India, the New Land of Opportunity for Defense Contractors
Traditionally a reliable Russian customer, India is also looking further west for its new fighter and attack aircraft; proposals from the U.S.,...Hopes High That This Try Is The End Of The KC-X Contest
Filed under: Alabama, Boeing, Congress, EADS, KC-X, KC-X Tanker News, Northrop Grumman Corp., Syndicated Industry News, Washington
Over at BNET: Government where I also publish I have a piece on how this third try will be the winning one for the Air Force and Defense Department to get a new aircraft to replace the aging KC-135 fleet. There still remain many challenges with the contest as Northrop may not bid and Boeing has expressed concerns with the fixed price portion of the contract.
It will be an interesting next few months as this is all worked out. Next deadline is May 10th when proposals are due.
Regional Missile Defense Contract For Turkey Eyed By Suitors
Turkey is planning on investing in a new missile and air defense system. They have invited proposals from U.S., Russian and Chinese companies even...Regional Missile Defense Contract For Turkey Eyed By Suitors
Turkey is planning on investing in a new missile and air defense system. They have invited proposals from U.S., Russian and Chinese companies even...EADS Continues Efforts To Gain Support Of Tanker
Filed under: Alabama, Congress, EADS, KC-X, KC-X Tanker News, Syndicated Industry News
It has been reported that EADS spent almost $200,000.00 last quarter on just tanker related lobbying. It is not uncommon for larger companies of all sorts to spend time in Congress working to support their programs and proposals.
The KC-X contract being so important this effort will be even more concentrated. EADS work with its supportive Congressional members has already worked out well especially with the delegation from Alabama. Support like this will be key as the RFP goes final, proposals are submitted and the source selection works its course. The next quarter reports should show similar numbers.
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.
Wichita Waits On The KC-X
Boeing has maintained a facility at Wichita, KS for years. In their last proposal for the KC-X Boeing planned on using this plant to do the military conversions of the aircraft as it has for so many others in the past. Unfortunately with the new proposal Boeing no longer makes that guarantee. They are trying to minimize their total cost and that may require the use of another site then Wichita. Unfortunately this will be bad for the Wichita plant as it has been looking for work to keep it open in the future.
As the proposals come in things like this will be interesting to look out for.
Boeing Responds To KC-X Draft RFP Release
Filed under: Acquisitions, Boeing, Business Line, Companies, Congress, EADS, Events, Military Aviation, Northrop Grumman Corp., Proposal, Services, U.S. Air Force, logistics, production program
Yesterday after the Air Force put out the draft RFP for the new tanker program. The third try at this acquisition Boeing responded with the following statement:
“Our next step is to conduct a detailed review of the document. We want to understand how requirements will be defined and prioritized and how the proposals will be evaluated. That information will help us decide which plane to offer or whether to offer both planes. We appreciate that there will be frequent, open discussion with the U.S. Air Force as we go forward. Both the Air Force and the American taxpayer will benefit from the tanker options we can offer. Boeing has a KC-7A7 ‘family of tankers’ available to meet the warfighter’s requirements. Whether it’s the agile, flexible 767-based tanker or the large 777-based tanker, Boeing will deliver a combat-ready tanker with maximum capability at the lowest cost.”
More details on Boeing’s plans may be found at the KC-7A7 United States Tanker website.
British look to replace fuel at bases
LONDON, Sept. 14 (UPI) -- The British Defense Ministry is calling for proposals on ways to replace fossil fuel usage at forward operating bases in difficult operational theaters.
Australia’s First F/A-18 Delivered
Filed under: Australia, Boeing, Business Line, Companies, Congress, Contract Awards, Countries, Department of Defense, Events, Federal Budget Process, Military Aviation, Missouri, Services, U.S. Navy, production program
Boeing delivered the first F/A-18 Super Hornet for Australia on July 8. This is the first of twenty-four. The aircraft will provide a stop gap until either the F-35 JSF or the F-22 aircraft Australia has expressed interest in buying. The total value of the contract to Boeing is about $3 billion.
The F-18 for the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps is facing the end of production as the Obama Administration has proposed accelerating deliveries of the F-35 for those services as well as the U.S. Air Force. This is tied in to the ending of F-22 production. Congress has not received these proposals well and have included continued F-22 deliveries in the appropriation and authorization bills working their way through both Houses. The House has also looked at increasing planned F-18 deliveries as well as exploring the award of another multi-year production contract. Multi-year contracts have to be specifically authorized and have been used for large aircraft contracts in a bid to keep overall costs down. If there is a consistent buy profile over several years it makes it easier for the contractors to manage supplies and material ideally reducing costs.
