The Boeing Co., St. Louis, Missouri, is awarded an $112,000,000 modification to previously awarded, fixed-price-incentive-firm-target contract N00019-19-C-0019. This modification exercises options to procure 16 infrared search and track Block II low rate initial production IV units; four for the U.S. Navy and 12 for the government of Australia. Fiscal 2020 aircraft procurement (U.S. Navy) funds in the amount of $28,000,000; and Foreign Military Sales funds in the amount of $84,000,000 will be obligated at time of award, none of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity.
The U.S. Navy (USN) for the first time in late 2019 flew an F/A-18F Super Hornet carrying an Infrared Search & Track (IRST) Block II pod under the centerline of its undercarriage. Flights at Boeing’s facilities in the St. Louis, Missouri area are to be used to collect data on how the hardware is performing. Infrared search and track sensors can be used to passively detect other aircraft, including stealth aircraft, by looking for a heat signature coming off a jet’s engines. Also, because the sensor is passive – not emitting any type of radiation – it makes it more difficult for an adversary to detect. Boeing expects the IRST Block II pod to be delivered to the USN in 2021.
