March 19, 2013

Military Contracts Awarded On 3.18.2013

http://www.defense.gov/contracts/contract.aspx?contractid=4999

Contracts valued at $6.5 million or more are announced each business day at 5 p.m. Contract announcements issued within the past 30 days are listed below.

FOR RELEASE AT
5 p.m. ET No. 155-13
March 18, 2013

CONTRACTS

ARMY

New Mexico State University – Physical Science Lab, Las Cruces, N.M., (W9124Q-08-D-0800); Northrop Grumman Technical Services Inc., Herndon, Va., (W9124Q-08-D-0801); and Orbital Sciences Corp., Chandler, Ariz., (W9124Q-08-D-0803) were awarded a $150,000,000 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract among three vendors. The award will provide for the theoretical studies and engineering research support for the Army, Navy and Air Force Research and Development programs. Work location will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of March 16, 2018. Four bids were solicited, with four bids received. The U.S. Army Contracting Command, White Sands Missile Range, N.M., is the contracting activity.

Technology and Supply Management LLC, Fairfax, Va., was awarded a $29,429,017 firm-fixed-price contract. The award will provide for the delivery and assembly of one-story and two-story energy efficient shelters to Camp Buehring, Kuwait. Work location will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of March 16, 2015. The bid was solicited through the Internet, with 16 bids received. The U.S. Army Contracting Command, Picatinny Arsenal, Ala., is the contracting activity (W15QKN-13-D-0043).

Ace Engineering Inc., La Verne, Calif., was awarded a $9,433,788 firm-fixed-price contract. The award will provide for the construction of a predator launch and recovery element at Fort Huachuca, Ariz. Work will be performed in Sierra Vista, Ariz., with an estimated completion date of May 15, 2014. The bid was solicited through the Internet, with 16 bids received. The National Guard Bureau, Phoenix, Ariz., is the contracting activity (W912L2-13-C-0001).

Science Applications International Corp., McLean, Va., was awarded an $8,649,830 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract. The award will provide for information technology support services. Work will be performed in Fort Belvoir, Va., with an estimated completion date of March 15, 2014. One bid was solicited, with one bid received. The U.S. Army Contracting Command, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md., is the contracting activity (W91CRB-13-C-0016).

L-3 Fuzing and Ordnance Systems Inc., Cincinnati, Ohio, was awarded a $7,515,787 firm-fixed-price contract. This is a contract modification to procure M734A1 fuzes. Work will be performed in Cincinnati, with an estimated completion date of Feb. 28, 2015. One bid was solicited, with one bid received. The U.S. Army Contracting Command, Picatinny Arsenal, N.J., is the contracting activity (W15QKN-10-C-0015).

DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY

Zimmer US, Inc., Warsaw, Ind., was issued a modification exercising the second option year on contract (SPM2DE-11-D-7232/P00007). The modification is a fixed-price with economic-price-adjustment, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for a maximum $69,239,944 for orthopedic hip, knee, spine, and extremity “procedural packages, instrumentation sets and auxiliary products needed for implantation.” Location of performance is Indiana with a March 24, 2014, performance completion date. Using military services are Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2013 through fiscal 2014 Defense Working Capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pa.

Atmos Energy Marketing, LLC., Houston, Texas, was awarded contract (SPE600-13-D-7505). The award is a fixed-price with economic-price-adjustment contract with a maximum $30,834,925 for natural gas. Location of performance is Texas with an April 30, 2015, performance completion date. Using military services are Army, Navy, Air Force, and federal civilian agencies. There were 14 responses to the Web solicitation. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2013 through fiscal 2015 multiple agency funding. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Energy, Fort Belvoir, Va.

Pentaq Manufacturing Corp., Sabana Grande, Puerto Rico*, was awarded contract (SPM1C1-13-D-1036). The award is a firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for a maximum $27,244,510 for various types of Permethrin Army Combat Uniform Camouflage coats. Location of performance is Puerto Rico with a March 17, 2014, performance completion date. Using military service is Army. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2013 through fiscal 2014 Defense Working Capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pa.

