How did a company best known for its communications gear manage to get a $322 million, no-bid contract to supply the Iraqi military with Russian helicopters? Not even the Pentagon can come up with a convincing explanation...
For the past year, I've followed the U.S. government's involvement in buying Russian-made Mi-17 helicopters for Iraq and Afghanistan to support the global War on Terror (or whatever it's called now). Those purchases have included no-bid and limited-competition contracts worth over $500 million, all provided to one company, ARINC, despite the company's modest track record in the field.
ARINC is not typically the provider of aircraft, let alone Russian aircraft, though it did have one foot in the Russian helicopter world — it was on contract in Iraq maintaining some of Iraq's older Mi-17s (several other American companies perform similar services). That's a long way away from buying, modifying and delivering a fleet of new aircraft.
Yet ARINC managed to convince the Defense Department — or more specifically, the Army's Threat Systems Management Office (TSMO) — to give them hundreds of millions in exclusive contracts. The key, according to e-mails released this week, was ARINC's assertion that it was the only company capable of buying the helicopters. It's a claim that strains credulity, given the number of companies and factories involved in this field (and the fact you can practically order one online). More troubling, Army contracting officials then worked with ARINC officials to tailor the paperwork to back up this claim and justify a sole-source contract...
Now, money has changed hands, but as is apparent from this post, the helicopters haven't. Ordering used weapons from the Russians is about as good an investment as buying a bridge in Brooklyn. But likely Someone knew that.
The other curious thing about this post is its source, Sharon Weinberger.
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