Raytheon [RTN] said Monday it won’t protest the Air Force’s multi-billion dollar contract award to Lockheed Martin [LMT] for its long-awaited Space Fence program.
“After reviewing the results of the debrief, we believe not protesting the Space Fence decision is the right thing to do,” company spokesman Michael Nachshen said in a statement.
Nachshen said Raytheon put forward the most affordable, lowest-risk solution, which drew heavily on the company’s experience as the world leader in building large-phased array radars in austere parts of the world, but ultimately fell short.
Lockheed Martin was awarded a nearly $915 million fixed-price-incentive-firm, cost-reimbursable and cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for engineering and manufacturing development (EMD), production and deployment for Space Fence. The Defense Department said earlier in June Lockheed Martin has 52 months from contract award to reach initial operational capability (IOC).
Space Fence is a next-generation radar to help the Air Force keep track of space debris. One radar will be located at Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands and the service would like another located in western Australia, but hasn’t committed to the site (Defense Daily, June 2).