. Military Space News .




.
MILTECH
USAF long-range radar program proceeding with revised acquisition strategy
by Patty Welsh
66th Air Base Group Public Affairs
Hanscom AFB MA (SPX) Mar 30, 2012

Shown here is a conceptual design of the Three-Dimensional Expeditionary Long-Range Radar. The program is moving forward with a revised acquisition strategy. (Courtesy graphic).

The Air Force program to provide a new ground-based, long-range radar system is moving forward with a revised acquisition strategy. The program office recently held an industry day here to explain the changes and its latest draft request for proposal.

The Three-Dimensional Expeditionary Long-Range Radar (3DELRR) will be the principal U.S. Air Force long-range, ground-based sensor for detecting, identifying, tracking, and reporting aircraft and missiles in support of theater commanders. It will replace the current Air Force radar, the TPS-75.

"A combination of several factors, including a somewhat atypical acquisition strategy and the U.S. budget crisis, led to the change," said Lt. Col. Brian McDonald, 3DELRR program manager.

A September 2007 memorandum from John Young, then the acting undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics, encouraged competitive prototyping up to Milestone B. Originally, the 3DELRR Program had been planning to award to a single contractor prior to Milestone B.

"We modified the strategy to further leverage competition to look at needed capability, different approaches to delivering that capability and doing so in the most affordable manner," McDonald said.

During the industry day briefing, he also showed how the program budget had been reduced in the Fiscal Year 2013 President's Budget by approximately $80 million over the next five years compared to the 2012 budget.

McDonald cited industry offerings as a third factor.

During his presentation in the base theater, McDonald walked through a graphical depiction of the revised acquisition strategy and the changes that have been made.

Now, up to three contracts may be awarded as an outcome of the upcoming full and open competition to complete the Technology Development Phase, referred to as the Pre-Engineering and Manufacturing Development (Pre-EMD) period. The 3DELRR source selection will use the lowest price technically acceptable approach, which is also a significant change.

"Competitive offerors must be at the same maturity level as the government has attained on this program," said McDonald. "We do not want to turn back the clock. We want to move forward from the government investment to date."

In addition, fixed price contracts, including Firm Fixed-Price and/or Fixed-Price Incentive Firm, are planned for the Pre-EMD, EMD, and low rate initial production phases from what was once a cost plus incentive fee approach.

The revised strategy includes a minimum of three full and open competitions to reach full operational capability. McDonald pointed to the third competition that will award scope beyond Milestone B to a single contractor.

"There will be much activity, in parallel, leading up to Milestone B," explained McDonald. "We will need a strong, crisp effort by industry on these contracts while the program office simultaneously conducts the next source selection and prepares for Milestone B."

One change that McDonald strongly emphasized was the early examination of cost versus capability trade-offs. While there has been no change in the 3DELRR requirements since Technical Requirement Documents Revision D was posted in October 2011, McDonald explained the plan to issue a new revision, during the period of performance, against which successful bidders would produce their preliminary designs.

"We need to look closely at cost versus capability," he said. "The first contractual activity is to complete detailed analyses of top cost drivers to see how cost varies as capability is incremented. Are there relatively large cost savings to be gained by relatively small reductions in capability and, if so, what's the risk?"

McDonald discussed how the acquisition community and operational community will then come together to set 3DELRR requirements.

The 3DELRR program has also been selected as a "designated system" to participate in the Defense Exportability Features Pilot Program, to potentially increase sales and lower production costs.

"I'm excited to be a pilot for the Defense Exportability Features Program because it's forward thinking, it's good for the U.S. government and it's good for U.S. industry," McDonald said. Addressing the audience of mostly company representatives, he added, "I hope you're excited too."

The 3DELRR Program Office is planning for a Defense Acquisition Board in late April and, if approved, anticipates release of the final RFP in May. Currently, the program office expects to award the contracts, totaling approximately $108 million dollars, by late August.

"No one is immune from the budget crisis," said McDonald. "This acquisition strategy is our response. Now, we need strong industry performance to offer the most affordable solution that provides this needed capability to our warfighters."

Related Links
-
The latest in Military Technology for the 21st century at SpaceWar.com




.
.
Get Our Free Newsletters Via Email
...
Buy Advertising Editorial Enquiries






.

. Comment on this article via your Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, Hotmail login.

Share this article via these popular social media networks
del.icio.usdel.icio.us DiggDigg RedditReddit GoogleGoogle



MILTECH
Chile bolsters defense with Boeing program
Santiago, Chile (UPI) Mar 29, 2012
Chile took delivery of the last of its KC-135E Stratotankers serviced by Boeing under a Programmed Depot Maintenance project begun in 2010. Chile has three of the aircraft, bought in 2009 and took delivery of the first KC-135 to have undergone PDM just a week it was hit by a 8.8-magnitude earthquake in February 2010. The tanker plane's arrival gave quake relief efforts timely boost. ... read more


MILTECH
Japan approves shoot-down plan for N. Korean rocket

Raytheon's New-Production Patriot Launches PAC-3 Missile in Flight Test

US, Russia to focus on 'homework' until election: official

SM-3 IIA Team Completes TDACS Preliminary Design Review

MILTECH
Russia, India in hypersonic missile talks

Lockheed Martin Receives THAAD Follow-On Development Contract

Tucson site is largest Raytheon facility to receive a superior rating

Lockheed Martin Upgrades Tactical Tomahawk Weapons Control System for Naval Air Systems Command

MILTECH
US drone strike kills 4 militants in Pakistan: officials

US could fly spy drones from Australian territory

NASA Flight Tests New ADS-B Device on Ikhana UAS

NRL Tests Robotic Fueling of Unmanned Surface Vessels

MILTECH
Raytheon to Continue Supporting Coalition Forces' Information-Sharing Computer Network

Northrop Grumman Wins Contract for USAF Command and Control Modernization Program

TacSat-4 Enables Polar Region SatCom Experiment

'See Me' satellites may help ground forces

MILTECH
Raytheon Begins Procuring Parts for India's Munitions Control Unit

USAF long-range radar program proceeding with revised acquisition strategy

Australia eyes more Bushmaster vehicles

Northrop Grumman to Develop New Atom-Based Magnetic Sensor in Enhanced, Compact Package for the U.S. Navy

MILTECH
Europe looks into Goodrich-UTC merger

Italian giant Finmeccanica posts 2.3 bn euro loss for 2011

Brazil's Rousseff to weigh French jet buy in India

Delhi boosts military spending 17 percent

MILTECH
Falklands reminds Britain of past glories, future challenges

Commentary: Second holocaust?

Graft main threat to Communist Party: China's Wen

Obama to meet Hu after blunt words on North Korea

MILTECH
Nanostarfruits are pure gold for research

Diatom biosensor could shine light on future nanomaterials

'Buckliball' opens new avenue in design of foldable engineering structures

A shiny new tool for imaging biomolecules


Memory Foam Mattress Review

Newsletters :: SpaceDaily Express :: SpaceWar Express :: TerraDaily Express :: Energy Daily
XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News

.

The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2012 - Space Media Network. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. Privacy Statement