Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment Ellen Lord on Friday defended the Air Force’s request for proposals for the forthcoming contract for production of the Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent intercontinental ballistic missiles.
Lord called the document a “well-written RFP that will give us the insight we need” with regard to cost and pricing for replacing the current fleet of Minuteman III missiles, even if the contract ends up being sole-sourced.
Boeing has said it will not compete for the program and has argued the RFP unfairly benefited rival Northrop Grumman. At issue is Northrop’s in-house production of solid-fueled rocket motors through its June 2018 acquisition of Orbital ATK. The Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent, like the Minuteman III before it, will be fueled by solid propellant.
“With GBSD, obviously the proposals are not in yet, so nothing is finalized,” Lord said. “However … we put in language so that we have visibility and transparency in cost and pricing, so we will be able to determine the value, if you will, of what’s being delivered.”
Lord added that there will also be “multiple significant subsystems within GBSD” that invite competition.
The Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent will carry W87-1 warheads provided by the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). The warhead will be based on existing W88 warheads carried on some Minuteman III missiles.
The Democrat-controlled House has proposed slowing work on W87-1, including by providing only about two-thirds of the roughly $700 million the NNSA requested for plutonium pit factories in fiscal 2020. The NNSA plans to start making pits for W87-1 warheads in 2024 at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, then expand production to the Savannah River Site by 2030.
