PIB ORD Released. The Coast Guard has publicly released version 1.0 of the operational requirements document (ORD) for its planned Polar Icebreaker (PIB), with delivery of the vessel planned on or before FY ’26 and full operational capability expected on or before FY ‘28. Some of the key performance parameters, which have previously been published, include breaking through ice at least six-feet thick with an objective of at least eight-feet of ice at 3 knots or more, be underway for at least 80 days with a 90-day objective, and communicate via a voice and data with the Coast Guard, Department of Homeland Security, Defense Department, NATO, the State Department, National Science Foundation and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
…PIB Component RFI. The Coast Guard has also released a Request for Information (RFI) for various ship components that may meet the PIB’s specific design and operational requirements. The service is conducting six different surveys within the RFI for the various components, including automatic voltage regulators for shipboard generators, diesel generator sets, propulsion motors and motor drives, speed governing system, generators, and prime movers for diesel generators. Responses to the RFI are due by Aug. 2. 
Sikorsky Synergies. Lockheed Martin Chief Marillyn Hewson tells investors that that its acquisition of Sikorsky Aircraft last year is tracking on plan but that she’s “excited about…some of the revenue synergies” the company sees by integrating its weapons systems and sensors on Sikorsky’s helicopters. At the recent Farnborough Air Show in Britain, Lockheed Martin showcased an armed variant of Sikorsky’s Black Hawk utility helicopter “And we had a tremendous amount of interest in it,” she says, adding that customers are following up on this. Hewson says there are other potential revenue synergies to be had between integrating Sikorsky’s helicopters with Lockheed Martin’s legacy capabilities.
Ship Study. The U.S. Navy, which began conducting a Future Surface Combatant (FSC) capabilities-based assessment late last year, expects to complete the study in late summer, a spokesman says. The study is designed to identify capability gaps resulting from the eventual retirements of CG-47 cruisers, Littoral Combat Ships and DDG-51 Flight IIA destroyers. The study results will be used to develop an initial capabilities document, which will serve as the basis for future surface combatant programs.
New Ride. The R/V Sally Ride, a new U.S. Navy research ship built by Dakota Creek Industries in Washington state, is slated to begin research operations in October, according to the Office of Naval Research (ONR). Named after the first American woman to fly in space, the 238-foot-long Sally Ride is designed to improve the Navy’s understanding of the changing ocean environment in which it operates. The new vessel will replace the recently retired R/V Melville and be homeported in San Diego. The Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego will operate and maintain the Sally Ride for ONR. Major equipment suppliers for the ship include Kongsberg Maritime, Markey Machinery and Teledyne RD Instruments.
Triton Timeline. A formal decision to begin low-rate production of the Navy’s MQ-4C Triton unmanned surveillance plane was delayed from the spring until the current July-September quarter “to allow additional time to complete procurement planning, funding profiles and contract negotiations,” says Sean Burke, the Navy’s Triton program manager. Northrop Grumman, which builds the Triton, a variant of the high-altitude, long-endurance Global Hawk, said in February that the aircraft had successfully completed its operational assessment.
Missile Defense Targets. Orbital ATK will build three medium-range ballistic missile test targets under a new $182 million contract from the U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA), the agency says. The contract, announced July 20, contains options for MDA to buy up to four more targets. Lockheed Martin, one of two losing bidders, says it is disappointed with the outcome and wants to receive customer feedback on its proposal before deciding whether to protest.
MRAP Appearance. Parked directly opposite the main entrance to the building where more than 30 defense ministers are meeting at Joint Base Andrews is an Oshkosh mine-resistant, ambush-protected all-terrain vehicle (M-ATV). The Army owns thousands of the heavy trucks but is largely out of the MRAP business, leading observers to speculate who at the meeting was meant to see the hulking vehicle. Oshkosh says it was not directly involved with the event, which brought together a plurality of the defense ministers from counter-ISIL coalition member states. ”We’re certainly not surprised the military would decide to feature it,” an Oshkosh spokesperson tells Defense Daily. “The Oshkosh M-ATV provides unsurpassed levels of protected mobility to global forces around the world for a spectrum of missions in which troops are put in harm’s way.
