Peter La Franchi/CANBERRA
The Australian Army's Air 87 armed reconnaissance helicopter project is being reviewed by the Australian Defence Inspector General following a Bell Helicopter Textron challenge to the shortlist process.
The 88-point challenge, lodged with Australian defence minister John Moore at the beginning of October, alleges that the Defence Acquisition Organisation failed to follow its own procedures in recommending that Bell's AH-1Z SuperCobra be dropped from the A$1.3 billion ($828.5 million) competition.
Bell is seeking to have the competition partially re-opened to allow companies which failed to be shortlisted to compete a restricted request for tender, due for release in March.
Australia shortlisted the Agusta A129 Scorpion, the Boeing AH-64D Apache and the Eurocopter Tiger in April this year. The Denel Rooivalk and Sikorsky Battle Hawk were also eliminated.
Moore tasked the Defence Inspector General midway through last month with reviewing the shortlisting process and to rule on the Bell challenge. The review is expected to report back to the Minister by late November.
Bell alleges that the Request for Proposals, released in May last year, was an incomplete document that forced contenders to make a large number of assumptions about the Army's requirements.
Bell also alleges that the decision not to shortlist the "Zulu Cobra" was based on a misperception of aircraft costing data provided to the project office. Bell argues that Defence Acquisition guidelines prohibit any decision to eject a contender on the basis of price data provided in response to an RFP.
The challenge is not expected to delay work by the Air 87 project office, with Agusta, Boeing and Eurocopter to be provided with a number of draft sections of a Request for Tender before the end of the year.
Source: Flight International
