Monday, May 09, 2011

DTN News: U.S. Department of Defense Contracts Dated May 9, 2011

DTN News: U.S. Department of Defense Contracts Dated May 9, 2011
(NSI News Source Info) WASHINGTON - May 9, 2011: U.S. Department of Defense, Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Public Affairs) Contracts issued May 9, 2011 are undermentioned;

CONTRACTS

DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY

Valero Marketing and Supply Co., San Antonio, Texas, was awarded a fixed-price with economic price adjustment, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract with a maximum $109,797,072 for aviation turbine fuel. Other location of performance is Texas City, Texas. Using service is Defense Logistics Agency Energy. The date of performance completion is Oct. 30, 2011. The Defense Logistics Agency Energy, Fort Belvoir, Va., is the contracting activity (SP0600-11-D-0493).

Refinery Associates of Texas, Inc.*, New Braunfels, Texas, was awarded a fixed-price with economic price adjustment, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract with a maximum $69,447,236 for naval distillate fuel. Other location of performance is Pasadena, Texas. Using service is Defense Logistics Agency Energy. The date of performance completion is Oct. 30, 2011. The Defense Logistics Agency Energy, Fort Belvoir, Va., is the contracting activity (SP0600-11-D-0492).

Gary-Williams Energy Corp.*, Denver, Colo., was awarded a fixed-price with economic price adjustment, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract with a maximum $40,597,534 for aviation turbine fuel. Other location of performance is Oklahoma. Using service is Defense Logistics Agency Energy. The date of performance completion is Oct. 30, 2011. The Defense Logistics Agency Energy, Fort Belvoir, Va., is the contracting activity (SP0600-11-D-0487).

NAVY

Metro Machine Corp., Norfolk, Va., is being awarded a $78,836,991 modification under previously awarded contract (N00024-09-C-4416) for amphibious landing ship USS Ashland’s (LSD 48) modernization, upgrades, preservations, and alterations in support of the multi-ship, multi-option (MSMO) LSD mid-life extension. The LSD MSMO was developed to provide extended dry docking, modernization, upgrades, repairs and alterations to several shipboard systems such as the engineering control systems, power management platform, and chilled water distribution systems for the LSD-class amphibious landing ships. Work will be performed in Norfolk, Va., and is expected to be completed by Jan. 25, 2012. Contract funds in the amount of $45,388,617 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Norfolk Ship Support Activity, Norfolk, Va., is the contracting activity.

Oto Melara North America, Inc., Washington, D.C., is being awarded a $6,956,213 firm-fixed-price contract for the procurement and fabrication of one 76 mm MK75 MOD 2 gun mount, associated spares, and engineering services for gun mount installation and testing, in support of the Egyptian Fast Missile Craft Program. This contract includes options which, if exercised, would bring the cumulative value of this contract to $8,290,515. This contract involves foreign military sales to Egypt. Work will be performed in La Spezia, Italy (63 percent); Lester, Pa. (21 percent); Washington, D.C. (15 percent); and Atlantic Beach, Fla. (1 percent). Work is expected to be completed by December 2013. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was not competitively procured. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity (N00024-11-C-5453).

MISSILE DEFENSE AGENCY

The Missile Defense Agency is awarding to Lockheed Martin Space Systems Co., Sunnyvale, Calif., a fixed-price-incentive, firm target contract modification (#P00054) under contract HQ0147-07-C-0196. The total face value of this contract modification is $59,967,276, raising the total contract value to $1,640,464,542. Under this modification, Lockheed Martin Space Systems will manufacture and deliver six transporters, six missile round pallets, and associated spares to support batteries three and four for the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense Program. The work will be managed in Sunnyvale, Calif., with final assembly performed in Troy, Ala. The performance period is extended from April 2011 to August 2013. Fiscal 2010 procurement funds in the amount of $59,967,276 will be used to fund this contract modification in its entirety. The Missile Defense Agency, Huntsville, Ala., is the contracting activity.

AIR FORCE

Lockheed Martin Corp., Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control, Orlando, Fla., is being awarded a $45,757,735 firm-fixed-price contract modification for an increase quantity buy of 75 baseline missiles for the Joint-Air-to-Surface-Missiles Program Office. At this point, $45,757,735 has been obligated. Work will be performed in Orlando, Fla. The AAC/EBJK, Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., is the contracting activity (FA8682-11-C-0001, P0002).

Lockheed Martin Corp., Lockheed Martin MS2 Tactical Systems, Eagan, Minn., is being awarded a $26,029,218 firm-fixed-price/cost-plus-fixed-fee contract to provide a turn-key Long Range Radar 2 site for the Iraqi Air Force. This is a foreign military sales contract. At this point, $13,014,609 has been obligated. Work will be performed in Eagan, Minn. The Electronic Systems Center/HSGK, Hanscom Air Force Base, Mass., is the contracting activity (FA8707-11-C-0007).

Lockheed Martin Corp., Lockheed Martin Space Systems Co., Sunnyvale, Calif., is being awarded a $21,306,143 cost-plus-award-fee contract modification to develop software changes in three areas to the Advanced Extremely High Frequency Program. At this point, $19,031,401 has been obligated. Work will be performed in Sunnyvale, Calif., and King of Prussia, Pa. The Air Force Space and Missiles Center, SMC/PKJ, El Segundo, Calif., is the contracting activity (F04701-02-C-0002, P00483).

Essex Electro Engineers, Inc., Schaumburg, Ill., is being awarded a $6,516,300 firm-fixed-price contract for the production of two 75- kilowatt ground power units. At this point, $457,500 has been obligated. Work will be performed in Cook County, N.J. W-R ALC/GRVKBB, Robins Air Force Base, Ga., is the contracting activity (FA8533-11-D-0005).

