Marine Corps

Ahtna Logistics LLC,* Anchorage, Alaska (M67854-21-D-8010); Guard Unit LLC,* Morgantown, West Virginia (M67854-21-D-8011); Hatalom Corp.,* Orlando, Florida (M67854-21-D-8012); and Shock Stream LLC,* Oviedo, Florida (M67854-21-D-8013), are awarded a combined $124,500,000 indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity, multiple award contract for the procurement of services to facilitate design, development, testing, production, and fielding of several simulations/simulated training systems and devices.

Chenega IT Enterprise Services LLC,* Lorton, Virginia, is awarded a $25,000,000 firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity single award contract to provide professional information technology support services to the deputy commandant of the Marine Corps for installations and logistics. Work will be performed in Stafford, Virginia, and is expected to be completed March 2024. Fiscal 2021 operation and maintenance (Marine Corps) funds in the amount of $4,931,549 is being obligated under the contract’s initial task order to fund the minimum guarantee and will expire at the end of the current fiscal year.

EC America Inc., McLean, Virginia, is awarded a $9,053,930 firm-fixed-price order (M67854-21-F-4906) against previously issued Department of Defense Enterprise Initiative blanket purchase agreement N66001-19-A-0057. This blanket purchase agreement call order provides for the renewal of Tanium brand software license subscriptions currently deployed in the Marine Corps Enterprise Network environment and associated onsite technical support in Quantico, Virginia (100%). Fiscal 2021 operation and maintenance (Marine Corps) funds in the amount of $9,053,930 will be obligated at the time of award and funds will expire September 30, 2021.

Boston Consulting Group, Bethesda, Maryland (HQ0034-16-A-0003), has been awarded a firm-fixed-price contract with a maximum amount of $29,978,698. The contract is to provide Marine Corps programs and resources support for their organizational requirements, resourcing, risk and reporting requirements (similar to a 10-K). Work performance will take place at the Mark Center, Alexandria, Virginia. Appropriate fiscal 2021 operation and maintenance funds will be obligated at time of the award. The expected completion date is January 10, 2022. Washington Headquarters Services, Arlington, Virginia, is the contracting activity.

Over the past several years, the U.S. military has focused on growing its cold-weather operation capabilities. The U.S. Marine Corps, through host and NATO ally Norway, has maintained a presence in the region to train and develop the skills necessary to operate in extreme conditions.

Lockheed Martin Corp., Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co., Fort Worth, Texas, is awarded an $87,498,287 cost-plus-fixed-fee, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract. This contract provides non-recurring engineering for the development and maturation of the Autonomic Logistics Information System (ALIS) in support of data migration and transition to the newly developed F-35 Operational Integrated Data Network (ODIN). ALIS and ODIN provide maintenance capabilities to support worldwide F-35 operations.

Booz Allen Hamilton Inc., McLean, Virginia, is awarded a $12,355,663 firm-fixed-price modification to previously awarded contract M67400-18-F-0065 to exercise Option Year Two for analytics support for III Marine Expeditionary Force and Marine Corps Installations Pacific (MCIPAC). Work will be performed in Okinawa, Japan, and is expected to be complete by July 2021. Fiscal 2020 operations and maintenance (Marine Corps) funding in the amount of $12,355,663 will be obligated at the time of award and will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The MCIPAC Regional Contracting Office, Marine Corps Base Camp Butler, Okinawa, Japan, is the contracting activity.

Lockheed Martin Corp., Baltimore, Maryland, is awarded a $22,436,852 letter contract for the integration, demonstration, testing and operation of the Layered Laser Defense (LLD) weapon system prototype onboard a Navy littoral combat ship while that vessel is underway. Work will be performed in Moorestown, New Jersey (30%); Baltimore, Maryland (25%); Sunnyvale, California (12%); Woodinville, Washington (10%); Manassas, Virginia (5%); Dallas, Texas (15%); San Diego, California (2%); and Santa Cruz, California (1%).