CenterPoint Energy Services, Inc., Tulsa Okla., was awarded contract (SPE600-13-D-7506). The award is a fixed-price with economic-price-adjustment contract with a maximum $24,428,524 for natural gas. Location of performance is Oklahoma with an April 30, 2015, performance completion date. Using military services are Army, Air Force and federal civilian agencies. There were 14 responses to the Web solicitation. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2013 through fiscal 2015 multiple agency funding. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Energy, Fort Belvoir, Va.

Colonial Energy, Inc., Fairfax, Va., was awarded contract (SPE600-13-D-7509). The award is a fixed-price with economic-price-adjustment contract with a maximum $11,635,435 for natural gas. Location of performance is Virginia with an April 30, 2015, performance completion date. Using military service is Army. There were 14 responses to the Web solicitation. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2013 through 2015 Army funding. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Energy, Fort Belvoir, Va.

Interconn Resources, L.L.C., Birmingham, Ala.,* was awarded contract (SPE600-13-D-7510). The award is a fixed-price with economic-price-adjustment contract with a maximum $9,957,341 for natural gas. Location of performance is Alabama with an April 30, 2015, performance completion date. Using military services are Army, Navy, Air Force, and federal civilian agencies. There were 14 responses to the Web solicitation. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2013 through fiscal 2015 multiple agency funding. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Energy, Fort Belvoir, Va.

Gas South, Atlanta, Ga.*, was awarded contract (SPE600-13-D-7521). The award is a fixed-price with economic-price-adjustment for a maximum $6,854,991 for Direct Supply Pipeline Quality Natural Gas. Location of performance is Georgia with a March 31, 2015 performance completion date. Using military services are Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, and federal civilian agencies. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2013 through fiscal 2015 Service funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Energy, Fort Belvoir, Va.

NAVY

Leupold & Stevens Inc., Beaverton Ore., is being awarded a $42,805,960 firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for the enhanced combat optical sight-optimized systems. Work will be performed in Beaverton, Ore., and is expected to be completed by March 2018. Fiscal 2013 Working Capital funds in the amount of $40,446 will be obligated at time of award and will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was competitively awarded via the Navy Electronic Commerce On-Line website, with four offers received. The Naval Surface Warfare Center, Crane Division, Crane, Ind., is the contracting activity (N00164-13-D-JQ12).

General Dynamics National Steel and Shipbuilding Co., San Diego, Calif., is being awarded an $18,690,240 modification to a previously awarded contract (N00024-12-C-2400) for the post shakedown availability of USS Anchorage (LPD 23). Specific efforts include program management, planning, engineering, design, liaison, scheduling, labor and procurement of incidental material in support of the post shakedown availability. Work will be performed in San Diego, Calif., and is expected to be completed by December 2014. Fiscal 2005 and 2013 Shipbuilding and Conversion, Navy funding in the amount of $6,000,000 will be obligated at time of contract award. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity.

The Science Applications International Corp.,Arlington Va., is being awarded a $9,468,199 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for research and development of configurable technology to provide anti-submarine warfare surveillance over large, operationally relevant, deep ocean areas. This effort will include system architecture and design, sensors and processing, communications mobility, and energy requirements. This 15-month contract includes one, six-month option which, if exercised, would bring the potential value of this contract to $10,064,377. Work will be performed in Arlington, Va., and work is expected to be completed June 17, 2014. If all options are exercised, work will continue through Dec. 17, 2014. Fiscal 2013 Research, Development, Test and Evaluation contract funds in the amount of $2,793,488 will be obligated at the time of award. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was competitively procured via a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agencybroad agency announcement (BAA 11-24), and published on the Federal Business Opportunities website and the SPAWAR e-Commerce Central website, with 18 proposals received and four recommended for award. The Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center Pacific, San Diego, Calif., is the contracting activity (N66001-13-C-4007).

