By Troy Turner
ELB Services LLC, of Columbus, Georgia, has garnered a $600 million contract from the U.S. Air Force to provide mission planning support services for aircraft ranging from fighter jets to large wide-bodied aircraft, and including service to NATO and more than two dozen foreign nations.
Mission Planning Systems, or MPS, is a Windows XP, PC-based common solution for Air Force aircraft mission planning, according to military files.
Mission aircrew use MPS to conduct detailed mission planning to support the full spectrum of missions, ranging from simple training to complex combat scenarios. Aircrew save the required aircraft, navigation, threat and weapons data on a data transfer device that they load into their aircraft before flight.
ELB Services, also known as E.L. Blake Corporation, operates in an economic market area that includes Russell County, Alabama, and is self-certified as a minority- and veteran-owned company.
The $600 million contract announced in September 2023 is an 11-year contract set to expire Sept. 4, 2034. Work will be performed in locations worldwide, with Hill Air Force Base, Utah, serving as the main location.
The contract also involves Foreign Military Sales (FMS).
FMS customers comprise an estimated 12% of the contract value and include Australia, Belgium, Canada, Chile, Denmark, Egypt, France, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Japan, Jordan, Korea, Morocco, NATO, Netherlands, Norway, Oman, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, and the United Kingdom.
The contract was a competitive acquisition and seven offers were received. It provides for continued mission planning support of mission planning systems consisting of UNIX-Mission Planning System, portable flight planning system, joint mission planning system, and joint precision airdrop system.
Host platforms include the A-10, F-15, F-16, F-22A, F-35, and also 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.
The Joint Precision Airdrop System, or JPADS, provides rapid, precise, high-altitude delivery capabilities that do not rely on ground transportation. The system ensures accurate and timely delivery in support of operational missions.
JPADS increases aircraft and payload survivability and enables delivery of multiple loads to single or multiple drop zones in a single aircraft pass with accuracy better than 150 meters with 80 percent confidence, according to the military.
E.L. Blake Corporation provides a wide range of management and technical services for the federal government and civilian sector. “Our experience and significant relationships with existing federal government agencies and partner companies give us a competitive edge in capturing business in both sectors,” its website states.
The recently announced Mission Planning Systems contract is not the first significant project E.L. Blake has undertaken with the Department of Defense.
Previous work includes providing expert instruction for the U.S. Army Counter Explosive Hazards Planners Course on awareness and defeat of explosive hazards based on current threats.
ELB worked as a subcontractor with the Air Force and Hill Air Force Base previously under a five-year, $250 million award on various mission planning work that included such services as cybersecurity, hardware configuration, software development and configuration, and training and support.
It also worked with the Maneuver Center of Excellence at the Army’s Fort Moore, previously known as Fort Benning, providing general technical, analytical and operational support to the U.S. Army Infantry School, U.S. Army Armor School, U.S. Army Aviation Center, and other elements.
