Aggressive partners over COVID-19

The Defense Department continues to “aggressively partner” with the defense industry to mitigate impacts from the COVID-19 national emergency, Lt. Col. Mike Andrews, Pentagon spokesman said in a DoD media release March 28. Under Secretary of Defense Ellen Lord's Acquisition and Sustainment leaders in Industrial Policy, Defense Pricing and Contracting, Defense Logistics Agency (DLA), Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) and the Defense Contracting Management Agency (DCMA) continue to work closely with the military services, the Capitol Hill and state governors “to make significant progress supporting the whole of government effort to combat COVID-19.” DLA modified an existing contract recently for the procurement of 8,000 ventilators from four vendors worth an estimated $84.4M. Delivery will be “time-phased” over several months and shipments started “within the next few days,” he continued, with 1,400 deliveries by early May. FEMA will determine delivery locations. DLA also is supporting the Navy hospital ships, USNS Comfort and USNS Mercy, to the tune of more than $2M in pharmaceuticals and medical supplies. DTRA has helped deliver six C-17 military air shipments, totaling 3M COVID-19 test kit swabs, in support of medical professionals’ testing needs. DTRA will continue to work with the Transportation Command to support future deliveries. Future flights starting (this coming week) will increase test kit numbers in the months ahead. DoD continues to partner with industry to retool and re-mission production lines to manufacture masks, gowns, ventilators and other critical personal protective equipment. (Source: DoD 03/28/20) https://www.defense.gov/Newsroom/Releases/Release/Article/2129497/partnering-with-the-us-defense-industrial-base-to-combat-covid-19/