US Moon Landings Set Back 2 Years
The Peregrine lunar lander developed by Astrobotic Technology. (Photo credit: NASA/Goddard/Rebecca Roth, licensed by Creative Commons)
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Despite a flawless launch on Monday by United Launch Alliance’s brand new Vulcan rocket, the first NASA-financed commercial lunar landing craft suffered a mission-ending fuel leak soon after launch, reported The New York Times. The malfunction of Astrobotic Technology’s lander, Peregrine, set back NASA’s lunar landing schedule by at least two years, reports Federal Times, also noting, the Peregrine did launch a space race among private companies wanting to make deliveries for NASA and other customers. A Houston company will give it a shot with its own lander next month.
Astrobotic Technology is scrambling to salvage what they can of the mission that no longer has the chance of a soft landing, AP reports. The lander is flying 20 payloads, including five for NASA, reports C4ISRNET.
The Space Development Agency awarded Rocket Lab $515 million to build 18 data transport satellites, reports C4ISRNET. The company joins Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman, who received awards in August to develop 36 satellites each.
Service members don’t participate in violent extremism at higher rates than the rest of the US population, but former troops do — and their involvement is growing, according to research commissioned by the Defense Department and published at the end of December, reports Military Times.
The union representing US Capitol Police is warning that the federal law enforcement agency doesn’t have enough manpower to address threats to members of Congress and is criticizing the Architect of the Capitol for not implementing some of the changes proposed following the Jan. 6, 2021, attack, reports Maryland Matters.
A new law will require the Pentagon to start compiling data in 2024 on overdoses within the ranks, and to make available to troops an antidote for opioid overdoses, as the US continues to battle increasing casualties from the fentanyl crisis, reports Military.com.
The US Coast Guard made its first drug bust of the year Jan. 5 in the Gulf of Oman, capturing a mixed batch of narcotics worth $11 million, reports Maritime Executive. In coordination with the Royal Navy frigate HMS Lancaster, the cutter USCGC Emlen Tunnell tracked, intercepted, and then searched a dhow containing 37 kilograms of heroin, 187 kilograms of methamphetamine, and five kilograms of cocaine. The boarding team seized the drugs and allowed the dhow to continue on its voyage.
The crew of the USCG Cutter Margaret Norvell seized over a ton of cocaine with an estimated street value of more than $32.2 million near Florida on Tuesday, reports ABC News. The six suspected smugglers who were apprehended will now face prosecution in federal courts by the Department of Justice.
DefSec Lloyd Austin has been hospitalized since Jan. 1 for complications from a December surgery to treat prostate cancer. Politico reports that President Joe Biden didn’t learn of Austin’s diagnosis until briefed before Walter Reed doctors were set to announce Austin’s condition, about a month after the secretary learned he had cancer.
Austin has resumed his duties, although he remains hospitalized. Military Times reports the White House intends to review what rules or procedures weren’t followed when Austin did not disclose his Jan. 1 hospitalization for days to Biden, top officials at the Pentagon, or the National Security Council.
Marine Corps Commandant GEN Eric Smith had open heart surgery Monday to repair a valve that caused his cardiac arrest on Oct. 29. The assistant commandant, GEN Christopher Mahoney, has served as acting head since then, reports AP News. Smith is expected to return but no date has been given.
Former Navy Petty Officer Wenheng Zhao, 26, also known as Thomas Zhao, will spend a little more than two years in prison and pay $5,500 in fines after pleading guilty to selling sensitive information and documents to a Chinese spy. Task & Purpose reports Zhao pleaded guilty in October 2023 to one count of conspiring with the intelligence officer and one count of receiving a$15,000 bribe for transmitting sensitive US military information to an agent of the People’s Republic of China.
Senior Chinese military officials visited Washington this week for two days of meetings with their American counterparts — the latest communication channel between the two nations to restart after more than a yearlong lapse, reports Defense News. The meetings — officially called the Defense Policy Coordination Talks, or DPCT — offered a chance for each country to share concerns and schedule other meetings throughout the year
There are no US plans to withdraw its roughly 2,500 troops from Iraq, the Pentagon said Monday, despite Baghdad’s announcement last week it would begin the process of removing the US-led military coalition from the country, reports Reuters.
