New NavSec Braithwaite Confirmed

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 Senate confirmed late last week Kenneth Braithwaite as the new Navy secretary, reports Politico. The NavSec post has been vacant since November when Richard Spencer was fired. Mr. Braithwaite’s military experience, diplomatic credentials and experience in legislatire affairs qualify him for the role, reports CNN.

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket is set to launch tomorrow, May 27, from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, reports Space.com, with Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley aboard. Mr. Hurley, a Marine fighter pilot trained at NAS Pax River in 1997, according to his NASA bio. After graduation from test pilot school, he was assigned to Naval Strike Aircraft Test Squadron (VX-23). There is a chance that weather conditions could stall the launch, reports Forbes. If the launch has to be scrubbed Wednesday, the next window is Saturday.

A gunman’s attack on Naval Air Station Corpus Christi in Texas on Thursday injured one sailor, reports Navy Times, and is being treated as an act of terrorism.

The FBI said last week that Pensacola Naval Air Station shooting suspect Mohammed Alshamrani had communicated directly with al-Qaeda operatives in a December 2019 attack that they described as “a brutal culmination of years of planning and preparation,” based on newly revealed evidence obtained from the shooter’s iPhones, reports ABC News.

The Pentagon is bracing for a manpower gap this year, reports Military Times, after the COVID-19 pandemic is forcing the services to slow their intake of new troops. But across the military, uncertainty about future jobs or college opportunities is driving more service members to re-enlist or at least postpone their scheduled departures.

The Air and Space forces are speeding efforts to adopt 3-D printing as a major pillar of force sustainment, reports Breaking Defense, now making critical spare parts for weapon systems. “Additive and advanced manufacturing [has] been going like gangbusters …,” Air Force acquisition head Will Roper said. “We’re starting to print parts for satellites, including propulsion.”

Some US firms are canceling internships during the pandemic, but some aerospace and defense companies are finding ways to make sure their temporary hires can still show up, if only virtually, reports Defense One.

 

 

Hotcars.com lists five military drones that aren’t threatening at all and 10 that are remote-controlled monsters. They come in all shape and sizes to fulfill a variety of missions.

Isolation and stress from the coronavirus pandemic could increase veterans’ chances of suicidal thoughts, reports Military Times, but health experts are warning that the worst impacts to their mental health could come after the immediate crisis is over.

The US Army Corps of Engineers will decommission and dismantle the SM-1 nuclear power plant at Fort Belvoir, reports The Connection, starting this summer. The nuclear facility has sat dormant for years.

Kris Parker, Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division deputy director for small business, was chosen as the winner of the 2020 Small Business Person of the Year (Government) Award, reports NAVSEA. The award is given by Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association (AFCEA) International.

Capt. Robert Burgess assumed command May 14 of the Aviation Common Support Equipment Program Office (PMA-260) at NAS Pax River, reports Southern Maryland Chronicle. He replaces Capt. Tom Dall, who will retire from the Navy after 37 years of service.

Cmdr. Jared Goul became the 25th commanding officer of Air Test and Evaluation Squadron (VX) 20 during a ceremony at NAS Pax on May 7, taking over from Cmdr. Matthew Tharp, reports dcmilitary.com.

Jake Heibel, principal of Great Mills High School, was among the finalists for The Washington Post 2020 Principal of the Year Award, the Post reports.

Contracts:

AECOM-BAKER-CARDNO NAVFAC Atlantic Planning JV, Arlington, Virginia, is awarded a $95,000,000 maximum amount, firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity, architect-engineering contract for architect-engineer services for preparation of Navy and Marine Corps planning and engineering services for work located primarily in the continental US East Coast, but also worldwide. The work to be performed provides for: (a) Plans: global shore infrastructure plans; installation development plans; regional integration plans; functional plans; maintenance and sustainment plans; integrated product support plans; encroachment action plans; family housing and bachelor quarters comprehensive neighborhood plans; activity overview plans; and installation appearance plans; (b) Project Planning Documents: the preparation of military construction project planning documentation; preparation of construction cost estimates, preliminary and parametric cost estimates and siting-land use studies/analyses; special site approvals; economic analyses; asset evaluations; basic facility requirements documentation; facilities planning documents; preliminary hazard analyses; preliminary hazard lists, and sustainable design studies; (c) Studies: concept studies; special planning studies, business case analysis studies and traffic/parking/movement studies; facilities planning studies, feasibility studies, safety studies and air installation compatible use zones; range air installation compatible use zones studies; site studies; facilities life cycle studies; activity planning and management models and electronic land use/planning tools/studies. Work is expected to be complete by May 2025. No task orders are being issued at this time. The term of the contract is not to exceed 60 months. Fiscal 2020 operations and maintenance (Navy) (O&M,N) contract funds in the amount of $10,000 are obligated on this award and will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Future task orders will be primarily funded by O&M, N. This contract was competitively procured via the Navy Electronic Commerce Online website and two proposals were received. The Naval Facilities Engineering Command Atlantic, Norfolk, Virginia, is the contracting activity (N62470-20-D-0006).

