In today’s headlines at Military.com, we ran the following story on still more delays to the re-bidding of the CSAR-X competition. This time it’s one of Congress’ protectionist mandates, forcing the bidders to restrict the use of imported specialty metals.
From Military.com:
The long-anticipated awarding of a $10 billion contract for a military search-and-rescue helicopter has been delayed again — from July to October — to comply with changes in the law restricting use of imported specialty metals.
Boeing said April 14 that it had received a draft of the new bid proposal, called Amendment 6, in what the Air Force calls its CSAR-X competition.
Great…this is going to help us with domestic competition, entry into world markets and smoothing over images of a “go-it-alone” foreign policy isn’t it?
And, as if Boeing needs more headaches as it wages the Tanker War with EADS/NorGrum…
The latest draft of the bid request, which incorporates changes in the law on the use of specialty metals, was issued last week. Boeing said April 14 that it would submit comments and questions today.
Boeing said the drive shaft, transmission, leading edges of the blades, and other critical parts contained high-strength steels, titanium and other specialty metals.
It could not say how much foreign specialty metal is used in its CSAR-X entry or the Army CH-47 F and G models, which it builds in the suburbs of Philadelphia for transport and special-operations missions. The United States has long sought to use domestic sources for those metals.
The rivals are single-rotor aircraft: Sikorsky H-92 Superhawk and Lockheed Martin US101, which is based on a design developed in Europe. The US101 has been selected for the new “Marine One” presidential helicopters and is destined to replace the aging Sikorsky VH-3D Sea Kings in that role.
And doesn’t this restriction seem to prejudice anything made in Europe, like the US101? So much for free and open competition in a world market. Maybe the Soviets had it right after all…
– Christian
All this “Buy American” and DFARS is superficial and “band-aid” cure. In the engineering systems that I have designed for our organization’s defense vehicles, the main components (chiller, water pump, electronic clutch, etc.) are manufactured and assembled in the USA, but some of the pieces of the components are foreign. And then the DFARS which I’ve to consider adds that much more red tape to my design and component acquisition.
NG/EADS my ass. It’s definitely EADS/NG. It’s a freaking Airbus they’re using for KC-30. You can’t paper over that no matter how much you try.
The good news is that (IMHO) the most and best specialty metals still come from the U.S. of A.
I don’t know who told you that, SMSgt Mac, but they’re in serious need of a fact-check.
re: Specialty Metals
Hey, I said ‘IMHO’! I admit I’m biased by my experience with vetted US metals. I’m open to any convincing argument otherwise. Got one?
The problem doesn’t lie in the original manufacture of the aircraft and who does that. Everyone should know that the real money is made in the spares, repairs and modifications.
You keep Airbus in the picture as all changes will have to go through them, there is always an admin fee. Plus it does mean that there will have to be huge “accross the pond” conversations, which adds unnecessary delays to possibly time-critical repairs etc.
Spares are also going to be more difficult to get, if they are to be shipped from accross the pond…
If we can’t import exotic materials… we might as well not import spare components as they are even more difficult to procure! Tooling and techniques are extremely difficult and costly to procure rather than raw materials!
It’s just some idiot up the tree who doesn’t realise this.
Ever heard of the Berry amendment — take a look at your own laws
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berry_Amendment
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