Reports of Abuse, Neglect Surface at Vets Home

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.

Maryland lawmakers and advocates are concerned about reports of neglect and abuse of residents at the Charlotte Hall Veterans Home, reports Maryland Matters. This disclosure led the state to cancel its contract with HMR Maryland, the company that has managed the facility since 2002.

A member of the US Army’s Golden Knights parachute team died from injuries sustained during a training jump at Homestead Air Reserve Base in Homestead, FL, reports The Associated Press. Sgt. 1st Class Michael Ty Kettenhofen joined the team in 2020 and had more than 1,000 jumps with the Army.

Video footage released Thursday by the Pentagon shows a Russian Su-27 jet approaching the back of a US Air Force MQ-9 drone and beginning to release fuel as it passes, reports C4ISRNET. The US military believes that was an attempt to blind the drone’s optical instruments and drive it out of the area. Instead, the jet struck the drone’s propellor sending it into the Black Sea. The uncrewed General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper was flying a routine surveillance mission, according to US European Command.

The White House said the video shows that Russia is “flat-out lying” about the drone incident, reports The Washington Post via msn.com. Officials in Moscow said the US was the aggressor in the clash. Spokesman John Kirby said that the video supports previous US characterizations of what happened, and that “the Russians have been just flat-out lying” about their provocative actions.

Pentagon officials said that it is unlikely that the Russians will recover anything useful from the drone, reports USNI News.

Poland will be the first NATO member to give Ukraine fighter jets, reports The Hill. It plans to give Ukraine a dozen Soviet-made MiG-29s, President Andrzej Duda said.

US Space Force announced a $80.2 million order last week to InDyne in Lexington Park, MD, for work on the Solid State Phased Array Radar Systems (SSPARS), reports Military-Aerospace Electronics.

Retired Navy CAPT Jesus Vasquez Cantu, 64, has been sentenced to 30 months in prison for taking bribes from the Malaysian defense contractor “Fat Leonard” Glenn Francis, reports Navy Times. He will also have to pay a $75,000 criminal fine and $100,000 in restitution to the Navy.

A small, unmanned military boat that briefly washed up on the Outer Banks in North Carolina is back with the US Navy, reports 13NewsNow. The Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division said the vessel was lost during a training exercise about 75 miles off the Norfolk coast in February.

Lockheed Martin Space has established Ignite, a new unit designed to not just foster innovation but rapidly mature new technologies in order to meet its customers’ needs for speed in acquiring new on-orbit capabilities, reports Breaking Defense.

President Joe Biden’s budget proposal would help protect tens of thousands of Connecticut jobs at Pratt & Whitney as well as its suppliers by supporting the modernization of the F135 engines for fighter jets, the Journal Inquirer reports. “We will not rest on our laurels, but this was an enormous win for the state of Connecticut and the supply chain and all of those who work in some form at Pratt & Whitney,” US Rep. John Larson (D) said. Larson the co-chair of the bipartisan Joint Strike Fighter Caucus.

The US Air Force’s F-15E Strike Eagle fleet will likely be cut in half before the end of the decade, reports The Drive. Under the plan, the service will retire its F-15Es with less powerful engines even as the type remains in demand.

Naval Surface Force Atlantic announced last week that the Arleigh Burke guided-missile destroyer will continue plying the seas through fiscal 2031, when the ship will be 40 years old, reports Navy Times.

A cold spray metallization technology that was first tested at Fleet Readiness Center East is currently being fielded by the Navy, reports Interesting Engineering. The new technology will help cut down on turnaround times for aircraft maintenance as well as expenses.

Improvements to access for mental health care were ordered last week to reduce suicides in the military, reports The Associated Press. DefSec Lloyd Austin held off on endorsing more controversial recommendations to restrict gun and ammunition purchases by young troops, sending them to another panel for study. A February 2023 commission found that limiting easy access to guns, including those purchased on base, was one of the top ways to cut down on military deaths by suicide.

Some lawmakers are pushing DoD to approve recruits who’ve sought mental health care, reports Military Times. “We disqualify young men and women if they’ve seen a psychiatrist or if they’ve been on medicine for mental health and yet we want them to try to improve themselves,” US Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AL) said during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing last week.

The future of all-volunteer Army is in peril as Gen Z shuns military service, reports Washington Examiner via msn.com. It’s a trend that is happening across all of the services, said Gabe Camarillo, undersecretary of the Army. Some of the reasons today’s youth are not attracted to military service are obvious, such as relatively low pay and easier jobs in today’s super-hot labor market. But the challenge is not simply that fewer high school graduates want to join the military. It’s that fewer are in good enough physical or mental shape to enlist.

The American Defense Communities organization has named its 2023 Defense Community Champions. Among the 17 honorees is Curtis Beulah, chairman of the Sergeant Alfred B. Hilton Memorial Fund at Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD. Mr. Beulah provides education on the United States Colored Troops in the Civil War and the achievements of SGT Alfred B. Hilton. Through Mr. Beulah’s leadership, the foundation was able to accomplish several actions to honor SGT Hilton and the USCT.

Future engineers, scientists, and inventors from area schools were invited to attend the annual Aerospace Summit at Joint Base Andrews in Camp Springs, MD, the base reports. NAVAIR recently hosted students at NAS Pax River to teach them about career opportunities in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). Students throughout eastern North Carolina got a chance to check out careers in engineering, reports WITN-TV. Engineers from the Navy’s Fleet Readiness Center East in Cherry Point visited 26 area schools and spoke to more than 2,700 students. Hands-on demonstrations included taking part in different areas that use STEM in a way that is meant to make a career in engineering less intimidating, especially from a math perspective.

