The Air Force is likely several weeks away from issuing an amended request for proposal for the Light Air Support aircraft program, said Secretary Michael Donley Thursday. “There will be a slightly revised RFP going forward,” he told defense reporters in Washington, D.C. Donley said the revised RFP would include “minor adjustments.” Among them, he said, will be efforts to mitigate the unavoidable schedule delay caused by the program’s recent turbulence. The Air Force in late February withdrew its contract to Sierra Nevada to supply 20 LAS aircraft. It did so after realizing that the documentation justifying its contract award “was not adequate” to face the scrutiny that would come in the federal court case initiated by ousted bidder Hawker-Beechcraft, said Donley. Sierra Nevada was on tap to provide 20 modified Embraer A-29s for the Afghan air force, but now Hawker-Beechcraft and the former will duke it out once again for that right under the amended RFP’s terms. Donley also said an investigation initiated by Air Force Material Command boss Gen. Donald Hoffman into the matter of the deficient documentation “is almost complete.” He noted: “Any potential accountability issues that need to be addressed, will be.” (See Thursday’s initial coverage.)
Members of the Air Force Reserve’s 920th Rescue Wing helped save 11 airplane crash survivors off the coast of Florida on May 12. The Reserve Airmen were flying an HC-130J Combat King II and an HH-60W Jolly Green II on a routine training flight when a Coast Guard call diverted…