A new research project of the U.S. Navy hopes to develop an advanced, autonomous means of gathering and processing data for tactical and battlefield situations. The Autonomous Persistent Tactical Surveillance program of the Office of Naval Research (ONR) will provide about $41.5 million over five years to researchers who submit “white papers” or proposals for innovative projects leading to the potential development of “major advancements” in this area.
“United States (US) Forces are being placed in environments where they are required to function with increased autonomy,” the Navy says in Broad Agency Announcement # 11-023. “The need is stronger than ever to be able to autonomously maintain persistent surveillance of activities and entities over a region of interest on a continuing (24 hrs / 7 days a week) basis, as well as automated tasking of these assets…”
Among the various shortfalls of existing Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance capabilities that the BAA identifies include:
There is a lack of sharing knowledge of unfolding events across mission threads.
There is a lack of timely exploitation of useful theater and national sensor data. There are gaps in alerting Forces to danger.
There is a lack of mobile tools for field users to gather information. There is a lack of means for reporting soft biometric data on at-risk individuals or groups engaged in suspicious activity.
Many sensors fail to deliver relevant information to users outside their stovepipes… Sensor data overwhelms the distribution, analysis, storage, and assimilation capabilities.
Proposals are due Sept. 12. ONR anticipates making a decision about awards on or around Oct. 11.
U.S. Department of State
A $518,000 contract to provide 1,200 bullet-resistant vests to the Government of Pakistan was awarded to the Alexandria, Va.-based Surveillance Equipment Group, Inc., a company operated by former U.S. and South American military and intelligence officials. The threat-level III vests are made to sustain shots from ammunition as deadly as .44 magnum hollow-point bullets. The cost of the competitively awarded State Dept. contract, which was revealed on Monday, includes shipping to the Port of Karachi, Pakistan. (Solicitation #PR1120395; Contract Award #SGE50011F0175)
The State Dept. awarded a $61.4 million contract to CHS Middle East LLC to “establish a network of Contractor operated facilities in three regional support areas” across Iraq. The project is specific to the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, where the responsibility to provide health care to about 17,000 personnel working under the authority of the U.S. Ambassador, “which includes U.S. Government civilians, military and local national employees; and supporting Contractors (U.S., third country, and local national),” will transfer from the U. S. Department of Defense to the State Dept.
U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)
USAID is recruiting candidates for Senior Acquisition & Assistance Specialist to oversee the agency’s $1.2 billion portfolio of contract awards being implemented in Nigeria. The annual salary range for the position is $71,674 to $110,104. The selected candidate will be stationed in Abuja, Nigeria. USAID will offer a two-year contract, with three renewable one-year options up to a maximum five-year period. (Solicitation #620-11-011)
The development of new and improved methods for identifying the prevalence of poverty among households is the goal of USAID’s Poverty Assessment Tools III (PAT III) initiative. The agency says the five-year project will help U.S. missions and partner organizations to better estimate “the share of their clients who are ‘very poor’,” according to the Statement of Work. (RFP #APP-EGAT-11-000003). The agency says that previously developed PATs must be “updated and improved.” It did not disclose the estimated cost of the project. (Solicitation #APP-EGAT-11-000003)
U.S. Trade & Development Agency (USTDA)
The proposal deadline to conduct a feasibility study on the upgrade of Pakistani urban bus fleets to liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) has been extended to June 15. As previously reported (Monitor, 04/07/2011), USTDA is offering a $482,000 grant to carry out the study and market survey as the first step toward integrating “LPG into the transportation sector in and surrounding seven major Pakistani cities.”
Previous snapshots have explored, for instance, the magnitude of military fuel purchases to carry out Dept. of Defense operations in particular parts of the globe. Today the Monitor takes a look at… milk and dairy.
The following is a rundown of anticipated Defense Logistics Agency purchases of milk, other dairy items, and ice cream products for U.S. troops in Cuba and Honduras from July 31, 2011 through August 3, 2013.
Low-fat milk: 1,496 five-gallon containers.
Non-fat milk: 45,000 half-pint containers.
Low-fat chocolate milk: 358 five-gallon containers.
Sour cream: 16,040 pint containers.
Cottage cheese: 4,934 five-pound containers.
Low-fat yogurt (assorted flavors): 27,456 six- or eight-ounce containers.
