CONTRACT NEWS IN BRIEF
UNITED KINGDOM
SEA
19 Apr 19. General Dynamics Electric Boat, Groton, Connecticut, is awarded a $269,264,180 cost-plus-fixed-fee modification to previously-awarded contract N00024-17-C-2117 for the manufacturing of 42 missile tubes and missile tube outfitting material in support of the Columbia class fleet ballistic missile submarine (SSBN) and the United Kingdom (UK) Dreadnought. Work will be performed in Quonset Point, Rhode Island (71 percent); and York, Pennsylvania (29 percent), and is expected to be completed by May 2028. This is a joint U.S.-UK Common Missile Compartment program, and this modification includes UK foreign military sales funding. Fiscal 2019 shipbuilding and conversion (Navy); and foreign military funds (UK) funding in the amount of $49,500,000 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.
EUROPE
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26 Apr 19. DroneShield has taken its first order from Thales Spain, as the companies build upon their teaming agreement. The pair agreed on a partnership in December 2018, and Thales Spain intends to integrate DroneShield’s detection and mitigation products into its “broader family of defence products”, to market in Spain and globally to its customers. (Source: Defence Connect)
23 Apr 19. Kongsberg awards orders to Kitron. Kitron has received orders with a value of more than NOK 50m under the long-term manufacturing agreement with Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace AS that was announced 26 October 2018. The orders are for production of electronic modules that are part of Kongsberg’s weapon control system, Remote Weapon Station (RWS). Deliveries are planned from the second half of 2019 to 2020. Production will take place at Kitron’s plant in Norway. (Source: Google/https://www.nasdaq.com)
25 Apr 19. Lockheed Martin, Orlando, Florida, was awarded a $723,550,174 modification (P00011) to domestic and Foreign Military Sales (Lebanon, Netherlands and France) contract W31P4Q-18-C-0130 to procure a variety of HELLFIRE II missile variants. Work will be performed in Orlando, Florida, with an estimated completion date of Sept. 30, 2022. Fiscal 2017, 2018 and 2019 other procurement, Army funds in the amount of $723,550,174 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, is the contracting activity.
USA
LAND
25 Apr 19. Harris Corp., Roanoke, Virginia, has been awarded a maximum $50,000,000 firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for the production of Image Intensifying tubes in support of the AN/AVS-6 and AN/AVS-9 Aviator’s Night Vision Imaging System (ANVIS). This was a sole-source acquisition using justification 10 U.S. Code 2304 (c)(1), as stated in Federal Acquisition Regulation 6.302-1. This is a five-year base contract with one five-year option period. Location of performance is Virginia, with an April 24, 2024, performance completion date. Using military service is Army. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2019 through 2024 Army working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Land and Maritime, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland (SPRBL1-19-D-0029).
24 Apr 19. iGov Technologies, Inc. (iGov), provider of C4ISR systems and support programs, announced today that the U.S. Marine Corps has awarded the company a Firm Fixed-Price contract for the CDN Data Distribution System-Modular (DDS-M) Small Form-Factor. The contract value is $174m if all options are exercised. Under the five-year contract, iGov will replace the legacy CDN DDS-M with a small form-factor solution that increases tactical networking performance, while significantly reducing the physical footprint. (Source: Defence Industries.com)
24 Apr 19. Kaman Announces Joint Programmable Fuze Order. Kaman Corp. (NYSE:KAMN) announced today that its Aerospace segment has been awarded a direct commercial sale (“DCS”) order for the procurement of Joint Programmable Fuzes (“JPF”) with an expected total value of $48.6m. Kaman has been the sole provider of the JPF to the USAF since 2002. In addition to the USAF, Kaman provides the JPF to thirty-six other nations. Sales of the JPF can be direct to the USAF, Foreign Military Sales (“FMS”) through the U.S. Government (“USG”) and DCS to foreign militaries that, although not funded by the USG, require regulatory approvals from the USG prior to delivery. The JPF allows the settings of a weapon to be programmed on wing in flight and is the current bomb fuze of choice of the USAF. The JPF is used with a number of weapons including general purpose bombs, and guided bombs that use JDAM or Paveway kits, on U.S. aircraft such as F-15, F-16, F-22, F-35, A-10, B-1, B-2, B-52 and the MQ-9 UAV as well as on international aircraft such as Mirage 2000, Tornado, F/A-18, Mirage 3 and Gripen. Kaman produces the JPF at facilities in Orlando, Florida and Middletown, Connecticut. (Source: ASD Network)
22 Apr 19. Lockheed Martin Corp., Grand Prairie, Texas, was awarded a $362,741,549 fixed-price-incentive contract for Multiple Launch Rocket System M270A0 to M270A2 launchers; M270A2 Flyaway Package kit; M270A2 Authorized Stockage List kits, M270A2 Production Line Spares kits, production line restart costs, improve launcher mechanical system test stand upgrade services, proposal costs, and over and above repair services. Bids were solicited via the internet with one received. Work will be performed in Grand Prairie, Texas; Camden, Arizona; and New Boston, Texas; with an estimated completion date of Nov. 30, 2022. Fiscal 2019 other procurement, Army funds in the amount of $177,743,359 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, is the contracting activity (W31P4Q-19-C-0077).
