Navy Recruiting Rebounds, FY24 Goals Surpassed
Performance division recruits carrying state flags march on the drill deck during US Navy Recruit Training Command’s Pass in Review at Naval Station Great Lakes, Ill., on Sept. 19, 2024. More than 40,000 recruits train annually at the Navy’s only boot camp. (US Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Christopher M. O’Grady)
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The US Navy says it has surpassed its recruiting goals for fiscal 2024, which ended Oct. 1, reports Navy Times. This comes after the service had failed to meet its accession targets for the first time ever last year. At one point, officials had projected missing recruiting targets by roughly 6,700 for FY 2024.
Navy Chief of Naval Operations ADM Lisa Franchetti, speaking to the Defense Writers Group last week, said that the Navy’s targets on surge-ready ships and recruitment are “stretch” goals, reports Federal News Network.
“Having those stretch goals — that’s going to drive more effective performance and our ability to measure ourselves along the way,” she said, while discussing her top priorities for the fleet. “Like all the goals in the NAV plan, every one of them is a stretch goal. Every one of them has a single, accountable individual that’s responsible to me. I’m responsible, but I’m holding them accountable also for getting after the goal.”
A hacking group tied to Russian intelligence — Star Blizzard — tried to worm its way into the systems of dozens of Western think tanks, journalists, and former military and intelligence officials, reports Defense News. The group targeted its victims with emails that appeared to come from a trusted source — a tactic known as spear phishing. The emails sought access to the victims’ internal systems, as a way to steal information and disrupt their activities.
The Pentagon’s Defense Innovation Unit released a solicitation last week for one-way, uncrewed aerial systems that can fly at ranges of 50 to 300 kilometers in low-bandwidth, GPS-denied environments, reports C4ISRNET. The DIU wants to build an arsenal of cheap, disposable drones and is seeking commercial vendors for systems with mass-production potential. Recent conflicts have highlighted the asymmetric impact low-cost, one-way unmanned aerial systems have on the modern battlefield, says the DIU.
The Defense Department has set aside nearly $1 billion for a loan program for companies that make in-demand defense component technologies, reports C4ISRNET. Beginning next year, tech companies can apply.
Defense firm Epirus expects to deliver a new system for zapping drone swarms out of the sky to the Marine Corps by the end of the year, reports Marine Corps Times. The long-pulse, high-power microwave technology known as Leonidas Expeditionary, can drop swarms of drones with walls of electromagnetic energy.
Leidos says its small cruise missile, called the Black Arrow, is ready for its flight test out of the back of an Air Force Special Operations Command AC-130, reports Air and Space Forces Magazine. The missile is being developed for multi-service use. The flight testing follows successful captive carry and separation tests late last year.
Leonardo DRS has opened a new facility at the US Army’s Aberdeen Proving Grounds, reports yahoo!finance. The facility will introduce an engineering lab, specialized vehicle integration bays as well as fully equipped conference rooms to increase connectivity with Leonardo DRS program personnel and technologies.
Camarillo, CA-based Saalex Corp., a leader in engineering, IT, and technical services for the aerospace, defense, and federal sectors, is moving its corporate headquarters to Washington, DC, reports PR Newswire. The new office will be located in the Navy Yard neighborhood.
House leaders are urging the Biden administration to share more technology with Australia and the United Kingdom, reports Military Times. The chairs of the House Armed Services and Foreign Affairs Committees are pushing for the US to share more defense equipment with America’s two partners in the AUKUS agreement.
L3Harris Technologies announced last month that it had received a five-year contract, worth up to $587.4 million, to deliver custom tactical jamming pods designed to modernize the US Navy’s Aerial Electronic Attack capability. The contract supports the final design efforts and manufacturing of operational prototype pods and system-level prototypes for the US Navy and Royal Australian Air Force, NAVAIR News reports. NGJ-LB is a joint cooperative program between the US Defense Department and the Australian Department of Defence.
In September, AUKUS, the security partnership of Australia, the UK and the US, announced it was seeking collaboration with Japan, Canada, New Zealand, and Korea to mark the third anniversary of the alliance, The Washington Times reported at the time.
The United States and South Korea have agreed to a new cost-sharing deal that would see Seoul spend more to host American troops, reports The Hill. In 2026, the deal stipulates that South Korea will start its contribution at roughly $1.1 billion.
The US and Great Britain launched airstrikes by fighter jets and ships on Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis on Friday, reports The Hill. More than a dozen Houthi targets were hit, going after weapons systems, bases, and other equipment belonging to the rebels.
Union and shippers have agreed to extend their current contract to Jan. 15, and longshoremen are returning to work at the Port of Baltimore and other ports from Maine to Texas, reports Maryland Matters.
A US Air Force investigation of an F-16C Fighting Falcon crash off the coast of South Korea last year found that a key instrument for measuring the jet’s position related to the horizon failed, reports Air Force Times. The $28 million jet crashed during a training flight. The pilot safely ejected before the crash, sustaining no injuries.
More than 400 new laws took effect last week in Maryland, reports Maryland Matters. They range from renaming northern snakeheads to raising some SNAP benefits. The quirkiest of the bunch may be the snakehead bill, which renamed the invasive species, nicknamed “frankenfish,” as the Chesapeake Channa.
The Maryland Department of Commerce announced that endowments to five colleges in the state were made through the Maryland E-Nnovation Initiative (MEI), a state program created to spur basic and applied research in scientific and technical fields at colleges and universities. The schools raised a total of $9.1 million in private funding for the positions, and Maryland Commerce approved matching grants totaling $8.75 million to support the endowments.
US troops stationed in Japan will no longer be allowed to drink off base during the early morning hours of 1 to 5am, reports Military Times. The new directive curtails public access to alcohol late at night after a string of alleged sexual assaults by service members there earlier this year.
