The U.S. Space Force plans to have a mix of about half military and half civilian workers, reaching roughly 16,000 personnel. As of the end of last week, 2,206 enlisted and officer personnel had transferred into the new service, reported Brig. Gen. Shawn Campbell, USAF, deputy director of Personnel, U.S. Space Force. Almost 60 more field-grade officers will move into the Space Force shortly, after Congress approves these non-space operators, who will work in intelligence, cyber, engineering or acquisition roles.
C2
December 1, 2020
Given adversarial threats in the Indo-Pacific region and Europe, especially from Russia and China, the Arctic region’s strategic importance is increasing. As such, over the last several years, the U.S. military has focused on growing its cold weather operation capabilities. Beginning in 2016, the U.S. Marine Corps in particular, through host and NATO ally Norway, has maintained a presence in the Kingdom of Norway to train and develop the skills necessary to operate in extreme conditions.
October 8, 2020
The U.S. military is rapidly pursuing Joint All-Domain Command and Control to confront near-peer adversaries, including China and Russia. Innovative computing, software and advanced data processing, as well as emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, cloud and 5G communications, will be needed. Leaders also understand they must shed some of the military’s old practices to succeed.
December 3, 2019
L3 Technologies Inc., Salt Lake City, Utah, is awarded a $9,999,144 firm-fixed-price modification (P00012) to a previously-awarded firm-fixed-price, cost-plus-fixed-fee contract (N00019-18-C-1030) to procure eight Common Data Link Hawklink AN/SRQ-4 systems for the MH-60R aircraft. Work will be performed in Salt Lake City, Utah, and is expected to be completed in December 2022. Fiscal year 2020 other procurement (Navy) funds in the amount of $9,999,144 will be obligated at time of award, none of which will expire at the end of the fiscal year. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity.
November 13, 2019
The necessity of multidomain operations to combat near-peer adversaries in the future dictates that the U.S. military fight together seamlessly across the air, land, sea, space and cyber environments. The services must be able to generate offensive and defensive effects from all of these domains, with systems in one environment supporting operations in another domain, said Gen. Mike Holmes, USAF, commander, Air Combat Command, speaking Tuesday at AFCEA International and IEEE’s MILCOM conference in Norfolk, Virginia.
July 30, 2019
Ultra Electronics Advanced Tactical Systems Inc.
July 5, 2019
DynCorp International, Fort Worth, Texas, has been awarded a $308,616,183 firm-fixed-price contract for aviation command and control operations and maintenance services. This contract provides for air traffic control, airfield management and associated maintenance support. Work will be performed in the Air Force Central Command's area of responsibility and is expected to be completed by July 31, 2024. This award is the result of a competitive acquisition with four offers received. Fiscal 2019 operations and maintenance funds in the amount of $379,576 are being obligated at the time of award.
July 2, 2019
Frequentis Defense Inc., Columbia, Maryland, is awarded an $8,454,481 firm-fixed-price contract for non-recurring engineering and logistics for the design, development, test, manufacture and repair of the MD-5A Unmanned Carrier Aviation Mission Control System, which will support the MQ-25 Stingray unmanned air vehicle. The integrated computer system will transport voice communications from carrier-based air vehicle operators to local audio switches, local radio terminals and remote radio terminals. Work will be performed in Columbia, Maryland, and is expected to be completed in March 2021.
June 20, 2019
Folsom, California-based Interloc Solutions* will be supporting the U.S. Navy’s Command and Control Systems Program Office, known as PMW 150. The company was awarded a performers agreement contract through an other transactional authority vehicle from the National Security Technology Accelerator, also called NSTXL.
June 1, 2019
Air Force officers in charge of creating air tasking orders have long developed mission plans at air operations centers, known as AOCs, or centralized hubs in a specific command. The Air Force is looking at diversifying and decentralizing how and where those plans are created to add depth and resiliency to the process. This may be needed as designing air battle plans against potential peer threats will only grow in complexity in the future, experts say.
May 8, 2019
The Navy selected six companies, all small businesses, to provide command and control (C2) technologies and capabilities in the areas of: innovative science and technology research, systems engineering, architecture, design, development, integration, testing, configuration management, quality assurance, and implementation and support of C2 net-centric military operations. All six awardees will have the opportunity to compete for task orders during the ordering period, the service said.
The indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity, cost-plus-fixed-fee, multiple-award contracts with a two-year period with additional option periods were awarded to:
April 11, 2019
Sikorsky Aircraft Corp., Stratford, Connecticut, is being awarded $9,500,000 for modification P00070 to a previously awarded fixed-price-incentive-firm contract (N00019-14-C-0050) in support of the VH-92A aircraft. This modification provides for the integration of the Mission Communications System Version 3.0 hardware changes. Work will be performed in Patuxent River, Maryland, and is expected to be completed in April 2020. Fiscal year 2019 research, development, test and evaluation (Navy) funds in the amount of $6,000,000 will be obligated at time of award, none of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity.