Liquid chocolate ice-milk mixture for soft-serve machine: 1,056 half-gallon containers.
Liquid vanilla ice-milk mixture for soft-serve machine: 3,048 half-gallon containers.
Eggnog: 1,044 quart containers.
How much energy does it take to keep the U.S. Navy operational in the Western Pacific and Middle East regions alone? Here’s a snapshot of what the Navy needs to have delivered to the two regions just from July 1 through December 31, plus a 30-day carry-over period:
Turbine Fuel, Aviation (JA1): 154,000,000 U.S. gallons.
Naval Distillate (F76): 124,480,000 U.S. gallons.
Turbine Fuel, Aviation (JP8): 95,718,000 U.S. gallons.
Turbine Fuel, Aviation (JP5): 75,419,000 U.S. gallons.
Despite the continued, planned pull-out of U.S. troops from Iraq, the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) today issued a revised schedule to acquire 52.2 million total gallons of jet fuel, premium unleaded gas, and diesel fuel. DLA currently is accepting bids on the provision of these petroleum products for a first-year delivery period beginning October 1. Two option years could take the deliveries into 2014, according to Amendment #6 of the solicitation.
The deliveries are destined for facilities including Camp Diamondback in Mosul, Contingency Operating Base Basrah, Ali Air Base near Nasiryah, Camp Anaconda near Balad, and various facilities in and around Tikrit and Kirkuk.
DLA did not disclose the estimated cost, as it could order more than or less than the estimated amount.
Despite the continued Iraq-bound purchase of many tens of millions of gallons in fuel, the magnitude of the current procurement is significantly smaller than past acquisitions. Toward the end of 2006, for instance, DLA arranged for the delivery of nearly a half-billion gallons of various fuels, shipped by truck from Jordan into Iraq. The bulk of that purchase -- 438 million gallons -- specifically was for jet fuel.
Occasionally U.S. Trade & Aid Monitor will take a look at various facets of government spending; a snapshot, if you will, of a particular use of taxpayer funds. Today, the Monitor looks at how much the federal government spends on jet fuel in support of U.S. military operations in Afghanistan.
Calls to speed up the withdrawal of U.S. troops from and Central Asia have increased since Osama bin Laden’s death, but decision-makers have made clear that such a drawdown of troops is not happening any time soon. As the White House, Congress, and media pundits ponder and expound upon what, if any, changes should be made to U.S. policy on the issue, one thing is certain: U.S. military jets will continue to fly into, out of, and around Afghanistan.
But how much will this cost U.S. taxpayers?
A review of contracting documents obtained via federal database research sheds light on that question.
The Defense Logistics Agency (DLA), for example, currently is soliciting bids to provide close to a half-billion gallons of jet fuel over two years, beginning December 2011, to the Manas Transit Center in Kyrgyzstan. Manas is a primary support base for U.S. Central Command (USCENTCOM) operations in Afghanistan and elsewhere in USCENTCOM’s area of responsibility.
“The Transit Center at Manas has four missions: Air Refueling, Airlift, Onward Movement of Troops and Humanitarian Assistance,” the U.S. Air Force says in its official description of the base. “They do this with the help of 850 military members and 750 U.S. and host nation civilian employees and contractors—the vast majority belong to the 376th Air Expeditionary Wing and others to various tenant units.
Although the solicitation did not provide an estimated cost, DLA is requesting bids on the provision of 208 million gallons of jet fuel for a one-year period, with two potential six-month option periods for an additional 104 million gallon each.
Those totals include 36 million gallons that the contractor would hold in reserve monthly—a service that enables the contractor to assess an additional multi-million dollar fee.
DLA in Nov. 2010 awarded to Mina Corp. a one-year contract for 240 million gallons of jet fuel—which, calculated at the then-going price of $3.24 a gallon, brought the value of the contract to $778 million, according to a Transit Center Jet Fuel Procurement document.
The contract price-per-gallon on Feb. 1 was upped to $3.80 a gallon to “reflect current market conditions,” according to the document.
In 2009 DLA awarded a contract valued at $327 million (plus a $3.7 million fuel-reserve fee) for 105 million gallons. That contract also had gone to Mina Corp.
Placing these expenditures into context—and indirectly confirming that such costs will continue to be borne by U.S. taxpayers into the foreseeable future—are remarks that Sen. John Kerry (D., Mass.) made during this morning’s Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing “Steps Needed for a Successful 2014 Transition In Afghanistan.”
