We’re still in, says EADS
Filed under: Boeing, Contract Awards, Department of Defense, EADS, GAO, Military Aviation, Proposal, Protest, U.S. Air Force, commercial aviation, logistics, production program
Denying a report in a German magazine, reported here, EADS restates that they will remain competitors for the KC-45 contract. Secretary of Defense Gates recommended postponing the reopening of the KC-45 bid process until next year when a new administration will be in power. EADS was reported as not wanting to participate in future contract proposals if the current one was delayed. The company is now saying that that is not the case.
See CNNMoney.com for that story.
Gates gives up
Filed under: Boeing, Contract Awards, Department of Defense, EADS, Federal Budget Process, GAO, Military Aviation, Northrop Grumman Corp., Proposal, Protest, U.S. Air Force, commercial aviation, development program, logistics, production program
The Secretary of Defense today canceled the KC-45 re-proposal. He decided that there was not enough time to do this before the end of President Bush’s second term. The announcement was made via a press release this afternoon. Secretary Gates stated that ““It has now become clear that the solicitation and award process cannot be accomplished by January,” he said. “Thus, I believe that rather than hand the next administration an incomplete and possibly contested process, we should cleanly defer this procurement to the next team.”
This decision ends temporarily a seven year saga that started with Boeing being given a lease for 767 tankers, through a proper competition that was thrown out by the GAO, and what was expected to be a quick recompete starting this month.
See the actual release at DefenseLink.mil.
Representative Asks For Tanker Bid Delay
Filed under: Contract Awards, EADS, Military Aviation, Pratt & Whitney, U.S. Air Force
U.S. Rep. Joseph D. Courtney, from Connecticut, has written to Secretary of Defense Robert Gates to ask him to delay the renewed bidding for the $35 billion aerial refueling tanker contract. “It is important to get this decision right,” Courtney said, because it is “one of the most critical components of our national security.” Courtney is particularly concerned that there be adequate time for the RFP “to be vetted by the competitors and evaluated by Congress.”
The Pentagon is committed to a quick timetable, but Courtney argues that such an “unnecessarily aggressive timeline for a final decision, will once again tilt the outcome” in favor of EADS. Courtney is very interested in the process, because the Boeing tanker’s engines would be made by East Hartford-based Pratt & Whitney.
More details on Courtney’s letter can be found at Hartford Business.
SecDef says KC-45 meddling by Congress may provoke retaliation
Filed under: Boeing, Contract Awards, EADS, GAO, Military Aviation, Northrop Grumman Corp., Protest, U.S. Air Force, logistics
According to this story during testimony about the FY09 Defense budget Secretary of Defense Gates warned that adding a requirement to contract awards for US jobs would only provoke retaliation by US allies in Europe and Asia. Currently Federal procurement law does not have increasing or protecting US jobs as a consideration for evaluating and awarding contracts. Congress can certainly add that to the law, and some have mooted they will, but it would come at a price. The US defense industry is now dependent on non-US companies for many parts and products. US allies are also dependent on US companies for a large amount of their systems as they do not have the capability to produce them. Any attempt by the US government to prevent foreign companies from competing could backfire and reduce the market for US companies. As we have stated here many times with the consilidation in the US industry in the Nineties it is hard to get decent competition for these kind of procurements. Only Boeing, EADS and Russian companies could have bid on it; McDonald Douglas is long gone, so Congress needed to expect this kind of situation.
Air Force to award GPS III satellite contract
Filed under: Boeing, Contract Awards, Department of Defense, Lockheed Martin, Satellites, U.S. Air Force, space
The GPS III satellite had a successful DAB recently which allowed Mr. Young, the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics (OSD(AT&L) to allow the contract award. See an article here. As part of this authorization, though, he directed that the requirements be frozen as to what was presented at the DAB. The contract could be worth $1.8 B, and will go to either Boeing or Lockheed Martin. The award could come early next week.
OSD expresses concern over protests
Filed under: Boeing, Contract Awards, Department of Defense, EADS, Federal Budget Process, Northrop Grumman Corp., Protest, U.S. Air Force, commercial aviation, development program, logistics
In this story Mr. Young, the Assistant Secretary of Defense of Acquisition, Technology and Logistics expresses concern over the recent amount of protests with large systems. Part of the story is letting Boeing know not to focus on the recent lost KC-45 award, but to look to future competitions. He also generally agreed with the recent GAO report that systems are over cost and behind schedule, but that is to be expected. Read more
US law prevents Australia from acquiring F-22
Filed under: Australia, Department of Defense, FMS, Federal Budget Process, Lockheed Martin, Military Aviation, U.S. Air Force, production program
Australia has expressed an interest in procuring F-22 Raptor aircraft. Currently they are planning on buying JSF ultimately. Currently US law prevents the export of the F-22. In this article from News.com.au, the US Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates, expresses the sentiment that Australia would be good stewards of the F-22 if they received them. Obviously the law is to prevent the transfer of what is considered the best technology that the US has, but there are certain allies in the past that have been able to share it. As previously discussed technical transfer laws have become very restrictive and have affected US programs.
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