March 11, 2019
Web Business Solutions Inc.,** Fredericksburg, Virginia, is awarded a $9,595,573 task order (M67854-19-F-7822) under previously awarded indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract (M67854-18-D-7821) for support services to the Command and Control Training and Education Center of Excellence (C2TECOE). The C2TECOE main effort is to provide a continuum of standards-based C2 systems instruction and home station training. Work will be performed at Camp Pendleton, California (27 percent); Quantico, Virginia (23 percent); Camp Lejeune, North Carolina (17 percent); Okinawa, Japan (16 percent); Twentynine Palms, California (10 percent); and Marine Corps Base Hawaii (7 percent), and is expected to be completed by March 10, 2020.
February 27, 2019
RiverTech, LLC,* Colorado Springs, Colorado, has been awarded a $34,513,979 firm-fixed-price contract for command and control technical support. This contract provides for the operational, technical, and analytical expertise for the planning and execution of training and test events, conducting Live-Virtual-Constructive and Distributed Mission Operations activities, providing operational support, providing non-kinetic operations training and tactics development support, and conducting operational testing of command and control, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance systems.
January 7, 2019
BAE Systems Information and Electronics Systems Integration, Nashua, New Hampshire (FA8604-19-D-4021); The Boeing Co., Defense, Space & Security, St.
September 14, 2018
Kairos Autonomi Inc.,* Sandy, Utah, is being awarded an $8,153,599 firm-fixed-price, cost-plus-fixed-fee, and cost indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for the procurement of up to 75 each Moving Land Target (MLT) Command Control Systems, MLT ground control stations, MLT ground communication relay stations, Global Positioning System (GPS) cables, MLT small specialty tires and wheels, MLT large specialty tires and wheels, MLT small cable installation kits, MLT large cable installation kits, steering rings, augmented GPS subsystems, vehicle integration modules, steering ring adapter kits, and fuse tap electrical integration kits. In addition, this contract provides for up to 25 associated training support events, as well as ass
September 13, 2018
Web Business Solutions Inc.,** Fredericksburg, Virginia, was awarded an indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract, with a contract ceiling of $70,553,538, to provide support for the Command and Control Training and Education Center of Excellence.
Odyssey Systems Consulting Group, Ltd has been awarded a five-year, $225 million task order for Engineering, Professional, Administrative, and Support Services (EPASS) with the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center (AFLCMC). The company will support the Battle Management Directorate Strategic Warning and Surveillance Systems (HBQ) Division based at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and at Hanscom Air Force Base in Bedford, Massachusetts.
July 27, 2018
General Dynamics Missions Systems Inc., Scottsdale, Arizona, is awarded a $15,108,782 firm-fixed-price modification to previously awarded contract M67854-17-C-0261 to exercise an option for the manufacturing, assembly and testing of nine Full Deployment Units of the Common Aviation Command and Control System, Air Command and Control Subsystem in support of Program Executive Officer Land Systems, Quantico, Virginia. Work will be performed in Scottsdale, Arizona (94 percent); Fulton, Maryland (4 percent); Huntsville, Alabama (1 percent); and San Diego, California (1 percent), and is expected to be completed by July 2020.
July 25, 2018
The U.S. Army’s Communications-Electronics Research, Development and Engineering Center, known as CERDEC, has unveiled new mission command software that provides improved real-time command and control capabilities.
CERDEC, a part of the Army’s Research, Development and Engineering Command, has been developing capabilities under its Expeditionary Mission Command (EMC) Science and Technology Objective (STO). This year, it is rolling out 15 new capabilities, including software advances such as the Tactical Computing Environment (TCE) and the Single, Multimodal, Android Service for Human-Computer Interaction software known as SMASH.
May 17, 2018
Experts speaking at the AFCEA Defensive Cyber Operations Symposium in Baltimore agree that the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in warfighting, and in command and control (C2) applications in particular, could provide advantages to the warfighter in terms of faster information processing and improved decision making and cyber defense. The hitch, though, is that the quality of data used to build algorithms and add to machine learning can vary. This impacts the quality of AI-related conclusions, which could put warfighters at great risk.
March 29, 2018
Northrop Grumman Systems Corp., Herndon, Virginia, was awarded a $34,379,834 modification (P00024) to to contract W31P4Q-15-C-0065 for maintenance and training on the Counter-Rocket Artillery Mortar, Counter-Unmanned Aerial System, command and control system. Work will be performed in Herndon, Virginia, with an estimated completion date of March 31, 2019. Fiscal year 2018 operations and maintenance Army funds in the amount of $34,379,834 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, is the contracting activity.
March 6, 2018
The U.S. Air Force has awarded Colorado Springs, Colorado-based Polaris Alpha a $96 million contract vehicle for maintenance and enhancement for command, control, intelligence and surveillance, and reconnaissance operations. Under the task orders, the company will support projects ranging from advanced research and development of machine learning and complex event processing, to the creation and deployment of state of the art command and control applications, to cross-community intelligence reporting and analysis tools and software development. "We’ve been privileged to provide this national security enterprise support for the Air Force for over 15 years," the company's Executive Vice President Kevin Moffat said.
