By Debbie Gregory.

Sean C. Page is going to prison. The 45-year-old man from Frisco, Texas was convicted of using his father’s identity to land lucrative federal government contracts under a set-aside program for disabled veterans.

Page, who has never served in the military, was sentenced to serve six year in federal prison for theft of government property and two counts of aggravated identity theft. He was convicted by a jury in February.

He used his father’s name and Social Security number to cash in on his veteran disability status, according to prosecutors.

Dalton Page was unaware of his son’s illegal activities. The combat veteran served in the U.S. Army for 17 years, and was awarded two Bronze Stars during his service in Vietnam, and received a disability rating of 100 percent upon discharge.

Page scammed the federal contracting program out of about $1.2 million with 14 contracts from 2009 to 2013 using two companies he formed, according to officials.

He created 12G Resources Group and Premier Building Maintenance to provide general services such as cleaning and landscape work for veteran-owned facilities, the indictment said.

The programs are for the benefit of service disabled veteran businesses.

“Those who steal and attempt to steal monies from these programs will be vigorously prosecuted,” said U.S. Attorney John M. Bales of the Eastern District of Texas.

Dalton Page said, “Sean is my son, but those programs are set aside for GIs such as myself. I am very disappointed in him getting those contracts like that. The contracts were put in my name. He had me backed in a corner.”

Page continued to do federal contract work after his October 2014 arraignment in violation of a federal judge’s order, court records show. He earned $35,175 from a landscaping and snow removal job with the Veterans Medical Center of Salt Lake City while he was out on bond.

By Debbie Gregory.

UnitedHealthcare is in good company as Health Net Federal Services and WellPoint Military Care have joined in on the protest of the awarding of the military contract to manage the Tricare health program.

The contract, called T-2017 and awarded in July, is worth up to $58 billion and oversees private health services for nearly 9.4 million military family members, retirees and active duty personnel.

Health Net Federal Services, which now manages the Tricare North Region and was awarded the contract to manage Tricare’s West region, filed a protest over the Defense Department’s decision to give the East region contract to Humana Government Business.

The Defense Department and the Defense Health Agency said in 2014 that they would shift Tricare from a three-region system—North, South and West—to two coverage areas.

The brand new East region is a consolidation of the North and South regions

The West region contract has a maximum value of $18 billion over six years, while the six-year East region contract is potentially worth $41 billion.

WellPoint Military Care, a division of Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield, was created to vie for the lucrative contract.

UnitedHealth Military & Veterans, which manages the Tricare West contract, was the first to file protests over the awards. It was not selected to manage either of the new consolidated regions.

A Pentagon spokesman said the protest will not affect health care services for Tricare beneficiaries, adding that the current contracts will remain in place until all protests are resolved.

The Defense Health Agency has 30 days to respond to the protests. The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) is expected to rule on the bid protest by November 9, 2016.

By Debbie Gregory.

The U.S. Air Force has asked defense firms to bid to supply new intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) and Long-Range Standoff Weapons (LRSOs), which are nuclear cruise missiles. It is rumored that the Air Force intends this next generation of ICBMs will have the capability to be deployed on mobile launchers.

A 2014 report by the RAND Corp. on the future of the ICBM force said a “mobile missile must be designed and built to more-demanding specifications then a silo-based ICBM, such as remaining “reliable under the rigors of periodic movement.” The Minuteman III currently is not capable of being put on a mobile platform.

The controversial move comes during a time of heightened tensions with Russia.

Ten senators, all Democrats, have asked the Obama administration to scale back plans for new nuclear weapons, as well as the bombers and submarines that would be used to transport them. The senators specifically called for canceling LRSO, saying it could save taxpayers $20 billion.

“Nuclear war poses the gravest risk to American national security,” the senators wrote.

In a statement, Air Force officials  said they would choose up to two contractors by the fourth quarter of 2017 to build the new cruise missiles. Those two contractors will then compete for 54 months “to complete a preliminary design with demonstrated reliability and manufacturability, which will be followed by a competitive down-select to a single contractor.”

