Trump Keeps Attention on Defense Industry
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President-elect Donald Trump has suggested banning the defense industry from hiring former Pentagon contracting officials, just days after creating a stir in the industry by saying Boeing’s contract for an Air Force One replacement should be canceled, Defense News reports. According to Reuters, Trump told a rally in Louisiana that “I think anybody that gives out these big contracts should never ever, during their lifetime, be allowed to work for a defense company, for a company that makes that product.”
On Monday, Trump criticized Lockheed Martin’s F-35 fighter jet program as too expensive, Reuters reports. Yahoo.com asks, “Will Trump’s Victory Spell Doom for Lockheed Martin’s F-35?”
Though Trump stunned the aerospace community when he called for the cancellation of Boeing’s program to replace Air Force One with a new pair of modified 747-800s, citing its $4 billion cost, experts familiar with the program note the cost is not out of line given the requirements and specifications, Second Line of Defense reports.
Boeing has announced a $16.6 billion deal to sell planes to Iran, which for decades had been economically blacklisted by the US. The company instead chose to emphasize how many jobs the sale would support, The New York Times reports. The “agreement will support tens of thousands of US jobs” associated with the production and delivery of the planes, Boeing said in a news release. The intended recipient of the message seems to be the president-elect.
Trump’s transition team at the Pentagon is looking into loosening the rules of engagement for troops fighting overseas, The Hill reports. The Trump team has asked for a list of current restrictions and limitations.
Referring to recent legislation that will ease the confirmation of USMC Gen. James Mattis to become the secretary of defense, Rep. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) said she is worried her congressional colleagues don’t fully appreciate the importance of a civilian-run military. As a combat-wounded Iraq War veteran and incoming Illinois senator, she finds that troubling, Military Times reports. “I believe so strongly that the military is subservient to civilian leaders. I went to fight in a war I didn’t believe was one we should be engaged in, but the president and Congress believed it was the right thing to do. So I’m proud of that. I would go back. Every part of my being as a former military officer says what [Congress is] doing now is wrong,” she said.
Navy leaders say they underestimated the backlash from eliminating job titles, Navy Times reports. The service’s top officer has vowed to learn from the error as the service implements wide ranging changes to the training and advancement system.
The Marine Corps wants to accelerate the MUX — a new armed, high-speed, ship-based, vertical takeoff and landing drone — and field it by 2026, Breaking Defense reports. The Marines figure they can get the MUX four to seven years before the Army-led Future Vertical Lift project starts replacing existing helicopters with advanced, far speedier VTOL aircraft.
Navy medicine faces a long list of challenges: Preparing for the next war. Keeping up with health care technology. Fighting pressure to privatize. The Navy’s top doctor, VADM C. Forrest Faison talked with Navy Times about how he is modernizing the service’s single largest community that includes roughly 60,000 military and civilians.
NASA is using a modified 747 to create the world’s largest flying telescope. Check out the video.
Contracts:
PAE Applied Technologies LLC, Fort Worth, Texas, is being awarded a $65,955,011 modification to a previously awarded cost-plus-fixed-fee level of effort contract (N00421-14-C-0038) to exercise an option for range engineering and operations and maintenance services. Services to be provided include various types of system operations, laboratory and field testing, marine operations and target support services, engineering, range sustainability, maintenance, and data reduction and analysis in support of the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division’s Atlantic Test Range and the Atlantic Targets and Marine Operations Divisions. Work will be performed in Patuxent River, Maryland, and is expected to be completed in December 2017. Fiscal 2017 major range and test facility base (Navy); and fiscal 2017 operations and maintenance (Navy) funds in the amount of $10,479,688 will be obligated at time of award, $2,358,688 of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity.
Andromeda Systems Inc., Virginia Beach, Virginia, is being awarded a $35,212,821 indefinite- delivery/indefinite-quantity, cost-plus-fixed-fee and cost type contract for the procurement of logistics engineering and technical support services providing reliability-centered maintenance for new and in-service aircraft, engines, systems, support equipment, and depot plant equipment, including their modifications, during all life cycle phases and levels of maintenance. Work will be performed in Cherry Point, North Carolina (30 percent); North Island, California (28 percent); Jacksonville, Florida (25 percent); Arlington, Virginia (10 percent); Patuxent River, Maryland (3 percent); Lakehurst, New Jersey (1 percent); Point Mugu, California (1 percent); China Lake, California (1 percent); and Orlando, Florida (1 percent). Work is expected to be completed in December 2021. Fiscal 2017 operations and maintenance (Navy) funding in the amount of $88,000 will be obligated at time of award, all of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was awarded competitively via electronic request for proposal as a 100 percent small business set-aside; one offer was received. The Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity (N00421-17-D-0017).
Harris Corp., Herndon, Virginia, has been awarded a $12,762,343 modification (P00007) to previously awarded contract FA8730-16-C-0009 for the Air Force Distributed Common Ground System. Contractor will provide installation and upgrades for the Distributed Mission Site Digital Receiver Technology to Distributed Ground System Phase II sites. Work will be performed at DCGS locations worldwide and is expected to be complete by Nov. 12, 2017. Fiscal 2017 procurement funds in the amount of $12,762,343 are being obligated at the time of award. Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, Hanscom Air Force Base, Massachusetts, is the contracting activity (FA8730-16-C-0009).
