Saturday, June 21, 2025
Saturday, June 21, 2025
Key Issues Wedgetail funding Dark Eagle funding Guam JIBM
The Army may be delayed by as much as a year in building a site at Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD, for its Joint Land Attack Cruise Missile Defense Elevated Netted Sensor System due to the continuing resolution in effect until mid-January, but that didn't stop the service from releasing a request for information on Nov. 12 looking for companies capable of constructing aerostat pads, roads and facilities for the system.
Work was to start this fall in preparation for a three-year exercise slated to begin next fall.
The Army said it would go ahead with its plans to collect bids for the project, but an award can't be made until the passage of a fiscal year 2014 military construction budget. A request for proposals is due Nov. 29.
As Inside the Army reported earlier this month, Army acquisition chief Heidi Shyu said in written testimony submitted at an Oct. 23 House Armed Services Committee hearing that JLENS "cannot meet scheduled construction plans without CR relief." Further:
The CR in place today runs until mid-January and could be extended into a full-year CR if Republicans and Democrats are unable to come to a compromise on a budget this winter.
The Army did not say whether it intended to formally request that Congress make an exception that would allow the service to spend money on the construction that was scheduled to begin this fall. However, "the [U.S. Army Corps of Engineers] has [Army headquarter] authority to advertise the project (and will do so 'subject to availability of funds.' Upon receipt of bids, USACE will evaluate bids and select the successful contractor; however, the actual award cannot be made until the passage of the FY-14 MILCON appropriation," according to a Nov. 1 statement from Army Public Affairs.
The service plans to base JLENS at Aberdeen for the exercise until at least fiscal year 2017. How the system performs when tied into the U.S. air defense network could dictate whether the program is expanded or killed. The exercise is slated to begin in the fall of FY-14, but could be delayed if the service can't start construction on the project.