Procurement South Korea may restart a competition to select an airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) aircraft instead of awarding a sole-source contract to Boeing. South Korea says a Boeing 737-based solution is the only remaining contender because the other bid, a Gulfstream G550 proposal from Israel Aircraft Industries, failed the evaluation phase of the competition and does not meet the performance requirement. South Korea is in a quandary because its acquisition policy prohibits sole-source contacts. Boeing's bid also has come in over budget, which means if Seoul approves a sole-source contract it has to either increase the budget or accept a cheaper aircraft that lacks some requested unique equipment (Flight International, 25-31 January).
Source: Flight International
