GPS III contract award expected by the 16th

According to this article the Air Force is expected to award the GPS III contract this week following a successful DAB a few weeks ago. Boeing and Lockheed Martin are in the running, and some are inevitably expecting a protest by the loser. Lockheed Martin won most of the GPS II work and Boeing did some of the original satellites. One hopes that the USAF acquisition people have their ducks in a row on this one as there last two major awards have been protested, and one, CSAR-X, successfully.

Air Force to award GPS III satellite contract

The GPS III satellite had a successful DAB recently which allowed Mr. Young, the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics (OSD(AT&L) to allow the contract award. See an article here. As part of this authorization, though, he directed that the requirements be frozen as to what was presented at the DAB. The contract could be worth $1.8 B, and will go to either Boeing or Lockheed Martin. The award could come early next week.

Northrop Grumman wins BAMS SD&D contract

As reported yesterday the BAMS DAB was held. The Navy awarded the contract to Northrop Grumman for a version of the Global Hawk long range, large UAV. See a story here. Boeing and Lockheed Martin were the losing bidders. On top of the KC-45 contract this can be seen as a blow to Boeing by Northrop Grumman. Read more

Navy ready to award BAMS contract

According to this article the Navy had a successful DAB for the Broad Area Maritime Surveillance (BAMS) program. The system was approved to go into System Design and Development (SDD) phase and a prime contractor will be chosen to perform that work. Once that phase is completed then Low Rate Initial Production (LRIP) can start. The BAMS is for a unmanned surveillance aircraft to replace the P-3 Orion in some of its missions. The Navy is also pursuing the P-8 aircraft based on the Boeing 737 to replace the P-3 in its Anti-Submarine Warfare role. Boeing, Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin are bidders.

No word on KC-X yet

Bumped - Here is an Agence France Press article on the KC-X DAB and status.

The KC-X Defense Acquisition Board (DAB) was supposed to meet this afternoon. After a successful DAB the Air Force should be able to announce who won the contract. Sometimes it occurs right after the meeting, but it may take a few days. There was no Air Force contracts awarded when the 17:00 EST list came out. So the next chance should be tomorrow evening at the same time.

KC-X Defense Acquistion Board slips to Monday

The DAB for the KC-X is now scheduled for Monday the 25th. Normally the contract announcement will be very soon after that, as the DAB is to review the program and its selected contractor. See MarketWatch.com for more here. Obviously this will be between Boeing and the Northrop Grumman-EADS team. As of now it could be either, although Boeing would seem to be favored based on just domestic industry.