March 8, 2013

Military Contracts Awarded On 3.7.2013

http://www.defense.gov/contracts/contract.aspx?contractid=4992

Contracts valued at $6.5 million or more are announced each business day at 5 p.m. Contract announcements issued within the past 30 days are listed below.

FOR RELEASE AT
5 p.m. ET No. 131-13
March 07, 2013

CONTRACTS

NAVY

Charles Stark Draper Laboratories, Inc., Cambridge, Mass., is being awarded $257,839,173 to provide Trident II (D5) Guidance System Strategic Program Alteration (SPALT) materials including: labor and consumable material to meet requirements for the guidance system on-going SPALT of MK6 MOD 1; test and procure data package assemblies; and circuit card assembly materials with electronic components. Work will be performed inPittsfield Mass. (84 percent); Cambridge, Mass. (7 percent); Clearwater, Fla. (5 percent); Terrytown, N.Y. (2 percent); El Segundo, Calif.,(1percent) and other (1 percent). Work is expected to be completed Dec. 31. 2016. Contract funds in the amount of $257,839,173 will be obligated at the time of award. Contract funds in the amount of $15,000,000 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was not competitively procured in accordance with 10 U.S.C. 2304 (c)(1). The Navy's Strategic Systems Programs, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity (N00030-13-C-0007).

The Navy is modifying the total amount of a previously awarded contract to Huntington Ingalls Inc., Newport News, Va., (N00024-09-C-2116) by $64,988,809 in order to provide the ability to procure additional long lead material and advance construction activities for CVN 79 if required. The current contract has been in place since 2009. Work will be performed in Newport News, Va., and is expected to be complete by October 2015. Additional funding is not being obligated at this time. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity.

Alion Science and Technology Corp., Burr Ridge, Ill., is being awarded a $63,782,673 cost-plus-incentive-fee modification to previously awarded contract (N00024-12-C-4401) to increase the level of effort available to provide mission critical professional support services in support of the NAVSEA Surface Warfare Directorate (SEA 21). This modification will continue professional support services in support of SEA 21during the interim between the expiration of the competitively awarded, SEAPORT-e task order, (N00024-01-D-7013-0021), and the award of multiple follow-on, competitively awarded SEAPORT-e task orders. This contract includes options which, if exercised, would bring the total value of the contract to $136,126,929. The contract provides necessary program management, engineering, logistics, technical support, planning and readiness support, fleet introduction training and financial management support services in support of ongoing maintenance and modernization efforts. Work will be performed in Washington, D.C. (56 percent), Norfolk, Va. (23 percent), San Diego, Calif. (6 percent), Pascagoula, Miss. (6 percent), Bath, Maine (3 percent), Mayport, Fla. (2 percent), Japan (2 percent) and various locations of less than one percent, each totaling two percent, and is expected to be completed by January 2014. Funding in the amount of $19,230,119 will be obligated at time of award. Fiscal 2013 Operations & Maintenance Navy contract funds in the amount of $19,230,119 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity.

Barling Bay, LLC.*, North Charleston, S.C. (N65236-13-D-4964); CASE, LLC.*, Alexandria, Va. (N65236-13-D-4965); DKW Communications, Inc.*, Washington. D.C. (N65236-13-D-4966); Dynamic Network Enterprises, Inc.*, Stafford, Va. (N65236-13-D-4967); Grove Resource Solutions, Inc.*, Frederick, Md. (N65236-13-D-4968); Information Management Group, Inc.*, Fairfax, Va. (N65236-13-D-4969); Mandex, Inc.*, Fairfax, Va. (N65236-13-D-4970); Network Security Systems Plus, Inc.*, Falls Church, Va. (N65236-13-D-4971); Technical Software Services, Inc.*, Pensacola, Fla. (N65236-13-D-4972); and Vector Planning and Services, Inc.*, San Diego (N65236-13-D-4973), are each being awarded an indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity, cost-plus-fixed-fee, with provisions for fixed-price-incentive (firm target) and firm-fixed-price task orders, performance based contract. The contracts are for the procurement of integrated cyber operations support services including the entire spectrum of non-inherently governmental services and solutions (equipment and services) associated with the full system lifecycle support including research, development, test, evaluation, production and fielding of sustainable, secure, survivable, and interoperable command, control, communication, computers, combat systems, intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance (C5ISR), information operations, enterprise information services (EIS) and space capabilities. The cumulative, estimated value (ceiling) of the base year is $49,918,000. These contracts include options which, if exercised, would bring the cumulative value (ceiling) of these contracts to an estimated $249,590,000. Work will be performed worldwide. Work is expected to be completed by March 2014. If all options are exercised, work could continue until March 2018. SPAWAR Systems Center Atlantic Navy Working Capital funds in the amount of $15,000 will be obligated at the time of award as the minimum guarantee and will be split among the 10 awardees; these funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract action establishes a potential ceiling value, in which funds are obligated on individual task orders for efforts that fall within the core competency areas. The multiple award contractswere competitively procured by full and open competition after exclusion of sources under small business set-aside provisions (10 U.S.C. 2304(b)(2)) via the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center e-Commerce Central website and the Federal Business Opportunities website, with 20 offers received. Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center Atlantic, Charleston, S.C., is the contracting activity.