22 Apr 19. PathFinder Digital was awarded a contract by Boeing for the development and delivery of small form-factor S-band flat panel satellite terminals for government applications. The antennas/LNBs are only 8″x8″x4″ in size. This award is a follow-on award to a contract also issued by Boeing for the development of larger, man-pack, S-band flat panel satellite terminals which were delivered last year; as well as larger, airline checkable, single-case flyaway S-band terminals which were delivered previously. These terminals were designed and engineered to meet the customer’s unique specifications. (Source: Defence Industries.com)
22 Apr 19. Indiana State Police Adds SIG SAUER P365 as their Back-Up Duty Firearm. SIG SAUER, Inc. announced that the Indiana State Police have adopted the SIG SAUER P365 as their back-up duty firearm for their full complement of troopers. The Indiana State Police is a statewide law enforcement agency comprised of more than 1,250 troopers across fourteen districts throughout the state of Indiana.
SEA
16 Apr 19. Saab has secured a contract from General Dynamics to supply the Sea Giraffe AMB naval radar for installation on the US Navy’s newest Littoral Combat Ships (LCS). Called AN/SPS-77 by the US Navy, the Sea Giraffe AMB radar will be installed on LCS 36 and LCS 38. The company won the first order for the radar system for the LCS ships in 2005. Saab has continuously carried out enhancements to the standard Giraffe AMB sensor to meet the requirements of a range of missions from open-ocean blue-water applications to the littorals. The firm will perform the contract work in Syracuse, New York in the US, and Gothenburg, Sweden. The AN/SPS-77 is currently being deployed on the US Navy’s Independence-class LCS vessels. In addition, Saab is development variants of Sea Giraffe for installation on US Navy Expeditionary Sea Base ships and US Coast Guard Offshore Patrol Cutter-class vessels. (Source: naval-technology.com)
23 Apr 19. VT Halter Marine Inc., Pascagoula, Mississippi, is awarded a $745,940,860 fixed-price incentive-firm contract for the detail design and construction of the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) Polar Security Cutter (PSC) (formerly the Heavy Polar Ice Breaker). The PSC program is a multiple year Department of Homeland Security Level 1 investment and a USCG major system acquisition to acquire up to three multi-mission PSCs to recapitalize the USCG fleet of heavy icebreakers which have exhausted their design service life. The PSC’s mission will be to ensure continued access to both polar regions and support the country’s economic, commercial, maritime, and national security needs. This contract includes options which, if exercised, would bring the cumulative value of this contract to $1,942,812,266. Work will be performed in Pascagoula, Mississippi (61 percent); Metairie, Louisiana (12 percent); New Orleans, Louisiana (12 percent); San Diego, California (4 percent); Mossville, Illinois (4 percent); Mobile, Alabama (2 percent); Boca Raton, Florida (2 percent); and various other locations (3 percent), and is expected to be completed by June 2024. If all options are exercised, work will continue through November 2027. Fiscal 2019 procurement, construction, and improvement (Coast Guard); and fiscal 2018 and 2017 shipbuilding and conversion (Navy) in the amount of $839,224,287 will be obligated at time of award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was competitively procured via the Federal Business Opportunities website, with three offers received. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, District of Columbia, is the contracting activity (N00024-19-C-2210).
