Army

Mississippi State University, Mississippi State, Mississippi, was awarded a $7,787,143 firm-fixed-price contract for research focusing on sensor analytics and remote sensing, geo-materials, steel and future technologies for force protection. Bids were solicited via the internet with one received. Work will be performed in Mississippi State, Mississippi, with an estimated completion date of May 26, 2023. Fiscal 2021 research, development, test and evaluation, Army funds in the amount of $5,007,896 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' Engineer Research and Development Center, Vicksburg, Mississippi, is the contracting activity (W912HZ-21-C-0022).

Researchers at the Institute for Creative Technologies built the Rapid Integration and Development Environment, a test bed for evaluating modeling and simulation technologies for internal use. But the system, which plays a role in creating the Army’s Tactical Computing Environment, is finding users across the Defense Department and in the defense industry.

The pandemic propelled an immediate shift to remote working, with the U.S. Army quickly adding to its digital infrastructure to support its personnel, with a 400 percent increase in remote network capabilities, reports Deloitte Consulting. Going forward, the service must now negotiate how to lead a workforce that in many cases wants to stay remote. The Army faces other challenges in recruiting and retaining soldiers and civilians, especially going into the era of multidomain operations, or MDO, the consultants say.

Avion Solutions Inc., Huntsville, Alabama, was awarded an $8,820,564 modification (000338) to contract W31P4Q-18-A-0047 for logistics support for the Unmanned Aircraft Systems project manager's office. Work will be performed in Huntsville, Alabama, with an estimated completion date of January 31, 2022. Fiscal 2021 operation and maintenance, Army funds in the amount of $8,820,564 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 $15,308,297 modification (P00028) to contract W31P4Q-18-C-0130 for the procurement of the Electromechanical Control Actuation System. Work will be performed in Orlando, Florida, with an estimated completion date of July 31, 2023. Fiscal 2019 other procurement, Army funds in the amount of $15,308,297 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, is the contracting activity.

Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control, Grand Prairie, Texas, was awarded a $214,708,838 modification (P00016) to contract W31P4Q-19-C-0077 for the M270A2 Multiple Launch Rocket System. Work will be performed in Grand Prairie, Texas; Camden, Texas; and New Boston, Texas, with an estimated completion date of September 30, 2024. Fiscal 2021 missile procurement, Army funds in the amount of $214,708,838 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, is the contracting activity.

Over the next couple of years, the U.S. Army will experience a significant shift in its approach to network modernization and will progress toward a unified network for both enterprise and tactical purposes, according to Lt. Gen. John Morrison, USA, the service’s deputy chief of staff, G-6.

Gen. Morrison made the comments earlier today during the TechNet Augusta Virtual Solutions Series. “That unifying architecture is something that the Army is working very, very hard on. Over the next two years, we will make a shift in the way that we’ve been approaching our modernization efforts,” Gen. Morrison stated.

The Assured Positioning, Navigation and Timing/Space Cross-Functional Team announced today the approval of the Tactical Space Layer (TSL) abbreviated capability development document.

The document validates the need and provides the source for desired capabilities to execute rapid experimentation and prototyping efforts for tactical space-based sensors with supporting ground-based equipment. The accelerated TSL will deliver solutions necessary to shorten the sensor-to-shooter timeline and equip the Army multidomain operations (MDO)-capable force by 2028 to the MDO-ready force by 2035.

The U.S. Army is conducting a series of major tests on the interoperability of joint all-domain command and control (JADC2) technologies prior to the Project Convergence 2021 experiment this fall.

Army officials are leading a series of communications exercises, commonly referred to as COMMEXes, in its new Joint System Integration Laboratory (JSIL). The lab uses a realistic and scalable tactical network architecture comprised of current and future tactical radios, software applications and transport systems to provide a system-of-systems integration and testing environment for emerging communications and networking technologies, according to an Army fact sheet.

U.S. Army Europe and Africa will receive two new units—a Multi-Domain Task Force and Theater Fires Command—in the coming months and retain three sites previously scheduled to be returned to the German government due to growing operational requirements in the European theater.

The units will add approximately 500 Soldiers, 35 local national positions and 750 family members to U.S. Army Garrison Wiesbaden. The Theater Fires Command is expected to activate 16 Oct. 2021 and the Multi-Domain Task Force is expected to activate on 16 Sept. 2021. The sites that will be retained are Mainz Kastel Station and Mainz Kastel Housing in Mainz-Kastel, and Dagger Complex in Darmstadt.

General Dynamics Information Technology Inc., Falls Church, Virginia, was awarded a $95,000,000 hybrid (firm-fixed-price and time-and-materials) contract for regulatory consultation, regulatory oversight and contract research organization support. Bids were solicited via the internet with three received. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of March 30, 2031. U.S. Army Medical Research Acquisition Activity, Fort Detrick, Maryland, is the contracting activity.

The U.S. Army has pursued the development of open architecture system standards for several years and now is increasingly fielding such systems across its programs, including amongst its aviation and communications capabilities. The service, which worked with tri-service partners, the Navy and Air Force, will benefit from the systems being on the battlefield, as they cut costs, improve software reuse and portability, bring greater ease of use, and increase size, weight and power, or SWAP, savings, said Brig. Gen. Robert Collins, U.S. Army Program Executive Officer for Command, Control, Communications-Tactical (PEO C3T).

The U.S. Army’s Assured Positioning, Navigation and Timing/Space Cross-Functional Team has given the nod to the Navigation Warfare Situational Awareness Abbreviated Capability Development Document. The document validates the operational need and enables experimentation and rapid prototyping of capabilities for the warfighter.

