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.

FMI: www.af.mil, www.boeing.com, www.sikorsky.com, www.lockheed.com