Thu, Oct 20, 2011
Document Says "No Justification" For 40-Rocket Five-Year
Purchase Plan
A Congressional watchdog report
issued Monday raises questions for taxpayers about a proposed
five-year block buy of 40 rocket booster cores being advocated by
the rockets' manufacturer, United Launch Alliance (ULA). ULA is a
joint venture between aerospace giants Lockheed Martin and
Boeing.
The report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the
nonpartisan, investigative arm of the U.S. Congress, found what
some call serious flaws with a proposal that would guarantee ULA's
monopoly over Department of Defense (DoD) launches. The report
states that while ULA is pushing the 40-rocket purchase, the
methodology and data used by ULA to justify the purchase were
severely flawed, there is no justification for the five-year
timeline, and a block purchase could kill opportunities for
competition by forcing the government to commit to more boosters
than are actually needed.
In a news release, SpaceX says that some of the GAO's findings
include no justification for the contract period. When asked why a
block buy period of 5 years was optimal, "ULA [was] at a loss to
explain the rationale," according to the report.
The report also states that, although no U.S. commercial launch
capability for EELV-class payloads other than Atlas V and Delta IV
existed when the previous EELV acquisition strategy was developed,
domestic commercial launch providers are emerging that may satisfy
some of DOD’s EELV-class launch vehicle needs. According to
DOD officials, these newer providers (such as SpaceX) have not yet
demonstrated adequate reliability to provide launches for critical
satellites, but may be poised in the future to compete with the
current sole-source EELV provider, ULA. Such competition could
incentivize ULA pricing and efficiencies, potentially yielding cost
savings to the government.
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