Aircraft Firms Plan Unusual Approach to Bidding on Jet
In a significant departure from conventional practice, major American aircraft firms aligned into at least four overlapping teams Tuesday to bid for the Navy’s future AX attack jet program.
Aerospace analysts said the unusual move was most likely prompted by a lack of consensus about exactly what the Navy wants in the AX, which is a $95-billion program meant to replace the canceled A-12 attack jet program.
The industry announced Tuesday:
* Grumman will lead a team with Lockheed and Boeing.
* McDonnell Douglas will be the leader in a team that includes LTV Aerospace.
* General Dynamics will be the leader of a team that includes McDonnell Douglas.
* Lockheed will lead a team with General Dynamics and Boeing.
“This is like a Chinese menu,” observed Wolfgang Demisch, aerospace analyst at UBS Securities. “I am a little nonplussed by this. Having this number of entries bespeaks a Navy specification that hasn’t enough clarification for industry.”
Meanwhile, Northrop and Rockwell, the industry’s two remaining aircraft producers without AX proposals, said they had not yet determined whether they will team or even whether they will bid for the program. Northrop was teamed with Grumman in the original A-12 program but lost when General Dynamics and McDonnell Douglas offered to develop the aircraft for $2 billion less.
The A-12 program was terminated earlier this year, after Defense Secretary Dick Cheney said he could not determine what the program would eventually cost. More than a year behind schedule and billions of dollars over budget, the A-12 was the largest termination in defense history.
General Dynamics spokesman Joe Stout said his company would offer a derivative of the A-12 in its proposal. Meanwhile, it will serve on the Lockheed team, which will propose a derivative of the Air Force F-22 fighter, Stout said.
The F-22 and the A-12 designs were vastly different, one being a subsonic bomber and the other a supersonic fighter. The differences appear to highlight the confusion over exactly what the AX is supposed to be, Demisch said.
The Navy is scheduled in August to issue a request for the industry to submit proposals on the AX, Boeing said. Later, a number of concept exploration contracts would follow.
Northrop spokesman Ron Owens said his firm will wait until the request from the Navy is issued before deciding whether it will pursue the program. Rockwell spokesman Mike Mathews said his firm is “assessing our competitive position but has not made a decision.”