Iraq’s prime minister privately told American officials that he wants to negotiate keeping US forces in the country despite his recent announcement, reports Politico. US officials were told Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani’s declaration was “an attempt to satisfy domestic political audiences.”
The Gaza-based Hamas militant group is not alone as it battles for survival. Israeli and American leaders must also confront simultaneous attacks from a strengthening alliance of armed militant groups linked with Hamas and Iran. AP News breaks out what unites and what’s different about the multiple armed groups facing the US and Israel in the Middle East.
Yemen’s Houthi rebels fired a barrage of drones and missiles targeting ships in the Red Sea late Tuesday, reports Navy Times. F/A-18 Super Hornets from the aircraft carrier Dwight D. Eisenhower, as well as by the destroyers Gravely, Mason and Laboon, and the British warship HMS Diamond downed 18 drones, two cruise missiles and the anti-ship missile. “This is the 26th Houthi attack on commercial shipping lanes in the Red Sea since Nov. 19,” Central Command said. “There were no injuries or damage reported.”
Two US Air Force F-16s working with US special operators on the ground in Bosnia rehearsed an air support mission with local forces. Stars and Stripes reports the bilateral drill is to show the US commitment to ensuring the territorial integrity of Bosnia and Herzegovina against a secessionist movement from the Republic of Srpska, a majority ethnically Serbian territory comprising a little less than half of the nation’s land. The military cooperation demonstrates the United States “will act if anyone tries to change this basic element” of the 1995 Dayton Accords or the Bosnian constitution, which “provides no right of secession,” the US Embassy said in a statement Monday.
The 446th session of the Maryland General Assembly opened noon Wednesday, with lawmakers ambitious to tackle an election-year agenda, while also addressing a looming state budget deficit and a shortfall in projected transportation funding. Maryland Matters reports the state faces a $761 million budget shortfall projected for the fiscal 2025 budget, and the Department of Transportation recently announced $3.3 billion in cuts to proposed transportation spending that could dramatically affect every large and small political subdivision in the state over the next few years.
Contracts:
General Dynamics NASSCO, San Diego, California, is awarded a not-to-exceed $438,524,107 cost-plus-fixed-fee modification to a previously awarded undefinitized contract action (N0002423C4424) for the maintenance, modernization, and repair of USS Chung-Hoon (DDG 93) and USS James E. Williams (DDG 95) fiscal 2024 Depot Maintenance Period availabilities. The scope of this acquisition includes all labor, materials, supervision, equipment, production, testing, facilities, and quality assurance necessary to prepare for and accomplish the Chief of Naval Operations Availabilities for critical modernization, maintenance and repair programs. This contract includes options, which, if exercised, would bring the cumulative value of this contract to $864,141,048. If all options are exercised, work will continue through November 2030. Work will be performed in Norfolk, Virginia (53%); and San Diego, California (47%), and is expected to be completed by April 2024. This undefinitized contract action obligates a total of $185,946,619 to include: fiscal 2024 other procurement, Navy funds in the amount of $156,691,537 (84.3%); fiscal 2024 operations and maintenance, Navy funds in the amount of $19,603,435 (10.5%); fiscal 2023 other procurement, Navy funds in the amount of $9,564,027 (5.1%); and fiscal 2023 defense-wide, procurement funds in the amount of $87,584 (0.1%), will be obligated at the time of award, of which $18,987,166 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, DC, is the contracting activity.
