FEMA Asks for DoD Medical Help in TX and CA

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.

About 740 military personnel were dispatched to Texas and California after the Federal Emergency Management Agency requested DoD assistance in tamping down the coronavirus pandemic, reports Army Times. Soldiers being dispatched are from Army’s Urban Augmentation Medical Task Forces, which are 85-soldier medical units and soldiers from the 627th Hospital Center out of Fort Carson, CO, which previously activated in April to set up a makeshift hospital in Seattle.

DoD wants to collect 8,000 units of plasma from patients who have recovered from COVID-19 — part of a nationwide effort to study the effectiveness of convalescent plasma as a treatment for the potentially fatal illness, reports Military.com.

The House Appropriations Committee approved a $694.6 billion defense spending bill that includes money for the Army to change Confederate base names and that seeks to block use of Pentagon funds for a wall along the southern border, reports The Hill. The bill passed in a 30-22 party-line vote for $626.2 billion in base budget funding and $68.4 billion in a war fund known as the Overseas Contingency Operations account.

Japan accepted delivery of its first Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey last week, making it the first nation outside the US to own and operate the tiltrotor aircraft, reports USNI.

The Russian Defense Ministry claims it intercepted a USAF RC-135 reconnaissance plane, an MQ-9 Reaper, and a US Navy P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft, over the Black Sea on July 14, reports Air Force Magazine. An English-language Facebook post published by the ministry, which included a 39-second video that appeared to depict a USAF RC-135, Russian fighter aircraft from the nation’s Northern Fleet and its Southern Military District escorted the aircraft until they veered away from the Russian border.

 

 

Two separate fires burned at the front and aft of the amphib USS Bonhomme Richard as firefighters entered a third night battling the blaze. Navy Times reports that investigators found no damage to the four main engineering spaces, and the 1 million gallons of fuel aboard Bonhomme Richard appears safer from ignition or spillage than earlier feared.

A $14.4 million internet-based accountability system is failing to track US weapons and vehicles given Afghan troops and police, reports Task & Purpose, because nearly half of Afghan local weapons and vehicles storage depots don’t have access to the internet or electricity, according to the Defense Department’s Inspector General’s office.

US troops have withdrawn from five military bases and reduced force size in Afghanistan as part of the agreement reached with Taliban in February, reports The Hill. A Pentagon spokesman says US forces “remain in the mid-8,000s and five bases formerly occupied by US forces have been transferred to our Afghan partners.”

Only rubble remains after a Taliban car bomb and gun attack left 11 Afghan intelligence workers dead and at least 60 civilians wounded, reports The Washington Post, further demoralizing the country.

Somewhere in southern Afghanistan in 2019 a Marine Raider led his team, with Afghan partner forces, on a helicopter raid inside enemy-controlled territory against a Taliban defensive stronghold. Marine Times puts together the story of the 4-hour firefight behind last week’s awarding of a Silver Star, three Bronze Stars with valor, and four Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medals with valor.

Candid examples of discrimination sailors and officers said they’ve faced in their careers are being heard by a new Navy task force charged with identifying racist or sexist policies, reports Military.com. Examples include “sailors using the N-word” and being berated for speaking Spanish.

After months of silence, Lt. Col. Yevgeny Vindman has joined his twin brother Alexander in speaking out about how the two were treated by President Donald Trump, reports Politico. Yevgeny Vindman, who remains on active duty, also has shared criticism of his ultimate civilian boss, DefSec Mark Esper.

The US on Tuesday carried out its first federal execution in almost two decades, killing by lethal injection a man convicted of murdering an Arkansas family in a 1990s plot to build a whites-only nation in the Pacific Northwest, reports Federal Times. Daniel Lewis Lee was executed over the objection of the victims’ relatives. Two other federal executions are scheduled for this week.

Contracts:

TeamGOV Inc., Hyattsville, Maryland, was awarded a $7,531,979 modification (P00003) to contract W912DY-19-F-1336 to maintain complete and functional access control point control systems. Bids were solicited via the internet with three received. Work will be performed in Killeen and Fort Bliss, Texas; McAlester and Fort Sill, Oklahoma; Fort Polk, Louisiana; White Hall, Arkansas; Camp Roberts and Fort Irwin, California; Dugway Proving Ground, Utah; Fort Huachuca, Arizona; and White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico, with an estimated completion date of July 14, 2021. Fiscal 2020 operations and maintenance (Army) funds in the amount of $3,183,862 were obligated at the time of the award. US Army Corps of Engineers, Huntsville, Alabama, is the contracting activity.

Raytheon Missiles and Defense, Marlborough, Massachusetts, is awarded a $26,463,116 cost-plus-fixed fee and cost only modification to previously awarded contract N00024-19-C-5501 to exercise options and realign level of effort ceiling for Air and Missile Defense Radar AN/SPY-6(V) integration and production support efforts. Work will be performed in Marlborough, Massachusetts (64%); Kauai, Hawaii (12%); Fair Lakes, Virginia (10%); Moorestown, New Jersey (8%); Portsmouth, Rhode Island (6%); and San Diego, California (less than 1%). This option exercise is for performance of the integration and production support for continued combat system integration and test, engineering, training, software, depot maintenance and field engineering in support of the Air and Missile Defense Radar AN/SPY-6(V). Work is expected to be completed by November 2020. Fiscal 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020 shipbuilding and conversion (Navy); and fiscal 2019 and 2020 research, development, test and evaluation (Navy) funds in the amount of $35,960,832 will be obligated at time of award. Funds in the amount of $15,410 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was procured under the statutory authority of 10 U.S. Code 2304(c)(1), only one responsible source and no other supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Navy Yard, Washington, DC, is the contracting activity.

Northrop Grumman Systems Corp., McLean, Virginia, has been awarded a not-to-exceed $35,964,710 firm-fixed-price, undefinitized contract for repair of 174 B-52 Engine Nose Cowls for the B-52 Stratofortress Bomber jet. Work will be performed in Lake Charles, Louisiana, and is expected to be completed July 2021. This award is the result of a sole-source acquisition. Fiscal 2020 working capital funds in the full amount are being obligated at the time of award. Air Force Sustainment Center, Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma, is the contracting activity (FA8119-20-C-0004).