The Air Force last month issued a request for proposals (RFP) for an alternate source for its Family of Advanced Beyond Line of Sight Terminals (FAB-T), according to a notice posted on Federal Business Opportunities.
The service said in March it would issue an RFP for a FAB-T alternate source as a “hedge” against prime contractor Boeing [BA] not being able to provide the capabilities the service needs. Boeing spokesman Matthew Billingsley said yesterday in a statement the company intends on completing its development of the program.
“Boeing is working with our Air Force customer to transition the FAB-T contract to one based on a firm-fixed price structure,” Billingsley said. “We are continuing to execute the FAB-T program of record and look forward to completing the development of the FAB-T system, which provides critically important command and control capabilities to the warfighter.”
Raytheon [RTN] said it will also bid on the FAB-T alternative source.
“Raytheon supports the Air Force’s decision to move forward with an alternate source for FAB-T,” Scott Whatmough, a vice president at Raytheon, said yesterday in a statement. “We are the only provider of Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) terminals that are in production for the Army, Navy and Air Force and look forward to the opportunity to bid on the FAB-T alternate program.”
The Air Force plans to award a contract for “basic development effort” (Fixed Price, Incentive Fee) in the September timeframe, according to the notice.
FAB-T is an information and communications system that provides the link enabling strategic nuclear command and control using the Milstar Extremely High Frequency (EHF) and AEHF waveforms.
The Air Force told Congress and Boeing on Jan. 4 that it intended to terminate the contract, but on Jan. 9, the company submitted a firm fixed-price proposal to the service to complete the FAB-T development and on Jan. 13 issued a “not to exceed” for production. Although they weren’t firm proposals, they were enough to catch the eye of Frank Kendall, the Defense Department’s acting under secretary for acquisition, technology and logistics, who decided it would be “bad business” to not re-evaluate Boeing’s proposals.
FAB-T is managed by the MILSATCOM Systems Directorate at Los Angeles AFB, Calif. (Defense Daily, Feb. 24, 2011).