The Air Force intends to issue Boeing [BA] a sole source solicitation the first week of July for Family of Beyond Line of Sight (FAB-T) terminals, according to a Notice of Contract Action (NOCA) posted on Federal Business Opportunities.
The NOCA says the terminals requested are the Command Post Terminal (CPT) and Advanced Wideband Terminal (AWT) with the Presidential and National Voice Conferencing and Tracking, Telemetry and Commanding capabilities. The first terminal delivery is required in fiscal year 2015.
The CPT upgrades the existing fixed and transportable terminals employed with the ground and airborne command posts. The AWT facilitates over-the-air communication with other FAB-T terminals through the Milstar satellite, which provides secure, jam-resistant and worldwide communications to the United States military.
The NOCA says the government has conducted extended market research leading up to the development of this acquisition strategy and believes Boeing is the only source able to deliver in the required timeframe.
Boeing spokesman Matthew Billingsley said Thursday in an email the company is well-positioned to deliver the terminals by 2015 for several reasons. First, he said, the company’s FAB-T hardware development and qualification is complete and software development, integration and testing are more than 95 percent complete. He said Boeing is also on track to enter functional qualification testing and deliver engineering design models (Block 8 configuration) to the Air Force in 2013.
Billingsley also said the company is making good process with testing FAB-T Block 8 terminals with the on-orbit Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) satellite.
“All of these actions allow us to reduce the risk throughout the program so that we can enter initial production in 2013 and deliver the first terminals under a Low-Rate Initial Production program 2015,” Billingsley said.
The Air Force issued a request for proposals (RFP) in April for an alternate source for FAB-T after concerns that prime contractor Boeing wouldn’t be able to provide the capability it needs. Raytheon [RTN] said Friday it delivered its bid for the alternate source. Raytheon spokesman Peter Ramjug said Friday the company wasn’t ready to comment on the NOCA at the time.
FAB-T provides the critical link enabling strategic nuclear command and control using the Milstar Extremely High Frequency (EHF) and AEHF waveforms. This capability enables the command and control of the AEHF and Milstar satellites and provides the president of the United States and leadership the secure communications with forces to direct a strategic nuclear response, according to a Boeing statement.