Agile Acquisition processes result in Accelerated Paveway IV deliveries

  • Published
  • SMC Public Affairs

The Space and Missile System Center’s Production Corps User Equipment Foreign Military Sales (FMS) team continues to support U.S. foreign allied partners by implementing new agile acquisition processes. In partnership with Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems and Missile Systems, the FMS team expedited a contract award in six weeks totaling more than $30 million.

     The Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver contract will support the manufacturing and delivery of more than 5,500 Raytheon Selective Availability Anti-Spoofing Module (SAASM)-based receiver cards. The GPS cards delivery will begin in September 2019 to meet high priority Paveway IV Precision Guided Munitions (PGMs) requirements in support of partners operations.

     This capability represents a 70 percent schedule savings compared to the normal contract deliveries for this type of product. The GPS receiver is integrated into the GPS-Aided Inertial Navigation System (GAINS) of the Paveway IV PGM.

     The Paveway IV is a dual mode integrated inertial navigation system with GPS and laser-guided bomb manufactured by Raytheon. The integration of the SAASM-based GPS card improves weapon delivery flexibility, resiliency and accuracy. 

     SMC 2.0 initiatives focus on speed, innovation, and partnerships with foreign allies and commercial space companies to deliver capabilities to the warfighter. The Production Corps User Equipment FMS team’s “epic speed” in contracting the GPS receiver for the Paveway bombs demonstrates the SMC 2.0 initiative.