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Northrop Grumman Corp. Air Combat Systems in El Segundo, CA received a $24.8 million modification to a previously awarded firm-fixed-price contract (N00019-06-C-0080) for the procurement of 37 shipsets of F/A-18 Hornet Center Barrel Replacement Plus (CBR+) hardware. This effort is part of the Service Life Extension Program for the Navy F/A-18 A-D Hornet aircraft.
The “center barrel” is the crucial center part of the aircraft fuselage that supports the wings and landing gear. This part is may be replaced for crash damage, or just because of the continual hard landing damage sustained by aircraft in the “controlled crashes” of carrier landings. The F/A-18 Hornet was expected to have a service life of 20 years, but that was based on 100 carrier landings per year. The US Navy has been busy during the Hornets’ service life, and so the planes are wearing out faster. This is a program that will be picking up steam…
GlobalSecurity.org notes that with 355 Hornets scheduled to receive CBR+ upgrades by 2012, a peak demand of 45 aircraft per year is expected in 2009, based on current aircraft usage. Average cost per aircraft for the CBR+ effort is projected at $2 million, and GlobalSecurity.com also has the interesting story of how the CBR+ program, which was once beyond the realm of the possible, came to be.
This modification adds to a previous $5.9 million contract issued on December 21, 2005 (note that all figures are rounded – $30.645 million would be a more precise total). Work on the contract and its modification will be performed in El Segundo, CA (86.26%); Amityville, NY (9.79%); and Ravenswood, WVA. (3.95%), and is expected to be complete in December 2008.
Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year, and this contract was not competitively procured by the Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) in Patuxent River MD.