AIR
18 Apr 19. ATLAS Space Operations, Inc., a leading innovator in ground communications for the space industry, today announced an agreement to develop its LINKS platform with the Department of Defense’s Defense Innovation Unit (DIU). The competitively awarded rapid prototyping program will run for 12 months, and will deliver a complete satellite communications platform tailored to the Air Force’s Multi-Band Multi-Mission requirements, as outlined by the Space and Missile Systems Center’s Range and Network Systems Division. The resulting platform will provide several key advantages that have proven challenging for traditional antenna equipment, including the ability to communicate with multiple satellites simultaneously, tracking of resident space objects (RSOs), and providing enhanced telemetry data to ascending launch vehicles. The man-portable LINKS platform will increase capacity, flexibility, interoperability, automation and resiliency of space operations and space lift. Upon completion of the program, ATLAS will hold demonstrations to highlight LINKS’ innovative features, cutting edge design, and multi-mission capabilities to the DIU. The demonstrations will be held at Schriever Air Force Base in Colorado Springs. (Source: BUSINESS WIRE)
19 Apr 19. The Boeing Co., El Segundo, California, has been awarded a not-to-exceed $605,000,000 firm-fixed-price modification (P00109) to previously awarded contract FA8808-10-C-0001 for the production of the Wideband Global Satellite Communication Space Vehicle 11. Work will be performed in El Segundo, California, and is expected to be complete by Nov. 20, 2023. This modification brings the total cumulative face value of the contract to $2,495,519,867. Fiscal 2018 procurement funds in the amount of $300,000,000 are being obligated at the time of award. Space and Missile Systems Center, Los Angeles Air Force Base, California, is the contracting activity.
22 Apr 19. Citadel Defense Company has been awarded a purchase contract valued over USD 1m by the Defense Logistics Agency in support of USSOCOM requirements. This is the company’s sixth government contract for its mobile system that counters drone threats. According to a company press release: “Through autonomy, proprietary machine learning and artificial intelligence capabilities, Citadel Defense creates a force multiplier for Warfighters that enables them to get more done with the same or fewer resources. With the deployment of Citadel’s technology, U.S. Special Operations Forces gain a modernized capability designed and developed to evolve with the pace of the growing threat.” The counter-drone Titan product provides fixed site, man-packable, and on-the-move protection that can effectively defeat drones without having collateral effects on warfighter communications or certain proprietary technologies. (Source: www.unmannedairspace.info)
16 Apr 19. The US Army has selected United Technologies’ unit Collins Aerospace Systems to provide critical expertise in the development of Future Vertical Lift (FVL). Collins will serve as a mission systems integrator (MSI) for the Joint Multi-Role (JMR) Mission Systems Architecture Demonstration (MSAD) programme, which will provide critical information to the Department of Defense to develop a strategy for FVL. FVL is expected to eventually replace every army helicopter in the US. The company will be responsible for the design and demonstration of the next generation of cyber-hardened mission system architecture. It will also design model-based systems engineering tools and processes that are required to develop and integrate the avionics on FVL. Collins Aerospace Systems will serve as an MSI for the JMR MSAD programme, which is set to conclude in December next year. It is also working with JMR demonstrator aircraft developers and has products on the Sikorsky-Boeing SB-1 Defiant compound helicopter and the Bell V-280 Valor tiltrotor, flightglobal.com reported. (Source: army-technology.com)
23 Apr 19. Curtiss-Wright’s Defense Solutions division announced today it has been awarded a contract by The Boeing Company to supply data technology systems for the MQ-25 unmanned aerial refueling program. The MQ-25 is the U.S. Navy’s first operational carrier-based unmanned aircraft and is designed to provide a much-needed refueling capability. The contract supports Boeing’s engineering and manufacturing development program to provide four MQ-25 aircraft to the U.S. Navy for Initial Operational Capability by 2024. Curtiss-Wright has been a supplier to Boeing for more than 60 years. This latest MQ-25 contract will require the addition of a half dozen engineers and technicians at Curtiss-Wright, which is also a supplier to a range of other Boeing commercial and defense programs.
