Alabama Keeps Pushing The Air Force
Filed under: Alabama, Congress, EADS, KC-X, KC-X Tanker News, Northrop Grumman Corp., Syndicated Industry News
Supposedly in a meeting between DoD and Air Force officials with members of the Alabama Congressional delegation it came out that the U.S.A.F. will adjust the KC-X RFP to keep Northrop Grumman (NOC) and EADS (EADS.P) in the competition. This of course is a report by Senator Sessions (R-AL) from the meeting. There is no official response as to how the U.S. officials will react to Northrop’s threatened non-participation.
It is in the best interest of the U.S. Government to have two bidders for this program and this may be a necessary step to assure that.
Presumed Bidders Meet With Air Force
Filed under: Boeing, Congress, EADS, KC-X, KC-X Tanker News, Northrop Grumman Corp., Syndicated Industry News
It has been reported that last week Boeing (BA), Northrop Grumman (NOC) and EADS (EADS.P) had a series of meetings with the Air Force to discuss the draft KC-X RFP and the final one. After these meetings EADS and Northrop made clear that their threat not to submit a bid without changes to the RFP language was not an idle negotiation ploy as some have said. The companies believe that the current RFP is biased towards the smaller, cheaper Boeing 767 rather then the larger Airbus 330.
The discussions also indicate that the final RFP will come out before the end of January. Without two bidders it will be hard for the Air Force to proceed so they need a proposal from Northrop and EADS. At the same time they must have an RFP that will hopefully be protest proof and get the needed capability quickly.
Kansas Quietly Supports Boeing
Filed under: Boeing, Congress, KC-X, KC-X Tanker News, Kansas, Syndicated Industry News
The Boeing plant located in Wichita has a long and distinguished history of supporting that company’s military programs. It is safe to assume that if Boeing does win the KC-X contract that some of the work will be done there. That means that Kansas’ leaders are very interested in Boeing winning the deal. In the spirit of this it was reported that the Kansas Governor, Mark Parkinson, recently met with the Air Force Secretary. The former Governor of the state, Kathleen Sebelius, is now a cabinet secretary in the Obama Administration which certainly allows for some low key lobbying.
With the continued economic problems facing the country good manufacturing jobs are hard to come by and this means that mayors, governors and legislators will all be doing their part to support the different bidders in this process.
U.S. TRICARE Contract Protest By Humana Upheld
In July Humana was one of three losing bidders on TRICARE management contracts to protest. They announced last week that their protest was upheld....MRAP-ATV Fallout Leads To Navistar Layoffs
Filed under: Business Line, Companies, Contract Awards, Department of Defense, Events, Mississippi, Navistar, Restructuring, Services, production program
Oshkosh won the MRAP-ATV contract for a new vehicle for use in Afghanistan. One of the losing bidders was Navistar who had sold several thousand MRAP vehicles for use in Iraq to the U.S. Department of Defense.
Now with the fact that they did not win the contract to build the new vehicles for use in Afghanistan the company has announced layoffs at their Mississippi plant. This illustrates one of the problems with defense contracting. If you don’t continue to win contracts to provide systems or services you will eventually wither. Defense acquisition is normally for a certain number of units or for a period of time that will end. Companies win or lose contracts and that leads to contractions or expansions in work forces.
Australia Plans to Privatise Electricity Production
The Australian Government still owns three electrical power generators; as well as three electricity retail companies. Now the The Australian is saying that the government plans to sell these companies to private bidders. This had been proposed previously by the government but the terms were considered so bad that the Minister in charge, Mr. Iemma, was forced to resign. Now his successor, Mr. Rees, is trying to follow through with the idea. Read more
USCG Cutter Contract Protested
Filed under: Contract Awards, Protest, U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security, production program
One of the losing bidders on a contract to build new cutters for the US Coast Guard, Marinette Marine, protested the award to Bollinger Shipyards for a new class of small ships the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reports.. The initial contract is for $80 M and will begin a program that might see up to 34 ships procured. This program arose out of a failed attempt to upgrade existing USCG ships by extending the hull and adding capability. Bollinger was heavily involved in that program, and some feel that the past performance there should have disqualified them from participating in this contract. Marinette Marine has previously built other ships for the USCG as well. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has 100 days to rule on the protest. Normally the contract is put on hold while the protest is resolved.
Army fantasies on ARH
The Army is hoping with the termination of the Bell contract for the ARH that a new competition can be conducted and a new aircraft and contractor can be chosen. They are living in a fantasy land. The way that past competitions for these types of aircraft have been going any RFP and source selection will take a few months and a protest is almost guaranteed. Without changing the requirements for the system the Army will be seeing the same bidders, Bell and Boeing. If they do not want a larger aircraft then before Agusta Westland, EADS and Sikorsky will have a hard time preparing a proposal. One also hopes that the Army will also prepare a more realistic cost and schedule estimate.
See Rueters for the story.
DoD and USAF agree to recompete KC-45 contract
Filed under: Boeing, Department of Defense, EADS, GAO, Military Aviation, Northrop Grumman Corp., Proposal, Protest, U.S. Air Force, development program, logistics, production program
In light of the GAO report the USAF and DoD decided to recompete the new tanker contract. See an article here. This, like the CSAR-X, means that a whole new competition will be held. The Air Force will rewrite the RFP and Boeing and Northrop Grumman will resubmit proposals. Much of the work preparing these will be already done which will speed up the process for the bidders.
Northrop Grumman wins BAMS SD&D contract
Filed under: Australia, Boeing, Contract Awards, Lockheed Martin, Military Aviation, Northrop Grumman Corp., U.S. Navy, development program
As reported yesterday the BAMS DAB was held. The Navy awarded the contract to Northrop Grumman for a version of the Global Hawk long range, large UAV. See a story here. Boeing and Lockheed Martin were the losing bidders. On top of the KC-45 contract this can be seen as a blow to Boeing by Northrop Grumman. Read more



