Boeing Co.‘s $15 billion contract to build U.S. Air Force rescue helicopters should be put back out to bid, the Government Accountability Office said following protests by Lockheed Martin Corp. and United Technologies Corp.
The GAO said today in an e-mailed statement it recommended the Air Force reopen discussions and request revised proposals. If after reviewing the new bids, “Boeing’s proposal no longer represents the best value to the government, the agency should terminate its contract,” the GAO said.
Lockheed Martin, the world’s largest defense company, and United Technologies’ Sikorsky unit protested Boeing’s Nov. 9 award, saying the Air Force didn’t uniformly apply the criteria used to evaluate the three bids. Boeing’s order for 141 HH-47 helicopters, a variant of its twin-rotor Chinook family, was picked to replace Sikorsky’s Pave Hawk aircraft. The award was put on hold during the GAO review.
Read the entire Bloomberg report here.
(The Gouge:SC)
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
sikorsky is more than qualified to deliver the air force its long awaitied CSAR chopper. Any other competitor is ridiculous….There H-91 and 92 are ready to go and provide all that is needed in an advance CSAR platform. Remember the HH-3 and CH-53 Jolly Greens the original dedicated SAR helos…there is no other way to go but Sikorsky !
Period !!!
Ask the users. They love the HH-47. This is politics at its worse.
Love the characterization of the “upheld protests.” Of the more than 20 protests filed by the losers, only 1 was upheld and it amounts to a miscommunication between what the AF expected and what the contractors thought was being measured. Bottom line is it cost the AF money to mess around with the red tape, recompete, and pick the same aircraft. Yes, the same aircraft, because it really best meets the requirements.
When Congress starts determing what’s best for the military, then we are in real trouble. The selections become nothing more than pork barrel politics for money, and re-election campiagns.
I say take Congress out of the equation, allow the DoD to determine how to best spend its money (gee…since they are the experts…), and strengthen (restrict) the entire bid protest rules. Jeez, just can’t stand bad losers.
What next? Congress starts determining who gets promoted in the military? Congress starts determining what cookie dough to buy? Let the DoD get on with business and tell the losing contractors to shut up and get on with theirs.