Leidos Innovations Corp., Gaithersburg, Maryland, was awarded a $64,515,461 firm-fixed-price contract to provide enterprise-wide information management/information technology services in support of the Army Corps of Engineers. Bids were solicited via the Internet with four received. Work will be performed in Vicksburg, Mississippi, with an estimated completion date of April 25, 2019. Fiscal 2018 revolving funds in the amount of $63,315,463 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Huntsville, Alabama, is the contracting activity (W912DY-18-F-0153).
Army
Raytheon Co., Fort Wayne, Indiana, has been awarded an $11,906,673 hybrid (cost-plus-fixed-fee and firm-fixed-price) contract for AN/ARC-231 multi-mode aviation radio suite hardware components, and technical, engineering, and logistic related services in support of product manager, aviation mission equipment. One bid was solicited with one bid received. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of April 19, 2020. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, is the contracting activity (W56JSR-18-D-0013).
Salient CRGT, Fairfax, Virginia, was awarded a $35,990,769 hybrid (firm-fixed-price, cost-plus-fixed-fee, and cost-reimbursement-incentive) contract for the Global Command Terrestrial Communications program. One bid was solicited with one bid received. Work will be performed in Fayetteville, North Carolina, with an estimated completion date of March 14, 2023. Fiscal year 2018 operations and maintenance (Army) funds in the amount of $17,528,200 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Rock Island Arsenal, Illinois, is the contracting activity (W52P1J-18-C-0020).
The U.S. Army is making some long-needed changes to the way it’s configuring the networks required to prepare for, conduct and win wars. With the promise of increased resources, the service plans to do more than just upgrade its information technology. Instead, it has designed a strategy that incorporates the successes of the past, adjusts where needed in the present and sets the stage for a future that takes advantage of innovative solutions.
The U.S. Army's Communications-Electronics Research, Development and Engineering Center, or CERDEC, is extending the registration deadline for its technical interchange with industry to 5 p.m. EST, April 13.
The meeting, which is an opportunity for industry to learn about CERDEC's core mission and research and development activities, is scheduled for May 2-4 at the Myer Auditorium at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland.
Those interested should register immediately at https://www.cerdec.army.mil/industryday/.
It goes without saying that technology plays a key role in military operations. The concern nowadays, however, is if technology is appropriately hardened from a cybersecurity standpoint. For the Army, this means taking a close look at supply chain management, according to one Army leader.
The government has to be a savvy consumer amid a risky cybersecurity atmosphere. And companies need to be able to back up the products that they are offering the government, Col. Bryan Stephens, USA, director, Cyber Focal, Army System of Systems Engineering and Integration, told SIGNAL Magazine in a recent interview.
Carahsoft Technology Corp., Reston, Virginia, was awarded a $7,500,000 modification (BA01 20) to contract N00104-08-A-ZF43 to purchase additional system application and products software against the Army enterprise license agreement. Work will be performed in Fort Belvoir, Virginia, with an estimated completion date of May 31, 2020. Fiscal year 2016 other procurement, Army funds in the amount of $7,500,000 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Rock Island Arsenal, Illinois, is the contracting activity.
American Systems Corp., Chantilly, Virginia (W91C9G-18-D-0001); Cubic Global Defense Inc., San Diego, California (W91C9G-18-D-0002); Booz Allen Hamilton, McLean, Virginia (W91C9G-18-D-003); DCS Corp., Alexandria, Virginia (W91C9G-18-D-004); Wyle Laboratories Inc., Huntsville, Alabama (W91C9G-18-D-0005); and Scientific Research Corp., Atlanta, Georgia (W91C9G-18-D-0006), will share in a $900,000,000 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for the Joint Test and Evaluation Program. Bids were solicited via the Internet with 12 received. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of March 27, 2028. U.S.
Northrop Grumman Systems Corp., Herndon, Virginia, was awarded a $34,379,834 modification (P00024) to to contract W31P4Q-15-C-0065 for maintenance and training on the Counter-Rocket Artillery Mortar, Counter-Unmanned Aerial System, command and control system. Work will be performed in Herndon, Virginia, with an estimated completion date of March 31, 2019. Fiscal year 2018 operations and maintenance Army funds in the amount of $34,379,834 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, is the contracting activity.
