DOD

Yesterday, the Pentagon announced the end to the nearly 20-year mission in Afghanistan that started shortly after the terrorist attacks in America on September 11th, 2001. The U.S. military completed its evacuations from Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul under active threat from the Taliban and ISIS terrorists, following the August 15 collapse of the Afghanistan government and the August 26 attack that killed 13 U.S. warfighters and 60 Afghanistan citizens. Gen. Frank McKenzie, USMC, commander of U.S. Central Command, called it a costly war.

Comcast Government Services LLC, Reston, Virginia, was awarded a competitive, firm-fixed-price, single award, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for the Commercial Ethernet Gateway Region 6 to provide mission partner access, via ethernet connections, to the Department of Defense Information Network and to enable the replacement of legacy, time division multiplexing-based circuits. The total amount of all orders placed against the contract shall not exceed $75,782,800.  The guaranteed minimum amount is $500 and will be funded by fiscal 2021 operation and maintenance funds. The period of performance is 10 years, with a six-year base period and two two-year option periods from July 12, 2021 to July 11, 2031.

Comcast Government Services LLC, Reston, Virginia, was awarded a competitive firm-fixed-price, single-award, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for the Commercial Ethernet Gateway Region 4 to provide mission partner access, via ethernet connections, to the Department of Defense Information Network and to enable the replacement of legacy, time division multiplexing-based circuits. The contract ceiling value is $84,162,000 with the $500 minimum guarantee funded by fiscal 2021 operations and maintenance funds. Primary performance will be at the contractor’s above-identified facility in Reston, Virginia.

The federal government has been taking zero trust more seriously. Although a significant part of it has yet to be implemented, some initial work has been completed with zero trust network access, yet the outside-in approach to zero trust and complexity remains. But the more important aspect of zero trust relates to application and workload connections, which is what attackers care about and is not being protected today.

This “other side” of zero trust and a host-based micro-segmentation approach will lead to greater security and will stop the lateral movement of malware. Constituting multiple pilot projects is the best way forward in the inside-out approach to zero trust.

Lockheed Martin Space, Titusville, Florida, is awarded a $128,677,600, cost-plus-fixed-fee contract (N00030-21-C-2017) to support the integration of the Trident II (D5) Missile and Reentry Subsystems into the Common Missile Compartment (CMC) for the U.S./United Kingdom Columbia/Dreadnought Submarine construction programs. Work will be performed in Cape Canaveral, Florida (37.02%); Denver, Colorado (24.22%); Sunnyvale, California (15.62%); Magna, Utah (13.72%); Titusville, Florida (1.69%); Oak Ridge, Tennessee (1.06%); and other various locations of less than 1.0% each (6.67% total).  Work is expected to be completed February 28, 2027.

The U.S. is facing an increasingly congested, constrained and contested electromagnetic spectrum. Adversaries are challenging the United State’s dominance across the air, land, sea, space and cyberspace domains, which threatens our reliance on the spectrum. And because the United States depends on electromagnetic spectrum for much more than warfighting purposes, our nation’s economic wellbeing is at stake, says Defense Secretary Mark Esper.

On October 20, the Defense Department announced an $87 million, seven-year award to the Bio-Industrial Manufacturing and Design Ecosystem (BioMADE), a nonprofit created by the Engineering Biology Research Consortium, for a new Manufacturing Innovation Institute (MII). BioMADE, headquartered at the University of Minnesota in St. Paul, will collaborate with public and private entities to advance sustainable and reliable bio-industrial manufacturing technologies, according to a DOD statement.

To fully counter the threats posed by adversaries, the Department of Defense needs to harness autonomous and robotic systems, artificial intelligence and machine learning. The nation’s military is falling short of pursuing those systems on the large scale necessary, an expert says. Moreover, the department needs to holistically consider the purpose for which it is harnessing artificial intelligence, or AI, across the services, says Robert Work, the former 32nd deputy secretary of defense.

Thales Defense & Security Inc., Clarksburg, Maryland, has been awarded a maximum $81,800,432 firm-fixed-price contract for Airborne Low Frequency Sonar spare parts. This was a sole-source acquisition using justification 10 U.S. Code 2304 (c)(1), as stated in Federal Acquisition Regulation 6.302-1. This is a five-year one-month contract with no option periods. Location of performance is Maryland, with a July 30, 2025, performance completion date. Using military service is Navy. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2020 through 2025 Navy working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Aviation, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (SPRPA1-20-C-Y043).

General Dynamics-OTS, Williston, Vermont, was awarded a $3,420,531,156 hybrid (cost-plus-fixed-fee, firm-fixed-price) contract for production and engineering services for Hydra-70 rocket systems.  Bids were solicited via the internet with one received.  Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of September 30, 2026.  U.S. Army Contracting Command, Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, is the contracting activity (W31P4Q20F0282).

Jacksonville-based Crowley Solutions was awarded a multi-year contract by the U.S. Army 409th Contracting Support Brigade-Theater Contracting Command. Under the Third Party Logistics Europe Wide Movement contract, the company will provide transportation of personnel and cargo and procurement of material handling equipment to the U.S. government, NATO and non-NATO partners throughout the European Command area of responsibility, supporting the 21st Theater Sustainment Command and Theater Movements Center, headquartered in Kaiserslautern, Germany. The contract runs from May 2020 until May 2023, with an estimated value of $49 million, and is on a task-order basis.

