Five-Year Term. Recent legislation signed into law by President Trump that authorizes a five-year term for the head of the Transportation Security Administration applies to the agency’s current administrator, David Pekoske, his spokesman told Defense Daily. Pekoske became administrator in August 2017, and is the agency’s seventh chief since its formation in November 2001 following the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The five-year term “is really important for leadership continuity in an agency that is really only 17 years old but has been through a lot of leadership changes,” he told an Airports Council International North America security conference last week. If Pekoske stays five years, he will become the longest serving TSA Administrator.
…Biometric Advantage. Pekoske also said that an operational evaluation of facial recognition technology being done by the agency is demonstrating that biometrics are better than a visual check of a person against their travel documents. “It just makes sense that it would,” he said. TSA is piloting facial recognition on a PreCheck trusted traveler lane at a security checkpoint at Los Angeles International Airport and the agency is working with Delta Air Lines to evaluate the technology at a security checkpoint at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. Pekoske said he wants to take advantage of the work Customs and Border Protection is doing with facial recognition at departure gates on departing international flights and adopt that technology for his agency’s purposes instead doing its own research and development.
SRVL. An F-35B conducting trials on the new British aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth carried out the first ever shipborne rolling vertical landing (SRVL) on Oct. 13 while the carrier was off the U.S. East Coast conducting trials. The jets earlier conducted vertical landings where they hover to the side of the ship then move sideways over the deck, then gently lower to the deck. In contrast, the SRVL has the jet use a more conventional landing pattern, approaching the ship from aft at speed, using the thrust from the nozzle and lift from air over the wings to touch down and come to a stop as soon as possible. The U.K. is the only country planning to use SRVL, which will allow it to land jets with heavier loads, so they will not need to jettison fuel or weapons before landing.
Bezos/DoD. Jeff Bezos, the CEO of Amazon and founder of aerospace company Blue Origin, told attendees at the recent Wired conference he intends for his companies to continue pursuing work with the Pentagon and not following a recent trend out of Silicon Valley to back away from seeking defense contracts. Blue Origin was recently awarded an Air Force contract to develop a new launch system prototype and Amazon is considered a frontrunner for the Pentagon’s upcoming $10 billion massive cloud migration contract, JEDI. “We are going to continue to support the DoD, and I think we should. If big tech companies are going to turn their back on the U.S. Department of Defense this country is going to be in trouble,” Bezos said. His comments followed recent pushback from Google employees on working with the Pentagon, which led to the company backing out of future work on DoD’s Project Maven artificial intelligence project and deciding not to bid for JEDI. “One of the decisions of the senior leadership team is to make the right decision even if it’s unpopular,” Bezos said.
Saab Outlines T-X Role. Boeing and Saab teamed up to offer the winning proposal for the Air Force’s T-X program. The Swedish company said Thursday that it received an order worth $117 million for the EMD phase, which will include testing, military flight certification and the delivery of five trainer jets. The order will run until 2022.
ESB-6. The Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) awarded General Dynamics National Steel and Shipbuilding Co. (NASSCO) a $137 million not-to-exceed undefinitized contract action on Oct. 16 to procure pre-production equipment and work for Expeditionary Sea Base (EPF)-6. The contract includes procuring long-lead time material, pre-production and engineering support. The Navy said this award allows procurement of ship sets of the purchase specifications that support items like integrated propulsion, main diesel generator engines, propeller and shafting, and integrated bridge electronics. The work is expected to be finished by May 2019 and $66 million in FY ’18 shipbuilding and conversion funds was obligated at award time.
EPF-13. NAVSEA awarded Austal USA a $58 million undefinitized contract action to procure long-lead-time material and production engineering for the Spearhead-class expeditionary fast transport (EPF)-13. This work on the vessel is expected to be finished by November 2021. In all, $43 million in FY ’18 shipbuilding funds were obligated at award time and do not expire at the end of the fiscal year. The contract was competitively solicited, but the Navy only received an offer from the current EPF builder. Austal won its first EPF contract in 2008 and has delivered nine EPFs. Austal is currently building three more of the vessels. Austal said long-lead materials covers items like diesel engines, water jets and reduction gears.
