MILITARY CONTRACTS February 20, 2009

DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY

Petroleum Traders Corporation, Fort Wayne, Ind.* is being awarded a maximum $33,733,749 fixed price with economic price adjustment contract for delivery of fuel. Other locations of performance are in Virginia, Maryland, District of Columbia, Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, West Virginia and Delaware. Using service is Army, Navy, Air Force and federal civilian agencies. The proposal was originally Web solicited with 14 responses. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The date of performance completion is July 31, 2010. The contracting activity is the Defense Energy Support Center (DESC), Fort Belvoir, Va. (SP0600-05-D-4060).

Foster Fuels, Inc., Brookneal, Va.* is being awarded a maximum $10,512,460 fixed price with economic price adjustment contract for delivery of fuel. Other locations of performance are in Virginia, Maryland, District of Columbia, Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, West Virginia and Delaware. Using service is Army, Navy, Air Force and Federal Civilian Agencies. The proposal was originally Web solicited with 14 responses. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The date of performance completion is July 31, 2010. The contracting activity is the Defense Energy Support Center (DESC), Fort Belvoir, Va. (SP0600-07-D-4000).

Oshkosh Corporation, Oshkosh, Wis. is being awarded a maximum $8,508,683 firm fixed price contract for delivery of trucks and snow blowers. There are no other locations of performance. Using service is Air Force. There were originally 2 proposals solicited with 1 response. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The date of performance completion is September 21, 2011. The contracting activity is the Defense Supply Center Philadelphia (DSCP), Philadelphia, Pa. (SPM500-01-D-0066-0026).

Hess Corporation, Woodbridge, N.J. is being awarded a maximum $6,117,723 firm fixed price contract for electrical services. Other locations of performance are in Maryland. Using service is Army and federal civilian agencies. There were originally 81 proposals solicited with 16 responses. Contract funds will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The date of performance completion is June 30, 2009. The contracting activity is the Defense Energy Support Center (DESC), Fort Belvoir, Va. (SP0600-05-G-8030 D.O. 0004).

UNITED STATES TRANSPORTATION COMMAND

Phoenix Air Group of Cartersville, GA 30120-6896, is being awarded a $26,371,714.00 fixed price indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contract to provide air charter service for Headquarters United States Africa Command passengers from Stuttgart Army Airfield, Germany, to various points throughout Africa and Europe. The performance period is from 1 April 2009 to 31 March 2012, including unexercised options. This contract was a competitive acquisition with seven bids received. The contracting activity is United States Transportation Command (USTRANSCOM) Directorate of Acquisitions, Scott Air Force Base, IL 62225, (HTC711-09-D-0001).

ARMY

Summa Technology, Inc., Huntsville, Ala., was awarded on Feb 19, 2009, a $22,532,500 five year, firm fixed price requirement contract for the Container Roll In/Out platform. The estimated five year total quantity was 3,270. This is delivery order 0018 is for a total quantity of 2,500 units. Work is to be performed at Cullman, Ala., with an estimated completion date of Jun 30, 2011, with deliveries possible through Jun 30, 2012. Bids were solicited on the Worldwide Web with six bids received. U.S. Army Tank & Automotive Command (TACOM), Warren, Mich., is the contracting activity (W56HZV-06-D-0269).

Weeks Marine Inc., Covington, La., was awarded on Feb 19, 2009, an $8,438,026 firm fixed price contract for passes of the Mississippi River, Southwest Pass maintenance dredging, Cutterhead or Dustpan Dredge Rental No. 1-2008, Mile 5.0 Above Head of Passes to Mile 9.5 Below Head of Passes, Centerline (C/L) (of the navigation channel) Sta.2925+20 to C/L Sta. 1094+00 (Non-Continuous), Plaquemines Parish, La. OM-08-275. Work is to be performed at Plaquemines Parish, La., with an estimated completion date of Jul 12, 2009. Bids were solicited on the Worldwide Web with two bids received. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Hurricane Protection Office, New Orleans, La., is the contracting activity (W912P8-09-C-0025).