Raytheon Co., Tucson, Ariz., is being awarded a $12,773,553 firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for services in support of Tomahawk missile depot maintenance, including direct fleet support for resolving technical issues with forward deployed, in-theater weapons and inventory management for the U.S. Navy and the United Kingdom. Work will be performed in Tucson, Ariz. (70 percent); Camden, Ark. (24 percent); Commerce Township, Mich. (4 percent); Indianapolis, Ind. (1 percent); and various other continental U.S. (CONUS) and outside CONUS locations (1 percent). Work is expected to be completed in February 2014. Contract funds in the amount of $2,419,482 will be obligated at time of award, $2,331,175 of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was not competitively procured pursuant to 10 U.S.C. 2304(c)(1). The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Md., is the contracting activity (N00019-13-D-0002).

Aero Thermo Technology, Inc., Huntsville, Ala., is being awarded a $6,779,733 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract to provide guidance systems, technical, analytical and program services to support the TRIDENT II Submarine Launched Ballistic Missile guidance systems requirements for strategic systems programs. They will support key guidance system technology development and coordination between the Navy and the Air Force for current and next generation strategic systems. The Navy and Air Force will conduct closely coordinated strategic ballistic missile technology development and application programs based on recommendations of the U.S. Strategic Command, Defense Planning Guidance, and Nuclear Posture Reviews. Both services invest in research, development, test and evaluation projects to ensure unique, critical design, and development skills relevant to strategic systems remain viable to support current and future ballistic missile requirements. This contract contains options, which if exercised, will bring the contract total to $20,741,835. Work will be performed in Huntsville, Ala., and work is expected to be completed Dec. 3, 2013. If options are exercised, work will continue through Dec. 31, 2015. Contract funds in the amount of $1,411,994 will be obligated at the time of award. Contract funds in the amount of $3,856,327 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was not competitively procured in accordance with 10 U.S.C. 2304(c)(1). The Navy's Strategic Systems Programs, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity (N00030-13-C-0013).

AIR FORCE

Lockheed Martin Services, Inc., Gaithersburg, Md., is being awarded a $70,000,000 contract modification (FA8734-08-D-0003, P00023) to the personnel services delivery transformation contract. The location of the performance is Randolph Air Force Base, Texas. Work is expected to be completed by April 2016. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2013 through fiscal 2015. The contracting activity is AFLCMC/HIBK, Randolph Air Force Base, Texas.

DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY

L-3 Communications Avionics Systems, Inc., Grand Rapids, Mich., was awarded contract (SPRRA1-13-D-0026). The award is a firm-fixed-price, sole-source contract for $18,631,032 for Chinook (CH-47) Helicopter flight display units. Location of performance is Michigan with a March 7, 2017 performance completion date. Using military service is Army. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2013 Army Working Capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Aviation, Redstone Arsenal, Ala.

* Small Business

March 8, 2013

Test Pilots: Stealth Jet’s Blind Spot Will Get It ‘Gunned Every Time’

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2013/03/f-35-blind-spot/



The $243 million dollar not-ready-for-prime-time F-35

Test Pilots: Stealth Jet’s Blind Spot Will Get It ‘Gunned Every Time’
By David Axe
03.07.13 6:00 PM

The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, the military’s expensive main warplane of the future, has a huge blind spot directly behind it. Pilots say that could get them shot down in close-quarters combat, where the flier with the better visibility has the killing advantage.

