Air Force puts 22 companies on $490M Agile Acquisition contract

Elgin AFB hosts the test and evaluation center for a variety of systems.

The Air Force has awarded 22 companies a spot on a nearly half-billion dollar contract under its Agile Acquisition program for the development of new systems and the modification of existing ones.

The five-year, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract has a ceiling of $490 million and covers pre-program activities, technology development, engineering and manufacturing, and production. Work under the contract will be done at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., which hosts the Air Force’s test and evaluation center for air-delivered weapons, navigation and guidance systems, command and control systems, and the service’s special operations systems.

The idea of greater agility in acquisitions is something the Air Force outlined as part of its 30-year strategy released in July 2014. In that document, the Air Force said its wanted to get away from large, complex procurements “with crippling interdependencies” and move toward “programs with simple, severable components, open architectures and more distributed participation.”

In this case, participation is distributed among 22 of the 23 companies that bid on the contract—13 large businesses and nine small businesses received awards. Only one small company didn’t make the cut.

The companies that received awards are:

Large businesses:

• AeroJet Rocketdyne
• BAE Systems Information and Electronic Systems Integration
• Boeing
• General Dynamics
• L-3 National Security Solutions
• Lockheed Martin
• MBDA
• Northrop Grumman Systems
• Alliant TechSystems Operations
• Raytheon
• Rockwell Collins
• Sierra Nevada Corp.
• Textron Systems

Small businesses:

• Applied Research Associates
• Cummings Aerospace
• Dynetics
• HART Technologies
• Integrated Solutions for Systems
• Intuitive Research and Technology
• SURVICE,* Belcamp, Maryland (FA8656-15-D-0279);
• Systima
• Yulista Aviation.