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11 Oct 18. ECS to support GATES upgrade project for USTRANSCOM and AMC. Advanced solutions and services provider ECS has been selected as the prime awardee for a new contract to develop and sustain the Global Air Transportation Execution System (GATES) for the US Air Force’s (USAF) Air Mobility Command (AMC). GATES is an automated information system designed to track, document, manage and process payment for the global air and surface movement of personnel and cargo across all branches of the US Department of Defense (DoD). Valued at $51m, the contract has been awarded by the USAF AMC, which serves as a service component command for the DoD’s US Transportation Command (USTRANSCOM). Awarded as a firm-fixed-price, cost-plus contract, the GATES project will continue for a period of five years. Under the deal, ECS will be committed to providing full lifecycle support, including development, operations and maintenance, and modernisation of GATES. In addition, the company will provide USTRANSCOM with a range of strategic value by leveraging its expertise in Cloud migration and supporting mission-critical projects.
Furthermore, ECS will be responsible for providing an efficient software development team comprising 75 personnel to the USTRANSCOM headquarters at Scott Air Force Base in Illinois.
ECS president George Wilson said: “GATES is an essential element of an extraordinarily complex logistical undertaking.
“We are honoured to bring our expertise to USTRANSCOM and the US Air Force, as they serve the global transportation needs of the DoD.”
The USAF AMC is responsible for providing airlift, air refuelling, mobility support and aeromedical evacuation services to all branches of the US military. (Source: airforce-technology.com)
11 Oct 18. BAE leads team for LHD sustainment and support bid, BAE Systems Australia has announced that it has submitted its bid to the Australian government to provide ongoing sustainment and support for the Canberra Class Landing Helicopter Dock (LHD) ships, LHD Landing Craft (LLC) and associated shore support facilities. BAE Systems has partnered with Atlantic & Peninsula Australia, Saab Australia and Navantia Australia to offer an experienced program team to maintain the capabilities of the LHD assets, optimise the sustainment and support system, and deliver the best outcome for the Commonwealth.
BAE Systems Australia chief executive Gabby Costigan said, “BAE Systems is proud to have submitted its response to the Australian government for the LHD Asset Class Prime Contractor (ACPC) program. We have a long history of supporting the LHD and maritime sustainment for the RAN that not only includes the LHD but also four other classes of ships.”
BAE Systems Australia was the prime contractor for the Canberra Class LHD project and has provided the initial five-year in-service support for the ships.
The company has supported HMA Ships Canberra and Adelaide from their base at the Royal Australian Navy’s Garden Island facility, providing the sustainment necessary to ensure the ships are capable and available to undertake a range of operational requirements.
Atlantic & Peninsula Australia has delivered exemplary support to HMAS Choules built on inherent platform knowledge, and extensive amphibious ship support experience.
Saab has unique knowledge of the LHD Combat System and proven collaboration within the Anzac enterprise.
Navantia is the LHD platform designer and constructed the hulls for the Canberra Class. Navantia is also the platform designer and prime contractor for the 12 LLCs. The LLCs were designed and built to specifically operate with the RAN’s two LHDs.
“Through our role in the LHDs acquisition and transition to service, we have developed a deep understanding of them and we have a strong Australian supply chain in place to support their sustainment,” Costigan said.
The Canberra Class, provides the ADF with one of the most capable and sophisticated air-land-sea amphibious deployment systems in the world. These 27,000-tonne ships are able to land a force of over 1,000 personnel by helicopter and water craft, along with all their weapons, ammunition, vehicles and stores. The RAN operates two of the vessels, with the first LHD, HMAS Canberra, commissioned on 28 November 2014 and the second ship, HMAS Adelaide, commission on 4 December 2015. (Source: Defence Connect)
10 Oct 18. AM General LLC, Auburn Hills, Michigan, was awarded a $121,257,443 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for engineering, logistics, and system technical support functions for all High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle Family of Vehicles. One bid was solicited via the internet with one received. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of Oct. 9, 2023. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Warren, Michigan, is the contracting activity (W56HZV-19-D-0001).
10 Oct 18. US Army deploys update to transportation platform. Planning and managing convoy movements has become easier and cheaper for the Army to execute with the latest update to the Transportation Coordinators’ – Automated Information for Movements System II (TC-AIMS II) deployed by Automated Movement and Identification Solutions.
TC-AIMS II is an enterprise-level software platform that allows users to plan and manage the inventory and transportation of unit personnel and equipment assets on a global scale. The update, TC-AIMS II v.8.0.0, fulfills a two-year effort undertaken by AMIS and will improve the systems usability, enhance performance and comply with cyber security policies/directives focusing on convoy planning and highway regulation functionality. The effort specifically allows users to plan and manage convoy movements on public roadways minimizing the impact on civilian traffic and infrastructure.
