More Restrictions, Closures Due to COVID-19 Threat

Soldiers prescreen personnel entering US Army Garrison Casey in South Korea for symptoms of the new coronavirus, COVID-19. (Photo by Army Sgt. Amber Smith)

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.

More restrictions and closures are now in place. Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan announced the closure of bars, restaurants, movie theaters, and gyms effective at 5 pm Monday, March 16, to stem the spread of coronavirus, reports The Washington Post.

Pentagon officials have issued a total domestic travel ban for all troops, civilian personnel, and their families until May 11 in an effort to limit their potential exposure to the coronavirus, reports Military Times. Additional information and FAQs on the travel restrictions can be found on DoD’s website.

Using data compiled by Johns Hopkins University Center for Systems Science, this map shows where there have been confirmed cases of COVID-19 around the world, reports The Baltimore Sun.

The number of people testing positive for the virus in Maryland has risen since yesterday. That number is now at 37 as of 5 pm Monday, March 16, according to the Maryland Department of Health.

The Defense Department’s headquarters near Washington, DC, is instituting new restrictions to entry and encouraging personnel to work from home as the coronavirus continues to spread, reports Military.com.

A sailor assigned to the amphibious assault ship Boxer tested “presumptive positive” for the new strain of coronavirus, marking the first case for a sailor on board a Navy ship and the second known patient from Naval Base San Diego, reports Navy Times.

The Maryland General Assembly will end this year’s session on Wednesday, March 18, reports Maryland Matters. The session had been scheduled to run until April 6. Legislators hope to convene a special session in May.

James Taiclet has been selected as the new president and CEO of Lockheed Martin, reports Defense News.

The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter still suffers from hundreds of unresolved design flaws, according to a new report from Project on Government Oversight, dozens of which the Defense Department has no plan to correct, reports Task & Purpose.

Marine Corps leaders are looking forward to ramping up CH-53K heavy-lift helicopter production after military and industry leaders agree the program’s technical challenges are behind them, reports USNI News.

 

 

Turkish and Russian troops began joint patrols Sunday on a highway in northwestern Syria, reports The Washington Times, while both the Russian government and Syrian opposition activists said the patrols were shortened because of protests. Patrols are part of a cease-fire agreement between Turkey and Russia.

Two American aircraft carriers are sailing in the Middle East for the first time since 2012, reports Breaking Defense, a deployment which joins a large new Marine force and the repositioning of Patriot batteries to Iraq.

Although the US Army has the capability to curtail air and missile attacks — like the one in Iran last week that killed three people — the Army has concerns about using it, reports Army Times. Army leaders say there are problems with how Iron Dome will fit into their vision of a future array of integrated missile defenses. Unlike other equipment, Iron Dome can’t share targeting information with existing radars and launchers.

The Army is accepting applications from soldiers interested in being the next astronaut, reports Army Times. For the first time ever, a service branch conducted an enlistment ceremony from space. More than 800 soldiers-to-be from across the country took an oath administered by Army colonel and current International Space Station tenant, Andrew Morgan. The ceremony was the product of a partnership between NASA and Army Recruiting Command, Army Times reported in late February.

Space Force needs to prepare for a new Cold War in Earth’s orbit, reports Digital Trends. “The bottom line,” said retired three-star general Chris Bogdan, “is that we want to learn how to fight in space. Just as we know how to fight on air, land, sea, and, in some respects, in cyberspace. Space is a new warfighting domain. Our job is to try and help the Department of Defense to become space warfighters.”

SpaceX aborted its latest rocket launch Sunday after countdown, reports Bloomberg. A power issue caused automatic shutdown after the zero count.

Contracts:

Naval Systems Inc., Lexington Park, Maryland, is awarded a $28,181,538 cost-plus-fixed-fee, cost reimbursable, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract. This contract provides program management, lifecycle logistics, business process improvement, functional assessment, data and gap analysis, engineering requirements as well as management and requirements analysis in support of the Aviation Logistics Environment. Work will be performed in Norfolk, Virginia (70%); Patuxent River, Maryland (28%); and San Diego, California (2%), and is expected to be complete by March 2025. No funds will be obligated at the time of award. Funds will be obligated on individual orders as they are issued. This contract was a small business set-aside, competitively procured via an electronic request for proposal. Three offers were received. The Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity (N00421-20-D-0019).

Maersk Line Ltd., Norfolk, Virginia, was awarded a $13,419,452 modification (000182) to contract W52P1J-14-G-0023 for logistics support services for the Enhanced Army Global Logistics Enterprise (EAGLE) program. Work will be performed in Yokohama, Japan, with an estimated completion date of Feb. 16, 2021. Fiscal 2020 operations and maintenance, defense funds in the amount of $13,419,452 were obligated at the time of the award. US Army Contracting Command, Rock Island Arsenal, Illinois, is the contracting activity.