Air Force leadership interfered in contract award, disciplined

It turns out, according to this article, that the Air Force violated all sorts of laws and regulations in awarding a media company a contract to help promote the Thunderbirds aerial demonstration team. The company that won cost twice as much as the other bidder, who protested the contract award in 2006. It turns out that the company that won had a recently retired Air Force general as a partner and the current uniformed leadership of the Air Force interfered to steer it to that company. Now several people have been admonished and reassigned. Read more

JSF costs levelling

On Monday the Pentagon released the annual Selected Acquisition Reports (SAR) this is a formalized report that goes to Congress that details the performance of Acquisition Category (ACAT) ID and IC programs. Congress and OSD can also add programs to the list that don’t meet the ACAT I categories. See the press release here. In a related move the USAF and Lockheed Martin released an audit of the JSF program that shows that cost growth is leveling off. See that story here. Read more