Good-bye, Dali
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 Dali — the cargo ship that collided with and collapsed Key Bridge on March 26 — left Baltimore Monday on its 170-mile journey to Norfolk, VA, with a stop at Virginia International Gateway to unload roughly 1,500 cargo containers still aboard, reports Maryland Matters. The Coast Guard provided a 500-yard safety zone around the Dali’s traverse of Chesapeake Bay.
Air Force Special Operations Command might train some of its CV-22 Osprey pilots and aircrew for other aircraft as the use of the controversial tilt-rotor aircraft is evaluated while officials investigate the cause of deadly crashes, reports Military.com.
Def Sec Lloyd Austin initiated a discussion with Russia’s defense minister this week, the first such conversation with a Russian defense minister in 15 months, reports Defense News. The Russian Foreign Ministry summoned US Ambassador Lynne Tracy for a scolding this week, blaming the US for an attack by Ukraine using ATACMS missiles supplied by America, which killed at least four and left more than 150 injured. This is the first time Austin has spoken to Russia’s new defense minister, Andrei Belousov, appointed last month in a major shakeup within the Kremlin.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) again seeks legislation stripping Def Sec Austin’s annual salary from $221,000 to just $1 in retaliation for a host of conservative complaints against current military policies. Military Times reports it’s the second consecutive year she has offered the idea to the chamber’s annual defense appropriations bill. It was included in the bill adopted by House Republicans last fall but stripped from the final legislation during bill reconciliation negotiations with the Senate.
The Navy has added 49 companies to a potential 10-year, $982.1 million contract for work on unmanned surface vehicles first awarded in 2020. Washington Technology reports this on-ramp process for the Unmanned Surface Vehicle Family of Systems contract grows the number of firms involved to 88, all of which are competing for delivery orders to work on all aspects of USVs.
Western gun makers are exploring the potential of small arms to counter small drones, turning cheap and widely available weapons into last-resort defenses against an emerging threat, reports Defense News. Ukrainian soldiers’ success has other militaries starting to explore the use. Head of defense sales for Italian gun manufacturer Benelli Armi, owned by the Beretta Holding, says growing interest in shotguns to neutralize low-flying threats reflects cost-effectiveness and ease of operation.
Ukraine is changing the rules of naval warfare, reports Defense One. Its use of aerial drones and robot boats has hampered Russian naval operations in the Black Sea. Though Russia has worked to improve its defenses against drone threats, a number of Russia’s Black Sea ships have fallen victim to Ukrainian strikes.
The Biden administration is considering lifting a de facto ban on American military contractors deploying to Ukraine, reports CNN, to help the country’s military maintain and repair US-provided weapons systems.
Israel’s Ministry of Defense says Israel exported $13 billion in defense products in 2023, the third year in a row of record sales for the defense industry here, and an increase of $500 million over 2022 despite the ongoing conflict in Gaza, reports Breaking Defense.
US Air Force GEN CQ Brown, chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has warned that any Israeli military offensive into Lebanon against the militant group Hezbollah would risk an Iranian response, reports The Hill. That response could potentially put US troops in the region at risk, he said.
Brown, arriving in Botswana earlier this week, said that as the US pulls its 1,000 troops out of Niger, including from a critical counterterrorism and drone base there, other West African nations want to work with the US and may be open to an expanded American presence, reports AP News. He is in Africa to meet with his counterparts at a chiefs of defense conference.
The USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, the aircraft carrier leading America’s response to the Houthi attacks in the Gulf of Aden, is returning home after a twice-extended tour, reports The Associated Press. This comes despite Yemen’s Houthi rebels continued strikes against Red Sea shipping vessels traveling through the gulf. A US-led airstrike campaign has targeted the Houthis since January.
The Pentagon said it remains confident that it will be able to respond to ongoing Houthi attacks in the Red Sea after the Eisenhower’s departure, reports Military.com. Pentagon spokesman MAJ GEN Pat Ryder told reporters the Navy will “continue to work very closely with our international allies and partners toward that end when it comes to safeguarding the flow of commerce and safety of mariners in the Red Sea.”
A possible attack by Yemen’s Houthi rebels on Monday targeted a ship farther from nearly all previous assaults launched in the Gulf of Aden, reports APNews, potentially part of a widening escalation by the group.
