HOMELAND SECURITY
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25 Nov 08. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has ordered his top department leaders to conduct a broad review to determine whether the military, National Guard and Reserve can adequately deal with domestic disasters and whether they have the training and equipment to defend the homeland. The 41-page memo signaled an acknowledgment that the military must better recognize the critical role of the National Guard and Reserves in homeland defense, but stopped short of requiring many specific policy changes. His Nov. 24 memo comes in the wake of a stinging 400-page independent commission report that concluded the military isn’t ready for a catastrophic attack on the country, and that National Guard forces don’t have the equipment or training they need for the job. That report, released early this year by the Commission on the National Guard and Reserves, said the Pentagon must use the nation’s citizen soldiers to create an operational force that would be fully trained, equipped and ready to defend the nation, respond to crises and supplement the active duty troops in combat. (Source: Google)
21 Nov 08. India ‘to step up piracy battle’. India is bolstering its naval presence in the Gulf of Aden to tackle piracy off Somalia’s coast, reports say. The Indian navy is planning to send at least one more warship to the area, according to local media reports. And Delhi has formally been given permission to act under a UN resolution allowing navies to pursue pirates into Somalia’s territorial waters. Piracy incidents have surged off the Somali coast and a number of Indian crews have been on hijacked ships. On Tuesday, an Indian warship sank a suspected pirate “mother ship” after it came under attack in the Gulf of Aden. (Source: BBC)
20 Nov 08. Thales Communications, Inc., announces the selection of its medium-powered, High-Frequency Automated Link Establishment (HF-ALE) radio communications system by the U.S. Coast Guard for incorporation into new cutter acquisition contracts for the next five to seven years. The Coast Guard’s standardization with Thales is a follow-on to Thales’s participation in an indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity (IDIQ) contract competitively awarded in 2005 under which Thales HF radio systems are being used to upgrade the Coast Guard’s In-Service cutters with advanced HF-ALE capabilities. Under that IDIQ contract, Thales’s systems are being integrated on the Coast Guard’s fleet of 75 cutters of varying classes, including High and Medium Endurance Cutters (378-foot, 282-foot, 270-foot, and 210-foot) and the Polar Icebreaker fleet.
25 Nov 08. Science Applications International Corp., San Diego, Calif., was awarded on Nov. 25, 2008 a, $97,957,600 firm fixed price contract. This requirement is for the procurement of fifty Militarized Mobile Gamma-Ray Imaging Systems for non-intrusive inspection of vehicles and cargo as well as maintenance of these systems. Work will be performed in San Diego, Calif., with an estimated completion date of Dec. 24, 2010. Number of Offers Solicited via N/A and two bids were received. US Army Research Development and Engineering Command Acquisition Center, Aberdeen Proving, Md., is the contracting activity (W91CRB-09-F-0003).