HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif.–Boeing [BA] is finishing up a critical program in its Family of Advanced Beyond Line-of-Sight Terminals (FAB-T) testing and is also preparing for another important test in the next month, according to a key company executive.
Boeing Vice President of C3 Solutions and FAB-T Program Manager Paul Geery told reporters Monday the company was close to completing its system design and development (SDD) phase after finishing what Boeing calls the system functional qualification testing two weeks ago. Geery said Boeing was due to deliver to the Air Force its final test report yesterday. Boeing spokeswoman Rebecca Yeamans confirmed yesterday the test report was delivered.
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| The Air Force’s N404, a Boeing 707 test aircraft, tests FAB-T terminals. Photo: Boeing. |
Boeing, Geery said, completed one set of flight tests where the company flew a command post terminal (CPT) configuration on the Air Force’s N404, a Boeing 707 test aircraft. The CPT flight test is one of two flight tests known as the “run for the record” tests that take place at Hanscom AFB, Mass., and the company’s facility here in Huntington Beach. The other is a test of its advanced wideband terminal (AWT), which Yeamans said would be completed sometime this fall.
Boeing is also preparing to test the bomber configuration of the terminal in the next month on a surrogate platform, Geery said, another important test in which the company will switch antennas into the bomber configuration.
Boeing and Raytheon [RTN] are the two companies vying for the Air Force’s FAB-T contract to provide nuclear-survivable terminals capable of using multiple waveforms and communicating with both Milstar and Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) satellites. FAB-T development terminals will operate in fixed and transportable ground installations and aboard B-2 and B-52 bombers, RC-135 reconnaissance aircraft and the E-4B National Airborne Command Post and E-6B “Take Charge and Move Out” aircraft fleets (Defense Daily, May 1).
According to a December notice posted on Federal Business Opportunities, the first terminal delivery is required by fiscal year 2015.
Geery said Boeing has a few additional tests to complete as part of the FAB-T development program, including certification and reliability verification testing, where the company tests terminals in a thermal chamber and a vibrating acoustic chamber to prove they can deliver as promised. Depending on how long the months-long testing period goes without failure, Geery said it could be March before reliability verification testing wraps up.
Boeing is in the production phase of the competition now as Geery said the company and Raytheon have both delivered their proposals. Geery said initial production awards from the Air Force were expected “any day now” before the big downselect expected between October and December.
Software development is also complete, Geery said, after Boeing brought in users to test before soliciting their feedback. The company took the data from the feedback, combined it with data from people on a previous government software test and decided it was prudent to perform some fixes in another software build.
Geery said the company is going to do one more software build, probably within the next month.
“We just decided that was the right thing to do before we went into a production program,” Geery said. “From a qualification standpoint, we’ve finished the software qualification. This is just kind of an improvement. I think it will be really well-liked.”
The Air Force originally awarded the FAB-T production contract to Boeing over Raytheon in 2002, but the service became concerned Boeing wouldn’t be able to deliver, so it re-opened the competition, allowing Raytheon to get back in the FAB-T business (Defense Daily, June 12, 2012).