Brian Bradley
NS&D Monitor
09/25/2015
A continuing budget resolution set for three months or longer would likely affect the early acquisition stages for the $62.3 billion Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent, even though the program is not a new start, Air Force spokesman Ed Gulick said by email on Monday. Continuing resolutions freeze federal funding at the previous year’s spending levels, and do not allow new start programs. A CR to begin the next fiscal year would force government agencies to ask Congress for a funding “anomaly” to fund programs at amounts higher or lower than fiscal 2015 levels. Although the “Ground Based Strategic Deterrent” appeared for the first time in President Barack Obama’s fiscal 2016 budget request, this new GBSD program element combines and extends the ongoing Solid Rocket Motor Modernization (SRMM) and Guidance Modernization Program (GMP) efforts, Gulick said, adding that additional preparatory work has been completed for GBSD as well.
“GBSD is not a new start in FY16 and will not require congressional new start approval,” Gulick said. Congress by Oct. 1 is widely expected to negotiate a continuing resolution for three months or longer. If it doesn’t pass a budget or CR by then, the federal government would shut down.
Air Force Supports Contractors
The Air Force is working with BAE Systems, Draper Laboratories, and The Aerospace Corp. on systems engineering and technical advisory (SETA) contracts for GBSD, Gulick confirmed. The SETA contractors will not be allowed to team with potential bidders on the main system contracts, Gulick said. “This support will posture GBSD to enter Milestone A and as such SETA contractors will be excluded from teaming with potential offerors,” he said.
The GBSD weapon system is expected to enter the first phase of acquisition—Milestone A, in Defense Department nomenclature—in January with the award of two parallel teaming contracts to carry the program through the first two phases of its development. The proposed schedule charts Milestone B, the engineering and manufacturing development (EMD) phase of DoD acquisition, as starting in fiscal 2020, and Milestone C, the procurement phase, as commencing in fiscal 2024. In fiscal 2029, the Air Force is looking to either break out production for the GBSD’s command and control (C2), re-entry vehicle, and guidance systems into three separate contracts, or to procure all three systems through one contract, according to the schedule.
The Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center in July awarded BAE an $11.1 million contract modification, which effectively extends the company’s SETA role as integration support contractor (ISC) for the Minuteman 3 on to GBSD for at least one year. In its role, BAE is providing schedule management, acquisition program documentation, program risk management, strategic planning, quality assurance, logistics planning, business and financial management, data rights, data management, systems engineering, trade studies, technical studies, and integration needs for the GBSD, according to the announcement. Work on this specific modification is expected to be complete by July 23, 2016.
BAE has worked as Minuteman 3 ISC through a $534.9 million contract since July 2013 under the Future ICBM Sustainment and Acquisition Construct (FISAC), a contracting vehicle managed by the Air Force and comprising separate contracts for sustaining the ICBMs’ guidance, ground, propulsion, and re-entry subsystems. As ISC, BAE serves as the Air Force’s chief technical advisor and support contractor for Minuteman 3 sustainment.
