Sikorsky protests US Army's FLRAA award to Bell Textron

[Dawes]

I would have expected nothing less.

https://www.defensenews.com/industry/2022/12/28/lockheed-challenges-us-armys-helicopter-award/

[Skywalkre]

I would love to know two things.

1) How often have these protests led to a reversal.  How often have they shown clearly poor or corrupt decisions being made?

2) We all know how fubar our procurement system is in this country.  How much do these protests slow down the system and how much waste do they add in and of themselves?

From what little seems available publically about this decision I don't see any reason to think they made the wrong one.  As I mentioned in the other thread the Bell model seems like a massive upgrade in so many areas over the Black Hawk.

[sunday]

Something like that happened to the KC-45

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EADS/Northrop_Grumman_KC-45

[seahawk]

It is always nice to see that there still is some stability in the world and things go as expected.

[shep854]

And this morning, the sun rose in the east...what took them so long?

[Ssnake]

9 hours ago, Skywalkre said:

I would love to know two things.

1) How often have these protests led to a reversal.  

2) How much do these protests slow down the system and how much waste do they add in and of themselves?

1) With literally billions at stake, even a 1% chance of success is an incentive to sue.

2) I'd estimate between two and eight years delay, depending on case complexity. That's between "near-negligible nuisance" and "regrettable, but usually manageable"; likewise the costs of re-issuing a tender and legal expenses, between mid-single and low-double digit millions. Northrop-Grumman spends $10M annually on lobbying (=paying politicians in a not-illegal manner).

In short, it's a non-critical nuisance - but the question is if the long-term costs of no legal recourse wouldn't create bigger damage for the taxpayer.

[Dawes]

Doesn't Textron have to suspend all work on this project until the protest is resolved?

[Ssnake]

Hence the "two to eight years" delay estimate, which is a rather generous span for a prediction. Still, I rate this as "not critical" because the Blackhawks are still flying and there's the USMC with their tilt rotor aircraft and similar capability, so from a US Army capabilities perspective this is a mere nuisance.

[PCallahan]

My understanding is that the Government Accounting Office now has 100 days to decide if they challenge is warranted, during which time the contract is on hold.  Assuming the GAO rejects the challenge, I don't really know what happens from there.  

[Dawes]

"The government watchdog noted it is required to issue a decision no later than April 7, 2023."

[DB]

I wonder how much the legal challenge costs the loser compared to how the dalay costs the winner. These may all be profitability attacks on competitors rather than realistic attempts to win the contract.

[kokovi]

Well, this is a bit like gambling with a very strongly right skewed distribution. It is very likely to make a small loss together with a very small chance to make a huge profit. That is what makes it so attractive.