Unmanned Fleet: Duties Hazy, Need Clear

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.

Unmanned surface vessels remain paramount in a fleet composition shift, reports USNI, even without a specific plan for integration into the fleet. There is a working assumption the large large unmanned vessels, about 300 feet in length, would be weapons platforms and 60-foot unmanned vessels used as sensors for persistent anti-submarine warfare, communications functions, or radar.

Breaking Defense says the Navy is writing its new “acquisition and operations playbook on the fly” driven by  pressure from China and Russia and including $3.7 billion in unmanned programs including $447 million for two large unmanned surface vehicles.

There are 289 ships in the Navy’s battle force, and here’s where they are, according to USNI.

National security adviser John Bolton told acting DefSec Patrick Shanahan to develop new military options for Venezuela aimed at deterring Russian, Cuban, and Chinese influence inside the regime of President Nicolas Maduro,  reports CNN.

A must read for every person interested in how the military should recruit, train, and retain women, writes Military Times about Unbecoming, the unsparing memoir of Marine veteran Anuradha Bhagwati.

Amid new Pentagon restrictions on transgender people joining the military, Stars and Stripes reports the Navy will allow sailors to dress and “live socially in their preferred gender while off-duty,” noting there is no policy prohibiting service members to “express themselves off-duty in their preferred gender,” in a statement signed by VADM Robert Burke.

A 23-year-old US Naval Academy student was found not guilty of sexual assault and obstruction of justice charges at a court-martial stemming from charges in March 2018 involving a Navy reservist, reports Navy Times.

Stars and Stripes reports the 3rd Marine Division sailor apparently responsible for killing a woman and then himself on Okinawa over the weekend had a pattern of domestic violence known to local and military police.

Syracuse University, with a grant from JP Morgan Chase & Co., plans to start a training program teaching veterans how to run for office at the state, local, and federal levels, reports Military.com.

Last weekend’s US airstrike near Xiriiro in the Bari region of northeastern Somalia killed the second in command of the Somali branch of ISIS, the Hill reports on a statement from US Africa Command.

Contracts:

Huntington Ingalls Inc., Pascagoula, Mississippi, is awarded a $28,375,637 cost-plus-award-fee modification to previously awarded contract N00024-18-C-2312 to exercise options for accomplishment of Follow Yard Class services for the DDG 51-class destroyer program. The contract provides liaison and technical support; engineering, design, and configuration management; systems engineering team; turnkey; special studies; baseline management; and crew indoctrination and orientation. Work will be performed in Pascagoula, Mississippi (98 percent); Washington, District of Columbia (1 percent); and Bath, Maine (1 percent), and is expected to be complete by April 2020. Fiscal 2018, 2017, 2015, 2014 shipbuilding and conversion (Navy) funding in the amount of $26,802,436 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, District of Columbia, is the contracting activity.

Raytheon Co., Integrated Defense Systems, Marlborough, Massachusetts, is awarded a $16,818,682 cost-plus-fixed-fee undefinitized contract action (N0002419F5121) under previously-awarded basic ordering agreement N00024-17-G-5103 to repair and test USS Oscar Austin (DDG 79) SPY-1D transmitter suite. This order covers repair, refurbishment, reassembly and testing of the Aegis Weapon System AN/SPY-1D transmitter group as well as associated testing support. Work will be performed in Chesapeake, Virginia (65 percent); Andover, Massachusetts (15 percent); Marlborough, Massachusetts (10 percent); and Burlington, Massachusetts (10 percent), and is expected to be completed by March 2021. Fiscal 2019 operations and maintenance (Navy) funding in the amount of $7,590,874 will be obligated at time of award and will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. In accordance with 10 U.S. Code 2304(c)(1), this order was not competitively procured (only one responsible source and no other supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements). The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, District of Columbia, is the contracting activity.

L-3 Chesapeake Sciences Corp., Millersville, Maryland, is awarded a $13,769,027 fixed-price-incentive, firm-fixed-price, cost-plus-fixed-fee, cost-type modification to previously awarded contract N00024-16-C-6239 to exercise options for the production of TB-34A towed arrays. Work will be performed in Millersville, Maryland (57 percent); Liverpool, New York (40 percent); and Ashaway, Rhode Island (3 percent), and is expected to be completed by December 2022. Fiscal 2019 other procurement (Navy); and fiscal 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019 shipbuilding and conversion (Navy) funding in the amount of $13,659,059 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, District of Columbia, is the contracting activity.

Silatronix Inc., Madison, Wisconsin, is being awarded an $8,310,568 cost–plus-fixed-fee contract for the Organosilicon Electrolytes for Safe, High Energy, High Nickel Magnesium Cobalt Lithiim-Ion Batteries. This contract contains options, which if exercised, will bring the cumulative contract value to $10,152,529. Work will be performed in Madison, Wisconsin (53.96 percent); Bethesda, Maryland (10.70 percent); San Diego, California (9.87 percent); Henderson, Nevada, (8.06 percent); Lemont, Illinois (7.11 percent); Lottsville, Colorado (5.37 percent); Madison, Wisconsin (2.56 percent); and Berkley, California (2.37 percent). Work is expected to be completed July 5, 2021. Option I runs concurrent with the base period July 5, 2021. Fiscal 2019 research, development, test and evaluation (Navy) funds in the amount of $8,221,407 will be obligated at the time of award, and will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was competitively procured under N00014-18-S-B001 “Long Range Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) for Navy and Marine Corps Science and Technology.” Proposals will be received throughout the year under the long range BAA, therefore, the number of proposals received in response to the solicitation is unknown. The Office of Naval Research, Arlington, Virginia, is the contracting activity (N00014-19-C-1009).