U.S. Army officials expect soon to release a multidomain operations (MDO) posture statement that will complement both the new MDO vision document released by the Army Chief of Staff and the posture statement from U.S. Cyber Command.

The MDO posture statement will detail how the Army intends to achieve its MDO vision for 2035. It will be released soon, possibly as early as April, according to Army officials conducting a March 26 telephonic media roundtable.

Alloy Surfaces Co. Inc., Chester, Pennsylvania, was awarded a $28,823,677 firm-fixed-price contract to produce, test, inspect, package and deliver M211 infrared countermeasure decoys and MJU-50A/B and MJU-51A/B infrared countermeasure flares. 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 March 5, 2026. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Newark, New Jersey, is the contracting activity (W15QKN-21-D-0014).

Bryan 77, Colorado Springs, Colorado (W912GB-21-D-0017); Environmental Chemical Corpo., Burlingame, California (W912GB-21-D-0018); Eiffage Infraestructuras SA, Sevilla, Spain (W912GB-21-D-0019); Relyant Global LLC, Maryville, Tennessee (W912GB-21-D-0020); Sociedad Espanola De Montajes Industriales SA, Madrid, Spain (W912GB-21-D-0021); SKE Support Services GmbH, Goldbach, Germany (W912GB-21-D-0022); Tepe Bozdemir Adi Ortakligi, Ankara, Turkey (W912GB-21-D-0023); Tsontos Michael M SA, Chania, Greece (W912GB-21-D-0024); and Zafer Taahut Insaat Ve Ticaret Anonim Sirketi, Ankara, Turkey (W912GB-21-D-0025), will compete for each order of the $250,000,000 firm-fixed-price contract for construction of new facilities and real property repair and

The U.S. Army is applying its cyber expertise across the defense spectrum as it blends tactical and strategic capabilities while helping the departmentwide cyber mission. This ranges from operational activities to training, and the effort spans both defensive and offensive cyber missions.

Some of these points were explained in day 2 of the first episode in the TechNet Augusta Virtual Solutions Series, airing February 16-17. Col. John Transue Jr., USA, director, Army Capability Manager (ACM) Cyber, described how the separation between tactical and strategic capabilities is blurring as the Army applies elements of one to the other.

Over the last several years, the U.S. Army has worked pointedly to build up its electronic warfare capabilities. From the early days of only having small groups of electronic warfare soldiers that ventured to counter radio-controlled improvised explosive devices in Afghanistan and Iraq, the Army has since retooled its efforts. The service is pursuing a broad campaign of development, is continuing to identify capability gaps and has successfully fielded more advanced tools to operate and dominate in the electromagnetic spectrum.

The U.S. Army’s Program Executive Office for Intelligence, Electronic Warfare and Sensors, or PEO IEW&S announced on January 11 that it had made other transaction authority (OTA) agreements with Palantir Technologies and Raytheon Intelligence & Space to aid its Ground System Modernization effort. Under the OTAs, the companies will support system-level design and software maturation for the Tactical Intelligence Targeting Access Node prototype effort. Each company was awarded $8.5 million dollars for the 12-month period of performance of Phase I of the project.

The U.S. Army upped the tempo when Gen. Mark Milley, USA, fired off his first message to the force in August 2015 as the newly sworn-in Army Chief of Staff: “Readiness for ground combat is—and will remain—the U.S. Army’s No. 1 priority.” Today, Gen. Milley is the chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Army has rebuilt its tactical readiness through a transformational process that it is now expanding to focus on strategic readiness.

L3 Technologies Inc., Salt Lake City, Utah, was awarded a $29,197,837 firm-fixed-price contract for the manned/unmanned teaming hardware, as well as technical and engineering support, for the Apache helicopter. Bids were solicited via the internet with one received.  Work will be performed in Salt Lake City, Utah, with an estimated completion date of June 30, 2023. Fiscal 2021 aircraft procurement (Army) funds; and 2022 Foreign Military Sales (Morocco, Netherlands, Qatar, United Arab Emirates and United Kingdom) funds in the amount of $29,197,837 were obligated at the time of the award.  The U.S. Army Contracting Command, Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, is the contracting activity (W58RGZ-21-F-0144).

Today, the U.S. Army issued the final request for proposals for the Optionally Manned Fighting Vehicle (OMFV) concept design phase. The request for proposals asks for a common modular open architecture that will allow the rapid insertion of new software capabilities as they become available.

Oshkosh Defense LLC, Oshkosh, Wisconsin, was awarded an $888,422,571 modification (P00451) to contract W56HZV-15-C-0095 to exercise options (1,001 trailers; 2,679 vehicles; and 6,725 kits) for the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle Family of Vehicles for the Army, Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force. Work will be performed in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, with an estimated completion date of October 31, 2022. Fiscal 2019, 2020 and 2021 other procurement (Army); 2021 procurement (Marine Corps); 2020 and 2021 procurement (Air Force); and 2021 procurement (Navy) funds in the amount of $888,422,571 were obligated at the time of the award. The U.S. Army Contracting Command, Detroit Arsenal, Michigan, is the contracting activity.

The U.S. Army’s infinitely adaptable situational awareness tool created a decade ago continues to find new uses thanks to artificial intelligence, wearable computers, virtual reality, unmanned systems and other cutting-edge technologies.

The Tactical Assault Kit (TAK) is a map-based software application that enables coordination among thousands of users with features such as a position data, chat, mission planning and shared overlays. It is compatible with Android, Apple iOS and Windows. The Air Force, FBI, Secret Service, U.S. Park Police and Special Operations Forces are among the organizations that have customized it for their own purposes.