The USA’s 2005-2009 Multi-Year Hornet Procurement Contract

F/A-18F Super Hornet

The US Navy flies the F/A-18 E/F Super Hornet, and has just taken delivery of its first operational EA-18G Growler electronic warfare & strike aircraft. These buys are actually managed out of a common multi-year procurement (MYP) contract, which also manages many of the EA-18G’s support costs since it’s derived from the Super Hornet and many of the required maintenance items are common to both planes. The contract covers 42 aircraft per year, split between Super Hornets and EA-18Gs, with a variation quantity clause permitting up to 6 additional aircraft per year under the same terms.

DID already has an EA-18G FOCUS Article; we will be using this entry to cover the Super Hornet MYP program’s budgets, and this article has been updated to include all announced contracts since MYP-II began. The article is now closed, and returns to public access. For a follow up, see MYP-III: 2010-2013 Contracts.

Rapid Fire 2010-02-16: Naval Data Usage

• Information Dissemination on 2008 at-sea usage data and implications for various US Navy ship types.

• India to issue a new defense procurement policy, hopes to reduce delays in purchasing weapons, and to increase domestic production.

• India’s Mahindra Group is lobbying the government to lift foreign ownership cap for defense firms to 49%. The firm is involved in a joint venture with BAE systems, among others.

Delivering Your Plane, By Truck

Truckin’

As part of Taiwan’s much-reported military modernization program, it’s ordering 12 P-3C Orion sea control aircraft to monitor its sea lanes, hunt enemy submarines, and make life dangerous for any ships in an invasion force. While Lockheed Martin was forced to re-open a wing line in Georgia, the main production line isn’t active any more. As a result, all 12 of the mothballed P-3s slated for Taiwan have to come from stored US Navy aircraft at AMARG’s “boneyard” near Davis-Monthan AFB, Tucson, AZ. The problem is that all 12 airframes were labeled “non-flyable” due to structural fatigue, which made the 2,000 mile trip to the refurbishment facility in Greenville, SC, a bit of a challenge.

After considering and rejecting rail transport due to offloading and re-loading risks, the AMARG team decided to use a flatbed truck. That’s an unusual method, but it worked. Their approach has stirred interest from other P-3 operators, and even US federal government agencies…

Lex Products to Supply USMC Mobile Power Distribution System

MEPDIS-R Diagram
(click to view larger)

Lex Products Corp. in Stamford, CT received an $8 million task order under a blanket purchase agreement (M67854-07-A-5016) to provide the mobile electric power distribution system – replacement [pdf] (MEPDIS-R) to the US Marine Corps.

The system distributes electrical power from all standard tactical generators to military shelters and systems requiring power.

MEPDIS-R is a modular power distribution system consisting of portable power distribution boxes and interconnecting power cables. The system includes a series of cable adapters permitting the use of older power generation systems…

GCSS: Logistics Support for Far-flung Troops

Alexander the Great

Since the days of Alexander the Great, supplying troops deployed far from home has been a concern of militaries. At the height of his empire, Alexander’s legions extended from Greece to the Indian subcontinent. Keeping his troops feed and armed was one of Alexander’s major concerns.

In the information age, militaries are increasing turning to the network to ensure troops are supplied over vast distances. The US military’s latest effort in this area is called the Global Combat Support System (GCSS), which uses information technology to increase the efficiency of logistics and provide a global picture of combat assets and supplies.

Each service has its own version of GCSS. The one operated by the Air Force was developed by Lockheed Martin. On Dec 10/09, the company received a $78.5 million bridge contract to continue its work on the system…

On the Move: SRA Gets Defense Personal Property System Order

Keep on Moving

Everybody hates to move. And no one moves more than the US military. With approximately 500,000 household goods shipments every year, the military is the largest moving population in the United States.

To help ease the process, the United States Transportation Command (USTRANSCOM) has contracted with SRA International to automate the process using information technology under the Defense Personal Property System (DPS).

The web-based DPS enables US military personnel, family members, government managers and moving companies to plan, schedule, contract for, move and receive shipments of household belongings from assignment to assignment.

SRA began work on DPS in 2004…

US Air Force Exercises 2nd Option Year on $90M Mainstream CPI Contract

The US Air Force has exercised a second option year on a $90 million 5-year contract (FA8224-07-D-0001) for Mainstream GS in Bethesda, MD, to provide continuous process improvement (CPI) services. CPI is intended to improve the efficiency of how the USAF works as an organization.

A main portion of Mainstream’s work involves support for the Air Force Smart Operations 21 (AFSO21) program, which is based on both Lean and Six Sigma business process improvement tools.

In an interview, Mainstream President Alan Horowitz told DID that his company is supplying the USAF a number of CPI services, include Lean and Six Sigma consulting, training, facilitation, and planning…

EADS Adds Thais as TransHospital Customers

TransHospital, Afghanistan

Shipping containers are ubiquitous in a globalized world, and many modes of transport on air, sea, and land are adapted to carry them easily. To portability, add protection: their rigid metal construction provides more shielding than tent fabric, and this can be augmented by digging the structure in slightly or putting up Hesco-type instafill walls nearby. A number of manufacturers have thrown in a 3rd advantage: modular flexibility, created by making it easy to connect containerized modules and deploy the exact combination you need.

Military and para-public medical facilities are natural fits with these advantages, and EADS’ innovative TransHospital leverages all of them. Now, the Thai government will become a customer, giving them a transportable field hospital for military or disaster-related use…

SAIC to Support US Army’s Distribution Management Center

Science Applications International Corp. in McLean, VA won a $128.1 million cost-plus-award-fee contract to support the US Army Sustainment Command’s Distribution Management Center (DMC).

Located in Rock Island Arsenal, IL, the DMC is the Army’s central agency for materiel management control of all general supplies. It conducts supply item management and maintains asset visibility…

Up to $100M to Savi for RFID Tags and Mounting Brackets

Lockheed Martin’s Savi Technology in Mountain View, CA received a maximum $100 million firm-fixed-price, indefinite-quantity/ indefinite-delivery, sole source contract for radio frequency identification (RFID) tags and magnetic mounting brackets. RFID tags are similar to wireless bar codes and are used to track US military supplies and equipment.

The firm has worked with the US military for over a decade to build their RF In-Transit Visibility (ITV) network, which spans more than 45 countries and tracks military supplies through 4,000 sites. “US Getting Savi at Ammo Depots” has more on the RF ITV network.

Savi was selected in December 2008 to compete for work on the US Army’s RFID III contract…