This article first appeared in Aerospace Daily & Defense Report.
Delays continue for the U.S. Air Force’s $15 billion combat, search and rescue (CSAR-X) helicopter replacement program.
Contractors confirm that Air Force briefings scheduled for early October have been postponed as the service focuses more intently on its internal review of the troubled acquisition, which was slapped down twice by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) and is now the subject of a Pentagon Inspector General (IG) investigation.
GAO sustained two protests by CSAR-X competitors Lockheed Martin and Sikorsky against the Air Force’s original award to Boeing, saying the service failed to consider certain lifecycle costs in its decision.
In response, the Air Force apparently has sought input from professional logistic managers to review the CSAR-X lifecycle cost component, contractors have confirmed.
Just what the extra internal review will do to the CSAR-X contract award schedule is unclear. The program is scheduled for a Defense Acquisition Board (DAB) meeting in early December and the Air Force has maintained it hopes to make an award this fall.
“We do believe the CSAR-X contract will be awarded this year and our HH-47 proposal stands ready to meet the requirements,” Boeing spokeswoman Jenna McMullin said.
But the briefing postponements, added Air Force scrutiny and more intense focus on lifecycle costs have analysts and others familiar with the program doubting that any award can be made by year’s end.
Then there’s the IG report. Investigators are reviewing how and when the Air Force changed some CSAR-X requirements.
The Air Force had said it had to receive something from those investigators by mid-September. But sources say there’s likely to be no word for at least another month. And a scathing report, Air Force leaders acknowledge, could add even more delay.
In a July memo, Pentagon acquisition chief John Young emphasized the importance of considering program lifecycle costs when making acquisition decisions.
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– Christian
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You forgot to put a title for this article.
Headlines?
We don’t need no stinkin’ headlines!
I have taken a shot at it now and again, but one article I would like to see from the folks here at Defense Tech is a list of major procurement programs (or units of those programs), by service, that would be plausible capable of being killed if a new Presidential administration chose to do so, ideally with brief commentary of the considerations that would impact those decisions.
The recent rash of program cancellations or delays in a variety of services (usually officially due to alleged problems with the contract granting process or overprice/behind schedule issues), despite the fact that we are on the eve of a lame duck administration no matter who wins in November, is surprising. Is there a sense that hard decisions that carry political cost should be “taken for the team” so that a new administration doesn’t have to bear the political cost of doing so?
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