Sailors Protest Stripping of Navy Rating Titles

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 backlash to the Navy’s abandonment of its time-honored Navy rating titles, Navy Times reports, emerged during a presentation at Naval Station Norfolk presentation by Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson explaining the radical change as only the start of a career overhaul. Within 96 hours of the initial announcement there were nearly half of the necessary 100,000 signatures needed to petition the White House to restore the job titles, reports Navy Times.

The US military can’t rely on domain dominance any longer and must aim for “local and temporal domain superiority,” says RADM Mike Manazir in an interview with USNI.org. Efforts to weave new kill webs, tying together weapons and sensors in a cross-domain web, are imperative.

CVS is out and Walgreens is in for Tricare pharmacy network, reports Military Times.com. CVS will leave the Tricare pharmacy network, replaced by drug giant Walgreens starting Dec. 1, the Defense Health Agency announced. The network will have roughly 58,000 locations, with 98 percent of Tricare beneficiaries living within 5 miles of a network store.

Military Times.com reports USA Discounters, accused of targeting military personnel and veterans must provide $96 million in debt relief to thousands of customers. The settlement will force the company to wipe out a large amount of outstanding consumer debt, provide restitution credits, and correct consumers’ credit reports.

Watch the beginnings of Hurricane Matthew captured via NASA satellite this past weekend as the storm developed over the southeastern Caribbean, reports gcaptain.com. The hurricane is the fiercest Caribbean storm in nearly a decade, expected to reach southeast Florida late Thursday, reports Reuters.

Veterans give mixed views on whether Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s comments on mental health for veterans were disparaging, reports Military Times.

US-Russian relations deteriorate further as the US suspends talks with Russia about Syria, accusing the Kremlin of joining with the Syrian Air Force to brutally bomb Aleppo, reports The New York Times.

Watch lift-off on Oct. 13, 2016, of an Antares rocket set to launch from Wallops, reports DelmarvaNow.com. If weather permits, the 9:13 pm launch should be visible along much of the mid-Atlantic coast.

Reuters reports, Yahoo secretly scanned customer emails for US intelligence, building a program to search incoming emails for specific information provided by US intelligence officials.

Contracts:

BAE Systems Technology Solutions & Services Inc., Rockville, Maryland, is being awarded a $56,566,975 cost-plus-incentive-fee, cost-plus-fixed-fee contract to provide systems engineering and integration services in support of Trident II (D5) strategic weapons system, the SSGN attack weapon system, and nuclear weapon surety.  This contract contains options, which if exercised, will bring the contract value to a maximum dollar value of $368,716,147.  Work will be performed at Rockville, Maryland (70.6 percent); Washington, District of Columbia (14.7 percent); Kings Bay, Georgia (5.1 percent); Silverdale, Washington (2.7 percent); Norfolk, Virginia (1.5 percent);  San Diego, California (1.1 percent); Barrow, United Kingdom (1.1 Percent); Alexandria, Virginia (1.0 percent); Buffalo, New York (0.3 percent); Downington, Pennsylvania (0.3 percent); Ocala, Florida (0.2 percent); Pittsfield, Massachusetts (0.2 percent); Montgomery Village, Maryland (0.2 percent); New Lebanon, New York (0.2 percent); New Paris, Ohio (0.2 percent); Wexford, Pennsylvania (0.2 percent); Alton, Virginia (0.2 percent); Springfield, Virginia (0.2 percent), Vienna, Virginia (0.2 percent); and St. Mary’s, Georgia (0.2 percent), with an expected completion date of Sept. 30, 2017. If all options are exercised, work will continue through Sept. 30, 2021. Subject to availability of funds, fiscal 2017 operations and maintenance (Navy) contract funds in the amount of $34,850,718; fiscal 2017 research development test and evaluation (Navy) contract funds in the amount of $10,080,290; and United Kingdom funds in the amount of $11,635,967 will be obligated on this award. Contract funds in the amount of $34,850,718 will expire Sept. 30, 2017. This contract was a sole-source acquisition in accordance with 10 US Code 2304(c)(1) and (4). Strategic Systems Programs, Washington, District of Columbia, is the contracting activity (N00030-17-C-0001).