Beechcraft last week filed a suit in federal court that seeks to stop rival Sierra Nevada from working on the Light Air Support program for the time being. Beechcraft wants a work stoppage until the Government Accountability Office rules on the protest that it lodged on March 8 after it lost the Air Force’s LAS competition to Sierra Nevada of Sparks, Nev. GAO must rule on Beechcraft’s protest by June 17. Under LAS, Sierra Nevada is partnered with Brazil’s Embraer to supply 20 A-29 Super Tucano light-attack airplanes for the Afghan air force. Beechcraft offered its AT-6. Beechcraft’s federal court action, announced on March 21, came after the Air Force notified GAO on March 15 that it had issued an override so that Sierra Nevada could continue LAS work in the interim until GAO’s ruling. Air Force spokesman Ed Gulick?on March 22 said “Nevada Corporation will continue work on the LAS contract pending any further direction from the court.”
Some lawmakers in the Senate are advocating for a more bipartisan approach to paying for the Pentagon’s $185 billion Golden Dome missile defense project, arguing that the effort’s goal of bolstering homeland defenses has support across ideological lines but the process for funding it has been politically charged—leaving the program’s…