More Restrictions Ordered in Effort to Slow Spread of COVID-19

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.

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan ordered all non-essential businesses to close Monday. Gov. Hogan said the order was necessary to slow the spread of COVID-19, reports The Baltimore Sun. Here is a list of businesses, organizations, and facilities that are included in the federal critical infrastructure sectors. “It’s a terrible choice,” the governor said of having to close businesses in order to save lives, reports The Cumberland Times-News.

Gov. Hogan also announced a variety of relief initiatives to help small businesses, reports The Associated Press. One of the initiatives is a $175M program to help these businesses and their workers.

The COVID-19 crisis has thrust several of America’s governors onto the national stage where state leaders have been visible almost around-the-clock, issuing directives, holding news conferences, and doing interviews. The leadership being provided by these leaders — a group that includes Maryland’s governor — contrasts greatly with the decision-making and messaging being displayed by President Trump, reports Maryland Matters.

The US Federal Reserve will lend to small and large businesses and local governments as well as extend its bond buying programs, reports The Associated Press. The announcement March 23 is part of the Fed’s ongoing efforts to support the flow of credit through an economy ravaged by the coronavirus outbreak. The Fed said it will set up three new lending facilities that will provide up to $300B by purchasing corporate bonds, buying a wider range of municipal bonds, and purchasing asset-backed securities.

Forbes says the US Small Business Administration needs to act fast or 75% of small businesses in America will go bankrupt if they don’t get access to credit in the next 60 days.

As the number of coronavirus cases mount in the San Diego region, the Navy’s US Pacific Fleet said it would stop naming the ships where sailors who test positive are assigned, reports Navy Times.

Connecticut’s defense industry is protected from some of the economic fallout of the coronavirus crisis because it is essential to the national security of the nation, reports CTMirror.org. But that doesn’t mean defense contractors are not feeling pain, and some could be forced to lay off or furlough workers if COVID-19 has a severe economic impact on those non-military clients or their supply chain is badly disrupted.

The director of the Technology and National Security Program at the Center for a New American Security said that trying to predict the supply chain’s future is “like looking into a crystal ball that is zooming by your face at 100 mph,” reports Defense News. “For companies that are predominantly defense companies, government money is likely to keep coming. The real source of disruption is if there are statewide mandated shutdowns saying: ‘Don’t go to work,’” Paul Scharre said.

Maryland hospitals are dashing to meet the call for 6,000 new beds for the coronavirus surge, reports Capital Gazette.

 

 

The commander who oversees Army bases in the Washington, DC, area has raised the threat level for the coronavirus because of a “sustained possibility of community transmissions,” reports The Washington Times.

The Defense Department has no intention of splitting the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure contract between Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services, a Pentagon spokesman told Breaking Defense.

The Pentagon made good on its word that it would test a hypersonic glide body in a flight test this year, reports Defense News, launching it at 10:30 pm March 19 from the Pacific Missile Range Facility in Hawaii. The test was deemed a success.

South Korean officials say North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles in the sea last week, reports Time magazine. Seoul’s military urged the North to  stop its “very inappropriate” military demonstrations when the world is struggling to cope with the coronavirus outbreak.

The Pentagon is asking the industry to help build ground stations it needs for multidomain operations and for sending targeting data to military networks used to fire weapons, reports C4ISRNET. Leaders are interested in a prototype ground station that can quickly process sensor data from military satellites.

Contracts:

Sabre Systems Inc., Warrington, Pennsylvania, is awarded $77,733,927 for a cost-plus-fixed-fee, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract. Work will be performed in Patuxent River, Maryland, and is expected to be complete by May 2025. This contract provides digital transformation planning and execution; enterprise alignment; technology exploration; acceleration and integration; digital/information technology (IT) consultation business intelligence; application portfolio management; system integration; enterprise architecture; design and management; web management; Navy Marine Corps Intranet/Next Generation Enterprise Network program management; IT operations; cybersecurity; information assurance; cloud services; maintenance functions; network security; automated data processing support services; digital modeling and virtual environment support; talent change management; data analytics and integration; and business process management and improvement in support for the Naval Air Systems Command Digital Group. No funds will be obligated at the time of award. Funds will be obligated on individual orders as they are issued. This contract was 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-0072).

PD Systems Inc., Springfield, Virginia, was awarded a $14,829,404 firm-fixed-price contract to maintain and sustain equipment assigned to the 63rd Army Reserve Readiness Division. Bids were solicited via the internet with two received. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of March 29, 2025. The 419th Contracting Support Brigade, Fort McCoy, Wisconsin, is the contracting activity (W911SA-20-D-3000).

Lockheed Martin Rotary and Mission Systems, Manassas, Virginia, is awarded a $29,647,813 cost-plus-incentive-fee and cost-only modification to a previously awarded contract (N00024-18-C-5218) for program management office and engineering services in support of the Surface Ship Undersea Warfare System model AN/SQQ-89(V). Work will be performed in Manassas, Virginia (78%); Syracuse, New York (12%); Lemont Furnace, Pennsylvania (6%); and Liverpool, New York (4%), and is expected to be complete by March 2021.  This contract combines purchases for the Navy (90%); and the government of Australia (10%) under the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program.  Fiscal 2016 – 2020 shipbuilding and conversion (Navy); 2018 – 2019 other procurement (Navy); 2020 research, development, test and evaluation (Navy); and FMS Commonwealth of Australia funding in the amount $23,075,308 will be obligated at the time of award. Funds in the amount of $14,387 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, District of Columbia, is the contracting activity.