Lockheed Martin Corp., Orlando, Florida, was awarded a $3,531,926,800 firm-fixed-contract for Army training aids, devices, simulators and simulations, maintenance, sustainment, operations and support of instrumentation systems and live-fire ranges. Bids were solicited via the Internet with two received. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of April 30, 2025. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Orlando, Florida, is the contracting activity (W900KK-18-D-0018).
ECS Federal LLC, Fairfax, Virginia, was awarded a $9,529,017 modification to provide analysis of large structured and unstructured data sets. The company will assist the Army in providing insight to the warfigher on the tactical edge using modern computational and algorithmic techniques through creation of a prototype environment with prototype technologies, DOD said. The goal is to uncover key insights with large data sets using robust ontologies created through data science partnership with DOD research laboratories and universities. Work will be performed in Fairfax, Virginia, with an estimated completion date of September 28, 2019.
U.S. Army officials are applying a streamlined acquisition process known as an IT box to offensive cyber technologies.
The IT box acquisition concept includes four sides: developing the capabilities requirement, determining development costs, analyzing sustainment and operations costs, and providing oversight and management of the product.
Maj. Gen. John George, USA, force development director, Office of the Army Chief of Staff G-8, told the the AFCEA Army Signal Conference in Springfield, Virginia, that the Army is focusing on the IT box concept pretty heavily.
The U.S. Army Project Manager for Distributed Common Ground System-Army (DCGS-A) awarded contracts to Raytheon Co. and Palantir Technologies Inc. for Increment 1 Capability Drop 1 (CD1) of the DCGS-A. The contract fields commercial hardware and software solutions to support intelligence analyst operations at the tactical edge, according to the Program Executive Office, Intelligence, Electronic Warfare and Sensors (PEO IEW&S) division at Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland. Hardware solutions will include ruggedized laptops and a displacement of the current Intelligence Fusion Server at the battalion echelon to improve expeditionary operations.
U.S. military officials may be enjoying increased funding under the fiscal 2018 and 2019 budgets, but an Army general is warning that the 2020 budget could return to sequestration levels—and young soldiers on the battlefield will be the ones paying the price for a failure to plan ahead.
The U.S. Army is ahead of the Navy and Air Force in adopting and integrating the multiple battle domains, but is still analyzing how best to apply it the battlefield.
Gen. Townsend, @TRADOC, predicts a future where the Army uses telemedicine, including #robots controlled by surgeon miles and miles away, and 3D prints repair parts and ammo casings. "The network needs to enable all that."#AFCEA
The U.S. Army is creating a new definition of communications on the move as it prepares to shift from past information systems. Without weakening operations, the land service looks to incorporate a state-of-the-art class of capabilities by overhauling its relationship with technology providers.
Cloud computing, big data and cyber are among the capabilities that pose a major threat to U.S. forces, said Lt. Gen. Scott Berrier, Army deputy chief of staff, G-2.
“If you’re a threat actor out there, probably a little bit of investment in these areas is going to go a long way to make life very difficult for your adversaries,” Gen. Berrier told the audience at the AFCEA Army Signal Conference in Springfield, Virginia.
Army researchers are providing a system to forces in Iraq that provides contact-free fingerprint, facial recognition and iris detection capabilities. The system has been deployed to an undisclosed location as part of a joint urgent operational need and will be assessed for about 30 days to determine if it might be used elsewhere.
It is designed to control access to sensitive areas. Personnel with common access cards simply walk through the system as they would any checkpoint, and the technology reads their various biometric signatures and displays the data on a screen monitored by an operator.
Army leaders have outlined the battlefield of tomorrow. It isn’t a static war, like the fight of the last 17 years in a counterinsurgency environment. The battle will involve smaller, more dispersed mobile Army teams operating in dense urban environments. Soldiers will have to manage in megacities, with hundreds of thousands or millions of people competing for the same electromagnetic spectrum, water, food and roads. The gear that they rely on for protection, as well as their own abilities to perform—their warfighter lethality—needs to reflect the demands of this future battlefield.
The Department of Defense announced that Leidos, Reston, Virginia and General Dynamics One Source, Fairfax, Virginia (W5J9CQ-18-D-0002), will share in a $200,000,000 hybrid (cost-plus-fixed-fee and firm-fixed-price) contract for non-commercial technical services to assist in coordination, integration, and synchronization of geospatial information requirements and standards across the Army; develop geospatial enterprise enabled systems to the Army, the Department of Defense (DoD) and non-DoD entities; and provide direct geospatial support to the warfighter. Bids were solicited via the Internet with five received. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of February 11, 2023. U.S.