In an era of complex geopolitics of peer and near-peer adversaries racing to advance electronic warfare (EW), the U.S. Marine Corps, like the other services, is centering on improving its signals intelligence (SIGINT) and electronic warfare operations. The service is examining its training and how it integrates the capabilities into its battalions. 

The Marine Corps’ efforts in so-called SIGINT and EW was the focus of this year’s Signals Intelligence Day held on Capitol Hill and organized by the Association of Old Crows Advocacy’s Signals Intelligence Industry Partnership. 

Leaders in multiple military organizations need increased awareness of the dangers that arise from the systems used daily in training, deployment and garrison environments. The attacks these settings face are becoming more advanced and more specific as cyber attackers’ capabilities continue to improve. To mitigate the potential risk to military systems, the networks’ individual components must be identified and understood particularly at a time when component parts are manufactured outside the United States.

A new partnership between NavalX, the Navy's Systems Commands and the Office of Naval Research (ONR) will strive to bring innovation into the Navy from hubs around the country. At a media event yesterday, Col. James “Hondo” Geurts, USAF (Ret.), assistant secretary of the Navy for Research, Development and Acquisition, announced the creation of so-called NavalX Tech Bridges, according to reports from the Navy’s Research, Development and Acquisition Public Affairs Office and the Office of Naval Research’s Warren Duffie.

Booz Allen Hamilton Inc., McLean, Virginia, is awarded an $11,879,270 firm-fixed-price modification to previously awarded contract M67400-18-F-0065 to exercise option year one for analytics support for III Marine Expeditionary Force and Marine Corps Installations Pacific (MCIPAC). Work will be performed in Okinawa, Japan, and is expected to be completed July 7, 2020. Fiscal 2019 operations and maintenance (Marine Corps) funding in the amount of $11,879,270 will be obligated at the time of award. The MCIPAC Regional Contracting Office, Marine Corps Base, Camp Butler, Okinawa, Japan, is the contracting activity.

The U.S. Marine Corps recently began using a next-generation narrowband satellite communication system called the Mobile User Objective System (MUOS) to help warfighters in connecting to networks on the battlefield and communicate in a tactical environment.

MUOS works by using antennas that let Marines access SATCOM networks while also providing them with secure and nonsecure internet access. The system applies to both mobile or stationary marines and was fielded in the first quarter of 2019. It includes updated firmware to the AN/PRC-117G radio system and one of three antenna kits.

Northrop Grumman Systems Corp., Baltimore, Maryland, is awarded a $958,049,562 firm-fixed-price contract for the procurement of 30 full-rate production Ground/Air Task Oriented Radar units under the portfolio management of Program Executive Officer Land Systems, Quantico, Virginia. This procurement also includes spares parts and retrofit kits.  Work will be performed in Linthicum, Maryland (37 percent); East Syracuse, New York (28 percent); Stafford Springs, Connecticut (7 percent); Tulsa, Oklahoma (6 percent); Syracuse, New York (4 percent); Valencia, California (3 percent); San Diego, California (3 percent); Richardson, Texas (3 percent); Farmingdale, New York (2 percent); St.

American Systems Corp., Chantilly, Virginia (M67854-19-D-7870); Calibre Systems Inc., Alexandria, Virginia (M67854-19-D-7871); Corps Solutions, Stafford, Virginia (M67854-19-D-7872); Obsidian Solutions Group,* Fredericksburg, Virginia (M67854-19-D-7873); Science Applications International Corp., Reston, Virginia (M67854-19-D-7874); Solutions Through Innovative Technologies Inc., Fairborn, Ohio (M67854-19-D-7875); and Valiant Global Defense Services Inc., San Diego, California (M67854-19-D-7876), are awarded a multiple award, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract with firm-fixed-pricing arrangements for the procurement of Marine Air-Ground Task Force (MAGTF) Training Systems Support (MTSS), with a combined maximum ceiling amoun

With the establishment of the Advanced Manufacturing Operations Cell, or AMOC, at the Marine Corps Systems Command, Marines can now get round-the-clock support for 3D printing, the command announced last week.

