Washington, DC - Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton today questioned Air Force Secretary Michael W. Wynne and Air Force Chief of Staff General T. Michael Moseley about the Air Force's approach to the contract award for a new Combat Search and Rescue Helicopter, the CSAR-X program. In a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee, of which Senator Clinton is a member, the Senator noted that the Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently ruled in favor of a bid protest regarding the Air Force's new Combat Search and Rescue Aircraft, the CSAR-X and then expressed her concerns about some of the public statements that the Air Force made in the aftermath of the decision. Lockheed Martin Owego was one of the bidders for the CSAR-X contract and now that the bidding has been reopened, Senator Clinton is working to make sure that the bidding process is fair and transparent. In response to her questioning, Secretary Wynne indicated that the Air Force would indeed take a broader approach to the evaluation of the proposals.

In February, Senator Clinton wrote Air Force Secretary Michael W. Wynne, expressing her similar concern about reports that the Air Force would take a "narrow" approach to the GAO's decision upholding the bid protest on the CSAR-X contract and urged the Air Force to develop a set of requirements that truly reflect the rescue crew's needs in a combat search and rescue aircraft.

Click here for a copy of Senator Clinton's letter.

Below is a transcript of Senator Clinton's exchange with Secretary Wynne and General Moseley at the Senate Armed Services Committee hearing today:

Senate Armed Services Committee
March 20, 2007

Senator Clinton: Thank you very much Mr. Chairman and Secretary Wynne, General Moseley. Thank you both for your service and I appreciate greatly that you each have visited Air Force installations in New York. I want to thank General Moseley for honoring my invitation to join me at the Niagara Falls Air Reserve Station last year and Secretary Wynne, thank you for accepting my suggestion that you visit the Air Force Research Lab in Rome. They do obviously, in my opinion, remarkable work in support of our men and women in uniform.

I have several questions about different items in the Air Force's Budget request for Fiscal Year 2008 and I have a series of questions about the CSAR-X.

As you know, the GAO recently ruled in favor of a bid protest regarding the Air Force's new Combat Search and Rescue aircraft, the CSAR-X, and I'm concerned about some of the public statements that the Air Force made in the aftermath of that decision. And as you know, I recently wrote a letter to you expressing my concerns and Mr. Chairman, I request that my letter to Secretary Wynne be made part of the record.

In late February, Mr. Secretary, you testified to the House Armed Services Committee that it was your view the GAO decision should be interpreted narrowly, and both Reuters and Dow Jones reported that after your appearance before the committee, you stated that the Air Force prefers to, and I quote, "...to stay with what we got and get this product going as soon as possible." Could you please explain those statements for us?

Secretary Wynne: Yes, ma'am. As usual they tend to leave off the last part of your quotation, but I would say I always try to add that I would like to stay with the current system, but I have to satisfy the GAO and I have to satisfy the other competitors to make sure that they believe we have done this in a transparent and open method. We are actually partnering as best we can with the General Accounting Office, have asked them to reconsider to make sure that we have a better read on all of the protested items, not just for Lockheed, but also for Sikorsky, so that when we do resolicit - we have an intention to resolicit - it will be against the findings that the GAO has alerted us to and ma'am, I am agnostic as to which helicopter ultimately comes out, but frankly I would like to support the procurement system that we have and so therefore would like to get on with providing this equipment.

Senator Clinton: I really appreciate that very much Mr. Secretary. And there are a number of specific issues with respect to the GAO decision, recommending that revised proposals should be solicited, and I appreciate your commitment to resolicitation, and I think it's important given the GAO faulting the process followed by the prior source selection team. I'd like to ask, do you plan to put new personnel in place to ensure the perception as well as the reality of transparency and fairness in the reevaluation process?

Secretary Wynne: Ma'am, what I intend to do is be very clear with the vendors as to what we have, if you will, what we have miscommunicated with them before. I intend to have that process be open to them so they can see how it affected the evaluation and I intend to debrief them on it. I do not see that we were unfair. I do believe that there were some mistakes made and we will provide additional oversight for that.

Senator Clinton: Another matter of concern to me with respect to this solicitation was Secretary Ken Krieg's recent statement that, again reported in the media, that "schedule" was the most important selection criterion, and that does not appear to be consistent with the RFP that says schedule is the fifth of six priorities. And the reason I'm asking these questions is because obviously the combat search and rescue capacity of the Air Force is critical for our men and women in uniform. And General Moseley, I am not aware of any military in the world that uses the CH47 for dedicated CSAR are you?

General Moseley: Ma'am, first thanks for recognizing that combat search and rescue is core competency. We do that, not just for ourselves. It's a solemn relationship between a guy that flies and the PJ that comes to pick you up. But we do this with a joint team too, whether it's Navy or whether it's Marine or Army, we have to go fairly deep at range and pick people up. And remember when we send people to do this, somebody shot somebody down, so it's a hostile place before you show up. And they're normally still milling around back there so to get the PJ there to pick the person up is a core competency for us. Ma'am, I'm not aware that anyone uses the 47 in a combat rescue role, but I would also tell you that my Army brothers and my Special Operations brothers use that airframe in some very difficult places. Today they're flying those airplanes into some bad places in Afghanistan and Iraq. It is not combat search and rescue, but it is a hostile place that they operate those airplanes.

Senator Clinton: I appreciate that General, because I share your strong commitment to making sure we get this right and I'm just wondering General, whether the Air Force completed an analysis of alternatives for this CSAR- X program? Were any heavy-lift helicopters like the H53 or the H47 considered viable alternatives for the CSAR mission? And if not, could you explain why not?

General Moseley: Ma'am, an analysis of alternatives was conducted out of the JROC and it was forwarded through the joint system. We asked for medium-lift helicopters as a nomenclature, but as the RFI went out we got no reply back from anyone with any big helicopters. When the RFP went out though, the 47 was competed and it met the timelines. And so, what you're asking is an interesting twist of the process. There was a JROC conducted, there was an analysis of alternatives, there was an RFI and then an RFP and all along the way I would tell you that the process worked. The contractor just submitted the airplane that met those requirements in the RFP.

Senator Clinton: Well General, I understand very well how important this is to all of us but I believe that certain key performance parameters related to the terminal area were not listed as special interest items by the source selection team and I think that it might be appropriate, at least, to reconsider whether that would be something to include going forward.

General Moseley: Ma'am, can I one more time thank you for the recognition that this is a big deal for us. That's why the two of us have made this the number two procurement priority for the Air Force. This is a big deal for the joint team, it's a big deal for everything that we do, and it's a moral and ethical imperative that we pick our people up.

Senator Clinton: Well obviously we want to get it right, and I'm worried about the weight and the maneuverability and some of the issues that have now been pushed into the public arena because we do have to get it right. And Mr. Chairman, I have several other questions I would ask unanimous consent to be submitted to the record for response by our witnesses.

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