Let the EELV games begin

There was an article last month warning that the USAF Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) could be a worse procurement process than the USAF tanker replacement (that program only took 14 years to finally award a contract).

So far the program is living up to that warning. The formal RFP was sent out yesterday (June 2), today (June 3), it was announced that an investigation for a possible Procurement Integrity Act violation is under way.

On May 13th, a draft RFP for the launch of a GPS III satellite was posted. Along with the RFP was an internal EELV working paper, detailing the Comments Resolution Matrix that is only supposed to be seen by program officers and stakeholders. It was available publicly for seven hours.

m.aviationweek.com...

a reply to: Zaphod58

Would like to read it, but have to register to see full article. Any way to copy it here? Sounds like someone screwed up pretty big.

a reply to: Vasa Croe

I can't post the entire thing, but this is the key:

At issue was the posting of what Air Force Lt. Gen. Samuel Greaves, the SMC commander overseeing the EELV competition, calls an internal “working paper” on the fedbizopps.gov website. This paper was intended for coordination only among Air Force officials and program “stakeholders,” Greaves says, but it was viewable by the public, including the competitors, for about 7 hr. on May 13. It was posted on the website alongside the draft RFP for the GPS III program.

The Air Force intended to post a blank template of this so-called Comments Resolution Matrix (CRM). Instead, the actual document, including government and stakeholder comments about the competition, was uploaded. “The most important part of a CRM is the ‘decision’ or adjudication column, which determines how the Air Force responds to the specific comment” in the document, Greaves says. “While comments [in the CRM] may seem controversial, the Air Force may choose to accept, modify or reject each individual comment while drafting the final RFP.”

One program official said the matrix included comments that could be construed as biased for or against particular competitors. SpaceX declined to comment. ULA spokeswoman Jessica Rye said, “We’re aware of the incident and have been in discussions with the Air Force about how it may be addressed. We will continue to evaluate its impact upon the Phase 1A procurement and act accordingly.”

a reply to: Zaphod58

Basically somebody screwed the pooch and put out the wrong document. The part about "some comments might be able to be construed as biased" makes me wonder if the comments really were biased and they're doing their best to cover their collective asses.

I was wondering, are you a veteran or just an enthusiast, or both? I noticed that you post a lot of military related things.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Much appreciated!

That tells me, as I have always thought going through RFP's many times, that they usually have an incumbent they use. I have done many government RFP responses and won some, but only the ones I could tell were not biased towards certain companies.

The government RFP process is so diluted and deluded it is baffling.

a reply to: Skid Mark

I was raised on a ramp, and eventually was put to work by my father. He put 30 in active, and about another 15 as a civilian contract manager. I've done just about everything you can do on a ramp and then some.

a reply to: Zaphod58

LOL zaph,

How about you and bedlam write up a little how to get the right Information to the right wonk to get some official evaluation process and or dialog between inventors and people that tell the people who matter what to tell their congressional allies to buy... For dummies.??

Because seriously man there's at least one or two people around who have good stuff to offer, the intelligence to know that they are out of their depth, and the firm moral conviction to get their stuff into the right hands or none at all. (basically what's a guy to do at that point? I mean I think most of us can agree it's better no one gets it than the wrong person first, but then there's the whole hundredth monkey effect and substituting engineers for monkeys.... There's a few places with WAY MORE MONKEYS)