By Ann Roosevelt

Lockheed Martin [LMT] has won out over Boeing [BA] for the $766.1 million contract for the design and development of the military’s next generation Airborne Maritime and Fixed Station Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS AMF) program.

“Lockheed Martin is honored and excited to provide affordable, open, network-enabled, communications out to the tactical edge,” John Mengucci, president of Mission & Combat Support Solutions for Lockheed Martin’s Information Systems & Global Services, said in a statement March 28. “AMF JTRS extends net-centric warfare beyond the command center so this system is crucial to support information sharing and combat readiness, a must for today’s warfighters.”

Lockheed Martin will develop 42 engineering development models of the small airborne configured system, the award, announced March 28, said. While the initial engineering development models for the maritime sets will be configured for destroyers and the small airborne sets generically configured, there are options for additional sets configured for additional waveforms and weapons system platforms.

The contract includes an option for low rate initial production of 45 maritime/fixed stations sets and 104 small airborne sets. Additional options allows for additional sets configured for additional waveforms and other weapons systems/platforms.

Boeing released a statement saying: “The Boeing team is disappointed by [March 28] today’s announcement that the DoD did not select our team to produce the AMF JTRS system. Although disappointed, we will not lose sight of the many other future opportunities in network-centric programs. We look forward to the AMF debrief to understand the customer’s decision.

“This decision will not impact the support to our existing network-enabling and information sharing programs. We continue our efforts to win new business in this area.”

JTRS is a family of advanced communication systems expected to replace current radios in all the services and provide secure Internet-like capabilities and networking to include voice, text, audio, and video. AMF JTRS will be integrated into more than 150 airborne, shipboard and fixed-stations.

The main request for proposal for the AMF JTRS program was released in late January 2007, proposals from Boeing and Lockheed Martin were received and the companies stood by for any questions (Defense Daily, April 2).

Last summer, the program Milestone B was delayed, but in September the program was revamped and the competing contractors updated their proposals (Defense Daily, Feb. 6).

The Defense Department FY ’09 budget requests $834.6 million in research, development, test and evaluation for JTRS-Navy.

The Joint Program Executive Office is responsible for JTRS. The primary support organization for JPEO JTRS is the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command. The FY ’09 program is to design, develop and manufacture JTRS engineering development hardware and software models.

Both Boeing and Lockheed Martin supported and completed the Pre-System Design and Development (SDD) in October (Defense Daily, Oct. 17). In 2004, Boeing won a 25-month, $81 million Pre- SDD contract. Lockheed Martin was awarded a 15-month, $51 million pre-SDD contract. The work was to develop initial architectures and system designs.

The Lockheed Martin team includes BAE Systems, General Dynamics [GD], Raytheon [RTN] and Northrop Grumman.

The Boeing team includes BBN Technologies, Harris [HRS], L-3 Communications [LLL], Milcom Systems Corp., Northrop Grumman [NOC] and Rockwell Collins [COL].