Saturday, July 26, 2008

MILITARY CONTRACTS July 25, 2008

Air Force

Booz Allen Hamilton (BAH) of McLean, Va.; MacAulay Brown, Inc. (MacB) of Dayton,
Ohio; Client/Server Software Solutions, Inc. (CSSS.NET) of Bellevue, Neb.; ITT Corp., Advanced Engineering & Sciences Div (ITT AES) of Herndon, Va.; Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) of San Diego, Calif.; and CACI Technologies, Inc. of Chantilly, Va., are being awarded an indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity (ID/IQ) contract for a maximum of $900 million. The six multiple award ID/IQ contracts are for Advisory and Assistance Services (A&AS) in support of USSTRATCOM to provide support for necessary information and advice, opinions, alternatives, analyses, evaluations, recommendations, training and engineering services. The six contracts will have shared capacity of $900 million (maximum) to include the base year and four option years for all contracts combined. At this time no funds have been obligated (obligations will be via task orders). 55th Contracting Squadron, Offutt Air Force Base, Neb., is the contracting activity (BAH – FA4600-08-D-9000; CSSS.NET – FA4600-08-D-9002; ITT AES – FA4600-08-D-9003; SAIC – FA4600-08-D-9004; CACI – FA4600-08-D-9005).

The
Air Force is modifying a cost plus award fee contract with Lockheed Martin Corp., of Fort Worth, Texas, for $13,500,174. This contract action is for procurement of 21 additional depot partnering assessments and the activation activities associated with the following projects: Airframe Mounted Accessory Drive (AMAD); Auxiliary Power Generation Systems (APGS); On-Board Oxygen Generation System (OBOGS); and Heads-Down Display (HDD). At this time all funds have been obligated. 478 AESW/PK, Wright Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, is the contracting activity (FA8611-08-C-2897 P00002).

The
Air Force is modifying a cost plus award fee contract with TYBRIN Corp., of Fort Walton Beach, Fla., for an estimated $11,249,014. This contract modification provides systems engineering and technical assistance support for a variety of research, test and evaluation, and training programs at the Air Force Flight Test Center (AFFTC) Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. The types of support include requirements definition, engineering management, risk reduction, developmental engineering, verification and validation, technical analysis, master planning, program management support, and acquisition management support. At this time $3,017,855 has been obligated. AFFTC/PKTJ, Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., is the contracting activity (F04611-00-C-0001/P00168).

DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY

Graybar Electric Co., St. Louis, Mo. is being awarded a maximum $660,000,000.00 fixed price with economic price adjustment, indefinite delivery and indefinite quantity contract for maintenance, repair and operations for supplies. There are no other locations of performance. Using services are
Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps and Federal Civilian Agencies. This proposal was originally Web solicited with six responses. This contract is exercising third one-year option. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The date of performance is July 28, 2009. The contracting activity is Defense Supply Center Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pa. (SPM500-04-D-BP11).

$320,000,000.00 fixed price with economic price adjustment, prime vendor, indefinite delivery and indefinite quantity contract for Maintenance, Repair and Operations (MRO). There are no other locations of performance. Using services are
Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps. This proposal was originally Web solicited with 6 responses. This contract is exercising third option year. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The date of performance is July 28, 2009. The contracting activity is Defense Supply Center Philadelphia (DSCP), Philadelphia, Pa. (SPM500-04-D-BP10).

Universal Sodexho, Tacoma, Wash. is being awarded a maximum $180,000,000.00 firm fixed price, prime vendor, indefinite delivery and indefinite quantity contract for maintenance, repair and operations for the Korea Zone of the Pacific Region. Other locations of performance are in South Korea. Using services are
Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps. This proposal was originally Web solicited with four responses. This contract is exercising second option year. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The date of performance completion is July 31, 2009. The contracting activity is Defense Supply Center Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pa. (SPM500-05-D-BP07).

Meridian medical Technologies Inc., Columbia, Md. is being awarded a maximum $49,134,996.00 firm fixed price contract for nerve agent antidotes, morphine and related medical services and supplies. Other locations of performance are in
Missouri. Using services are Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps and Federal Civilian Agencies. There was originally one proposal solicited with one response. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The date of performance completion is March 31, 2009. The contracting activity is Defense Supply Center Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pa.
(SPM200-05-D-0010).

