WASHINGTON — The U.S. Air Force intends award a sole-source contract to Raytheon Co. to continue providing operations and sustainment support for the satellite-based Global Broadcast Service (GBS), according to a Sept. 9 posting on the Federal Business Opportunities Web site.
The GBS system uses government and commercial satellites to broadcast intelligence data, Web site pages, television news channels and other products to U.S. military users around the world. Raytheon Intelligence and Information Systems of Garland, Texas, has been the prime contractor since the program’s inception in the 1990s, but in May the company was unseated in a competition to consolidate GBS operations by Lockheed Martin Information Systems and Global Services of Valley Forge, Penn.
Raytheon’s current contract runs through October; the new indefinite delivery-indefinite quantity contract could extend the work up to three years at a cost of $74.5 million. The new GBS architecture Lockheed Martin is developing will take approximately two years to field, and issuing the new contract to Raytheon is necessary to avoid a gap in service, the posting said.
