{"id":52763,"date":"2017-05-25T15:18:37","date_gmt":"2017-05-25T15:18:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/uncategorized\/2017\/05\/25\/us-air-force-defends-compass-call-replacement-strategy-after-boeing-protest\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T22:22:04","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T22:22:04","slug":"us-air-force-defends-compass-call-replacement-strategy-after-boeing-protest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/news\/your-military\/2017\/05\/25\/us-air-force-defends-compass-call-replacement-strategy-after-boeing-protest\/","title":{"rendered":"US Air Force defends Compass Call replacement strategy after Boeing protest"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">WASHINGTON \u2014 Days after Boeing lodged a protest against the U.S. Air Force&#8217;s pick of L3 Technologies as the systems integrator on the Compass Call recapitalization program, the service&#8217;s uniformed head of acquisition defended the decision.<br\/><br\/> Rather than buying a brand-new weapon system to replace the EC-130H Compass Call fleet, the Air Force chose to &#8220;rehost&#8221; the existing electronic warfare and mission systems on a new airframe. L3 was selected to integrate that technology on an aircraft of its choosing. Lt. Gen. Arnold Bunch, the military deputy of the Air Force&#8217;s acquisition office, said\u00a0the service decided to sole source the systems integration contract to L3 because it was the most cost-effective and timely option.<br\/><br\/> &#8220;L3 has played that role as the systems integrator as we have modernized these aircraft for the last 15 years. They are the ones that are very familiar with the mission equipment that is on there,&#8221; he told lawmakers May 25. &#8220;That mission equipment is highly classified to be able to execute the electronic warfare mission that we ask that platform to do. They have all the tooling, they have all the existing knowledge, and they have the modeling and all the information to do that work.&#8221; <br\/><br\/> Bunch added that the majority of the program is nondevelopmental and that L3 would be able to leverage its knowledge of the equipment to complete the Compass Call cross-deck on a short timeline.<br\/><br\/><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Boeing\u2019s protest, filed May 19, throws another wrench into the program, which has already been delayed as the result of an earlier protest by Bombardier that was rejected. News of the Boeing protest was first reported by <a class=\"\" href=\"http:\/\/www.defenseone.com\/business\/2017\/05\/boeing-air-forces-jamming-compass-call\/138144\/\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Link: http:\/\/www.defenseone.com\/business\/2017\/05\/boeing-air-forces-jamming-compass-call\/138144\/\">Defense One<\/a>on Wednesday night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Boeing maintains the Air Force\u2019s current acquisition strategy is unfair.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;The Air Force\u2019s approach is inconsistent with Congress\u2019s direction in the 2017 [National Defense Authorization Act] and seems to ignore inherent and obvious conflicts of interest,&#8221; the company\u2019s spokeswoman Caroline Hutcheson said in a statement. &#8220;We believe that the U.S. Air Force and taxpayer would be best served by a fair and open competition, and that the Air Force can still meet its stated timeline of replacing the aging fleet of EC-130Hs within 10 years.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">L3 will not be able to move forward on the EC-130H cross-deck \u2014 including making an airframe selection \u2014 until the Government Accountability Office makes a ruling. The GAO has three months to weigh in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Not only does Boeing believe it was qualified for the systems integrator position; it has specific concerns about L3\u2019s responsibility for choosing the airframe, a company official told Defense News. L3 has repeatedly partnered with Gulfstream to modify the G550 business jet for military use, one example being its work with Northrop Grumman and Gulfstream on the JSTARS recap program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Given the Air Force\u2019s own interest in the G550 for the Compass Call airframe, <a class=\"\" href=\"http:\/\/www.defenseone.com\/business\/2016\/09\/us-air-force-preps-controversial-no-bid-purchase-spy-planes\/131881\/\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Link: http:\/\/www.defenseone.com\/business\/2016\/09\/us-air-force-preps-controversial-no-bid-purchase-spy-planes\/131881\/\">charted here<\/a>by Defense One, L3\u2019s selection of the Gulfstream jet could be seen as a forgone conclusion, the Boeing official said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">At the hearing Thursday, Bunch disputed criticisms that the Air Force was not taking enough of an oversight role in the program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;We are not stepping out of this and just watching this process play out,&#8221; he said. &#8220;We will thoroughly review their aircraft selection decision to ensure that it was comprehensive, impartial and compliant with all the applicable statutes and regulations.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The outcome of the protest has implications far beyond the EC-130H cross-deck program. Boeing has advocated the purchase of militarized 737 airliners to replace JSTARS, Compass Call, E-3 AWACS and all versions of the RC-135. The company argues that having a common fleet would save the Air Force money and reduce the logistics burden.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If Gulfstream succeeds in becoming the Compass Call airframe, and then Northrop, Gulfstream and L3 win the JSTARS competition later this year, it could allow those companies to usurp Boeing\u2019s strategy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Days after Boeing lodged a protest against the U.S. Air Force\u2019s pick of L3 Technologies as the systems integrator on the Compass Call recapitalization program, the service\u2019s uniformed head of acquisition defended the decision.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":47522,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":88,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[15,88],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3297],"class_list":["post-52763","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-your-military"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"EJIBHKO44BFIDJ2PJEI57TNVYA","arc_canonical_url":"\/air\/2017\/05\/25\/us-air-force-defends-compass-call-replacement-strategy-after-boeing-protest\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented 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