This past month has been a very busy time for defense contracts, and following up on the news we covered this week, CACI International announced that it has been awarded a prime contract by the Fleet and Industrial Supply Center, Norfolk, Detachment Philadelphia, to provide technical services to support the Fleet Assistance and Shipboard Training (FAST) program. The award, which is for one base year with four one-year options, has a current value of $31 million that could increase to $190 million if all options are exercised. CACI will perform the work at various U.S. Navy and Marine Corps facilities stateside, overseas, and on board naval vessels. As the prime incumbent for these services for more than two decades, CACI continues to demonstrate its expertise in logistics analysis and training. Additionally, the company continues to increase its role in Navy and Marine Corps support, which is a key component of its core logistics and material readiness line of work.

The FAST program provides a wide range of support for afloat and deployable automated supply management programs and services for the Navy and Marine Corps. This support consists of on-site assistance, training, and analysis; formal training; database validation, correction, and reconciliation, and inventory reconciliation.

CACI’s role is to provide FAST users with comprehensive and innovative logistics, inventory, training, and financial management solutions that help improve automated supply operations and fleet readiness. The FAST program focuses on program-level, user-level, and other functional solutions that address and resolve supply problems from an applications, systems, and training perspective. To achieve this goal, CACI’s solutions apply experience, expertise, tools, and performance monitoring to meet the operational, technical, and programmatic challenges of supporting our Navy’s ships, battle groups, aircraft, and Marine Corps aircraft in maintaining optimum readiness at all times. CACI also supports the design, prototyping, and evaluation of new logistics applications and concepts.

Bill Fairl, CACI’s President of U.S. Operations, said “We’re very pleased that, with this award, the Navy and Marine Corps continue to demonstrate such a high level of confidence in our logistics analysis and training expertise. The CACI team is proud to be able to play such a vital role in helping these armed services accomplish their missions.”

According to CACI President and CEO Paul Cofoni, “Serving the nation’s highest priorities has always been high on our agenda at CACI. This important award is very welcome, as it enables us to support and enhance the highest levels of readiness for the Navy and the Marine Corps as they carry out their missions around the world.”

Aconex, a provider of project collaboration solutions to the construction industry, has been selected to service Pacific West Builders’ portfolio of government projects. Pacific West Builders will use the Aconex system to streamline collaboration with its project partners and to manage large volumes of information more efficiently.

Pacific West Builders, a general construction contracting firm based in San Diego, is primarily engaged on the design-build of federal facilities. The company has delivered more than 50 defense-related projects and its clients include the US Navy, and the US Air Force.

Aconex will provide Pacific West Builders and its business partners with a web-based system for managing project information such as drawings, documents and correspondence. The system replaces hard copies and email by allowing all the parties involved in a project to access, distribute, track and store their data using a single, common platform.

Patricia Romero, CEO of Pacific West Builders, said, “When we undertake design-build projects for the Navy and Air Force, a tremendous amount of documentation is generated and exchanged. Because of this, we wanted a centralized, standardized system for managing information.

“We previously used in-house tools – MS Word, spreadsheets and Outlook – to communicate and manage information; however we found that, with so many external parties involved, this could be cumbersome and lacked the tracking capabilities we required.

“Particularly since our work is government-related, our main reason for selecting Aconex is to ensure that our documentation is in order and that robust data security measures are in place.” Romero added, “The system is user-friendly and easy to navigate.”

Pacific West Builders often needs to coordinate a project team of more than 50 people, including consultants based across several locations.

“As well as pulling together the local participants, we may be working with a mechanical engineering firm from Missouri or electrical engineers from Chicago. Because of this, the fact that Aconex is web-based is important, as it will provide a more collaborative environment.”

All items stored on Aconex are securely archived and can be instantly retrieved using a search engine or drop-down filters. The system maintains an audit trail of every transaction so that, at any time, Pacific West Builders will be able to track the status of document reviews and correspondence.

“On each project, we collaborate with government personnel, the design team and subcontractors, and are charged with keeping everyone on task,” said Romero. “In the past, projects have sometimes experienced delays because we haven’t been able to track items – such as which documents have been reviewed and whether RFIs have been responded to – as well as we’d have liked. Being able to track all this through Aconex will mitigate these risks and help keep our projects on track.”

Intellicheck Mobilisa received from the U.S. Navy a contract modification adding $4,483,398 of additional funding for the Company’s Floating Area Network (FAN) and Littoral Sensor Grid wireless security buoy technology.

The wireless security buoys provide a high-capacity communications network grid to provide real-time monitoring for marine environments. The buoys can include sensors for both environmental and homeland security purposes, including Water Quality, Oil Spill detection and Dirty Bomb detection.

Intellicheck Mobilisa began pilot testing this multi-purpose security buoy platform in 2008. The project, in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Defense and the University of Washington Applied Physics Lab, aims to improve waterside security utilizing the Company’s FAN technology.

“The Wireless Security Buoys project has been recognized by the Department of Defense as a vital source for waterway and port security and environmental monitoring,” stated Dr. Nelson Ludlow, CEO of Intellicheck Mobilisa. “This additional funding allows us to continue building on our already proven technology, and to expand our research and development efforts.”

