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thedrifter
03-15-07, 02:25 PM
Acquisition czar discusses tanker, MRAP

By John T. Bennett - Staff writer
Posted : Thursday Mar 15, 2007 9:26:57 EDT

Defense officials are concerned with purchasing a new aerial tanker that best meets the military’s operational needs but they have minuscule interest in holding a competition solely for the sake of doing so, the Pentagon’s top weapons buyer said.

Pentagon acquisition czar Kenneth Krieg, in an hourlong briefing with reporters Wednesday, said defense officials “expressly wanted to make sure that the request for proposals that we put out there was for a product that we wanted — not for a product that ensured a competition but for a product we wanted.”

Although “more competition is better than less competition, he said U.S. military buying officials feel that “having to have a competition for something I don’t want is not of interest.”

Many U.S. defense officials and aviation observers say the Pentagon and Air Force are in a bit of a tough spot in picking a new flying gas station because not many companies make such large aircraft today.

“When you’re down to handfuls of suppliers … you’re always working that balance,” Krieg added.

During many months of molding and then guiding it through the solicitation process, Pentagon acquisition and Air Force officials “spent a lot of time talking about … how do we, first of all, get the right capability?” Krieg said.

“That was the most important element, being able to define” what the eventual KC-X aircraft should be able to provide operational commanders, the acquisition executive said. He quickly added, however, that he “always favors competition” for a list of reasons and hopes both teams vying for the massive contract — Boeing and a Northrop Grumman-EADS alliance — submit a formal bid.

Krieg said Pentagon acquisition and Air Force officials “tried hard” to create a program that would allow more than one offer to compete for the multibillion-dollar contract, but noted “companies are free to do what they want.”

Boeing last month announced it plans to pitch its KC-767 tanker. Northrop Grumman-EADS several weeks earlier ended a period of speculation that the team had opted against entering the race by announcing it would offer its A330 tanker plane.

Northrop-EADS raised a number of concerns about the direction of the program and some of the criteria the air service had signaled it would use in picking the jet that would fill out the KC-X fleet, with the Air Force eventually dropping most. Senior leaders in January refused to give way to other complaints from the cross-Atlantic alliance, prompting a later-rescinded threat that the team would withdraw from the race.

The Pentagon’s weapons-buying boss also told reporters he has yet to determine when a multiservice program aimed at providing large, blast-resistant vehicles to U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan will be allowed to ramp up to full-rate production.

The analysis to support that decision “is ongoing” inside the Pentagon and he said he “has yet to see that.”

The way ahead for the Army-Marine Corps Mine-Resistant Ambush-Protected program was cast in question last week after Army and Navy officials raised concerns that increased oversight from his acquisition, technology and logistics office would slow the initiative.

The ground services raised concerns after Krieg penned a March 8 memo that stated because the MRAP effort’s costs have soared as the services have mulled buying more and more of the large trucks, he might need to assume more authority over the effort.

The Army and Navy departments plan to buy thousands of MRAP vehicles, pushing the possible cost of the effort toward the $1 billion mark, defense observers have said. That cost growth has led Krieg to stress to the services that that price tag moves the program under the Pentagon’s long-established “Acquisition Category One designation.”

So called “ACAT-1D programs” include only the U.S. military’s most costly weapon systems and get monitored more closely by top Pentagon acquisition officials than cheaper programs.

“I don’t think we’ve slowed [MRAP] down all that much,” Krieg told reporters. “It would be irresponsible if we didn’t think about how to plan for it to be an ACAT-1D as it was in evolution so when it starts, it starts as an ACAT-1D.”

Should defense officials forgo bringing the program under that designation, Krieg said government auditors or other watchdogs likely would criticize the department for using rapid buying methods to acquire the massive trucks.

Navy acquisition officials have been crafting a set of MRAP documents that will help guide the joint acquisition plan for the program. Defense officials would like that plan to feature the kinds of provisions, such as proper management framework, to “migrate directly to an ACAT-1D.”

Ellie