Language requiring the Air Force secretary to develop a plan to implement a new acquisition strategy for the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) program made it into the fiscal year 2014 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).

The NDAA specifically requires a general description of how the Air Force secretary, which is now Deborah James, will conduct competition with respect to awarding a contract to certified EELV launch providers as described in a Nov. 27, 2012, Acquisition Decision Memorandum (ADM). Such description may include: proposed cost, schedule and performance; mission assurance activities; the manner in which the contractor will operate under the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR); the effects of other contracts in which the contractor is entered into with the federal government, including the EELV launch vehicle capability contract, the International Space Station (ISS) Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) contracts and all other relevant contracts regarding national security space and strategic programs.

One of United Launch Alliance's Atlas V heavy lift rockets. Photo: ULA.
One of United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V heavy lift rockets. Photo: ULA.

The NDAA requires the Air Force secretary submit this plan when it issues a draft request for proposals (RFP) with respect to a contract for the EELV provider. The federal government wants competition to help drive down the cost of national security space launches, which are currently monopolized by United Launch Alliance (ULA), a joint venture of Lockheed Martin [LMT] and Boeing [BA]. The United States currently has ULA and Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) under contract for EELV missions, which are to assure the federal government access to space. Orbital Sciences [ORB] also wants a piece of the EELV action and expects its Antares two-stage launch vehicle by 2015 to have established a track record using NASA’s Commercial Orbit Transportation Services (COTS) and Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) contracts and have itself “essentially certified.”

The joint explanatory statement (JES) for the compromise version of the NDAA, signed into law in late December, said this requirement to have the Air Force submit a plan for this EELV acquisition strategy was in the House version of the defense authorization bill, but not the Senate committee-reported version. The JES said the compromise was to include the House provision with an amendment requiring the plan be submitted when the Air Force releases its draft RFP for EELV contracts. Requests to the Air Force for comment were not returned by press time.

SpaceX in late 2012 was awarded a pair of EELV-class missions. Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) and Space Test Program-2 (STP-2) will be launched on the company’s Falcon-class launch vehicles in 2014 and 2015, respectively. Both missions fall under Orbital/Suborbital Program-3 (OSP-3), which represents the first Air Force contract designed to provide new entrants to the EELV program an opportunity to demonstrate their vehicle capabilities.

Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics (AT&L) Frank Kendall authorized the Air Force in that Nov. 27, 2012, ADM to no-compete a “block buy” of 36 EELV “cores” to ULA over a span of five years while competing up to 14 cores to other companies. Kendall’s ADM said the Air Force could sole-source those 14 cores to ULA if “competition is not viable at time of need. The ADM said contracts for the 14 competing cores could be awarded as early as fiscal year 2015 for missions that could be flown as early as FY ’17. Lighter launches can use one core while heavy launches may require multiple cores (Defense Daily; Dec. 6, 2012).