We'll Have To Wait Until November To Find Out
Remember CSAR-X? Given
all the clamor surrounding the "other" -X contract now being
contested, we understand if you don't.
Before Boeing's attention all-but consumed in fighting the awarding of a lucrative US
Air Force aerial refueling contract to Northrop/EADS,
the American planemaker and defense contractor was fighting to hold
onto its November 2006 victory over competitors from Lockheed and
Sikorsky to provide the USAF with a new combat search-and-rescue
helicopter.
As ANN reported, Boeing won
the original bid for the CSAR-X contract in November 2006. The Air
Force's decision, however, was protested by the two competing
bidders. After a series of protests to the Government
Accountability Office, the GAO sided with Lockheed and Sikorsky,
and recommended the USAF reconsider its decision on Boeing's
twin-rotor HH-47 for CSAR-X.
The Air Force asked the original bidding companies to resubmit
their bids in October 2007... and subsequently amended that Request
for Proposals (RFP) for a fifth time the following month.
Boeing maintains its twin-rotor HH-47, a variant of the
storied (read, older) CH-47 Chinook platform, will win the day once
again... but all three competitors have used the time since the
original contract awarding to hone their offerings, in hopes of
catching the Air Force's eye.
The HH-47 (above) is now cheaper, reports Reuters. Boeing also
claims it now takes nearly three hours less time to reassemble an
HH-47, after it has been transported overseas, than the version
originally offered.
"The proposal that we submitted this time was stronger," says
Richard Lemaster, program manager for the HH-47 at Boeing. "In the
interim evaluation, the Air Force did give us more strengths this
time around," including higher scores for logistics and product
support.
Sikorsky says it has used the added time to accumulate over
86,000 flight hours on its fleet of S-92 helicopters, on which the
CSAR HH-92 (above) is heavily based. Lockheed says its revised
HH-71 -- a variant of the AgustaWestland EH101 Merlin -- now poses
less risk to the Air Force, again due largely to accumulated flight
time and other successful trials, including refueling tests (shown
below).
Still, Lexington Institute analyst Loren Thompson expects CSAR-X
is Boeing's contract to lose... especially as the Government
Accountability Office, in its review of the original CSAR-X bidding
process, noted only minor discrepancies. "To some degree,
re-awarding to Boeing would be a vindication for the Air Force," he
said.
In any case, everyone will have to wait a little longer for the
USAF to make up its mind. The service originally hoped to rule on
CSAR-X by this summer... but the decision has since been put off
until November at the earliest, Reuters notes, a full two-years
after the original decision.
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