Round 3: Air Force makes more awards on $950M multi-domain tech program
By
Ross Wilkers
The Air Force chooses a third group of companies for a $950 million multi-domain technology development contract.
The Air Force has made a third round of awards for a potential five-year, $950 million contract to develop, test and integrate new technologies for use in multi-domain missions.
Eight more companies join the 46 other firms previously selected in the other two rounds for the Advanced Battle Management Systems program that focuses on further building out an open architecture for new information and communications technologies.
The Air Force said Friday it added ARES Security, AT&T, Centauri, Cogniac, NanoVMs, Pacific Defense, SRC and Systematic to the ABMS program. Those follow a first round of 27 companies announced in late May, followed by another 18 firms selected in early July. Raytheon Technologies saw two bids from its legacy businesses chosen in round one.
Companies involved in the ABMS effort will vie for delivery orders over the next five years to develop products for that system, which the Air Force sees as its primary mechanism to make the Joint All Domain Command and Control Concept a reality.
JADC2 is envisioned as helping connect all forces to distributed sensors and data via all domains such as air, land, sea, space, cyber and the electromagnetic spectrum.
The Air Force will use onramp exercises to experiment, demonstrate, test and evaluate new technologies offered by awardees for potential integration into the branch’s operations. The next two onramps are slated for late August and early September to be led by the chiefs of Space Command and Northern Command, followed by Indo-Pacific Command.