The U.S. Air Force Life Cycle Management Center’s special operations forces, personnel recovery, and rotary division (AFLCMC/WIU) at Robins AFB, Ga., wants industry help to sustain and improve software for the Lockheed Martin [LMT] MC-130J Commando II and AC-130J Ghostrider gunship.
An awarded contract would cover four years under which the chosen company would sustain government furnished software required to aid the Software Integration Lab at Robins AFB with writing and coding software for the Next Generation Special Mission Processor (NextGen SMP), according to an Aug. 22 pre-solicitation business notice.
Work “would include the management, analysis and monitoring of the development, integration, test and fielding of NextGen SMP software as well as providing updated GF [government furnished] software packages upon release of new versions, AFLCMC/WIU said.
The RTX [RTX] and Curtiss-Wright NextGen SMP “is the main processor of the Special Mission System on the AC/MC-130J platform to supply video output to meet Precision Strike Package (PSP), Airborne Mission Network (AbMN) and MC-130 Common Terrain Following/Terrain Avoidance Radar (MCTF) requirements,” according to AFLCMC/WIU.
U.S. Special Operations Command’s (SOCOM) fiscal 2024 budget requests about $66 million for Integrated Tactical Mission Systems (ITMS), which includes the NextGen SMP. While SOCOM’s fiscal 2024 ITMS request includes no NextGen SMP funding, the command said that it has spent about $18 million on NextGen SMP thus far.
ITMS is to allow “automated route replanning; tactical flight management; integrated aircraft defensive systems; defensive countermeasures; and embedded training,” SOCOM said in its fiscal 2024 budget request.
The NextGen SMP “resolves current diminishing manufacturing sources issues with a MOSA [modular open systems architecture] compliant design to perform central processing for ITMS software,” per SOCOM. “The ITMS enables dynamic operations with integrated real-time information, automation, and decision making data for safe TF/TA [terrain following/terrain avoidance] flight and mission execution on MC-130J aircraft and seamless employment of the PSP on AC-130J aircraft.”
SOCOM said that it has budgeted about $181 million for ITMS research and development and fielding of prototypes between fiscal 2024 and fiscal 2028.