… Global Interest. Oshkosh says there is widespread interest in the Army’s excess MRAPs, including the M-ATV, on which the new Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV) is based. “We’re seeing the most interest from many countries whose forces require the optimal combination of protection and off-road mobility in a vehicle.”
Mobile Marines. Marine Corps Systems Command (MCSC) is developing a way to securely use modern handheld communications devices like tablets and smartphones so Marines have the information to make better decisions on the go. “There have been a lot requests from the infantry community to use commercial smart devices for dismounted Marines for reference and tactical sharing,” says Maj. Kevin Shepherd, team lead for Marine Air-Ground Task Force (MAGTF) Common Handheld at MCSC’s MAGTF Command, Control and Communications. “Until recently, it was too expensive to create custom rugged devices that work independently from the vehicles’ mounted systems. But as cells phones and tablets started becoming cheaper, we began looking at commercial devices as an option.” The MAGTF Common Handheld program will identify suitable commercial handheld devices, customize their software and ensure they meet security standards. The program will provide devices with the necessary tactical applications preinstalled, eliminating the need to have multiple electronics for various capabilities. MCSC partnered with the National Security Agency’s Commercial Solutions for Classified program to address the unique security considerations inherent in using commercial products for tactical purposes. The program clears commercial products to be used in classified communication, based on industry standards, which can be fielded to Marines in months, not years. This is accomplished by working with technical communities from industry, government and academia to develop and publish product-level requirements for information assurance certification.
NASA CISO. NASA’s Chief Information Officer (CIO) picked Jeanette Hanna-Ruiz as the agency’s Associate Chief Information Officer for IT Security and Senior Agency Information Security Official (SAISO). Hanna-Ruiz will begin her position on Aug. 8, 2016. She previously worked at the White House National Security Staff as part of a leadership team to study and author the Cyberspace Policy Review during the first 100 days of the Obama administration. She also previously worked at the DHS-NSA Joint Cyber Coordination Group, the Departments of Transportation as well as Homeland Security, consults on Senate committee cybersecurity legislation, and worked with the private sector on cyber issues.
AF IT Support. The U.S. Air Force awarded Technica Corp. a $41 million task order through the NETCENTS02 NetOps and Infrastructure Solutions indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity (IDIQ) contract for information technology (IT) services supporting the Air Force National Capital Region. The order includes four one-year options that if exercised would raise the total contract value to $224 million. This award is the result of a competitive acquisition with 11 offers received. Work will be performed at Joint Base Andrews, Md.; Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling, Washington, D.C., the Pentagon; the National Military Command Center, Washington, D.C.; and other Air Force organizations within the National Capital Region. The base year service runs from Aug. 1, 2016 – July 31, 2017. Fiscal 2016 operations and maintenance funds of $41 million are obligated at award time.
BAE IT Support. The U.S. Air Force awarded BAE Systems a $9.4 million contract cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for software and reports on IT issues. BAE will provide development and integration of the latest advancements in machine learning that prove beneficial for the objectives of this effort; architectural enhancements to increase flexibility and agility of applying analytics to solve space situational awareness problems, and take advantage of high performance computing capabilities and multiple forms of visualization of the reasoning performed by the analytics involved in the effort. This also includes demonstration of new capabilities over three year-long spirals that progressively demonstrate detection of increasingly complex scenarios and improved detection and prediction capabilities. The award is the result of a competitive acquisition with two offers received. Fiscal 2016 research, development, test and evaluation (RDT&E) funds of nearly $900,000 were obligated at award time. Work will be performed at Burlington, Mass. and Arlington, Va., with an expected completion date of July 15, 2019.
