By Michael Sirak
The Boeing [BA] HH-47 helicopter will prevail once again in the Air Force’s revised CSAR-X competition because it is the best platform for the combat- search-and-rescue mission, the company official in charge of the HH-47 program said yesterday.
“We remain confident Boeing’s HH-47 is the best value choice and, in the end, will again be selected by the Air Force based on its exceptional capability and low risk,” Rick Lemaster, Boeing’s HH-47 program manager, said Dec. 4 during a teleconference with reporters. “We feel that it remains the aircraft of choice.”
The Air Force chose the HH-47 in November 2006 to be its new Combat Search and Rescue Replacement Vehicle, known commonly by its acronym: CSAR-X. However two successful rounds of protests by Lockheed Martin [LMT]-led Team US101 and Sikorsky [UTX] with the Government Accountability Office over the methodology of the Air Force’s source-selection process caused the service to agree to accept new bids from the three offerors and start the evaluation anew.
Team US101 is offering the US101 platform, already chosen by the Navy to ferry the U.S. president in coming decades. Sikorsky is bidding the HH-92 helicopter.
The revised request for proposal was issued on Nov. 15 and the companies have until Jan. 7, 2008, to submit their new bids (Defense Daily, Oct. 26, Nov. 5, Nov. 19 and Nov. 26). The Air Force anticipates awarding the CSAR-X development contract by July 2008. Fielding of the first squadron is projected between September 2012, the original fielding date before the protests, but could slip due to the delays that the protests caused, but to no later than mid 2014, the Air Force has said.
Lemaster said much has occurred in the year between Boeing’s original win and now to strengthen the company’s new bid. In particular the Army’s CH-47F and MH-47G platforms, from which the HH-47 will derive much of its technology, have matured well and, in the case of the latter, are performing well in combat in Afghanistan and Iraq, he said.
“While we found a lot of success and strength in our original bid, [the new bid] will benefit from the continuing progress of fielding CH-47F and MH-47G aircraft and proving them in times of war,” he said.
For example, Lemaster said, the Digital Aircraft Flight Control System on the CH-47F “is proving itself daily…further validating the benefits the system will bring to aircraft performance and aircraft situational awareness on the HH-47.”
Boeing continues to produce H-47s at a rate of three per month, he said.
“These events were all predicted in our original proposal and we are pleased that they have come to fruition,” he said. “Our next proposal will continue to leverage these strengths as we commit to provide the best value solution to the U.S. Air Force.”
As part of the revised competition, Boeing was supposed to receive a special equal-information-disclosure briefing from the Air Force in October since it, as the winner of the original CSAR-X competition, did not gain the same insights into the strengths and weaknesses of the all competitors’ bids as had Team US101 and Sikorsky when they were briefed on why they lost. This was the Air Force’s way of level the playing field to ensure fairness. However, the briefing never took place because one of the other teams objected.
Lemaster said Boeing made the decision to press on without the briefing, even though the information would have been useful.
“We expressed interest in receiving the information, but not if it will further delay the process and the delivery of this critical capability to the warfighter,” he said. “We are focused on the warfighter and the warfighter doesn’t need another delay in the CSAR-X competition.”
Despite this, Boeing remains steadfast in its belief that its bid will be the strongest in the revised competition, he said.
“The Boeing HH-47 was chosen [originally] because of its performance and low risk and the Air Force rated it exceptional low risk in the first competition,” he said. “The multiple strengths of the Boeing HH-47 cited by the Air Force included that performance, specifying mission load and occupant protection, the low proposal risk, the ability of Boeing to perform the contract and its overall best value.”
“We feel the same conclusion will be reached this time around,” he continued. “In simple terms, the HH-47 will provide our Air Force rescue teams more capability than ever before. That translates into the ability to save more lives.”