Raytheon [RTN] is confident it will prevail in the Air Force’s Family of Advanced Beyond Line-of-Sight (FAB-T) alternate source competition because it is the only provider of Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) terminals in production for the military’s three branches.
“In the last 10 years, we’ve actually been under three separate contracts by three different services, the Navy, Air Force and Army, to support the new AEHF satellite system,” Raytheon Director of Integrated Communication Systems Business Development Rick Smith told Defense Daily in a phone interview yesterday. “We’ve gone through three full Milestone Cs (and) we’re in production on all three. We’re 3-for-3 right now.”
Raytheon is producing AEHF terminals for the Army’s Secure Mobile Anti-Jam Reliable Tactical Terminal (SMART-T), the Air Force’s Minuteman Minimum Essential Emergency Communications Network Program Upgrade (MMPU) and the Navy’s Multiband Terminal (NMT).
“This is a very complex and difficult waveform to turn into a system that can be used by the military,” Smith said. “Over the last 10 years, we’ve been developing and producing these three different terminals, we’ve worked through and advanced the technology, basically, through each terminal development, SMART-T AEHF to NMT and NMT to MMPU.”
The Air Force plans to award a contract for the basic development effort in September, according to the Request For Proposals (RFP) posted on Federal Business Opportunities. The alternate source contract will feature fixed-price contract line items for the initial development effort followed by two-month options, completion of the initial development and the development of the Tracking, Telemetry and Commanding (TT&C) software.
Smith said if Raytheon emerges victorious, it would have to deliver the first production terminals by 2015.
Gaining use of data rights is also of “significant interest” to the Air Force to ensure future production and maintenance activity, according to the RFP.
Raytheon submitted its bid for the FAB-T alternate source Thursday, one day before deadline. Raytheon’s proposal is fixed-priced, just like original winner Boeing’s [BA] modification to its FAB-T program of record. Boeing and the Air Force reached an agreement in early June to modify the company’s development contract to fixed-price to limit the service’s cost liability (Defense Daily, June 4).
Boeing beat out Raytheon in 2002 in the original FAB-T competition. The Air Force has been concerned Boeing wouldn’t be able to provide the capabilities the service needs for FAB-T, opening a door for Raytheon to get back in the FAB-T business.