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NGEN Bidders Offer
 Continuity With Change

December 1, 2012
By Robert K. Ackerman
U.S. Marines communicate digitally over a network. The Next Generation Enterprise Network, or NGEN, will take a new approach to networking yet evolve from the existing Navy Marine Corps Intranet.

The program may be revolutionary, but its product is evolutionary.

Despite its sea-change approach to acquisition, the U.S. Navy’s Next Generation Enterprise Network program is being designed to evolve from its predecessor, the Navy Marine Corps Intranet, in bids submitted by the two teams vying for the multibillion-dollar contract. The two bidders are focusing their efforts on the transition between the two networks, which is a process that will take several years.

Two teams are competing for the ground-breaking Next Generation Enterprise Network (NGEN) program. One, led by Hewlett-Packard (HP), includes AT&T, IBM, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman. The other, led by Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) and Harris, includes Dell, General Dynamics and Verizon. They have submitted bids based on an request for proposal (http://bit.ly/signalngen0512) issued by the Navy earlier this year. NGEN is designed to replace the Navy Marine Corps Intranet (NMCI) early next year (SIGNAL Magazine, December 2011, page 18, “NGEN Race Heats Up”).

The teams offer varying emphases on the value of their proposals. However, they both stress the importance of the transition from the NMCI to NGEN, and they state that their proposals are designed to ensure stability while easing in innovation.

Bill Toti, vice president and account executive, HP Navy and Marine Corps Accounts, offers that his team’s bid is strengthened by the fact that the team includes the progenitors of the NMCI. “We’re the only people who have ever done this,” he declares, adding that this is a consideration that the Navy will have to take into account during source selection.

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Being Number Two Will Not Do for Information Dominance

December 1, 2012
By George I. Seffers
Vice Adm. Kendall Card, USN, deputy chief of naval operations for information dominance and director of naval intelligence, once commanded the USS Abraham Lincoln, during combat operations and in support of tsunami relief efforts in Sumatra, Indonesia.
A U.S. Marine Corps sergeant shows then-Rear Adm. Kendall Card, USN, commander, Expeditionary Strike Group 3, how to load the M-240B machine gun during Adm. Card’s visit with the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit during a 2008 training exercise.

The U.S. Navy is on a course designed to rule the information arena.

With information operations growing increasingly critical to combat operations, the United States cannot afford to be anything less than number one in the data wars. And the U.S. Navy is implementing several measures to ensure information dominance. Measures include dramatically reducing the number of data centers and legacy networks, further developing the Information Dominance Corps and building an unmanned vehicle capable of being launched from sea

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Navy Lab Bridges the Research Bench and the Fleet

December 1, 2012
By Max Cacas
LASR director Alan Schultz engages one of the lab's humanoid robots in the Prototyping High Bay.
LASR's Tropical High Bay is a greenhouse that simulates a southeast Asian tropical rain forest.
The Navy's Laboratory for Autonomous Systems Research is located on the campus of the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C.

A new facility allows scientists to test innovations 
for autonomous and unmanned systems.

A new manmade realm allows robots to learn how to scale sheer cliff walls, go from the ocean to the beach or cross hot, burning desert sands. In this environment, researchers can examine the machines’ every move and how they interact with human warfighters. And one day, these robots also may help save sailors’ lives at sea.

Whether it flies through the air, moves on the ground or swims in the sea, the U.S. Navy now has a laboratory dedicated to testing and development of technologies for the next generation of robotic devices. The Laboratory for Autonomous Systems Research (LASR) opened this spring on the campus of the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) along the banks of the Potomac River in Washington, D.C. It is designed to be a venue for multidisciplinary research into autonomous and unmanned systems, and is available to NRL researchers, as well as industry and academic scientists. The commitment to build LASR is part of the Navy’s overall push to make robotic devices a part of the future maritime force. The 50,000-square-foot facility was built at a cost of $18 million, says Alan Schultz, director of LASR and director of the Navy Center for Applied Research in Artificial Intelligence. Currently, LASR is home to Schultz and only four permanent staffers. But, he explains, LASR is designed to be a bridge between researchers in other NRL divisions doing what he describes as “bench science,” and the Navy’s fleet, where shipboard prototypes are built and tested to determine if they meet the needs of warfighters.

