US Congress has been notified of the potential $800 million sale to Saudi Arabia of avionics updates for 54 Lockheed Martin C-130E/H transports – but who will supply the upgrade kits is unspecified.
Saudi Arabia plans to purchase the C-130 Avionics Modernization Program (AMP) cockpit upgrade under development for the US Air Force by Boeing. However, the service earlier this year agreed to recompete the kit production and installation phases of the $3.3 billion programme after the original award was judged to have been tainted by the Darleen Druyun procurement scandal (Flight International, 10-16 May).
The formal notification to Congress of the possible sale says Boeing will be prime contractor “for planning purposes”, but because of the expected length of the multi-phase upgrade programme, the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency acknowledges “we don’t know whether Boeing will be the contractor by the time they start buying kits”.
The USAF decided to recompete the production and installation phases of the AMP upgrade after the Government Accountability Office upheld a protest by Lockheed in the wake of the Druyun scandal.
The air force expects to begin the competition “in the fiscal year 2009-10 timeframe”, after Boeing has completed engineering and manufacturing development of the upgrade.
Source: Flight International
