Friday, April 19, 2024
Friday, April 19, 2024
The cost for the engineering and manufacturing development phase of the Air Force’s intercontinental ballistic missile replacement system is $25 billion, according to a justification and approval document released yesterday.
The document allows the service to limit competition for the EMD contract of the Ground Based Strategic Deterrent to the two sources conducting the ongoing technology maturation and risk-reduction phase: Boeing and Northrop Grumman. It was signed in February by Air Force Assistant Secretary for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics Will Roper.
In addition to Boeing and Northrop Grumman, the service received responses from four sources to a request for information published in March 2018 for the EMD phase, but none of the others "expressed an interest in, or ability to, compete as a prime for the GBSD EMD contract," the J&A document states.
"Because . . . no other offerors were interested in being a prime," the redacted notice continues, "the [Air Force] concludes only Boeing and [Northrop Grumman] are capable of fulfilling the prime role for GBSD EMD requirements."
It also states limiting competition will save the Air Force about $197 million. If the service used a different contractor, that company would have to complete a year's worth of TMRR work to obtain the needed information to accomplish tasks associated with a preliminary design review, and the service would be responsible for some of the associated costs, according to the J&A document.
It further details the Air Force’s approach to obtaining competitive pricing for the EMD contract, stating it will include options for both low-rate initial production and full-rate production.
The service will also pursue several contract types, including a cost-plus incentive fee arrangement for the majority of EMD and a fixed-price incentive firm plan for production.
The EMD stage will start following the completion of the TMRR phase, expected to finish by the end of fiscal year 2020. Inside Defense reported last month the Air Force anticipates releasing an EMD request for proposals in July.