22 Apr 19. Iridium Satellite, LLC, Tempe, Arizona, was awarded a non-competitive firm fixed price contract modification on April 22, 2019, HC104714C4000, for the extension of services on the current Airtime contract. The face value of this action is $8,327,000.00 funded by fiscal 2019 defense working capital funds. The total cumulative face value of the contract is $452,327,000.00. The original solicitation was issued on the basis of other than full and open competition pursuant to 10 U.S.C. 2304(c)(1), only one responsible source and no other type of supplies or services would satisfy agency requirements. Performance will be at the contractor’s facility. The period of performance for the option period is April 22, 2019, through May 21, 2019. The Defense Information Technology Contracting Organization, Scott Air Force Base, Illinois, is the contracting activity (HC104714C4000, P00009).
18 Apr 19. Northrop Grumman Technical Services, Herndon, Virginia, has been awarded a $44,395,362 modification (P00040) to previously awarded contract FA8540-12-C-0004 for the production of electronic attack pods. This modification provides for the exercise of Option Three, and brings the total cumulative face value of the contract to $200,468,873. Work will be performed in Herndon, Virginia, and is expected to be complete by April 18, 2022. Fiscal 2017 and 2019 procurement funds in the full amount are being obligated at the time of award. Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, Robins Air Force Base, Georgia, is the contracting activity.
TECHNOLOGY
18 Apr 19. The United States Air Force (USAF) has awarded a contract to Geospark Analytics to continue development of the latter’s Hyperion’s threat and risk assessment APIs for integration into command, control, communication, intelligence and networks (C3I&N) systems. The artificial intelligence (AI) driven platform Hyperion has been designed to provide unprecedented situational awareness of political, economic and social risk at country, region and city levels to analysts and operators. Hyperion delivers real-time insights and automated monitoring, alerting, and forecasting of dangerous events. It was launched by Geospark Analytics last month. By incorporating Hyperion’s APIs into C3I&N systems, the global, regional, and local operational understanding for the airforce can be increased using AI algorithms. Hyperion’s applied machine learning models use data from news, social media, satellites, and other sources to assess risk and activity at various levels in near real-time. Analysing the content of data feeds, Hyperion’s AI calculates the stability, makes forecasts, and builds summaries for the purpose of displaying global events that impact stability, threat, activity, and risk levels. (Source: airforce-technology.com)
18 Apr 19. The U.S. Air Force has selected Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE: NOC) to deliver Cyber Enterprise Services (CES) on U.S. Cyber Command’s Unified Platform. Northrop Grumman is one of five companies each awarded $24m over two years to perform the work. Under the CES contract, Northrop Grumman will identify, develop and implement cyber capabilities on Unified Platform to further enable the efficiency and effectiveness of cyber missions. Northrop Grumman was selected last fall to serve as the systems coordinator on Unified Platform, which is designed to support all defensive and offensive cyber operations, as well as cyber intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance for U.S. Cyber Command’s Cyber Mission Force. Northrop Grumman will use continuous development, operations and maintenance of cyber platform systems within a distributed agile development environment to support the implementation of the Air Force’s vision to provide leading-edge technology to the operational community at the speed of mission need. The company will perform CES primarily in San Antonio, Texas, as well as locations in Maryland, Georgia and Ohio.
