The U.S. Air Force has issued a request for proposals for the second phase of a program that seeks to procure 22 GPS III satellites.
A FedBizOpps notice posted Tuesday says the service will award a fixed-price-incentive contract to build the GPS III space vehicles and expects production work to begin in fiscal year 2019.
The Air Force said it expects the first satellite to be delivered by 2026.
The military branch will host a pre-proposal conference on March 15 in El Segundo, California, to address questions regarding the Phase 2 solicitation.
Responses to the RFP are due April 16, according to the notice.
The Phase 2 solicitation came nearly two years after the Air Force awarded Boeing (NYSE: BA), Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) and Northrop Grumman (NYSE: NOC) Phase 1 contracts to perform readiness feasibility studies for the production of an 11th and succeeding GPS III satellites.