Additional highlights and improvements include updated maps, improved road network data, a decrease in map load times — which dropped from six minutes to less than one minute — a streamlined and user-friendly interface and an anticipated 13 percent reduction in trouble tickets. AMIS also projects a cost savings of over $500,000 per year by eliminating nine servers along with outdated mapping technology.
The success of the project is due to the hard work of the AMIS team along with several geographically dispersed project stakeholders, including the Systems Simulation, Software and Integration Directorate at the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Research Development and Engineering Center in Huntsville, Ala., the Transportation Geospatial Information System at the U.S. Transportation Command on Scott Air Force Base, Ill., and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Wash. (Source: Defense Systems)
10 Oct 18. Aurora partnership to help transform Defence engineering services. The Aurora Engineering Partnership has been appointed by the Ministry of Defence (MOD) as their Engineering Delivery Partner for Defence Equipment & Support (DE&S). From 10th October, the partnership – formed by QinetiQ, Atkins, a member of the SNC-Lavalin Group, and BMT – will help the MOD to reduce costs of their engineering services, while ensuring the UK’s Armed Forces receive the best equipment and support. With the partnership of QinetiQ, Atkins and BMT, the MOD will get access to extensive experience in the defence sector, as well as experience of delivering similar partnerships in other sectors.
Aurora will help DE&S manage these costs, driving effective change and savings through financial discipline and transparent, simplified pricing. Dr Gordon Barr, Managing Director, Aurora Engineering Partnership, QinetiQ, said: “The vision for the EDP is to form a strong and professional engineering partnership with DE&S, enabling agile and efficient outcomes for front line equipment and support.”
John McGlynn, Aurora Delivery Director, Atkins, added: “Our aim is to provide the right support, first time, safely and within budget. We’ll achieve this by focusing first and foremost on the outcomes for those on the front line, working collaboratively to drive increased performance and productivity wherever we can.”
Another key element of the EDP will be driving innovation from across industry and academia. As part of this, Aurora will build a provider network including niche and specialist small to medium sized enterprises (SME) to tap into the best UK expertise.
Roy Quilliam, Aurora Engineering Director, BMT explains: “We are establishing a sustainable provider network that encourages and develops SMEs as a vital part of providing more efficient and innovative services to DE&S. We already have an unprecedented 280 companies registered, of which 70% are SMEs, to provide engineering services to the Aurora Engineering Partnership.”
05 Oct 18. Innovative US Navy Contract Delivers Defense Department-wide Benefits Faster. The Navy’s Command and Control Systems Program Office (PMW 150) began work through its first Other Transaction Authority (OTA) contract in late September, finding a way to save time and money while gaining necessary capability for an effort that has worldwide ramifications. Through the OTA, PMW 150’s Global Theater Security Cooperation Management Information Systems (G-TSCMIS) program will deliver a cloud-hosted database for the Defense Department to enable coordinated security cooperation across the globe. G-TSCMIS is being developed on behalf of the Defense Security Cooperation Agency, or DSCA. PMW 150 is part of the Program Executive Office Command, Control, Communications, Computers and Intelligence (PEO C4I).
“PMW 150’s tenacious effort to get this work awarded through a non-traditional means—in this case an OTA—gets after what we’re trying to accomplish at PEO C4I,” said Rear Adm. Carl “Chebs” Chebi, the program executive officer for PEO C4I. “It strengthens our partnerships with our industry partners as well as our joint-service partners. It delivers necessary capability to the warfighter in a way that’s faster and more affordable so our forces can win tonight. We’re not innovating for innovation’s sake—we’re innovating to give our Sailors and their fighting partners the battlefield advantage.”
The approximately $1.2m, one-year, firm-fixed-price contract for software development was signed with the company Modus21 through the SOSSEC, Inc.-managed System of Systems Consortium (SOSSEC). The consortium serves to give the military access to non-traditional companies by bringing them together under one umbrella while providing government clients one point of entry. For this effort, PMW 150 worked with the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) contracting office located in Rome, N.Y., that administers the OTA contract with SOSSEC. “OTA” is a commonly used term referring to a section of the U.S. Code that gives authority to the Defense Department for particular prototype projects.
“We worked with a couple of our joint partners as we pursued this OTA, and AFRL and SOSSEC were best for what we needed,” said Capt. Allan Walters, program manager of PMW 150. “This effort has been so successful that we’re exploring additional OTAs right now.”
