March 28, 2024

US Military Might in the Pacific

Military Valiant Shield

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.

Valiant Shield 2020 has assembled US military forces in the Pacific region for the next 11 days, reports USNI News. “Exercises such as Valiant Shield allow US forces the opportunity to integrate warfighting concepts such as all-domain strike group operations in a joint high-end warfare training environment to continuously improve joint lethality,” says RADM Michael Boyle, director of maritime operations at US Pacific Fleet. The exercise involves about 100 aircraft and 11,000 personnel.

Speaking at the virtual Tailhook Association Symposium last week, RADM John Meier, says the US Navy has to make sure shipyards deliver ships to the fleet on time, reports Defense News. RADM Meier calls carrier operational availability his No. 1 concern. “With the budgetary pressure we’ll be facing, when we don’t get the return on the enormous investment in aircraft carriers, every day we lose of operational ability is like a drop of blood in the water,” he says. An August Government Accounting Office report revealed that maintenance delays persist at Navy shipyards.

A US Navy E-2C Hawkeye plane struck an air training missile attached to a parked F/A-18 Super Hornet while landing aboard the aircraft carrier Nimitz last month, reports Navy Times. No injuries were reported.

CMDR Robert Arias has been relieved of his command at Naval Technical Training Center Lackland, TX, reports Navy Times.  The investigation is “administrative in nature,” according to a US Navy spokesman.

GEN Timothy Ray, head of Air Force Global Strike Command, says Russia and China are modernizing in a way that the US is not, reports Air Force Times. Those nations have modernized their nuclear weapons and systems to deliver them, and the US needs to do the same, he says. Following in the footsteps of other military agencies, Air Force Global Strike Command is reaching out to nontraditional industry partners with the launch of a new innovation hub, reports National Defense.

The Air Force showed off a robotic dog during a recent exercise at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada, reports Popular Mechanics. The Ghost Robotics Vision 60 robot, a four-legged dog-like robot, was seen alongside base security personnel. The service is apparently testing the robo-dogs as a way to patrol small battle spaces.

US Ambassador to China Terry Branstad will leave his position next month amid increasingly strained ties between the world’s two biggest economies, SecState Mike Pompeo tweeted Monday, reports USA Today. Mr. Branstad’s departure is “definitely bad news for bilateral ties,” according to a Beijing-based analyst, reports South China Morning Post.

US Air Force GEN Jacqueline Van Ovost is the Pentagon’s only female four-star general, and the fifth in the Air Force’s 73-year history, but she doesn’t think of herself as a trailblazer, reports Military.com. Perhaps her resume says otherwise. She’s been a test pilot; commander of a refueling squadron, a training wing and an airlift wing; and the head of the C-17 Globemaster III program at the Pentagon; vice director to the Joint Staff, among many other postings following her graduation from the Air Force Academy in 1988.

 

 

Marine Corps commandant GEN David Berger says the corps cannot complete its missions without women and minorities, reports Marine Corps Times. The general spoke during a session of the Women in Defense Virtual Leadership Symposium last week. GEN Berger says the corps has women in every combat military occupational specialty ― roles that were once denied to them. In 2019, the corps saw a 60% increase in women serving in previously all-male combat units.

Earlier this month, the Marine Corps provided hints about its plans for gender integrating boot camp at the platoon level in a report to the Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services, reports Marine Corps Times.

Forty finalists are in the running for the Women in Technology leadership award which highlight WIT members and the larger Washington, DC, technology community. Two finalists at the Naval Surface Warfare Center Carderock Division are being honored for their efforts to ensure that their employees don’t get stuck in a rut. Innovation is promoted and encouraged, reports Federal News Network. Find the list of this year’s finalists here.

Retired commander and former US Navy pilot David Fravor recalled the strange encounter with a UFO off San Diego 16 years ago, reports Fox News. Mr. Fravor spoke during a Sept. 8 podcast with MIT research scientist Lex Fridman. Mr. Fravor believes the flying object committed an “act of war.”

A study by the Greater Washington Partnership says the majority of the Washington, DC, region’s workers won’t return to their offices until next summer, reports The Washington Post.

TikTok’s parent company ByteDance has chosen Oracle over Microsoft as a new American technology partner, reports The Associated Press, to help keep the video-sharing app operating in the US.

The Office of Management and Budget offers information on the president’s payroll tax deferral, which the Trump administration will implement for most federal employees and military members later this month, reports Federal News Network.

The long-awaited memorial in downtown Washington, DC, honoring president and World War II commanding general Dwight D. Eisenhower will be dedicated Thursday and opened to the public on Friday, reports WTOP News. The memorial is in a new park along eastbound Independence Avenue, across from the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.

SpaceX says the company’s SN8 rocket will take a test flight sometime next week, reports phys.org. The plan is for the rocket is to soar up to 60,000 feet and then return to Earth in a controlled landing.

