Congratulations to Halfaker and Associates, LLC on the $10M VA Software Engineering Support Services Revenue Cycle Management contract award.

The technology solutions provider received the award under the Department of Veteran Affairs’ (VA) Transformation Twenty-One Total Technology Next Generation (T4NG) contract vehicle. Halfaker will work with VA’s Office of Community Care (OCC) Revenue Operations (RO) to improve user experience and the quality of Veteran-facing systems by providing project management, requirements analysis, design, development, integration, and testing focused on the Accounts Receivable (AR), Integrated Billing (IB) modules of Veterans Information Systems and Technology Architecture (VistA), Consolidate Billing Statement System (CBSS), and Veterans Billing Statement System (VBS). The SE RCM task is a two-year, $10M program that will support VA’s OCC Revenue Operations.

Headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, Halfaker was founded by Army veteran Dawn Halfaker, who also serves as the company’s CEO.

“As the OCC RO continues to assess, monitor and drive VHA compliance with healthcare regulatory requirements, the systems that enable these operations must continuously mature and evolve in a rapid and scalable manner,” said Ms. Halfaker. “We are ready to support VA’s OCC RO in every aspect of enhancing critical VistA modules so that they can continue to serve our Veterans.”

With a track record of strong VA customer relationships and outstanding performance across large, enterprise-level modernization programs, Halfaker delivers feature-driven agile development, leveraging automated build, test, and deployment processes to guarantee rapid, reliable, timely, and high-quality software releases. Halfaker leverages diverse teams to conduct operations and achieve all program objectives in adherence to VA’s Veteran-focused Integration Process (VIP) guidelines. Their cloud technology experts engineer customer-centric solutions by adapting the latest tools, standards and techniques to meet the client’s strategic goals, modernize mission-critical applications, reduce backend risks, and increase scalability for future optimization.

By Debbie Gregory.

The U.S. Army is looking for ideas on how to develop a non-lethal weapon capable of knocking out remote weapon stations on enemy vehicles without endangering nearby civilians.

Instead of blowing up hostile armored vehicles and the surrounding city block, the Army wants to have the ability to disable them by using nonlethal force, keeping civilian housing, hospitals, schools, mosques safe, avoiding the strong negative sociopolitical ramifications should they be attacked in the normal manner.

“The sociopolitical ramifications of collateral damage, especially the type of damage that can be inflicted with traditional anti-armor assets, have made it increasingly difficult for the dismounted soldier to engage lightly armored vehicles,” according to an April 20 solicitation.

The April 20th solicitation was posted on a government website for the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program, which is designed to encourage small business to engage in federal research and development.

Remote weapon stations, or RWS, are “often highly instrumented to provide vision, range finding as well as weapon stabilization,” the Army explains. “If the instrumentation can be blinded or the stabilization destroyed, they become far less dangerous to the dismounted soldier and the civilian population as a whole. If the entire electronics of the RWS can be disrupted, even basic traversing and firing functions become disabled.”

The solicitation, which closed to submissions June 20, suggests another soft spot, targeting a vehicle’s mobility, such as its engine. “It is imperative that these mechanisms are not viewed as lethal to bystanders,” the Army says.

The armor disablement weapon also needs to have enough range (more than a hundred yards) to keep dismounted U.S. soldiers far away enough from heavily armed vehicles. Other specifications include less than five pounds in weight, the ability to disable a vehicle in less than five minutes, and capable of targeting buildings.

Be sure to visit https://www.voiceamerica.com/episode/110372/vamboa to hear VAMBOA founder and CEO Debbie Gregory interviewed by Gary Ray Bugnacki on the American Heroes Network.

By Debbie Gregory.

The U.S. Department of Defense and Lockheed Martin Corp. have reached an $11.5 billion deal for 141 F-35 stealth fighter jets that brings the aircraft to its lowest price in program history.

Most of the jets are for the U.S. military, and others are for a number of allied countries.

The $11.5 billion contract is for 102 A-variant of the stealth fighter jet used by the Air Force, 25 of the B-variant used by the Marine Corps, and 14 of the C-variant used by the Navy. The prices will come in at 5 to 11 percent less than previous rates.

“Driving down cost is critical to the success of this program,” Vice Adm. Mat Winter, the F-35 program executive officer, said in the statement. “We are delivering on our commitment to get the best price for taxpayers and warfighters.”

The Navy will see the biggest price drop under the deal. The 14 new aircraft-carrier variants of the Lightning II will cost $107.7 million each — an 11.1 percent drop from the $121.2 million price tag on the last batch.

The Marine Corps will see a 5.7 percent drop on its short-takeoff and landing variant, down  from the $122.4 million under the last deal. The Air Force’s savings come in at a 5.4 percent decrease.

The White House has been critical of the F-35 program for delays and cost overruns, but the price per jet has declined as production increased. The price of the last batch of F-35A’s in 2017 cost 7 percent less than the previous jet order.

Prices should continue to fall, as Lockheed ramps up production to meet the military’s requirements in coming years.

The F-35 program is aiming to expand the fleet to more than 3,000 jets and bring the unit price of the F-35A closer to $80 million in 2020 through efficiencies gained by ordering in larger quantifies.

By Debbie Gregory.

An Airman from the 92nd Maintenance Group used his innovative ideas to potentially save the KC-135 Stratotanker fleet more than $1 million in parts and man-hours by creating a unique piece of equipment.

Tech Sgt. Shawn Roberge has developed a mechanism to hold the landing-gear doors closed on the nose of the 1950’s era plane, a problem persists with every KC-135.

“The KC-135 has areas prone to damage,” Roberge said. “One of the major areas is where the nose landing doors catch on the outside fuselage skin, tearing it from the current frame design.”

The mechanism could potentially save the Air Force about $1.5 million if Roberge’s invention is used on the entire fleet of 431 Stratotankers that are still in commission.

Roberge created the part with aluminum, keeping it simple, sturdy and durable. The design incorporates three arms that are connected by hinges. Two arms secure it to the underside of the wheel well of the aircraft’s nose, and the third arm hangs down below the doors. When Roberge swings the doors up, a latch on the third arm locks them into place.

Roberge’s design is one fourth the weight of his previous steel design.

When the plane is in flight and preparing to land, two doors open on the bottom of the plane’s nose, and out spring the landing gear and its wheels. But when the plane is being taxied around the air base for repair, the doors must be held shut.

The old technology, which consists of a webbed strap to keep the doors closed, causes the edges of the doors to snag and peel back the sheet metal. Each time it happens, it causes about $3,500 in repair time and material costs.

Roberge’s invention solves the problem.

“The Air Force is empowering our airmen to think outside the box,” Roberge said. “In the past, you couldn’t do that.”