DD: DoD IG Backs Recompete On Small Diameter Bomb

DoD IG Backs Recompete On Small Diameter Bomb
Defense Daily 08/04/05
author: Nathan Hodge

In the wake of an Air Force procurement scandal, the Defense Department Inspector General (IG) has recommended that the Pentagon's top acquisition official oversee a competitive procurement for the next phase of the service's Small Diameter Bomb (SDB) program.

Earlier this year, the Government Accountability Office concluded that Darleen Druyun, a former top Air Force official now serving time for violating federal conflict-of- interest laws, had improperly influenced the award of the SDB contract to Boeing [BA], and recommended that the service recompete the next increment of the program.
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The SDB program is supposed to yield a weapon system that can hold four precision-guided 250-pound bombs, allowing aircraft to drop more munitions per sortie with less collateral damage. A first variant would be equipped with an INS/GPS guidance system for hitting stationary targets; the second variant would add a terminal seeker for moving targets.

Last week, an Air Force F-15E Strike Eagle successfully dropped two of the first variant SDBs in a flight test at Eglin AFB, Fla. Each weapon hit independent targets spaced 30 feet apart.

Lockheed Martin [LMT] had protested the Air Force's award of the SDB contract; GAO sustained that protest. The company still maintains that Boeing has an incumbency advantage, and says it wants a competition that would neutralize that. According to an industry source, one possibility is a seeker competition where the winner becomes the prime.

Peter Harrigan, a Lockheed Martin spokesman, said his company was pleased with the IG report, saying it "reinforced the Government Accountability Office's conclusion that there should be a new competition for the second phase of the Small Diameter Bomb program."

Lockheed must be thrilled. They didn't stand much of a chance when Boeing dropped their version and was hitting targets before Lockheed even had it dropping from an aircraft. The scandal now gives Lockheed an opportunity to get back in the game. Boeing's SDB is performing very well however, so probably the only one that is going to loose is the American taxpayer - as usual - and maybe Boeing. Scandal never does well for the companies involved. Which requirements for SDB did Darleen Druyun influence exactly I wonder? Politics as usual...

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