The final JSTARS Recap request for proposal is “ready to release,” but “we continue our engagement” with Capitol Hill to resolve the acquisition strategy before it can go out, Darlene Costello, Air Force acquisition chief, told reporters at ASC16. The Senate Armed Services Committee says JSTARS “must be a fixed-price” contract, and the production phase will be, Costello said at a press conference, but the Air Force needs the “flexibility” to award development as a cost-plus arrangement. “We need to make sure we have an executable risk reduction plan” for the system and the radar, Lt. Gen. Arnold Bunch, Costello’s deputy, said. If the SASC language is not modified, the RFP would probably have to be re-written and “contractors would have to revise their proposals,” a process likely to take three to six months, Costello noted. That would push the JSTARS award well into 2017 or later. “We’ve shared the impact with the Hill,” she said, adding USAF needs unambiguous, non-contradictory language about what the Senate really intends.
The Air Force and Boeing agreed to a nearly $2.4 billion contract for a new lot of KC-46 aerial tankers on Nov. 21. The deal, announced by the Pentagon, is for 15 new aircraft in Lot 11 at a cost of $2.389 billion—some $159 million per tail.