USAF solicits bids on $953 million contract to revamp base defense in Europe, Africa

The Air Force released a solicitation Wednesday inviting defense industry companies to apply for a $953 million contract to support more aggressive U.S. air base air defense (ABAD) in Europe and Africa as the service adapts its power projection concepts to operate under a greater threat of attack.

The winner of the indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity vehicle will develop an expansive command-and-control capability featuring a network of distributed sensors and communications systems throughout multiple air bases in the U.S. European Command and U.S. Africa Command areas of responsibility.

The Air Force’s request for proposals states the contractor will first create a preliminary C2 capability at an air defense systems integration laboratory the service is building at Ramstein Air Force Base, Germany. It will then add more sensors, data feeds and weapons to scale the C2 capability and operate and maintain it from EUCOM and AFRICOM bases.

The Air Force will award the contract to just one vendor to perform several task orders to develop the new ABAD system between May 2021 and May 2031. The service is accepting offers through Jan. 22.