23 Apr 19. Octo Wins Agile Software Engineering Contract with AF’s Kessel Run Lab. Octo Consulting today announced it has been awarded a Prime contract with the Kessel Run Experimentation Lab, managed by the U.S. Air Force Life Cycle Management Center (AFLCMC) at Hanscom Air Force Base, Massachusetts. The Air Force sought a partner to continue transforming legacy applications using cloud-native, 12-factor development techniques and fully leveraging the enhanced security and rapid prototyping capability provided by Platform as a Service (PaaS) technology. Octo will deliver Agile software engineering expertise to allow the Kessel Run Experimentation Lab to rapidly refactor legacy applications using microservices, APIs and highly responsive modern user interfaces. A key difference in the way the Kessel Run Experimentation Lab executes its mission is that it co-locates product teams, platform teams, subject matter experts, and program oversight. This deliberate approach on the part of the Air Force seeks to bridge the literal and figurative gaps between customers, developers, designers, and product owners. This model, when combined with the Pivotal PaaS, supports rapid delivery of value to Air Force end users, and breaks from legacy development models where application updates sometimes were infrequent and systems fragile. With this win, Octo expands its support with the U.S. Air Force and into one of the military’s most forward-thinking laboratory environments. (Source: ASD Network)
23 Apr 19. Slingshot Aerospace Awarded $6m Contract by AF SMC for Next-Gen Space Situational Awareness and Enterprise Space Battle Management. Slingshot Aerospace, Inc., an advanced analytics company, announced a $6m contract award with the Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center (SMC) to rapidly prototype and deploy machine learning capabilities to augment a wide variety of Enterprise Space Battle Management mission needs. Slingshot’s innovative multi-domain toolset, known as Orbital Atlas™, will enable warfighters to pivot from traditional Space Situational Awareness focusing on space catalog maintenance toward a more tactical, predictive, and evidence-driven solution. SMC’s Space Superiority Systems Directorate exercised the 2019 contract option and expanded the value over a two-year period of performance. SMC is eager to tap into the innovations of artificial intelligence and cloud computing, and is employing a variety of contracting methods to leverage commercial automation capabilities to augment conventional space mission areas. The accelerated timeframe in which this contract was awarded validates the applicability of Slingshot’s commercial versioning of Orbital Atlas™, demonstrating benefits for industry and government organizations. Orbital Atlas™ is a predictive modeling engine that applies machine learning to massive amounts of space observation data and other contextual data streams to characterize patterns and predict events enabling warfighters, analysts, and senior decision makers to make better mission-critical decisions at the speed of relevance. (Source: ASD Network)
REST OF THE WORLD
LAND
19 Apr 19. Indonesia signs LOI with PT Pindad for Kaplan medium tanks. Indonesia has reaffirmed its interest in acquiring the Kaplan MT Modern Medium Weight Tank (MMWT) developed by Turkish company FNSS Savunma Sistemleri and Indonesian land systems company PT Pindad. On 12 April the Ministry of Defence (MoD) in Jakarta signed a letter of intent (LOI) with PT Pindad for the procurement of up to 20 Kaplan MTs – known locally as the Harimau – for USD135m, an MoD source told Jane’s on 18 April. A contract is expected to be signed within one or two years once funding for the acquisition becomes available, said the source, pointing out that funding will come from the defence budget, a foreign defence credit, or a mixture of both. (Source: IHS Jane’s)
23 Apr 19. Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems, Woburn, Massachusetts, has been awarded a firm-fixed-price, cost-plus-incentive-fee contract in the amount of $399,437,066 to provide long lead hardware procurement and manufacturing, systems engineering and program management, obsolescence and reliability updates, maintenance planning, facility design support, country support and common software development to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). Work on the undefinitized contract action will be performed in Woburn, Massachusetts, and the performance period is April 23, 2019, to July 22, 2021. The award is the result of a sole-source acquisition. KSA Foreign Military Sales funds in the amount of $399,437,066 will be used to fund this effort. The Missile Defense Agency, Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, is the contracting activity (HQ0147-19-C-0008).
23 Apr 19. Indonesia acquires BMP-3F, BT-3F amphibious vehicles for Marines Corps. Key Points:
- The Indonesian Ministry of Defence has signed a contract for BMP-3F and BT-3F vehicles
- The vehicles will be in service with cavalry units across the Indonesian Marines Corps’ three divisions
Indonesia’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) has acquired its first batch of BT-3F amphibious vehicles, and a third batch of BMP-3F infantry fighting vehicles (IFVs) for the country’s Marines Corps (Korps Marinir – KORMAR). A contract for the acquisition was signed with Russia’s JSC Rosoboronexport at the MoD’s defence acquisition office in Jakarta on 22 April. As Jane’s reported in August 2017 citing sources from within the Indonesian Navy (Tentara Nasional Indonesia – Angkatan Laut: TNI-AL), a senior delegation of KORMAR officers was in Russia that month to witness a demonstration of the BT-3F variant’s capabilities near Moscow. (Source: IHS Jane’s)
AIR
17 Apr 19. General Dynamics – Ordnance and Tactical Systems, Garland, Texas, was awarded a $125,000,000 modification (P00001) to domestic and Foreign Military Sales (Iraq, Bahrain and Singapore) contract W52P1J-19-F-0062 for MK80 series general purpose and BLU-109 tritonal bomb components. Work locations and funding will be performed with each order, with an estimated completion date of Oct. 31, 2023. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Rock Island Arsenal, Illinois, is the contracting activity.