Rapid Fire 2010-03-31: Futenma Air Station

• US commission grills US military, KBR over waste, drawdown of 100,000 contractors in Iraq. C-SPAN coverage | Panel members’ statements | Commission release | Washington Post | Business Week | CBS News

• Updates RE: the sinking of the Pohang Class corvette Cheonan.

• Japan tells US it is opposed to plan to move Futenma air station, home of about 2,000 US Marines, to a remote location on Okinawa island. Reuters | Wall Street Journal | Xinhua | AFP

• UK upgrading all its Army Lynx helicopters to Lynx 9A configuration for Afghanistan. Program includes engines from its successor, the new AW159 Wildcat.

• US Marines step back on Web 2.0 ban, will allow wider use. The US Army’s 82nd Airborne says that those tools really helped on the ground in Haiti [PDF].

• US coast Guard Commandant on the service’s C4IT strategic modernization plan.

• Would you like camelina oil with that Warthog? USAF tests bio-fuel driven A-10 Thunderbolt II. USAF Video

• UK report notes progress in Russia on securing weapons of mass destruction. Global Threat Reduction Programme report | MoD release

• $13.5 million order. For FLIR, the future’s so BRITE, they gotta wear shades.

• US Army will allow Sikhs to serve in turbans. Hey, it worked fabulously for the British…

$40M to TEC-AECOM for Environmental Studies on US Navy Homeport Infrastructure

The US Naval Facilities Engineering Command (NAVFAC) Atlantic awarded TEC-AECOM Joint Venture in Charlottesville, VA an indefinite-delivery/ indefinite-quantity contract, worth a maximum of $40 million, for environmental planning and engineering services at various US Navy and US Marine Corps facilities and other US government facilities worldwide.

Part of the work will include environmental and engineering services for proposed infrastructure projects at US Navy homeports.

The US Navy operates 18 homeports around the world: Annapolis, MD; Baltimore, MD; Bangor, WA; Bremerton, WA; Everett, WA; Gaeta, Italy; Groton, CT; Guam; Kings Bay, GA; Little Creek, VA; Manama, Bahrain; Mayport, FL; Newport News, VA; Norfolk, VA; Pearl Harbor, HI; San Diego, CA; Sasebo, Japan; and Yokosuka, Japan.

Nowadays, any US military infrastructure project requires reams of environmental impact documents, and TEC-AECOM will assist NAVFAC in preparing those documents.