Aimpoint Inc., Chantilly, Va., is being awarded an $8,656,058 firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for the enhanced combat optical sight-optimized systems. Work will be performed in Jagershillgatan, Sweden, and is expected to be completed by March 2018. Fiscal 2013 Working Capital funds in the amount of $9,378 is being obligated at the time of award and will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was competitively awarded via the Navy Electronic Commerce On-Line website, with four offers received. The Naval Surface Warfare Center, Crane Division, Crane, Ind., is the contracting activity (N00164-13-D-JQ14).

Iris Technology Corp., Irvine, Calif., is being awarded $7,811,874 for firm-fixed-price delivery order #0002 under previously awarded contract (M67854-12-D-5049) for the procurement of 1,563 solar power adaptors (SPA II) in support of the program manager, Expeditionary Power Systems. The 1,563 solar power adaptors will be procured to meet continuing need for these items in support of on-going deployed operations, equipment reset, and commonality across the Marine Corps. The second generation solar power adaptor (SPA II) is the solar energy collector, electronic control, and energy storage mechanism of a tactically deployable renewable energy system that is light enough to be man-portable. The SPA II is planned for usage by the various Marine Corps communities in rugged and austere environments to power radios, computers, and charge multiple types of batteries. Work will be performed in Irvine, Calif., and is expected to be completed by August 2013. Fiscal 2011 procurement funds in the amount of $7,811,874 will be obligated at the time of award and will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The base contract was competitively procured, with three offers received. The Marine Corps Systems Command, Quantico, Va., is the contracting activity.

AIR FORCE

First RF Corp.,Boulder, Colo., (FA8750-13-D-0049) is being awarded a $24,900,000 cost-plus-fixed-fee, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for Small Business Innovation Research Program (Phase III) effort to research, develop, test, evaluate and deploy advanced radio frequency systems. The location of the performance is Boulder, Colo. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2013. Work is expected to be completed by March 2019. The contracting activity is AFRL/RIKD, Rome, N.Y

*Small Business

March 19, 2013

Army veteran still thinks about Iraq War 'every single day'

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/03/18/186250/army-veteran-still-thinks-about.html


Army veteran still thinks about Iraq War 'every single day'
Michelle Dupler | Tri-City Herald
Posted on Monday, March 18, 2013

It’s taken Joel Robertson of West Richland five years to reconcile himself to the permanent ways his life was changed by serving in Iraq.

The former Army infantryman came home from two tours, totaling 28 months of combat, with injuries to his brain, back, shoulder and knees, and post-traumatic stress that gave him nightmares.

He came home to a divorce and non-military friends who didn’t want to hear about the horrors he had seen, even though he needed to tell someone — needed for someone to understand.

A decade after it started on March 19, 2003, the Iraq War likely isn’t on the minds of many people not directly touched by it. Troops have been withdrawn, news coverage has dropped off, life has moved on.



unhappycamper comment: Veterans who have been in wars tend to be changed by what they have seen and felt.

March 19, 2013

(USS Guardian) End of an Illegal Maneuver

http://watchingamerica.com/News/199771/end-of-an-illegal-maneuver/





End of an Illegal Maneuver
Die Tageszeitung, Germany
By Hilja Müller
Translated By Ron Argentati
15 March 2013
Edited by Gillian Palmer

A U.S. Navy minesweeper that ran aground on an environmentally protected coral reef off the coast off the Philippines is being dismantled. The crew will be granted immunity from prosecution.

Just last year, the Tubbataha Atoll was praised for the exemplary protection of its richly diverse marine life. Today, the UNESCO World Heritage site looks more like a gigantic ocean construction site. On January 17, the U.S. Navy minesweeper USS Guardian made unauthorized entry into the atoll's 130,000-hectare national park waters, where it promptly ran aground on a reef in the southernmost atoll.

~snip~

Experts hope that the complex operation will minimize further damage to the coral reef system. Early estimates say that 4,000 square meters of the reef have already been destroyed, but the total damage cannot be assessed until the rest of the ship has been entirely removed.

