Last month, the Department of the Air Force, in partnership with U.S. Northern Command and the U.S. Space Command, conducted a second and highly rigorous field test of the Advanced Battle Management System (ABMS), the digital battle network system that was designed to collect, process, and share data among U.S. and allied forces. Developed by the Air Force Research Laboratory, the ABMS initiative provides new, secure ways to connect aircraft, satellites and operations centers together.
ABMS utilizes specially built laptops, which allow airmen and Air Force employees to access classified information securely. This has also been crucial during the ongoing novel coronavirus pandemic in allowing Air Force personnel to work remotely.
While each computer will cost less than $2,500, which includes upgrades, the Air Force has done its best to get the machines to employees who need one. That hasn’t been an easy task as government employees have shifted to working from home this year, while industry partners have had to deal with supply chain delays related to Covid-19.
Ramping Up
The Department of the Air Force’s second onramp for the ABMS began at the end of August, and the exercise allowed operators to detect and defeat efforts to disrupt U.S. operations in space as well as to counter attempted cruise missile strikes against the United States. Now, in partnership with two primary Combatant Commands, along with dozens of units and located at locations across the United States, the Department of the Air Force has selected 15 additional companies to compete to develop additional capabilities for the platform.
Those newly selected companies will join the more than 50 other firms that have been selected this year.
The recent selections, which are from the fourth round announced in as many months, will support an ABMS acquisition strategy that spurs competition from a variety of traditional defense as well as commercial-focused sources and streamlines the contracting process to produce capability in roughly four month sprints.
The joint onramps are the primary mechanisms to experiment, demonstrate, test, and evaluate new ABMS capabilities. Those capabilities can be advanced, modified, discarded or even – if requested by combatant commanders – put immediately into operation use, all based on real test data and warfighter feedback.
“The latest ABMS onramp propelled the military into the digital age,” said Preston Dunlap, chief architect of the Department of the Air Force. “This new dawn is both a call to action – that we must develop and deliver at digital speed in this era of Great Power Competition – and a call to partner. It sends a clear signal to America’s treasured technological innovation base that the Air Force and Space Force are open for business, and I’m excited to see that more companies continue to answer that call.”
The next onramp will support the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, and it will be the first ABMS exercise that is focused on a geographic theater.
Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity Contracts
The companies selected will receive anywhere from $1,000 to $950 million over the next five years for work in up to seven different ABMS product categories under Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contracts.
“This onramp demonstrates ABMS’ ability to develop and deploy capabilities we need on incredibly short timelines in challenging warfighting scenarios,” said Dr. William Roper, assistant secretary of the Air Force for acquisition, technology and logistics via a statement. “Onboarding new companies provides a continuous stream of innovation needed to make the military Internet of Things a reality for the Joint Force.”
The Department of the Air Force announced that the companies added to the ID/IQ in this round include: Amazon Web Services; Anduril Industries; Colorado Engineering, Inc.; Edgy Bees, Inc.; Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc.; Global C2 Integration Technologies LLC; General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc.; Grey Wolf Aerospace LLC; Kratos Technology & Training Solutions, Inc.; LinQuest Corporation; Oddball, Inc.; Red River Technology LLC; SES Government Solutions, Inc.; Venator Solutions LLC; and VivSoft Technologies LLC.
As one of the companies in the recent ID/IQ round, LinQuest Corporation, a space systems technology solutions contractor for the U.S. defense and intelligence communities, was awarded a position on a $950 million contract. It is part of a multiple-award, multi-level security effort to provide development and operation of systems as a unified force across all domains – including air, land, sea, space, cyber, and electromagnetic spectrum – in an open architecture family of systems.
LinQuest will advance, demonstrate, and proliferate capability across platforms and domains, leveraging open systems design, modern software and algorithm development in order to enable Joint All Domain Command and Control (JADC2).
“This is an exciting opportunity for our team,” said Tim Dills, President and CEO of LinQuest Corporation via a statement sent to ClearanceJobs. “We look forward to supporting JADC2 with our expertise and innovative capabilities.”