“Aft visibility could turn out to be a significant problem for all F-35 pilots in the future,” the Pentagon acknowledged in a report (.pdf) obtained by the Project on Government Oversight, a Washington, D.C. watchdog group.

That admission should not come as a surprise to observers of the Joint Strike Fighter program. Critics of the delayed, over-budget F-35 — which is built in three versions for the Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps — have been trying for years to draw attention to the plane’s blind spot, only to be dismissed by the government and Lockheed Martin, the Joint Strike Fighter’s primary builder.

The damning report, dated Feb. 15, summarized the experiences of four test pilots who flew the F-35A — the relatively lightweight Air Force version — during a September-to-November trial run of the Joint Strike Fighter’s planned training program at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida. The report mentions a number of shortfalls of the highly complex F-35, including sensors, communications and aerial refueling gear that aren’t yet fully designed or just don’t work right.

March 8, 2013

The Commons: Think of the F-35 as a Senate with wings

http://www2.macleans.ca/2013/03/07/the-commons-think-of-the-f-35-as-a-senate-with-wings/

The Commons: Think of the F-35 as a Senate with wings
by Aaron Wherry on Thursday, March 7, 2013 5:35pm

Perhaps the F-35 is best understood as a Senate with wings. Or perhaps the Senate is the F-35 that we mistakenly assigned to guard our democracy.

Either way, they are both now easy jokes.

“Mr. Speaker, yet another report from the United States is raising disturbing questions about the F-35,” Thomas Mulcair reported at the outset this afternoon. “Serious problems have been identified with the aircraft’s radar, helmet and cockpit design. Pilots report that the plane is actually incapable of flying through clouds.”

The New Democrats laughed.

March 8, 2013

Peter Van Buren, One Day Even the Drones Will Have to Land

http://smirkingchimp.com/thread/tom-engelhardt/48429/peter-van-buren-one-day-even-the-drones-will-have-to-land

Peter Van Buren, One Day Even the Drones Will Have to Land
by Tom Engelhardt | March 7, 2013 - 9:47am

We don’t get it. We really don’t. We may not, in military terms, know how to win any more, but as a society we don’t get losing either. We don’t recognize it, even when it’s staring us in the face, when nothing -- and I mean nothing -- works out as planned. Take the upcoming 10th anniversary of George W. Bush’s invasion of Iraq as Exhibit A. You could describe what happened in that country as an unmitigated disaster -- from the moment, in April 2003, U.S. troops first entered a Baghdad in flames and being looted (“stuff happens”) and were assigned to guard only the Interior Ministry (i.e. the secret police) and the Oil Ministry (well, you know what that is) to the moment in December 2011 when the last American combat unit slipped out of that land in the dead of the night (after lying to Iraqi colleagues about what they were doing).

As it happened, the country that we were going to garrison for a lifetime (to the thankful cheers of its inhabitants) while we imposed a Pax Americana on the rest of the region didn’t want us. The government we essentially installed chose Iran as an ally and business partner. The permanent bases we built to the tune of billions of dollars are now largely looted ghost towns. The reconstruction of the country that we promoted proved worse than farcical, as former State Department official Peter Van Buren, author of the already classic book We Meant Well: How I Helped Lose the Battle for the Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi People, reminds us. And an outfit proudly carrying the al-Qaeda brand name, which did not exist in Iraq before our invasion, is now thriving in a still destabilized country. Consider that just the start of a much longer list.

For Americans, however, a single issue overwhelms all of the above, one so monumental that we can’t keep our minds off it or on much of anything else when it comes to Iraq. I’m talking, of course, about “the surge,” those five brigades of extra combat troops that, in 2006, a desperate president decided to send into an occupied country collapsing in a maelstrom of insurgency and sectarian civil war. Admittedly, General David Petraeus, who led that surge, would later experience a farcical disaster of his own and is in retirement after going “all in” with his biographer. Still, as we learned in the Senate hearings on Chuck Hagel’s nomination as Pentagon chief, the question -- the litmus test when it comes to Iraq -- remains: Was the surge strategy he implemented a remarkable success or just a simple, straightforward success in essentially buying off the Sunni opposition and, for a period, giving the country a veneer of relative -- extremely relative -- calm? Was it responsible for allowing us to leave behind a shattered Iraq (and all of Washington’s shattered imperial dreams) with, as President Obama put it, our “heads held high”? Oh, and lest you think that only right-wing Republicans and the rest of the crew that once cheered us into Iraq and refused to face what was happening while we were there find the surge the ultimate measure of our stay, check out Tom Powers’s recent admiring portrait of the surge general in the New York Review of Books.

