WASHINGTON — Government services contractor Amentum has officially started operations at the nation’s space launch ranges after a rival dropped its legal challenge.
The Space Systems Command announced May 31 it awarded Amentum’s subsidiary Jacobs Technology the Space Force Range Contract, or SFRC, a 10-year indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity deal worth up to $4 billion. The agreement covers maintenance, sustainment, systems engineering and integration services at the Eastern Range — spanning Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and Kennedy Space Center in Florida — and the Western Range at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
The transition was delayed when the incumbent contractor, Range Generation Next (RGNext), protested the award in June at the U.S. Court of Federal Claims. RGNext, a joint venture between Raytheon and General Dynamics that ran the ranges since 2015, withdrew its protest last week, allowing Amentum to begin work.
Randy Lycans, Amentum’s senior vice president and program director for the Space Force Range Contract, said the competition for this award, which started in 2023, was one of the most contested programs the company has pursued.
“We’re coming into this as the new guy on the block,” he told SpaceNews.
Jacobs Technology, which merged with Amentum in September 2024, brings a long track record of operating NASA centers. It manages facilities at Marshall Space Flight Center and Ames Research Center, and in 2023 won a 10-year, $3 billion contract to support Kennedy Space Center’s launch infrastructure, including for NASA’s Artemis program. “Lots of NASA history, but a lot of growth in DoD more recently,” Lycans said.
The SFRC marks Amentum’s largest range services award to date. Beyond providing day-to-day sustainment and launch support, the company is tasked with modernizing the ranges to handle higher launch rates. That modernization push comes as commercial activity drives much of the demand at Cape Canaveral and Vandenberg, with SpaceX maintaining a high cadence while United Launch Alliance and Blue Origin are both ramping up operations with their new rockets, Vulcan and New Glenn, respectively.
A new contracting approach
Lycans said the contract structure reflects this shift. Unlike the arrangement under RGNext, commercial launch providers can now request services or infrastructure upgrades directly through Amentum and pay for them themselves, rather than having the government front the cost and seek reimbursement later. He argued the change will reduce the financial and administrative burden on the Space Force and give commercial operators more flexibility.
As the range operator, Amentum is responsible for ensuring launch providers can plug into critical infrastructure. “We provide the propellants, the power, the pressure systems, the electrical interfaces,” Lycans said. “If we’re not ready when they show up, then there’s a launch delay, and it’s on us.”
A significant portion of the contract — about 30% — must flow down to small businesses. Lycans said 17 subcontractors are already part of the effort, with room to add more.
Hiring is another challenge. Both Cape Canaveral and Vandenberg face intense competition for skilled labor. “We’ve got Blue Origin building factories right outside the gate,” Lycans said of the Florida site, where commercial launch providers and aerospace suppliers are expanding. The competition is especially tough for machinists, radar specialists, and technicians who work directly on hardware. At Vandenberg, the remote location complicates recruiting.
The Space Force has emphasized digital transformation as a priority for the ranges, and Lycans pointed to automation as a key goal. With tens of thousands of individual components across the sites — ranging from cryogenic transfer lines to air handlers — configuration management is a major undertaking. “All that has to be tracked. Configuration has to be very well understood, documented, controlled. So just bringing automation to things like that” is one of the objectives, he said.
For Amentum, the SFRC represents both a significant win and a test of its ability to support a commercial-heavy launch environment that looks very different from the Cold War era ranges. “Winning the SFRC is a huge step for our company,” Lycans said.