The Air Force said Monday it awarded Lockheed Martin [LMT], Raytheon [RTN] and Northrop Grumman [NOC] approximately $35 million firm fixed price contracts for the Pre-Engineering and Manufacturing Development (Pre-EMD) period of the Three-Dimensional Expeditionary Long-Range Radar (3DELRR).
The contracts are also for preliminary design review (PDR) and capability demonstration of radar prototypes, according to the Air Force.
The 3DELRR will be the principal Air Force long-range, ground-based sensor for detecting, identifying, tracking and reporting aircraft and missiles in support of theater commanders, according to the Air Force. It will replace the service’s current long-range radar, the TPS-75.
Lockheed Martin was awarded an approximately $36 million contract. The company said in a July 5 statement its 3DELRR prototype was currently tracking air targets.
Lockheed Martin spokesman Chip Eschenfelder said in an email Tuesday the company’s extensive experience in long-range radars makes it the right solution for the Air Force’s need.
“With 178 long-range radars operational around the world, Lockheed Martin knows the mission of long-range radar operators, including the importance of extended surveillance capabilities to detect emerging threats,” Eschenfelder said. “Lockheed Martin has made significant investments to reduce risk and drive affordability for the 3DELRR program. Our technology is mature and we can offer that radar affordably to the Air Force today.”
Raytheon was awarded a $35.2 million contract. Company spokesman Mike Nachshen Tuesday in an email emphasized Raytheon’s long-range radar reliability and affordability makes it the best choice. Saab Sensis, a subsidiary of Saab, is a subcontractor on Raytheon’s offer.
“We are confident our team will provide the Air Force a reliable and affordable solution that meets the warfighter’s requirements for a next-generation expeditionary long-range radar, and look forward to the future success of the program,” Nachshen said.
Northrop Grumman was awarded a $34.7 million contract. Company Vice President and General Manager for Land Self-Protection Systems Jeff Palombo told Defense Daily in a phone interview Tuesday the company will modify its AN/TPS-80 radar for the 3DELRR competition.
“First thing is we have mature product that we’re leveraging here,” Palombo said. “Second thing is because of the cost of the design, we believe there is a significant near-term cost savings for the air force for (the) EMD (engineering, manufacturing and development phase) because we don’t have to do a ‘bottoms-up’ design. We’ll be modifying that particular configuration to be specific to the Air Force for the 3DELRR program.”
The Air Force announced in March it was moving forward with a revised acquisition strategy for 3DELRR. The revised strategy includes a minimum of three full and open competitions to reach full operational capability. The third competition will award scope beyond Milestone B to a single contractor.
The Air Force said firm fixed-price and/or fixed-price incentive firm contracts are planned for EMD periods. The service said it previously planned to award cost-plus-incentive-fee contracts.
3DELRR Program Manager Air Force Lt. Col. Brian McDonald said in a service statement while there has been no change in the 3DELRR requirements since Technical Requirement Documents Revision D was posted last October, the Air Force plans to issue a new revision, during the period of performance, against which successful bidders would produce their preliminary designs.
“We need to look closely at cost versus capability,” McDonald said. “The first contractual activity is to complete detailed analyses of top cost drivers to see how cost varies as capability is incremented. Are there relatively large cost savings to be gained by relatively small reductions in capability, and, if so, what’s the risk?”
The Marine Corps is also interested in 3DELRR as a replacement for its AN/TPS-59 ballistic missile defense (BMD) radar (Defense Daily, Sept. 29).