By Nick Schwellenbach
The Air Force announced plans to hold a competition for 93 new helicopters to protect domestic nuclear missile fields after it was stung by a barrage of criticism from POGO and others for flirting with sole sourcing the contract using an obscure 1932 law.
“There are a number of manufacturers who have products we believe can meet Air Force needs and we think it’s fair that all of them have a chance to fulfill that requirement,” Dave Van Buren, Air Force senior acquisition executive, said in an interview with Bloomberg News’s Tony Capaccio.
POGO was quoted in a November 2010 New York Times article criticizing the possibility of a no-bid contract for the estimated $1 billion program.
Nick Schwellenbach is POGO's Director of Investigations.
Image: AfghanistanMatters
Sole-source could make sense in this case, if they can buy, off-the-shelf, something 98% common with another helicopter in the DoD inventory. Navy/Marine UH-1Y or Army UH-60M or perhaps UH-72A. It would be a tragedy for the department to have to support *another* helicopter type when something in the inventory is more than suited to the job. I can think of no reason why one of the three types mentioned above would not be suitable with little modification.
Posted by: Andy Wagner | Apr 25, 2011 at 03:45 PM