An artist rendering of a U.S. Air Force Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) satellite which connects to the FAB-T terminals. Photo: Lockheed Martin

[Via Satellite 01-24-2014] The United States Air Force is nearing the point of making a decision regarding its competition to provide the Family of Advanced Beyond Line-of-Sight Terminals (FAB-T), which connect to Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) satellites for secure communications with forces in the event of nuclear activity or other extreme conditions. Boeing and Raytheon are awaiting the downselect, which will determine who moves forward to produce the equipment needed to provide presidential and national voice conferencing (PNVC) for senior level communications.

Both FAB-T development contractors provided their final proposal updates in December, and a decision is expected by March of this year. Little new information has been released since the Air Force began its evaluation.

“It has been a silent period; we’ve heard nothing whatsoever about that process,” Scott Whatmough, VP of Raytheon’s integrated communication systems, said during a Jan. 22 conference call. “I think based on our performance to date we’ve positioned ourselves well. We went into this making some commitments on very aggressive schedule requirements and technical requirements, and we’ve hit every one so far. The net result is a terminal that functions as required by the contract and I believe we’ve got a best value, highly competitive low risk offering for the command post only systems.”

Raytheon was included in the FAB-T program in 2012 to provide an alternative system. Boeing was the original contractor since 2002, but delays prompted the Air Force to initiate a competition. The command post contract will require a total of 84 systems, which will be distributed between the E4 and E6 aircraft, ground-fixed and ground portable installations. According to Whatmough, the contract does not include aircraft installation costs.

Influenced by budget cuts, the Air Force recently decided to only award production for command post terminals.  Airborne wideband terminals were considered, but later excluded. There would have been an additional 132 terminals for the B2s the B52s and the RC135, had the airborne wideband terminals been included.

Raytheon started the contract to serve as an alternate provider 16 months ago, claiming at the time that they had roughly 80 percent of the capability from three prior Extremely High Frequency (EHF) programs: the Secure Mobile Anti-Jam Reliable Tactical Terminal (Smart-T), the Navy Multiband Terminal (NMT) and the Minuteman Minimum Essential Emergency Communications Network Program Upgrade (MMPU). On the conference call Whatmough stated Raytheon has “fully tested in excess of 90 percent of the software.” Boeing, having designed its terminal over a much longer period, is also very confident about its offering.

“Not only are we starting at a point of meeting all the requirements but also [from] completing a number of flight tests both on the command and control aircraft as well as on the bomber aircraft,” said Paul Geery VP of command, control and communications solutions and FAB-T program manager at Boeing. “We’re in a really good position to give them everything they need. The important thing to me is we’re going into this with a completely qualified terminal. [Raytheon], based on when they got started, is going to be a fair amount of time behind and so that puts the Air Force at risk.”

However, the Air Force’s upcoming decision will not be the final award of the production contract. The near-term announcement will be a downselect; the actual award is expected later this year. The ultimate goal of this competition is to drive down the cost of the FAB-T program for the Air Force. Though no numbers have been given, Whatmough commented that he does believe the competition has accomplished its goal.

“I would only say this: anytime there is competition, it forces creativity, and innovative solutions,” Whatmough added.