Siemens Government Services, Inc. (SGS), Reston, Va., was awarded on Feb 18, 2009, an indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity, firm fixed price contract. This Project Manager, Network Service Center (PM NSC) Performance Work Statement (PWS) addresses the Installation Information Infrastructure Modernization Program (I3MP) effort to engineer, furnish, install, secure, test, document, migrate and cutover a turn-key solution to upgrade the existing infrastructure and facilities at Germany 3C (Hohenfels). Work has an estimated completion date of Aug 5, 2010. Ten bids were solicited and four bids received. Information Technology and Electronic Commerce Commercial Contracting Center, Alexandria, Va., is the contracting activity (W91QUZ-06-D-0009).

DEKA Integrated Solutions Corporation, Manchester, N.H., was awarded on Feb 18, 2009, a $7,120,703 cost plus fixed fee contract of which the primary objective of the effort is to refine a novel upper extremity prosthetic device to meet the needs of injured soldiers and to pursue Food & Drug Administration approval for the final medical device. Work is to be performed at Manchester, N.H., with an estimated completion date of Feb 8, 2011. One bid was solicited and one bid received. U.S. Army Research Office, Research, Development & Engineering Command Contracting Center – RTP Division, Triangle, N.C. is the contracting activity (W911NF-09-C-0035).


NAVY

Atlantic Marine Mayport, LLC, Jacksonville, Fla., is being awarded a $7,239,077 firm fixed price contract for repair work onboard the USS Underwood (FFG 36). This contract is for the Drydock Selected Restricted Availability (DSRA) to include drydock and topside maintenance repair work. Extensive coordination is required for the drydock evolution, in addition to the numerous systems onboard to be repaired. This contract includes options which, if exercised, would bring the cumulative value of this contract to $8,850,369. Work will be performed in Jacksonville, Fla., and is expected to be completed by July 2009. Contract funds in the amount of $7,239,077 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was competitively procured via the Federal Business Opportunities website, with five proposals solicited and two offers received. The Southeast Regional Maintenance Center, Jacksonville, Fla., is the contracting activity (N40027-09-C-0046).

Praxis, Inc., Alexandria, Va., is being awarded a $5,838,122 cost plus fixed fee contract for satellite communication, and comprehensive maritime awareness research and development and associated services. This contract contains options, which if exercised, will bring the value of the contract to $31,064,622. Work will be performed in Alexandria, Va., and work is expected to be completed Feb. 2010 (Feb 2014 with options exercised). Contract funds in the amount of $10,000 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was competitively procured under Request for Proposal Number N00173-06-RS06 of Naval Research Laboratory, with one offer received. Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity (N00173-09C-6002).

Air Force Efforts Put Nuclear Security Back on Track, General Says

By Samantha L. Quigley
American Forces Press Service

Feb. 20, 2009 - Prioritization and "incredible attention to detail" have restored "nuclear surety" in the Air Force, the general in charge of the service's nuclear program said here yesterday. Nuclear surety is the equipment, people and processes aimed at ensuring the safety, security, reliability and control of nuclear weapons.

After an erosion of the nuclear process that began at the end of the Cold War, Maj. Gen. Roger Burg, commander of the 20th Air Force, said he feels the service is back on track, even though the required standards to pass a nuclear surety inspection have never changed. What is different, he said, is how the service has applied the standards.

"I will say our application of those standards has changed dramatically," Burg said. "And our oversight of any problems identified in the inspections has changed dramatically."

It wasn't until a B-52 bomber from Minot Air Force Base flew nuclear-tipped missiles cross-country to Barksdale Air Force Base, La., in October 2007 that nuclear surety became a newsworthy topic, Burg said.

"An equally well-publicized event that occurred several years earlier ... involved the [intercontinental ballistic missile] force [and] the fuses that were erroneously sent to Taiwan," he said. "I think it rightly made all of us question how could such a thing happen."

The fuses were shipped to Taiwan from Utah in August 2006.

These are the types of incidents nuclear surety is designed to prevent.

A nuclear surety inspection for an ICBM or bomber unit is a broad, intrusive type of inspection, Burg said. Hundreds of areas might be inspected and each area may have hundreds or even thousands of individual pieces of equipment, records, and activities to be inspected.