Here’s at least one explanation for our inability to look defeat in the face and recognize it for what it is: like the proverbial horseman who prefers not to change mounts in midstream, we have an aversion to changing experts in mid-disaster, even when those experts have batting averages for pure wrongness that should stagger the imagination. In fact, you could say that the more deeply, incontrovertibly, disastrously wrong you were about Iraq, the more likely the media was in the years after, on one disaster “anniversary” after another, to call on you for your opinion. At the fifth anniversary of the invasion, for example, the New York Times rounded up a range of "experts on military and foreign affairs" to look back. Six of them had been intimately involved in the catastrophe either as drumbeaters for the invasion, instigators of it, or facilitators of the occupation that followed. Somehow, that paper could not dig up a single expert who had actually opposed the invasion.

March 8, 2013

Pentagon investigating link between US military and torture centres in Iraq

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/mar/07/pentagon-investigating-link-military-torture

Pentagon investigating link between US military and torture centres in Iraq
Ewen MacAskill in Washington and Mona Mahmood
The Guardian, Thursday 7 March 2013 14.30 EST

The Pentagon is investigating allegations linking the US military to human rights abuses in Iraq by police commando units who operated a network of detention and torture centres.

A 15-month investigation by the Guardian and BBC Arabic, published on Wednesday, disclosed that the US sent a veteran of the "dirty wars" in Central America to oversee Iraqi commando units involved in some of the worst acts of torture during the American-led occupation.

The allegations, made by US and Iraqi witnesses, implicate US advisers for the first time in these human rights abuses. It is also the first time that the then US commander in Iraq, David Petraeus, has been linked through an adviser to the abuses.

~snip~

The Pentagon argument is that it needs time because of the legal implications and also because those named in the documentary no longer serve in the military.




unhappycamper comment: Previous thread on this allegation --> http://www.democraticunderground.com/11792921

March 7, 2013

Top Tester Says F-35A 'Immature' For Training; JPO Says 'Ready For Training'

http://defense.aol.com/2013/03/06/top-tester-says-f-35a-immature-for-training-jpo-says-ready-f/



Top Tester Says F-35A 'Immature' For Training; JPO Says 'Ready For Training'

Is. Isn't. That about sums up the latest kerfuffle between the Pentagon's top operational tester -- who Congress watches very closely -- the Air Force and and the program office overseeing the plane's development, known as The Joint Program Office.

"Little can be learned from evaluating training in a system this immature," Michael Gilmore, director of Operational test and Evaluation wrote in "F-35A Joint Strike Fighter: Readiness for Training Operational Utility Evaluation," a Feb 15 report, one which had at least one Pentagon source sputtering with indignation and a touch of exasperation.

On the other hand, the JPO issued this statement:

"The U.S. Air Force conducted the operational utility evaluation for its F-35As and determined its training systems were ready-for-training. F-35 operational and maintenance procedures will continue to mature as the training tempo accelerates. The DOT&E report is based upon the Joint Strike Fighter Operational Test Team report which found no effectiveness, suitability or safety response that would prohibit continuation of transitioning experienced pilots in the F-35A Block 1A.1 transition and instructor pilot syllabus."

March 7, 2013

US to equip Afghan army with drone capabilies: Gen. Mattis

http://www.khaama.com/us-to-equip-afghan-army-with-drone-capabilies-gen-mattis-1455

US to equip Afghan army with drone capabilies: Gen. Mattis
By Meena Haseeb - 07 Mar 2013, 3:17 pm

A top US military general on Wednesday said Afghan national security forces will be equipped with drone capabilities in a bid to keep a watch on the tough terrain along its eastern border with Pakistan.

Gen James Mattis, the commander of US Central Command, told members of the powerful House Armed Services Committee, “The Afghans do not have that capability yet. It’s one of the enablers that we are trying to build into them before we leave.”

