The US Air Force has changed its procurement method for its next-generation Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicles (EELV), abandoning its previous winner take-all approach in favour of a rolling batch-procurement competition.
Lockheed Martin and Boeing had been competing in a winner-take-all competition for a $1.6 billion engineering and manufacturing development (EMD) contract, which would have resulted in one of the two selected as sole EELV manufacturer.
The USAF, however, has decided that increased civil demand for expendable launch vehicles justifies maintaining two EELV producers, rather than one, as initially envisaged.
As a result, both firms will compete with their respective EELVs for military- and commercial- launch service contracts which could eventually be worth a total of $15 billion.
The EELV is scheduled to replace the existing family of Expendable Launch Vehicles (ELV) early in the 21st century. The goal of the EELV programme is to reduce the cost of launching spacecraft by at least 25%.
In December 1996, the USAF awarded Lockheed Martin and McDonnell Douglas (now part of Boeing) $60 million firm fixed-price 17-month contracts to initiate pre-EMD.
Both firms will now be allowed to undertake the EMD, which is expected to last for six years, eventually leading into production of their respective EELV designs.
Lockheed Martin's entry is evolved from the tried and tested Atlas series of space launchers, while Boeing's candidate is built around the Delta family of ELVs.
In March 1998 , the two companies will be asked to submit proposals for the EMD. These will include a financial package covering cost-sharing with the Department of Defense.
The USAF expects industry to pay more than half the development cost, but this expenditure would be recouped in part from commercial-launch charges.
The air force will award fixed-price EMD contracts in June 1998 and launch services contracts for the first 30 launches scheduled during 2001 to 2005, with more competitions scheduled to take place in succeeding years.
Source: Flight International
