Marines Taking UAS to New Heights and Lengths

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 Marine Corps is developing an unmanned aerial system to operate from a ship and provide long-range, long-endurance capabilities for the Marine Air-Ground Task Force and potentially the Navy’s fleet and Army ground forces as well, reports USNI News.

Since World War II, the US military has always expected to fight outnumbered, Breaking Defense reports on the Marines efforts to outnumber enemies with robots, from advance robotic teams on amphibious attacks to unmanned systems flying forward of the Joint Strike Fighters.

Defense Systems reports F-35 pilots could eventually control a small group of drones, which perform sensing, reconnaissance, and targeting functions, according to Air Force chief scientist Greg Zacharias.

The New York Times reports on the Pentagon’s placement of artificial intelligence at the center of its strategy to maintain dominant military power, spending billions to build an arsenal, prompting concerns about a robot arms race and robots able to kill on their own volition.

Norway has approved a US request for a small rotational force of 300 Marines, about 1,000 miles from the Scandinavian country’s border with Russia, reports Marine Corps News. The first Marines will be a part of a “trial period,” after which Norway will determine how to proceed with rotations beyond 2017.

Navy base officials must assure local law enforcement agencies can reach them at any hour, reports the Fresno Bee from heavily redacted documents revealing details of a driver crashing through Lemoore naval base gates and then into a jet fighter, the “unique” incident that nevertheless triggered the new directive for all stateside bases.

DefSec Ash Carter suspended efforts to collect payments from California Army National Guard soldiers told to return their enlistment bonuses and announced steps to resolve thousands of cases of soldiers’ bonuses offered at the height of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, reports The Washington Post.

The military isn’t spending enough taxpayer money on morale, welfare, and recreational programs, reports Military Times. Each branch is falling short of mandated percentages,  placing a greater burden on military families to foot costs that “should be borne with taxpayer funding,” reads a DoD memo.

A thwarted terrorist attack in Germany highlights two significant challenges for Europe, according to The New York Times, handling the security risks accompanying more than a million migrants last year and the continent’s reliance on intelligence from the US to avert attacks.

On again off again, and the latest from The Washington Times, the Philippines won’t separate from the US. During a previously scheduled trip to the Philippines, Secretary of State John Kerry and Assistant Secretary Daniel Russel warned Filipino leaders not to undermine “our rich people-to-people ties,” reiterated the US commitment to honor defense treaties with the Philippines, and announced that the “relationship [between the nations] remains stable and solid and that we obviously both are going to have to work to sustain it and keep it going.”

Helicopters and grunt labor defined the US military’s grueling labor of love during the relief mission in Haiti, reported Navy Times.

Contracts:

Silicon Graphics Federal LLC, Annapolis Junction, Maryland, was awarded an $8,913,082 modification (P0007) to contract W912DY-13-G-0025 for Department of Defense high performance computing modernization program purchase of high performance computing systems, administration, and maintenance. Work will be performed in Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, with an estimated completion date of April 24, 2021.  Fiscal 2016 other procurement(Army) funds in the amount of $8,913,082 were obligated at the time of the award.  Army Corps of Engineers, Huntsville, Alabama, is the contracting activity.

G-W Management Services LLC, Rockville, Maryland, is being awarded a $9,668,364 firm-fixed-price contract for the design and the construction of the ammunition supply point expansion at Marine Corps Base Quantico. The work to be performed provides for the design and construction of a new ammunition issue and segregation building and the associated site work. The project also includes the demolition of one existing high explosive concrete magazine that has reached the end of its useful life. The contract also contains one unexercised option, which if exercised would increase cumulative contract value to $9,689,364. Work will be performed in Quantico, Virginia, and is expected to be completed by February 2018. Fiscal 2015 military construction (Navy) contract funds in the amount of $9,668,364 are obligated on this award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was competitively procured via the Navy Electronic Commerce Online website with four proposals received. The Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Washington, Washington, District of Columbia, is the contracting activity (N40080-17-C-0014).

BAE Systems, Rockville, Maryland, has been awarded an $8,142,655 option (P00006) to previously awarded contract FA8109-15-D-0001 for support of the Diminishing Manufacturing Sources and Material Shortages (DMSMS) program. Contractor will provide an additional quantity of new data loads and maintenance of previous data loads of the enterprise-wide DMSMS predictive tool. This includes determination of the present and future state of program managed systems’ bill of material, identified items status, and life cycle procurement efforts. Work will be performed at Rockville, Maryland, and is expected to be complete by Dec. 18, 2017. No funds are being obligated at the time of award. Air Force Sustainment Center, Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma, is the contracting activity.