Army evaluating bids for air-defense vehicles.

The Army has launched a potentially $200 million program to acquire a medium-range air-defense vehicle that would serve as an intermediate capability between the extended-range Patriot and the short-range Avenger.

The system, called the surface-launched advanced medium range fir-to-air missile (SLAMRAAM), would defend against enemy cruise and ballistic missiles, unmanned aircraft and helicopters.

The air-defense weapon is the Air Force active seeker AIM-120C AMRAAM missile, which would be launched from a heavy variant of the Humvee truck. The system also includes the Sentinel radar and a fire control station.

The Army budgeted $28 million for SLAMRAAM in fiscal year 2004. The development phase will take at least five years. By 2008, the Army expects to field one battalion of 24 fire units, 10 integrated fire control stations and an inventory of more than 100 AIM 120C missiles.

The Marine Corps is buying a similar vehicle, a Humvee-mounted launcher called CLAWS (Complementary Low Altitude Weapon System).

"The SLAMRAAM system that is to be developed would have been extremely effective against the Iraqi cruise missile threat and would have saved countless dollars," said Jeff Stevens, deputy product manager, in a statement published in an Army web site. He noted that SLAMRAAM will operate side-by-side with the Avenger, a Humvee-based launcher that fires short-range Stinger missiles.

The Army plans to select a contractor for SLAMRAAM next year, who will be responsible to integrate the launcher with government-supplied AMRAAM missiles. The system also must be made interoperable with Patriot and Avenger.

Proposals were due July 21. It appears, however, that only one industry team submitted a bid for SLAMRAAM. When the Army first released a solicitation, four contractors submitted white papers: Raytheon, Boeing, Northrop Grumman and Teledyne Brown Engineering.

For the final bid, Raytheon teamed with Boeing (Boeing had lost the Marine Corps CLAWS competition to Raytheon). Northrop Grumman opted to drop out. A Teledyne Brown spokesperson said the company would not comment.

Officials at the Aviation and Missile Command said they could not comment on whether the service would proceed with the program even if only one bid was received.

"In accordance with the Federal Acquisition Regulation, we cannot discuss the details about the on-going source selection process," said an AMCOM spokesperson. "Therefore, we cannot discuss the number of proposals received in response to the Request for Proposals."

Raytheon's deputy program manager for ground combat systems, Bob Filosa, said the company proposed a launcher based on the Marine CLAWS system. "The heart of the system is the battle management control, which the Army calls the integrated fire control system," Filosa said in an interview.

He noted that the SLAMRAAM requirements evolved during the past couple of years from a stand-alone platform to a more integrated system that is part of a broad air-defense network.

"Originally it was like the Marines' program--a launcher and a fire control system. Now, it's a total integrated system with compatibility with Avenger, Patriot and with THAAD [the theater high-altitude air defense system]," said Filosa.

The Army decided it needed air defenses that are more mobile than Patriot batteries, but with a longer range than the Stinger Avenger, said Steven Ignat, director of business development at Raytheon Missile Systems. "SLAMRAAM can move with the division or the Stryker brigades, to protect forward deployed units," he said in an interview.

Several countries currently operate ground-launched AMRAAMs, he added.

Systems like Avenger traditionally were designed to defend against fixed-wing and rotary-wing aircraft. But the threat has evolved to cruise missiles and UAVs, which justified the need for SLAMRAAM, Ignat said.

The SLAMRAAM also could be incorporated into the Future Combat Systems, even though the FCS basic formation, called the unit of action, will nor have organic air defense. Rather, the air defense will be provided by a higher echelon, called the unit of employment. The Army plans to begin fielding FCS in 2010.

"SLAMRAAM is intended to be organic to the unit of employment and will provide support to the unit of action," said the AMCOM spokesman.

Raytheon officials, however, predict that the SLAMRAA may end up as part of the unit of action. "The FCS unit of action doesn't have organic air defense. That has gotten congressional folks concerned," said Ignat. "FCS will deploy rapidly and become vulnerable to air attack.... If they are missing a piece of the combined arms, they are vulnerable."

The decision of whether to include air-defense platforms in the unit of action eventually may be driven by the commander's needs, noted Roger Krone, Boeing vice president for Army programs, who oversees the FCS project. "Today, the Army usually deploys a division. It's unlikely that they would deploy a unit of action without at least part of a unit of employment.... If it's a situation when we have dominance of the air space, then air defense may be less important. It's going to be very situational dependent."

Maj. Gen. Joseph L. Yakovac, program executive officer for Army ground combat systems, said that the FCS specifications require that the direct-fire vehicle be able to engage hovering helicopters and UAVs. "Anything outside of the range of the line of sight of the weapon would come from an attached capability [an augmentation to that unit]," Yakovac told National Defense. "That could change, but that is how it's set up right now."