JBAB Helps Restore Anacostia’s Mussels

Jorge Bogantes Montero, Anacostia Watershed Society stewardship program specialist, ties buckets of mussels to the docks of the marina during a mussel release event at Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling, Washington, D.C., April 1, 2022. The Anacostia Watershed Society came to JBAB to teach DC LEARN students about mussels and how they will be used to help clean the Anacostia River, while also conducting research on the best locations for mussels to live so they can clean the river. (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Stuart Bright)

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.

Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling’s 11th Civil Engineer Squadron conservation team has partnered with the Anacostia Watershed Society to restore the District’s native freshwater mussel populations in the Potomac and Anacostia Rivers. The effort, announced by the US DoD, supports the mission of the society to restore and protect the Anacostia River. “With our 3.5 miles of waterfront property, JBAB seemed like a logical partner with their effort to restore mussel populations to the region,” said Jennifer McDonnell, 11th CES environmental element chief. The mussels filter the river water, supporting a healthy ecosystem and providing underwater habitat.

Chicago scientists are testing an unhackable quantum internet in their basement closet, reports The Washington Post. Located in the bowels of a University of Chicago laboratory, a 3×3 cubby contains a slim rack of hardware discreetly firing quantum particles into a fiber-optic network. The goal: to use nature’s smallest objects to share information under encryption that cannot be broken — and eventually to connect a network of quantum computers capable of herculean calculations.

The Pentagon has approved a waiver that would allow Lockheed Martin to resume F-35 deliveries that were halted over the discovery of an alloy made using unapproved materials from China, reports Defense News.

Veterans unemployment rate stayed below 3% for the seventh consecutive month in September, continuing the best stretch for veterans job prospects in America in more than 20 years, reports Military Times.

President Joe Biden last week issued new guidance curtailing the use of armed drones outside of war zones as part of a new counterterrorism strategy that places a greater priority on protecting civilian lives, reports AP. The new policies require presidential approval before a suspected terrorist is added to the US government’s target list for potential lethal action, including drone strikes and special operations raids.

The US Navy and Marines Corps are offering gun locks to prevent suicide, hoping a barrier between a person’s suicidal impulse and taking action on that impulse can stem suicide in the ranks, reports Navy Times. The services are partnering with Veterans Affairs to distribute 200,000 gun locks to installations nationwide. The gun locks can be picked up at VA facilities across the country, as well as at local Fleet and Family Support Centers and Marine Corps Community Services locations.

NASA seeks new rockets for hurricane satellite launches after Astra failures, reports Space.com. Citing “urgent” hurricane-tracking satellite needs, NASA is on the hunt for new rockets after a launch effort failed to deliver two cubesats to space in June. NASA is asking more companies to bid for launching its TROPICS satellite line in 2023 after its initial provider, Astra, lost a rocket carrying two TROPICS cubesats during the debut launch on June 12. (The cause remains under investigation.)

A Mississippi barge backup is stalling millions of tons of cargo, reports gCaptain. Prolonged drought is jeopardizing waterborne trade along the Mississippi River, a basin that produces 92% of the nation’s agricultural exports. As of Friday, the river was still closed near Stack Island, MS, and Memphis, TN. That has resulted in a backup of more than 2,000 barges at various points, according to the US Coast Guard. Dredging activities are currently paused, and officials plan to reopen the waterway with restrictions when it has been determined safe to do so.

 

 

Russia has appointed Sergei Surovikin, an Army general who also oversees Russia’s air force, as a new commander to lead all of its forces in Ukraine as the Kremlin’s war marches into its eighth month. CNB reports, Surovikin had  previously led Russian forces in Syria. His new role will involve galvanizing Russian troops after a slew of setbacks, including heavy losses of troops and equipment, and the forfeiture of thousands of square miles of occupied territory.

Hawaii’s health department has conditionally approved the pipeline defueling phase of the DOD’s plan to start removing fuel from the Navy’s Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility, reports USNI. The Navy will begin removing fuel from the three pipelines in the next week.

Biden’s proclamation pardoning thousands of Americans federally charged with simple possession of marijuana does not apply to the US military, reports Military.com. The pardon does not extend to offenses under the Uniform Code of Military Justice which applies to active-duty military service members and some retirees accepting a pension.

The Supreme Court listened to arguments last week in a case to determine whether veterans with disabilities can collect decades’ worth of retroactive benefits from the Veterans Administration, reports Military Times.

A task force focused on soldier lethality is adding new initiatives to its portfolio, they include lighter Javelin missiles and robot dogs as infantry battle buddies, reports Military Times.  The Close Combat Lethality Task Force, established in 2018 under DEFSEC Jim Mattis, also pushed for the Next Generation Squad Weapon, a 6.8mm intermediate-caliber replacement for the M4 for close combat troops, which was selected this year and begins fielding to troops in 2023.

