U.S. Navy seeks help redesigning F-35 mission planning

The U.S. Navy is lining up a five-year engineering support contract for the redesign of the F-35’s mission planning software, the ground-based system pilots use to plan sorties and load data into the stealth fighter before takeoff.

The Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division in China Lake, California, said in a sources sought notice published Oct. 2 that it intends to buy the work on an other-than-full-and-open-competition basis. The contract would cover systems engineering, analysis, subject matter expertise and program planning and management support for the F-35 Mission Planning Environment integrated product team, in support of the Mission Planning Environment redesign project.

The requirement is a follow-on to an existing contract held by Computer Systems Center Inc., a small business in Springfield, Virginia. The Navy said there have been no significant changes in scope, size or complexity from the current deal, which ends June 10, 2027.

Under the planned schedule, the U.S. Navy expects to release a final request for proposals around Jan. 25, 2027, and award the contract around May 20, 2027. The work would run from May 2027 through May 2032. The service plans a single-award indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract with cost-plus-fixed-fee labor, and estimates about 278,800 labor hours, close to the 280,050 hours on the current contract.

A Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division acquisition forecast published in January listed the follow-on as a sole-source requirement worth between $50 million and $100 million, with Top Secret clearance requirements.

The F-35’s Mission Planning Environment is the set of software tools squadron pilots and planners use on the ground to build a mission: routes, threats, targets, weapons and communications settings. The finished plan is then loaded into the jet. It sits within the F-35’s offboard mission support systems, the ground computers and software that support the aircraft outside the cockpit, alongside the ODIN logistics network that replaced the troubled ALIS system.

Lockheed Martin builds the F-35 and its mission planning hardware and software. The contract the U.S. Navy is now planning covers the government side of the effort: helping the program office define requirements, analyze the system’s architecture and manage the redesign. The program is called Advanced Requirements Characterization, Engineering and Representation, or ARCHER.

Computer Systems Center won the current contract in February 2023. That deal, worth up to $49.3 million, was competed through an electronic request for proposals, but drew only one offer. The company has supported F-35 mission planning work for the Naval Air Systems Command for several years.

The sources sought notice asks companies of all sizes to describe past work, management approach and staffing, and says the responses will help decide whether to set the contract aside for small businesses. The current contract was not a set-aside. Responses are due by 5 p.m. Pacific time on Oct. 17. The U.S. Navy does not plan to hold an industry day.