If defense analysts are right, the latest rejection by the Government Accountability Office of the Air Force acquisition effort to replace its combat search and rescue helicopters will force open the CSAR-X competition again. And, it will be a new ball game all around. Reuters news service reports that Loren Thompson of the Lexington Institute says uniformed service officials wanted to have a broader revisit of the CSAR-X competition after GAO sustained the first round of protests, but Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne opted for a “narrowly” defined interpretation of the GAO ruling. Now GAO has sustained the second wave of protests from Lockheed Martin and Sikorsky, making it highly unlikely that USAF could proceed with the original award to Boeing.
An important U.S. Air Force E-3 Sentry AWACS command and control plane was among the aircraft damaged in a March 27 Iranian missile and drone attack on Prince Sultan Air Base, Saudi Arabia, people familiar with the matter told Air & Space Forces Magazine.