Win a Spot Aboard USS Constitution
USS Constitution goes underway in Boston Harbor in celebration of Independence Day 2022. USS Constitution is the world’s oldest commissioned warship afloat. (Alec Kramer/US Navy)
Morning Coffee is a robust blend of links to news around the internet concerning the Naval Air Station Patuxent River 
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Want to “serve” on the world’s oldest commissioned warship still afloat? A free lottery to win a spot aboard USS Constitution’s July 4 underway demonstration opened Tuesday. Stars and Stripes reports the lottery will select, at random, 150 people to join the crew as they set sail in Boston Harbor. Each person selected will be allowed to bring one guest. A link to the invitation is available on the Constitution’s Facebook and Instagram pages.
The Pentagon has lifted lightning restrictions for the most widely used version of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, allowing the Lockheed Martin jet to fly in thunderstorms for the first time since 2020, reports Breaking Defense.
As the Navy’s F-35C fleet expands, a government oversight group worries the JSFs aren’t mission available often enough, cost more than expected to sustain, and out of the direct control of the service. Lockheed Martin handles maintenance of the F-35s, distribution of parts and supplies, engineering, and more. The military oversees fleet and manages the facilities and people that support maintenance. This leaves the services with little control over ensuring their own readiness, reports Defense News.
The first three F-16s to be loaded with self-flying technology arrived this week at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida, reports Defense News. The arrival marks the service’s biggest step forward yet the Air Force’s aim to speed up the testing of autonomous technology on both crewed and uncrewed aircraft.
The Navy is contracting out multiple barges to Baltimore Harbor to help with clearing and reopening of the channel after a tanker struck a pillar of the Francis Scott Key Bridge, causing it to collapse early Tuesday. Navy Times reports the Navy’s Supervisor of Salvage and Diving will use the barges to surface and remove portions of the bridge. Sections will first be disassembled before they are lifted onto the barges and transported away.
A tugboat pushing a fuel barge was the first vessel to use an alternate channel to bypass the wreckage of Baltimore’s collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge, which had blocked traffic along the vital port’s main shipping channel. The barge supplying jet fuel to the DoD left late Monday destined for Delaware’s Dover Air Force Base. Military Times reports that officials have said the temporary channel is open primarily to vessels that are helping with the cleanup effort. Some barges and tugs that have been stuck in the Port of Baltimore since the collapse are also scheduled to pass through the channel.
Boeing has received a potential $657.1 million contract modification from the US Navy to support the production and delivery of two more MQ-25 Stingray System Demonstration Test Article aircraft. GovConWire reports Naval Air Systems Command is obligating $288.6 million in research, development, test and evaluation funds for fiscal 2023.
The US and other Western countries are considering transferring to NATO a US-led multinational group that coordinates the shipment of weapons to Ukraine, one of several new proposals that could help maintain the flow of arms to Kyiv under a second Donald Trump presidency, reports Politico.com. The goal would be to finalize the move at the NATO leaders’ summit in Washington in July.
Among the new proposals, NATO boss Jens Stoltenberg has proposed a $107 billion, five-year package of military aid to Ukraine that would give the Western alliance a more direct role in providing support to Kyiv, reports Reuters.
European nations in the US-led Ukraine Defense Contact Group are meeting to decide whether to exclude US participation in response to the US Congress’ failure to release funds for the effort, reports Breaking Defense. Andriy Zagorodnyuk, chair of a Ukrainian security think tank, said, “Europeans are talking about setting up new formats, saying that the United States cannot play that [leadership] role anymore.” US DefSec Lloyd Austin chairs the 54-nation Contact Group that typically meets on a monthly basis to renew military support for Ukraine through new weapons packages and multinational coalitions.
Ukrainian men as young as 25 can now be conscripted into military service after President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a law Tuesday lowering the age from 27 in a bid to replenish Kyiv’s badly depleted troop ranks more than two years into Russia’s invasion. The Washington Post reports Ukrainian citizens can voluntarily join the military starting at age 18, and men between 18 and 60 are banned from leaving the country under martial law. The draft had attempted to protect younger men — many of whom are students — from being forcibly mobilized.
The US government is considering major new weapons sales to Israel of fighter jets, air-to-air missiles, and guidance kits, as calls grow for the US to withhold arms if Israel won’t do more to limit civilian casualties in Gaza, says Politico.
The US government is arranging a summit between President Joe Biden and his Japanese and South Korean counterparts in July, on the sidelines of a NATO summit in Washington, according to Reuters.
