Air Force scraps $12B Sentinel systems integration contract

The Air Force is going back to the drawing board for its $12 billion systems integration contract for its Sentinel nuclear missile replacement program.

Twice now, the Government Accountability Office has told the Air Force to re-evaluate proposals for the Integration Support Contract 2.0 following a pair of sustained protests.

Decision decision number one fell in 2022 and the second came earlier in the summer. Guidehouse successfully protested the Air Force's choice of incumbent BAE Systems Inc. in the first ruling, while the roles were reversed for the second case.

In the most recent decision, GAO said the Air Force should re-evaluate the entirety of proposals submitted by Guidehouse and BAE. The Air Force only wanted to look at certain sections of the bids.

GAO also offered the Air Force this out – if the solicitation no longer meets the needs of the Air Force, the branch could amend the solicitation and then ask for new proposals.

But the Air Force has taken that recommendation a step further and canceled the contract altogether.

In a brief statement on Sam.gov, the Air Force offered no explanation on why it decided to scrap the contract rather than rework the solicitation. A call into the Air Force has not been returned.

If the Air Force develops a new request for proposals, it will come out under a new solicitation number. In the meantime, BAE continues work on the incumbent contract that is slated to expire at the end of January 2025.

The Integration Support Contract 2.0 would have covered sustainment services for the Minuteman III missile and its retirement. ISC 2.0 also was to support the deployment of its successor system, the Ground-based Strategic Deterrent, which includes the Sentinel missile being built by Northrop Grumman.

ISC 2.0 was to run for 18 years and included services such as cybersecurity, digital engineering, model-based systems engineering and change management.

The Air Force's push to replace Minuteman III has been troubled.

In June, the Air Force fired Sentinel Systems director Col. Charles Clegg. He “did not follow organizational procedures” and the Air Force had lost confidence in his ability to lead, an Air Force spokesperson told our sibling publication Defense One in June.

Congress also has been pressuring the Air Force for a more thorough review of alternatives before moving ahead with Sentinel. Projected costs for the program are now $131 billion, according to Defense One.

The need to replace the Minuteman III missiles has been a long-standing issue. They were first deployed in 1970 with an expected lifetime of 10 years.