By Marina Malenic
Two industry teams have submitted their proposals to build the Air Force’s next-generation Small Diameter Bomb (SDB II), a program that is expected to lead the way for fixed- price competitions in Defense Department weapons purchasing.
Raytheon [RTN] and a Boeing [BA]-Lockheed Martin [LMT] team submitted proposals last month. Both teams have been working under 24-month, $150 million development contracts and have been demonstrating their key technologies.
“Small Diameter Bomb II is going to be a leader for a acquisition reform initiatives under way now,” Maj. Gen. Charles Davis, the Air Force program executive officer for weapons, told Defense Daily last week.
Air Force officials were planning as late as last year to issue a “cost type” contract with incentives, according to Davis. They have since revised the strategy and will instead issue a fixed-price incentive-fee contract to the winner.
“It’s been concluded that the technology is mature enough that the government was better off going with a fixed price with an incentive fee on that contract,” Davis explained.
When first conceived, the SDB II program was supposed to be satisfied through a sole-source contract with Boeing. However, improper contracting activities by Darleen Druyun, a former senior Air Force official who later worked for Boeing caused the service to open a competition.
The contractors have been asked to maintain the airframe and weight of the Boeing-manufactured SDB, which is able to engage fixed targets at long range. SDB II, however, will be capable of engaging moving targets in bad weather. For this, the munition will need a tri-mode seeker that includes millimeter-wave radar, imaging infrared and semi-active laser.
The F-15E is the threshold platform for integration. The SDB II is expected to be operational first on the F-15E in 2015 and on the F-35 in 2017.
Integration of SDB II into the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter weapons bay is expected to be a significant area of risk for both teams, Davis said.
“A weapons bay always adds to the complexity of the integration,” Davis, the former F-35 program executive officer, explained. “And because that program [F-35] is just now entering flight test, you have both a new platform and a new weapon that you’re perfecting simultaneously, no easy feat.”
An SDB II contractor will be chosen in May.