: With the changes that the Air Force has instituted in the past few years, its means of assessing contract bids and then choosing winning proposals is sound, Lt. Gen. Mark Shackelford, military assistant to USAF’s acquisition executive said Tuesday. “We don’t have a fundamentally flawed source-selection process,” he said during an Air Force Association-sponsored Air Force Breakfast Series presentation in Arlington, Va. His comments came on the eve of the release of the much-anticipated KC-X tanker solicitation (see Launch Point above). In fact, in 2009, there was only one industry protest sustained over an Air Force contract decision, and only two in 2008, he said. The Air Force’s guiding principles in this regard are whether the source-selection process was conducted correctly and if the decision is defensible, he said. (For more Shackelford, see Basically a Predator on Steroids below.)
F-35As from the Vermont Air National Guard have deployed to Puerto Rico in recent days, continuing a major buildup of U.S. Air Force assets in Latin America aimed at combating drug trafficking and pressuring the regime of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro.