HASC Wants To Continue VH-71
Filed under: Business Line, Companies, Congress, Countries, Department of Defense, Events, Federal Budget Process, Finemeccanica, Italy, Lockheed Martin, Military Aviation, Services, U.S. Navy, development program
In their markup of the 2010 Defense Appropriations Bill the House Armed Services Committee added money for continued production of the F-22. It also recommended that the Navy and Defense Department continue production of the Increment One of the VH-71 New Presidential Helicopter.
They feel that this would be the best use of the over $3 billion already spent on the program. There is obviously still a requirement for this aircraft and a new program is planned. The HASC wants the first group of VH-71 to be used as “the normal transport for the President…” with other systems looked at for the more stringent requirements. Right now the President uses VH-3 for short range, normal duties and then longer ranged CH-53 and UH-60 for other missions. One of the problems faced by the VH-71 was the attempt to buy one aircraft to do all missions.
Finemeccanica had offered to just deliver Increment One aircraft at reduced price for the total program. Of course these did not meet all of the requirements that the Navy had levied. This was a major reason the program’s cost and schedule increased so much.
So far the HASC markup does not necessarily agree with the Obama Administration’s proposals in the area of the F-22 or the VH-71. The bill still needs to go through the process of other committee markups, the full House and Senate and then the Conference. This means that this language may or not make it to the final version but it does show support for the VH-71 program.
Aero India International Show Attracts Fighter Bidders
Filed under: Boeing, Business Line, Companies, Countries, D'Assault, EADS, Events, FMS, India, Lockheed Martin, McDonnell Douglas, MiG, Military Aviation, Proposal, SAAB, Trade Shows and Events, production program
The six companies that submitted proposals for India’s new Medium Multi-role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) contract will all be in attendance at the Aero India International Show. The Economic Times reports that the competitors for the potential $10 billion contract will be at the show along with a host of other U.S. and European companies. Boeing, Lockheed, EADS, SAAB, Dassault and MiG all submitted proposals for the program. The theme of the show will be business activity between Indian and foreign companies. This contract is now one of the largest for tactical aircraft out for bid, and the companies will be touting their wares at the show.
Canada starts over on Coast Guard upgrade program
Filed under: Canada, Proposal, development program, logistics, production program
The Canadian Federal Government had to reject both proposals for a mammoth contract to upgrade their surface fleet. Canada had planned to build a new fleet of patrol vessels and support ships, but both proposals were considered too expensive. This means that the Government will either have to scale back their requirements or increase the planned budget. Give them credit, as usually an attempt to award a contract like this with a plan to get costs lower or under control would probably not work.
For more see GlobeandMail.com.
India moves to limit middlemen in contracts
Filed under: Boeing, D'Assault, EADS, FMS, India, Lockheed Martin, MiG, Military Aviation, Proposal, SAAB, production program
India already loosened their offset requirements leading to progress on the new fighter contract. Now the government moved to limit the use of Indian representatives or “agents” in helping the foreign companies with their bid. The six teams that submitted proposals are moving to line up Indian companies to support their fabrication and delivery of the aircraft. By limiting these agents the Indian government hopes to make the process more open and increase the ability of non-Indian companies to use their industry.
See Central Chronicle for more.
Six bids for India’s new advanced fighter
Filed under: Contract Awards, D'Assault, India, MiG, Military Aviation, Proposal, production program
With the decision here to relax the off set provisions required for work on Indian defense contracts India received six new proposals for their new advanced fighter aircraft, the MMRCA. See a story here. Boeing, Lockheed Martin, EADS, MiG, SAAB and D’Assault submitted proposals. Aircraft from these companies are currently under evaluation with a decision to be made in the next several months.
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.
6 proposals for India’s new fighter
Filed under: Boeing, Lockheed Martin, MiG, Military Aviation, SAAB, production program
Six companies submitted bids for India’s new fighter acquisition. See a story here. As expected both Boeing and Lockheed submitted bids as well as MiG, SAAB, Aerospatiale and the Eurofighter Typhoon. This goal is to narrow the competition to two or three of the proposals and then choose a winner with first aircraft due in 2011. This means that SAAB has bid on this and the Norwegian buy in less then a week.
Boeing claims USAF cost estimates for KC-45 favored EADS
Filed under: Boeing, Contract Awards, EADS, Northrop Grumman Corp., Protest, U.S. Air Force, commercial aviation, development program, logistics
As part of the source selection for any program the Government does an Independent Cost Estimate (ICE) for the various proposals. If it is for an ACAT ID program the OSD Cost Analysis Improvement Group (CAIG) does it, and if it is ACAT IC then the service’s cost people do it. Boeing is claiming that the ICE for their aircraft was flawed and that the USAF deliberately favored the Northrop Grumman proposal. See the story here. Having been involved in the process of generating these estimates I find it hard to believe that the independent cost analysts would deliberately do this. Read more
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