Navy Info Systems Contract. The U.S. Navy awarded ManTech Systems Engineering Corp. a $12 million cost-plus-fixed-fee level of effort and cost-only option exercise modification to an earlier awarded contract to provide specific systems operation, sustainment, and support services for the Navy Ship Maintenance and Logistics Information Systems (SMLIS) program. The option exercise entails uninterrupted enterprise support for the SMLIS program, including engineering support in information technology life cycle planning, operations and sustainment, documentation, program management, application technical refresh, testing, training, and deployment. Fiscal 2016 operations and maintenance Navy funds of over $2.6 million is obligated at award time and will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Seventy five percent of the work will be performed in Norfolk, Va., with smaller amounts in Rocket Center, W.Va.; San Diego, Calif.; Mechanicsburg, Pa.; Washington, D.C.; Kittery, Maine; Fairfield, Calif.; Hoover, Ala.; New Orleans, La.; and Richmond, Va. Work is expected to be finished by November 2016.
Army Enterprise Support Contract. The U.S. Army awarded Northrop Grumman a $21 million modification to a contract for services related to the development, sustainment, fielding, training, and maintenance of the Global Support System0Army enterprise resources planning program. Fiscal 2016 Army operations and maintenance funds of $100,000; fiscal 2015 research, development, test, and evaluation funds of $32,000; and fiscal 2014 Army operations and procurement funds of $1 million were obligated at award time.Work will be performed in Richmond, Va. with an expected completion date of Sept. 30, 2017. The contracting activity is Army Contracting Command, Rock Island, Ill.
DISA PAC Commander. Marine Col. Joseph Delaney assumed command of the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) Pacific Field Command (PAC) from Marine Col. Joseph Matos III at a change of command ceremony held on July 14 aboard the museum ship USS Missouri at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.Delaney previously served as Assistant Chief of Staff G-6, 1st Aircraft Wing, Okinawa, Japan. Matos served as DISA PAC commander for three years and is moving to become the senior information technology officer (G6) at Marine Corps Forces Pacific (MANFORPAC).
Covington Cyber Team. Covington & Burling LLP added Stephen Surdu on staff as a senior cybersecurity adviser, bolstering the law firm’s new Cybersecurity Incident Response Team. Surdu previously served as a senior executive at Mandiant and McAfee.
Free Cyber Tools. Fidelis Cybersecurity released both a new threat intelligence database and freeware tools meant to help security practitioners: the Barncat Threat Intelligence Database, ThreatScanner tool for finding endpoint malware, and the CCNumberFinder to support PCI DDS compliance. Barncat includes over 100,000 records with configuration settings taken from malware samples the company has gathered during a decade of incident response investigations and other intelligence gathering operations. Barncar is available to VERTs, research organizations, government entities, ISPs, and other large commercial enterprises.
Mars Orbiter Studies. NASA on July 18 selected five companies to conduct concept studies for a potential future Mars orbiter mission. NASA awarded four-month study contracts to Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Orbital ATK and SSL. The concept studies will address how a potential new Mars orbiter mission could best provide communications, imaging and operational capabilities. They also will assess the possibilities for supporting additional scientific instruments and functionalities, in addition to optical communications. The orbiter concept under study would take advantage of industry’s technology capacities by using solar electric propulsion to provide flexible launch, mission and orbit capabilities.
Space Mission Force. Air Force Space Command (AFSPC) chief Gen. John Hyten released his Space Mission Force white paper. The paper describes the method by which AFSPC will train and field its space forces to meet the challenges of today and tomorrow. Space forces, he writes, must demonstrate their ability to react to a thinking adversary and operate as warfighters in this environment and not simply provide space services. Underpinning this shift is a renewed emphasis on robust, actionable intelligence, comprehensive analysis of potential adversaries’ capabilities and employment doctrine. It also emphasizes the ability to rapidly process and disseminate information and react appropriately when confronted by a threat.
F-35 Contract. The Navy on July 19 awarded Lockheed Martin a $242 million contract modification to a previously awarded firm-fixed-price contract for F-35 procurement of diminishing manufacturing sources for electronic components. The award will support aircraft production through Lot 15 for U.S. and international facilities.
Mark Takai. House Armed Services Committee (HASC) member Mark Takai (D-Hawaii) died July 20. He was on the strategic forces and tactical air and land forces subcommittees. Takai served the first district of Hawaii.