The AMOC team will be on hand to answer questions, field requests for 3D printing, as well as “fully vet” any part that requires fabrication by a Marine organization, which includes required legal and safety reviews. The AMOC is not limited to helping with 3D printing, but can assist with all forms of manufacturing and sustainment, reported Monique Randolph, of the command's Office of Pubic Affairs.

The maritime services continue to maintain a balance between cyber and kinetic weapons even while engaged in a daily cyber conflict.

Leaders for all three maritime services—the Navy, Marines and Coast Guard—participated in a town hall forum during the AFCEA-USNI West 2019 Conference in San Diego, and they agreed that cyber conflict rages on.

“If you’re asking me if I think we’re at war, I think I’d say yes,” Gen. Robert Neller, USMC, Marine Corps commandant, told one audience member. “We’re at war right now in cyberspace. We’ve been at war for maybe a decade. They’re pouring oil over the castle walls every day.”

Knowledge Management Inc., Tyngsboro, Massachusetts, was awarded a ceiling $10,000,000 firm-fixed-priced, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity task order contract to support the Marine Corps Training Command, Center for Distance Education and Training (CDET). This effort is to provide interactive multimedia instructional support services for the Marine Corps Training Command CDET. These objectives include: 1) initial project assessment; 2) front end analysis; 3) design product; 4) development product; and 5) post-production courseware updates in support of CDET’s interactive multimedia design needs for the Marine Corps. This contract includes five 12-month ordering periods with an aggregate ceiling value of $10,000,000.

Lt. Gen. Gary L. Thomas, USMC, has been nominated for appointment to the rank of general and assignment as assistant commandant of the Marine Corps.

The U.S. Navy announced today that U.S. Strategic Command has approved the service’s next-generation narrowband satellite communication system for expanded operational use. The authorization paves the way for Navy and Marine Corps “early-adopter” commands to use the system on deployment as early as this fall, primarily in the Pacific theater, according to the written announcement. The Navy's on-orbit, five-satellite constellation—the Mobile User Objective System, or MUOS—began providing legacy satellite communications shortly after the system’s first satellite launch in 2012.

The U.S. Marine Corps is exploring the use of a family of unmanned aerial vehicles to deliver vital supplies to Marines in combat. Drones would remove humans from the dangerous role of forwarding essential logistics to warfighters while allowing greater flexibility of delivery.

Once developed, these drones also could have civilian emergency response applications. Instead of speeding ammunition to Marines on the front lines, the vehicles would be used to provide emergency supplies to civilians left without power, food or clean water following a natural disaster. Either mission would have the same sense of urgency; only the cargo would be different.

Cubic Global Defense, San Diego, California, is being awarded an $11,605,378 firm-fixed-price modification under a previously awarded contract for Marine Air-Ground Task Force (MAGTF) Training Systems Support (MTSS), managed by Program Manager Training Systems, Orlando, Florida. MTSS provides pre-deployment training to Marine Corps (USMC) operating forces within a joint and combined environment to improve USMC warfighting skills.

U.S. Marine Corps soldiers in the Special Operations Command (SOCOM) are adding a new tool to the doghouse: a “robot dog” for hands-on canine medical training. The realistic dog mannequin simulator, used recently for the first time at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, will help the soldiers improve their canine medical skills, according to a report by Cpl. Bryann Whitley, USMC. 

Looking to create a more agile contracting process, the Department of the Navy's Program Executive Office for Enterprise Information Systems (PEO EIS) is trying out a new approach for next year's recompete of its major information technology contracts.

The so-called “sprint” process strives to bring in contract services that more directly align with the Navy’s and Marine Corps’ mission-related IT network and hardware requirements. Modeled after the computer industry’s agile software development process, the sprint contracting method rolls out contract documents more frequently and harnesses industry feedback on the front end, while incorporating the needs of end users.