Army cancels planned award for electronic warfare management tool
The Army scrubbed a task order for the next phase of a key electronic warfare management capability, DefenseScoop has learned.
The task order under the Responsive Strategic Sourcing for Services (RS3) Enterprise contract was canceled March 18 due to changes in requirements and overall program strategy for the Electronic Warfare Planning and Management Tool (EWPMT), according to a program office spokesperson.
The technology has been described by officials as the glue holding all EW capabilities on the battlefield together. It serves as a command-and-control planning capability that allows forces to visualize the potential effects within the invisible spectrum and chart courses of action to prevent their forces and systems from being jammed during operations.
The program finished the first increment, as officials called it, which consisted of four capability drops of incremental software deliveries that each built upon the previous one, with Raytheon as the prime contractor. The program has been in development for over eight years.
Following the completion of those capability drops, the Army decided to alter its acquisition approach, opening the program up for bids again to focus on the next era of the system.
The Army issued a request for proposals in 2022 for a developer services provider. Documents from an industry day in January 2024 listed April as an estimated award date. The effort sought to provide a variety of services for the continued design, build, integration, testing, delivery, fielding, maintenance, configuration management and sustainment for EWPMT.
“The program office is assessing future contract efforts based on operational and support requirements. Updates on future contract opportunities will be released either via APBI or at SAM.gov,” the spokesperson stated.
Officials with the Army have maintained over the last year and a half that the program has a backlog of requirements.
In its fiscal 2025 budget request, the Army asked for $26.3 million in procurement for the system for new equipment fielding and associated training for 39 units at various echelons and locations worldwide, including procurement of commercial computer systems.
Its research-and-development ask is split across two sections. It includes $2 million for navigation warfare situational awareness capabilities to provide positioning, navigation and timing overmatch by countering jamming effects and denying adversary PNT services. An abbreviated capabilities development document for NAVWAR-SA was approved in March 2021, and the funds requested would go toward continued transition and integration of NAVWAR-SA software, the documents state.
Another $12.2 million in the R&D request would go toward continued relevancy updates, sensor integration on other electronic warfare platforms and improved messaging standards, as well as software architecture modernization to make the software more efficient and ease integration with other EW systems.
Increment 1 of the program continues to field to units based on unit prioritization and availability, according to the spokesperson.
