NARCORPS Specialties, LLC has received a potential four-month, $2.3 million contract extension from the Transportation Security Administration to continue providing Role Player Support Services. NARCORPS supports the Federal Air Marshal Service, the Federal Flight Deck Officer training program, and the TSA Canine Training Center. The extension will allow time for the Government Accountability Office to render a decision on protests filed in January against TSA’s decision to award a recompete of the Role Player Support Services contract to NARCORPS.
The Navy this month plans to release the Request for Proposal for the Coast Guard’s new heavy polar icebreaker, which will replace the aging Polar Star. The Trump administration has requested $720 million in FY ’19 to construct the first new icebreaker. Congress, in FY ’17, appropriated $150 million in the Navy’s Shipbuilding and Conversion account to develop a management approach between the Coast Guard and Navy to design, construct and deliver the heavy polar icebreaker. An advance notice issued by the Navy says the RFP will be for up to three heavy icebreakers. The Coast Guard expects the cost of the lead vessel to be under $1 billion.
The Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate has named five finalists in its $300,000 biothreat prize competition under the Hidden Signals Challenge, which calls for the design of an early warning system that uses existing data to uncover emerging biothreats. The finalists are: Readiness Acceleration & Innovation Network, Tacoma, Wash.; Vituity, Emeryville, Calif.; William Pilkington & team, Cabarrus County, N.C.; Computational Epidemiology Lab at Boston (Mass.) Children’s Hospital; and Daniel Neil and Mallory Nobles, Pittsburgh, Pa.
The Blue Ribbon Study Panel on Biodefense has received a $2.5 million grant from the Open Philanthropy Project to continue assessing the nation’s biodefense, issuing recommendations and advocating for their implementation, and identifying potential policy changes. Former Sen. Joe Lieberman, co-chair of the panel, says that the grant will help it advances its recommendations.