Army

Faced with aging equipment and vehicles from a bygone era, the Army is set to modernize by standing up a new command to transform its acquisition processes, among other things. It is one of the Army’s most significant restructuring efforts in the last 40 years. The need for modernization is coming from an "eroding" competitive advantage, and the evolving needs of a modern—and future—battlefield.

“We do not have time to waste,” implored Gen. Mark Milley, USA, U.S. Army chief of staff, at the Association of the U.S. Army (AUSA) Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C., on October 9. “Our challenges are growing in scale and are in every domain of warfare: land, maritime, air, cyber and space.”

The U.S. Army Capabilities Integration Center (ARCIC) and Army Game Studio are introducing an online multiplayer game that enables soldiers to help design the future battlespace. Called Operation Overmatch, the technology allows warfighters, research personnel and leaders to configure future concepts of vehicles and equipment, execute missions and complete objectives in a virtual complex environment.

Operation Overmatch was created with the help of Early Synthetic Prototyping (ESP), a process and set of tools that facilitates the radical transformation of development and acquisition decisions by designing and assessing emerging technology in a game environment.

Leidos, Reston, Virginia, has been awarded an $8,811,831 modification (P00018) to contract W909MY-15-C-0031 for operations and maintenance of the Aerial Optical Change Detection system. Work will be performed in Bridgewater, Virginia; and Bagram, Afghanistan, with an estimated completion date of January 25, 2018. Fiscal year 2017 operations and maintenance (Army) funds in the amount of $8,811,831 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Fort Belvoir, Virginia, is the contracting activity.

The U.S. Army has awarded a five-year, $182 million managed cybersecurity services contract to Fairfax, Va.-based InfoReliance LLC and Reston, Va.-based McAfee to enhance and modernize host based security and analytic technologies across the Army’s Endpoint Security System (AESS).  The capabilities will be delivered under a managed platform as a service (PaaS) model for "near real-time situational awareness on a global basis," according to the companies. "The new platform will minimize the Army’s attack surface, increase endpoint protection and drive the automation of key reporting metrics to the U.S.

L3 Technologies Incorporated of Salt Lake City, Utah, was awarded a $69,348,326 cost-plus-fixed-fee and firm-fixed-price Army contract for procurement of manned and unmanned teaming hardware and technical and engineering support in support of the Apache attack helicopter. One bid was solicited with one received. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of August 31, 2018. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Rock Island Arsenal, Illinois, is the contracting activity (W52P1J-17-D-0070).

General Dynamics Land Systems Incorporated, Sterling Heights, Michigan, has been awarded a $310,582,092 cost-plus-incentive-fee contract for the design, development and integration of multiple engineering changes into the Abrams Tank M1A2 System Enhancement Package Version 3. One bid was solicited and one bid was received. Work will be performed in Sterling Heights; Lima, Ohio; Scranton, Pennsylvania; and Tallahassee, Florida, with an estimated completion date of February 28, 2024. Fiscal year 2017 research, development, test and evaluation funds in the amount of $12,500,000 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Warren, Michigan, is the contracting activity (W56HZV-17-C-0188).

Fujifilm Medical Systems U.S.A. Inc., Stamford, Connecticut, has been awarded a maximum $768,000,000 fixed-price with economic-price-adjustment, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for digital imaging network picture archiving communications system products and maintenance. This is the fourth contract competitively awarded under the open solicitation SPE2D1-15-R-0004. This was a competitive acquisition with eight offers received. This is a five-year base contract with one five-year option period. Maximum dollar amount is for the life of the contract. Locations of performance are Connecticut, and other U.S. areas, with an August 21, 2027, performance completion date.

The network the Army has is not the network it needs to confront the changing face of warfare, says Maj. Gen. (P) Bruce Crawford, USA, who took over as the service’s chief information officer/G-6 nine days ago.

Gen. Crawford told the AFCEA TechNet Augusta audience the service confronts a confluence of strategic circumstances, with several major efforts all coming together at the same time. Those circumstances include the evolution of the threat, global instability that creates greater demand for ground forces, the rapid pace of technology evolution, the speed at which decisions must be made on the battlefield and emerging doctrines.

The Russian military has been using a clever—and lethal—propaganda technique against Ukrainian soldiers. They spam the soldiers’ cellphones with demoralizing messages and then take advantage of the resulting confusion to geolocate the soldiers’ cellphone signals and launch an attack.

Gen. Baker: You're never going to be able to emulate [in training] the gut-wrenching emotions of Russian-style messaging.#AFCEATechNet

— George Seffers (@gseffers) August 9, 2017