The Bids Are In (Again):

The Bids Are In (Again): B

oeing, Lockheed Martin, and Sikorsky have handed in their updated CSAR-X helicopter proposals to the Air Force, meeting the Jan. 7 deadline. USAF plans to announce the winner of the hotly contested competition around July. The winner will build 141 new rescue helicopters by around the end of next decade to replace the aging HH-60G fleet. The CSAR-X program is estimated to be worth between $10 billion and $15 billion to the winning contractor. Boeing’s HH-47, a Chinook derivative, won out in November 2006 over Lockheed Martin’s US101 and Sikorsky’s HH-92. However, two successful rounds of protests by the losing teams with the Government Accountability Office caused the Air Force most recently to reopen the competition and accept fully revised bids. USAF officials fear that the constriction of the defense industry, prompting protests on every award, could have far reaching—and costly—implications for the CSAR-X and its other top modernization program to replace its tanker fleet. (Read "2008 and the Path to the Required Force.")

1/9/2008

Verbatim

To Be Clear
“Just like in my business, the issues that go badly get all of the attention. I think, to be clear with you, there are many things that are managed well every day in the Air Force.”
—John Young, Pentagon acquisition executive, speaking to defense reporters on the state of Air Force acquisition, Washington, D.C., Nov. 20, 2008.

Verbatim

F-22 Options
“They have two choices. On January 21st, they can obligate the $90 million and decide there's some chance ... that they will buy the airplanes and they'd rather preserve the option to buy [them] at no additional cost to the taxpayer. Or, they could chose not to obligate the $90 million and accept that they still have a decision to be made between then and March 1st. But that decision may cost the taxpayer more money.”
—DOD acquisition czar John Young on how releasing only $50 million of the $140 million authorized by Congress to keep the F-22 production line active until March 2009 still preserves options for the new Administration, Capitol Hill, Nov. 19, 2008.