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U.S. Air Force Awards $950 Million Remotely Piloted Aircraft Support Contract

November 16, 2012
George I. Seffers

Battlespace Flight Services LLC, Arlington, Va., is being awarded a $950 million indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity contract for organizational level maintenance support of remotely piloted aircraft. The program supports Air Combat Command, the Air National Guard, and other major command and combatant command customers to sustain the combat and training capability at tasked locations worldwide. The contracting activity is Air Combat Command, Newport News, Va.

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URS to Support Electronic Warfare

November 16, 2012
George I. Seffers

URS Federal Technical Services Inc., Germantown Md., is being awarded a maximum value $7,893,315 fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for engineering, technical, and programmatic support for the Spectrum Electronic Warfare Department of Naval Surface Warfare Center, Crane, Ind. Spectrum Electronic Warfare Department’s primary focus areas are in direct support of airborne electronic defense, airborne electronic attack, maritime, and expeditionary divisions. This contract is a continuation of current services, pending the competitive award of follow-on support. Contract support tasks include: research and development support; system engineering and process engineering; modeling, simulation, and analysis; prototyping, pre-production, model-making and fabrication support; system design documentation and technical data support; software engineering, development, programming and network support; reliability, maintainability and availability; human factors, performance and usability engineering; system safety engineering; configuration management; quality assurance; interoperability, test & evaluation, trials; logistics; supply and provisioning; training; and program support. The Naval Surface Warfare Center, Crane, Ind., is the contracting activity.

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U.S. Navy Awards Potential $899 Million for Battlespace Awareness

November 16, 2012
George I. Seffers

Booz Allen Hamilton, McLean, Va.; CACI Technologies Inc., Chantilly, Va.; Centurum Inc., Marlton, N.J.; L-3 Services Inc., Mount Laurel, N.J.; Lockheed Martin Corp. IS&GS, Herndon, Va.; SAIC Inc., McLean, Va.; and Scientific Research Corp., Atlanta, Ga., 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 for the procurement of battle-space awareness support services including the development, integration, and test of intelligence, battlespace awareness, and information operations applications and dedicated hardware. The cumulative, estimated value of the base year is $179,912,000. These contracts include options which, if exercised, would bring the cumulative value of these contracts to an estimated $899,560,000. Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center Atlantic, Charleston, S.C., is the contracting activity.

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Rockwell Receives High Frequency Radio Funds

November 16, 2012
George I. Seffers

Rockwell Collins Inc., Cedar Rapids, Iowa, is being awarded a $10,947,863 firm-fixed-price indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract to procure up to a maximum of 41 ARC-243 High Frequency Radio System including 200 hours of associated engineering support. The ARC-243 HF radio system includes the receiver exciter, antenna coupler, power supply and associated mounts. The Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division, Lakehurst, N.J., is the contracting activity.

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U.S. Navy Awards C4I Contract

November 16, 2012
George I. Seffers

BAE Systems Technology Solutions and Services Inc., Rockville, Md., is being awarded a $19,364,649 modification to a previously awarded cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for services in support of the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division’s Integrated Communication and Information Systems Division. Services provided will support the design, integration, testing, installation, training, and certification of shipboard command, control, communications, computers, and intelligence (C4I) electronic communication systems; the design and integration of like systems at shore sites associated with the deployment of fleet support to surface combatants; and the design, testing, installation, training and certification of mobile and airborne C4I electronic communication systems designed to interface with the C4I electronic architecture of surface ships. The Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division, Patuxent River, Md., is the contracting activity.

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Cyber Committee Shares Expertise

November 15, 2012
By Maryann Lawlor

Ranging in topics from cloud computing to supply chain management, AFCEA’s Cyber Committee has published five white papers. Available on the committee’s website, information ranges from the basics to high-level recommendations that will be useful not only to organizations’ information technology personnel but also to leadership planning strategies for the future.

 

Lockheed Wins ISC2 Sustainment Contract

November 13, 2012
George I. Seffers

 
The Air Defense, Missile Warning, and Space Defense systems that support the missions of North American Aerospace Defense, U.S. Northern Command, and U.S. Strategic Command will continue to be sustained by Lockheed Martin, Colorado Springs, Colorado. The U.S. Air Force Life Cycle Management Center selected Lockheed Martin to provide operations, maintenance, and sustainment of these missions under the Integrated Space Command and Control (ISC2) contract. The contract consists of three one- year options, with a total potential value of $250 million. ISC2 provides geographically disparate commanders the ability to monitor and assess multi-mission threats concurrently. Under the sustainment contract, Lockheed Martin will support the space, air defense and missile warning missions, ensuring that information and data is seamlessly shared between those and other C2 systems. 

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