New NAVSEA Commander Takes Helm

VADM William Galinis, right, and VADM Thomas Moore salute Galinis’ flag during the Naval Sea Systems Command change of command ceremony at the Washington Navy Yard on Friday. (Photo by Laura Lakeway/Released)

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.

VADM Bill Galinis took over command of Naval Sea Systems Command last week, reports USNI News. He relieves VADM Thomas Moore, who is retiring after 39 years in the service. VADM Galinis’ most recent assignment was program executive officer for ships, one of five PEOs affiliated with NAVSEA that oversees surface combatant, amphibious ship, expeditionary ship, and connector programs.

Carl Hager, a Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division engineer, was named a 2020 Warfare Centers Award winner, NAVSEA reports. Mr. Hager will be presented the Innovation Award for contributions to a novel approach that characterizes the likelihood of radio frequency overexposure affecting personnel during helicopter landings on the USS Gerald R. Ford. Engineer Edward Tersine of the Naval Surface Warfare Center Indian Head Explosive Ordnance Disposal Technology Division earned the Dr. Delores M. Etter Award for Top Scientists and Engineers, NAVSEA also reports.

Under the House’s defense budget policy bill, service members would see a 3% pay raise, more child care options at bases with 24-hour duty shifts, and a new basic needs allowance for low-income military families, reports Military Times. The bill is expected to be released this week.

The Office of Personnel Management wants to help certain federal employees, whose essential services are needed to respond to the ongoing pandemic, hold on to the annual leave they’d otherwise have to forfeit at the end of the year, reports Federal News Network. The regulations on annual leave will apply to federal employees only in specific circumstances.

Shipyard workers at Bath Iron Works in Maine voted Sunday to strike, stopping work on six new Arleigh Burke-class destroyers, and the last of three Zumwalt destroyers, reports Breaking Defense.

Defense News reports that unmanned surface vessels are all the rage in the DefSec’s office, and the Navy has lined up behind the robot warship effort. But Congress remains skeptical.

A second wave of Marines sent to Australia as part of the US Marine Corps’ annual training rotation has now entered mandatory quarantine, reports Marine Corps Times. The first wave has been released from a quarantine facility.

The US State Department says COVID-19 infections have been reported at its embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, and the staff who are affected include diplomats, contractors, and locally employed staff, reports Stars and Stripes.

 

 

The United Nations on Sunday released a report expressing concerns over “deliberate attacks” against health care workers and facilities in Afghanistan during the pandemic, reports Stars and Stripes. Twelve incidents were documented between March 11 and May 23.

The US Air Force says it is “eager” to begin the cleanup of a PFAS-tainted mars near the former Wurtsmith Air Force Base in Michigan, reports Detroit Free Press, but locals are skeptical since they’ve heard no specifics. “Based on their track record, I’m not optimistic the problems will get resolved …, Oscoda Township Supervisor Aaron Weed said.

Personal-finance website WalletHub ranks the Most Patriotic States in America. See where Maryland sits in the rankings.

There will be some changes for “A Capitol Fourth” in downtown Washington, DC, reports WTOP News. The event usually held on the Capitol’s West Lawn will be pretaped. The 90-minute special will air on PBS at 8 pm July 4. The fireworks, however, will be carried live during the broadcast.

Chief Master Sgt. JoAnne Bass, the current command chief for Second Air Force, has been selected to be the next chief master sergeant of the Air Force.
Bass will become the 19th chief master sergeant of the Air Force, the service said Friday. She will be the first woman to serve as the highest-ranking noncommissioned officer in any of the United States military services, though a woman previously served as the chief enlisted advisor for the National Guard Bureau.

Stargazers in Africa, Asia, and parts of the Middle East looked to the skies last weekend to witness a partial solar eclipse, reports The Associated Press. It was called “ring of fire” because the moon covered most, but not all, of the sun.

Meteorologists are working to verify the temperature in the Siberian town of Verkhoyansk, Russia, that reportedly reached 100 degrees on Saturday, the hottest on record for an area inside the Arctic Circle, reports UPI.

SpaceX plans its next Falcon 9 launch for 5:22 pm today, June 23, reports Florida Today. The rocket will carry 60 Starlink satellites for the company’s 10th internet constellation mission.

The second installment of The San Diego Union-Tribune’s Phenomenal Women series features astronaut Sally Ride, the first woman in space. Ms. Ride encouraged girls’ interest in science with her namesake educational program.

Contracts:

The Boeing Co., Seattle, Washington, is awarded a $9,000,000 modification (P00004) to firm-fixed-price order N00019-19-F-2963 against previously issued basic ordering agreement N00019-16-G-0001. This modification procures research and development support for airworthiness assessment activities associated with wing stores and configurations to be analyzed with the Wideband Satellite Communication radome for P-8A airworthiness certification and flight tests for the Navy and government of Australia. Work will be performed in Seattle, Washington (85%); and Patuxent River, Maryland (15%), and is expected to be complete by September 2021. Fiscal 2020 research, development, test, and evaluation (Navy) funds for $500,000; and foreign cooperative project funds for $3,000,000 will be obligated at time of award, none of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity.

