst, New Jersey is the contracting activity (N68335-17-D-0018).

Alliant Techsystems Operations LLC (Orbital ATK), Elkton, Maryland, has been awarded a $21,441,308 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for a research project under the Advanced Full Range Engine (AFRE) program. Fiscal 2017 research and development funds totaling $1,000,000 are being obligated at the time of award. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Arlington, Virginia, is the contracting activity (HR0011-17-C-0100).