Pinnacle Solutions Inc.,* Huntsville, Alabama, was awarded a $553,200,000 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for instruction, mission support, information technology network support, operations and logistics. Bids were solicited via the internet with 11 received. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of March 18, 2026. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Orlando, Florida, is the contracting activity (W900KK-19-D-0006).
*Small Business
The U.S. Army is leading the charge on the military’s multidomain battle concept—but will federal IT networks enable this initiative, or inhibit it?
The network is critical to the Army’s vision of combining the defense domains of land, air, sea, space and cyberspace to protect and defend against adversaries on all fronts. As Gen. Stephen Townsend, USA, remarked to AFCEA conference attendees earlier this year, the Army is readying for a future reliant on telemedicine, 3D printing and other technologies that will prove integral to multidomain operations. “The network needs to enable all that,” said Townsend.
The Army is transforming its Cyber Command to meet the challenges of a multidomain battlefield. Just over eight years old, the command, located at Ft. Gordon, Georgia, will evolve by 2028 into something possibly called the Army Information Warfare Operations Command, which will fully incorporate cyber, electronic warfare and information operations.
The U.S. Army is well underway with its strategy to build a modern integrated tactical network through the efforts of the Program Executive Office Command, Control and Communications–Tactical and the Army Futures Command’s Network Cross Functional Team. But leaders know that a tactical network on the battlefield edge won’t be effective without a robust enterprise network.
Confronting adversaries on a more complicated battlefield requires advanced tools for a U.S. Army more comfortable operating in the traditional domains of land, sea, air and space. The new Cyber Situational Understanding program of record, however, will give the U.S. Army an increased understanding with actionable information of the cyber domain, explained Portia Crowe, chief, Cyber Engineering at the Army’s Program Executive Office Command Control Communications – Tactical (PEO C3T).
Crowe headed up the AFCEA Aberdeen Chapter’s 4th Annual C4ISR Cyber Panel on March 6 and spoke to SIGNAL Magazine in an interview.
Cubic Global Defense Inc., San Diego, California, was awarded a $7,996,042 modification (P00003) to contract W564KV-18-F-0001 for analytical support services. Work will be performed in Stuttgart, Germany, with an estimated completion date of March 9, 2023. Fiscal year 2019 operations and maintenance, Army funds in the amount of $7,996,042 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army 409th Combat Support Battalion, Kaiserslautern, Germany, is the contracting activity. (Awarded March 10, 2019).
Salient Federal Solutions, also known as Salient CRGT, Fairfax, Virginia, was awarded a $21,295,700 firm-fixed-price contract for mission critical information-technology communications infrastructure and services. One bid was solicited with one bid received. Work will be performed in Fayetteville, North Carolina; and Bagram, Afghanistan, with an estimated completion date of March 14, 2023. Fiscal year 2019 operations and maintenance, Army funds in the amount of $21,295,700 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).
22nd Century Technologies Inc.,* Somerset, New Jersey (W15P7T-19-D-0202); Agile Defense Inc.,* Reston, Virginia (W15P7T-19-D-0203); Allied Associates International Inc.,* Gainesville, Virginia (W15P7T-19-D-0204); Beshenich Muir & Associates LLC,* Leavenworth, Kansas (W15P7T-19-D-0205); Envision Innovative Solutions Inc.,* Manasquan, New Jersey (W15P7T-19-D-0206); Interactive Process Technology LLC,* Billerica, Massachusetts (W15P7T-19-D-0207); and Technology Service Corp.,* Arlington, Virginia (W15P7T-19-D-0210), will compete for each order of the $37,400,000,000 hybrid (cost, cost-plus-fixed-fee, cost-plus-incentive-fee, and firm-fixed-price) contract for knowledge based professional engineering support services for programs with co
The vulnerabilities of machine learning models open the door for deceit, giving malicious operators the opportunity to interfere with the calculations or decision making of machine learning systems. Scientists at the Army Research Laboratory, specializing in adversarial machine learning, are working to strengthen defenses and advance this aspect of artificial intelligence.
