By Troy Turner
The U.S. Space Force has awarded a complex, $2.5 billion contract to a dozen high-tech companies tasked with providing a wide array of mission-critical services to help enhance American military capabilities in the space domain.
Three of the 12 companies are based in Huntsville.
The purpose of the work is “to provide advisory and assistance services to develop, advance and sustain weapon systems” for the Space Force and its mission partners, according to unclassified documents.
The multifaceted contract, which the Space Force named the Hemisphere program, is another example of the U.S. military working to establish smoother and more direct lines of research and development partnership with private contractors in the defense industry.
Such efforts are intended to promote greater efficiency, quicker results in producing needed assets, and to better control costs by reducing redundancies and expediting advancements with shared knowledge and production responsibilities. Other examples involving defense industries in Alabama include missile defense work in Huntsville and shipbuilding in Mobile.
The Hemisphere contract announced by the Department of Defense on Nov. 6 provides for advisory and assistance services for Space Systems Command/ Space Domain Awareness and Combat Power; and for Battle Management Command/Control and Communication Program Executive Offices. Those entities serve under the Space Force/Air Force umbrella.
“Space Systems Command provides unrivaled space systems to ensure survival for both the United States Space Force and our nation,” the DOD said.
Defining the mission
Space Domain Awareness and Combat Power is the Space Systems Command arm focused on delivering cyber, ground- and space-based systems that rapidly detect, warn, characterize, attribute and predict threats to national, allied and commercial space systems, while also providing national security deterrence capabilities countering those identified threats to prevail in a space conflict, according to DOD materials.
“The Hemisphere contractors will support the entire program executive offices, working with all of its eight programs regardless of location,” … to achieve “efficiency in the allocation of contractor resources and reduce administrative overhead,” an unclassified DOD draft stated.
“The Government maintains complete oversight, final decision authority, and accountability for all key Hemisphere functional and technical baseline products, but assigns the responsibility for key functions and products to the Hemisphere contractors.
“The Hemisphere contractors will operate in an integrated team environment cooperating with the military, civilian,” and other elements of the program function team, the draft stated.
The contract winners
Work on the new $2.5 billion contract will be performed in El Segundo, California, and is expected to be completed by Nov. 3, 2034.
The contract was a competitive acquisition, and 40 offers were received.
The 12 selected companies specialize in the type of expertise needed for space warfare, ranging from cybersecurity and cyber abilities, to various fields of special engineering required.
The companies include:
Bryce Space & Technology, Alexandria, Virginia
BTAS Inc., Beavercreek, Ohio
KBR Wyle Services, Lexington Park, Maryland
LinQuest Corp., Herndon, Virginia
MTSI, Alexandria, Virginia
OBX-MCR , McLean, Virginia
Quantech Services Inc, Lexington, Massachusetts
SAIC, El Segundo, California
Sigmatech, Huntsville, Alabama
Solutions Through Innovative Technologies, Fairborn, Ohio
Fiscal 2024 research, development, test and evaluation funds in the amount of $36,000 are being obligated at the time of award.
The Space Systems Command, Los Angeles Air Force Base, California, is the contracting agency.
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Troy Turner is the editor and senior consultant for AlaDefense.com. He can contacted at [email protected].
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