Lockheed Martin Corp. Rotary and Mission Systems, Baltimore, Maryland, is awarded a $48,965,154 firm-fixed-price modification to previously awarded contract N63394-20-C0004 to exercise options for launch sequencer MK 5 Mod 2 production units in support of the Vertical Launch System. Work will be performed in Oldsmar, Florida. The Vertical Launch System provides area and self-defense, anti-air warfare capabilities, counter-air and land attack cruise missile defense and surface and subsurface warfare capabilities. Work is expected to be complete by April 2022. Fiscal 2019 shipbuilding and conversion (Navy) funds in the amount of $48,965,154 will be obligated at time of award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Surface Warfare Center, Port Hueneme Division, Port Hueneme, California, is the contracting activity.

Management Services Group Inc., doing business as Global Technical Systems, Virginia Beach, Virginia, is awarded a $24,385,746 firm-fixed-price modification to previously-awarded contract N00024-20-C-5608 for procurement of network, processing and storage (NPS) technical insertion (TI) 16, modification (MOD) 1 production equipment, which provides computer processing and memory, data storage and extraction, network systems and input/output interfaces to host software applications of Navy combat systems. This contract combines purchases for the Navy (62%) and the government of the Commonwealth of Australia (38%) under the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program. Work will be performed in Virginia Beach, Virginia. The NPS program consists of enterprise products in use across surface Navy combat systems which introduce powerful, commercially available, off-the-shelf processors as part of a general strategy to achieve a modular and open architecture design. NPS is comprised of two different common processing system enclosure assemblies and three variants: advanced storage area network, core computing system, and air-cooled processing and storage subsystem. Aegis weapon system Aegis modernization upgrade equipment systems are also included in this procurement and align requirements to include the Aegis local area network interconnect system, Aegis conversion equipment group Input/Output 1 and 2, and digital video display system. Work is expected to be complete by December 2021. Fiscal 2020 shipbuilding and conversion (Navy) funds; FMS Australia funds; 2015 shipbuilding and conversion (Navy) funds; 2016 shipbuilding and conversion (Navy) funds; and 2020 other procurement (Navy) funds in the amount of $24,385,746 will be obligated at time of award, and funds in the amount of $39,356 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, DC, is the contracting activity.

Innovative Defense Technologies LLC, Arlington, Virginia, is awarded a $22,506,572 modification (P00007) to previously awarded cost-plus-fixed-fee contract N00014-19-C-1054 for the Cloud to Edge Environment. This modification adds Options 5 through 10, and exercises Options 5, 9 and 10, which increases the contract value by $22,506,572. Under this modification, the contractor will continue work to deliver a secure development and operations (SecDevOps) environment enabling cloud-based collaborative development, simulation, testing and certification of evolving Navy software systems. Work will be performed in Arlington, Virginia (68%); Mount Laurel, New Jersey (23%); Washington, DC (6%); Rhode Island (2%); and various places below 1%. Work is expected to be complete by February 2022. Fiscal 2019 research, development, test and evaluation (Navy) funds in the amount of $77,844 are obligated at the time of award and will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Fiscal 2020 research, development, test and evaluation (Navy) funds in the amount of $20,453,641 are obligated at the time of award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Office of Naval Research, Arlington, Virginia, is the contracting activity.

AECOM Management Services Inc., Germantown, Maryland, was awarded a $10,507,113 modification (0001BW) to contract W52P1J-12-G-0028 for logistics support services, including maintenance, supply and transportation. Work will be performed at Fort Polk, Louisiana, with an estimated completion date of Nov. 17, 2020. Fiscal 2020 operations and maintenance (Army) funds in the amount of $10,507,113 were obligated at the time of the award. US Army Contracting Command, Rock Island Arsenal, Illinois, is the contracting activity.

Affigent LLC, Herndon, Virginia, was awarded an $11,312,007 firm-fixed-price contract for Oracle Premier Support maintenance on previously acquired licenses. Bids were solicited via the internet with two received. Work will be performed in Herndon, Virginia, with an estimated completion date of May 24, 2022. Fiscal 2020 operations and maintenance, Army funds in the amount of $8,983,911 were obligated at the time of the award. US Army Contracting Command, Rock Island Arsenal, Illinois, is the contracting activity (W52P1J-20-F-0356).

Carahsoft Technology Corp., Reston, Virginia, has been awarded an $81,000,000 firm-fixed-price contract to deliver a software development and information technology operations environment to support the Space Command and Control Division under the Cross Mission and Ground Communications Enterprise Corps. This contract provides support for the creation and implementation of the development operations goal of increasing the velocity of software delivery (agile software development). Work will be performed in El Segundo, California, and is expected to be completed by May 21, 2023. The total cumulative face value of the contract is $81,000,000. Fiscal 2020 research, development, test and evaluation funds in the amount of $10,311,555 are being obligated at the time of award. Space and Missile Systems Center, Los Angeles Air Force Base, California, is the contracting activity (FA8806-20-F-0003).