Posted on 02/18/2018 3:46:20 PM PST by Elderberry
Lockheed Martin did something unusual this week. The world's biggest defense contractor lodged a protest with the Government Accountability Office over the conduct of an Air Force helicopter competition many months before a winner was due to be selected.
Contractors usually wait until an award is announced to mount protests. They rightly fear that if they complain while a competition is in progress, they will reduce their prospects of winning. But Lockheed thought the Air Force's behavior in this case raised such fundamental questions that it couldn't just go along to get along.
Very few observers understand what is going on here. Lockheed Martin is a contributor to my think tank and consulting client, and I've had the opportunity to hear what has its executives so upset. Lockheed believes the Air Force is violating federal law and regulation in a bid to deprive offerors of their intellectual property -- in the process undermining Pentagon plans to do business with the kind of commercial technology companies that are on the cutting edge of innovation.
Those companies, even more than traditional military contractors, jealously guard their intellectual property. IP often involves trade secrets and technical know-how that is crucial to an enterprise's profitability. However, Lockheed says the Air Force is making open-ended access to IP a condition for bidding in its helicopter competition, and it doesn't just want prime contractor data -- it wants proprietary information from all the subcontractors contributing to the finished airframe.
Lockheed says there is no way it can force suppliers to hand over rights to technical data or software code that in many cases has been developed using corporate funds rather than taxpayer money. Even when such know-how has been developed entirely with federal funds, government policy has been to license needed technical data rather than trying
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
corruption in awarding a gov’t contract ?
perish the thought
Sounds like a spy operation....
They claimed that they wanted a dual source for the cruise missile. They forced us to transfer all engineering, specifications, supplier data SCDs and all software, operational and developmental for no compensation. The govt claimed they owned the rights to all the data under contract as CDRL items.
The outcome was GD lost a bidding contract to MDAC on 1000 cruise missiles and got a 30% production share on the lot, on a design we worked on and perfected for years. The bottom line was the GD sold their Tomahawk line to Hughes, GD Convair shut down and 16,000 jobs left San Diego. Ratheon eventually bought that program and is now the sole source for Tomahawks.
What, is Lockheed Martin worried their bribes weren’t high enough this time?
The Air Force is the worst defense arm to deal with - they don’t play nice with the other kids.
Pentagon procurement office is as corrupt as they get.
Getting popcorn. It's going to be a deep state vs black budget rumble.
bttt
Several I know went to Qual Com when it was a start up company. Very few went on to Tucson to work for Hughes.
If only all the contractors bidding on the helicopter project would join Lockheed Martin in their effort against the disclosures the Pentagon wants.
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