(Air Force Times) Backtalk: New administration must save procurement process

[unhappycamper]

New administration must save procurement process
By Robert F. Dorr

Once again, the Air Force has shown that it can’t handle a simple contract.

The rescue helicopter program, dubbed CSAR-X, is now stalled for at least the third time. A process that ought to be smooth and straightforward has become bogged in a quagmire of legalisms and laxity, and both taxpayers and troops are big losers.

Pentagon officials confirmed Oct. 22 that they have again postponed awarding a CSAR-X contract, which had been promised by the end of December. They are leaving a decision to the next presidential administration, which takes office Jan. 20 — more than two years after the Air Force first announced it had chosen the Boeing HH-47 Chinook in November 2006.

December was once the target, too, for the bigger, costlier, more controversial air refueling tanker competition, called KC-X.

But even in wartime, even when they aren’t bailing out of a lame-duck administration, officials in Washington rarely get anything done during the holiday season.


Rest of article at: http://www.airforcetimes.com/community/opinion/airforce_backtalk_procurement_111008/%2e