Science Application International Corp.,
Fairfield, N.J. is being awarded a maximum $40,000,000.00 fixed price with economic price adjustment, indefinite delivery and indefinite quantity contract for maintenance, repair and operations for supplies. There are no other locations of performance. Using services are Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps and Federal Civilian Agencies. This proposal was originally Web solicited with six responses. This contract is exercising third one-year option. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The date of performance is July 28, 2009. The contracting activity is Defense Supply Center Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pa. (SPM500-04-D-BP12).

CAM International USA, Inc., Flowery Branch, Ga. is being awarded a minimum $26,681,920.80 fixed price with economic price adjustment contract for fuel. Other locations of performance are in South America. Using services are
Army and Air Force. There were originally nine proposals solicited with nine responses. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The date of performance completion is July 31, 2011. The contracting activity is Defense Energy Support Center, Fort Belvoir, Va. (SP0600-08-D-1255).

Icaro Diecisiete, LTDA, Bogota, Colombia is being awarded a minimum $11,867,489.60 fixed price with economic price adjustment contract for fuel. Other locations of performance are in South America. Using services are
Army and Air Force. There were originally nine proposals solicited with nine responses. Contract funds will not expie at the end of the current fiscal year. The date of performance completion is July 31, 2011. The contracting activity is Defense Energy Support Center, Fort Belvoir, Va. (SP0600-08-D-1256).

Avalon Fuel Limatada, Bogota, Colombia is being awarded a minimum $10,800,000.00 fixed price with economic price adjustment contract for fuel. Other locations of performance are in South America. Using services are
Army and Air Force. There were originally nine proposals solicited with nine responses. Contract funds will not expire in the current fiscal year. The date of performance is July 31, 2011. The contracting activity is Defense Energy Support Center (DESC), Fort Belvoir, Va. (SP0600-08-D-1254).

S&H Air Land Fuels Co., Inc., Bogota, Colombia is being awarded a minimum $8,752,241.00 fixed price with economic price adjustment contract for fuel. Other locations of performance are in South America. Using services are
Army and Air Force. There were originally nine proposals solicited with nine responses. Contract funds will not expire in the current fiscal year. The date of performance is July 31, 2011. The contracting activity is Defense Energy Support Center, Fort Belvoir, Va. (SP0600-08-D-1257).

Navy

Straub Construction, Bonsall Calif., is being awarded $21,445,000 for firm-fixed-price design-build task order #0002 under previously awarded contract (N62473-08-D-8610) for site preparation and interim facilities, at
Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center, Twentynine Palms, Calif. The total task order amount is not to exceed $48,739,188 (base item and seven options). Work will be performed in Twentynine Palms, Calif., and is expected to be completed by August 2010. Contract funds will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This task order was competitively procured under the Commercial and Institutional Building Multiple Award Construction Contract (N62473-07-D-2002) and five proposals were received. The Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Southwest, San Diego, Calif., is the contracting activity.

Harper Construction Co., Inc.,
San Diego, Calif., is being awarded $20,477,265 for firm-fixed price task order #0006 under a previously awarded multiple award construction contract (N62473-06-D-1056) to design and build Bachelor Enlisted Quarters at Marine Corps Air Station, Yuma, Ariz. The Bachelor Enlisted Quarters Building comprises 150 rooms with semi-private bathrooms in the standard 2x0 configuration and telecommunications room. The contractor shall provide all labor, supervision, engineering, materials, equipment, tools, parts, supplies and transportation to perform all work described in the specifications. Work will be performed in Yuma, Ariz., and is expected to be completed January 2010. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Four proposals were received for this task order. The Naval Facilities Engineering Command Southwest, San Diego, Calif., is the contracting activity.

Cubic Applications, Inc., Lacey, Wash., is being awarded a not-to-exceed $16,324,665 cost-plus-fix-fee contract to provide investigative research and analysis to explore emerging
technology and developing proof-of-concept/prototype solutions to the shortfalls in realistic Nuclear, Chemical and Biological training and to enable a single, more realistic operational and training environment for the Live Virtual Constructive. Work will be performed in Shalimar, Fla., and is expected to be completed in May 2011. Contract funds in the amount of $2,020,000 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was competitively procured via a Broad Agency Announcement with one offer received. The Naval Air Warfare Center, Training Systems Division, Orlando, Fla., is the contracting activity (N61339-08-C-0024).