The USS Theodore Roosevelt strike group has arrived in South Korea, reports Navy Times, for a three-way exercise involving Japan as they step up military training to cope with North Korean threats.
After seven months in port, the USS Nimitz is back at sea. The aircraft carrier, CVN 68, returned to operations on Friday, June 22, following a few days of sea trials, reports Task & Purpose.
The USNI Fleet Tracker and Marine News updates weekly a map of the approximate positions of the US Navy’s deployed carrier strike groups and amphibious ready groups throughout the world, based upon Navy public data. The most recent report, June 24, 2024, shows the US battle force at 296 ships, 61 of which are non-commissioned ships, meaning they are unarmed and crewed by civilians. Of the 108 deployed, 75 are commissioned ships, armed and crewed by US Navy sailors.
NATO appointed Mark Rutte as its next secretary-general on Wednesday, reports Defense News. The outgoing Dutch prime minister was appointed by NATO ambassadors during a meeting at the 32-nation alliance’s headquarters in Brussels. President Joe Biden and his counterparts will formally welcome him to their table at a summit in Washington on July 9-11.
With a $100,000 grant from the Heritage Foundation, Tom Jones and his American Accountability Foundation plan to post 100 names of government workers to a website this summer to show who might stand in the way of a second-term Trump agenda, focusing first on Homeland Security, reports Military.com. Digging into the backgrounds, social media posts, and commentary of top career government officials who aren’t appointees within the political structure, has provoked comparisons to the red scare of midcentury McCarthyism.
Kelly Robertson-Slagle, the director of economic development for Charles County, was featured in a Q&A in Seapower Magazine where she discussed, among other issues, how the US Navy’s planned investment at the Naval Surface Warfare Center Indian Head Division would impact the county’s economy and whether the county had the workforce it needs. She said the Navy’s $1.1 billion investment at the base will be spread across 500 infrastructure projects over the next 10 years.
Maryland offers a free tool to help defense contractors find contracting opportunities. Users can create an account to start exploring ways the Maryland Defense Network can help them. The network is a collaboration between the Maryland Department of Commerce and Towson University.
The state’s Department of Commerce also is conducting an aerospace industry survey to gauge the industry’s future workforce needs. Companies can fill out a brief survey on occupational needs and requirements. Once data is received, the state will plan conversations with leaders in the aerospace industry, Maryland’s HBCUs, and Lt. Gov. Aruna Miller (D) to discuss how to best grow the aerospace industry and create education and training partnerships. Industry representatives have indicated that they have positions that are hard to fill and would like to engage with colleges and universities to determine how to solve that problem with graduates from Maryland. Miller said last year that California, MD, has “the highest concentration of aerospace engineers in the nation,” Yahoo! reported.
GEN Kenneth Wilsbach, the Air Combat Command’s top officer, is giving all wings under his purview a month to inspect each of their airmen to ensure they adhere to the service’s dress and grooming standards and are following the service’s customs and courtesies, reports Air Force Times. Wilsbach wants to make sure all of the airmen are measuring up.
Contracts:
Reliance Test and Technology LLC, Crestview, Florida, is awarded an $86,421,108 cost-plus-fixed-fee modification (P00045) to a previously awarded contract (N0042120C0033). This modification exercises an option to provide research, development, test, evaluation, engineering, fleet and management support services required to perform aircraft engineering and developmental flight tests, as well as fleet training events for the Navy and Marine Corps air vehicle systems and trainers in support of the Atlantic Ranges and Targets Department. Work will be performed in Patuxent River, Maryland (78%); Norfolk, Virginia (13%); Dam Neck, Virginia (5%); and various locations within the continental US (4%) and is expected to be completed in June 2031. Fiscal 2024 research, development, test, and evaluation (Navy) funds in the amount of $14,616,828; fiscal 2024 operations and maintenance (Navy) funds in the amount of $4,096,339; fiscal 2024 working capital (Navy) funds in the amount of $2,709,405; fiscal 2024 research, development, test and evaluation (Defense Wide) funds in the amount of $1,071,250, will be obligated at time of award, $4,096,339 of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity.