Eccalon LLC, Hanover, Maryland, has been awarded a $7,078,869 firm-fixed-price contract. This contract provides National Security Technology Accelerator program support for the Office of Manufacturing and Industrial Base Policy. Work performance will take place at the Mark Center, Alexandria, Virginia. Fiscal year 2020 and 2021 research, development, test, and evaluation funds in the amount of $7,078,869 are being awarded. The expected completion date is September 27, 2023. Washington Headquarters Services, Arlington, Virginia, is the contracting activity (HQ0034-18-F-0572).

Under a $126 million contract, the Department of Defense selected St. Paul, Minnesota-based 3M to increase production of N95 medical-grade masks to aid in the COVID-19 pandemic, DOD reported on May 7. In coordination with the Department of Health and Human Services, the company will produce 26 million N95 medical-grade masks per month, starting in October 2020.  

"Spearheaded by the Department’s Joint Acquisition Task Force, and funded through the CARES Act, this increased production/industrial capacity will continue to ensure a sustainable supply chain of N95 respirators and resupply the Strategic National Stockpile in response to the increased national demand caused by the COVID 19 pandemic," a DOD spokeman said.

Thales Defense and Security Inc., Clarksburg, Maryland, has been awarded a maximum $8,041,670 firm-fixed-price contract for H-60 reel and cable assemblies. This was a sole-source acquisition using justification 10 U.S. Code 2304(c)(1), as stated in Federal Acquisition Regulation 6.302-1. This is a one-year contract with no option periods. Location of performance is Maryland, with a Sept. 30, 2021, performance completion date. Using military service is Navy. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2020 Navy working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Aviation, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (SPRPA1-20-C-Y011).

Adapting to great power competition requires improved acquisition operations, and the U.S. Defense Department's acquisition headquarters has been busy revamping contracting practices. The efforts are succeeding in reducing contracting burdens, timelines and workforce hours, and is bringing in more innovation into the DOD, its top leader reports.

Between now and Valentine’s Day, the U.S. Defense Department will begin to build out its unclassified department-wide cloud platform, the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure cloud, known as JEDI. And approximately six months after that, DOD will stand up its secret cloud environment, followed later by the top secret cloud, all part of JEDI, reported Dana Deasy, Defense Department chief information officer, at the AFCEA Nova Chapter’s Air Force IT Day in Arlington, Va., last Thursday.

Lockheed Martin Corp., Orlando, Florida, was awarded a $93,000,000 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for a national cyber range that provides the ability to conduct realistic cybersecurity test and evaluation of major Department of Defense (DoD) acquisition programs and the ability to conduct realistic training, certification and mission rehearsal events for the DoD Cyber Mission Force. One bid were solicited with one bid received. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of November 19, 2021. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Orlando, Florida, is the contracting activity (W900KK-20-D-0001).

To build the Space Force, the proposed sixth service of the U.S. military, the Defense Department will initially pull from all the services, not just the Air Force, according to Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Space Policy Steve Kitay. It will truly be a joint warfighting service, he stressed.

John Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab, Laurel, Maryland, has been awarded a $11,442,418 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract. This contract is to support the government with development of prototypes, test plans, rapid fielding, operational experiments and changes in existing acquisition programs with a focus on identification and reduction of programmatic and technical risk provides for applied research. Work performance will take place primarily in Laurel, Maryland. Fiscal year 2019 operations and maintenance funds in the amount of $607,000; fiscal 2019 research, development, test, and evaluation funds in the amount of $8,835,418; and fiscal 2019 procurement funds in the amount of $2,000,000 are being obligated on this award.

On Friday, the Defense Department released its DOD Digital Modernization Strategy, aiming to greatly improve the military’s digital environment. The strategy aims to modernize the DOD’s joint information enterprise environment by advancing its fixed and mobile networking capabilities,; DOD-wide enterprise information technology (IT) services, coordinated technology refresh efforts, joint cybersecurity capability and access to data.

The Defense Department is pursuing an aggressive software development program, called the DOD Enterprise DevSecOps Initiative. The effort is focused on bringing automated software tools, services and standards to DOD programs so that warfighters can create, deploy and operate software applications in a secure, flexible and interoperable manner, explained Nicolas Chaillan, chief software officer, U.S. Air Force, co-lead of the DOD Enterprise DevSecOps Initiative. The program is a joint effort of the DOD’s Chief Information Officer, Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment and the services, he said.

IBM Global Business Services, Reston, Virginia (HQ0727-19-D-4000), is being awarded a $275,000,000 indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract.  The purpose of this contract is to enable “trusted” manufacturing flows in the Trusted Foundry Access II contractor’s fabrication facilities; to enable a wide-range of associated leading-edge semiconductor technologies and services; and to create a trusted supply chain with the contractor, fully certified and accredited, to deliver classified and trusted mask and wafer fabrication within an “open” commercial environment.  This program provides the additional layer of security to the commercial environment that permits government access to advanced technology manufacturing capabilities for t

The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (JHU/APL), Laurel, Maryland, is awarded a $2,351,000,000 cost-plus-fixed-fee, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity, contract ceiling increase modification to a previously awarded contract (N00024-13-D-6400) for research, development, engineering, and test and evaluation for programs throughout the Department of Defense (DoD). Funds are obligated on individual task orders for efforts that fall within the core competency areas.

Atlanta-based Envistacom announced on May 14 at AFCEA's TechNetCyber event that the company would be supporting the Department of Defense's Threat Systems Management Office (TSMO) Cyber Analytics Systems Threat Lab Environments 2 (CASTLE 2) Task Order 20. As a subcontractor, the company will provide engineering, test and evaluation, and management services to the Threat Systems Management Office of the Director, Operational Test and Evaluation (DOT&E) assessment program. The effort includes providing threat and information operations network support. The $1 million contract runs from January 18, 2019, to January 18, 2020.