GAO Dismisses Hawker Beechcraft Protest

Photo: Jim Haseltine

Dec 27, 2011 By Michael Bruno - aerospace daily and defense report

Congressional auditors in Washington have dismissed a bid protest by Hawker Beechcraft, which the company filed after being ruled out of consideration for a U.S. Air Force light air support aircraft program.

The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) decision, dated Dec. 22 and released Dec. 23, indicates that Hawker’s protest was based on procedural issues regarding timeliness of notifications — arguments that the GAO dismissed.

But the GAO ruling also provides insight into the Air Force’s decision-making over the light air support (LAS) competition to provide 20 light-attack/advanced-trainer aircraft to the Afghan air force — namely, that the service found the company’s AT-6 proposal insufficient.

According to the ruling, the Air Force concluded that Hawker had not adequately corrected deficiencies in its proposal and that “multiple deficiencies and significant weaknesses found in [Hawker’s] proposal make it technically unacceptable and results in unacceptable mission capability risk.”

Hawker representatives could not immediately be reached for comment, and more information was not provided in the GAO ruling.

The Air Force decision appeared to leave Embraer’s Super Tucano as the only offering for the contract (Aerospace DAILY, Nov. 23). The Air Force is to purchase the aircraft with money from the U.S.-bankrolled Afghan Security Forces Fund. The Air Force, meanwhile, also was looking to buy more aircraft for itself to use to train allied forces, although that move might be delayed or canceled by Congress as Washington wrestles with tightening budgets.

Even though other companies showed interest in the light-attack requirement when it first emerged, only the AT-6 and Super Tucano were evaluated by the Air Force in a flyoff conducted in January as part of the LAS competition.