ManTech International received a $76 million contract to provide IT operations and mission support for the National Media Exploitation Center (NMEC).
ManTech will provide NMEC with data center operations, network operations, software engineering, systems engineering, information assurance, requirements management, configuration management, and project/program management support.
Small business qualifier Innovative Defense Technologies (IDT) in Arlington, VA received a $49.1 million indefinite-delivery/ indefinite-quantity, cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for software development and engineering services in support of the automatic test and re-test (ATRT) product, which will test software on naval weapons systems.
ATRT [pdf] is a Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) effort whose objective is to leverage commercial automated testing best practices to reduce overall system development testing costs, maintain or improve software product quality, and shorten the software certification timeline.
The contract will fund development of the ATRT product – which IDT estimates will cut software testing costs by 25% – for automated testing of submarine combat systems for all classes of submarines currently in the fleet and under development…
Raytheon has completed its acquisition of BBN Technologies, a provider of high-tech defense products, for approximately $350 million, subject to post-closing adjustments.
BBN’s defense portfolio includes advanced networking, speech and language technologies, information technologies, sensor systems, and cybersecurity products. BBN has won numerous contracts from the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to supply advanced technologies for the military…
Global weapon sales are always subject to political influences. For many years, Turkey and Israel have maintained a close defense relationship that extended to training in Turkey and large procurement deals. Turkey’s $688 million buy of Israeli upgrades to create 170 M-60T “Sabra” tanks will remain the high-end backbone of its armored corps, until its new Leopard 2A4s are operational. Over 50 of its F-4 Phantom jets received the $700 million Israeli “F-4E Terminator 2020” upgrade to extend their competitiveness and service lives. They’re joined by Israeli drones like the Harpy radar killer, Searcher-II, Aerostar, and larger Heron UAVs that serve with Turkish forces.
The Southwest Regional Maintenance Center in San Diego, CA awarded 6 firm-fixed-price multiple award 5-year term contracts to provide sheet metal repair and fabrication services – such as repairs to partitions, ductwork, and piping – onboard US Navy ships and other government vessels within a 50-mile radius of San Diego. The maximum ceiling value for all 6 contracts is $202 million.
The 6 small business qualifiers will compete for delivery orders under the terms and conditions of the contracts. Each contractor will provide all personnel, management, administrative and production services, material, tools, equipment, and required support to perform the work.
Bulova Technologies in Tampa, FL received a contract worth up to $41.2 million to supply pyrotechnics to the US Army.
The word pyrotechnics comes from the Greek for fireworks. The US military, however, uses pyrotechnics not for celebration but for illumination, marking, and signaling.
Pyrotechnics, ranging from flares to signals, provide important military capabilities, such as communication, illumination, training and protection…
The Naval Sea Systems Command’s (NAVSEA) Naval Surface Warfare Center awarded 6 contracts worth up to $475 million to support the center’s Alterations Installation Team (AIT) in their work upgrading hull, mechanical, electrical, and electronic (HME&E) systems on ships and submarines.
The HME&E systems include a broad range of shipboard equipment, everything from transformers and heating/cooling/ventilation systems to C4ISR, radar, and navigation systems…
“[The C-130J Hercules] has since been deployed into theater by the USAF, where its vastly improved performance in “hot and high” environments has come in very handy. Unlike the pending Airbus A400M, however, the C-130J doesn’t solve the sub-survivable 20-ton armored vehicle limit that has stymied multiple US armored vehicle programs from the Stryker IAV to Future Combat Systems. As such, it represents an improvement that fails to address US tactical airlift’s key bottleneck limitation.”
Something called the Advanced Composite Cargo Aircraft (ACCA) may – or may not – represent a first step toward addressing that issue. It may also represent a US aerospace effort to avoid a looming future in which the Airbus A400M would be the only available tactical transport for survivable armored personnel carriers. With the light transport JCA made up of entirely foreign designs, the 20-ton transport market beginning to crowd, and the heavy-lift C-17 production line headed toward shutdown, the US aerospace industry risks a slip from a 1980-1990s position of market dominance in the military transport space to a position of fighting for its competitive life by 2020.
So where does ACAA fit in? How is it connected to the Composite Affordability Initiative, and the notional Advanced Joint Air Combat System (AJACS) program?
GE Inspection Technologies in Skaneateles, NY won a $22.7 million firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/ indefinite-quantity contract from the US Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division (NAWCAD) for the procurement of up to 1,600 common video borescope sets (CVBS), including associated technical and logistics data and training.
The CVBS is a portable, commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) video system used to inspect interior engine components and airframes for cracks, foreign object damage, and corrosion. The CVBS will replace NAWCAD’s existing inventory of borescopes…
Cianbro Corp. in Pittsfield, ME won a $19.5 million firm-fixed-price contract to repair the caisson (gate) and the sill at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard’s Drydock 2 facility.
Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, 1 of 4 remaining naval shipyards in the United States, provides the US Navy’s nuclear powered submarine fleet with overhaul, repair, and modernization facilities.
To carry out the repairs, Cianbro will build a temporary cofferdam to allow demolition and reconstruction of the drydock’s sill structure…