*Small business

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DTN News - OSAMA BIN LADEN & PAKISTAN NEWS: Pakistan PM Rejects Accusations Over Bin Laden As Absurd

DTN News - OSAMA BIN LADEN & PAKISTAN NEWS: Pakistan PM Rejects Accusations Over Bin Laden As Absurd
(NSI News Source Info) ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - May 9, 2011: Pakistan Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani on Monday rejected allegations that the killing of Osama bin Laden by U.S. troops in the country showed Pakistani incompetence or complicity in hiding the al Qaeda leader.

Opposition politicians have stepped up their criticism of Pakistan's leaders over the killing of bin Laden in a raid by U.S. special forces in a northern Pakistani town on May 2.

Pakistan welcomed the death of bin Laden, who plotted the Sept. 11, 2001, airliner attacks on the United States, as a step in the fight against militancy but also complained that the raid was a violation of its sovereignty.

The fact that bin Laden was found hiding in the garrison town of Abbottabad, 50 km (30 miles) from the capital, has led to accusations that Pakistani security agencies were either incompetent or sheltering the world's most wanted man.

"Allegations of complicity or incompetence are absurd," Gilani said in a televised address to parliament, adding that it was disingenuous for anyone to accuse Pakistan, including its spy agency, of "being in cahoots" with the al Qaeda network.

The U.S. raid has added to strains in ties between Islamabad and Washington, which are crucial to combating Islamist militants and to bringing stability to Afghanistan.

The United States has stopped short of accusing Pakistan of providing shelter to bin Laden but Islamabad is under pressure to explain how bin Laden found refuge.

Gilani warned that unilateral actions such as the U.S. Navy SEALs swoop on bin Laden's hideout ran the risk of serious consequences, but he added that Pakistan attached high importance to its relations with the United States.

Pakistan's main opposition party has called on Gilani and President Asif Ali Zardari to resign over the breach of sovereignty by U.S. special forces who slipped in from Afghanistan on helicopters to storm the compound where bin Laden was holed up.

"I think it is a big blow to Pakistan's sovereignty, Pakistan's independence and Pakistan's self-respect," former prime minister Nawaz Sharif told reporters in Lahore. "Pakistan is in a grave crisis and is surrounded by big danger."

Domestic critics say the U.S. raid also raises questions about the safety of Pakistan's cherished nuclear weapons but Gilani said any move against them would be met with "a matching response".

"Pakistan reserves the right to retaliate with full force," he said.

TENSE RELATIONS WITH WASHINGTON

Pakistani-U.S. relations were already fragile after a string of diplomatic disputes over issues including a big attack by a U.S. drone aircraft in March and Raymond Davis, a CIA contractor who shot dead two Pakistanis in the city of Lahore in January.

Potentially stirring tension further, a Pakistani TV channel and a newspaper published what they said was the name of the undercover CIA station chief in Islamabad.

The U.S. embassy declined to comment, but said no one of that name worked at the mission in Pakistan.

Last year, after the chief of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency was named in a U.S. civil case over attacks on the Indian city of Mumbai, the then-head of the CIA's Islamabad station was named by Pakistani media and forced to leave the country.

The government and military have been embarrassed by the discovery of bin Laden in Abbottabad, near the country's main military academy.

"If he was really living in that compound for five years ... then why didn't our agencies discover him?" former foreign minister Khursheed Mehmood Kasuri told reporters. "This has given anti-Pakistani elements a chance to ridicule us."

But Gilani said he had full confidence in the armed forces and the military's ISI which he called a "national asset". The military would brief parliament in a closed session on Friday.

OBAMA SUSPECTS SUPPORT NETWORK

U.S. President Barack Obama said on Sunday that bin Laden likely had "some sort" of a support network inside Pakistan, but added it would take investigations by Pakistan and the United States to find out just what the nature of that support was.

"We think that there had to be some sort of support network for bin Laden inside of Pakistan. But we don't know who or what that support network was," Obama said.

"We don't know whether there might have been some people inside of government, people outside of government, and that's something that we have to investigate, and more importantly, the Pakistani government has to investigate," he added.

Suspicion has deepened that the pervasive ISI, which has a long history of contacts with militant groups, may have had ties with the al Qaeda leader -- or that some of its agents did.

Some Pakistani analysts suspect powerful figures knew where bin Laden was hiding.

"Somebody in a position of authority had to know," said security analyst Ayesha Siddiqa, author of "Military Inc", which analyses the army's tight security, political and economic hold over Pakistan.

Siddiqa said the army and ISI's entrenched strategy of using violent militant groups as a counterweight against India may have been why the security establishment turned a blind eye to bin Laden, possibly regarding his network of followers as an asset against Indian influence.

Talat Masood, a retired general and defence analyst, said that if there was official collusion to keep bin Laden secure it was most likely provided at a local level.

"I feel definitely there were influential people who were protecting him," he said.

Pakistani security officials have reacted with scepticism to a U.S. assertion that bin Laden was actively engaged in directing his far-flung network from his Abbottabad compound.

Washington has said that, based on a trove of information that would fill a small college library seized in the raid, the hide-out was an "active command and control centre" for al Qaeda where he was involved in plotting attacks on the United States.

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Time to bury the idea of strategic asset

The Hindu - ‎28 minutes ago‎
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Hindustan Times - ‎1 hour ago‎
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About Anwar al-Awlaki, Mr President …

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Boston Herald - Chris Cassidy - ‎2 hours ago‎
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