War Crime Pardons May Mark Memorial Day
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President Donald Trump may pardon multiple former US service members accused or convicted of war crimes this Memorial Day weekend, reports The New York Times.
House appropriators plan to strip funds from DoD’s beleaguered plans to transition to cloud computing, reports Federal Times.
Navy email with tracking device raises legal and ethical questions, reports Military Times. A Navy prosecutor last week sent an email to the editor of Navy Times that was embedded with a secret digital tracking device. The tracking device came at a time when the Naval Criminal Investigative Service is mounting an investigation into media leaks surrounding the high-profile court-martial of a Navy SEAL accused of war crimes.
Ransomware cyberattacks on Baltimore put city services offline, reports NPR. Hackers demand 13 Bitcoins — worth around $100,000 today — to relinquish their grip. The cyberattack is just one of over 20 made on municipalities this year — and cybersecurity experts say it likely will take months for the city to recover. The FBI and Secret Service are investigating, and the city has contracted with a series of experts to assist in restoring service.
Video: Exclusive look inside NSA Hawaii, the “front lines” of intelligence gathering from CBS News.
A Marine Corps AV-8B Harrier crashed in North Carolina, reports USNI. The pilot is being treated at a local hospital after safely ejecting from the plane. No cause has been identified. This incident follows two other Class A mishaps within Marine Corps aviation this month.
Sabbaticals are helping the Navy is keeping talented moms in the sea service. Navy Times reports the Career Intermission Program can allow sailors up to three years off in exchange for an additional month service after they return for every month they’ve been gone. Surveys show the top reasons people leave the service are the Navy’s impact on the family, on their ability to have or adopt children, and work-life balance.
The Supreme Court again refused to consider the legal precedent barring individuals from suing the military for medical malpractice, noting that Congress has failed to rectify the problem, reports Military Times. In a dissent, Judge Clarence Thomas blasted the court’s refusal as short-sighted and unfair.
The former Polish defense minister continues to question the government on its plans to buy the Patriot air-and-missile defense system from the US, reports Defense News. The delivery of the first two Raytheon-made Patriot batteries is a done deal, but the Polish government’s previously stated intention to procure a total of eight is in question.
A bipartisan congressional plan to raise the federal minimum age to purchase tobacco from 18 to 21 will also bar younger troops from buying tobacco products, reports Military Times, despite past indications to exclude active-duty troops. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) announced details of their new legislation, calling it a way to curb the “public health crisis” of teenage smoking.
Ordered by the White House to the Persian Gulf, the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln has become a 100,000-ton barometer of the tensions between Iran and the US. Why does the world look at an aircraft carrier as a barometer for Gulf tensions? asks Navy Times.
Army and Air Force spouses can apply for a $500 reimbursement for professional licensing costs after relocatng with their service member, reports Military Times. The new policies are retroactive to Dec. 12, 2017.
The Army is ready to field test its fitness test for injured soldiers, reports Army Times, following nine months in the planning. Next month, the Center for Initial Military Training will begin evaluating an alternate assessment for soldiers who are permanently unable to complete the standard six events of the Army Combat Fitness Test.
Congress asks how the Air Force will pay for new missile warning satellites, reports C4ISRNET. The House Appropriations Committee expressed concern over the Air Force’s $1.4 billion FY20 budget request for a new missile warning satellite system, more than double what Congress approved for fiscal 2019 and $459 million more than Air Force leaders expected to spend on the program a year ago.
Job cuts at Ford Motor to total 7,000 this year, reports The New York Times. “Consistent with our goal to reduce bureaucracy, we will have reduced management structure by close to 20 percent,” Ford’s chief executive, Jim Hackett, said in an email to employees. “This will result in annual savings of about $600 million.”
Contracts:
IBM Global Business Services, Reston, Virginia (HQ0727-19-D-4000), is being awarded a $275,000,000 indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract. The purpose of this contract is to enable “trusted” manufacturing flows in the Trusted Foundry Access II contractor’s fabrication facilities; to enable a wide-range of associated leading-edge semiconductor technologies and services; and to create a trusted supply chain with the contractor, fully certified and accredited, to deliver classified and trusted mask and wafer fabrication within an “open” commercial environment. This program provides the additional layer of security to the commercial environment that permits government access to advanced technology manufacturing capabilities for trusted and classified programs. In addition, the program provides subject matter expertise and consulting services to assess and propose additional tasking for the enablement, support, or accreditation of new facilities, systems, tools and processes to further the strategic goals of the Defense MicroElectronics Activity (DMEA) in advanced semiconductor technologies. Five task orders for the initial performance period totaling $15,562,838 are being issued concurrently using fiscal 2019 funds. Work will be performed in Burlington, Vermont; East Fishkill, New York; Annapolis Junction, Maryland; Malta, New York; Bromont, Quebec; and Boise, Idaho. DMEA, McClellan, California, is the contracting activity. (Awarded May 20, 2019)
Lockheed Martin Rotary and Mission Systems, Manassas, Virginia, is awarded a $63,102,113 cost-plus-incentive-fee and cost-only modification to previously awarded contract N00024-13-C-5225 to exercise an option and provide incremental funding in support of the continued development, integration, and production of the Navy’s AN/SQQ-89A(V)15 Surface Ship Undersea Warfare (USW) system. The AN/SQQ-89A(V)15 is the USW combat system with the capabilities to search, detect, classify, localize and track undersea contacts, and to engage and evade submarines, mine-like small objects and torpedo threats. The contract is for development, integration and production of future Advanced Capability Build and Technical Insertion baselines. Work will be performed in Manassas, Virginia (83 percent); Lemont Furnace, Pennsylvania (10 percent); Syracuse, New York (6 percent); and Hauppauge, New York (1 percent), and is expected to be completed by May 2020. Foreign Military Sales; fiscal 2019 and 2015 shipbuilding and conversion (Navy); fiscal 2019 research, development, test and evaluation; fiscal 2019 operations and maintenance (Navy); and fiscal 2019 other procurement (Navy) funding the amount of $11,136,938 will be obligated at the time of award, and $1,100,000 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, District of Columbia, is the contracting activity.
Q.E.D. Systems Inc., Virginia Beach, Virginia, is awarded a $19,578,649 cost-type modification to previously awarded contract N00024-15-C-4404 for third-party advanced planning services in support of Chief of Naval Operations-scheduled availabilities, continuous maintenance availabilities (CMAVs), inactivation CMAVs, sustainment availabilities, phased modernization availabilities, re-commissioning availabilities, continuous maintenance and emergent maintenance windows of opportunity for Navy amphibious ship classes (LPD 17, LSD 41 and LSD 49 classes). Work will be performed in Norfolk, Virginia (53 percent); San Diego, California (36 percent); and Everett, Washington (11 percent), and is expected to be completed by May 2020. Fiscal 2019 operations and maintenance (Navy) funding in the amount of $1,888,000 will be obligated at time of award and will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, District of Columbia, is the contracting activity.
