In the latest chapter of the on-again, off-again U.S. Air Force program to upgrade avionics on the C-130 airlifter fleet, service officials say the once-dead project is now funded and will move forward.
The Air Force says it has not yet ironed out a procurement strategy, but industry officials suggest the program will go ahead with a competition to build kits. Last month, a contest to manufacture C-130 Avionics Modernization Program (AMP) kits was quashed. The Air Force said the “government will readdress the [issue] once a way forward for the AMP program has been determined.”
This reversal was brought about at the direction of the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD), leading up to the Fiscal 2011 budget release on Feb. 1. The Air Force had pushed for reduced C-130 AMP funding, while the civilian leadership in OSD put it back into the budget.
This bill could put the squeeze on other Air Force budgeting priorities such as the KC-X tanker competition, F-35 and planned new starts for a Long-Range Strike (or bomber) aircraft and a Space-Based Space Surveillance satellite system.
The funding decision is forcing the Air Force to rethink its procurement strategy for the cockpit upgrade kits. These are needed to ensure that the C-130 has proper CNS/ATM (communications, navigation and surveillance/air traffic management) equipment required to gain access to preferred routes in dense airspace. And, the new direction for C-130 AMP is merely the latest chapter in the project’s complex history.
The competition to build the kits was forged in the wake of the scandal that landed Boeing’s former chief financial officer, Michael Sears, and top Air Force procurement official, Darleen Druyun, in jail after they admitted to conducting illegal job talks. Druyun acknowledged that while she was still at the Air Force, she unfairly steered contracts to Boeing (her future employer). These included the development of the C-130 AMP kit.
Following her admission, the Government Accountability Office recommended that the Air Force recompete the full-rate production of AMP kits. Recompeting the development phase was found to be disadvantageous to taxpayers because Boeing had already conducted three years of work on its contract. The program’s estimated value is $5.8 billion.
In 2005, the effort was descoped and the number of airframes was reduced to 222 (221 after an aircraft loss) from more than 500 aircraft.
Against this backdrop, Gen. Norton Schwartz, Air Force chief of staff, said the C-130 AMP was under review during the Fiscal 2011 budget discussions last fall, and the AMP price tag was a worry—an indication that the program was in trouble.
Industry officials at multiple companies now assert that a restructured competition is forthcoming. They say the Air Force will conduct a new competition to downselect to a single contractor for production of AMP kits. The earlier solicitation was expected to identify two possible candidate contractors. Losers in the original AMP contest—Lockheed Martin, L-3 Communications and BAE Systems—are likely players. Lockheed Martin—which manufactures the C-130 and was considered the front-runner in the development competition that Boeing won—is eager to enter the fray, whether it is for “installs or an alternative approach to the need for CNS/ATM. As the C-130 manufacturer, we consider ourselves to be ideally qualified to provide that solution,” says Jim Grant, vice president for air mobility programs.
The single company selected from the forthcoming competition will then be pitted in a shootout with Boeing to see which can offer the best option, say industry officials.
Boeing says that since the 2005 revamp, it has been on schedule and budget in developing the AMP kits. Flight testing has finished, and the third C-130 to receive the AMP modification is slated for arrival at an Air Force facility in Little Rock, Ark., in preparation for training. Certification of Boeing’s kit awaits final approval from the government.