Riverside Research Institute, Arlington, Virginia (47QRAA19D00CN), is awarded a hybrid firm-fixed-price, time-and-materials contract valued at $26,224,634 to provide engineering and technical support services to the Defense Innovation Unit Enterprise, including project management, commercial and defense engagement, due diligence, and analytical support to the portfolios, sister organizations, and supporting functional teams throughout the entirety of DIU’s acquisition lifecycle and in accordance with DIU’s unique quality standards. Fiscal 2024 research, development, test and evaluation funds are being obligated. Washington Headquarters Services, Alexandria, Virginia, is the contracting agency.
Lockheed Martin Corp., Liverpool, New York, is awarded a $29,844,630 fixed-price incentive (firm-target) modification to previously awarded contract N00024-19-C-6120 to exercise an option for Navy equipment. Work will be performed in Liverpool, New York (67%); and Millersville, Maryland (33%), and is expected to be completed by July 2026. Fiscal 2024 other procurement (Navy) funds in the amount of $7,630,326 (26%); fiscal 2024 other procurement (Navy) – spares funds in the amount of $6,953,652 (23%); fiscal 2023 shipbuilding and conversion (Navy) funds in the amount of $11,445,489 (38%); and fiscal 2022 shipbuilding and conversion (Navy) funds in the amount of $3,815,163 (13%), will be obligated at time of award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, DC, is the contracting activity.
NewBridge Partners Inc., Herndon, Virginia, has been awarded a $9,525,870 cost-plus-fixed-fee modification (P00019) to previously awarded contract FA8750-21-C-1515 for geospatial intelligence space and network architectures. The contract modification is for additional architecture development and collection orchestration capabilities to enable dynamic input from sources outside of traditional tasking methods. Specific additional activities include researching opportunities for technology insertion into the architecture developed, researching cloud and analytic ground architecture solutions, performing further modeling and simulation, developing an advanced Overhead Persistent Infrared system, and refining resourcing requirements and trade studies for advanced geospatial intelligence architectures. The location of performance is Herndon, Virginia. The work is expected to be completed Aug. 12, 2026. Fiscal 2024 research, development, test and evaluation funds in the amount $959,820 are being obligated at the time of award. Total cumulative face value of the contract is $20,160,731. The Air Force Research Laboratory Information Directorate Contracting, Rome, New York, is the contracting activity.
Falcon Transport LLC, Lanham, Maryland, was awarded an $8,046,403 indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity, firm-fixed-price contract for Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling (JBAB) school bus transportation services during base year and Option Periods One and Two. The locations of performance are JBAB, Washington D.C.; and multiple local schools off base within the National Capital Region. The work is expected to be completed July 31, 2027. This award is the result of a competitive acquisition, and five offers were received. Funds will be obligated on each issued order. The 11th Contracting Squadron, JBAB, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity (FA7060-24-D-0005).
ASRC Federal Facilities Logistics LLC,** as successor-in-interest to Science Applications International Corp., Beltsville, Maryland, has been awarded a maximum $60,000,000 firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for facilities maintenance, repair and operations supplies. This was a sole-source acquisition using justification 10 U.S. Code 2304 (a)(1), as stated in Federal Acquisition Regulation 6.302-1. This is a 180-day bridge contract with no option periods. Locations of performance are West Virginia, Virginia, and Washington, D.C., with a Dec. 27, 2024, ordering period end date. Using customers are Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2024 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (SPE8E3-24-D-0023).
Frontline King George JV LLC,* Silver Spring, Maryland, was awarded a $124,948,688 hybrid (cost-no-fee, cost-plus-fixed-fee and firm-fixed-price) contract for multifunctional base operations and maintenance support services. Bids were solicited via the internet with six received. Work will be performed at Fort Huachuca, Arizona, with an estimated completion date of June 30, 2029. Fiscal 2024 operation and maintenance, Army funds in the amount of $7,567,784 were obligated at the time of the award. Army Contracting Command, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, is the contracting activity (W9124A-24-C-0005).
