March 29, 2024

How Will New Space Force Be Organized?

space force

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 new US Space Force is putting together a plan to bring personnel from the Army, Navy, and Marines into the new branch. The Army and the Navy departments maintain significant space capabilities and forces that so far are barred from Space Force integration under the 2020 defense bill, reports Breaking Defense. The Air Force secretary has to tell Congress by Feb. 1 how the Space Force will be organized, reports Business Insider.

More than a dozen Saudi servicemen training at US military installations will be expelled from the US after a review that followed the deadly shooting last month in Pensacola, FL, reports CNN.

The USS Carl Vinson is returning to San Diego, reports USNI News. The Navy is preparing the Vinson to take F-35C fighters on its next deployment and is expected to also deploy with CMV-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft in 2021.

The US Army will expand efforts to counter China by deploying a task force to the Pacific region capable of conducting information, electronic, cyber and missile operations against Beijing, reports Bloomberg. The unit will be equipped to hit land- and sea-based targets with long-range precision weapons.

The US approved Singapore to become the next customer of the F-35 fighter jet, reports Defense News, paving the way for a future sale.

The US Air Force’s science advisers in 2020 will launch three studies on future communications, innovation in space, and the unintended consequences of using autonomous systems, the results of which are expected to shape the service’s research investments, reports Air Force Magazine.

The Air Force Research Laboratory is looking forward to the fourth flight test of the Kratos XQ-58A Valkyrie stealth UAS, reports Avionics International. The service has reserved about $54 million in fiscal 2020 for science and technology, and experimentation for the Skyborg initiative.

Lt. Col. Rory Feely became the 49th commander of the US Naval Test Pilot School following a change of command last week, reports Southern Maryland Chronicle. Lt. Col. Feely took over from Cmdr. Glenn P. Rioux who served as the school’s commanding officer since July 2018.

 

 

US Army 2nd Lt. Kofi Appiah-Mainoo, 30, has been accused of buying guns that ended up in the hands of an alleged drug trafficker in Washington, DC, reports Task & Purpose.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s former director Steven Walker has been named vice president and chief technology officer of Lockheed Martin, reports Space News. Corp. Mr. Walker replaces Keoki Jackson, who will become Lockheed Martin’s chief engineer and VP of engineering and program operations.

Boom Supersonic, the company building a supersonic commercial airliner, announced the addition of two executives to its advisory board, reports Yahoo! Finance, Ray O. Johnson of Lockheed Martin and Mark Levy of Airbnb and Allbirds. The Denver-based company is trying to revive the dream of traveling at the speed of sound, reports Venture Beat.

The Tester takes a look back at 2019 with its recap of milestones and other big events at NAS Patuxent River.

Southern Maryland lawmakers say they intend to launch a full court press to bring commuter rail to Charles, Calvert, and St. Mary’s counties, reports Maryland Matters, even if it means raiding transportation funds earmarked for projects in other parts of the state.

Contracts:

Alutiiq Solutions LLC, Anchorage, Alaska, is awarded a $7,519,828 cost-plus-fixed-fee, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract to provide support services to include research and analysis, strategic initiative support, executive leadership management support and administrative, operational and technical program support to the Naval Air Systems Command Strategic Leadership Services Team. Work will be performed in Patuxent River, Maryland (60%); and Arlington, Virginia (40%), and is expected to be completed in February 2025. No funds will be obligated at time of award; funds will be obligated on individual task orders as they are issued. This contract was a small business 8(a) set-aside competitively procured via an electronic request for proposal; one offer was received. The Naval Air Warfare Center, Aircraft Division, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity (N00421-20-D-0007).

Modern Technology Solutions Inc. (MTSI), Alexandria, Virginia, has been awarded a cost-plus-fixed-fee contract in the amount of $11,141,208 under the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase-III program. Under this SBIR Phase III effort, MTSI will mature the technologies developed in the previous Phase I and III contracts, which relate to the acquisition and fusion of data for space situational assessments. MTSI will provide system architecture, system administration, and software engineering solutions to deliver a real-time, data-driven architecture for developing and integrating space situational awareness, and intelligence community data sources for use in algorithms, machine learning tools, and data fusion technologies for United States Air Force Space Command and their mission partners. In maintaining its role in bringing capabilities to operations, MTSI will continue to refactor existing applications and develop new applications for integration into the next-generation infrastructure that the Space and Missile Systems Center and the Air Force Research Laboratory are developing. Work will be performed at Alexandria, Virginia; and Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico, and is expected to be completed by January 2025. Fiscal 2019 research development, test and evaluation funds in the amount of $300,000 are being obligated at time of award. The Air Force Research Lab Space Electronics Branch, Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico, is the contracting activity (FA9453-20-C-0004).

International Business Machines, Bethesda, Maryland, was awarded a $145,808,087 modification (P00072) to contract W52P1J-17-C-0008 for the full range of services and solutions necessary to support and maintain the Army’s General Fund Enterprise Business System. Work will be performed in Bethesda, Maryland, with an estimated completion date of Jan. 15, 2021. Fiscal 2020 operations and maintenance, Army; research, development, test and evaluation, Army; and other procurement, Army funds in the amount of $8,922,318 were obligated at the time of the award. US Army Contracting Command, Rock Island Arsenal, Illinois, is the contracting activity.

MTS Advantage LLC (MTSA), Dumfries, Virginia (N65236-20-D-8002), is awarded a $90,820,000 single award, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity, performance based service contract utilizing cost-plus-fixed-fee task orders. The contract is for Cyber Red Team and operational test support services and provides for information assurance, cyber defense, cyber systems security and network infrastructure program management. Work will be performed worldwide and is expected to be completed by January 2026.  If the option is exercised, work would continue until July 2026. If all options are exercised, the cumulative value of the contract will increase to $99,902,000. Contract funds in the amount of $25,000 will be obligated at the time of award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract includes a five-year ordering period and one six-month option-to-extend-services in accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulation Clause 52.217-8. The single award contract was competitively procured by full and open competition after the exclusion of sources via the Naval Information Warfare Center e-Commerce Central website and the Federal Business Opportunities website, with four timely offers received. Naval Information Warfare Center Atlantic, Charleston, South Carolina, is the contracting activity.

Leidos Inc., Reston, Virginia, was awarded a $7,741,646 hybrid (cost-no-fee, cost-plus-incentive-fee, and firm-fixed-price) contract for General Electronic Test Station test equipment, installation, test program set, hardware, software, upgrades, training, engineering services and repair parts. Bids were solicited via the internet with one received.  Work will be performed in Huntsville, Alabama, with an estimated completion date of Jan. 8, 2024. Fiscal 2020 operations and maintenance, Army funds in the amount of $880,405 were obligated at the time of the award. US Army Contracting Command, Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, is the contracting activity (W31P4Q-20-C-0016).

Leave A Comment