Interocean American Shipbuilding has been awarded a $28.2-million contract for the operation and maintenance of a platform to host the Sea-Based X-Band (SBX-1) radar, the Pentagon said recently.
The platform will in based in the Pacific Ocean as part of the Ground-Based Midcourse Defense System (GMD) for long-range missile defense.
The SBX-1 is designed to provide ballistic missile-tracking information to the GMD.
The contract includes four one-year options ad if all are exercised the total contract amount could reach $165.2 million.
Five companies placed bids for the contract, the Defense Department said.
HEADLINE> Congress Finalizes Four-Week DoD Funding Plan
The House is poised to take up a government-funding plan tomorrow that would temporarily cover the Pentagon for the next month and also deal NASA a full-blown budget that is smaller than the White House wanted.
A conference committee of House and Senate lawmakers recently finalized the legislation, which includes three fiscal year 2012 appropriations bills–for Commerce-Justice- Science, which includes NASA, as well as Agriculture and Transportation-HUD–along with a continuing resolution (CR) temporarily funding the Pentagon and rest of the federal government until Dec. 16.
NASA backer Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) touted the appropriations plan for the space agency recently, saying that even despite the tough economy, “Congress has found enough money for NASA to build a new rocket for deep-space travel while also working with private companies on developing a commercial space taxi.”
The House could take up the legislative package tomorrow, after the House Rules Committee vets it. Senate action will follow soon.
FY ’12 began Oct. 1, and the Pentagon has been running on a different CR that runs and sets funding at 1.4 percent below FY ’11 levels. The new agreement would extend that date by four weeks. When the defense budget is covered by a CR, the Pentagon cannot enter into new contracts.
NASA is one of the federal agencies that would receive full-blown appropriations legislation for FY ’12 in the deal poised for House consideration tomorrow.
The space shop would receive a $17.8 billion budget, which is more than the $16.8 billion House appropriators called for back in July and just shy of the $17.9 billion Senate appropriators approved for NASA in September.
The final deal includes $406 million for NASA’s new Commercial Crew program, less than the $500 million the Senate wanted but more than the House’s $312 million. The White House requested $850 million for the controversial effort to help commercial space companies that could carry crew and cargo to low-Earth orbit.
In recent weeks aerospace firms and former astronauts have sent lawmakers letters advocating for the full $850 million. A Nov. 7 missive to House and Senate NASA appropriations leaders, signed by former astronauts including Buzz Aldrin, argued: “Commercial Crew represents the most rapid way for America to get back its human space transportation capability following retirement of the Space Shuttle, and for America to end the ‘gap’ in human spaceflight.”
The legislative package contains a total of $3.6 million for human-exploration, which breaks down to $1.8 billion for building a new heavy-lift rocket and $1.2 billion to continue developing the accompanying Orion crew capsule.
For the Pentagon, lawmakers have done some work on a FY ’12 defense appropriations bill, versions of which cleared the House in July and Senate Appropriations Committee (SAC) in September. The new CR will cover defense funding until the Senate takes up the defense spending plan.
The White House’s Office of Management and Budget said in October it supports the SAC’s version of the Pentagon bill, which would set its budget at $513 billion, the same amount as in FY ’11 and $26 billion what the Pentagon initially requested. The frozen funding is meant to jibe with the Budget Control Act of 2011, which President Barack Obama signed in August.