Boeing "Extremely Disappointed" With Ruling

Score one for Lockheed Martin and Sikorsky Aircraft Company, as those manufacturers attempt to overthrow the selection of Boeing for a lucrative USAF contract. On Thursday, the Government Accountability Office sided with protests lodged by the two companies in June, and recommended the Air Force allow revised proposals in its competition for a new combat search and rescue helicopter.

The GAO resolution -- which is nonbinding, so the Air Force may chose to overlook it -- recommends Sikorsky and Lockheed be allowed to include technical and cost information, in order to match changes in the USAF's revised selection criteria for its CSAR-X bid.

The recommendation is meant to place all three bidders on a level playing field... something those manufacturers contend wasn't done last November, when the Air Force selected Boeing's HH-47 -- a variant of the erstwhile Chinook -- over Sikorsky's HH-92, and Lockheed's proposed variant of the US101 helo, for the $15 billion contract to replace aging Sikorsky HH-60G Pave Hawks.

In February, the GAO voted to overturn the contract, after reviewing protests by Sikorsky and Lockheed. Despite comments by Air Force Secretary Michael W. Wynne in March, stating the USAF planned to stand by its decision... in April, the USAF agreed to review its decision after all.

Since then, questions concerning the Air Force's original selection process have run rampant... even prompting a terse response from Air Force spokesman Don Manuszewski, on a story ANN ran in May regarding reports the Air Force had actually rejected the Chinook in the earlier stages of the CSAR-X proposal. Manuszewski stated that 2002 decision was due to the contractor not responding to the initial Request For Information.

If the Air Force agrees to throw open the gates once again for bids on CSAR-X, all three competitors would be allowed to resubmit fresh bids for the contract, GAO spokesman Michael Golden told The Associated Press.

In a statement Thursday, Boeing said it was "extremely disappointed" with the GAO decision to sustain protests against a contract the company thought it had sewn up last year.

FMI: www.usaf.mil, www.gao.gov, www.boeing.com, www.sikorsky.com, www.lmco.com