Boeing [BA] intends to bid this week on the Navy’s next contract for the Aegis Combat System, adding a twist to the Combat System Engineering Agent (CSEA) competition that had been thought to be largely dominated by the incumbent, Lockheed Martin [LMT], and its traditional rival in combat systems area, Raytheon [RTN].
“We expect to submit a proposal to the U.S. Navy in the CSEA competition,” Boeing spokesman Scott Day told Defense Daily on Friday. “We look forward to the opportunity to support the Navy on the Aegis weapons system. We will provide a solution that will support the Navy in its modernization of the Aegis system.”
The Navy has set 3 p.m. Wednesday as the deadline for submitting proposals for a contract that could amount to billions of dollars to modernize Aegis, which is deployed on Arleigh Burke-class (DDG-51) destroyers and Ticonderoga-class (CG-47) cruisers.
Lockheed Martin inherited Aegis when it acquired Martin Marietta in 1995 and has been the sole contractor for the system ever since, but the Navy, under pressure to save money, is reopening the contract to a competitive process and issued a request for proposals (RFP) earlier this year.
Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) in October extended a November deadline for submitting after modifying the RFP. (Defense Daily, Oct. 13). NAVSEA said it was expecting “multiple” companies to bid. Boeing had previously said it had “significant” interest in joining the competition.
Losing the contract for the Aegis Combat System would be a major blow to Lockheed Martin, but the firm has remained confident it will win and has welcomed the competition as added incentive to evaluate and maximize the performance and affordability of its system.
“The CSEA competition is important to our Navy’s Aegis shipbuilding and fleet modernization programs, as well as the nation’s maritime and ballistic missile defense strategies,” Carmen Valentino, the company’s vice president heading up its proposal team, said in an emailed statement. “The Lockheed Martin team is aware of the importance of the CSEA role and looks forward to submitting our bid.”
Raytheon declined to comment on Boeing’s entry in the competition.
While Lockheed Martin has extensive experience as combat system’s developer, the two other competitors believe their hand in developing sensors and weapons employed by Aegis enables their chances of winning.
NAVSEA’s changes to the RFP modified the Air and Missile Defense Radar (AMDR) aspect of it, asking potential bidders to identify potential problems they could encounter with the AMDR Integration Engineering Load and how they would be solved. It also removes AMDR as a priced completion, NAVSEA said. The move will reduce the cost of Advanced Capability Build (ACB) 16 development and maintain current schedules, the command said.
The Navy has continuously looked to upgrade the Aegis system on its fleet of destroyers and cruisers, the two classes that use the advanced command and control system that harnesses radar tracking to guide weapons to targets.
Lockheed Martin also builds Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense, the cornerstone of the Navy’s sea-based BMD program, under a separate contract with the Pentagon’s Missile Defense Agency.
The Navy plans to begin upgrading to the Multi-Mission Signal Processor (MMSP) on ships next year, which will effectively merge functioning of the combat system with the missile defense version, under a current contract with MDA.
MMSP is designed to increase processing capacity to balance the use of the radar for both missions, according to Jim Sheridan, Lockheed Martin’s director for Aegis modernization (Defense Daily, Sept. 15, 2011).
The DDG-113 will be the first of the Arleigh Burke-class to be equipped with the MMSP by the time of its commissioning, Sheridan said. The Navy in June awarded construction of the DDG-113 to Huntington Ingalls Industries [HII].