BAMS contest to define US Navy martime oversight
The US Navy is scheduled to announce the winner of its $2 billion Broad Area Maritime Surveillance contract in early 2008, and has recently launched the first phase of a project to replace its Lockheed EP-3E Aries II electronic intelligence aircraft.
Likely to comprise as many as 50 unmanned air vehicles or optionally manned aircraft, the BAMS fleet is needed to supplement the surveillance role of the navy's eventual 108 Boeing 737-based P-8A Poseidon multi-mission maritime aircraft, deliveries of which will conclude during fiscal year 2019 and which will primarily be used for anti-submarine warfare tasks.
The combined fleets will jointly replace more than 220 P-3 Orions, with BAMS to offer surveillance for a wider range of surface and sub-surface targets, and provide extreme long endurance over vast expanses of the world's oceans.
Australia is also participating in the BAMS competition, with bidders required to submit a separate proposal to the nation.
The competition has attracted an eclectic mix of unmanned and optionally manned aircraft. Boeing has proposed an optionally manned Gulfstream G550 equipped with three Raytheon-made active electronically scanned array radars. Lockheed Martin has teamed with General Atomics to offer the Predator B-based Mariner UAV with an Elta Systems sensor, while Northrop Grumman is proposing the RQ-4N Global Hawk UAV carrying the company's own multifunction active sensor.
BAMS is back in competition after a three-year hiatus from 2004 that has given the service more time to study its requirement. Two RQ-4Ns were acquired in 2005 to conduct a maritime demonstration, while the persistent unmanned maritime airborne surveillance study drew responses from all the bidding teams and prompted a demand to meet time on station requirements, rather than deliver a pre-determined number of aircraft.
The USN on 15 November issued the first call for potential bidders to provide information on concepts for its EPX contest to deliver a successor to the EP-3E fleet after FY2017.
Boeing has previously said that it will offer the 737-based EP-8 for the requirement, but there is a new signal that Airbus is preparing to offer the A320 and Embraer a version of its E190 regional jet. A broad agency announcement warns that foreign-owned firms will be banned from competing as prime contractors, but says the programme "will consider all platform concepts with the potential to meet certification and performance requirements". Non-US companies could also participate as subcontractors or suppliers, with "some restrictions", under the outline.
The USN estimates that the first six years of the EPX programme will cost about $1.1 billion, including at least $728 million for research, development, test and evaluation.
General Atomics' Mariner UAV could augment the USN's P-8A fleet
Source: Flight International
