The U.S. Air Force awarded Northrop Grumman the highly-anticipated contract in October, beating out a joint venture between Lockheed Martin and Boeing. Under federal law, the US Government Accountability Office, an arm of Congress that rules on federal contract protests, now has 100 days to evaluate the issue.
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Meanwhile, the demonstration further validated the US Air Force’s OMS acquisition initiative, quickly taking advantage of new or improved capabilities at a reduced cost.
Headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, Lockheed Martin is a global security and aerospace company that employs approximately 112,000 people worldwide and is principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture, integration and sustainment of advanced technology systems, products and services. However, the Pentagon repeatedly stressed its efforts to run a “clean” contest that awarded the contract on a best-value basis.
“They can go back to being primarily commercial jet-liner company they were before they purchased McDonnell-Douglas back in 1997 or they can put in a bid for Northrop Grumman’s military aircraft unit”, he said.
“Boeing and Lockheed Martin concluded the selection process for the Long Range Strike Bomber was fundamentally flawed”, read a statement from the two US defense giants.
“Northrop Grumman offered an approach that is inherently more affordable and based on demonstrated performance and capabilities”.
“Our record stands in contrast to that of other manufacturers’ large aircraft programs of the last decade”, it said.
The Air Force said in a statement that it would support the GAO and backed its own selection.
In announcing its decision, the Pentagon declined to get into details of its reasoning beyond saying the selection process was “fair, deliberate and impartial”. “Companies generally protest contract awards because of concerns about the government’s fairness in setting requirements or implementing evaluation criteria”, the paper says.
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Boeing and Lockheed contend the Pentagon used historical cost data to evaluate the rival bids rather than the actual projections supplied by the companies. And Lockheed’s $100 billion F-35 fighter plane has a checkered history of cost overruns and schedule delays. Richard Aboulafia, a vice president of analysis with the Teal Group, said that and the secrecy of the program may make it hard for the companies to win a protest.