As the U.S. Army continues to evolve its newest warfighting domain, the cyber domain, information plays a key role. The service is working to incorporate information capabilities along with intelligence, electronic warfare, cyber and space, as well as with traditional fire capabilities.
In December, the Army released a doctrine guiding multidomain operations through 2028. The policy acknowledges that U.S. adversaries are contesting all domains, and that in the information environment American dominance is not guaranteed.
General Dynamics Land Systems, Sterling Heights, Michigan, was awarded a $1,357,144,255 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for retrofit, damage repair, and reset-refurbishment services to support the Stryker Family of Vehicles. 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 February 28, 2024. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Warren, Michigan, is the contracting activity (W56HZV-19-D-0051).
The U.S. Army is striving to modernize and go faster, with a better focus, said Undersecretary of the Army Ryan McCarthy at a breakfast meeting on February 26 at the Association of the U.S. Army’s Institute of Land Warfare. This includes taking measures to be more effective with the funding the Army receives. “We're trying to put in a behavior of reform so that we can do better with every dollar that we have,” he stated.
Under a $502 million contract, RGNext, a joint venture between Raytheon’s Intelligence, Information and Services business and General Dynamics Information Technology (GDIT), will operate the U.S. Army’s Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site. The companies will be responsible for safely managing space vehicle and ballistic missile launches as well asand missile defense tests conducted from islands in the 750,000-square-mile Pacific Ocean range.
Radiance Technologies Inc.,* Huntsville, Alabama, was awarded a $77,376,456 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for system engineering technical and assistance services, space and cyberspace science and technology development support. Twenty-three bids were solicited with two bids received. Work will be performed in Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, with an estimated completion date of February 27, 2024. Fiscal year 2019 research, development, test and evaluation funds in the amount of $10,349,818 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, is the contracting activity (W9113M-19-F-0016). *Small Business
Oracle America Inc., Redwood City, California, is awarded $18,850,000 for fixed-price-level-of-effort task order M67854-19-F-7603 under a previously awarded indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract (M67854-17-D-7609) for continued post-deployment system support including, service management, service operations; production and pre-production system sustainment; solution development environment; enterprise training and training devices; product lifecycle support; and service transition for change requests and engineering change proposals. Work will be performed in Stafford, Virginia (50 percent); and Quantico, Virginia (50 percent), and is expected to be completed by December 20, 2019.
Mississippi State University, Mississippi State, Mississippi, was awarded a $7,200,000 cost contract for test and validation of emerging propulsion technologies for unmanned aircraft systems. Bids were solicited via the internet with one received. Work will be performed in Mississippi State, Mississippi, with an estimated completion date of February 20, 2021. Fiscal year 2018 research, development, test and evaluation funds in the amount of $7,200,000 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, is the contracting activity (W909MY-19-C-C002).
Tiber Creek Consulting Inc.,* Fairfax, Virginia, was awarded a $33,549,985 firm-fixed-price contract for mission essential core information system for operations and sustainment with periodic modernization life cycle phases. Bids were solicited via the internet with eight received. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of February 7, 2024. U.S. Army Health Contracting Activity, San Antonio, Texas, is the contracting activity (W81K04-19-D-0007).
Booz Allen Hamilton, McLean, Virginia, was awarded a $12,884,834 modification (P00006) to contract W91RUS-18-C-0024 for cybersecurity support services. Work will be performed in Fort Huachuca, Arizona, with an estimated completion date of September 2, 2029. Fiscal year 2019 operations and maintenance Army funds in the amount of $12,884,834 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, is the contracting activity.
Army leaders are tackling the integration of modern network capabilities to push out broadly across the Army force structure over the next decade.
Maj. Gen. David Bassett, USA, program executive officer for Command, Control, Communications-Tactical (PEO-C3T) and Maj. Gen. Peter Gallagher, USA, director, Network Cross-Functional Team (Network CFT) are overseeing the effort and have developed an iterative plan to bring together network transport, mission command applications and services, all easily deployed to soldiers.
The cloud strategy document released this week by the U.S. Defense Department is drawing mixed reactions from industry and military officials. Experts welcome the strategy as an important step toward modernizing the department’s infrastructure but also express some concerns and note that many questions remain.
