Talking with Pentagon reporters Aug. 26 (see above), Maj. Gen. David Gray, a senior Air Force acquisition official, said the paperwork-induced delay in a low-rate initial production decision—now set for Oct. 15—for C-130 avionics modernization program has not affected the scheduled award date of early 2012. (The Air Force briefed contractors earlier this month on the source familiarization phase.) Gray said the two test aircraft have flown about 202 flights with more than 574 hours and no “critical discrepancies.” The service expects to have a third test aircraft flying in February 2009. On the LRIP delay, Gray acknowledged that officials got “really hung up” on the lack of a finalized acquisition strategy for the 221 C-130s now due to receive AMP and the 129 unfunded special mission C-130s. “So, we got in this … loop on how you get there from here without paperwork and a finalized strategy,” Gray said.
In Part 2 of a series exploring the Software Acquisition Pathway that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth recently made mandatory, we look back at how the acquisition reform has its origins in problems with the F-35.