Rebecca O’Brien, a lead plans specialist at Fort Rucker, AL, was granted nearly $154,000 in damages for sexual harassment, physical assault, and retaliation she suffered at the hands of civilians and officers, reports Military.com.

North Korea launches two missiles after US-South Korea drills, reports Military Times. North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles toward its eastern waters on Sunday, the latest of a recent barrage of weapons tests, a day after it warned the redeployment of a US aircraft carrier near the Korean Peninsula was inflaming regional tensions. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement that it detected two missile launches Sunday between 1:48 and 1:58am from the North’s eastern coastal city of Munchon. It added that South Korea’s military has boosted its surveillance posture and maintains a readiness in close coordination with the United States.

US and allied forces joined together last week in a response to previous missile tests out of North Korea, reports Air and Space Forces Magazine. DoD released video showing four South Korean Air Force F-15K Slam Eagles and four USAF F-16 Fighting Falcons in a combined attack squadron to strike the uninhabited South Korean island of Jikdo in the Yellow Sea. An F-15 dropped two guided bombs, hitting the target. The exercise showed that the two air forces can conduct precision strikes to take out threats.

The Pentagon is on track for a $9 billion cloud contract award after abandoning JEDI, reports C4istnet. The pivotal Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability contract is a potential $9 billion successor to the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure arrangement, or JEDI. The DoD is working to institute the follow-up JWCC as pressure builds to more effectively process data and seamlessly connect forces across land, air, sea, space and cyber, a concept dubbed Joint All-Domain Command and Control.

The return of Aztec floating farms gives a sustainable edge to modern farming, reports BBC. In Mexico City, hundreds of tourists throng the canals of Xochimilco every weekend for a flamboyant display of sombreros, food, music and art. As they cruise alongside the chinampas, or “floating gardens,” most remain oblivious to the fact that they are looking at an ancient engineering wonder. These man-made island-farms are the last vestiges of a massive 14th-Century land reclamation project of the Aztec Empire that continues to feed the people of Mexico City even today.

Competition heats up for Army’s future tactical UAS, reports Military Times. In 2018, the Army began considering requirements for a replacement for the Textron-made Shadow drone, widely used, but accident-prone, difficult to deploy, and with a loud engine allowing easy detection.

Nobel Prize in economics awarded to three US economists, including Ben Bernanke, for work on financial crises, reports CNN. In addition to  former Federal Reserve chair Bernanke, Douglas Diamond and Philip Dybvig were recognized for their work in the early 1980s, which the institute said provided the foundation for our modern understanding of why banks are needed, their chief vulnerabilities, and how their collapse can fuel financial meltdowns.

Contracts:

Kearney & Company, PC, Alexandria, Virginia, is being awarded a fixed-price and labor-hour contract with a maximum value of $49,238,991 for the audit of the financial statement of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) civil works, and the financial statements for the agencies owning the funds sub-allotted to USACE military programs for fiscal years 2023-2027. Work will be performed in Washington, D.C., and other locations inside and outside of the U.S., with an expected completion date of Dec. 31, 2027. The contract has a 12-month base period with four individual one-year option periods. This contract is the result of a competitive acquisition for which two quotes were received. Fiscal 2023 Army Corps of Engineer civil works revolving funds in the amount of $9,381,934 are being obligated subject to the availability of funds at the time of the award. The Defense Finance and Accounting Service, Contract Services Directorate, Columbus, Ohio, is the contracting activity (HQ0423-23-F-0016).

WGL Energy Services, Inc., Vienna, Virginia, (SPE604-23-D-8003, $291,252,291); Constellation NewEnergy, Inc., Baltimore, Maryland, (SPE604-23-D-8000, $89,242,032); MP2 Energy NE LLC, Woodlands, Texas, (SPE604-23-D-8002, $70,361,108) and Direct Energy Business, LLC, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, (SPE604-23-D-8001, $16,308,321) have each been awarded a firm-fixed-price requirements contract under solicitation SPE604-22-R-0406 for supply and delivery of retail electricity and ancillary/incidental services. These were competitive acquisitions with six responses received. These are two-year contracts with no option periods. Locations of performance are Washington, D.C., Illinois, Ohio, Maryland, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, with a Dec. 31, 2024, performance completion date. Using customers are Army, Navy, Air Force, Department of Agriculture, Defense Department, Department of Energy, Department of Health and Human Services, and Department of Homeland Security. Using customers are solely responsible to fund this contract and vary in appropriation type and fiscal year. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Energy, Fort Belvoir, Virginia.