A request has been issued to NASA’s 14 Commercial Lunar Payload Services partners to bid on flying a suite of payloads to the Moon, reports NASA. The request asks partners to fly 10 NASA science investigations and technology demonstrations to a non-polar region of the Moon in 2023.

Contracts:

IQVIA Government Solutions Inc., Falls Church, Virginia, was awarded a $7,759,363 fixed-price-incentive contract to provide commercial off-the-shelf software components and related support services for a bi-directional, secure mobile health communication system in support of the Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center. Bids were solicited via the internet with two received. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of Sept. 23, 2025. US Army Medical Research Acquisition Activity, Fort Detrick, Maryland, is the contracting activity (W81XWH-20-D-0063).

Leidos Inc., Reston, Virginia, was awarded an $82,164,896 cost-plus-fixed-fee, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract. This contract provides research and development support services for the Operational Readiness Directorate at the Naval Health Research Center, San Diego, California. Work will be performed primarily in San Diego, California (80%), but may include additional work locations in Bridgeport, California (1%); Camp Pendleton, California (1%); La Posta, California (1%); Twenty-nine Palms, California (1%); Groton, Connecticut (1%); Washington, DC (1%); Orlando, Florida (1%); St. Petersburg, Florida (1%); Pearl Harbor, Hawaii (1%); Baltimore, Maryland (1%); Bethesda, Maryland (1%); Boston, Massachusetts (1%); Minneapolis, Minnesota (1%); Camp Lejeune, North Carolina (1%); Fort Bragg, North Carolina (1%); Arlington, Virginia (1%); Norfolk, Virginia (1%); Quantico, Virginia (1%); Fort Lewis, Washington (1%); and Keyport, Washington (1%). No funds will be obligated at the time of award and work is expected to be completed by September 2026. The initial task order for $4,968,119 for the base period of performance will be awarded with fiscal 2019 Defense Health Program (DHP) funding of $444,310, which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year; fiscal 2020 Navy research, development, testing and evaluation of $851,955 which will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year; and fiscal 2020 one-year DHP operations and maintenance funding of $2,137,975 which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The balance of the task orders will be incrementally funded and the total aggregate value of the initial task order for the base period and one option year, if exercised, is $10,002,412. This contract was competitively procured via the beta.SAM.gov website, with four proposals received. The Naval Medical Logistics Command, Fort Detrick, Maryland, is the contracting activity (N62645-20-D-5020). (Awarded Sept. 10, 2020)

Leidos Inc., Reston, Virginia, was awarded an $18,412,543 cost-plus-fixed-fee task order through One Acquisition Solution for Integrated Services (OASIS). This contract provides research and development support services for the Behavioral Epidemiology Assessment Research at the Naval Health Research Center, San Diego, California. Work will be performed in San Diego, California, and is expected to be completed by September 2025. The task order is initially being awarded with fiscal 2019 Defense Health Program (DHP) Navy research, development, testing and evaluation funding in the amount of $213,632 with fiscal 2019 enhanced DHP funding of $70,066; and fiscal 2020 DHP operations and maintenance funding of $5,000, all of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The balance of the task order will be incrementally funded through the base period and four option years and have a total value of $18,412,543, if all option periods are exercised. This contract was competitively procured via General Services Administration OASIS Pool 4 and only one proposal was received. The Naval Medical Logistics Command, Fort Detrick, Maryland, is the contracting activity (N62645-20-F-0286). (Awarded Sept. 11, 2020)

Aptim Federal Services LLC, Alexandria, Virginia, is awarded an $18,163,824 firm-fixed-price task order (N62478-20-F-4295) under a multiple award construction contract for repair to military petroleum storage tank Red Hill Tank 14. The work to be performed provides for the additional repairs on Red Hill Tank 14 as identified by the contractor’s comprehensive out-of-service internal integrity inspection and suitability for service evaluation inspection report. Work will be performed at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii, and is expected to be completed by June 2023. Fiscal 2016 working capital (Navy) contract funds in the amount of $18,163,824 are obligated on this award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. One proposal was received for this task order. Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Hawaii Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii, is the contracting activity (N39430-20-D-2225).

Lockheed Martin Rotary and Mission Systems, Manassas, Virginia, is awarded a $7,226,209 cost-plus-incentive-fee and cost only modification to previously awarded contract N00024-18-C-6258 to exercise options for engineering services and other direct costs in support of the Integrated Submarine Imaging System. Work will be performed in Manassas, Virginia (73%); Virginia Beach, Virginia (15%); Northampton, Massachusetts (6%); Fairfax, Virginia (3%); Arlington, Virginia (2%); and Newport, Rhode Island (1%), and is expected to be completed by September 2021. Fiscal 2018 (37%), 2019 (1%), and 2020 (3%) shipbuilding and conversion (Navy); fiscal 2020 research, development, test and evaluation (Navy) (37%); and fiscal 2019 other procurement (Navy) (22%) funding in the amount of $7,226,209 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, DC, is the contracting activity.

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