Those additional OTAs include another one for G-TSCMIS and a separate one for work on the Naval Operational Business Logistics Enterprise, or NOBLE.
According to the personnel leading the G-TSCMIS effort, the use of OTAs offered several benefits to this particular project compared to traditional contracting/acquisition. The biggest advantage is the ability to work closely with non-traditional industry partners, exposing the system and program needs to different, innovative companies that normally wouldn’t participate in the bidding process.
The Chief of Staff at DSCA, Anna Nelson, explained that, “The award of this OTA is a successful milestone for PMW 150 and DSCA. In 2017, DSCA challenged PMW 150 to identify a way to develop software in a more accelerated fashion, one that would be able to keep pace with today’s evolving security cooperation needs.”
The OTA made meeting that challenge easier.
Eric Hollenbeck, the assistant program manager for G-TSCMIS, said, “We are making changes, adjusting from developing custom software to using software already developed. The OTA widened the aperture of companies with access to our work and opened the door for us to see more capabilities. We had about 15 companies participate in various phases of the process.
Another benefit is flexibility. Throughout the pre-award phases, G-TSCMIS program personnel could reformat and refine requirements, collaborating with the companies involved to make sure the right capabilities were put on contract. The dialogue and shorter timelines helped ensure contracted work was technically relevant when it began and not made obsolete through delays. In the final stages before award, alterations to requirements were established in two weeks.
With my previous experience awarding contracts, the process for this kind of work could take significantly longer,” said Hollenbeck. “With the OTA, the effort went from receiving responses to our RFI [request for information] to awarding the contract in months.
OTAs streamline many parts of the traditional contracting process. Lessons learned from the G-TSCMIS experience will be applied in the future to expedite additional programs where applicable.
Program Executive Office Command, Control, Communications, Computers and Intelligence (PEO C4I) provides integrated communication and information technology systems that enable information warfare and command and control of maritime forces. PEO C4I acquires, fields and supports C4I systems which extend across Navy, joint and coalition platforms. (Source: ASD Network)
08 Oct 18. Patria received a follow-on order for Black Hawk maintenance in Sweden. Patria Helicopters AB has received an order for Hkp16 (Black Hawk) maintenance taking place in Linköping, Sweden as the Swedish Defence Materiel Administration FMV was realising their option.
Patria and the FMV signed an agreement in 2014 on the support of the Swedish Armed Forces Hkp16 Black Hawk helicopters’ maintenance in Linköping. The agreement covered the period 2015-2017 with an option for extension through 2020. Estimated value of the agreement, including options, was approximately 25 MEUR.
“This follow-on order is an important milestone for Patria not only in Sweden, but also wider as it shows Patria’s capability in supporting military programs with cost effective solutions in long-term and is a sign of trust from the customer,” says Jukka Holkeri, President of International Support Partnerships business unit at Patria.
08 Oct 18. Mattis orders fighter jet readiness to jump to 80 percent — in one year. Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis has ordered the Air Force and Navy to get mission capable rates for four key tactical aircraft up above 80 percent by the end of next September, a daunting challenge given the current readiness rates of America’s fighter fleets.
In a memo issued Sept. 17 to the secretaries of the Army, Air Force and Navy, along with acquisition head Ellen Lord and acting Undersecretary for Personnel and Readiness Stephanie Barna, Mattis acknowledges “budget constraints and shortfalls in aviation squadrons across the force” have led to “systemic underperformance, overcapitalization and unrealized capacity” in the fighter fleets.
“For change to be effective and efficient, we must focus on meeting our most critical priorities first,” Mattis wrote in the memo, obtained exclusively by Defense News.
Specifically, that means achieving a minimum of 80 percent mission capability rates for the Pentagon’s F-35, F-22, F-16 and F-18 inventories — a number well above the mission capability rates those aircraft now achieve. In addition, Mattis wants to see reduced operating and maintenance costs on the platforms, starting in FY19.
The Air Force updates its public readiness figures annually, with the most recent numbers, released in March, covering fiscal year 2017. According to those numbers, 71.3 percent of the Air Force’s aircraft were flyable, or mission-capable, at any given time in FY17. That represented a drop from the 72.1 percent mission-capable rate in FY16, and is part of a bigger picture of decline across the fleet.
Specific to tactical aircraft, the F-16C fleet reported a mission capable rate of 70.22 percent, the just-standing-up F-35A a 54.67 percent mission capable rate, and the F-22 Raptor a shocking 49.01 mission capable rate. While not covered by Mattis’ memo, the F-15C (71.24 percent) and F-15E (75.26 percent) were also below the threshold now sought by the secretary.
