Companies in the running for the Navy’s future aircraft carrier-launched unmanned vehicle program believe they’ll be able to effectively compete against rival Northrop Grumman [NOC] even though the firm has benefited from being the lead contractor on the demonstrator program.
Executives from Boeing [BA] and Lockheed Martin [LMT] have said they are satisfied the Navy is adequately sharing information with them about the X-47B demonstrator that made history last year by launching from an aircraft carrier and performing an arresting gear landing—the first unmanned aircraft to ever accomplish the feats.
“The information that (the Navy) can provide I think they have done in a very fair way,” Chris Chadwick, the president and CEO of Boeing Defense, Space & Security, told Defense Daily in an interview last week.
“It’s a level playing field,” he added.
In providing information about the Navy’s experience with the X-47B program, the service has to find a balance in supplying data to the competitors on the follow-on Unmanned Carrier- Launched Airborne Surveillance and Strike (UCLASS) program while protecting information considered proprietary to Northrop Grumman.
The Navy in April issued a draft request for proposals (RFP) to Northrop Grumman, Boeing, Lockheed Martin and General Atomics for UCLASS. The four companies are currently under preliminary designed contracts but eventually only one will be chosen to build UCLASS.
Lockheed Martin’s capture director for UCLASS, Bob Ruszkowski, noted in an interview in May that he is confident Lockheed Martin has the know-how to compete. Ruszkowski shared Chadwick’s assessment that they Navy is doing all it can to share appropriate information with the companies from the demonstrator program to help inform their proposals for UCLASS.
“I would imagine that a large percentage is going to be shared” as the competition evolves, he said.
The draft RFP was designated as “For Official Use Only,” shielding it from public viewing. UCLASS is meant to provide the Navy with an unmanned aircraft that can operate off an aircraft carrier autonomously and conduct intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and strike missions. The first aircraft are planned to begin operations in 2020.
A final RFP is pending and industry will be asked to file their proposals by the end of the year, with the winner set to be announced in mid-2015.