How the accident could happen in an age of satellite navigation and despite the radio warnings broadcast by the Tubbataha Rangers has yet to be explained. The excuses given thus far by the U.S. Navy leave something to be desired, namely that the navigation charts being used by the Guardian, that show the precise location of underwater hazards, contained errors.

March 18, 2013

Not the Navy’s Favorite Artist Rendering

http://nation.time.com/2013/03/12/not-the-navys-favorite-artist-rendering/



The cover illustration on a new report questioning the Navy's carrier strategy.

Not the Navy’s Favorite Artist Rendering
By Mark Thompson
March 12, 2013

Navy gospel — as well as U.S. naval fleets and strategy — are built around $15 billion aircraft carriers, outfitted with dozens of $150 million airplanes.

Only one thing worse than someone criticizing the backbone of the Navy fleet, is having a Navy officer do it – especially a career naval flight officer who has spent much of his career on such behemoths.

Yet that is just what Captain Henry Hendrix has done in a new report – At What Cost a Carrier — for the independent Center for a New American Security, here.

Hendrix argues that the aircraft carrier — the centerpiece of American naval operations for more than 70 years – could become too vulnerable to be relevant in future wars. He suggests that a smarter approach might be a greater use of drones as well as submarines outfitted with long-range missiles.



unhappycamper comment: You can read Captain Hendrix's paper here --> http://www.cnas.org/files/documents/publications/CNAS%20Carrier_Hendrix_FINAL.pdf

March 18, 2013

The Catch 22 of Ending Sexual Violence in the US Military

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/03/18-5



The Catch 22 of Ending Sexual Violence in the US Military
by Lucinda Marshall
Published on Monday, March 18, 2013 by Common Dreams

At its root, the problem of sexual assault and harassment in the U.S. military is the quintessential Catch 22. As witnesses, Senators, and even representatives of the military admitted at a Senate hearing on the problem last week, the shocking amount of sexual violence that is going on in our military is being done by perpetrators who use it to assert dominance and power over those they perceive to be weaker as a way of telling them who is in control. Which is also precisely what dominant military forces do and have done since the beginning of patriarchal time with whatever weaponry has been available to them. And that is why it is so difficult, if not impossible to get traction in eradicating sexual violence in the military. To do so would necessitate confronting the very ethos of militarism.

The impact of sexual assault against women in the military has been and continues to be horrific. A notable point that was made at the hearings last week however, and one which is crucial to understand is that men actually make up the majority of victims of sexual assault and rape in the military. Given that men make up approximately 85% of our armed forces, that isn’t surprising although women are victimized at a much higher rate:

Of the estimated 19,000 reported sexual assaults and rapes in the armed forces last year, the majority were actually committed against men.

Men are assaulted at a lower rate — 1% of servicemen reported being attacked by a comrade last year versus 4.4% of women — but that still translates to more than 10,000 cases compared with 9,000 attacks on female recruits and officers.

March 18, 2013

Fail! The $400 Billion Military Jet That Can't Fly in Cloudy Weather

http://www.alternet.org/fail-400-billion-military-jet-cant-fly-cloudy-weather?paging=off



The F-35 joint strike fighter is an unbelievable failure, and the perfect illustration of everything that's wrong with our military industrial complex.

Fail! The $400 Billion Military Jet That Can't Fly in Cloudy Weather
By William Boardman
March 17, 2013

According to one of its supporters, the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter is not "what our troops need," is "too costly" and "poorly managed," and its "present difficulties are too numerous to detail."

The F-35 is a case study of government failure at all levels - civilian and military, federal, state, local, even airport authority. Not one critical government agency is meeting its obligation to protect the people it presumably represents. Senator Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., who wrote the F-35 critique above, is hardly unique as an illustration of how government fails, but he sees no alternative to failure.

Up for re-election in 2014 and long a supporter of basing the F-35 in Vermont, Leahy put those thoughts in a letter to a constituent made public March 13. This is Leahy's most recent public communication since December 2012, when he refused to meet with opponents of the F-35 and his web site listed a page of "public discussion" events mostly from the spring, including private briefings with public officials, without responding to any substantive issues.

