Accessible radio frequencies are crucial for warfighter training, testing and operations. Ensuring access to the necessary electromagnetic spectrum for U.S. Defense Department missions is not an easy task, especially in a time of growing demand across the military and commercial sectors, explains Col. Frederick Williams, USAF, acting director of the Office of Spectrum Policy and Programs, Office of the Secretary of Defense, or OSD. The military operates in a wide range of spectrum bands, both on an exclusive and shared basis. In the last several years, Defense Department operational requirements for spectrum access have increased.
DOD
December 17, 2019
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.
October 25, 2019
Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, Washington, has been awarded a firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract with a ceiling value of $10,000,000,000 over a period of 10 years, if all options are exercised. The JEDI Cloud contract will provide enterprise level, commercial infrastructure-as-a-service and platform-as-a-service to support Department of Defense business and mission operations. Work performance will take place at the awardee's place of performance. Fiscal year 2020 operations and maintenance funds in the amount of $1,000,000 are being obligated on a task order against this award to cover the minimum guarantee. The expected completion date is October 24, 2029, if all options are exercised. Washington Hea
November 20, 2019
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).
October 29, 2019
Lockheed Martin Corp., Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co., Fort Worth, Texas, is awarded a $7,027,643,109 modification to a previously awarded firm-fixed-price, fixed-price-incentive-firm-target, cost-reimbursable contract (N00019-17-C-0001). This modification provides for the procurement of 114 F-35 aircraft for Air Force, Marine Corps and Navy; non-Department of Defense (DoD) participants, and Foreign Military Sales (FMS) customers.
October 17, 2019
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.
October 3, 2019
Sprint Communications Co. L.P., doing business as Sprint, Reston, Virginia (N00244-19-D-0013); and Manhattan Telecommunications Corp., doing business as MetTel, New York, New York (N00244-19-D-0014), are awarded an estimated $993,500,000 indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity, firm-fixed-price contract for wireless services and devices in support of the Navy, Marine Corps, Army, Air Force, other Department of Defense agencies, and federal agencies. The contract will include a base period, September 30 to November 7, 2019, due to an on-ramp to the existing Spiral 3 Wireless Services multi-agency contracts. The awards have three one-year option periods which if exercised, would make the total value of the contract $993,500,000.
September 19, 2019
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.
July 18, 2019
Officials from several federal agencies testified on Wednesday as to the effectiveness of the government’s cloud accreditation process, the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program, with mixed reviews. Most witnesses before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Reform’s Subcommittee on Government Operations hearing, entitled To the Cloud! The Cloudy Role of FedRAMP in IT Modernization, confirmed the positive benefits of the program.
July 17, 2019
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.
June 20, 2019
Data Intelligence LLC,* Marlton, New Jersey, is awarded a $12,584,840 indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity, cost-plus-fixed-fee contract to provide cybersecurity and security engineering-related services to the Department of Defense, National Guard Bureau and Department of Homeland Security. This two-year contract includes one, three-year option period which, if exercised, would bring the potential value of this contract to an estimated $31,832,280. Work will be performed in Marlton, New Jersey (25%) and in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (75%), and work is expected to be completed June 18, 2021. If the option is exercised, work will continue through June 18, 2024. No funds will be obligated at the time of award.
June 6, 2019
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.
May 23, 2019
According to an announcement from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine (Pitt), the Department of Defense has selected Pitt and neighboring Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) to create an autonomous trauma care system for injured soldiers. Under the so-called TRAuma Care In a Rucksack program or TRACIR, the universities will work to develop artificial intelligence (AI) platforms that enable medical interventions.
May 22, 2019
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
May 21, 2019
Carlsbad, California-based Viasat Inc. announced on May 21 that the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) had awarded the company a five-year, sole-source indefinite delivery indefinite quantity (IDIQ) contract for rapid migration of command, control, communications, computers and cyber (C5AD) capabilities. The IDIQ, which has a maximum ceiling of $450 million, was structured by GSA to meet the immediate needs of the Department of Defense (DoD) in mobile networking, cybersecurity and broadband satellite communications technology sectors.
May 20, 2019
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.
May 15, 2019
As the Defense Department’s acquisition and sustainment office works to improve the military’s contracting processes, the research and engineering component—newly separated from acquisition and sustainment in a major reorganization last year—is ready for industry advancements, said Doug Schroeder, DASD Space, Strategic and Intelligence Systems and deputy director, National Intelligence Division, Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD).
May 15, 2019
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.
May 6, 2019
Rockville, Maryland-based Fedmine* recently announced that along with Gartner and Forrester Research it had been awarded a multiple award, fixed-firm price Department of Defense (DOD) Enterprise Software Initiative (ESI) Blanket Purchase Agreement (BPA) valued at $446 million. The companies will have fixed-price task orders over the life of the contract that runs through 2029.
The Enterprise Software Initiative (ESI) aims to connect DOD agencies with commercially-available tools and services. The Navy awarded the BPA via the General Services Administration (GSA) Schedule on March 25, 2019. All defense and intelligence agencies, U.S. Coast Guard, state and local governments as well all prime contractors have access to the BPA.
May 1, 2019
The Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA) in Alexandria, Virginia, was awarded an indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract with a ceiling of $950,668,589 and an $11,844,044 cost-plus-fixed-fee task order. Under the contract, IDA will provide research, analyses, technical evaluation, and test and evaluation support to the Office of the Secretary of Defense Joint Staff, combatant commands, and defense agencies. IDA work will involve the comprehensive evaluation of national security issues, including systems and technologies at all stages of development, deployment, and use. Work performance will take place at the Mark Center, Alexandria, Virginia, and other Department of Defense (DoD) and U.S.
