PG Delegate Tapped for MD US Attorney
Morning Coffee is a robust blend of links to news around the internet concerning the Naval Air Station Patuxent River 
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President Joe Biden has nominated Prince George’s County Del. Erek Barron to become the next US Attorney for Maryland, reports Maryland Matters. If confirmed, he would be the first Black person to hold the post, and the first Democrat in 20 years.
A brutal loss in a wargaming exercise last October convinced the vice chair of the Joint Chiefs GEN John Hyten to scrap the joint warfighting concept that had guided US military operations for decades, reports Defense One. “Without overstating the issue, it failed miserably,” Hyten said. Details are classified, however one key lesson learned was: gathering ships, aircraft, and other forces to concentrate and reinforce each other’s combat power also made them sitting ducks.
Senators crafting the annual defense policy bill have included a raft of provisions to bolster oversight of DoD’s cyber, electromagnetic spectrum operations, and information operations, reports C4ISRNET. The Senate Armed Services Committee seeks a voluntary program with businesses to protect against foreign malicious cyber actors and calls on the DefSec to implement a pilot program with internet companies to discover and disrupt the use of their platforms by malicious actors.
A counterterrorism organization created by tech giants, including Facebook, Twitter, and Microsoft, is expanding its monitoring and data collection of “extremist content” to include “white supremacists and far-right militias” flagged by the United Nations, reports American Military News.
“The most complex mission executed by” US Missile Defense Agency, in concert with the Navy, fired four SM-6 Dual II missiles against a “raid ” of two short-range ballistic missile targets in the “broad ocean area” northwest of Hawaii on Saturday and intercepted at least one target, reports American Military News.
The Senate continues to confirm Pentagon nominations, the latest including Ely Ratner, assistant secretary of defense for Indo-Pacific security; Heidi Shyu, as undersecretary of defense for research and engineering; Shawn Skelly, to be an assistant secretary of defense; Meredith Berger, to be assistant Navy secretary; Gina Ortiz Jones, to be undersecretary of the Air Force; and Caroline Krass, to be Pentagon general counsel, reports Defense News.
The Senate also confirmed former Pentagon acquisition chief Frank Kendall to be the 26th Air Force secretary, after defense officials assuaged the concerns of multiple lawmakers who were blocking the nominee’s path forward, reports Defense News.
The Ukrainian Navy has accepted delivery of its first Bayraktar TB2 drone from Turkish defense company Baykar, reports Defense News. Baykar won a $69 million contract in 2019 to sell six TB2 combat UAVs and ammunition to Ukraine. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, quoted in a Russian newspaper, advised “our Turkish colleagues to carefully assess the situation and refrain from fueling Kyiv’s militaristic sentiment.”
Veterans Affairs on Monday became the first major federal agency to require health care workers to get COVID-19 vaccines, reports PBS.org. The VA’s move came on a day when nearly 60 leading medical and health care organizations issued a call for health care facilities to require their workers to get vaccinated.
The US will not lift any existing travel restrictions “at this point” due to concerns over the highly transmissible COVID-19 Delta variant and the rising number of US coronavirus cases, Reuters reports and the White House confirmed on Monday. The decision means that the long-running travel restrictions that have barred much of the world’s population from the United States since 2020 will not be lifted in the short term.
The 2nd Cavalry Regiment confirmed Monday that it is “looking into” a potential equal opportunity policy violation related to a subordinate unit’s restrictions on off-duty attire for women, reports USNI.
South and North Korea have restored hotlines that North Korea severed a year ago when ties deteriorated sharply, reports Reuters. The two countries’ leaders are renewing efforts to rebuild relations, South Korea’s presidential office said Tuesday.
The former enlisted leader of the US Coast Guard Academy who abruptly resigned in April and was subsequently investigated on accusations of “alleged inappropriate conduct” was permanently relieved earlier this month, without any details released by academy officials, reports Navy Times. Brett VerHulst assumed the duties of command master chief at the academy in August 2017.
Army Reserve 1st LT Amber English won a gold medal in the women’s skeet shooting event Monday at the Tokyo Olympic games, reports Army Times. English, who narrowly missed out on qualifying for the 2012 and 2016 Olympic shotgun teams, prevailed by one target over the reigning Olympic champion Diana Bacosi of Italy. She set an Olympic record by hitting 56 of 60 targets in the event.
A Navy officer who trained for the Olympics by sprinting across the deck of a warship on patrol in the Atlantic Ocean is set to race the world’s fastest women over 100 meters in Japan, reports Stars and Stripes. Ensign Regine Tugade-Watson, 23, who graduated from the US Naval Academy in May 2020, will run for the US territory of Guam, which is sending its own contingent to this month’s games.
