LOCKHEED MARTIN/RAYTHEON REFINE E-10A/BMC2 POSITION
by Scott R. Gourley
09 Jun 03. With the recent release of the final request for proposals (RFP) for the U.S. Air Force E-10A [Multi-sensor Command and Control Aircraft (MC2A)] Battle Management Command and Control (BMC2) component, representatives from Lockheed Martin and Raytheon held a press conference to define and refine their bidding position. During a 9 June 2003 press briefing, Mike Schoultz (Vice President, E-10A BMC2, Lockheed Martin) and Justin Monger (E-10A BMC2 Program Manager, Raytheon) provided an update on both program requirements and their industry team’s status.
Immediately prior to the media briefing, the Lockheed Martin / Raytheon team announced the addition of a new team member, Zel Technologies LLC (ZELTECH). Described as “a leader in intelligence and time-critical targeting technologies,” ZELTECH will reportedly provide the team with “subject matter expertise on operational BMC2 issues” while also contributing “software development and integration support for intelligence preparation of the battlespace and time-critical targeting – capabilities strategic to the BMC2 subsystem aboard the E-10A Multi-sensor Command and Control Aircraft (MC2A).”
ZELTECH joins a team that includes Lockheed Martin (responsible for systems architecture, systems engineering and program management); Raytheon (for the communications, ISR, and UAV control systems integration); and SAIC (lead for the modeling and simulation effort). Additional team members include L3 Communications, Alphatech, Inc., and Concurrent Technologies Corporation.
According to Shoultz, “This won’t be managed like a traditional kind of program where you have a prime and many subcontractors. We’re putting the team together to be a ‘badgeless’ type of team, where we’re going to draw from the very best of engineering and have integrated product teams that are blended across the companies involved to bring the very best in domain, large systems engineering and software development expertise together.”
“As we look at this program and the changes, one of the things that strikes us is the importance of this program to the Air Force,” Schoultz opened and opined. “Just recently the Chief of Staff of the Air Force designated this as his ‘number two’ Air Force priority program. We think that gives a lot of weight to the program and there’s a lot of focus now with the Air Force putting this at the forefront of transformation within the Air Force. A lot of this would have happened anyway but certainly the activities overseas over the last 60 – 90 days have put an increased emphasis on the lessons learned as we’ve seen them and the importance of being able to have an ad hoc adjunct to the Air Operations Center – for the joint force commander to be able to do more real time execution and prioritization activities in terms of decision-making on things that take place: all the way from real time target identification and targeting to being ready for things that aren’t necessarily known [in advance] and to be able to react to them in real time.”
As described in our June BATTLESPACE issue, the E-10A program features four different acquisition lanes: the recent contract for the 767-400ER [extended range] aircraft; the contract for the Weapon Systems Integrator (WSI); the [two year old] contract for the Multi-purpose Radar Technology Insertion Program (MPRTIP); and the Battle Management Command and Control (BMC2) component.
As the last of the four critical acquisitions, Schoultz noted that the final BMC2 RFP was released to industry during the first week of June.
“As of today we’re still under a 30 day turn-around, although we’ve been told to momentarily expect an amendment that will change it to a 60 day turn-around,” he said. “So we expect that the proposals will be due on August the 4 th – with the 60 day turn-around – and that multiple award contracts will be issued, probably in late August