Air Force Delays New Bomber Contract by ‘Couple of Months’

Air Force Delays New Bomber Contract by ‘Couple of Months’


Booya. I should of made bets with everyone.

I said they would push this thing back to Jan 1.

And it looks like they might. A few months from today is in next years territory.

But I wonder how they will work this. I thought they had money already funded for this? And that they were going to be losing funding if it got pushed back?

And is it a ploy to give one or another of the contractors time to fix something for a better chance at winning?

The U.S. Air Force is delaying the award of a contract to develop a next-generation bomber by a “couple of months,” a general said.

The latest schedule slip was acknowledged on Tuesday by Lt. Gen. Arnold Bunch, military deputy for the office of the assistant secretary of the Air Force for acquisition, during a hearing of the House Armed Services Committee’s Seapower and Projection Forces Subcommittee.

“This is a case, sir, where we need to go slow to go fast,” he said. “We’ve got a fair, deliberate, disciplined and impartial process anytime that we do a competition. And we’ve been transparent and working with industry trying to get this thoroughly done and documented so we can make that decision. It’s coming soon. That’s about as good as I can give you.”

The general was then pressed by the subcommittee’s chairman, Randy Forbes, a Republican of Virginia. “Do we have any idea whether that’s going to be two months, 10 years? When what do we think?” the congressman asked.

“Sir, my hope is it’s within the next couple of months,” Bunch said. “But we have details that we still have to work through to make sure we’re doing it fair and make sure we’re going through he process.”

As we said in the other thread, it looks like an attempt to above the continuing resolution or a shutdown screwing the contract. Betcha as soon as the budget gets sorted out, they'll award it. Congress is being a bunch of idiots right now.

a reply to: anzha

In all fairness; everyone, at every level of the government decision making tree, is an idiot. I'm willing to put this at everyone from an e-7 up in the military and everyone in all the 3 branches of the bureaucracy are idiots. This is just my opinion through my experience of dealing with them and their indecision and their political correctness.

originally posted by: Caughtlurking
a reply to: anzha

In all fairness; everyone, at every level of the government decision making tree, is an idiot. I'm willing to put this at everyone from an e-7 up in the military and everyone in all the 3 branches of the bureaucracy are idiots. This is just my opinion through my experience of dealing with them and their indecision and their political correctness.

What are they going to replace the A10 with? a flying tank (as is already) to support ground troops? Drones? Davis Montham AFB has one year to have its destiny recalibrated into something vital as has been rebuilt in the last five years into something other than a A10 base.

a reply to: vethumanbeing

The a-10 is being replaced by the f-35a. End discussion. For better or worse.

originally posted by: Caughtlurking
a reply to: vethumanbeing

The a-10 is being replaced by the f-35a. End discussion. For better or worse.

End discussion? I suppose my question was more along the lines of this; what happens to Davis Monthan AFB Tucson and as a TAC base what planes will be deployed there rather than the A10s? This base is not closing; just getting a new tactical weapon (which one).