McCain Decries Lack of Cyber Strategy
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.
Sen. John McCain (AZ-R), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, is running out of patience, FCW reports, when it comes to the US formulating what he considers an effective cyber strategy. “This committee has not been shy about expressing its displeasure over the lack of policy and strategy for deterring, defending against, and responding to cyberattacks,” Sen. McCain said last week at a hearing on cyber strategy and policy. He said his committee will continue to pressure the Trump administration to develop a “cyber strategy that represents a clean break from the past.” The senator also wants an ambitious plan for new ground vehicle designs and new kinds of combat units from the Army, Breaking Defense reports, but the Army isn’t on board. The service is focused on incremental upgrades to existing weapons.
President Donald Trump addressed sailors and shipboard workers in Newport News, Virginia, aboard the yet-to-be commissioned aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford. He said he would rebuild the US Navy and give the service all the resources it needs to fight and win — to include more aircraft carriers, Navy Times reports. Currently, the Navy has 10 carriers. President Trump’s plan is to have a 12-carrier fleet. The president also said, in his weekly video address recorded aboard the Ford, he wants to eliminate the defense sequester, The Hill reports.
House Armed Services Committee Chairman Rep. Joe Wilson (SC-R), told a Washington, DC, think tank that the combined leadership of the chairmen of the two armed services committee, DefSec James Mattis and President Trump will succeed in raising Pentagon spending to $640 billion in fiscal 2018, USNI News reports.
A bipartisan group of senators and representatives is urging DefSec Mattis to budget $1.5 billion a year to reinforce US forces in the Pacific to better support Asian allies, Breaking Defense reports.
RADM James Kilby said America will continue to patrol the South China Sea in the disputed region, Military Times reports. “We will be here,” RADM Kilby said on board the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson.
DoD civilian employees could see a another pay boost later this year, Military Times reports, thanks to President Trump’s federal hiring freeze. The defense appropriations bill unveiled last week by House Republicans includes provisions for a pay raise of 2.1 percent above 2016 wages, larger than the 1.6 percent base pay raise defense civilians received Jan. 1.
Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull is using the arrival in Australia of the Joint Strike Fighter jets to declare his desire to “kill” Islamic terrorists and properly fund the armed forces, The Australian reports. Two F-35s were recently delivered.
Capt. Joseph Carrigan has been relieved of his duties as the commanding officer of the cruiser Antietam after the ship ran aground while anchoring in Tokyo Bay in late January, Navy Times reports. The grounding badly damaged the ship’s two propellers and dumped about 1,100 gallons of oil into the bay.
Earlier this year, a RQ-7 Shadow drone was launched from Fort Huachuca in Arizona. The Army lost control of the drone before it was found 633 miles away. It somehow managed to fly across New Mexico, through Arizona, and finally come to rest in central Colorado, Popular Mechanics reports. Investigators are trying to figure out what happened and why.
Two NAVAIR employees won awards at the 2017 Black Engineer of the Year Awards Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Conference last month in Washington, DC, The BayNet reports.
Contracts:
L-3 Communications Vertex Aerospace, Madison, Mississippi, is being awarded $15,049,163 for firm-fixed-price modification P00063 to a previously awarded indefinite-delivery requirements contract (N00019-11-D-0010) for aircraft maintenance and logistical life cycle support for the C-12 utility lift aircraft. Work will be performed in Corpus Christi, Texas (42 percent); Patuxent River, Maryland (6 percent); Guantanamo Bay, Cuba (6 percent); Bahrain (6 percent); Atsugi, Japan (6 percent); Beaufort, South Carolina (4 percent); San Angelo, Texas (4 percent); Yuma, Arizona (4 percent); New Orleans, Louisiana (4 percent); Iwakuni, Japan (4 percent); New River, North Carolina (3 percent); Kadena, Japan (3 percent); Manassas, Virginia (2 percent); Miramar, California (2 percent); Futenma, Japan (2 percent); and Misawa, Japan (2 percent), and is expected to be completed in June 2017. Funds will not be obligated at time of award; funds will be obligated on individual delivery orders as they are issued. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity.
AAI Corp., doing business as Textron Systems, Hunt Valley, Maryland, is being awarded a $14,820,302 fixed-price-incentive modification to a previously awarded contract (N00024-14-C-6322) to exercise Unmanned Influence Sweep System options for mine countermeasure system requirements. This modification to the existing contract will provide additional units in support of mine countermeasure requirements. The system will satisfy the Navy’s need for a rapid, wide-area coverage mine clearance capability. Work will be performed in Hunt Valley, Maryland (70 percent); Slidell, Louisiana (26 percent); Hauppauge, New York (2 percent); Columbia, Maryland (1 percent); and Lemont Furnace, Pennsylvania (1 percent), and is expected to be completed by September 2018. Fiscal 2017 research, development, test and evaluation (Navy) funding in the amount of $14,820,302 will be obligated at time of award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, District of Columbia, is the contracting activity.
Defense Acquisition Support Services LLC, Long Branch, New Jersey, was awarded a $15,282,334 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for support services to US Army Communications and Electronics Command. Bids were solicited via the Internet with two received. Work will be performed in Aberdeen, Maryland, with an estimated completion date of Sept. 1, 2020. Fiscal 2017 other; and operations and maintenance (Army) funds in the collective amount of $1,700,000 were obligated at the time of the award. US Army Contracting Command, Aberdeen, Maryland, is the contracting activity (W56KGY-17-C-0007).