The F-35 is a nuclear-capable weapon of mass destruction that was supposed to be the "fighter of the future" when it was undertaken in 2001. Now, more than a decade overdue and more than 100% over budget, the plane is expected to cost $1.5 trillion over its useful life, of which about $400 billion has already been spent.

March 17, 2013

BAE Storms Hill For Bradley Funding To Keep Penn. Plant Alive

http://defense.aol.com/2013/03/14/bae-storms-hill-for-bradley-funding-to-keep-penn-plant-alive/



BAE Storms Hill For Bradley Funding To Keep Penn. Plant Alive
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
Published: March 14, 2013

WASHINGTON: A $140 million congressional plus-up to the Army's Bradley fighting vehicle program has made it past every legislative hurdle into the spending bill now headed for the Senate floor. But with amendments and House-Senate conference still to go, and with the Army still (at least officially) unenthused about the unrequested funds, Bradley manufacturer BAE is leaving nothing to chance and has launched a major camaign online, in the media, and on the Hill to ensure all goes well.

Looking ahead, the total 2013 Bradley bill of $248 million -- half from the Pentagon's initial request, half added by Congress -- is just the down payment to keep BAE's York, Penn. plant running until the Army starts building new armored vehicles circa 2017. While a quarter-billion a year is relatively modest in a Pentagon context, it's scarce funds that the Army is reluctant to spend in the current budget crisis -- even though it may cost more in the long term to shut York down only to reopen it three years later.

"There is a good chance BAE, and others, will seek to do something in FY14 to keep the line in operation," a Hill staffer told AOL Defense. "[But] keep in mind that the FY13 NDAA [National Defense Authorization Act] and the about-to-be-done FY13 appropriations bill already include a big Bradley increase," the staffer went on. "The Army hasn't spent any of that yet" -- since Congress has yet to pass a 2013 appropriations bill -- "so those extra funds may mitigate some of the FY14/FY15 shortfalls at the York facility," since the government has three years to spend the money. In the final analysis, the staffer said, "[it] depends on how and when the Army plans to spend it."

If Congress goes back down to the amount the administration's originally requested for Bradley, BAE spokesperson Stephanie Serkhoshian told AOL Defense, "the workload at York will be "significantly less than our Minimum Economic Sustaining Rate," business jargon that boils down to "we'll all slowly starve to death." Serkhoshian continued, "if all the proposed [$140 million additional] funds are allocated to the Bradley line at the York facility" -- there are other places that could do some limited Bradley upgrades, at least in theory -- "then the levels would most likely be sustained through 2014."



unhappycamper comment: The Army is also pushing for a Hummer replacement. That 'thing' is something known as the Ground Combat Vehicle. It weights around seventy tons and costs > than $250 grand a pop.

March 17, 2013

Raytheon's 'Tippy Two' Radar Gets Back In The Budget -- Knock On Wood

http://defense.aol.com/2013/03/15/raytheons-tippy-two-radar-gets-back-in-the-budget-knock-on/



Raytheon AN/TPY-2 ("Tippy Two&quot missile defense radar. "T" stands for "transportable": Note the wheels

Raytheon's 'Tippy Two' Radar Gets Back In The Budget -- Knock On Wood
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
Published: March 15, 2013

[UPDATED 7pm with Sec. Hagel remarks] WASHINGTON: This afternoon, newly installed Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel gave a nod to a high-tech radar, the AN/TPY-2 -- improbably nicknamed "Tippy Two" -- as a key component of America's burgeoning missile defenses. Next week could bring more good news for the radar's manufacturer, Raytheon: Not only will the company announce the delivery of the eighth TPY-2 system to the Army, but Congress is expected to add back a $163 million radar the administration had cut from the program -- that is, if the Senate manages to pass the defense appropriations bill.

