The Insider

The Navy awarded Austal USA a $144 million contract for two towing, salvage and rescue ships (T-ATS), marking the shipyard’s first new steel ship construction.

The Navy announced the detail design and construction contract, awarded Sept. 30, on Tuesday. A majority of the work will be performed at Austal’s shipyard in Mobile, AL, and the contract includes an option for up to three additional ships that will bring the total cumulative value up to $385 million.

Austal announced this spring that it is transitioning one of its aluminum production lines into a steel line as part of a $110 million shipyard construction project. The company is set to complete construction of the steel line in April 2022.

With its new steel line, the company is planning on competing for the Navy and Marine Corps’ Light Amphibious Warship program and to be the follow-on shipyard for the Navy’s frigate program.

The Navy awarded Austal a $3.6 million T-ATS functional design contract in June.

Officials from Army Futures Command will meet with industry on Oct. 21 to discuss Project Convergence 22, which will include British and Australian army participation, according to an Oct. 5 Army notice.

Futures Command officials will discuss the plan for PC 22 and the capabilities that will be required, according to the notice. There will also be a chance for industry to ask questions.

PC 22 will feature a division or brigade headquarters at the National Training Center at Ft. Irwin, CA, which will compete against an opposing force at White Sands Missile Range, NM, according to the notice.

A Multi-Domain Task Force will participate in the exercise, which will demonstrate areas of interoperability between the different branches of the U.S. military and foreign partners, according to the notice. The exercise will include a denied or degraded electromagnetic environment, as well as new technologies and tactics that are designed around those situations.

This year’s Project Convergence exercise begins this week, and will run for six weeks.

The Defense Department is mandating all civilian employees be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by Nov. 22.

“Employees are considered fully vaccinated two weeks after completing the second dose of a two-dose COVID-19 vaccine or two weeks after receiving a single dose of a one-dose COVID-19 vaccine,” Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks said in a new DOD-wide memo.

The Pentagon earlier this year mandated the vaccine for all members of the U.S. military and each service has set its own deadline, with none going beyond late December, except for Army reservists and National Guard members, who have until June 30, 2022.

Hicks’ memo notes a previous COVID-19 infection does not exempt DOD civilians from mandatory vaccination.

“To defend the nation and protect the American people, we need a healthy and ready Total Force,” the memo states. “Vaccinating DOD civilian employees against COVID-19 will save lives and allow for the defense of our nation.”

Lockheed Martin last week awarded Boeing a $1.1 billion contract to supply seekers for Patriot Advanced Capability-3 Missile Segment Enhancement interceptors.

The deal, definitized by the two companies late last week and announced today by Boeing, is part of a $6 billion firm-fixed priced contract the Army awarded Lockheed in April 2020 for incidental services, hardware, facilities, equipment and all technical, planning, management, manufacturing and testing efforts to produce PAC-3 MSE interceptors, associated ground support equipment and spares.

That contract included 954 PAC-3 MSE missiles to fulfill existing foreign military sales partner agreements and had option pricing to support 2021 to 2023 requirements and future foreign purchases, an official in the Lower Tier Project Office in the Army’s program executive office for missiles and space said in 2020.

Today, Boeing said under the contract it will produce approximately 1,500 additional seekers in Huntsville, AL, as a subcontractor to Lockheed Martin beginning in 2023. Boeing says it has produced more than 4,300 PAC-3 missile seekers since 2000 and recently completed a facilities expansion in Huntsville to accommodate future production growth.

The Navy has established a new helicopter squadron that will be equipped with MH-60Rs to provide support for Littoral Combat Ships.

The service established Maritime Strike Squadron 50 at Naval Air Station Mayport, FL on Friday. HSM-50 will fall under Helicopter Maritime Strike Wing Atlantic.

Cmdr. Carolyn Peterson, who has served as a Carrier Air Wing MH-60R operational squadron department head and a joint planning officer in Alaska, will lead the command.

The Navy also announced Friday that it has realigned the LCS Fleet Introduction and Sustainment Program Office to the Naval Sea System Command’s Surface Ship Maintenance, Modernization and Sustainment directorate.

The LCS Fleet Introduction and Sustainment Program Office had been under the purview of PEO Unmanned and Small Combatants.

“This transition will ensure LCS sustainment plans remain aligned with all other surface ship classes as we serve the fleet,” Rear. Adm. Eric Ver Hage, commander of the Navy Regional Maintenance Center and director of surface ship maintenance and modernization, said in a Navy press release announcing the change.