Committee Chmn. Kerry emphasized that the terrorist leader’s death marked a turning point in U.S. policy for Afghanistan—but when and how the U.S. will make that turn remains unknown.
“Osama Bin Laden’s death was more than a critical triumph in our fight against terrorism,” Kerry said. “It provides a potentially game-changing opportunity to build momentum for a political solution in Afghanistan that could bring greater stability to the region and bring our troops home.”
Despite this acknowledgement, Kerry made clear that he was not referring to an abrupt departure of U.S. forces.
“A precipitous withdrawal from Afghanistan would be a mistake and I, for one, would take that option off the table,” he said. “Instead, we should be working toward… a presence that puts Afghans in charge—and presses them to step up to that task—at the same time that it secures our interests and accomplishes our mission of destroying Al Qaeda and preventing Afghanistan from ever again becoming a terrorist sanctuary.”
Kerry said it was “unsustainable” for the U.S. to continue spending $10 billion monthly on military operations there.
He also said that the Afghanistan government was even less capable, financially and otherwise, of filling a void that would be left by a hasty U.S. exit.
Impassioned debate about whether the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a true U.S. ally or is complicit in hiding the now-deceased terrorist Osama bin Laden continues on Capitol Hill—and, according to a review of contracting records, the delivery of military and other aid to that nation continues relatively unimpeded in the meantime.
The types of aid flowing to Pakistan range from airport equipment in support of U.S.-provided F-16 fighter bombers to the funding of research into the causes of stuttering among the Pakistani people.
The following contracting actions represent a sampling of recent activity; indeed, the endeavors listed here are relatively small in contrast to overall expenditures, past and anticipated, by the U.S. on behalf of Pakistan. As noted in a U.S. Agency for International Development report released earlier this year, “Quarterly Progress and Oversight Report on the Civilian Assistance Program in Pakistan As of December 31, 2010”:
For fiscal year (FY) 2010, Congress appropriated $1.514 billion authorized by the Enhanced Partnership with Pakistan Act of 2009, along with other assistance funds, to support the civilian assistance strategy in Pakistan. The U.S. Embassy reported that $3.931 billion in FY 2009, 2010, and 2011 civilian assistance funds had been obligated as of December 31, 2010.
Similarly noted in this week’s Congressional Research Service report “Osama bin Laden’s Death: Implications and Considerations” (made available through the Federation of American Scientists):
For FY2002-FY2010, Congress appropriated about $4.43 billion in security-related assistance and $6.22 billion in economic/development/humanitarian assistance for a total of about $10.65 billion. In addition, Pakistan has received $8.88 billion in Coalition Support Fund “reimbursements” for its operational and logistical support of US-led military operations during this period.
Some of the most recent requests come specifically from the U.S. Air Force for shipment to Shahbaz Air Force Base, where last year the U.S. delivered the first four of eighteen F-16s ordered by the Pakistani military. The newest equipment will come in the form of six “C-130 transportable” Panther fire trucks made by Rosenbauer America (Solicitation #FA8630-11-R-5025), six Allianz RT655 runway sweepers “to be used in support of the Pakistan Air Force F-16 program,”(Solicitation # FA8630-11-R-5024), plus two 60-ton and two 40-ton cranes. (Solicitation #FA8630-11-R-5027).
Shahbaz AFB is located near Jacobadab, about 300 miles north of Karachi and 300 miles southeast of Kandahar, Afghanistan..
Separately, the U.S. State Dept. is arranging for the delivery of VHF radio base stations, radio, and related equipment for the Balochistan Levies, a paramilitary force that patrols Pakistan’s violence-plagued Balochistan province. According to a Justification and Approval for Other Than Full and Open Competition document that U.S. Trade & Aid Monitor has obtained, State’s Narcotics Affairs Section (NAS) at the American Embassy in Islamabad is ordering the communications gear. The urgent need for additional equipment, combined with the fact that NAS and the Bureau of International Narcotics & Law Enforcement Affairs already invested million of dollars into Motorola equipment in that region, necessitates the noncompetitive acquisition.
The Balochistan Levies group “is tasked by the Government of Pakistan to cope up with terrorist insurgency in Balochistan along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border with the help of communication equipment. The agency carries out counternarcotics/counter-terrorism operations in the troubled areas,” according the document.
In a separate but related development, State on April 13 signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Police to provide more than “$17 million in vehicles, communications, and other equipment.” State pointed out in the announcement that in 2010 the U.S. “committed $102.6 million for civilian law enforcement assistance. This year, the United States will continue to supply the KP Police with approximately 440 additional vehicles, including trucks, armored vehicles and personnel carriers, ambulances, and motorcycles…”
This week INL also began recruiting potential candidates to fill the role of Senior Counter Narcotics (CN) and Civilian Military Advisor, a position created to “play a central role in guiding and strengthening INL Afghanistan and Pakistan office's (INL/AP) relationship with the Department of Defense (DOD) and agencies of the Intelligence Community.” The main objective of the advisor is to help “develop and manage a major INL program” in support of Afghanistan's Ministry of Counter Narcotics. (Solicitation # PSC-11-027-INL).
The advisor likewise will “coordinate procurement activities associated with the MCN capacity-building program, planned as a $25M-per-year program, and work with the contractor(s) to maintain appropriate oversight.”
The State Dept. on March 16 had issued a solicitation for 1,000 bullet-proof vests destined for Karachi, Pakistan, but on April 20 cancelled that procurement without explanation. It’s unclear whether the vests were slated for use by U.S. personnel or would have been for Pakistani forces. (Solicitation #0662-020001A).
The construction of a bombing-practice range in Pakistan also is on the radar screen of the U.S. government, a $10-$25 million project for which the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers back in February began assessing potential contractors. Although the Army has not yet issues a Request for Proposals, it is weighing the interest of companies capable of designing and constructing “urban village mockups,” watch towers, fiber optic links to the Pakistani “defense grid,” and other “Close Air Support Range” infrastructure improvements. (Solicitation #W912ER-11-R-0061).
The National Institute of Health at the U.S. Dept. of Health & Human Services is negotiating a sole-source contract with the Allama Iqbal Medical College to continue researching the genetics of hearing and speech disorders such as stuttering. DNA samples from hundreds of Pakistani families already have been collected via collaborative research among Pakistani, U.S., and European medical experts. “This collaboration involves ascertaining families in Pakistan with hearing and speech disorders and mapping the underlying genes for theses disorders,” NIH says in Solicitation #LG-1547307. The estimated cost of this contract was not disclosed, not could any prior contract awards for this endeavor be located via the federal contracting database.
Despite the escalating rhetoric and congressional hearings on such matters, it does not appear that the U.S. will seriously curtail aid to Pakistan any time soon, as the following excerpts from the above-mentioned CRS report indicates:
Although there is considerable agreement in U.S. government circles that disengaging from Pakistan is an unwise course, intensive congressional scrutiny of U.S. assistance to Pakistan is already underway. In the post 9/11 era, Congress has appropriated more than $20 billion in foreign assistance and military “reimbursements” for Pakistan, placing that country among the top recipients of U.S. financial support over the past decade. The Obama Administration has requested nearly $3 billion in further security- and development-related assistance to Pakistan for FY2012, along with more than $1 billion for continued reimbursements to the Pakistani military…
In the wake of revelations that the world’s most-wanted terrorist had apparently been living for years in a comfortable home in a relatively affluent city and only one kilometer away from Pakistan’s premier military academy, congressional skepticism about the continuation of large aid disbursements to Pakistan has deepened even further. On May 3, 2011, H.R. 1699, the Pakistan Foreign Aid Accountability Act, was introduced in the House. The Act would prohibit future foreign assistance to Pakistan unless the Secretary of State certifies that the Pakistani government was not complicit in hiding OBL. Depending on the course of Pakistan’s future policy statements and levels of cooperation with the United States, Congress may choose to adjust current assistance funding levels. Such funding flows are already hindered by U.S. concerns about corruption and lack of transparency in Pakistan’s implementing partners.
The ongoing insurgency in Afghanistan and its connection to developments in Pakistan remain matters of serious concern to U.S. policy makers. NATO remains reliant upon logistical routes through Pakistan to supply its forces in Afghanistan, and these landlines of communication regularly come under attack by militants. It is widely held that success in Afghanistan cannot come without the close engagement and cooperation of Pakistan, and that the key to stabilizing Afghanistan is to improve the longstanding animosity between Islamabad and Kabul.
The proposed Da Nang Airport clean-up project today took another step toward commencing, as the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) alerted potential contractors to a planned “site visit and pre-proposal conference” that the agency will hold May 25 in Vietnam.
As U.S. Trade & Aid Monitor reported last month, USAID is embarking upon an initiative, formally known as “Environmental Remediation at Da Nang Airport,” to clean up hazardous dioxin-tainted soil stemming from the use of the defoliant Agent Orange. (see Monitor, April 2). The airport had been a primary base of operations for U.S. Armed Forces during the Vietnam conflict, and remains a dioxin “hotspot.” The initiative will focus on the removal and remediation of contaminated soil.
The newly released Request for Proposals (RFP #486-11-028), which the Monitor located through routine federal database research, says the industry gathering will take place at Da Nang Airport, with all attendees first meeting 8:30 A.M. at the Green Plaza Hotel located at 238 Bach Dang St., Da Nang, Vietnam.
The document does not offer more specific details about how contractors can and must carry out the project; because of the large size of the documents, a CD of items such as the technical specifications, dioxin data, a health & safety plan, and a “sampling & analysis plan” will be mailed to potential vendors on request. It did, however, note that the Vietnam Minister of National Defense only recently approved—at least tentatively—the USAID project in recent weeks; discussions, however, between the U.S. and Vietnam about this particular endeavor have been ongoing, and Vietnam’s “final” approval is expected soon, it says.
A cover letter accompanying the RFP points out that USAID and “Vietnam’s Ministry of National Defense (MOD) signed a Memorandum of Intent (MOI) to implement the Environmental Remediation at Da Nang Airport Project on December 30, 2010. This MOI was followed by the Prime Minister of Vietnam accepting the project on February 22, 2011 and the Minister of National Defense approving the project on April 20, 2011. A final agreement on project implementation specifics will be signed by USAID and the MOU imminently.”
The upcoming site visit and conference seeks to “identify and resolve concerns” specific to USAID’s contracting strategy, the RFP says. Possible issues to be addressed include contract terms and conditions, planning schedules, and contractor performance requirements. Information gleaned from the gathering “will be summarized and included in a modification to the solicitation,” it says.
Interested attendees must submit a request to Mr. Craig Riegler, Regional Contracting Officer by e-mail (at criegler@usaid.gov) no later than May 16, 2011. The request to attend, which will be limited to two representatives from each company, “must include the names of attendees and their passport numbers in the request so that they are provided a facilities clearance by the Government of Vietnam.”
“Potential offerors may also submit questions concerning this solicitation in writing to Mr. Craig Riegler, Regional Contracting Officer and Praveena Virasingh, Procurement Specialist, by e-mail (at criegler@usaid.gov and pvirasingh@usaid.gov). The deadline for receipt of questions or requests for clarifications is no later than 4:00pm (Bangkok time), June 8, 2011. No questions will be answered after this deadline.”
Information dissemination, broadcast production, and media analysis are among tasks that a select Dept. of Defense unit may begin outsourcing to industry, The Peacock Report (TPR) has discovered.
The Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) currently is assessing the capabilities of companies that provide such services, according to a “sources sought” notice that TPR located through a routine search of the FedBizOpps database. DTRA describes itself as “the intellectual, technical and operational leader” for DoD and U.S. Strategic Command efforts to detect and combat threats from weapons of mass destruction.
The document does not explicitly state that contractors will be tasked with placing video news releases (VNRs) into mainstream media newscasts -- a controversial government practice that has come under fire from media and congressional critics. However, it specifies that a selected contractor would provide support such as “serving as part of the DTRA synthetic media cell; drafting quick-turn-around articles to support simulated media activities and aiding in webpage operations and the production of broadcast materials and graphics, as needed.”
The contract calls for support of DRTA public affairs personnel in preparation, maintenance, and distribution “on a quick-turn around basis broadcast-quality news stories, news releases, articles, fact sheets, and digital images and productions to targeted audiences.”
Among other duties, the contractor likewise would be responsible for helping to create – and to perform “security reviews” – of internal and external websites, newsletters, PowerPoint presentations, and other media. Additionally, it would conduct daily news analysis and provide briefings to DRTA officials on media coverage of the agency.
The document did not provide an estimated value – nor did it guarantee the awarding -- of future contracts.
(Click here to access the SOURCES SOUGHT NOTICE.)
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