12 Feb 16. Lockheed Denied Injunction over Army Truck Deal.. A U.S. judge has turned down an effort by Lockheed Martin Corp. to force Oshkosh Corp. to again stop work on building thousands of new trucks for the Army and Marine Corps, according to a court filing Friday. Oshkosh said it would continue work on the $6.75 billion deal secured last year to build almost 17,000 joint light tactical vehicles after a federal claims court judge refused Lockheed’s request for a preliminary injunction. The Wisconsin-based company resumed work on the project in January following a three-month hiatus forced by an earlier protest lodged by Lockheed with the Government Accountability Office, which dismissed the challenge by the world’s largest defense company by sales. (Source: glstrade.com/WSJ)
12 Feb 16. Air Force Secretary Hopes LRSB Will Move Forward Despite New IG Probe. US Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James is hopeful the service will be able to move forward with building the Long Range Strike Bomber despite a new Inspector General investigation into a top acquisition official’s failure to report a Northrop Grumman retirement account held by his spouse in his annual public financial disclosure form.
The news that the Air Force has reassigned Richard Lombardi over the financial disclosure issue comes days before the Government Accountability Office is set to rule on a bid protest filed by Boeing and Lockheed Martin over the service’s decision to award the LRS-B Bomber contract to Northrop in October. The timing of the announcement raises questions about implications to the protest decision, due Feb. 16.
James addressed the incident during a breakfast event hosted by the Air Force Association Feb. 12, saying it is too early to tell whether the probe will impact the service’s schedule for the next-generation bomber.
“I hope not, but it is too early to tell,” James told reporters after the event. “It is in the hands of the IG and it will be thoroughly reviewed. . . . We will see what happens next.”
The Air Force said Lombardi was not involved in the LRS-B competition. After learning of the issue Feb 3, James reassigned Lombardi Feb. 4 to duties outside of the acquisition portfolio and referred the issue to DOD IG, according to spokesman Lt. Col. Chris Karns. The Air Force settled on a replacement and notified Congress before the public announcement Feb. 11, Karns said.
“Mr. Lombardi was not a member of the LRS-B source selection team, and was not serving as the service acquisition executive during that contract award process,” Karns said Feb. 12. “As soon as this became known it was referred to the IG and he was reassigned to duties outside the acquisition portfolio.”
Lombardi disclosed the issue voluntarily, Karns said.
From Dec. 1 to Feb. 11, Lombardi served a dual-hatted role as the acting assistant secretary of the Air Force for acquisition, and the service acquisition executive (SAE), who is responsible for all acquisition functions within the service. William LaPlante, who served as SAE during the LRS-B competition, stepped down down to re-join MITRE Corp in November. (Source: Defense News)
13 Feb 16. Boeing nears decision to self-fund more F/A-18 fighters. Boeing Co (BA.N) is nearing a decision to invest “a significant amount” to keep a F/A-18E/F fighter jet production line in St. Louis running as it waits for the U.S. government to approve a delayed order by Kuwait for 28 jets, a senior executive said.
Dan Gillian, who runs Boeing’s F/A-18E/F and EA-18G electronic attack jet programs, told Reuters the company would decide in coming weeks whether to buy titanium and other materials needed to start work on the jets, even before the Kuwait deal and potential U.S. Navy orders are finalized.
He said Boeing would weigh strong expected demand for the warplanes against the risk that the orders could still fail.
Delays in orders for the jets mean Boeing must decide whether to invest hundreds of millions of dollars into the