Contracts:
L3 Harris Technologies Inc., Rochester, New York, is awarded a $36,913,263 firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract to procure L3Harris Technologies Inc. brand name radio equipment, including maximum quantities of 1392 amplifiers, 3070 antennas, 550 diplexers, 600 keypad display units, and 11,050 ancillary items in support of the family of specialized operations vehicles for the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division (NAWCAD), Webster Outlying Field, Special Communications Mission Solutions Division. Work will be performed in Rochester, New York, and is expected to be completed in October 2029. Fiscal 2023 procurement (Defense Wide) funds in the amount of $111,540 will be obligated at time of award, none of which will expire at the end of the fiscal year. This contract was not competitively procured pursuant to 10 US Code 3204(a)(1). NAWCAD, Lakehurst, New Jersey, is the contracting activity (N6833525D0001).
The Johns Hopkins Medical Services Corp., Baltimore, Maryland, was awarded the first one-year option period of a $511,704,789 fixed-price, commercial contract (HT9402-23-C-0006-P00007) to provide comprehensive health care services through a managed care plan, the Uniformed Services Family Health Plan, to approximately 52,000 eligible uniformed services beneficiaries in their designated geographical areas. The services to be provided include management of provider networks, medical management, enrollment, customer services, and other related requirements. The base period ran from Oct. 1, 2023, through Sept. 30, 2024, and has nine one-year option periods; the first option year is Oct. 1, 2024, to Sept. 30, 2025. No funding will be obligated at time of award, but fiscal 2025 operations and maintenance, and Medicare-Eligible Retiree Health Care Fund funds, will be obligated when made available. This contract was not competitively procured pursuant to the authority of 10 US Code 1073, Sections 722 (b) (1) and (2); 726 (b) and (c). The Defense Health Agency, Managed Care Contracting Division, Aurora, Colorado, is the contracting activity. (Awarded Sept. 30, 2024)
IT Concepts Inc., Vienna, Virginia, was awarded a firm fixed price contract task order on a sole source basis totaling $42,855,952 (HT0011-24-F-0053) for acquisition, requirements, and resource management support services in support of the Defense Medical Logistics–Enterprise Solution. This contract requires integrated information technology services and integration management to support the technical refresh to the LogiCole application, and sustainment of legacy applications until their full rationalization/consolidation into LogiCole. The contract period of performance begins on Oct. 1, 2024, and consists of a 12-month base period and three 12-month option years. A six-month extension of services pursuant to Federal Acquisition Regulation 52.217-8 Option to Extend Services is included. Fiscal 2025 operations and maintenance funds will be used for the base year. The place of performance is Fort Detrick, Maryland, and various remote locations. The Defense Health Agency, Professional Services Contracting Division, is the contracting activity. (Awarded Sept. 30, 2024)
QED Systems Inc., Virginia Beach, Virginia, was awarded a $20,185,526 firm-fixed-price contract action to provide replacement, repairs, and maintenance barge services to the Southeast Regional Maintenance Center. Work will be performed in Jacksonville, Florida (75%); with support at other continental US (25%); and outside the continental US (0%) sites. No money will be obligated at time of award. Fiscal 2025 operations and maintenance (Navy) funding in the amount of $3,802,101 will be obligated for release in increments for the first ordering period. This contract was competitively procured using small business set-aside via www.SAM.gov and three offers were received. Southeast Regional Maintenance Center, Mayport, Florida, is the contracting activity (N4002724D0003).
US Marine Management LLC, Norfolk, Virginia, is being awarded an $8,100,000 firm-fixed-price contract with reimbursable elements (N3220525C4001) for a time charter of one clean approved, US flag double-hull tanker, Shenandoah Trader, with an inert gas system and segregated ballast tanks that is capable of carrying a minimum of 235,000 bbls of clean product (intentions JA1) within the vessel’s natural segregation in designated cargo tanks with double-valve isolation. This contract is for a 150-day period of performance. Work will be performed in the Mediterranean, and worldwide, and is expected to be completed by March 2025. Working capital funds (Transportation) in the amount of $8,100,000 are obligated for fiscal 2025 and will expire at the end of the fiscal year. This contract was competitively procured with proposals solicited via the System Award Management website and three offers were received. Navy Military Sealift Command, Norfolk, Virginia, is the contracting activity (N3220525C4001).
UPDATE: Melling LLC, Alexandria, Virginia (SPE2DH-25-D-0002, $43,736,000), has been added as an awardee to the multiple award contract for medical equipment and accessories for the Defense Logistics Agency Electronic Catalog, issued against solicitation SPE2DH-21-R0002 and awarded Feb. 10, 2022. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
General Dynamics Electric Boat Corp., Groton, Connecticut, is awarded a $376,788,600 cost-plus-fixed-fee modification to previously awarded contract N00024-20-C-2120 for Lead Yard support, and development studies and design efforts related to Virginia Class submarines. Work will be performed in Groton, Connecticut (92%); McLeansville, North Carolina (6%); Newport News, Virginia (1%); and Newport and Quonset, Rhode Island (1%), and is expected to be completed by October 2025. Fiscal 2022 shipbuilding and conversion (Navy) funding in the amount of $45,981,338 (35%); fiscal 2024 research, development, test and evaluation (Navy) funding in the amount of $28,695,643 (22%); fiscal 2021 shipbuilding and conversion (Navy) funding in the amount of $22,754,592 (17%); fiscal 2023 shipbuilding and conversion (Navy) funding in the amount of $19,053,112 (15%); and fiscal 2024 shipbuilding and conversion (Navy) funding in the amount of $13,944,171 (11%), will be obligated at time of award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, DC, is the contracting activity.
