Wednesday - February 29, 2012

Iron Bound Contract Rusted Through Already?

What, did you think the boys in blue were actually going to buy planes with a spinner in front? And keep them??? Oh hella no. And at ONLY $17.75 million a pop, for a pimped out Cessna.

Citing concerns with the procurement process, the U.S. Air Force has canceled Sierra Nevada Corp.’s (SNC) $355 million contract to supply 20 Embraer AT-29 Super Tucano light attack aircraft for operation by the Afghan air force.

The decision to set aside the contract is a victory for Hawker Beechcraft (HBC), which took the Air Force to court after its offer of the AT-6 aircraft was disqualified, leaving SNC as the only bidder for the Light Air Support (LAS) program.

“While we pursue perfection, we sometimes fall short, and when we do we will take corrective action,” says Air Force Secretary Michael Donley in a statement. Citing the ongoing litigation, he adds, “I can only say Air Force Senior Acquisition Executive David Van Buren is not satisfied with the quality of the documentation supporting the award decision.”

The contract was only awarded on December 31, after rival Hawker Beechcraft was eliminated from the competition because their airplane was still on the damn drawing board and the sky jockeys needed the COIN planes right away.

Well, the Air Force just scrapped the $355 million contract it gave Embraer and Sierra Nevada Corporation for 20 Super Tucano light attack turboprops on Dec. 31.

Remember, the Brazilian Super T beat out Hawker Beechcraft’s AT-6 Texan in the light attack contest aimed at providing a counterinsurgency aircraft for the tiny Afghan air force.

Apparently, someone got something pretty wrong in the “documentation” for the deal. So wrong that the Air Force has contacted the Department of Justice about the matter. Uh oh.

So, go figure. And make up your own mind as to the real reason this project got canned ...

A) Now that Obama has lost the war in Afghanistan with an apology, and our troops are totally in the shitter from the local lunatics uprising over their stupid book (which I have heard were burned “by accident” by some Afghani soldiers or contractors who volunteered for the task, and then put the word out. Gee, thanks. Such allies. They turned on us in the very beginning of that war, when our troops were half a mile away from bin Laden, and they turned on us again with the burning, and then after it when they assassinated those two high ranking officers right inside the command post. Guess we just don’t learn, ever.), it doesn’t look like we’ll be giving Karzai his own little air force after all. Because that’s the real truth: these planes never were for our guys. We were going to drop nearly half a billion giving them away to a group of cavemen who haven’t even figured out how to shoe horses yet. Or camels. Whatever. And then load the planes down with tons of our own very latest high tech avionics and insurgent detection gear, and then cross our fingers and our toes and click our ruby slippers and hope the planes didn’t accidentally get stolen or have “emergency landings” across the border into Pakistan where the frickin’ Red Chinese would be all over them like ... white on rice ... just like they did to that stealth chopper left behind after knocking off bin Laden.

B) Guess the bribe wasn’t big enough. Your choice who was getting that bribe; some fat armchair general about to retire, or the DNC. Oooh, “problems with the paperwork”. Yeah, that probably means the suitcase full of bills wasn’t heavy enough.

C) Guess the bribe WAS big enough, and Hawker Beechcraft has bought themselves some more politicians who are twisting arms. It’s not like this hasn’t happened before; look up Boeing and the mess over that aerial tanker replacement plan.

You may choose any combination of the above. Any or all of them are probably true.

Posted by Drew458     on 02/29/2012 at 08:18 PM   
Filed Under: • Corruption and Greed • Military • War On Terror •  
• Comments (1) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

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