MBDA Inc., Arlington, Virginia, is awarded a $16,349,952 firm-fixed-price contract modification for the purchase for the procurement of decoy rounds compatible with the Automated Launch of Expendables Decoy Launching System for the multi-mission surface combatant ships. This contract involves foreign military sales to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Work will be performed in Salisbury, England (71%); and Arlington, Virginia (29%), and is expected to be completed by June 2026. Foreign Military Sales funds for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in the amount of $16,349,952 will be obligated at time of award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was not competitively procured, in accordance with 10 U.S. Code 3204(a)(4) (formerly 2304(c)(4)) (the terms of an international agreement of treaty between the United States and foreign government or international organization, or the written directions of a foreign government reimbursing the agency for the cost of the procurement of the property or services for such government, have the effect of requiring the use of procedures other than competitive procedures). Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity (N00024-23-C-2301).
CloudLogic LLC, Falls Church, Virginia (N00189-24-D-Z029); DWBH LCC, Arlington, Virginia (N00189-24-D-Z030); Iberia Advisory LLC, Washington, DC, (N00189-24-D-Z031); Infopac Inc., Ashburn, Virginia (N00189-24-D-Z032); IT Partners Inc., Herndon, Virginia (N00189-24-D-Z033); Lynch Consultants LLC, Arlington, Virginia (N00189-24-D-Z034); Morgan Business Consulting LLC, Arlington, Virginia (N00189-24-D-Z035); MetroStrat LLC, Reston, Virginia (N00189-24-D-Z036); Michael Shannon Consulting LLC, Great Falls, Virginia (N00189-24-D-Z037); Navaide, San Diego, California (N00189-24-D-Z038); Quattro Consulting LLC, Washington, DC (N00189-24-D-Z039); Redhawk Administrative Services LLC, Milwaukee, Wisconsin (N00189-24-D-Z040); Redwood Strategy Group, Chantilly, Virginia (N00189-24-D-Z041); Significance Inc., Annapolis, Maryland (N00189-24-D-Z042); Trusted Enterprise Advisors, Alexandria, Virginia (N00189-24-D-Z043); Veta Consulting LLC, McLean, Virginia (N00189-24-D-Z044); St. Moritz Design JV LLC, Orlando, Florida (N00189-24-D-Z045); and CEXEC Inc., Reston, Virginia (N00189-24-D-Z046), are awarded an estimated $224,662,134 firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity, multiple award contract to provide services to support the sustainment and transformation of the Department of the Navy’s (DoN) financial management operations aimed at achieving the DoN’s financial strategic goals and associated objectives. The contracts will run concurrently and will include a 60-month base ordering period with an additional six-month ordering period pursuant to Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 52.217-8. If the option period is exercised, the total estimated value of the contracts combined will have a ceiling value of $249,000,000. The base period is expected to begin July 2024 and be completed by June 2029; if all options are exercised, work will be completed by December 2029. Work will be performed in multiple geographic regions: The predominance of performance will occur in the national capital region (75%), various DoN installations inside the continental US (23%); and outside the continental US (2%). More specifics on locations of work cannot be determined at this time. Fiscal 2024 operations and maintenance (Navy) funds in the amount of $18,000 will be obligated at time of award ($1,000 on each of the 18 contracts to fund the contracts’ minimum amounts) and funds will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Subsequent task orders will be funded with appropriate fiscal year operations and maintenance funds. The requirement was competitively procured for the award of multiple contracts with the solicitation posted on Navy Electronic Commerce Online and SAM.gov under a small business set-aside pursuant to Federal Acquisitions Regulation 16.504 with 50 offers received. Naval Supply Systems Command Fleet Logistics Center Norfolk, Contracting Department, Bureau of Medicine and Surgery/Financial Management and Comptroller Directorate, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is the contracting activity. (Awarded June 21, 2024)
Agile Decision Sciences LLC, a certified 8(a) program participant contractor, Huntsville, Alabama, has been awarded an $18,831,172 option exercise modification (P00002) to a previously awarded firm-fixed-price contract, HS0021-23-C-0012, for the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency (DCSA). This modification exercises Option Period One to continue to provide DCSA Program Executive Office cybersecurity support services. Work will be performed at Quantico, Virginia, with an estimated completion of June 28, 2027 (with options). Fiscal 2024 DCSA defense working capital funds in the amount of $9,637,631 were obligated at the time of award. The cumulative face value of the contract to date is $33,623,112. DCSA Contracting and Procurement Office, Quantico, Virginia, is the contracting activity.