He said, “The long-term view is that we will continue this so long as we are there, and we will transition this capability, standing it up inside the Afghan forces so when we leave, they have the ability to keep an eye on that border area.”

“I’ve operated in many areas around the world, and I’ve never had more difficult military terrain to operate in than along that border.” the US General said while referring to the difficult terrain along the Afghanistan and Pakistan border.

March 7, 2013

Prices soar, enthusiasm dives for F-35 Lightning; pilots worry about visibility problem

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/mar/6/prices-soar-enthusiasm-dives-for-f-35-lightning/?utm_source=RSS_Feed&utm_medium=RSS

Prices soar, enthusiasm dives for F-35 Lightning; pilots worry about visibility problem
By Rowan Scarborough
The Washington Times
Wednesday, March 6, 201

The Pentagon’s top brass are second-guessing the F-35 Lightning — the most expensive weapons system in history — as spending cuts tighten the military’s budget and a new report says F-35 pilots can’t see that well out of the cockpit.

The Navy’s former top officer believes the Defense Department should consider replacing the F-35A — the Air Force’s variant of the so-called Joint Strike Fighter — with the aircraft carrier model, the F-35C.

But Air Force pilots dismiss the idea of flying a heavier fighter jet, and instead propose that the Marine Corps abandon its version, the F-35B, arguing that its costly helicopter-style landing feature is useful only at air shows.

The debate comes as a new Pentagon test report reveals significant problems in the ability of an F-35 pilot to see the enemy from the cockpit. The blame for the defect falls on the design of the pilot-escape system used in all three variants of the advanced stealth fighter.

March 7, 2013

F-35 fighter jet plagued by poor visibility, Pentagon report warns

http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2013/03/06/f35_fighter_jet_plagued_by_poor_visibility_pentagon_report_warns.html



A new U.S. Defence Department report warns of “deficiencies” with the F-35's futuristic design. Pictured here, one of the jets is assembled at the Lockheed Martin factory in Texas.

F-35 fighter jet plagued by poor visibility, Pentagon report warns
By: Bruce Campion-Smith Parliament Hill, Published on Wed Mar 06 2013

OTTAWA—The F-35 jet, eyed as Canada’s fighter of the future, may have a fatal flaw — a blind spot that prevents pilots from “checking their six” or easily watching for an enemy behind them, a new report says.

Experienced fighter pilots who have flown the high-tech aircraft say the design shortfall could cost future F-35 pilots their lives.

“Aft visibility will get the pilot gunned every time,” wrote one American pilot, who flew the fighter last fall at Florida’s Eglin Air Force Base.

~snip~

The Feb. 15, 2013 report, prepared by Michael Gilmore, director of operational test and evaluation, paints a sobering picture of an aircraft that remains far from being combat ready. Pilots who flew the aircraft last fall faced a litany of “significant” restrictions that barred them from flying at night, in bad weather, in formation with other aircraft, doing aerobatics or testing the jet’s combat capabilities.

March 7, 2013

General foresees end to grim rise in Army suicides

http://www.usnews.com/news/politics/articles/2013/03/07/general-foresees-end-to-grim-rise-in-army-suicides

General foresees end to grim rise in Army suicides
By ROBERT BURNS, Associated Press
March 7, 2013

WASHINGTON (AP) — Army suicides are still increasing, but the four-star general who has been at the forefront of seeking solutions, Lloyd J. Austin III, says he thinks a turnaround is in sight.

"The trends are not going in the direction that we want them to go — they haven't been for some time," Austin told The Associated Press in his last interview as the Army's vice chief of staff. He nonetheless spoke optimistically of "doing the right things to begin to turn this around," despite the suicide rate worsening during his 13-month watch.

~snip~

Last year the Army, and the military as a whole, suffered the highest number of suicides ever recorded, prompting then-Defense Secretary Leon Panetta to declare it an epidemic.

The Army had 183 suicides among active-duty soldiers, up from 167 in 2011, and the military as a whole had 350, up from 301 the year before. This year began on an even worse note, with the Army reporting 19 suicides among active-duty soldiers in January, up from 16 the previous January, in addition to 14 among those in the National Guard and Reserve, up from six in January 2012.