Amentum Services Inc., Chantilly, Virginia, is awarded a $216,000,000 indefinite-quantity/indefinite-delivery, cost-plus-fixed-fee contract (N6523624D8014) for Submarine Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Collaboration and Intelligence (C5I), Weapons Shipping/Handling/Launcher Integrated Test Team, and Submarine Warfare Federated Tactical Systems (SWFTS) modernization support. The contract covers test and evaluation, engineering, management, technical and logistics support services to Program Executive Office (PEO) Strategic Submarines, PEO Attack Submarines, and PEO Undersea Warfare Systems. This support encompasses engineering and analytical analysis and products, the development and execution of testing and certification, technical, management and logistics support at the platform level for C5I Non-Propulsion Electronic Systems, SWFTS, and Submarine Operating Authority. The contract includes a base five-year ordering period and a two-year option period. The option period, if exercised, would bring the cumulative potential value of this contract to $321,000,000. Fiscal 2024 shipbuilding and conversion, Navy funds in the amount of $10,250,000; fiscal 2024 other procurement, Navy funds in the amount of $3,280,000; and 2024 navy working capital funds in the amount of $600,000, will be obligated at the time of award. Funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Work will be performed in Norfolk, Virginia (51.1 %); New London, Connecticut (32.5 %); Honolulu, Hawaii (4.9 %); Bremerton, Washington (4.4 %); Portsmouth, New Hampshire (3.8 %); Washington, DC, (1.6 %); Syracuse, New York (.6 %); Middleton, Rhode Island (.6 %); and Charleston, South Carolina (.5 %), and is expected to be completed in January 2029. If the option is exercised, work could continue until January 2031. This requirement was solicited using other than full and open competition pursuant to the authority of 10 U.S. Code 3204(a)(1) – Only One Responsible Source. Naval Information Warfare Center Atlantic, Charleston, South Carolina, is the contracting activity.
Sauer Construction, Jacksonville, Florida, is awarded $20,659,300 for a firm-fixed-price modification to a previously awarded contract (N40085-23-C-0052). This modification provides for the exercise of Options One, Two, And Three, and Deductive Option One onboard Naval Weapons Station Yorktown. Work will be performed in Yorktown, Virginia, and is expected to be completed by November 2025. This award brings the total cumulative face value of the contract to $65,737,684. Option One provides for the construction of a fourth complete earth-covered magazine. Option Two provides for the construction of a fifth complete earth-covered magazine. Option Three provides for the demolition of Buildings 244, 245, 246, 247, 1217, 1219, 1220, 1221, 1222, 1223, 1363, 1364, 1365, and 1366. Deductive Option One provides for a price reduction for providing magazine embankment fill for each of the five magazines on this contract. Fiscal 2022 military construction (Navy) funds in the amount of $20,659,300 will be obligated at time of award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command Mid-Atlantic, Norfolk, Virginia, is the contracting activity
General Dynamics Information Technology Inc., Falls Church, Virginia, was awarded a $170,804,280 task order for Air Force Civil Engineer Center Control System cybersecurity services. This task order provides the capability to research and develop new Civil Engineer Control System lifecycle strategies and methods to result in less vulnerable and more cost-effective Civil Engineer Control System deployments worldwide. Work will be performed at 188 Air Force installations worldwide and is expected to be completed by Feb. 9, 2029. This contract was a competitive acquisition, and five offers were received. Fiscal 2024 operation and maintenance funds in the amount of $31,135,408 are being obligated at time of award. The 772nd Enterprise Sourcing Squadron, Tyndall Air Force Base, Florida, is the contracting activity (FA8051-24-F-0013).
Itera LLC, New Paris, Indiana (W912ER-24-D-0001); MVL USA Inc., Lansing, Michigan (W912ER-24-D-0002); Dorce Prefabrication & Construction, Ankara-Istanbul, Turkey (W912ER-24-D-0003); Atlantic Diving Supply Inc., Virginia Beach, Virginia (W912ER-24-D-0004); and Panorama Contracting and Engineering Services W.L.L., Manama, Bahrain (W912ER-24-D-0005), will compete for each order of the $250,000,000 firm-fixed-price contract to manufacture, ship and deliver relocatable buildings. Bids were solicited via the internet with 17 received. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of Jan. 8, 2029. US Army Corps of Engineers, Middle East District, is the contracting activity.