“We currently have security buoys deployed in the North Puget Sound area,” said Jim Rabb, Wireless Programs Manager. “This additional funding will increase the number of buoys deployed, and particularly allow us to develop additional security monitoring tools such as a dirty bomb sensors. The US Government recognizes our program as important to port security.”

Alion Science and Technology has been awarded a task order from the U.S. Navy valued at $48.5 million to research, design, develop, prototype, integrate and test a new torpedo detection system in conjunction with the Navy’s new anti-torpedo countermeasure technology, demonstrating the improved performance and integration of the technologies in Navy fleet systems.

The task order, awarded under the Naval Undersea Warfare Center Division Newport SeaPort-e contract, supports the Naval Sea Systems (NAVSEA) Undersea Defensive Warfare Systems Program Office with Anti-Torpedo Torpedo Defensive System (ATTDS) Torpedo Detection, Classification and Localization (TDCL) technology.

This work follows the successful demonstration of new TDCL technology developed by Alion and its team members over the past four years, which has been proven to outperform existing sonar systems on Navy ships. Alion will evaluate the TDCL system both in the laboratory and at sea.

“As other countries increase their submarine forces, the threat of torpedoes to Navy vessels also increases,” explained Rear Adm. John J. (JJ) Waickwicz (USN, Ret.), Alion Senior Vice President and Manager of the Engineering Technology Center Group. “Continued at-sea testing is intended to demonstrate that ATTDS will reliably detect and counter incoming torpedo threats, protecting Navy ships and the lives of personnel aboard,” Waickwicz added.

ITSI announced today that the company has been awarded a $350 million, firm-fixed price, Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (ID/IQ), Multiple Award Construction Contract (MACC) supporting assessment, repair and construction for petroleum, oil, and lubricant (POL) fuel system services at various locations worldwide. ITSI was selected from a pool of competitors for this MACC ID/IQ to provide work in support of sustainment, restoration, and modernization requirements worldwide, managed by the Naval Facilities Engineering Services Center (NFESC), at Port Hueneme, CA. The prime contractors will share awards totaling $350 million for work executed at the Department of Defense facilities. ITSI will provide services involving design-build, engineering, inspection, testing, and construction of POL fuel systems and their numerous components.

The Navy has been an important client of ITSI for over 10 years. As a prime contractor for the Navy, ITSI has successfully executed work in the areas of environmental consulting, remediation, and civil construction services. Currently, ITSI holds four additional Navy contracts, including a Performance-Based Multiple Award Contract for Environmental Remediation Services (PERMAC), Remedial Action Contract (RAC), and two ID/IQ contracts at Naval Air Station Lemoore and at Hunters Point Shipyard.

Dr. Shukla, President of ITSI, commented that he is, “Pleased that the Navy has selected ITSI for this important contract. The Navy is one of our most valued clients and we look forward to a continued partnership with them worldwide. Our company will continue to uphold high quality performance, dedication to our work, and successful execution of projects for all of our clients.”

We, at UIAGC, work tirelessly to support our customers, and so I was excited to see that one of our clients, Northrop Grumman received a $5.1 billion, 7-year cost plus incentive fee contract award for detail design and construction of the Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78) nuclear-powered aircraft carrier. This new class of carrier is the replacement for the Nimitz-class design that originated in the 1960s.

Carriers of the Ford class will incorporate many new design features including a new nuclear reactor design (the A1B reactor), stealthier features to help reduce radar profile, electromagnetic catapults, advanced arresting gear, and reduced crewing requirements. The U.S. Navy believes that with the addition of the most modern equipment and extensive use of automation they will be able to reduce the crew requirement and the total cost of future aircraft carriers. The primary recognition feature compared to earlier supercarriers will be the more aft location of the navigation “island”.

The company’s Shipbuilding sector will perform the work at the Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding in Newport News, Virginia, the only shipyard in the United States capable of building and refueling nuclear powered aircraft carriers.

The Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78) class will continue the legacy of highly capable U.S. Navy aircraft carrier ship platforms. Enhancements being incorporated into the design include flight deck changes, improved weapons handling systems, and a redesigned island, all resulting in increased aircraft sortie rates. It will also include a new nuclear power plant; increased electrical power generation capacity; allowance for future technologies; and reduced workload for the sailors, translating to a smaller crew size and lower operating costs for the Navy.

Matt Mulherin, vice president and general manager for Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding’s Newport News operations said this about the contract:

“This contract award is an important and historic milestone for our company, our Navy and our country, it represents an incredible opportunity for the great shipbuilders of Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding to build the first new aircraft carrier class in more than 40 years. The work we are doing today will play a significant role in America’s defense for many generations to come.”

Below is a time line:

• Advance construction of the Gerald R. Ford began in 2005 under a separate contract valued at $2.7 billion.
• About one third of the ship’s 1,200 structural units are currently under construction.
• The ship’s keel will be laid in the fall of 2009 and delivery to the Navy is scheduled for 2015.