C4ISRNET

The Space and Missile Systems Center says a new report by the think-tank RAND supports its decision to award contracts to only two launch providers under the National Security Space Launch program.

The study, which was commissioned by the Air Force, shows that the heavy launch market is unlikely to sustain more than two domestic launch providers over the long term, a conclusion that supports the main thrust of the Defense Department’s acquisitions approach for heavy lift launch services.

“We asked RAND to independently double check the assumptions we used to build our acquisition strategy,” said Col. Robert Bongiovi, director of SMC’s Launch Systems Enterprise Directorate. “What we found was that our acquisition strategy encompasses RAND’s recommendations as we are already making prudent preparations for a market that will only sustain two providers with our Phase 2 contract structure.”

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