General Dynamics Electric Boat Corp., Groton, Connecticut, is awarded an $869,043,785 cost-plus-fixed-fee and cost-plus-incentive-fee modification to previously awarded contract N00024-17-C-2117. This modification includes continued design completion, engineering work, affordability studies and design support efforts for the Columbia Class fleet ballistic missile submarines (SSBNs). Work will be performed in Groton, Connecticut (41%); Quonset Point, Rhode Island (14%); and Newport News, Virginia (2%), with other efforts performed at various sites throughout the US (43%). This modification also includes submarine industrial base development and expansion efforts as part of the integrated enterprise plan and multi program material procurement supporting Columbia SSBNs and the nuclear shipbuilding enterprise (Virginia class and Ford class). The contract modification also provides additional United Kingdom (U.K.) Strategic Weapon Support System kit manufacturing and effort to support expansion of the domestic missile tube industrial base. Specific effort includes design completion associated with the SSBN 827 technical variance documentation; non-recurring design effort for scope changes between the SSBN 826 and SSBN 827; design for affordability; lead ship component development lead yard support; follow ship lead yard support; and implementation of enhanced cyber security measures. Further, the action includes UK Strategic Weapon Support System kit manufacturing; expansion of the domestic missile tube industrial base; and submarine industrial base supplier development efforts. The submarine industrial base development and expansion efforts improve sub-tier vendor stability and gains economic efficiencies based on production economies for major components. The nuclear shipbuilding industrial base continues to ramp up production capability to support the increased demand associated with the Navy’s Force Structure Assessment. Improved capacity at the sub-tier vendors reduces risk across nuclear shipbuilding programs. The contract modification includes a fully priced option for the construction of SSBN 826 and SSBN 827, associated design and engineering support. For SSBN 827, the modification covers advance procurement, advance construction and subsequent fiscal 2024 construction of SSBN 827. This option is required to support October 2020 construction start of the SSBN 826. If the option is exercised, the cumulative value of this contract will increase to $9,473,511,245. Work is expected to be complete by December 2031. The industrial base development work is for the furtherance of the fiscal 2020 National Defense Authorization Act (Public Law 116-92) and the Consolidated Appropriations Act 2020 (Public Law 116-93), which authorized and appropriated additional funds for submarine industrial base development and expansion to ensure second and third-tier contractors are able to meet increased production requirements. This is a joint US and UK program; US fiscal 2020 national sea-based deterrence funds in the amount of $31,903,052 will be obligated at the time of award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity.

FGS LLC, La Plata, Maryland, is awarded a $9,760,698 firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract. This contract procures network video teleconference equipment for the integrated command control and intelligence divisions integration of specialized network video teleconference systems in support of the command, control, communications, computers, cyber, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions of the Joint Staff and combatant commanders, Department of Defense agencies and services, and Department of Homeland Security operational and support components. Work will be performed in La Plata, Maryland, and is expected to be complete by June 2022. No funds will be obligated at the time of award, but will be obligated on individual orders as they are issued. This contract was competitively procured via an electronic request for proposal and two offers were received. The Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division, Lakehurst, New Jersey, is the contracting activity (N68335-20-D-0029).

Innovative Defense Technologies LLC, Arlington, Virginia, is awarded a $9,738,679 cost-plus-fixed-fee order (N68335-20-F-0349) against previously issued basic ordering agreement N68335-19-G-0036. This order provides for continued research and development efforts under Small Business Innovation Research topic N171-012, titled “Transition of Mission Planning Software to a Next Generation Component Based, Open Architecture using Advanced Refactoring Technology;” topic N07-137, titled “Artifact Assessment Tool Suite Infrastructure;” and topic N171-049, titled “Cyber Resiliency via Virtualization for Combat System.” Work will be performed in Huntsville, Alabama (58%); Mt. Laurel, New Jersey (20%); Arlington, Virginia (20%); and Fall River, Massachusetts (2%). This order provides further research and development of the Next-Generation Open Architecture (NGOA) Mission Planning System. The NGOA Mission Planning System includes a combat management system architecture that enables rapid software changes and fleet fielding, and an artificial intelligence/machine learning based dynamic mission planning capability that spans fleet-level and individual platform-level planning. Work is expected to be complete by June 2021. Fiscal 2019 research, development, test and evaluation (Navy) funds for $9,403,719 will be obligated at time of award, all of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division, Lakehurst, New Jersey, is the contracting activity.