Sierra Nevada Corp.’s lawsuit against the Air Force over the cancellation of the Light Air Support contract with Afghanistan is as much about getting access to the Commander Directed Investigation (CDI) as it is getting the $355 million contract reinstated.
Sierra Nevada Vice President of Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) Business Development Taco Gilbert told Defense Daily yesterday in a telephone interview that the Air Force said it has refused to turn over the results of the CDI because it is could have proprietary information.
A Sierra Nevada motion in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims to gain access to the CDI was dismissed May 7 on the grounds the motion wasn’t the proper forum to ask for access to the CDI, according to a company spokeswoman. Sierra Nevada is now attempting to gain access to the CDI as part of the lawsuit’s discovery, or declaration of evidence, process.
“I don’t know (what the CDI says) and that’s the problem,” Gilbert said.
“It is rumored to have some proprietary information in it, but the Court can issue that information under protective order, so that should not be a barrier to the Air Force releasing that information.”
The Air Force in February canceled Sierra Nevada’s contract to provide Afghanistan with 20 of Brazilian manufacturer Embraer’s A-29 Super Tucano turboprop aircraft and re-opened competition to original bidder Hawker Beechcraft Defense Company. The service claimed documentation issues, but has refused to be more specific.
Gilbert said documentation issues aren’t adequate justification.
“Nothing they have provided in the public domain rises to the level of terminating the contract, re-opening the competition and re-admitting Hawker Beechcraft into the competition,” Gilbert said. “Therefore, since this is the investigation that underpins the termination of the contract, I would hope it would provide the explanation for the termination. We have yet to see why they really terminated the contract.
“If there is something else in the CDI, we would like to see what it is,” he said.
Air Force spokesman Chris Isleib, when asked why the service wouldn’t turn over the CDI results, said in an emailed statement that the LAS was designed for Afghan requirements and while the original request for proposals (RFP) included the potential to buy LAS-like aircraft for the United States, the service removed that requirement in the revised RFP.
“Even then, the aircraft will require a USAF military-type certification as defined by criteria in MIL-HDBK-516BChg1. These requirements are unchanged from the original RFP.
“To mitigate the delay, the Air Force chose to reinstate the original RFP with minor changes, rather than redo the source selection decision process, re-issue an RFP and re-start the decision process.”
Isleib said the Air Force could have LAS aircraft in Afghanistan by mid-2014.
Gilbert said he does not know when the Court will take up the suit.
If Sierra Nevada fails to gain access to the CDI during discovery, Gilbert said he doesn’t know if it will end the company’s case.
“I would anticipate the process of discovery, particularly since we have filed under sealed order and asked for protective order for the information that the court would handle, which should give all the parties greater comfort,” Gilbert said. “In this case, this should give the Air Force, Department of Justice and Sierra Nevada greater comfort that anything shared inside the courtroom would be protected in this case. We would think it would be only appropriate for the CDI and the reviews to be released under discovery.”