The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on Nov. 17 overturned an earlier ruling by a lower court and restored a $1 billion KC-135 maintenance contract to Boeing that had been disputed by Alabama Aircraft Industries. The appeals court said the lower claims court erred when it called USAF’s “price-realism analysis” during the contract award process “arbitrary and capricious.” AAI protested the award to the Government Accountability Office, which eventually upheld the Air Force decision to award the contract to Boeing. AAI then filed a lawsuit in federal claims court and won that round last fall. (Also see Reuters report; Birmingham News report) (Appeals court ruling)
The Air Force kicked off one of its biggest exercises this week with the latest edition of Bamboo Eagle, featuring combined virtual and live training scenarios focused on test the command-and-control “nervous system” leaders need to operate on a complex joint battlefield spread over vast distances.
