Air force plans to re-compete programme could split weapon into two variants

The US Air Force plans to re-compete the moving-target variant of the 250lb (113kg)-class Small Diameter Bomb (SDB) – now being built by Boeing – a move that could split the $4.2 billion programme into two separate weapons.

To preserve its lock on one of the USAF’s key next-generation smart weapons, Boeing may again have to defeat rival bids by Lockheed Martin and Raytheon, the two losers in a now-discredited USAF selection process in 2003. Boeing must prove itself again despite a shift in the required seeker technology from laser radar (lidar) to a tri-mode seeker.

Lidar was the USAF’s preferred choice in 2001, but its limitations in bad weather has forced a move to the more versatile tri-mode seeker. Lockheed Martin says it “is successfully testing a tri-mode seeker being developed on the Joint Common Missile [JCM] programme to strike moving targets in adverse weather”.

In September, Lockheed will perform captive carry tests of its tri-mode seeker against a representative Small Diameter Bomb 2 target set.

Raytheon also started work on a tri-mode seeker in a losing bid for the JCM programme, but has not made a decision about a new SDB 2 bid. “We could be considered a possible candidate for an all-up round, but we are also going to look at other options,” says Raytheon SDB 2 programme manager Rich Roellig, who adds: “We are in teaming discussions.”

Boeing also submitted a bid for the JCM contract, but its tri-mode seeker was supplied by Northrop Grumman.

Until early September, the SDB 2 contract looked like it was safe in Boeing’s hands. Although the original award had been criticised as unfair by the Government Accountability Office and the DoD Inspector General, the USAF planned to re-compete only the seeker and datalink components of SDB 2, not the all-up weapon.

But decision authority for most major USAF acquisition programmes has been moved to the office of Ken Krieg, the newly-appointed deputy undersecretary of defence for acquisition, technology and logistics. The change in procurement strategy was announced in August. A draft solicitation was expected as Flight International went to press last week.

STEPHEN TRIMBLE/WASHINGTON DC

Source: Flight International