February 7, 2018
New technologies, capabilities and tactics will be necessary for the U.S. Navy to prevail in the burgeoning arena of information warfare. But while some needs are obvious, the course for the overall way ahead remains elusive.
Explaining the complicated nature of naval information warfare was Vice Adm. Jan Tighe, USN, deputy chief of Naval Operations for Information Warfare (N2N6). Speaking at the Wednesday keynote luncheon at West 2018 being held in San Diego February 6-8, Adm. Tighe outlined a series of challenges and potential options, beginning with the state of the realm.
November 17, 2017
Spectrum Comm Incorporated of Newport News, Virginia, has been awarded a $22,431,365 firm-fixed-price, cost-reimbursable, and indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for the enterprise contracted logistics support and provides for an enterprise approach to total lifecycle logistics support and specialized global supply chain management for supported command and control intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance aircraft weapon systems. Work will be performed at Robins Air Force Base, Georgia, with an expected completion date of November 30, 2023. The contract was a competitive acquisition and 15 offers were received.
June 1, 2016
As the U.S. Navy embraces its evolving “forward ... from the sea” strategic concept in a post-Cold War geopolitical reality, it is operating more in contested littorals and facing increasingly compressed decision cycles. Sanctuaries sanitized of threats have become the exception, not the rule. As a result, the sea service has emerged as a global enforcer—combating pirates, taking out terrorists and responding to disaster-ravaged areas—a role that has brought its missions closer to coastlines.
March 14, 2016
Raytheon Co., Ft. Wayne, Indiana, was awarded a $13,846,183 firm-fixed-price, foreign military sales contract (Jordan) with options for materials and services for the Jordan Armed Forces Automated Command and Control (J4ISR-C2) Tactical System (JCTS) project. Options exercised at award. Bids were solicited via the Internet with five received. Work will be performed in Jordan with an estimated completion date of September 10, 2016. Funds in the amount of $13,846,183 were obligated at the time of the award. The Army Contracting Command, Aberdeen, Maryland, is the contracting activity (W91CRB-16-C-5013).
November 21, 2014
A mobile operations fusion kit that provides easy, rapid and on-the-go interoperability for mobile field operations and communications will be developed in European and Middle Eastern military markets as well as in the United States.
C2UK Ltd. and Mutualink Incorporated partnered to further develop and circulate the communications-based product portfolio. Overseas, C2UK will leverage the state-of-the-art, secure communications and information-sharing technology, expanding the companies’ global reach, particularly of command and control (C2) systems.
September 11, 2014
Senior military leaders will try next week to hash out differences on the command and control (C2) of the Joint Information Enterprise, or JIE, said Lt. Gen. Mark Bowman, USA, director, command, control, communications and computers/cyber and chief information officer, Joint Chiefs of Staff. Gen. Bowman made the remarks while addressing the audience at the AFCEA TechNet Augusta 2014 conference, Augusta, Georgia.
August 16, 2013
Northrop Grumman Systems Co., Carson, Calif., was awarded a cost plus incentive fee, option-eligible, non-multi-year, contract modification (P00071) of $22,876,078 with a cumulative maximum value of $157,432,543 for extension of base contract seven months to provide continuing supplies, services and maintenance for the Counter Rocket Artillery Mortar (CRAM) Command and Control System. The U.S. Army Contracting Command–Red Stone Arsenal (Missile), Redstone, Ala., is the contracting activity (W31P4Q-07-C-0335).
August 9, 2013
SSB Inc., Fairfax, Va., was awarded a cost-plus-fixed-fee, option-filled contract with a maximum value of $8,192,670 for technical support services in the areas of database and web development and maintenance for command and control applications. The Army Contracting Command, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md., is the contracting activity (W91CRB-13-D-0014).
December 21, 2012
Intelligent Software Solutions, Colorado Springs, Colo.; BAE Systems, McLean, Va.; Charles River Analytics Inc., Cambridge, Mass.; Northrop Grumman Systems Corp., Herndon, Va.; Science Applications International Corp., McLean, Va.; Lockheed Martin Corp., Colorado Springs, Colo., and Solers Inc., Arlington, Va., are being awarded a $249 million multiple-award indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity for the development of command and control applications and information services for air, space and cyberspace domains. The contracting activity is the U.S. Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, Hanscom Air Force Base, Mass.
May 2, 2012
Marine Corps leadership is seeking to apply lessons learned from fighting two ground wars in the last 10 years and return to its core competencies: amphibious ops, sea-based forward presence and crisis response. In his article, "Marines Go Back to the Amphibious Future," Defense Editor Max Cacas outlines the Corps' goals in this issue of SIGNAL Magazine. Col.
April 29, 2011
Centurum Information Technology Incorporated, Marlton, New Jersey, is being awarded a potential $77 million contract for command and control systems support for new integrated systems/networks. Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center Atlantic, Charleston, South Carolina, is the contracting activity.
