T-X RFP. The Air Force expects to release a request for proposals (RFP) for the T-X trainer program between July and September 2016, according to an Air Force spokeswoman. T-X, which is to replace the service’s legacy T-38 trainer jets and related training systems, is estimated to be worth nearly $30 billion. The Air Force wants T-X in the fleet by 2023 or 2024. The following industry teams have announced their intent to bid for T-X: CAE USA, General Dynamics and Alenia Aermacchi; Boeing and Saab AB; Rolls-Royce, BAE Systems, Northrop Grumman and L-3 Communications; and Lockheed Martin and Korea Aerospace.
CRH. The Air Force plans to award a contract for the long anticipated Combat Rescue Helicopter (CRH) program no later than June after deciding at the last minute to fund the program. Air Force spokeswoman Ann Stefanek says the service will realign about $430 million from other Air Force priorities beyond fiscal year 2014 through 2019 to award the contract to Sikorsky of United Technologies Corp. Before moving forward with the contract, the program must complete a Milestone B review including independent cost assessments. To enable this, Stefanek says Sikorsky must agree to extend its pricing through June. Air Force Secretary Deborah James says through a spokeswoman if the FY ’16 budget drops back to sequestration-level spending caps, the program will need to be reevaluated. Sikorsky is the only known bidder for the multi-billion dollar program.
Space Fence.
The Air Force plans to award a contract for the Space Fence next-generation space surveillance platform by mid-May, according to an Air Force spokeswoman. Mid-May is about one year later than the Air Force originally wanted to award a Space Fence contract, which is valued at $3.5 billion. Space Fence was one of the most sought-after programs when the Defense Department rolled out its fiscal year 2015 budget request on March 4. Lockheed Martin and Raytheon are gunning for the program. The Air Force wants initial operational capability (IOC) by the fall of 2018.
Help Wanted At NAVAIR. The chief of Naval Air Systems Command, Vice Adm. David Dunaway, says he needs to hire and hire fast. Dunaway tells attendees at a conference hosted by Aviation Week on Wednesday that it’s possible he could lose about a third of his 24,000-strong civilian workforce over the next five to seven years due to retirement. This year alone NAVAIR needs to bring on at least 1,800 people to offset workforce attrition now that the federal hiring freeze is over, he says. “I am trying to hire as fast as I can,” Dunaway says. Dunaway says NAVAIR had a hiring boom throughout the 1980s, but that was followed by a decade of slow rate of new employees coming in. Now those 1980s personnel are approaching retirement.
Improving IT Services Contracting. As IT services contracting becomes more complicated, industry will begin responding to requests for proposals in unique ways, according to Booz Allen Hamilton’s Susan Lawrence. The proliferation of “as-a-Service” (aaS) offerings in IT and security has left the federal government struggling to efficiently contract with service providers. An agency could have various providers for security software, storage, infrastructure and multiple applications, all on individual contracts. This then necessitates a contract with a service integrator. Lawrence, a former Army Chief Information Officer who is now a vice president at Booz, says industry will begin solving this problem on its own, as companies partner with each other to respond to proposals. “They’re working with people they didn’t think they’d work with,” she says at a Cisco Systems media luncheon.
Airbus and Air Force One. Airbus would probably not be interested in competing to build the next set of large aircraft to ferry the president and his entourage, the head of Airbus Group, Inc., says on Friday. Given the extensive modifications that have to be made to the aircraft and the small number of planes that would be required, “We find it unlikely that w would find that attractive,” Allan McArtor tells reporters. Still, he adds, “we have to see what the RFP (Request for Proposals) would look like.” Air Force One, which refers to the plane that carries the U.S. president, currently consists of two highly customized Boeing 747 aircraft.
…Extended Enterprise. Airbus Group treats its supplier as part of its “Extended Enterprise,” according to the company’s CEO Tom Enders, adding “as if they were part of the company.” That means providing the supply chain with more transparency about the company and the programs its suppliers are on, he told reporters on Friday at a breakfast hosted by Airbus Group. Allan McArtor, head of Airbus Group’s North American division, said that Airbus isn’t just looking for low cost suppliers, rather it wants the combination price, quality and reliability.
…Versus Partnering for Success. The Airbus executives contrasted their company’s supply chain program with Boeing’s Partnering for Success, which the U.S. company is using to help drive more affordability across its supplier base. McArtor says both companies have common suppliers “and it’s quite evident that we’re in different relationships than our competitor has with their suppliers.” McArtor doesn’t think Boeing’s program is successful and says “while we want to get best value from our supply chain, we think it’s better to work with our suppliers and processes as opposed to dictating to our suppliers, ‘Carve 15 percent out of their costs.’ We may get to the same goal but we’ll do it in a different path and we think that suits our style much better and our relationships with our suppliers.”
…About the Long Term. Boeing Vice Chairman Dennis Muilenberg says in an interview with his company’s in-house publication, Frontiers, that Boeing isn’t asking its suppliers to do anything that it isn’t doing. He says this comes down to undertaking lean initiatives, improving safety under other things. Reducing costs makes programs more affordable and frees up resources for innovation, which ultimately leads to winning new orders for Boeing and its suppliers, he says. So far about one-third of the company’s suppliers are participating in Partnering for Success, another third are trying to figure out how to make it work, and the rest hope it goes away, Muilenberg says. “That’s not an option because this is such a competitive necessity,” he adds.
Frigate to Greece. A Navy frigate that struck ground while attempting to dock in the Turkish port at Samsun is now in route to Greece for repairs with the assistance of a tug boat, the Navy says. The Oliver Perry-class USS Taylor (FFG-50) left on Friday and will head to the Naval Support Activity in Souda Bay for repairs that will include replacing the propeller blades and propeller hub. The Taylor ran aground on the Black Sea shores of Turkey while attempting to moor on Feb. 12. The repairs are expected to take several weeks. Once complete, the ship will rejoin operation under the 5th and 6th Fleets.
Modular Space Vehicle. Northrop Grumman delivers a plug-and-play satellite known as a Modular Space Vehicle (MSV), bringing the Air Force a spacecraft bus that can be assembled quickly and launched rapidly to meet immediate needs, according to a company statement. The MSV is the first open systems bus that supports a top priority of launching smaller, less expensive, satellites in a matter of weeks for short-term missions, a capability commonly referred to as “responsive space.” A Northrop Grumman-led team designed and built MSV in 30 months under a task order valued at approximately $50 million.
SELC. There’s a new item line in DoD’s FY ’15 budget request called the Space Expendable Launch Capability (SELC), according to Air Force spokeswoman Capt. Erika Yepsen. Starting with FY ’15, the two main pieces of the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) program, launch services and launch capability, are submitted as separate P-1 line items. The launch capability P-1 line item is called SELC. Yepsen says this responds to the FY ’13 appropriations bill that directs the Air Force to request and execute EELV funding in separate procurement line items for launch services and launch capability to “increase the budget visibility of each program.”
Snowden Cost To DoD. Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, tells HASC on March 6 that “the vast majority” of the information Edward Snowden stole and leaked “had nothing to do with exposing government oversight of domestic activities” but rather dealt with “our military capabilities, operations, tactics, techniques and procedures.” The chairman tells HASC member Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) that a mitigation oversight task force was chartered to work with DoD and other agencies to figure out what was leaked and how to lessen the blow. He added the task force would take about two years and “could cost billions of dollars to overcome the loss of security that has been imposed on us.”