March 28, 2024

Space Force Calls for $2B in New Funding

Morning Coffee is a robust blend of links to news around the internet concerning the Naval Air Station Patuxent River Morning Coffee logoeconomic community. The opinions expressed here do not reflect opinions of the Leader’s owners or staff.

The Pentagon’s latest legislative proposal for the new Space Force military service calls for $2 billion in new funding over a five-year period, during which about 15,000 space-related personnel will transfer from existing roles, reports Defense News.

The SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule docked with the International Space Station, 27 hours after the Falcon 9 rocket launched from Florida, reports Space.com. The second major launch of the capsule will be spearheaded by NASA astronaut Bob Behnken, along with crewmate Doug Hurley. It is scheduled to launch later this year.

The Pentagon’s plan to sideline the USS Harry Truman aircraft carrier, rather than refuel it, and redirect money for other defense priorities would save just $16.9 million in fiscal 2020, USNI News reports.

The Pentagon is mulling revisions to the dollar amounts and damage levels that qualify an aircraft accident as a major mishap to better reflect the expense of repairing advanced jets, reports Military Times.

Rand Corp. released findings from its new think-tank study that looked at competitiveness between the services and how their culture succeeds or fails in beating out the other services for resources, reports Military Times. “Service personalities are alive and well,” the study found.

The Navy’s chief of personnel VADM Robert Burke told lawmakers the Navy is leading the rest of the military in reinventing how it recruits, trains, and retains commissioned officers, reports Navy Times. He was testifying before the Senate Armed Service Committee on how far the service has come in revamping the Defense Officer Personnel Management Act.

Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson says the service is more ready for major combat operations than it was two years ago, reports Military.com. She says “the Air Force will be at the forefront” of any new conflict, regardless of where or with whom.

The US is trying to find out if Pakistan used US-built F-16 jets to down an Indian warplane, reports Business Today, potentially in violation of US agreements.

Australia wants a new maritime surveillance aircraft, and Northrup Grumman might have what that country wants, reports Defense News. The Firebird drone could meet some of the project’s requirements. Firebird is a medium-altitude, long-endurance aircraft with a 30-hour endurance, with a nominal payload.

Visitors to the Avalon Airshow in Australia got a glimpse of Boeing’s new concept for an unmanned fighter that would work autonomously alongside fourth- and fifth-generation fighter aircraft, reports We Are the Mighty. It’s called the Airpower Teaming System, a drone-jet hybrid would be a multi-mission craft using artificial intelligence to conduct intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance missions.

Defense contractor Kratos has acquired FTT, a small turbine tech firm in Florida, reports Breaking Defense. Kratos wants to expand its drone and missile business for the coming era of “swarm warfare.”

Seventy-two percent of Okinawans rejected the relocation plan for a US Marine Corps air base being built in coastal Henoko, reports Marine Corps Times. The governor of Okinawa pushed for talks on what steps to take following a referendum that rejected the move for an American military base. The US says the Henoko agreement is needed for regional security.

Contracts:

Corvid Technologies LLC, Mooresville, North Carolina, is awarded a $223,277,038 firm-fixed-price, cost-plus-fixed-fee, cost-reimbursable, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for the delivery of hardware, equipment and components for manufacturing and integration of short- and medium-range sub-orbital flight vehicles supporting Navy, other government agencies, and Foreign Military Sales testing over a five-year ordering period. The flight vehicles are exo-atmospheric rocket-based vehicles specifically configured to deliver payloads and test articles into a flight regime of interest for systems under test. This contract combines purchases for the Navy (76 percent); other government agencies (12 percent); and Foreign Military Sales to the government of Japan (12 percent). Work will be performed at the White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico (70 percent); Mooresville, North Carolina (10 percent); Herndon, Virginia (5 percent); Glen Burnie, Maryland (5 percent); Las Cruces, New Mexico (5 percent); and Huntsville, Alabama (5 percent), and is expected to be completed by February 2024. Foreign Military Sales (Japan) funding in the amount of $8,021,855 will be obligated at time of award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was competitively procured via the Federal Business Opportunities website, with two offers received. The Naval Surface Warfare Center, Dahlgren Division, Dahlgren, Virginia, is the contracting activity (N00178-19-D-5001).

Serco Inc., Reston, Virginia, is awarded a $41,304,910 modification under fixed-price contract (N39430-16-C-1811) to exercise Option Period Three for lifecycle sustainment of physical security/access control and command, control, communications, computers, and intelligence systems in support of the Naval Facilities Engineering Command Anti-Terrorism/Force Protection Ashore Program at various Navy installations worldwide. The work to be performed provides for preventive maintenance of hardware, associated firmware, and software; response and resolution of service calls for corrective maintenance to include equipment repair, overhaul, or replacement; information assurance vulnerability alert to include version control, patch management, and vulnerability scanning; asset management to track, maintain, upgrade, and dispose of systems; configuration management to establish and maintain consistency of the system attributes with operational requirements and evolving technical baseline; technical refreshments, upgrades and installation of new systems; and programmatic trend analysis to identify systemic sustainment issues such as technology obsolescence. After award of this option, the total cumulative contract value will be $160,741,210. Work will be performed at various installations worldwide, and work is expected to be completed March 2020. Fiscal 2019 operations and maintenance, (Navy) contract funds in the amount of $41,304,910 are obligated on this award and will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Facilities Engineering and Expeditionary Warfare Center, Port Hueneme, California, is the contracting activity.

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