Space Force lifts curtains on $4B range support solicitation
A Delta IV rocket launch at Cape Canaveral, Florida Gettyimages.com / Dave Cooper
By
Ross Wilkers
The military's youngest service branch wants to transform its two main ranges into a pair of spaceports.
Space Force has unveiled the final solicitation for a potential 10-year, $4 billion contract covering broad engineering, operations and maintenance services in support of its two main launch ranges.
Proposals for the Space Force Range Contract are due to the service branch by July 28, according to a Sam.Gov notice issued Thursday. Work will take place over an initial five-year base period followed by a five-year option period.
This contract recompetes work currently performed by Range Generation Next LLC, a joint venture of General Dynamics' IT services business unit and Raytheon formed in 2013.
RGNext won the potential 10-year, $2 billion award in 2014 when it was managed by the Air Force and known as the Launch Test and Range System Integrated Support Contract.
Space Force was stood up in December 2019 and thus took over the responsibility of the eastern range at Cape Canaveral in Florida and the western range at Vandenberg in California.
Space Force is looking to transform those ranges into a pair of spaceports that can serve space exploration, national security and commercial operators.
The winning contractor will have a requirement that at least 30% of subcontracting dollars going to small businesses, according to the solicitation documents.