Fifth Time Contract Bid Has Been Amended

A controversial request for bids on a contract to build replacements for the US Air Force's current fleet of Pave Hawk search-and-rescue helicopters was recently amended for the fifth -- and, hopefully, final -- time.

As ANN reported, Boeing won the original bid for the combat search-and-rescue (CSAR-X) contract in November 2006. The Air Force's decision, however, was protested by competing bidders Sikorsky and Lockheed Martin.

After a series of protests to the Government Accountability Office, the GAO sided with those companies 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 last month.

According to the USAF, the amendment allows bidders for the CSAR-X contract to update any portions of their proposals. The RFP itself is not changed, reports Air Force Times.

“The Air Force will continue to evaluate the offerors’ updated proposals fairly and transparently,” USAF officials said in a release.

Bidders now have 53 days to submit their revised proposals. The Air Force aims to announce a decision by summer 2008, on which company will build 141 helicopters to replace the current fleet of HH-60G Pave Hawks.

FMI: www.af.mil