Contract award for the US Navy's $2 billion Broad Area Maritime Surveillance programme has been delayed by at least three months until January 2008.
The delay will give navy officials time to conduct a final round of best and final offers with the three BAMS competitors - the Boeing/Gulfstream G550, Lockheed Martin/General Atomics Mariner and the Northrop Grumman RQ-4N Global Hawk.
The final round of bids is intended to increase the "robustness" of the technical proposals in the three bids, says the Naval Air Systems Command. Cost is not a major focus in the final round, but it command adds: "We are not going to say 'no' to a lower price."
The BAMS contract calls for delivering a fleet of unmanned aircraft systems to maintain nearly constant surveillance orbits from five air bases around the world. Each team can choose how many of their aircraft will be needed to meet the USN requirement.
The programme is the unmanned adjunct to the USN's Boeing P-8A Poseidon multi-mission maritime aircraft, which will primarily be used in the anti-submarine warfare role. BAMS will be focused on tracking and identifying surface vessels across the world's oceans.
Source: Flight International
