Keep ‘em runing…

At the beginning of FY 2002, Honeywell won a support contract for the USAF’s Satellite Control Network (AFSCN). The SCN contract consolidated development, systems engineering, integration and support functions into one contract that has the potential to reach $1.22 billion, and run to FY 2017.

Under this contract, Honeywell will replace existing communications technologies that make up the AFSCN’s ground network and tracking systems with improved components and antenna systems. Honeywell’s team includes TRW, L-3 Communications, Booz-Allen and Hamilton, SPARTA Corporation, Integral Systems, Inc., and IITC…

• The AFSCN
• Contracts & Key Events
• Additional Readings
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• PricewaterhouseCoopers: Asia-Pacific aerospace and defense market is predicted to grow 70% over the next 20 years.

• Corruption in Afghanistan: it isn’t just a problem for the government’s forces…

• Frost & Sullivan: DoD is expected to offset a dip in C4ISR research and development spending with an increase in C4ISR supplies, services, and deployed technologies.

• Going Public: Carlyle Group looks to raise $300 million by selling shares in defense contractor Booz Allen Hamilton through an IPO.

• Insourcing provisions in the 2011 defense authorization bills sparks concern by government contractors’ trade group.

• USAF developing MEDEVAC (aeroMEDical EVACuation) procedures for its new short-field C-27Js, which are set to become a key link in that chain.

• Donaldson wins order for no-moving-parts, no maintenance air filtration in new EQ-36 counterfire radars.

• Hurt Locker: RELYANT gets a $49 million US Army contract to provide unexploded ordnance removal and mine clearance in southern and western Afghanistan.

• Here Comes the Sun: Ascent Solar Technologies wins DARPA contract to develop portable photovoltaics for battlefield power systems.

• Night Vision: The UK Ministry of Defence is placing a $53 million order with ITT to buy head-mounted night vision systems (a variant of the Generation III AN/PVS-14 monocular goggle).

The US Special Operations Command (US SOCOM) awarded 4 indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contracts for the Global Battlestaff and Program Support Services (GBPS) program. The 4 contracts have a maximum value of $1.5 billion.

Under the GBPS contracts, the contractors will provide personnel, equipment, tools, materials, supervision, and other items necessary to support a broad range of US SOCOM mission areas.

The GBPS contracts are follow-on to the more narrowly focused acquisition, logistics, management, and business operations support (ALMBOS) contracts, which were earlier awarded to Jacobs and Gemini Industries and expired on April 30/10. In response to the GBPS RFP [pdf], Gemini filed a protest with the GAO, but the agency denied the protest (solicitation number: H92222-09-R-0034) on April 29/10.

The winners of the GBPS contracts are:

The US Navy Fleet and Industrial Supply Center Norfolk’s Philadelphia Office awarded 3 cost-plus-fixed-fee, indefinite-delivery/ indefinite-quantity multiple-award contract to provide accounting and financial management service to the Navy Office of Financial Operations.

The contracts will assist the office in implementing the Department of the Navy’s financial improvement program, which is design to improve the efficiency of the US Navy’s and USMC’s business processes and systems.

These contracts include a base ordering period with 4 one-year option periods. The maximum total value of all 3 contracts is $569.1 million.

The winners are:

Up to $160M to ManTech to support LRSW space launch operations. (March 23/10)

The US Air Force’s Launch and Range Systems Wing (LRSW) is modernizing the US space launch ranges – the Eastern Range (Patrick AFB, FL) and the Western Range (Vandenberg AFB, CA)

A focus on LRSW’s modernization efforts is the US Launch & Test Range System (LTRS), which consists of ground-based surveillance, navigation, flight operations and analysis, command and control, communications and weather assets located at the Eastern Range and the Western Range.

The majority of the equipment supporting the US space launch ranges was installed during the 1960s and 1970s. Multiple LTRS upgrade efforts are underway including the Range Standardization and Automation (RSA) program, ongoing Instrumentation Modernization (IM) projects, numerous recapitalization efforts, and various depot support projects to reduce operations and sustainment costs. The current modernization efforts is replacing approximately 20% of the system.

The LRSW uses contractors to support its modernization work…

US Army HR training
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With over a half million US soldiers in uniform, the US Army has the formidable task of providing human resources (HR) services to all of them. To help with this massive HR requirement, the Army uses contractors.

The primary office that handles HR outsourcing is the Army’s HRsolutions Program Office launched in 2004. HRsolutions manages 4 competitively awarded HR contracts in the areas of studies and analysis, recruitment and retention, personnel services and support, and management and administrative support.

HRsolutions recently awarded 12 multiple-award indefinite-delivery/ indefinite-quantity contracts for the HR studies and analysis program, worth up to $1.3 billion in total, for the period 2010-2015. The office expects to award HR contracts in the other areas in the next few months.

USAF F-16s, Iraq

Dynamics Research Corp. (DRC) in Andover, MA received a task order valued at $13.9 million under the DoD’s Logistics, Maintenance and Supply Support (LMSS) contract to support the F-16 System Program Office in the Aeronautical Systems Center at Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio.

Under the terms of the task order, DRC will provide program management and technical services assisting with the modernization and maintenance of the F-16 weapon system. The work also includes supporting the USAF and various foreign military sales F-16 programs.

DRC is 1 of 6 prime contractors awarded the LMSS contract in March 2008 to provide lifecycle management services across DoD. The contract ceiling is $300 million. The other prime contractors are…

AF DCGS

The US Air Force awarded General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems a 5-year $60 million contract to provide network management and mission operations support to the 480th Intelligence Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) Wing.

General Dynamics will support the Air Force Distributed Common Ground System (AF DCGS) and 2 network operations centers in Virginia and California.

The AF DCGS is a globally networked intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) system that integrates information collected by the U-2 high-altitude spy plane and the RQ-4 Global Hawk, MQ-9 Reaper, and MQ-1 Predator UAVs...

The US Army Tank-Automotive Research Development and Engineering Center (TARDEC) awarded 16 omnibus contracts to support its research and development (R&D) efforts encompassing the life cycle of military manned and unmanned ground vehicles. The contracts have a total potential value of $430 million.

TARDEC is the Army’s laboratory for military automotive technology and the lead agency for simulation and testing, demonstration, development and full life cycle engineering for ground vehicle survivability, robotics, power and energy, mobility, maneuver and sustainment, and condition-based maintenance.

The 5-year indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity (IDIQ) contracts were awarded for TARDEC omnibus services under multiple award task order (MATO) arrangements to the following companies:

The Fleet and Industrial Supply Center Norfolk awarded 3 cost-plus-fixed-fee, indefinite-delivery/ indefinite-quantity contracts, worth up to $103.2 million, to provide decision support services for the Navy Personnel Research Studies and Technology Division of the Bureau of Naval Personnel (BUPERS) in Millington, TN.

The BUPERS organization serves to provide administrative leadership, policy planning, and general oversight of the Naval Personnel Command. BUPERS’ Navy Personnel Research Studies and Technology Division conducts research and develops technologies to recruit, retain and manage Navy and Marine Corps personnel.

Each of the 3 contracts contains a 1-year base period with two 1-year option periods. The 3 contractors and their contracts are: