Acquisition headlines

More delays ahead? Amazon ‘Quite Likely’ to Prove Pentagon Made an Evaluation Error in JEDI Cloud Contract, Judge Says. So much for the economies of scale from one big deal.

This $15 3D-Printed Tool Will Save the Air Force Millions. Tremendous stuff: “A new tool developed by an Air Force noncommissioned officer [Staff Sgt. Patrick Leach] allows maintainers to more efficiently look for fuel leaks. The tool costs just $15 but will save the military branch at least $1.5 million a year.”

USS Ford’s First Lower-Stage Elevator Nears Operation. “Unlike the weapons elevators aboard previous generations of American carriers, Ford’s are electromagnetically powered, and the technology behind them was not developed to maturity before installation.”

One step forward, two steps back? “The acting secretary of the Navy told the Senate Armed Services Committee that the Navy might not stick with the Ford design after work is complete on CVN-81.” Lucky we locked ourselves into a block buy of CVN-80 and 81 so we have “breathing room,” as SecNav puts it, to think about changing the design… which is crazy considering CVN-81 won’t be laid down until 2023 (if everything is on time) and commissioned in 2030. That’s a long time to knowingly live with the construction of a deficient design.

Pentagon wants more data from Lockheed Martin in exchange for F-35 performance-based logistics deal. The JPO kind of has leverage in holding the next PBL contract over Lockheed’s head to get back some data rights to its own F-35 system. But who can hold out longer? I remember the Pentagon unilaterally signed a contract when it reached an impasse on LRIP 9.

F-35 program head pushes back on Elon Musk’s critique of the Joint Strike Fighter.

Here’s what we know about the Space Force’s acquisitions plan. SMC, Space Rapid Capabilities Office, and the Space Development Agency will all be put under a new Space Systems Command… didn’t say anything about how that’s aligning with SMC 2.0.

NAVSEA Considering Changing Pricing Of Ship Maintenance Awards. “The Navy moved from cost-plus contracts that gave a single yard several year’s worth of guaranteed work on a single ship class, to using a fixed-price contract mechanism where shipyards bid on each ship due for work individually to increase competition for work and decrease prices.”

What everyone’s talking about: Pentagon teeing up nine programs to test new ‘color of money’ for software development.

The Trouble with Megaprojects. Recommended by Bent Flyvbjerg. This was interesting: “… when the Suez Canal was constructing more than 150 years ago, it cost 1900% more than initial estimates.”

Scientists Are Starting to Take Warp Drives Seriously, Especially This One Concept. Here it is in layman’s terms: “… the Alcubierre Drive achieves FTL travel by stretching the fabric of space-time in a wave, causing the space ahead of it to contract while the space behind it expands.”

Pentagon launches hypersonic industrial base study. “We’re obviously in a position now to develop concepts, develop prototypes, but producing at scale is a different proposition.”

SpaceX’s Starship rocket prototype collapsed on itself this weekend. Elon Musk acknowledged the incident on Twitter, sharing a video and writing, “It’s fine, we’ll just buff it out.”

Anyone surprised? First SLS launch now expected in second half of 2021.

Army Sets Timeline for JLTV Recompete Contract. That’s in 4th quarter of FY 2022. “The current manufacturer, Oshkosh Defense, sold the technical data rights to the Army in 2016 paving the way for the program to find another contractor who could perhaps offer a lower manufacturing price.”

Kratos begins XQ-58A Valkyrie production, despite funding delay caused by mishap. Kratos stock fell 22% on Feb 26. “That funding was delayed as the US Department of Defense (DoD) investigated an “anomaly” that caused the UAV to be damaged on landing after its third test flight.” How come the Air Force didn’t pull funds so quick from other programs that ran into problems?

Palantir seals its first major U.S. Navy deal as Raytheon is passed over. “The sole-source contract, worth about $80 million, calls for a logistics management system for the service branch’s warships and aircraft scattered across the globe.” Palantir did about $160 million in government business last year.