Officials Want To Avoid Third Protest Of Contentious Deal

'Tis the season, it seems, to defer ruling on lucrative US Air Force procurement contracts. Hot on the heels of last week's surprise decision by the Pentagon to put off determining a winner in the KC-X aerial tanker competition, comes word that the Defense Department may also delay ruling on the oft-contested Combat Search And Rescue (CSAR-X) contract.

The Air Force is currently scheduled to determine a winner in CSAR-X sometime this fall... but John Young, the DoD's top weapons buyer, told The Wall Street Journal that decision may be deferred until 2009, for fear the losing bidders would be able to successfully protest the deal.

Again. For what would be the third time. "If we think there's risk there, it won't go forward," Young said, though he did add he did not see any reason why the current contract process wouldn't stand up to protests.

In what the Air Force had originally hoped would showcase the branch's procurement prowess, CSAR-X has instead turned into something more resembling "The Three Stooges Attempt To Buy A Helicopter." As ANN reported, the Air Force named Boeing's HH-47 -- a variant of the erstwhile Chinook -- as the winner of CSAR-X in November 2006.

That determination was promptly protested by the losing bidders Sikorsky and Lockheed Martin... and after some hemming and hawing, the Air Force agreed to put CSAR-X up for rebid in March 2007, with a planned ruling by the fall. However, the USAF was forced to change its Request-For-Proposal once again last November, after those companies took their protests to the Government Accountability Office.

Lockheed is offering a variant of the AgustaWestland-sourced, three-engined US101 (below) in CSAR-X, while Sikorsky brings to the table its HH-92 (shown at bottom). Both companies maintain their choices are more efficient than the larger, twin-rotor HH-47 (above).

Young says his team is pouring over the Air Force's RFP, to ensure there are no shortcomings or loopholes that could be contested later.

"If we can assure the secretary of the Air Force and the secretary of Defense that we believe the government has done its work properly and should prevail in a protest, I think that award will be made," Young said.

The $15 billion CSAR-X contract calls for the purchase of 141 new search-and-rescue helicopters, to replace aging HH-53 Pave Lows.

FMI: www.af.mil, www.gao.gov, www.boeing.com/ids, www.sikorsky.com, www.lockheedmartin.com