International SOS Assistance in Trevose, PA won a fixed-price requirements contract to provide health care support services, dental care services and claims processing to the US Department of Defense TRICARE Overseas Program. The total potential contract value, including an approximately 10-month base period and 5 one-year option periods for health care delivery, plus a transition-out period, is estimated at $269.1 million.

The TRICARE Management Activity provides health care coverage to 9.4 million active duty military family members, military retirees and their eligible family members.

The new contract includes the establishment of host nation provider networks around military treatment facility (MTFs)...

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The U.S. Department of Defense’s TRICARE Management Activity (TMA), which provides health care coverage to 9.4 million active duty military family members, military retirees and their eligible family members, awarded up to $55.5 billion in U.S. regional managed care support (MCS) services contracts to 3 companies – TriWest Healthcare Alliance Corp. in Phoenix, AZ for the West; Aetna Government Health Plans in Hartford, CT for the North; and UnitedHealth Military & Veterans Services in Minnetonka, MN for the South.

The hefty price tag reflects an upward cost trend for the TRICARE program, which is becoming a lot more expensive in part because of greater usage and in part because of benefits increases with long-term cost implications. See “US DoD IG: Global TRICARE Services Vulnerable to Fraud,” “TRICARE Trials and Tribulations” and “US DoD Trying to Slow Ballooning Prescription Drug Costs” for more background on the burgeoning TRICARE costs.

DID has a detailed breakdown of the 3 contracts as well as more information on the TRICARE program…

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James never had
this little problem…

In March 2008, “Sharpen Yourself: LinkedIn & Social Networking Sites” discussed both the career benefits and security risks associated with social networking sites. Sir John Sawers, the prospective head of Britain’s MI6 intelligence agency is probably wishing he had read it. His wife recently leaked dangerously specific information about him on Facebook, and created a controversy about his fitness for the job. Sir John now faces a possible parliamentary probe.

Social networking is becoming a larger part of the military, and the industry. In July 2009, Lockheed Martin released its internal company social networking application’s underlying code as open source software. Social networking efforts are being explicitly built into PR contracts, and it’s becoming one of the information shifts that are changing the battlespace. The Pentagon recently launched an official blogging platform at DODLive.mil, and US Forces Afghanistan launched a social networking strategy that extends to Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. Followed by orders to bases to stop blocking key social networking sites. These efforts can make a big difference toward ensuring that the Pentagon is no longer, as Secretary of Defense Robert Gates puts it, “being out-communicated by a guy in a cave.” On the other hand, they are not risk-free.

Base infrastructure contracts are a quietly substantial portion of defense spending in any country, including the USA. Which is why DID covers them on a semi-regular basis, and notes trends in key areas, even though this coverage are only a fraction of the contracts issued. A December 2007 announcement by the US Army has significant implications for base infrastructure projects at a number of locations, however, as the push to grow the US Army by 74,200 troops and 6 brigade combat teams (BCTs)/ 8 support brigades continues, and so does partial relocation of US troops deployed abroad. A June 2009 announcement cut the number of new BCTs in half to 3, and will affect construction and stationing on 3 important Army bases.

The following lists offer updated breakdowns of the associated relocations and new unit stand-ups, first by timeline, and second by location:

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Hostile surveillance
(click to view full)

Defense Industry Daily came across 3 snapshots in recent months that illustrate the changing nature of the front-line information war, and of the environment in which industry and government must operate. We’ve now added a 4th.

These 4 examples have broad reach, from tactical reconnaissance and information warfare, to strategic reconnaissance, to front-line “public diplomacy,” to the halls of politics and power…

1. Tactical: You’re on Candid Cellphone!
2. Google Earth is Watching You… as You Watch Others [NEW]
3. From Front-Line Transparency to Policy Debates: US Navy Blogs
4. Informed Reporters Who Work from Home: The US V.A. Department Experience

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October 1st is the first day of the US military’s new fiscal year, which means its TRICARE medical contracts come into effect on that day. As one might image, quite a few TRICARE contracts were announced recently – over $900 million worth for FY 2009, and up to $4.66 billion from FY 2009 through FY 2013.

The Uniformed Services Family Health Plan (USFHP) contracts provide health care coverage to active duty military family members, plus all military retirees and their eligible family members – including those 65 years of age and over. There are 6 providers designated to provide the TRICARE Prime benefit to eligible beneficiaries under the USFHP, and all awards have been funded by Fiscal Year 2009 Defense Health Program funds. The US Department of Defense TRICARE Management Activity manages these contracts.

TRICARE is becoming a lot more expensive for the US Department of Defense, in part because of greater usage, and in part because of benefits increases with long-term cost implications. Military health care costs, which have doubled since 2001, could double again by 2015. See “TRICARE Trials and Tribulations” and “US DoD Trying to Slow Ballooning Prescription Drug Costs” for more background. TRICARE Prime Benefit contracts awarded to begin FY 2009 include:

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The U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) took an unprecedented step on May 15, 2007, blocking troop access to MySpace, YouTube, and other popular Web sites. The official reason was to conserve bandwidth and safeguard security. But the DOD’s ban also highlighted a gap in understanding between senior military leaders and what demographers call Generation Y (alternatively known as the millennial generation or the baby-boom echo). Few members of this generation, born after 1978, can recall a time when the Internet was not at their disposal.