After the Cold War, Air Force leaders decided to shorten the inspection time frame and decrease the size of its inspection team. Instead of inspecting everything, they began taking representative samples, Burg said.

"It wasn't an intent to say, 'Let's not take care of this business,'" he said. "It was an intent to say, 'How can we do this business more efficiently?"

The 2007 and 2008 incidents prompted the Air Force to resume 100 percent inspections, Burg added. That includes personnel medical records in addition to equipment and activity logs.

"One of our key areas is looking at the Personnel Reliability Program, which is how we maintain confidence in the people who are working around nuclear weapons," he said. "In the past, we might inspect 20 percent of the medical and personnel records of people associated with a certain unit.

"You'll have thousands of potential points [to inspect], any one of which, if found to be deficient in a critical way, could lead to the finding of an unsatisfactory for the wing," Burg added. Deficiencies receive immediate attention, he said.

The process of maintaining nuclear surety has become the top Air Force priority, Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff noted during his visit this week here. The chairman toured several sites including the weapons storage area and a missile maintenance trainer.

The Air Force is reorganizing to better support the nuclear enterprise, Burg said. But inspections will get a unit only so far.

"You do not make an organization excellent by inspecting it," he said. "You make it excellent by supporting it with priority, with resources, with people, with experience. That's what the Air Force is doing with these nuclear units now."

Burg added that he's OK with inspections turning up deficiencies despite the goal of achieving excellence.

"I'm never satisfied that ... we're getting better because we're not finding fewer problems," he said. "[What] we're not finding now indicates an incredible attention to detail."

Innovative Research Advances Army Training, Warfighting

By John Ohab
Special to American Forces Press Service


Feb. 20, 2009 - Virtual humans, autonomous robots and self-healing armor are just a few research areas that may advance warfighting and provide unprecedented advantages over U.S. adversaries, the Army's director for Research and Laboratory Management said. Dr. John Parmentola was interviewed Feb. 18 on "Armed with Science: Research and Applications for the Modern Military" on BlogTalkRadio.com about new areas of scientific research that may provide extraordinary capabilities for soldiers.

Parmentola oversees the Army's basic research program, comprising 22 Army laboratories and nearly 11,000 scientists and engineers. He also directs laboratory management policy and monitors laboratory performance, infrastructure and security.

The Army's investment spans 12 research disciplines and 14 technology areas at a variety of institutions, including universities, industries, medical centers and the Army's own research laboratories.

"The Army's approach to basic research has always been to try to find the best and brightest people we can find out in the research community to work on problems that are of high significance and relevance to the Army," Parmentola said. "We invest in people."

The Army has identified seven areas of research that are vitally important to the future of its soldiers: neuroscience, autonomous systems, nanotechnology, quantum information science, immersive technology, biotechnology and network science. Each of these areas holds the potential to give rise to "disruptive technologies," that is, technologies that provide a capability that does not exist today.

Parmentola described the Army as a leader in network science research.

"We have networks inside cells, cells network to form tissues, tissues network to form organs, organs network to form organisms," Parmentola said. "We find this structure and hierarchy in many places, and one goal is to try to understand the fundamental principles underlying these networks and try to exploit them in application."

Biotechnology and nanotechnology research funded by the Army may eventually lead to advanced armor ensembles that provide ballistic, chemical and biological protection and medical triage capabilities in the combat environment.

"Nature has found solutions to problems through evolution," Parmentola said. "You can make a lot of product improvements over 4 billion years."

Parmentola explained how immersive technologies, such as virtual reality, provide simulated environments where soldiers can train in circumstances that would be too difficult or expensive to reproduce in reality. One key challenge is the creation of software-based "virtual humans" that think, speak and interact in realistic scenarios.

In an effort to translate this basic research into military applications, the Army fosters relationships between its research, development and engineering centers and its industry partners.

"The idea is to take advantage of the investments that industry has made in certain areas and also the practicality they bring in transforming research into technology," Parmentola said.

The small business community plays an important role in the technology transfer process. The Army's Small Business Program engages a broad range of businesses that develop technologies with a commercial market and direct military applications.

"We actually have a program that helps them and incentivizes them and the users of the technology to adopt it," Parmentola said. "We try to drive it through incentive toward technology transition."

