Trump Saves Stars and Stripes

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.

Stars and Stripes will not lose funding after all, reports Military Times. “The United States of America will NOT be cutting funding to @starsandstripes magazine under my watch. It will continue to be a wonderful source of information to our Great Military!” President Donald Trump tweeted after the Pentagon notified Stars and Stripes that its final newspaper publication will be released this month.

The US Navy is conducting search-and-rescue efforts in the Arabian Sea following reports of a missing sailor, reports The New York Times. The aircraft carrier Nimitz and guided-missile cruiser Princeton are conducting search-and-rescue operations for a sailor listed as “Duty Status Whereabouts Unknown” onboard the Nimitz. The sailor’s name is being withheld in accordance with Navy policy.

The Navajo Nation has joined calls for an accounting of the deaths at Fort Hood, reports Army Times. Pvt. Corlton L. Chee, a 25-year-old soldier from Pinehill, NM, died Wednesday after he collapsed following a physical fitness training exercise five days earlier. He is the 28th soldier from Fort Hood to die this year.

Five DoD medical facilities will participate in research for the newest COVID-19 vaccine candidate to enter Phase III clinical trials, reports Military.com  The participating facilities are Naval Medical Center San Diego;  Brooke Army Medical Center, San Antonio; Wilford Hall Ambulatory Surgical Center, San Antonio; Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, Bethesda, MD; and Fort Belvoir Community Hospital, Fairfax County, VA.

American military’s first all-female space operations crew isn’t the only sign that the Space Force is trying to build diversity into its mission from the start, reports Air Force Times. Nina Armagno was recently promoted as its first female three-star general. As the director of staff for the office of the Chief of Space Operations, she will oversee the day-to-day happenings at Space Force headquarters.

 

 

After a year of lawsuits, protests and scrutiny, the Pentagon re-awards its $10 billion Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure cloud contract to Microsoft, reports FCW. Amazon Web Services, the runner-up in the JEDI sweepstakes, sued in the Court of Federal Claims charging that the procurement was improperly decided and possibly subject to political influence from the White House.

Extra long ship deployments aren’t hurting sailor retention, reports Military.com. Chief of Naval Personnel VADM John Nowell says when the force is run too hard, overall retention suffers, which isn’t occurring. VADM Nowell stressed that that doesn’t mean Navy leaders think extended deployments are OK. The service has been grappling with a host of challenges that have left ships deployed longer than planned.

The fight over which candidate cares more about troops has exploded. Respect for troops and military sacrifice has become an election issue, reports Military Times, putting service members and veterans at the center of political sparring.

Military Times reports a US service member is in stable condition after being wounded by al-Shabab attack in Somalia, using a vehicle born explosive and mortars. The incident took place in the vicinity of Jana Cabdalle, Somalia. The US regularly conducts advise and assist missions with Somali partner forces which pressures al-Shabab, limiting their ability to extend their reach and movement.

The US Army has banned masks with valves for soldiers and other personnel in South Korea, reports Stars and Stripes, after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found the masks allowed “air to be exhaled through a hole in the material, which can result in expelled respiratory droplets that can reach others.”

New technology is in the works to detect landmines, reports Army Times. The new method of detecting landmines could drastically reduce time-consuming false alarms and keep EOD soldiers from having to dig up every target that triggers their detectors.

The Navy’s newest guided-missile destroyer, USS Delbert D. Black, departed the shipyard and is heading home to Mayport, FL , reports Navy Times. The destroyer was damaged in an accident in 2019 when a Norwegian-flagged vessel struck a barge that subsequently struck the ship, causing delays to the construction and about $31 million in damage.

VADM Ross Myers will be the next commander of 10th Fleet/Fleet Cyber Command, reports C4ISRNET. VADM Myers, who comes to Fleet Cyber Command from his role as deputy commander at US Cyber Command, replaces VADM Timothy White, who is retiring. VADM Myers is a career aviator and previously served the director of plans and policy at Cyber Command.

The Chief of Naval Personnel encouraged sailors to “make sure that you are getting out there, that you’re taking care of your fitness” when announcing plans to restart Navy fitness test in January, reports Military.com. “[I]t is important now, with about a year under our belt of not doing the PFA, that you go ahead and get that restarted,” VADM John Nowell said. “… the plan is in January, so please be ready.”

Contracts:

RDA Inc., Doylestown, Pennsylvania, is awarded a $19,983,378 cost-plus-fixed-fee order (N68335-20-F-0360) against previously issued basic ordering agreement N68335-20-G-3039. This order provides for continued advanced technology research and development efforts for Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) products for anti-submarine warfare (ASW) and under-sea warfare (USW) systems under SBIR topic N98-035 titled “Signal Processing and System Concepts to Exploit Passive Signals in Airborne Active ASW Missions; topic N04-247 titled “Littoral Environment Parameter Estimation from Bistatic and Multistatic Fleet Air ASW Acoustic Reverberation Data;” and topic N06-011 titled “Multi-Sensor Data Fusion for Littoral Undersea Warfare.” Further development and research efforts will include engineering, technical, managerial, analysis, prototyping, maintenance, quality control, training and test participation. Additionally, this order provides operational software development, acoustic capability enhancements and technical engineering for further development and transition of technologies and system performance improvements, providing on-going fleet training and maintenance products for deployed systems. Work will be performed in Warrenton, Virginia (45%); Patuxent River, Maryland (35%); and Doylestown, Pennsylvania (20%), and is expected to be completed in September 2025. Fiscal 2020 research, development, test and evaluation (Navy) funds in the amount of $852,759 will be obligated at time of award, none of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division, Lakehurst, New Jersey, is the contracting activity.

Qwest Government Solutions Inc., doing business as CenturyLink QGS, Herndon, Virginia, was awarded a $70,250,013 modification (P00004) against non-competitive firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract HC1013-19-D-0002 to increase the current contract ceiling. This modification allows for the continued operations and maintenance support for dark fiber and commercial facilities in the continental U.S. to support the Department of Defense. Funding will be obligated at the individual task orders. The total contract ceiling value has increased from $126,895,698 to $197,145,711. The period of performance is Nov. 30, 2018, through Nov. 29, 2023. The Defense Information Technology Contracting Organization, Scott Air Force Base, Illinois, is the contracting activity.

Amentum Services Inc., Germantown, Maryland, was awarded a $29,034,547 hybrid (cost-no-fee, labor-hours) contract for contractor labor support services at Anniston Army Depot and Watervliet Arsenal. Bids were solicited via the internet with three received. Work will be performed at Anniston Army Depot, Alabama; and Watervliet Arsenal, New York, with an estimated completion date of Jan. 15, 2023. Fiscal 2020 Army working capital funds in the amount of $29,034,547 were obligated at the time of the award. US Army Contracting Command, Detroit Arsenal, Michigan, is the contracting activity (W56HZV-20-F-0396).

Kryptowire LLC, McLean, Virginia, was awarded a $7,337,148 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for a research project under the Open, Programmable, Secure 5G (OPS-5G) program. The OPS-5G program will create open source software and systems enabling secure 5G and subsequent secure mobile networks such as 6G. Work will be performed in McLean, Virginia; Blacksburg, Virginia; and Fairfax, Virginia, with an expected completion date of September 2024. Fiscal 2020 research, development, test and evaluation funding in the amount of $883,977 is being obligated at time of award. This contract was a competitive acquisition under an open broad agency announcement and 40 offers were received. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Arlington, Virginia, is the contracting activity (HR0011-20-C-0154).