November 09, 2015

Air Force Issues Northrop Grumman Stop Work Order For LRSB

By ExchangeMonitor

Work on the Long Range Strike Bomber (LRSB) contract by winning contractor Northrop Grummanis suspended following the formal protest by the competing team of Boeingand Lockheed MartinLMT, the Air Force said yesterday.

While The Air Force had said on Friday it was confident the source selection team followed the proper process to determine the best value, it ordered work on the contract to be stopped during the protest process in accordance with legislation.

“The Air Force issued a stop work order, Nov. 6, 2015; on the LRSB contract due to the automatic stay of performance imposed by the filing of Boeing’s bid protest at the (Government Accountability Office),” Air Force spokesman Maj. Robert Leese said Monday in a statement.

“The Competition in Contracting Act (CICA) requires an agency suspend performance of a newly awarded contract after the timely filling of a bid protest at the GAO,” he continued.

It is still unknown if Northrop Grumman will continue work on LRSB with internal funding through the protest process. The company said it is unable to comment on the program due to its classified nature. Boeing and Lockheed Martin protested to GAO the contract award to Northrop Grumman on Friday.

The Northrop Grumman contract has two parts: a fixed-price contract with incentives for reducing cost for 21 aircraft in five lots. The average unit flyaway cost for the contract is $511 million in 2010 dollars for a total of 100 bombers, according to William LaPlante, the Air Force’s chief weapons buyer. That translates to $564 million per bomber in fiscal year 2016 dollars.

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