(John Ohab holds a doctorate in neuroscience and works for the Emerging Media directorate of the Defense Media Activity.)

U.S. Seeks Successor to Trident Submarine

By Gerry J. Gilmore
American Forces Press Service

Feb. 20, 2009 - The U.S. Navy has started the process to find a 21st-century successor to the Trident strategic missile submarine, senior Defense Department officials said here yesterday. "We're just at the opening phases right now, going through the proper systems engineering that will advance that particular design approach," Secretary of the Navy Donald C. Winter told reporters at a news conference.

Tridents are nuclear-powered, Ohio-class submarines. At 560 feet long and 42 feet wide, Tridents are the largest submarines in the U.S. Navy's inventory. The first Trident ballistic-missile submarine, the USS Ohio, was commissioned in 1981.

"A wide variety of options" are being considered for the Trident's replacement, Winter said. However, the Navy secretary expressed his belief that the Trident system would be replaced by another undersea-going platform.

"I do fully expect that it is going to be a submarine," Winter said of the Trident's successor.

Prior to the news conference the Navy's top leaders and the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff were among senior officials who attended a ceremony that paid tribute to the crew of the USS Wyoming Trident strategic missile submarine.

The USS Wyoming finished its 38th patrol Feb. 11, marking the 1000th completed patrol of a Trident submarine since the Ohio embarked on its initial patrol in October 1982. The Wyoming was commissioned in July 1996 and began its first patrol in August 1997.

Marine Corps Gen. James E. Cartwright, the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, echoed Winter's belief that the Trident's replacement "will be a submarine."

Chief of Naval Operations Navy Adm. Gary Roughead told reporters of the resilience and independence exhibited by submariners' families.

"I think the families of our submariners are really like submariners, a special breed," Roughead said. "And, my hat's off to them, and they have my utmost respect and support."

The U.S. military is about to embark on its Quadrennial Defense Review and a Nuclear Posture Review, Cartwright said, to determine what types of defense capabilities will be required to maintain U.S. national security in the coming years. The QDR is performed every four years.

The threats America faces during the 21st century are much more diverse and involve "a much broader spectrum of conflict against a much broader number of enemies, to include those that are not nation-states," Cartwright told reporters.

Gauging and evaluating future threats and determining what kinds of military capabilities and systems will be needed to deter them will be debated during the QDR and the nuclear posture review, Cartwright said.

U.S. defense planners are now seeking "to tailor our deterrence for the types of actors that were not present during the Cold War but are going to be present in the future," Cartwright said.

And, "it will be the sailors that will make the difference in deterrence, not necessarily just the platforms," Cartwright said of the Navy's future nuclear-deterrent mission.

The 14 nuclear-missile carrying Trident submarines based here and at other Navy ports provide more than half of America's strategic deterrent capability, King's Bay officials said.

"The application of deterrence can be actually more complicated in the 21st century, but some fundamentals don't change," Air Force Gen. Kevin P. Chilton, commander of U.S. Strategic Command, said. "And, the underlying strength of our deterrence force remains the nuclear deterrent force that we have today."

The Trident submarine strategic missile force "is absolutely essential" to America's nuclear-deterrent capability, Chilton said.

"And, it's not just to deter nuclear conflict," he said of the Tridents' mission. "These forces have served to deter conflict in general, writ large, since they've been fielded."

The U.S. government agreed to reduce the number of its strategic-missile submarines as part of the 1992 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty. Consequently, four of the Navy's 18 Trident submarines were modified to exchange their nuclear missiles for Tomahawk-guided cruise missiles. These vessels carry the designator SSGN. In 2006, the USS Ohio was converted into a guided-missile submarine.

At the news conference, Roughead said the Navy is "really pleased" with the converted Trident submarines, which also carry a contingent of special operations troops, as well as the Tomahawks.

"That [type of] submarine has performed extremely well," Roughead said of the cruise-missile carrying Tridents.

The facility here was established in 1980, replacing a closed U.S. ballistic submarine facility that had been based in Rota, Spain. In 1989, USS Tennessee was the first Trident submarine to arrive at the facility. Another Trident training facility is based in Bangor, Wash.