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.
The Space Development Agency says it’s on track to issue its next batch of missile warning and tracking satellite contracts this month after those awards were delayed by the Pentagon’s decision to divert funds from the agency to pay troops during this fall’s prolonged government shutdown.
