Martin Neill, a UK civil servant who worked on secondment in the US Office of the Secretary of Defense for three years, has been awarded the highest award the US Department of Defense can bestow on a foreign civilian: the DoD Medal for Distinguished Civilian Service. Mr. Neill was posted to work in the Pentagon as part of a scientific exchange in mid-2003, after a previous stint as a policy planner at the UK Ministry of Defence. His policy background and the emergence of the recent Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) changed that, and he was moved into the USA’s small QDR Team to help map out the USA’s future force structure and military procurement direction.
Whatever he did must have been quite something; not only did the Pentagon present him with their highest award, they expedited it. Martin Neill was personally presented with the medal on February 27, 2006 by the head of the US Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR), Jim Thomas. He’s the figure on the left in the picture. Desmond Bowen, Policy Director of UK Defence Diplomacy, is the figure on the right. See UK MoD release.
DID reader Endre Lunde drew our attention to an article that was published March 1, 2006 on the official web-site of the Norwegian military. The article is in Norwegian, but Mr. Lunde helps by explaining:
“It is reporting from a recent visit by representatives of the Norwegian MoD and key figures of the RNoAF to the Lockheed Martin JSF research plant. In this article, as it reads, the secretary of state of the ministry of defense (equals deputy minister) states that if there are no signs of improved industrial relations between Lockheed Martin and the Norwegian defense industry by the time the next partnership-payment is due, Norway will resign its JSF partnership. This payment, due in June, amounts to roughly 18 million US dollars. It is said, however, that a notice of intention to withdraw must be posted by April. This means, that if there are no new contracts or general improvement of relations within two months, Norway might just be withdrawing from the JSF development project.”
Norway is a Tier 3 JSF consortium member who joined on June 20, 2002 with a $125 million contribution. Gripen International director of sales Bob Kemp seems to think withdrawal is a real possibility, and Mr. Lunde adds:
Hensel Phelps Construction Company in Chantilly, VA received a $5.4 million firm-fixed-price Modification 0002 to previously awarded contract (N40080-05-C-0161) to install a Laser Perimeter System for the hangar and air traffic control tower at Naval Air Station, Patuxent River. This contract falls under the design/build contract for Presidential Helicopter Programs Support Facility.
This contract modification is executed under the terms and conditions of the existing contract by the Naval Facilities Engineering Command (NAVFAC), Washington in Washington, DC. The original contract, Phase I, was competed via the NAVFAC e-solicitation website with 12 offers received, and based on the results of the technical evaluation, three of the 12 firms who submitted Phase I proposals were invited to participate in the Phase II competitive negotiation process. The Phase I award was made on Jan. 27, 2005. Work on Phase II will be performed in Patuxent River, MD and is expected to be complete by October 2006.
Small business qualifier Veteran-Pacific Joint Venture in Chicago, IL received a $12.4 million firm-fixed-price contract for the design, construction and maintenance of the Atlantic Fleet Drill Hall at Recruit Training Command, Great Lakes. The new hall will include administrative offices, recruit drill area and classrooms, building equipment and furnishings. The project also includes the demolition of Building 912. As part of a demonstration program on reduction in long-term facility maintenance costs, the contractor will provide a five-year maintenance program.
Work will be performed in Great Lakes, IL and is expected to be completed by August 2007. This contract was competitively procured as a Two-Phase Design Build via the NAVFAC e-solicitation website with four offers received in Phase I, and three selected to proceed to Phase II. The Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Midwest, Great Lakes, IL issued the contract (N40083-06-C-4011). This contract contains options, which if exercised, will bring the cumulative value of the contract to $13.6 million.