"It's not done yet, no fat lady's singing," said Raytheon's Jim Bedingfield in an interview with AOL Defense this morning, literally knocking on wood at a coffee shop table. Bedingfield is a retired Army air and missile defense officer who works in Raytheon's Missile Defense & Space Programs unit, which makes the TPY-2 radar. He's not come down from his Massachusetts office to DC to meet with members of Congress, he said, but he couldn't speak to what Raytheon's lobbyists are doing in the last-minute scramble to protect -- or insert -- items in the defense spending bill.

Unlike more traditional weapons systems -- tanks, ships, planes -- missile defense is a growing business both in the US and worldwide as concern rises over North Korean, Iranian, and other growing arsenals of ballistic missiles. With government blessing, Lockheed Martin is selling its THAAD (Terminal High-Altitude Air Defense) anti-missile system to the United Arab Emirates and Qatar -- whose Sunni aristocracies are deeply nervous about revolutionary Shia Iran -- and TPY-2 is the targeting radar for the THAAD package, so Raytheon gets a sale for every THAAD battery Lockheed sells. TPY-2 can also be used independently of THAAD as an early warning system, spotting enemy missile launches and relaying the data to distant missile-defense batteries, be they Army THAADs, Navy Aegis systems, or the Ground-Based Intercept (GBI) sites in Alaska and California that Hagel has ordered beefed up with almost 50 percent more missiles.

Currently there are two THAAD batteries in service and a third being organized, each with its TPY-2. Then there are five independent radars either currently or planned to be forward-based around the world: in Japan (the pending deployment Hagel talked up today) to keep an eye on North Korea; in Israel, Turkey, and (unofficially) Qatar to keep an eye on Iran and, secondarily, Syria; and at the Kwajalein range in the US Marshall Islands for missile defense tests.

March 17, 2013

Maine Army Guard troops haunted by Agent Orange

http://www.pressherald.com/news/maine-army-guard-troops-haunted-by-agent-orange_2013-03-17.html

Maine Army Guard troops haunted by Agent Orange
By Kevin Miller
Washington Bureau Chief
Yesterday at 11:31 PM

WASHINGTON - Two weeks a year for six years, Carroll Jandreau stepped away from life in far northern Maine to dig, crawl and sleep in the dirt of a massive military training base in neighboring Canada.

"When we would go there, they would say, 'Make sure not to bathe in the pools of water, not to drink the water and not to eat the vegetation,"' Jandreau said. "But we couldn't eat the vegetation because the leaves were all brown and crisp."

Jandreau, a member of the Maine Army National Guard, would learn decades later why the grass and shrubs covering the training grounds at Canadian Forces Base Gagetown appeared burnt.

From the mid-1950s to the mid-1980s, Canadian officials applied massive quantities of chemical herbicides and defoliants -- including a small amount of Agent Orange -- to Gagetown's fields to keep the vegetation at bay.

March 17, 2013

Salvage team begins cutting of USS Guardian’s engine room

http://globalnation.inquirer.net/69387/salvage-team-begins-cutting-of-uss-guardians-engine-room?ModPagespeed=noscript

Salvage team begins cutting of USS Guardian’s engine room
By Jerry E. Esplanada
Philippine Daily Inquirer
2:49 pm | Sunday, March 17th, 2013

MANILA, Philippines – The USS Guardian dismantling operation continued during the weekend in preparation for the cutting of the US Navy minesweeper’s engine room, according to the spokesperson of the Philippine Coast Guard.

Lieutenant Commander Armand Balilo, also chief of the PCG’s public affairs office, on Sunday said the US Navy-contracted salvage team was “in the process of clearing the USS Guardian’s engine room and the lower deck of equipment, loose materials and debris.”

In a text message to the Philippine Daily Inquirer, he also disclosed that “good weather in the Tubbataha Reef (in the Sulu Sea) has allowed the salvage operation to progress.”

~snip~

The salvage team “has dismantled over 50 percent of the USS Guardian,” said the Coast Guard’s Palawan district in a report to the PCG headquarters in Manila.