Navy ready to issue solicitation for as many as 31 COTS instrument landing systems (ILS)
LAKEHURST, N.J., 26 Oct. 2015. U.S. Navy aviation experts are reaching out to industry to identify companies able to provide commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) instrument landing systems (ILS) for installation at as many as 31 Navy and U.S. Marine Corps airfields.
Officials of the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division (NAWCAD) in Lakehurst, N.J., issued a presolicitation last week (N68335-16-R-0023) announcing a full and open competition for COTS instrument landing systems. The official solicitation will be issued in early December.
The instrument landing system is a ground-based instrument approach system that provides precision lateral and vertical guidance to an aircraft approaching and landing on a runway, using a combination of radio signals and, in many cases, high-intensity lighting arrays to enable a safe landing during instrument meteorological conditions (IMC), such as low ceilings or reduced visibility due to fog, rain, or blowing snow.
The instrument landing systems must meet International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) specifications for category II ILS capability. The Navy will award one 7-year contract with a minimum quantity of one instrument landing system, one ILS shelter, and one uninterruptible power supply for the first order.
The intent of this presolicitation is to create a program of record to provide Navy and Marine Corps airfields with one configuration of an instrument landing system, as well as for future maintenance and upgrades.
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The instrument landing systems must be able to operate in temperatures from -40 to 122 degrees Fahrenheit, in high and low humidity, at altitudes from -100 to 10,000 feet, and in winds as strong as 64 knots.
The system must have built-in test and be able to detect at least 90 percent of all detectable faults, with false alarms no more frequent than one each 500 hours of operation.
The solicitation will be online around 4 Dec. 2015 at the Naval Air Systems Command home page at www.navair.navy.mil/index.cfm?fuseaction=home.display&key=OpenSolicitations. For questions or concerns contact the Navy's Tamara Fossa by email at [email protected], or by phone at 732-323-7565.
More information is online at https://www.fbo.gov/spg/DON/NAVAIR/N68335/N68335-16-R-0023/listing.html.
John Keller | Editor
John Keller is editor-in-chief of Military & Aerospace Electronics magazine, which provides extensive coverage and analysis of enabling electronic and optoelectronic technologies in military, space, and commercial aviation applications. A member of the Military & Aerospace Electronics staff since the magazine's founding in 1989, Mr. Keller took over as chief editor in 1995.
