The Air Force has issued the request for proposal for the source familiarization phase of the C-130 Avionics Modernization Program. During this phase, Air Force officials intend to bring on one industry team to install the new AMP communications and navigation upgrades on between one and nine C-130H model aircraft, according to a notice posted at the Federal Business Opportunities website. This will occur during the program’s ongoing low-rate initial production phase. Current contractor Boeing produces this AMP gear. Doing this “is specifically designed to improve competitive options” for the program’s full-rate production phase since the winning SFP contractor “will be eligible to bid” on the full-rate production contract, states the notice. All proposal information is due by March 1. The SFP is tentatively scheduled to start in January 2012 and last up to 51 months, if all options are exercised.
The Space Force awarded three contracts for rocket launches worth up to a combined $13.68 billion on April 4—and the usual players SpaceX and United Launch Alliance have got some competition in the form of newcomer Blue Origin.