The Air Force on Monday awarded a pair of contracts to Boeing [BA] and Arctic Slope Technical Services (ARTS) under its Booster Propulsion Technology Maturation Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) solicitation, according to an announcement posted on Federal Business Opportunities (FBO).
Boeing received $6.2 million for “additively manufactured high pressure engine dome” to develop a full scale, complex, thick-walled engine component that advances additive manufacturing state of the art. This is targeted for integration into an engine development. ARTS received $3.7 million for “a low cost, high performance preburner for oxygen rich staged combustion.” ARTS will develop a preburner that implements a “continuous dilution” approach to minimize preburner exit thermal gradients to enhance system reliability and reduce life cycle cost.
The Air Force says it will award a portfolio of investments through this BAA in the focus areas of material manufacturing and development and advanced technologies. This and subsequent BAA awards are part of a comprehensive Air Force plan to transition off the Russian-supplied RD-180 propulsion system used on the Atlas V rocket.
The Air Force in late 2015 awarded six organizations contracts under this BAA. The Johns Hopkins University (JHU) Whiting School of Engineering received a pair of contracts while Tanner Research, Moog [MOOG], Orbital ATK [OA], Aerojet Rocketdyne [AJRD] and Northrop Grumman [NOC] all received contract awards.
Air Force spokeswoman Alicia Garges said Tuesday the service will award one more contract under this BAA. She expected this contract to be awarded shortly with an announcement made on FBO.