April 3, 2020 | International, Aerospace
By: Jen Judson
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Missile Defense Agency plans to hold a competition that could split up the work among contractors to modernize and sustain America's missile defense system, which is designed to destroy intercontinental ballistic missile threats.
Boeing has held the development and sustainment contract for the Ground-based Midcourse Defense systems in place at Fort Greely, Alaska, and Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. Boeing's contract is set to expire in 2023.
The GMD system is made up of more than 44 Ground-Based Interceptors buried in silos in the ground along with ground control stations, detection and fire control systems, and other support infrastructure.
Boeing received a sole-source $6.6 billion award in 2018 to build a new silo and 20 more GBIs, as well as to sustain the system.
But Vice Adm. Jon Hill, the MDA's director, told an audience in March at an Association of the U.S. Army event that “we know that contract is not giving us everything that we need for the future, so we are going to compete that contract downstream.”
The agency is working to develop a Next-Generation Interceptor that would replace the current GBIs with more capable interceptors. Its plan to upgrade the GBI's exoatmospheric kill vehicle with a redesigned version was canceled in 2019 due to technical problems. Rather than rework that program, the agency decided to design an entirely new interceptor and stop building new GBIs.
A request for proposals for the NGI is due imminently.
But along with a new NGI, “we are going to make sure that ground systems, sensors and fire control, all the rest of the system, we have the opportunity to inject that competition because I think that is very important,” Hill said.
The MDA previously considered splitting up the contract several times, believing that would reduce cost and create efficiency in the program, but nothing materialized toward that goal.
This time, the MDA has released two requests for information with the possibility of splitting up the contract. The most recent RFI was posted on Beta.Sam.Gov in March.
“I will tell you that our lead system integrator does a great job today and the partnerships with industry within that construct do a great job, but we think that it's so large and complex we should be doing everybody a favor by being able to split that up without losing the integration among all those pieces,” Hill said, “so our intent is to move in that direction.”
The agency “is exploring different approaches for fulfilling the GMD Program Element requirements. Acquisition approaches under consideration range from an award of multiple contracts to execute segments/missions of the program scope to a single contract to execute the entirety of the program scope,” the RFI states. “Essential to all of the acquisition approaches under consideration is the establishment of an enduring arrangement strategy for the execution of the [Weapon Systems Integration (WSI)] functions across the program lifecycle, either under a single prime contract, or as one of the multiple contracts.”
The RFI lays out a possible plan to split up the contract into five pieces. One contractor would provide the NGI, which is being addressed through a separate request for proposals. Another would be responsible for legacy and future ground systems, and another for sustaining the existing GBIs.
And a company would operate the weapon system along with military operators and would run fleet maintenance scheduling and deconfliction, site operations, test support, and depot and parts management, the RFI lays out.
Lastly, a contractor would serve as the weapon systems integrator, making it responsible for overall GMD integration “including physical and logical integration of the GMD components, GMD system and MDA enterprise level integration, planning and execution of all necessary testing to verify and validate overall requirements compliance,” the RFI states.
Responses to the RFI are due April 10.
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March 24, 2020 | International, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security
By: Aaron Mehta WASHINGTON — The Pentagon has opened up cash flow for the defense industry, the latest in a series of moves from the department to combat economic damage brought about by the new coronavirus pandemic. In a memo released Sunday, the department announced that progress payment rates for defense items under contract will increase from 80 percent of cost to 90 percent for large businesses, and from 90 percent to 95 percent for small businesses. The move will allow industry to receive more cash up front than under normal circumstances. The order was signed by Kim Herrington, acting principal director for defense pricing and contracting at the Department of Defense. In a statement, spokesman Lt. Col. Mike Andrews called the move “an important avenue where industry cash flow can be improved." The Defense Contracting Management Agency “will work on mass modifications to contracts where applicable (vs one by one) using DCMA authorities,” Andrews said. “In addition, the Department is accelerating payments through several means to prime contracts and directing prime contracts to expedite payments to subcontractors.” The increase in cash flow was sought by both industry and supporters in Congress. An increase in early payments was one of the requests made by the Maine delegation to Defense Secretary Mark Esper last week. The Pentagon plans to return to normal operations once the national emergency caused by COVID-19 has passed. Notably, the announcement of the move included a warning that “it is especially important to understand that during this crisis the [defense-industrial base] is vulnerable to adversarial capital, we need to ensure companies stay in business without losing their technology.” Over the last two years the department has focused on ensuring Chinese investment is limited in the defense-industrial base. The move comes after the DoD issued guidance to industry that defense contractors are considered “critical infrastructure” under a Department of Homeland Security definition, which should allow contractors to continue to work even if local governments issue orders to freeze work, as has happened in New York and San Francisco. However, that guidance was advisory in nature and does not have the full legal authority that industry leadership had sought, per a Friday letter to Esper from the Aerospace Industry Association. “Recent DHS and USD (A&S) memoranda have been helpful on a case-by-case basis, but they are advisory in nature and not legally binding; to establish stability for our operations across the nation, the federal government should legally establish national security programs and our workforce as essential,” read the letter, signed by AIA head Eric Fanning; Northrop Grumman CEO Kathy Warden; and Kelly Ortberg, special adviser to the Office of the CEO of United Technologies. In an investors note, analyst Roman Schweizer of Cowen noted: “These new policies provide clarity on issues companies have been concerned about, but we do not think they alleviate all of industry's concerns nor do they eliminate all the disruption. But they are positive signs that DoD will help mitigate reasonable impact.” More efforts are likely to emerge in the coming days, including new measures from the Small Business Administration and its small business emergency loan program to help protect small key defense suppliers who are particularly vulnerable at this time. Major defense industry partners are also seeking relief in fulfilling contract milestones that could be impacted by the outbreak. “We encourage DoD to publish regulatory authority requiring contracting officers to consider financial relief as part of requests for equitable adjustments for measures we take in response to COVID-19,” the AIA letter read. “This includes relief related to bans, closures, quarantines and other travel restrictions, the loss of public infrastructure and public transportation, restricted access to resources and tools, and other public safety restrictions.” On Friday, the Acquisition and Sustainment division of the Small Business Office reached out to the defense industry's small businesses and is working with the Small Business Administration and its small business emergency loan program to help protect these companies. https://www.defensenews.com/coronavirus/2020/03/23/pentagon-loosens-cash-flow-for-industry-more-measures-likely-coming/