On Aug. 12, the U.S. Air Force told the Government Accountability Office that the service is canceling the potentially $12 billion Integrated Support Contract 2.0 for the Minuteman III and future nuclear-tipped, silo-based Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missiles.
The service may re-examine intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) support requirements for a future contract.
The Integrated Support Contract 2.0 (ISC 2.0) cancellation comes as the Air Force pulls back development of the Northrop Grumman Sentinel after a critical Nunn-McCurdy breach on the program. The missile now looks as if it will not be fielded until the 2030s, rather than an earlier projected date of 2029.
The ISC 2.0 has had a turbulent history since BAE Systems won the contract more than two years ago.
BAE was the incumbent and won the approximately $534 million ISC 1.0 contract in July 2013.
At the time of the ISC 2.0 award, the Air Force said that under the cost-plus-award-fee contract, BAE would serve as the lead systems integrator and would complement government personnel in providing ICBM systems engineering, integration, and professional services through 2040.
In winning ISC 2.0, BAE beat out four other offers, which included one from McLean, Va.-based Guidehouse LLP, one from Tullahoma, Tenn.’s Jacobs Technology — a unit of Jacobs Solutions — and another from Integrated ICBM Support Services — a joint venture among Amentum, Apex Systems and Leidos.
After the June 2022 ISC 2.0 award, Guidehouse and Jacobs submitted bid protests to the Government Accountability Office (GAO).
In October 2022, GAO sustained the two protests and recommended that the Air Force reevaluate proposals and make a new best offer down-select. Edda Emmanuelli Perez, GAO general counsel, wrote that the Air Force’s “evaluation of professional employee compensation and cost realism” in the ISC 2.0 offers was “unreasonable in certain regards.”
A version of this story first appeared in Weapons Complex Morning Briefing affiliate publication Defense Daily.
