Beechcraft said yesterday it filed suit in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims to contest the Air Force’s decision to lift a stop work order on the $427.5 million Light Air Support (LAS) contract awarded to Sierra Nevada Defense Corp. (SNC)
Beechcraft on March 8 filed protest with the Government Accountability Office (GAO) over the Air Force’s decision to award the LAS contract to SNC, which teamed with Brazilian manufacturer Embraer [ERJ] to supply its A-29 Super Tucano. SNC won the previous LAS award from the Air Force, which Beechcraft also protested before the Air Force eventually threw out the contract and re-competed the deal over legal issues. The LAS deal is to supply 20 light attack aircraft to Afghanistan’s nascent air force (Defense Daily, March 18).
GAO said it expects to make its decision by June 17. Beechcraft said its LAS bid would have been between $306 million and $427 million.
The last time the LAS saga ended up in the Court of Federal Claims a judge ruled the Air Force was correct in throwing out its previous LAS award to Sierra Nevada due to potential bias in favor of SNC in the original source selection process (Defense Daily, Dec. 7).