Air & Space Forces Magazine reports that the Space Force is exploring the idea of using civilians or even contractors to help conduct operations, as the service sorts out how to best manage its small workforce, Chief of Space Operations GEN B. Chance Saltzman said this week.
A senior Defense Department official who attended last year’s NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, had symptoms similar to those reported by US officials who have experienced “Havana syndrome,” the Pentagon confirmed Monday. AP News reports Havana syndrome is still under investigation but includes a string of health problems dating back to 2016, when officials working at the US Embassy in Havana reported sudden unexplained head pressure, head or ear pain, or dizziness.
The sole survivor serving aboard the USS Arizona during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor has died. Lou Conter, one of the last living ties to that date of infamy, passed away at his home in Grass Valley, CA, Pacific Historic Parks confirmed. He was 102, reports Military Times.
Military.com reports the battleship New Jersey sits in the dry dock at the Philadelphia Navy Yard for the next two months undergoing maintenance, and the public will be able to tour underneath the iconic vessel for the first time in its long history.
IBM has prevailed in a battle over a $100 million project to transform human resources functions for the Navy, reports Washington Technology. IBM took the contract from incumbent General Dynamics IT in November. GDIT followed up with a protest, but this week reached the end of the line when the Government Accountability Office, the final authority for protests involving task order competitions, found no basis in the challenge.
Greece has approved the purchase of 35 UH-60M Blackhawk helicopters from Lockheed in an effort to modernize its armed forces, reports Reuters.
More than 400,000 veterans signed up for health care with the Department of Veterans Affairs in the past year — a 30% increase from the prior year — with higher enrollments driven by a new law covering illnesses from toxic exposure during military service, reports Stars and Stripes.
Contracts:
ITC Defense Corp., North Charleston, South Carolina, is awarded a $249,520,098 cost-plus- fixed-fee, cost-indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract to provide logistic support services for program of record (POR) and non-POR platforms, weapons, and commodities, to include support of all logistics elements associated with the acquisition, production, and sustainment of the International Partners (IP) weapons systems. Additionally, this contract provides for management of spare components, special tooling, test equipment, and services to sustain weapons systems deployed on existing platforms. This requirement will provide twelve integrated product support elements. These efforts are in support of IP nation capabilities under Foreign Military Sales, Building Partner Capacity, and International Cooperative Programs. Work will be performed in Patuxent River, Maryland, and is expected to be completed in March 2029. No funds will be obligated at the time of award; funds will be obligated on individual orders as they are issued. This contract was competitively awarded via electronic request for proposal, four offers were received. Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity (N0042124D0012).
Leidos Inc., Reston, Virginia, was awarded a $631,174,000 hybrid (cost-no-fee, cost-plus-fixed-fee, cost-plus-incentive-fee, firm-fixed-price, fixed-price-incentive) contract for development, integration, acquisition, bridging to logistics and operations. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of March 31, 2034. Army Contracting Command, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, is the contracting activity.
IntellecTechs, Virginia Beach, Virginia, was awarded a $15,179,601 hybrid (cost-no-fee, firm-fixed-price) contract for personnel support services. Bids were solicited via the internet with eight received. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of March 31, 2029. Army Field Directorate Office, Fort Sam Houston, Texas, is the contracting activity (W9124J-24-F-0058).
Professional Contract Services Inc., Austin, Texas, is awarded $38,572,161 for an indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity modification to a previously awarded contract (N40085-20-D-0040). This modification provides for the exercise of Option Year Four for base operating support services at Naval Medical Center Portsmouth, and its outlying support sites. After award of this option, the total cumulative contract value will be $173,313,651. Work will be performed in Portsmouth, Virginia. This option period is from April 1, 2024, to March 31, 2025. No funds will be obligated at time of award. Fiscal 2024 operation and maintenance, (Navy) funds in the amount of $36,061,951 for recurring work will be obligated on individual task orders issued during the option period. The Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command, Mid-Atlantic, Norfolk, Virginia, is the contracting activity.
Science Applications International Corp., Reston, Virginia, has been awarded a $20,992,067 cost-plus-fixed-fee modification (P00055) to contract FA8650-19-C-6024 for optical radiation bioeffects and safety. This research will advance understanding of the personal effects of directed energy and kinetic energy systems and associated protection. This additional work modification includes novel radio frequency bioeffects research, directs additional testing for laser bioeffects and clothing effects, and related Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality training development. Work will be performed at Fort Sam Houston, San Antonio, Texas, and is expected to be completed Aug. 1, 2026. Fiscal 2024 research, development, test and evaluation funds in the amount of $415,000 will be obligated at time of award. Air Force Research Laboratory, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, is the contracting activity. This contract was awarded March 29, 2024.