Lockheed Martin announced this week it has opened a new facility in Courtland, AL dedicated to hypersonic strike missile production.

The new facility "represents Lockheed Martin's commitment to establishing northern Alabama as the base of the company's hypersonic strike programs," the company said in a statement. "The 65,000-square-foot Hypersonic Missile Assembly Building 4 (MAB 4) is built on the digital foundation that Lockheed Martin has prioritized through mission-driven transformation efforts across the enterprise to meet customer needs with speed and agility while bolstering U.S. manufacturing capability."

The new building is the second Conventional Prompt Strike production facility onsite, according to Lockheed, and "integrates critical digital transformation advancements such as robotic thermal protection application capabilities, smart torque tools and mixed-reality capabilities for training and virtual inspections. The machines in this facility also will connect to the company's Intelligent Factory Framework early next year, which digitally links production facilities and assets across the Lockheed Martin enterprise to help enable unprecedented insights into the health, status and optimization of operations."

The Courtland site houses one of four transformational manufacturing facilities the company says it is opening in the United States within one year.

This Friday INSIDER Daily Digest has news on possible changes to the Pentagon's budget planning system, Navy and Marine Corps Super Hornet aircraft, the Navy's second frigate yard competition and more.

Senate authorizers want a 10-member commission to look into planning, programming, budgeting and execution reform:

Congress wants commission to review, reform Kennedy-era PPBE system

Lawmakers want an independent critique of the Defense Department's system for creating annual budgets and future years spending plans, seeking an assessment of the efficacy and efficiency of processes introduced during the Kennedy administration to meet the needs of today's rapid technology acquisition in formulating and executing U.S. military expenditures.

Navy and Marine Corps Super Hornet fighter aircraft need more inspections:

DOD IG finds Navy and Marine Corps lacking required inspections of Super Hornets

Navy and Marine Corps maintainers did not perform required inspections to address corrosion in the F/A-18C-G Super Hornet and gave no adequate reason why, according to a Defense Department inspector general's report released today.

More Super Hornet news:

Raytheon forecasts SDB II Super Hornet fielding in coming months; approval for F-35 operational use next year

Raytheon Technologies expects its Small Diameter Bomb II will be fielded on the Navy's F/A-18 E/F Super Hornet within the next few months, while approval for operational use on the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter is projected to follow in calendar year 2022.

The Navy's proposed second shipyard meant to build new frigates could help the industrial base, according to analysts:

Navy's second frigate yard competition could shore up industrial base, increase production

As Fincantieri Marinette Marine prepares to start construction on the first Constellation-class frigate next spring, analysts and lawmakers say the Navy’s planned second frigate yard could both expedite the production of frigates and bolster the nation’s shipbuilding industrial base.

The Pentagon's No. 2 civilian spoke this week about the new pact between the United States, Great Britain and Australia:

Hicks highlights new U.S.-U.K.-Australia deal as DOD sharpens focus on China

Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks said a new defense pact between the United States, the U.K. and Australia, which, among other things, will allow access to sensitive U.S. submarine technology, demonstrates how global opinion is "shifting" regarding the perceived need to deter China's activities in the Indo-Pacific region, especially when it comes to undersea capabilities.

Keep an eye out for the results of testing of Navy unmanned units in the Middle East:

Navy's unmanned task force to conduct testing within next five months

The Navy's Mideast-based unmanned task force will conduct testing within the next few months using command-and-control infrastructure and artificial intelligence.

The Army's Precision Strike Missile has passed an important milestone:

Precision Strike Missile passes milestone B

The Precision Strike Missile, one of the Army's top long-range fires modernization programs, passed a milestone B review Sept. 27, according to Col. Guy Yelverton, the service's product manager for strategic operational rockets and missiles.

U.S. and Indonesian Army personnel cooperated during a recent exercise in the region:

SFAB officers support Indonesian, U.S. forces at Garuda Shield

Soldiers from the U.S. Army's 5th Security Force Assistance Brigade embedded with Indonesian army units during the Garuda Shield exercise in Indonesia in August and served as communications liaisons between the two armies.

Last but by no means least, the latest on the Pentagon's Cybersecurity Maturity Model program from our colleagues at Inside Cybersecurity:

CMMC accreditation body approves first content for official assessor training

The accreditation body behind the Pentagon's Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification program has approved the first content created by a third-party partner publisher that will be used to teach assessors as part of the CMMC official assessor training program.