The Navy Named the Winner 18 Months Early and Still Couldn't Price It

On Sept. 1 the Navy awarded General Electric a five-year performance-based logistics contract worth up to $2,874,696,513 for the depot-level repairables inside the F414.

Eighteen months earlier, NAVSUP Weapon Systems Support had published the name of the winner, its CAGE code, and the month it expected to sign.

The contract went out the door without a price.

"How does a sole-source award with a named winner and eighteen months of runway arrive undefinitized?"

N00383-26-D-UA01 is a not-to-exceed ceiling-price contract covering 17 F414 engine components for the F/A-18E/F and EA-18G, five-year base, no option periods, work complete August 2031. Ninety percent of it performs in Lynn, Massachusetts, the rest at Jacksonville.

One source solicited under 10 U.S.C. 3204(a)(1), one offer received.

Then the funding line, which is where the mechanism lives. FY26 Navy working capital funds of $198,221,333 were committed to concurrent delivery order N00383-26-F-UA01, of which $148,666,000 (75%) was obligated at award.

That percentage is not a rounding artifact.

What the Last Five Years Actually Cost

The outgoing vehicle is N00383-21-D-ZN01, an indefinite-delivery requirements PBL for F414 depot component support that ran Sept. 1, 2021 through Aug. 31, 2026.

FPDS codes it not competed, only one source, FAR 6.302-1, one offer, firm fixed price.

Across those five years it took nine delivery orders and obligated $1,384,667,578, in four-to-eight-month increments that never once covered a full year in a single action (chart below).

The successor carries a $2.87 billion ceiling over the same five-year length. A ceiling is not a spend plan, so the two numbers are different species, and the gap is still worth staring at: $574.9M a year if the ceiling is fully drawn against $276.9M a year of actual obligations in the term that just ended.

Whatever the Navy is buying here, it priced the envelope at roughly 2.1x the run rate of the thing it replaces.

Eighteen Months of Notice

The paper trail on this one is unusually complete, and it starts long before the award.

• Feb. 25, 2025. Presolicitation notice of intent, solicitation N0038325R005C. It names General Electric, Lynn, CAGE 99207, cites 10 U.S.C. 3204(a)(1) as implemented by FAR 6.302-1, states the award is "anticipated" in August of 2026, and gives other sources 15 days to raise a hand.
• Sept. 24, 2025. The solicitation itself posts under the same number. Responses due Oct. 24, 2025 at 4pm Eastern.
• Aug. 31, 2026. The outgoing requirements PBL's period of performance ends.
• Sept. 1, 2026. Award, undefinitized.

Read that sequence against the policy standard the Navy has to meet. DFARS 217.7403 says an undefinitized contract action is used only when "the negotiation of a definitive contract action is not possible in sufficient time to meet the Government's requirements" and the government's interest "demands that the contractor be given a binding commitment so that contract performance can begin immediately."

Ten months passed between the proposal due date and award day. The requirement was not a surprise to anyone, least of all the incumbent, who had been named in public since winter.