Department of Defence Reacts To Northrop’s Decision Not To Bid on KC-X
Filed under: KC-X, KC-X Tanker News, Northrop Grumman Corp., Syndicated Industry News
Statement by Deputy Secretary William Lynn on Northrop Grumman Tanker Announcement
“We are disappointed by Northrop’s decision not to submit a bid for the U.S. Air Force tanker replacement program.
In the last tanker replacement (KC-X) competition, Northrop Grumman competed well on both price and non-price factors. We strongly believe that the current competition is structured fairly and that both companies could compete effectively.
Based on the inputs we received from both offerors to the Department’s draft Request for Proposal (RFP), we made changes to reduce the out-year risk to the potential manufacturers of KC-X. However, we did not change the war-fighters’ requirements to accommodate either offeror.
The Department strongly supports trans-Atlantic defense industrial ties and believes they benefit the American war-fighter and taxpayer.”
The statement was published here.
Statement by Deputy Secretary William Lynn on Northop Grumman Tanker Announcement
Statement by Deputy Secretary William Lynn on Northop Grumman Tanker AnnouncementMarch 8, 2010
"We are disappointed by Northrop's decision not to submit a bid for the U.S. Air Force tanker replacement program.
In the last tanker replacement (KC-X) competition, Northrop Grumman competed well on both price and non-price factors. We strongly believe that the current competition is structured fairly and that both companies could compete effectively.
Based on the inputs we received from both offerors to the Department's draft Request for Proposal (RFP), we made changes to reduce the out-year risk to the potential manufacturers of KC-X. However, we did not change the war-fighters' requirements to accommodate either offeror.
The Department strongly supports trans-Atlantic defense industrial ties and believes they benefit the American war-fighter and taxpayer."
Technorati Tags:
EADS, KC-45A Tanker, KC-767 Tanker, Northrop Grumman (NYSE:NOC)
Army Ground Combat Vehicle Request for Proposal Released
Army Ground Combat Vehicle Request for Proposal ReleasedMarch 2, 2010
The Army released last Thursday a request for proposal (RFP) for the technology development phase of the Infantry Fighting Vehicle being developed under the Ground Combat Vehicle (GCV) effort. The Army has worked extensively with the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics to develop this program. The GCV acquisition program will follow Department of Defense best acquisition practices and be a competitive program with up to three contract awards. The GCV development effort will consist of three phases: technology development, engineering and manufacturing design and low rate initial production. The Army anticipates awarding the first contracts for the technology development phase in the fourth-quarter of fiscal 2010.
The technology development phase involves risk reduction, identification of technology demonstrations, competitive prototyping activities, and planned technical reviews. Industry will have 60 days to submit proposals to the Army for this development effort.
The Ground Combat Vehicle effort is part of a holistic Army plan to modernize its combat vehicle fleet. This includes incorporating Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles into the fleet while modernizing current vehicle fleets including Stryker. The first Ground Combat Vehicle will be an Infantry Fighting Vehicle offering a highly-survivable platform for delivering a nine-man infantry squad to the battlefield. The GCV is the first vehicle that will be designed from the ground up to operate in an improvised explosive device (IED) environment. It is envisioned to have greater lethality and ballistic protection than a Bradley, greater IED and mine protection than an MRAP, and the cross country mobility of an Abrams tank. The GCV will be highly survivable, mobile and versatile, but the Army has not set specific requirements such as weight, instead allowing industry to propose the best solution to meet the requirements.
Prior to the release of the RFP, the Army engaged with industry through a series of industry days to inform them of the government's intent for GCV development and gain their feedback from potential contractors about GCV requirements and emerging performance specifications. In response to these initiatives the Army received significant feedback and insights on requirements, growth, training, test and the program at large thereby informing the requirements process and indicating the potential for a competitive contracting environment.
Technorati Tags:
Land Systems, US Army
Department of Defense Willing to do KC-X with only Boeing
Filed under: BNET, Boeing, Department of Defense, KC-X, KC-X Tanker News, Syndicated Industry News
In a post on BNET Industries, Matthew Potter notes that the Department of Defense is willing to go ahead with only Boeing bidding on the KC-X:
The Secretary of Defense Robert Gates in testimony to the House Armed Services Committee made it clear that the Defense Department and U.S. Air Force will release the Request for Proposal (RFP) for the new KC-X tanker and award a contract even if only Boeing (BA) submits a proposal. The Department hopes that the Northrop Grumman (NOC) and EADS (EADS:P) will submit a bid but will go forward with the planned contract even if they don’t.
In early December Northrop Grumman’s CEO sent a letter to the Air Force stating that due to the terms of the draft RFP they felt that it so favored Boeing that they and their partner EADS, parent of Airbus, would not submit a proposal. Northrop had won the contract in 2008 only to lose it on protest by Boeing with the Government Accountability Office (GAO) saying that the Air Force changed the requirements and was not completely fair to Boeing. An earlier attempt to award Boeing a lease for KC-767 aircraft collapsed amid scandals and Congressional desire to have contest.
Read the entire post Defense Department Willing To Do KC-X With Only Boeing Bid for more.
KC-X RFP Questions And Answers Continue
Filed under: Boeing, EADS, KC-X, KC-X Tanker News, Syndicated Industry News
The U.S. Air Force put out a draft Request for Proposal (RFP) in late September. It has proceeded apace with the receipt of questions related to the RFP and putting out answers. The idea is that the type of questions received should help write the final RFP to make it better and get better proposals.
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports that so far two sets of answers have been put out and they already run to several pages. Considering that it is expected only the same two teams will bid it indicates the new RFP is significantly different.
This will be a long, hard slog of a contract award again.
Just Ask The Question
One of the main reasons we created UnitedStatesTanker.com and this blog was to provide some insight into a very critical acquisition effort to replace America's air refueling tanker fleet.
For those who've been following that newly-started KC-X competition, you know the U.S. Air Force released their draft Request for Proposal (RFP) Sept. 25. This document goes into detail about the 373 requirements that must be met to participate in the competition. It also describes how proposals will be scored and even what happens in case of a tie. Our United States Tanker team has spent a great deal of time studying the draft RFP. Remember this is the main document we'll be using to decide which member of our KC-7A7 'family of tankers' to offer, or whether to offer both.
But we can't just make decisions on what's written in the document alone. Our main focus as we drive toward some key internal decisions is clarity. We must clearly understand how the service's requirements are defined and prioritized, and how our proposal will be evaluated.
So how do we get those answers? Simple...just ask.
Any company seeking to compete to build the replacement for the KC-135 Stratotanker fleet can submit questions to the KC-X Tanker Program Office at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Dayton, Ohio, and have them answered online at the Federal Business Opportunities website.
We began submitting questions earlier this month and look forward to seeing the answers posted on the public website soon. While some of that Q&A may be administrative in nature, you might gain some interesting insight into how the process works by checking out the site. Feel free to tell us what you'd ask.
Congress, the media and the KC-45 award
Filed under: Boeing, Contract Awards, EADS, Northrop Grumman Corp., U.S. Air Force, commercial aviation, logistics, production program
I made the mistake of watching Lou Dobbs on CNN this Saturday who had a rant about the KC-45 award to Northrop Grumman and EADS. The only guest he had on was the head of the machinist union from Boeing who was obviously not unbiased. He had no guest from DoD or Northrop to talk about the award. It was clear that Mr. Dobbs does not understand how DoD buys things. Here is the video from Mr. Dobbs blog on this issue. Read more
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