The Air Force on Wednesday issued a clarifying statement to explain its actions regarding the Government Accountability Office’s protest decisions on the combat search and rescue helicopter replacement program, stating that “recent reports in the media have not fully captured the complexities of this process.” (We reported yesterday on the wildly at odds news reports.) Bottom line: The Air Force intends to let all three competitors—Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and Sikorsky—respond to a clarified request for proposals. “If the evaluation of the revised proposals results in a change to the CSAR-X Best Value Source Selection decision, the Air Force will make any necessary changes in contract award,” reads the USAF statement. That means that Boeing may not be the winner after all.
The F-47 fighter will be run differently than previous fighter programs and share the same mission systems architecture as the Collaborative Combat Aircraft, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Allvin told the Senate Armed Services Committee. That means advances in one will fuel advances in the other.