On September 5, the U.S. Air Force, on behalf of itself and at least 29 Foreign Military Sales (FMS) partners, awarded ELB Services LLC of Columbus, Georgia, a single-award, indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity contract (FA8217-23-D-0003) with a $600.0 million ceiling to provide support services for the Joint Mission Planning System, Joint Precision Airdrop System, Portable Flight Planning System, and UNIX Mission Planning System.
These mission planning systems fly on a large percentage of the world’s U.S.-made military aircraft. Confirmed host platforms include the following: the A-10, F-15, F-16, F-22A, F-35, and T-38 fighter/trainers; B-1B, B-2, and B-52 bombers; Global Hawk, Predator/Reaper, RC-135, and U-2 reconnaissance aircraft; and C-5, C-17, C-130, E-3, E-8, HH-60, KC-10, KC-135, and UH-1 TASM aircraft/helicopters.
Work under the contract will primarily be performed at Hill Air Force Base, Utah, but some will be done at other locations worldwide. All work has an expected completion date of September 4, 2034. The Department of Defense stated that the contract was the result of a competitive acquisition in which seven offers were received.
FMS customers comprise an estimated 12 percent of the contract’s value. These customers are known to include (according to the DoD) Australia, Belgium, Canada, Chile, Denmark, Egypt, France, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Japan, Jordan, Korea, Morocco, NATO, the Netherlands, Norway, Oman, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, and the United Kingdom.
At time of the award, the Air Force is obligating $245,069 in fiscal year 2023 Operations and Maintenance funds. The U.S. Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, located at Hill Air Force Base is serving as the contracting activity for the program.
In his role as a Senior Defense Electronics Analyst at Forecast International, C. Zachary Hofer's studies focus primarily on air, land, and sea radar systems, as well as the airborne electronics segment.
