Lockheed excluded from cargo plane contest

[Guest Chainsaw]

Aircraft maker files protest, arguing that Army decision disregarded Air Force requirements for the joint program.August 14 2006: 3:24 PM EDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- Lockheed Martin on Monday formally protested the Army's decision to disqualify its C-130J cargo plane from a competition to build a military cargo plane fleet potentially worth $6 billion.

 

"We strongly contest the Army's decision," said Peter Simmons, spokesman for the Bethesda, Maryland-based company.

 

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Lockheed (Charts) filed a protest with the Government Accountability Office, arguing that the Army decision disregarded Air Force requirements for the joint program, he said. It asked for any contract award to be postponed until the protest was settled.

 

The Army Aviation and Missile Command earlier this month told Lockheed its C-130J Hercules cargo plane could not compete because it failed to meet a requirement that it be certified by the Federal Aviation Administration.

 

That decision left two teams competing for the Joint Cargo Aircraft (JCA) contract due to be awarded in March. One team is led by L-3 Communications (Charts) and includes Italy's Alenia Aeronautica; the other is led by Raytheon (Charts) and includes EADS.

 

The Army plans to buy at least 75 aircraft, and the Air Force may buy 70. The program was initially started by the Army to replace its Vietnam-era cargo planes, but the Air Force joined in under a memorandum finalized in June.

 

But the Senate Armed Services Committee cut funding for the program in fiscal year 2007. It cited concerns that the military had not adequately studied the requirements for the new planes, once they would be used by both services.

 

"The Army has excluded the C-130J without adequate regard to Air Force requirements and has acknowledged that it does not consider current Air Force certification equivalent to that of other foreign military services. As such, it appears the joint title of the JCA program is significantly overstated," said Lockheed spokesman Simmons.

 

The Army had hoped to award a contract to the winning bidder next spring and to take delivery of its first planes in fiscal year 2010.

 

Army officials had no immediate comment on the Lockheed protest.

 

Brig. Gen. Stephen Mundt, director of the Army Aviation Task Force, told reporters in June that the new planes were urgently needed. He said the Army's analysis of alternatives had been accepted by the Air Force and the Pentagon panel that oversees joint weapons programs.

 

At that time, Mundt foreshadowed the Army's decision on the Lockheed plane, saying it appeared to be too big to land on smaller runways, as required in the competition.

http://money.cnn.com/2006/08/14/news/co ... /index.htm