In the end, there could be only one.
Raytheon Corp. has been declared the winner in a dispute with Littleton-based Lockheed Martin Space Systems over a multi-year U.S. Air Force contract valued at $700 million.
Raytheon will take over operational support for the North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD, near Colorado Springs.
The Cheyenne Mountain facility was built during the Cold War to — among other things — monitor threats and assess risks against U.S. airspace from deep within the mountain.
Raytheon employees will be responsible for around-the-clock support and maintenance of software systems powering the defense network.
They will also modernize the system against current menaces, including the ever-increasing threat of cyber attacks, said Todd Probert, Raytheon vice president and head of the division overseeing the NORAD work.
“We’re excited because it’s a very important national defense system and one of the very few marquee defense systems,” Probert said.
Raytheon won the contract in April. Lockheed Martin, which has held the contract since 2000, filed a protest with the U.S. Government Accountability Office.
The GAO found no merit to the claim, freeing Raytheon to move forward.
Waltham, Mass.-based Raytheon currently has about 200 employees in Colorado Springs, and a small presence at Air Force bases in the state.
The company’s main Colorado operation is in Aurora, where 1,500 people work. But the Denver-Aurora area has brought the company staffing challenges, Probert says, since many businesses compete for the same talent pool.
He said he is hopeful this will not happen in Colorado Springs — “a great expansion area with the kind of talent we need.”
“We’ve been growing relations with the (Colorado Springs) community at large, and more specifically the colleges and academic base,” he added.
Some Lockheed workers will migrate to Raytheon with the contract, Probert said, however, it is unknown how many.
On July 20, Lockheed Martin filed a federally mandated Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) notice with the Colorado Department of Labor for the pending termination of 151 employees “due to the completion of the Integrated Space Command and Control Contract on Sept. 30.”
Additional WARN notices were filed July 20 for the company’s other Colorado Springs locations, bringing the total of potential layoffs to 270. On Aug. 6, some of those notices were rescinded.
Neither a Lockheed spokeswoman nor Rob Smith, the company’s vice president of C4ISR systems — the business under which the NORAD contract work falls — would say exactly how many workers were affected or whether they are contractors.
Smith said in an e-mailed statement that 120 employees have already been placed in other positions within the company, and that “we are actively identifying next assignments for at-risk individuals and placing them on other programs within the company.”
Probert called the NORAD contract an “anchor” for Raytheon, and said he expects to soon be able to announce several others that will help cement Raytheon’s Colorado Springs presence.
The company expects to eventually hire 700 people in the area. Probert expects some of them to come from the company’s Aurora workforce, many of whom commute daily from the Colorado Springs area.
“With technology being what it is, this anchor contract will establish us in the area and in doing so, build a virtual link into Raytheon,” he said. “I see it as being a really interesting place in the next couple of years from a talent standpoint.”
Raytheon is working with the Air Force on its mandated 120-day transition plan: “By January, we will have it all under Raytheon,” Probert said.
Laura Keeney: 303-954-1337, lkeeney@denverpost.com or twitter.com/LauraKeeney