3S Group, Inc.,* Vienna, Va., is being awarded a $11,493,819 indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity, firm-fixed price contract to provide Type 2 Cryptographic Support Servers, Certification Authority Workstations peripherals and associated hardware and software for Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center, Charleston, S.C., and all Department of Defense services and agencies. Work will be performed in Vienna, Va., and work is expected to be completed July 2011. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was not competitively awarded after announcement via the Federal Business Opportunities website and the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center e-Commerce Central website. The Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center Charleston, S.C., is the contracting activity (N65236-08-D-6015).

Army Personnel Official Calls Diversity a National Security Issue

By Fred W. Baker III
American Forces Press Service

July 25, 2008 - Ensuring the
Army's force is diverse now goes far beyond the initial integration of blacks into the service 60 years ago, the Army's top personnel officer said today. While the presidential order in 1948 desegregating the military was monumental in its time, diversity in the force now takes on a national security context and serves as a combat multiplier on the battlefield, Army Lt. Gen. Michael D. Rochelle, the service's deputy chief of staff for personnel, said.

"We tend to think rather narrowly about diversity sometimes -- it's a black-white or it's a Hispanic-black-white issue. It's not," Rochelle said in an interview at the Pentagon.

"Diversity is a national
security issue and one that every one of us should be concerned about, frankly, because it is a force multiplier for our soldiers," he said.

In 2002, as the
Army was preparing for the possibility of war in Iraq, the Army's recruiting command was given the mission to recruit Arabic linguists that would be needed for troops on the ground to communicate with local citizens. But the service couldn't recruit and train them fast enough, said Rochelle, who headed the command from 2002 to 2005

"We were somewhat ill-prepared to do that, and it took quite a long time to spin the system up to the point of where we are today," he said.

The
Army now has nearly 1,000 Arabic linguists in its ranks, Rochelle said. But this is nearly six years into the war, and the Army needs to be prepared for the next point of conflict, he said.

"Primarily, the question we should ask ourselves is, 'Where may we need those skills tomorrow?' And let's not wait until we are there and our soldiers are having to confront the populations of those locations. Let's reach out," Rochelle said.

"It's really a national
security issue that is large; it's complex; ... it's all about ensuring our soldiers are successful wherever our nation sends them," he said.

When Rochelle entered the
Army in 1972, there were four African-American generals, he said. Today there are 26. Diversity adds to the strength of the military as a force, and the U.S. Army now serves as a model for diversity for many foreign militaries, he said.

Iraqi forces "marvel" at a typical American infantry squad and how different races and ethnicities work together, the general said.

"America's
Army is the best in the world at what we do. And we are significantly the best because of our diversity. Diversity strengthens us," Rochelle said. "It certainly makes us better in terms of bringing together the richness of backgrounds, the richness of language, the richness of culture, and inevitably the outcome of that diversity is a better product."

Before
military operations began in Iraq, the Army had seen success in its goal of reflecting the demographics of America as a whole within its ranks. But since then, there has been a slowdown in minority recruits entering the service.

The change is not entirely due to the war, but partially because a boost in the economy led to more opportunities for minorities in employment and higher education, Rochelle said.

Also, part of the problem is that minorities are not equally represented demographically among today's high school and college graduates, Rochelle said.

"The challenge is a national one," he said.

Now, though, minority recruiting numbers are "tipping up," he said.

Even though the
Army strives to maintain a diverse fighting and civilian employee force, Rochelle was quick to point out that no special recruiting plans or incentives target minorities.

"There are no quotas; there are no goals with respect to representation in an all-volunteer force. It's just that -- an all-volunteer force," he said.

Instead, the
Army tries to encourage potential high school dropouts to stay in school. As an example, in cities around Army installations soldiers serve as mentors, role models and tutors within local school systems, he said.

Also,
Army officials position recruiters geographically to ensure they are recruiting within large minority demographics.

"How do we position our recruiters so that, as they go about their normal day-to-day business, the outcome is as close as we can get it to that mirror image of the United States?" Rochelle said.

Another effort is to push messages out to what the Army calls "influencers," or those who have a say in a potential recruit's decision, such as parents, teachers, coaches and relatives.

"The challenge is communicating to the person or persons who influence that young man or woman," Rochelle said.

After six years of war, though, that barrier is becoming harder to break through.

"We live in the richest nation on earth, and if every American simply recognized just how fortunate we are, I think more would be inclined to serve," Rochelle said.