China showed no sign of toning down the harsh rhetoric with the US during the visit of Deputy StateSec Wendy Sherman, reports Politico. Sherman held “frank and open” talks with Foreign Minister Wang Yi and one of his deputies in the Chinese city of Tianjin earlier this week.
When a Chinese ferry joined the People’s Liberation Army Navy for an amphibious landing exercise in July 2020, observers noticed the ferry’s stern ramp had been converted to enable it to launch and recover a 26-ton amphibious armored vehicle used by the Chinese military. USNI reports on experts surmising that the ramp upgrade may indicate China’s intent to build its fleet for a possible cross-strait invasion of Taiwan.
Contracts:
Sentar Inc., Huntsville, Alabama (W900KK-21-D-0017); Lockheed Martin Rotary and Mission Systems, Orlando, Florida (W900KK-21-D-0006); Scientific Research Corp., Atlanta, Georgia (W900KK-21-D-0007); The Boeing Co., St. Louis, Missouri (W900KK-21-D-0008); The MIL Corp., Bowie, Maryland (W900KK-21-D-0009); Ad Hoc Research LLC, Havre de Grace, Maryland (W900KK-21-D-0010); Axiologic Solutions LLC, Fairfax, Virginia (W900KK-21-D-0011); Command Post Technologies Inc., Suffolk, Virginia (W900KK-21-D-0012); DigiFlight Inc., Columbia, Maryland (W900KK-21-D-0013); Dignitas Technologies LLC, Orlando, Florida (W900KK-21-D-0014); ISYS Technologies, Littleton, Colorado (W900KK-21-D-0015); Sealing Technologies Inc., Columbia, Maryland (W900KK-21-D-0016); X Technologies Inc., San Antonio, Texas (W900KK-21-D-0018); and BAE Systems Technology & Services Inc., Rockville, Maryland (W900KK-21-D-0005), will compete for each order of the $2,415,685,748 hybrid (cost-plus-fixed-fee and order-dependent) contract for site security services, range modernization and operations, event planning and execution, and information technology service management for the National Cyber Range Complex. Bids were solicited via the internet with 29 received. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of July 26, 2031. US Army Contracting Command, Orlando, Florida, is the contracting activity.
Indtai Inc., Vienna, Virginia, was awarded a $142,413,371 firm-fixed-price contract to provide support services for the U.S. Army Continuing Education System program. Bids were solicited via the internet with five received. Work will be performed in Vienna, Virginia, with an estimated completion date of Jan. 27, 2027. Fiscal 2021 operation and maintenance, Army funds in the amount of $9,100,000 were obligated at the time of the award. US Army Field Directorate Office, Fort Sam Houston, Texas, is the contracting activity (W9124J-21-C-0019).
Chugach Consolidated Solutions LLC, Anchorage, Alaska (N62473-21-D-3602); Claxton/LT JV LLC, Stafford, Virginia (N62473-21-D-3603); KGJJ Engineering Solutions JV LLC, Fort Worth, Texas (N62473-21-D-3604); and Sunik LLC, Herndon, Virginia (N62473-21-D-3605), are awarded a combined maximum-value $99,000,000 firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity, multiple-award contract for multiple-function facilities support services at various government installations in Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah. These four contractors may compete for task orders under the terms and conditions of the awarded contract. Chugach, KGJJ, and Sunik are each being awarded $500 to satisfy the guaranteed minimum. Claxton/LT JV LLC is being awarded the initial task order at $1,191,244 for airfield structures maintenance services at Marine Corps Air Station Camp Pendleton, California. Work for this task order is expected to be completed by August 2022. All work on this contract will be performed at various government installations within the Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command Southwest area of responsibility including, but not limited to California (91%); Arizona (5%); Nevada (1%); Utah (1%); Colorado (1%); and New Mexico (1%), and is expected to be completed by August 2026. Fiscal 2021 operation and maintenance (Marine Corps); and fiscal 2021 operation and maintenance (Navy) funds in the amount of $1,192,744 will be obligated at time of award, and will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was competitively procured as an 8(a) set-aside via the beta.sam.gov website, with five offers received. The Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command Southwest, San Diego, California, is the contracting activity.
Doliveira DJB JV LLC, Upper Marlboro, Maryland, is awarded a maximum-value $25,000,000 firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for design-bid-build construction services for roofing repairs and replacement at the Naval Research Laboratory, the Naval Research Laboratory Chesapeake Bay Detachment, and at the Naval Surface Warfare Center Carderock Division. Work will be performed in Maryland and Washington, DC, and is expected to be completed by July 2026. Fiscal 2021 operation and maintenance (Navy) funds in the amount of $2,000 for the minimum guarantee will be obligated at time of award and will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was competitively procured via the beta.sam.gov website, with eight proposals received. The Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command, Washington, DC, is the contracting activity (N40080-21-D-0011).
