Navy Wants More Powerful Warships

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 US Navy is asking for concept proposals for multi-mission warships that would be more heavily armed — and slower — than the littoral combat ships, reports Navy Times. These ships would be capable of shooting down airplanes, attacking other ships, and countering submarines.

When the Air Force Research Lab announced it was looking for a defense contractor to build it a high-powered fiber laser, powerful and accurate enough to shoot down hostile missiles in flight but small enough to mount on a fighter jet, Lockheed Martin was first in line, The Motley Fool reports. AFRL will pay Lockheed Martin $26.3 million to produce a prototype for installation aboard Air Force fighter jets by 2021.

The number of personal misconduct complaints involving senior military leaders spiked 13 percent over the past three years, reports Military Times. The Pentagon’s inspector general cited the issue as one of the top management concerns currently facing the military.

A senior North Korean official said his country’s nuclear weapons program targets only one country — the US, reports Yonhap News Agency. The rest of the world need not feel threatened, Ri Jong-hyok, deputy of North Korea’s Supreme People’s Assembly, said.

Air raid warning sirens will be wailing again in Hawaii come December, reports NBC News. This is due to the rising tensions between the US and North Korea and because Hawaii has long been a military defense outpost.

The recent defection of a North Korean soldier has caused great embarrassment for Pyongyang, reports The Associated Press. The drama was caught on tape and can be viewed here. Newsweek reports that North Korea is fortifying the border at the only point of the demilitarized zone where North and South Korean forces stand face-to-face. North Korean men were spotted digging a trench and planting trees where the soldier crossed.

A ghost ship carrying the remains of eight ill-fated seafarers washed ashore on Japan’s North Korean-facing coast, days after the body of a suspected North Korean man and parts of another wrecked wooden craft were discovered on a Japanese island, reports Fox News. The grisly find could be evidence of desperate defectors trying a new route to freedom.

Washington Examiner says the Pentagon is expected to reveal that about 2,000 US troops are based in Syria on an ongoing basis. Officially, there are 503 US troops in Syria, though the real number was suspected to be higher.

The US will cut off its supply of arms to Kurdish fighters in Syria, President Donald Trump told the Turkish president, in a move sure to please Turkey but further alienate Syrian Kurds, reports Fox News.

Closer ties between North Korea and Syria are fanning fears of deeper cooperation on missile technology and chemical weapons, reports CNBC News.

Officials at Laughlin Air Force Base in Texas identified the pilot who was killed in a T-38 Talon crash last week as Capt. Paul Barbour, reports Air Force Times. Barbour, of Van Nuys, California, was a 32-year-old instructor pilot with the 87th Flying Training Squadron.

Argentina’s navy says it is not giving up hope that crew members could be alive 11 days after a submarine vanished off the Atlantic coast with 44 people aboard, reports Fox News. Argentine Navy spokesman Enrique Balbi told a news conference Sunday that the passage of time doesn’t rule out “a situation of extreme survival.”

Contracts:

Saalex Solutions Inc., Camarillo, California, is being awarded a $87,250,737 cost-plus-fixed-fee, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for up to 1,198,330 direct labor hours of engineering services in support of the Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division Research and Engineering Department (AIR-4.0). This contract provides for engineering support associated with the research, development, test, evaluation, production and operational support of various weapons systems across the Naval Air Systems Command portfolio. Work will be performed in China Lake, California (70 percent); Point Mugu, California (26 percent); and Patuxent River, Maryland (4 percent), and is expected to be completed in February 2023. No funds will be obligated at time of award. Funds will be obligated on individual task orders as they are issued. This contract was competitively procured via an electronic request for proposal; six offers were received.  The Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division, China Lake, California, is the contracting activity (N68936-18-D-0012).

IAP Worldwide Services Inc., Cape Canaveral, Florida, is being awarded $58,929,261 for modification P00028 to a previously awarded firm-fixed price, cost-plus-fixed-fee contract (N00019-15-C-0120) to exercise the second option year for logistics support services on the E-6B aircraft. This contract provides for maintaining and supporting the E-6B Take Change and Move Out and Airborne Command Post aircraft, support equipment, aircraft weapon system, associated support sites, and supporting organizations. Work will be performed in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma (70 percent); Patuxent River, Maryland (10 percent); Bellevue, Nebraska (10 percent); and Fairfield, California (10 percent), and is expected to be completed in November 2018. Fiscal 2018 operations and maintenance (Navy) funds in the amount of $15,794,231 will be obligated at time of award, all of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity.

Bowhead Business and Technology Solutions LLC, Alexandria, Virginia, has been awarded a firm-fixed-price, single award, indefinite-delivery/definite-quantity contract for $19,942,300 for business enterprise systems, the ability to procure Department of Defense architecture framework compliant architectures and air staff and joint staff compliant information support plans. Work will be performed at Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama, with an expected completion date of Nov. 20, 2022. This contract was a sole-source acquisition.  Fiscal 2018 operations and maintenance funds in the amount of $4,500 are being obligated at time of award. Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama, is the contracting activity (FA8771-18-D-0001).