Contracts:

Chesapeake Technologies International Corp., California, Maryland, is awarded a $35,772,870 cost-plus-fixed-fee, indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract to provide continued development of the capability to model and visualize the complex tactical Electronic Warfare (EW) environments, to include EW effects, threat radars, tactical aircraft, and other tactically-relevant information in support of Airborne Electronic Attack mission planning for current and future EW systems in support of the Small Business Innovation Research Phase III, research and development topic N151-021 titled “Advanced Modeling and Visualization of Effects for Future Electronic Warfare Systems.” Work will be performed in Point Mugu, California (90%); and Denver, Colorado (10%), and is expected to be completed in March 2028. No funds will be obligated at the time of award; funds will be obligated on individual orders as they are issued. This contract was not competitively procured pursuant to Federal Acquisition Regulation 6.302-5. The Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division, China Lake, California, is the contracting activity (N6893623D0023). (Awarded March 16, 2023)

Hexagon U.S. Federal Inc., Huntsville, Alabama, was awarded an $8,192,012 modification (P00008) to contract W15QKN-19-F-0975 for technical support services to the U.S. Army Records Management Directorate and the Army Declassification Directorate. Work will be performed at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, with an estimated completion date of March 26, 2024. Fiscal 2022 and 2023 research, development, test and evaluation, Army funds; and fiscal 2023 operation and maintenance, Army funds in the amount of $8,192,011 were obligated at the time of the award. US Army Contracting Command, Newark, New Jersey, is the contracting activity.

General Dynamics Mission Systems, Fairfax, Virginia, is awarded a $33,310,492 cost-plus-fixed-fee and cost modification to previously awarded contract N00024-19-C-6407 to exercise options to provide BYG-1 Tactical Control System engineering support. Work will be performed in Fairfax, Virginia, and is expected to be completed by July 2024. Fiscal 2023 other procurement (Navy) funds in the amount of $3,839,267 (38%); fiscal 2023 research, development, test and evaluation (Navy) funds in the amount of $1,888,336 (19%); fiscal 2018 shipbuilding and conversion (Navy) funds in the amount of $1,762,697 (17%); Royal Australian Navy funds in the amount of $1,421,538 (14%); fiscal 2021 shipbuilding and conversion (Navy) funds in the amount of $1,063,052 (11%); fiscal 2022 other procurement (Navy) funds in the amount of $116,918 (1%); fiscal 2021 other procurement (Navy) funds in the amount of $11,970 (less than 1%); and fiscal 2022 research, development, test and evaluation (Navy) funds in the amount of $4,359 (less than 1%) will be obligated at time of award, of which $16,329 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, DC, is the contracting activity (N00024-19-C-6407).

Lockheed Martin Corp., Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co., Fort Worth, Texas, is awarded a not-to exceed $32,446,000 fixed-price-incentive-firm-target modification (P00022) to a previously awarded advanced acquisition contract (N0001920C0009). This modification adds scope to procure long-lead materials, parts, components, and associated support for the production of nine Lot 17 F-35C aircraft for the U.S. Navy. Work will be performed in Fort Worth, Texas (57%); El Segundo, California (14%); Warton, United Kingdom (9%); Cameri, Italy (4%); Orlando, Florida (4%); Nashua, New Hampshire (3%); Baltimore, Maryland (3%); San Diego, California (2%); Nagoya, Japan (2%); and various locations outside the continental United States (2%), and is expected to be completed in May 2026. Fiscal 2022 aircraft procurement (Navy) funds in the amount of $32,446,000 will be obligated at the 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.

Huntington-Ingalls Industries – Newport News Shipbuilding, Newport News, Virginia, is awarded a $16,068,211 cost-plus-fixed-fee modification to previously awarded contract (N00024-15-C-2114) for the procurement of material and labor associated with contractor furnished On-Board Repair Parts (OBRP) for the outfitting of CVN 79. Work will be performed in Newport News, Virginia, and is expected to be completed by June 2024. Fiscal year 2023 shipbuilding and conversion (Navy) outfitting funding in the amount of $16,068,211 will be obligated at time of award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Supervisor of Shipbuilding (SUPSHIP) Newport News, Virginia, is the contracting activity (N00024-15-C-2114).

Lockheed Martin Rotary and Mission Systems, Manassas, Virginia, is awarded a $143,086,636 cost-plus-incentive-fee contract modification to previously awarded contract N00024-20-C-6117 to exercise options for Navy equipment and spares. Work will be performed in Manassas, Virginia (65%); Clearwater, Florida (32%); Syracuse, New York (2%); and Marion, Florida (1%), and is expected to be completed by February 2031. Fiscal 2023 other procurement (Navy) funds in the amount of $81,352,679 (57%); fiscal 2023 shipbuilding and conversion (Navy) funds in the amount of $59,480,864 (42%); and fiscal 2022 shipbuilding and conversion (Navy) funds in the amount of $2,253,093 (1%) will be obligated at time of award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington Navy Yard, Washington, DC, is the contracting activity.

QinetiQ Inc., Lorton, Virginia, was awarded a $92,658,048 hybrid (cost-plus-fixed-fee and firm-fixed-price) contract for analysis, development, demonstration, testing, acquisition, transition, integration, initial deployment, sustainment and training of Digital Night Vision Technology and related equipment and systems. Bids were solicited via the internet with four received. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of March 12, 2027. US Army Contracting Command, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, is the contracting activity (W909MY-23-D-0002).