ABM Government Services LLC, Hopkinsville, Kentucky (W911W4-17-D-0001); CALNET Inc., Reston, Virginia (W911W4-17-D-0002); CWU Inc., Clearwater , Florida (W911W4-17-D-0003); Global Linguist Solutions LLC, Herndon, Virginia (W911W4-17-D-0004); Mid Atlantic Professionals Inc., doing business as SSI, Germantown, Maryland (W911W4-17-D-0005); Mission Essential Personnel LLC, New Albany, Ohio (W911W4-17-D-0006); SOS International LLC, Reston, Virginia (W911W4-17-D-0007); Valbin Corp., Bethesda, Maryland (W911W4-17-D-0008); and WorldWide Language Resources LLC, Fayetteville, North Carolina (W911W4-17-D-0009), will share $9,864,000,000 multiple types of contracts to procure foreign language services in support of the Defense Language Interpretation Translation Enterprise program. Bids were solicited via the Internet with 20 received. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order; with an estimated completion date of March 16, 2027. US Army Intelligence and Security Command, Fort Belvoir, Virginia, is the contracting activity.
S.B. Ballard, Virginia Beach, Virginia, was awarded a $28,180,683 firm-fixed-price contract for the construction of a training support facility. Bids were solicited via the Internet with five received. Work will be performed in Fort Lee, Virginia, with an estimated completion date of Aug. 27, 2018. Fiscal 2016 military construction funds in the amount of $28,180,683 were obligated at the time of the award. US Army Corps of Engineers, Norfolk, Virginia, is the contracting activity (W91236-17-C-0003).
Trowbridge & Trowbridge LLC, McLean, Virginia, is being awarded a $23,406,788 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract to provide information technology, system administration and cyber security solutions and related services, hardware, software, licensing, technical support, lab warranty services, technological refreshment and enhancements, complete life cycle support and customer services in support of the Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons division. Work will be performed at China Lake, California (95 percent); Point Mugu, California (3 percent); and Tucson, Arizona (2 percent), and is expected to be completed in March 2020. Working capital funds (Navy) in the amount of $600,000 will be obligated at time of award, none of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was competitively procured via an electronic request for proposals as a 100 percent woman-owned, small business set-aside; four offers were received. The Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division, China Lake, California, is the contracting activity (N68936-17-F-0142).
Science Applications International Corp., McLean, Virginia, was awarded an $8,864,000 modification (000253) to contract W31P4Q-15-A-0024 for engineering and software support services. Work will be performed in McLean, Virginia, with an estimated completion date of Feb. 18, 2018. Fiscal 2017 research, development, test and evaluation funds in the amount of $8,864,000 were obligated at the time of the award. US Army Contracting Command, Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, is the contracting activity.
Lockheed Martin Inc., Baltimore, Maryland, has been awarded an estimated $750,000,000 fixed-price with economic-price-adjustment contract for flight line spare parts. This was a competitive acquisition with three offers received. This is a five-year base contract with a three-year and a two-year option period. Locations of performance are Georgia, Oklahoma, and Utah, with a March 31, 2022, performance completion date. Using military service is Air Force. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2017 through 2022 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Aviation, Richmond, Virginia (SPE4AX-17-D-9006).
Lockheed Martin Rotary and Mission Systems, Manassas, Virginia, is being awarded a $100,443,937 cost-plus-incentive-fee and cost reimbursement modification to a previously awarded contract (N00024-15-C-6222) for procurement of Technical Insertion-16 Acoustic – Rapid-Commercial-Off-The-Shelf Insertion (A-RCI) systems, spares, and pre-cable kits. The A-RCI Technical Insertion 16 program provides significant improvements in acoustic performance by upgrading ship sensor processing. A-RCI is a sonar system that integrates and improves towed array, hull array, sphere array, and other ship sensor processing, through rapid insertion of commercial-off-the-shelf-based hardware and software. Work will be performed in Manassas, Virginia (95 percent); and Clearwater, Florida (5 percent), and is expected to be completed by December 2022. Fiscal 2017 shipbuilding conversion (Navy); fiscal 2017 and 2016 other procurement (Navy); and fiscal 2017 operations and maintenance (Navy) funding in the amount of $100,443,937 will be obligated at the time of award and $40,000 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, District of Columbia, is the contracting activity.
Lockheed Martin Corp., Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co., Fort Worth, Texas, is being awarded $20,639,536 for modification P00016 to the previously awarded low-rate initial production Lot 10 F-35 Lightning II advance acquisition contract (N00019-15-C-0003). This modification provides for airworthiness requirements, technical reviews, deficiency corrections, and chase maintenance for the Air Force, Marine Corps, Navy, non-US Department of Defense (Non-U.S. DoD) participants, and foreign military sales (FMS) customers. Work will be performed in Fort Worth, Texas (30 percent); El Segundo, California (25 percent); Warton, United Kingdom (20 percent); Orlando, Florida (10 percent); Nashua, New Hampshire (5 percent); Nagoya, Japan (5 percent); and Baltimore, Maryland (5 percent), and is expected to be completed in March 2020. Fiscal 2016 aircraft procurement (Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force); non-DoD participants; and FMS funding in the amount of $20,639,536 are being obligated at time of award, none of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract combines purchases for the Air Force ($8,462,813; 41 percent); Navy/Marine Corps ($2,115,703; 10.25 percent); non-US DoD participants ($5,204,209; 25.22 percent); and FMS customers ($4,856,811; 23.53 percent). The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity.
