Raytheon [RTN] Monday split a pair of big ticket Air Force contract awards by beating Boeing [BA] for the Family of Advanced Beyond Line-of-Sight Terminals (FAB-T) contract but losing out to Lockheed Martin
[LMT] for Space Fence.
Raytheon was awarded a $298 million firm-fixed-price and cost-plus-fixed-fee modification for FAB-T command post terminals (CPT), according to a Defense Department statement. As a result of this decision, low-rate initial production (LRIP), full-rate production (FRP) and interim contractor support contract options may be exercised to deliver these terminals. The Air Force previously wanted advanced wideband terminals (AWT) as well but shelved those for financial reasons.
Boeing spokesman Richard Esposito said Monday the company was disappointed by the decision and would request a formal debrief from the Air Force to determine a path forward. Boeing was originally awarded the FAB-T production contract over Raytheon in 2002, but the service became concerned Boeing wouldn’t be able to deliver, so it reopened the program to competition (Defense Daily; June 12, 2012). Raytheon did not respond to a request for comment.
Lockheed Martin was awarded a nearly $915 million fixed-price-incentive-firm, cost-reimbursable and cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for engineering and manufacturing development (EMD), production and deployment for Space Fence. DoD says Lockheed Martin has 52 months from contract award to reach initial operational capability (IOC). Space Fence is a next-generation radar to help the Air Force keep track of space debris. One radar will be located at Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands and the service would like another located in western Australia, but hasn’t committed to the site.
Lockheed Martin had a press briefing scheduled for after Monday’s press time.