Everyone says they want what’s best for the troops, so sometimes it’s hard to take when some folks in uniform break the rules that are supposed to protect others in uniform. When you step back from the alphabet soup of Pentagon-speak, that’s what POGO’s newest report on the CSAR-X helicopter program is really about.
The CSAR-X is an Air Force program for a new combat search and rescue replacement helicopter. The program in question intends to buy a faster, better, and more effective search and rescue helicopter that could be in place to pick up wounded or isolated soldiers when those rescues are needed.
These kinds of projects are supposed to be carefully crafted and thoroughly reviewed along the way. In this case, one of the key requirements is speedy deployment to the theater where men and women may need to be rescued suddenly and unpredictably when hostilities begin. At a late moment in the acquisition process, for reasons not satisfactorily explained, this requirement was “dumbed down
The whole thing is now being re-bid after being criticized by two GAO reports for reasons apart from those POGO addresses in its report. Which brings us back to: What is more important? Getting something out the door, favoring a major contractor, or the precious lives of American soldiers? The answer is obvious to the rest of us out here.