Boeing and Lockheed cry foul over $80bn long-range bomber contract
US aerospace giants Boeing and Lockheed Martin have filed an official protest against the US government's surprise award of the estimated-$80bn contract to supply long range strike-bombers to rival Northrop Grumman.
Boeing Co.
$140.19
11:09 15/11/24
Dow Jones I.A.
43,444.99
04:30 15/10/20
Lockheed Martin Corp.
$534.83
10:58 15/11/24
Northrop Grumman Corp.
$493.99
11:09 15/11/24
The pair said the selection process that led to October's contract decision, when Northrop Grumman shocked the industry and markets by beating the Boeing-Lockheed consortium, was "fundamentally flawed".
"The cost evaluation performed by the government did not properly reward the contractors’ proposals to break the upward-spiraling historical cost curves of defense acquisitions, or properly evaluate the relative or comparative risk of the competitors’ ability to perform, as required by the solicitation."
The Goliath consortium's proposal had offered the government "the best possible" long range strike-bomber at a cost that "uniquely defies the prohibitively expensive trends of the nation’s past defense acquisitions", they complained.
The LRS-B is conceived to ensure the US can win a future war over superpower rivals such as China or Russia.