Oct. 18 Last Day to Register for MD Nov. 8 Election

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 deadline to register to vote in the Nov. 8 election is tomorrow, Tuesday, Oct. 18, 2022. Eligible Marylanders may register to vote using the State Board of Election’s online application page or completing an application in-person at their local board of elections office. LexLeader has more details here.

Defense News reports, the Air Force is all-in on the concept of drone wingmen, but how to build the trust? “Teaming must be built in from the very beginning,” says Heather Penney, of the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies and a former F-16 pilot. “The effectiveness of [collaboration] in combat will be primarily driven by how well they team with humans, not … the weapons and sensors they carry,” according to her paper, “Five Imperatives for Developing Collaborative Combat Aircraft for Teaming Operations.”

TSA plans to issue new cybersecurity requirements for some key aviation systems after several US airport websites earlier this week were hit with apparently coordinated denial-of-service attacks, reports Reuters. TSA said last week’s cyberattacks that were allegedly organized by pro-Russian hackers “did not disrupt airport operations or access to information.”

Traders are diverting Europe-bound tankers carrying diesel to the US East Coast as the two regions battle for supplies amid an acute shortage and soaring prices, reports Reuters.

Thousands of people across Australia’s southeast were asked to evacuate their homes on Friday, including some in a western suburb of Melbourne, after two days of incessant rains triggered flash flooding and fast-moving waters burst river banks, reports Reuters.

Widespread flooding has killed more than 500 people in Nigeria, reports Reuters and left around 90,000 homes under water and blocked food and fuel supplies. The floods have hit 27 of Nigeria’s 36 states and impacted around 1.4 million people, the ministries for humanitarian affairs and for disaster management said in an online posting.

Some same-sex spouses of veterans who were previously ineligible for survivor benefits will now be able to receive the assistance payouts under policy changes announced by the Dept. of Veterans Affairs late last week, reports Military Times. Officials said the move is designed to support same-sex couples who had been together for years but were unable to be legally married until 2015, when the Supreme Court required states to recognize same-sex relationships in the same way as heterosexual unions.

 

 

Veterans and retirees will see an 8.7% cost-of-living increase in their Social Security benefits starting in December, the largest increase in 42 years, reports Military Times.The move will directly affect about 65 million Americans receiving Social Security benefits. Administration officials said the average beneficiary will see an increase of about $140 in their monthly payouts.

CNN reports, roughly 20,000, vital, Starlink satellite units have been donated to Ukraine, by Elon Musk’s SpaceX. But SpaceX has recently warned the Pentagon that it may stop funding the service in Ukraine unless the US military kicks in tens of millions of dollars per month. Musk  tweeted on Friday the “operation has cost SpaceX $80 million and will exceed $100 million by the end of the year.”

Ukrainian diplomat Oksana Markarova expressed optimism Sunday about securing the money needed for the continued operation of the Starlink satellite network funded by Musk, reports Stars and Stripes. She did not indicate whether Musk had agreed to continue funding the service in Ukraine but said the country’s collaboration with the company has been excellent.

Russia should be finished calling up reservists in two weeks, President Vladimir Putin said on Friday, promising an end to a divisive mobilization that has seen hundreds of thousands of men summoned to fight in Ukraine and huge numbers flee the country. Reuters reports that Putin also said Russia had no plans “for now” for more massive air strikes like those it carried out this week, in which it fired more than 100 long range missiles at targets across Ukraine.

The United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday voted to condemn Russia’s annexation of four occupied areas of Ukraine amid the ongoing war, reports The Hill. Four countries of the 193-members sided with Russia: Syria, North Korea, Belarus and Nicaragua; 143 voted in favor of the resolution criticizing Russia’s “illegal so-called referendums,” with 35 abstaining.

Former President Donald Trump ordered a rapid withdrawal of all US troops from Afghanistan and Somalia in the wake of his 2020 election loss, reports Military Times, but senior officials never followed through on the plan, according to testimony released by the congressional January 6 committee on Thursday.

For the first time in 10 years, the US will not be issuing any full waivers to partner nations found to be in violation of the Child Soldiers Prevention Act of 2008, reports Military Times. The decision, announced Oct. 3 in a memorandum from the Biden Administration, confirmed that seven of the 12 countries flagged for using child soldiers in their defense forces in 2022 will not receive military funding until the issue is resolved

Contracts:

Riverside Research Institute, Arlington, Virginia, has been awarded a $49,468,966 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for the Microelectronics and Embedded System Assurance (MESA) II research and development effort. Work will be performed at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio; and Arlington, Virginia, and is expected to be completed by Jan. 14, 2028. Fiscal 2022 research and development funds in the amount of $650,941 are being obligated at the time of award. Air Force Research Laboratory, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, is the contracting activity (FA8650-23-C-1001).

Schuyler Line Navigation Co., LLC, Annapolis, Maryland (N3220518C3508), is awarded a $10,103,500 option (P00027) for the fixed-price portion of a previously awarded firm-fixed-price contract with reimbursable elements to exercise a one-year option period for the operation and maintenance of the tanker SLNC Goodwill to provide transportation of clean petroleum products in support of the Department of Defense Logistics Agency Energy. This contract includes a one-year firm period of the performance, three one-year option periods, and one eleven-month option period, which if exercised would bring the cumulative value of this contract to $60,816,000. Work will be performed worldwide and is expected to be completed, if all options are exercised, by Sept. 13, 2023. Fiscal 2023 working capital (Transportation) funds in the amount of $10,103,500 are obligated, and will expire at the end of the fiscal year. This procurement was released under full and open competition with an unlimited number of companies solicited via the System for Award Management website and five offers were received. The Navy’s Military Sealift Command, Norfolk, Virginia, is the contracting activity.

Enlighten IT Consulting LLC, Linthicum Heights, Maryland, was awarded a $29,939,470 firm-fixed-price contract for contractor support of the Cyberspace Analytics program for Program Executive Office, Enterprise Information Systems. Bids were solicited via the internet with one received. Work will be performed in Linthicum Heights, Maryland, with an estimated completion date of Oct. 13, 2023. Fiscal 2022 research, development, test and evaluation, Army funds in the amount of $1,000,000 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Rock Island Arsenal, Illinois, is the contracting activity (W519TC-23-C-0001).