The Air Force maintains that the new cruise missile is necessary to replace its current air-launched cruise missiles, which were designed in the 1970s and built in the 1980s. The Air Force wants the new missiles by 2030.

The Pentagon wants to deploy the new ICBMs in the late 2020s.

Boeing Co was awarded a $3.2 billion contract modification to a previously awarded contract for Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) tailkits, according to the Pentagon.

The contract for the tailkits, which use GPS to boost accuracy for conventional bombs, was raised from an initial $1.75 billion contract awarded on Oct. 30, 2014, due to warfighter demand and to replenish depleted inventories, the Pentagon said in a statement.

The JDAM tailkit converts existing unguided free-fall bombs into accurate, adverse weather “smart” munitions. With the addition of a new tail section that contains an inertial navigational system and a global positioning system guidance control unit, JDAM improves the accuracy of unguided, general purpose bombs in any weather condition.

Once released from the aircraft, the JDAM autonomously navigates to the designated target coordinates. Target coordinates can be loaded into the aircraft before takeoff, manually altered by the aircrew before weapon release, or automatically entered through target designation with onboard aircraft sensors.

With a range of more than 15 nautical miles, JDAM can defeat high-value targets in any weather, day or night, with minimal risk to air crews. This system works fine even in bad weather, because the JDAM gets all its information from satellite signals, which aren’t blocked by cloud cover or obstacles. The bomb doesn’t have to see anything at all to find its way to the target.

New variants such as Laser JDAM and JDAM Extended Range allow warfighters to prosecute moving targets and deploy the weapon from greater distances, capabilities that come with little to no development risk since they are based on proven technology.

The JDAM played a major role in the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, and it will certainly play a significant role in any U.S. bombing campaigns in the near future. While the newest smart bombs aren’t 100 percent accurate, they are such an improvement over their predecessors.

More than 260,000 JDAM kits have been built at Boeing’s production facility in St. Charles, MO.

JDAM is a joint U.S. Air Force and Department of Navy program.

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has awarded $22.3 billion in contracts to 21 large businesses, small businesses and Service-Disabled Veteran Owned Small Businesses (SDVOSBs). The contracts will be in support of information technology infrastructure improvements, cyber security and operations and network management. This is a boon for veteran business owners.

The awards are part of VA’s Transformation Twenty-One Total Technology Next Generation acquisition program, also known as T4NG.

“This T4NG award is one of the many ways the Department is supporting the MyVA breakthrough initiatives by directly providing the technology that our Veterans need to support the services they receive from VA,” said Secretary Robert McDonald. “The T4NG will help meet and strengthen VA’s long-term technology needs.”

Of the 21 contract awarded, 10 were made to Service-Disabled Veteran Owned Small Businesses (SDVOSBs), two awards were made to small businesses, and nine awards were made to large businesses.

T4NG is the largest Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity contract awarded out of the VA. The T4NG program will replace the original T4 multiple-award contract that expires in June 2016.

The Service Disabled Veteran Owned Small Businesses awarded the contracts are:

AbleVets, LLC, B3 Group, Inc., Fairfax, VA,  Business Information Technology Solutions, Inc., Falls Church, VA, Favor TechConsulting, LLC, Richmond, VA, Halfaker & Associates, LLC, Arlington, VA, HMS Technologies, LLC, Martinsburg, WV, Intelligent Waves, LLC, Reston, VA, Liberty IT Solutions, LLC, Herndon, VA, Nester Consulting LLC, dba GovernmentCIO, Columbia, MD and TISTA Science and Technology Corp., Rockville, MD.

T4NG is a Multi-Agency (MAC) Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) Multiple Award Task Order (MATO) contract with a base ordering period of 5 years and one 5-year option period, with a program ceiling of $22.3 billion.  The contract is being managed by VA’s Technology Acquisition Center in Eatontown, New Jersey.

We hope the government will continue to seek out and support Veteran Business Owners and Service Disabled Veteran Business Owners and award contracts to them.