LPD-17 Flight II. Navy acquisition chief James Geurts said the acquisition strategy for Flight II San Antonio-class (LPD-17) ships will clear up in the FY ’20 budget request. Geurts said at the NDIA Expeditionary Warfare conference last week that Congress has “given us everything we need” so far. The Flight II LPD-17 ship’s outyear budget will be presented when the Navy submits the FY ’20 budget, Geurts said. The first in its class, the LPD-30 is the only ship with a current set acquisition strategy.
Two Subs. The U.S. Navy will christen two submarines on Oct. 20, the future USS Delaware (SSN-791) at Huntington Ingalls Industries’ Newport News, Virginia, shipyard facility and the future USS Vermont (SSN-792) at General Dynamics Electric Boat’s shipyard in Groton, Conn. SSN-791 is the 18th Virginia-class vessel and the eighth and final Block III submarine. Construction started in September 2013 and it will be delivered in 2019. SSN-792 is the 19th Virginia-class attack submarine and the first of 10 Block IV submarines. Construction started in May 2014 and the vessel will be delivered in the fall of 2019.
New Air Force Contracting Podcast. Air Force Materiel Command has launched a monthly podcast dedicated to contracting issues to help inform and connect to government professionals across the globe. The show will feature interviews with a variety of Air Force contracting officials on the military and civilian side, and discuss topics such as acquisition agility and tips for new contracting officers. The first episode, featuring AFMC Director of Contracting Heidi Bullock, is available via DVIDS.
Hangar Sought in UAE. The Pentagon is looking to build a new large aircraft maintenance hangar at the Al Dhafra Air Base, United Arab Emirates, per an Oct. 19 solicitation on FedBizOpps. A formal solicitation is currently scheduled for release in early December, with proposals due back by early Febuary 2019. Contract award is currently scheduled in June 2019, per the solicitation. Primarily the headquarters of the Western Command of the UAE Air Force, the base hosts the U.S. Air Force’s 380th Air Expeditionary Wing, and houses reconnaissance aircraft including Lockheed Martin’s U-2s and Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawks, as well as Boeing-built E-3 AWACS platforms, and McDonnell Douglas KC-10A extended refuelers.
Cyber Adviser. Former U.S. Cyber Command Chief and National Security Agency Director Adm. Mike Rogers has been appointed to the board of advisors for Team8, a venture capital firm focused on the cyber security space. Rogers, who retired from the Navy on June 1, “will capitalize on his unique grasp of technology trends, the cyber threat landscape and the evolving tactics and tools used by cyber attackers to provide invaluable insight to both Team8’s existing portfolio companies and those currently in development,” the company says.
Ice Ready. The Coast Guard’s only operational heavy polar icebreaker, the Polar Star, is back in its homeport of Seattle following a six-month dry dock to receive extensive repairs ahead of this coming year’s Operation Deep Freeze, which assists that National Science Foundation U.S. Antarctic Program. The dry dock repairs cost $7.6 million and covered more than 50 work items on the 42-year old, 399-foot icebreaker. The Antarctic mission breaks ice to enable supply deliveries to personnel stationed at McMurdo.
PCTE Opportunity. The Army released a sources sought notice on Oct. 18 to gauge industry interest in delivering capabilities needed to integrate new tools onto its evolving Persisten Cyber Training Environment platform. The Product Manager (PdM) Cyber Resiliency and Training (CRT) team is currently integrating PCTE capabilities delivered under the Cyber Innovation Challenge program to rapidly prototype new solutions, but said a contractor may be needed to handle future software and hardware tasks. “PdM CRT has a requirement for a contracting vehicle to continue development operations with the integration of software and hardware enhancements delivered on other contracts as technology insertion occurs while conducting testing, providing periodic system updates, and fielding technology upgrades of PCTE to CMF,” officials wrote in the notice. The deadline to reply is Nov. 2.