The Raptor’s rates stand out as the most alarming. When the F-22 was first used in combat towards the end of 2014, its mission capable rate was over 70 percent; as use has increased, its rates have dropped dramatically.
Navy figures are released less regularly, but in an Aug. 7 media roundtable, Navy Secretary Richard Spencer told reporters that the service started 2018 with 241 fully mission capable aircraft, and he said had increased to 270 by the time he met with the press. And almost half of the Navy’s 546 Super Hornets are now mission capable, he said — well below Mattis’ target.
Readiness rates for tactical aircraft aren’t a new issue. A Government Accountability Office report, released last month, tracked readiness rates from 2011 to 2016. The report found that nine of the 12 aircraft surveyed fell short of availability goals, and that overall availability declined for half the planes. Among those surveyed were the F-16, F-22, F/A-18A-D and F/A-18E-F fleets.
“The Air Force and Navy are operating many of their fixed-wing aircraft well beyond their original designed service lives and therefore are confronted with sustainment challenges,” the authors of the report concluded.
Earlier this year, Military Times published an in-depth investigation into year-over-year trends showing an increase in aviation mishaps in the department. The Pentagon has denied there is a “crisis” with aviation maintenance.
Lofty goals?
Hitting that 80 percent readiness minimum within one year of the memo’s issuance may prove a challenge.
Todd Harrison, an analyst with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said it’s “not impossible” to hit those readiness rates, but warned “it’s going to be difficult to do it and to sustain it.”
One trick the services could consider: officially retiring the oldest jets in their fleets, which would lower the overall number of planes while increasing mission ready percentages. However, Harrison notes that only works for the F-16 and F-18 fleets, while putting increased war and tear on the remaining planes that could lead to maintenance issues down the road.
“The other thing to keep in mind is that if you can get the mission availability rate up—and sustain it—then you don’t need as many aircraft,” Harrison said. “For example, a squadron of 20 aircraft with a 60% availability rate is equivalent to a squadron of 15 aircraft with an 80% availability rate. You can effectively grow the force without adding planes.”
For his part, Mattis calls out the commercial aviation industry as a source of inspiration, noting “I am confident in our department’s ability to generate additional capacity from our current aircraft inventory, alongside the commercial aviation industry’s sustainment of high availability rates.
“As we seek to achieve our goals, we can learn from industry’s benchmarks for measuring speed, cost and mission capability, as well as its best practices for implementing a sustainable, Department-wide system.”
And while the memo is limited to just the four key systems, Mattis makes it clear he expects other systems to meet that benchmark eventually, ordering the services to “also set and pursue aggressive targets for other enduring fixed- and rotary-wing aviation assets.”
Notably, Mattis tasks the undersecretary for personnel and readiness to “provide definitions and reporting procedure to measure mission capability and cost.” However, the P&R spot has been open ever since Robert Wilkie was tapped to become secretary at Veterans Affairs. Barna, a career civil servant, is performing the duties of the P&R job.
In addition, Barna, Lord and the service secretaries must “develop and deliver effective implementation frameworks for the F-35, F-22, F-16 and F-18 no later than October 15, 2018,” less than a month from Mattis’ memo being issued. “The frameworks must outline how best practices will be incorporate in units, depots and supply chains.”
The Navy may provide one idea on how to do that. In his August appearance, Spencer highlighted a program called the Depot Readiness Initiative, where he said the Navy is letting the depots perform regular calendar maintenance as well as depot-level maintenance at the same time, a move that cuts out redundant work by performing scheduled and depot maintenance at the same time.
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About Oshkosh Defense
Oshkosh Defense is a leading provider of tactical wheeled vehicles and life cycle sustainment services. For decades Oshkosh has been mobilizing military and security forces around the globe by offering a full portfolio of heavy, medium, light and highly protected military vehicles to support our customers’ missions. In addition, Oshkosh offers advanced technologies and vehicle components such as TAK-4® independent suspension systems, TerraMax™ unmanned ground vehicle solutions, Command Zone™ integrated control and diagnostics system, and ProPulse® diesel electric and on-board vehicle power solutions, to provide our customers with a technical edge as they fulfill their missions. Every Oshkosh vehicle is backed by a team of defense industry experts and complete range of sustainment and training services to optimize fleet readiness and performance. Oshkosh Defense, LLC is an Oshkosh Corporation company [NYSE: OSK].
To learn more about Oshkosh Defense, please visit us at www.oshkoshdefense.com.
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