Not long ago, one of the authors of this article was asked to lead a U.S. Air Force study on the implications for the military of this new online generation. The request came from senior officers who had been appalled to discover a number of junior officers using the still-permissible Facebook Web site for the purpose of organizing their squadrons. These senior officers were having difficulty with the concept of using a civilian social-networking site for military purposes. What would that mean for military security? How would it affect the control and vulnerability of squadrons in the field? And from the perspective of DOD “middle management,” what was a major supposed to do? Forbid the behavior and risk losing the real benefits of an online community? Or protect it and risk the wrath of more senior officers who just didn’t understand?

This kind of conundrum is relevant not just for the U.S. military. A wide range of organizations, including most global corporations, will soon face a large, new cohort of young employees. Generation Y’s affinity for the interconnected world is just one of its intriguing characteristics….

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Welcome home…
(click for article)

In the wake of the scandal described last week in “YouTube Video Leads to Fixes at Ft. Bragg,” the US Army committed itself to walk through inspections of all its bases. On May 7/08, Army Secretary Pete Geren said that the US Army will spend $248 million in emergency funds to fix problems found during inspections of 148,000 rooms at bases worldwide.

Ned Christensen, chief of public affairs for the Army Installation Management Command, says that the US Army aims to have new or renovated barracks housing for 147,700 enlisted Soldiers within 5 years, at an estimated total construction cost for new barracks complexes of about $10.7 billion between 2004-2013. AP report.

New barracks
(click to view full)

Over the next 5 years, the US Army plans to invest some $40 billion in military construction on American bases, in order to provide lodgings and facilities for soldiers and their families. As “The Army’s Building Boom” [PDF] notes, many of these facilities are leveraging construction ideas and even designs from suburban America. Some of the military’s existing facilities, however, still need to be upgraded, and project delays can have serious public impacts when soldiers return home. A recent YouTube video by a soldier’s father has triggered scrutiny and action at Ft. Bragg, NC, and also illustrated the changing power of distributed media with respect to the military and information operations.

Sgt. Jeff Frawley of the 82nd Airborne, 2-508 recently returned from Afghanistan to a barracks that had been partially renovated in terms of heating, ventilation and air conditioning, but still had issues like backed up sewage that was several inches deep, broken toilets, peeling lead-based paint, broken drinking fountain pipes with escaping sewer gas, and other issues. His father Edward Frawley says he had seen the barracks in these conditions several times over the last few of years. He says that he finally decided he would go public after the unit returned from Afghanistan and he still saw a building that “should be condemned.” In the modern era, however, Frawley did not have to find a media outlet interested in doing a story about his son’s barracks. He simply posted his pictures and narration on YouTube on April 22/08. Distribution picked up quickly, leading to a flurry of attention from Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Dick Cody, Sen. Elizabeth Dole [R-NC], CNN and other news outlets, a tour of Congressional staffers, and releases from the military itself.

Welcome home…
(click to view full)

Sgt. Frawley’s and Charlie company had returned a month early. Even so, given the conditions, the military has apologized and reacted swiftly in the wake of the video. Edward Frawley has told CNN that there has been good progress since these details became public. Nevertheless, the issue of older builds and conditions goes beyond this one installation. There are 23 similar buildings at Fort Bragg, each built in the 1950s during the Korean War. All are scheduled to be taken “out of the inventory” in next 5 years, as new barracks come on line in a flurry of construction. In the wake of this incident, and the obvious potential for repeats, senior leadership in the Army has directed all barracks Army-wide receive walk through inspections to determine if they might exhibits similar failures of standards, and to implement immediate fixes if not. See: Edward Frawley’s YouTube video, incl. his narration | CNN Story | CNN video | US Army follow-on release.

Few of us would argue that soldiers returning from the battlefield deserve treatment for stress as well as wounds, as a moral obligation. Not to mention preventative programs and techniques similar to those discussed in Grossman’s On Combat book and “Bulletproof Mind” presentations, Richard Strozzi-Heckler’s work in SOCOM’s Trojan Warrior Project (1980s), the Marine Martial Arts Program, the new Warrior Mind Training et. al.

DID has covered a number of programs and issues related to soldier medical care. When analyzing current or proposed situations, however, it helps to know some math. This is true for all military programs, and it is true here. Since DID often provides statistics, and the issue appears to be current, we offer these:

If Bloomberg news is correct, 1.6 million American troops have been to Iraq or Afghanistan during this war, and about 4,560 have died to this point. If those 1.6 million people have exactly the same rate of suicide as the general population for the rest of their lives, the national rate of suicide in 2005 for ages 15 and up was 13.14 per 100,000. Assume that the average age of the soldiers is 30, and a conservative estimate gives them 40 years of exposure to the risk of suicide. 1.6 million x (13.14/100,000) x 40 years = 8,409 suicides at rates exactly equivalent to the American population as a whole. Versus about 4,560 killed so far in almost 7 years of combat. Media coverage that is surprised by this casualty comparison, and portrays soldiers as generally unbalanced on that basis, opens itself to serious professional questions. Perhaps enlistments in Raytheon’s Math Moves U program could be arranged.

You would also wish to know military statistics for suicide, of course (17.3/100,000 overall, 19.9/100,000 for those serving in Iraq and Afghanistan), as well as general population statistics for men age 20-44 (21.82/100,000) and women age 20-44 (5.54/100,000) per 2004/05 figures. Adjusted for US military figures of 17% women, an equivalent general American population would have a near-term annual suicide rate of 19.06 per 100,000.